When you are tired of everything on your itunes and ipod what do you do?
I am currently looking through 13G’s of music on my macbook… and I can’t find anything that fits my current mood.
Usually this is when I either throw on the first Third Eye Blind album or some Denison Marrs.
What do you do?
Why does being a good cover band make you a good worship leader?
I am reminded of that old movie with Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston from 2001 titled “Rock Star”. *edit: video now works*
I quit playing in a cover band when I graduated… from middle school. Playing songs exactly like the CD may prove you are just as good as a musician as the CD you playing your worship songs from, but are you sure you’re not trying to make your worship band a Chris Tomlin tribute band, a Hillsong tribute band, or a Paul Baloche tribute band? Are you Mark Wahlberg’s character? Are the “Top-20″ worship artists your Steel Dragon? (see trailer above)
What about doing music your own way? What about writing your own or arranging your own?
Make music your own. God has placed you in a city to minister to it. Your job as a worship leader is to help the senior pastor of your church build a city within a city. Play and write music that ministers to YOUR city. Are you willing to play the kind of music that it takes to reach people in your context, or are you only willing to lead with your own style?
1) First off, my wife took a picture of one of the coolest things ever in St. Augustine. We went up there for our honeymoon and just found about 4 rolls of film and got them developed. Check it out via her Flickr.
2) I posted a new song. Check it out over at my mypace.
3) Passion tea is the greatest thing at starbucks.
4) I bought Delicious Library a couple months ago. If you use a mac, and have a personal library that you always lend to people (books, dvd’s, games, etc…), you should buy this program. It only casts $40 and is simply amazing! Check it out from their website.
5) If you don’t follow the Cool Town Studio’s blog, you should.
To along with the post below, my good friend Ryan posted this quote from C.S. Lewis’ book Mere Christianity
“They all say “the ordinary reader does not want theology”…I have rejected their advice. I do not think the ordinary reader is such a fool. Theology means “the science of God”, and I think any man who wants to think about God at all would like to have the clearest and most accurate ideas about Him which are available…If you do not listen to Theology, that will not mean that you have no ideas about God. It will mean that you have a lot of wrong ones—bad, muddled, out-of-date ideas.”
This was on the Desiring God blog today. This is very good. It describes why my peers left the church in and after high school.
We view God being active in our lives based on whether we have a job or not.
The sin gets worse. See, it’s bigger than that. God being actively involved in our lives, from our perspective, depends on if our needs are met. As soon as one of our needs are compromised, then God is not active. Our prayers then join the unsatisfied, worldly people in their cries for God to make their financial or material life better by the standards set by other unsatisfied, worldly people.
The words of the old hymns can only stand secure in ones heart when they are ‘trouble free’.
“On Christ the solid rock I stand.
All other ground is sinking sand!”
or this one,
“My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness”
My depravity leads me to idolatry. Will Jesus’ grace be enough to fulfill the void and will my false idols fall?
Life is a constant work in progress, but Jesus’ hand mercifully guides me.
I have been deeply convicted by Tim Keller’s The Prodigal God. I am convinced that I am the older brother in the parable. I struggle everyday with putting the gospel first and killing self-righteousness that my flesh holds on to.
I’m working with a couple friends of mine to write music and maybe play a couple shows, and we were writing an intro, and these are the lyrics I came up with.
“I am the older brother of the two.
But God this can’t be! I have followed all the rules.
I am blemish free! But my brother comes and runs to thee?”
Check out some new music I posed up on myspace!
www.myspace.com/jimmypurchase
After I wrote the post below this one, I googled Be Thou My Vision on youtube to see if anyone has a cool version of it, and I ran across this!
I have been praying these words the last couple days.
These are the last two verses of the hymn Be Thou My Vision
“Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heav’ns Son!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O ruler of all.”
This is what I have been wrestling with lately. And for me, this has been VERY convicting.
I think we all can agree that relational evangelism is good. Building a relationship with the person, all while, sharing the gospel to them using your life and personal worship. However, the process that it takes to build a relationship and get it to the point that they are faced with the gospel can be a long process depending on the sense of urgency you have when practicing this tool.
I think there is something to learn from classic E.E. style evangelism. That is: Urgency. You aren’t garrenteed tomorrow with your friends and family. However, at the same time you don’t want to throw it in their face right away.
If you practice relational evangelism, and you have not had the opportunity to share the gospel with someone. Ask yourself if you are being lazy. Maybe the relationship stopped being about the gospel. Maybe even turned into an idol.
There is a right time to share the truth about creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. When deciding the right time to share the Gospel, the person must ask themselves, “Am I just being lazy or am I truly listening to the Spirit?”
What else is there to do but question where God is and why he has willed or allowed this to happen.
People from my church are losing their jobs and homes. It seems that each week I hear more and more about people in the hospital dealing with constant illness and surgeries.
I found this quote from the great puritan Richard Sibbes’ book The Bruised Reed to be very helpful in how to view these kinds of situations:
“Hence we learn that we must not pass too harsh judgment upon ourselves or others when God exercises us with bruising upon bruising. There must be a conformity to our head, Christ, who ‘was bruised for us’ (Isa. 53:5) that we may know how much we are bound to him. Ungodly spirits, ignorant of God’s ways in bringing his children to heaven, censure broken-hearted Christians as miserable persons, whereas God is doing a gracious, good work with them. It is no easy matter to bring a man from nature to grace, and from grace to glory, so unyielding and intractable are our hearts.” [emphasis added]
"The Prodigal God" by Tim Keller
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