Tag: Worship

Christmas Reading

~ fundyreformed ~ 1 Comment

Merry Christmas everyone. 1 week, that’s all. Only 1 week till Christmas!

I hope that you will all have a great Christmas, but that it will be more than just an American Christmas. Please celebrate Christ and revel in worship as we remember his birth. Look past the manger to the Cross and further still to the empty tomb! Remember that Jesus is the Greatest Gift ever given!

I wanted to point you to our online Christmas Card and wish you all a wonderful Christmas. And I thought I’d also list a few interesting posts on the topic of Christmas here, as well.

Here is the link to our family Christmas greeting, and the links below are worth the read:

  • The 12 Days of Theology (an interesting new version of the popular carol 12 Days of Christmas)
  • A look at the history of the song “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”
  • A good old hymn you might have never heard of: “Christmas Day Has Come” [tune available (scroll down) here]
  • Ben Stein (a Jew) on Christmas:

    I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are “” Christmas trees. It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they’re slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto…..I do not like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians.

  • Down with Santa Claus — an thoughtful critique of Saint Nick
  • An Eschatological Advent
  • Six Gifts from God at Christmas

    Here are six gifts from God, specially wrapped and delivered . . . for you! A sympathetic friend, a supreme and unchallenged Lord over all, wonderfully wise, always able to act on behalf of those who trust him, sensitive and caring and compassionate, the giver of all peace and comfort and consolation.

If I Don't Like It, It's Wrong.

~ fundyreformed ~ 6 Comments

Seth McBee highlighted a prevalent problem in Christianity in a recent post at Contend Earnestly recently.

He starts by quoting William Wilberforce:

My grand objection to the religious system still held by many who declare themselves orthodox Churchmen…is, that it tends to render Christianity so much a system of prohibitions rather than of privilege and hopes, and thus the injunction to rejoice, so strongly enforced in the New Testament, is practically neglected, and Religion is made to wear a forbidding and gloomy air and not one of peace and hope and joy. [emphasis added]

Then he goes on to cite a contemporary example where a prospective pastor when asked about “dancing in the aisles and other forms of worship” responds:

I don’t agree with it, I don’t know if I have a biblical reason for all things, but I am pretty sure that if I see something that I don’t agree with I will just know it.

Seth pares that response down to “if I don’t like it, it is wrong”. He then goes on to show why such a response is so troubling. I encourage you to check Seth’s article out.

So, if you don’t like something, is it wrong? Should you think others are wrong if they do like it?

“Across the Lands” by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend

~ Bob Hayton ~ 6 Comments

Here is another great song from the authors of “In Christ Alone”. Keith Getty and Stuart Townend are producing what has been called modern hymns. I discuss their work in my post, “The Rise of the Modern Hymn Movement”.

We sang this song in church Sunday. It is a wonderful, God-centered song focused on the global mission of the Gospel. It works well as a congregational song. I hope you are encouraged spiritually by the lyrics of this song, and that if possible, you will aim to incorporate some of these modern hymns into your own church’s corporate worship.

Across the Lands

Words & Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend

Verse 1
You’re the Word of God the Father
From before the world began.
Ev’ry star and ev’ry planet
Has been fashioned by Your hand.
All creation holds together
By the power of Your voice.
Let the skies declare Your glory;
Let the land and seas rejoice!

Chorus
You’re the Author of creation;
You’re the Lord of ev’ry man;
And Your cry of love rings out across the lands.

Verse 2
Yet You left the gaze of angels,
Came to seek and save the lost,
And exchanged the joy of heaven
For the anguish of a cross.
With a prayer You fed the hungry;
With a word You calmed the sea;
Yet how silently You suffered
That the guilty may go free!

Verse 3
With a shout You rose victorious,
Wresting vict’ry from the grave,
And ascended into heaven,
Leading captives in Your way.
Now You stand before the Father,
Interceding for Your own;
From each tribe and tongue and nation,
You are leading sinners home!

 © 2003 Thankyou Music.

You can listen to a sample of the song here, or you can listen to 2 versions of the entire song for free on Rhapsody.com: this one from Keith & Kristyn Getty’s CD In Christ Alone & this one from Stuart Townend’s CD Lord of Every Heart. If you would like, you can also purchase sheet music for this song here.

In Christ Alone by Stuart Townend & Keith Getty

~ fundyreformed ~ 29 Comments

I recommend many modern hymns & contemporary songs for corporate worship. While the old hymns are certainly grand, the new songs God is giving to the church, are worthy of respect too.

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I’ve begun highlighting different worship songs we sing at Bethlehem Baptist Church each week, here on my blog. This Sunday, the song right before the message was one of my favorites, “In Christ Alone.” Please read the powerful lyrics.

In Christ Alone

by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend

IN CHRIST ALONE my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! – who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied —
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine —
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand!

CCLI Song # 3350395,  © 2001 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

I would put this song right up there against any hymn, I mean any. It is a modern hymn extraordinaire. I hope meditating on this song will be a blessing to you.

Song Resources:
Story behind the Song: Here and here, and here
Sheet Music: Hymnal style, Piano style, Free simple score
Song Book: In Christ Alone Songbook (includes Across the Lands, O Church Arise, The Power of the Cross, and more)
Listen to the MP3 for free: At rhapsody.com, or try another rendition
MP3 purchase links: Here (via Amazon.com) and here (from Getty Music).
Authors’ Websites: GettyMusic.com & StuartTownend.co.uk
CD purchase links:
In Christ Alone (first sample above) – Amazon.com or direct from Getty Music