Music

What sort of music do you have leading the souls of your church in worship? Years ago, I noticed we worship God with crescendos about God's grace and how happy it makes us. Not to disparage grace, but only cheap grace: if you don't sing and preach God's judgment, the souls in your congregation don't have a clue about grace no matter how much you blather on about it and they sing about it. Preach the Ten Commandments and have your choir sing this anthem. Grace will become a reality in the hearts of the souls under your care.

We did and I promise you, it works. God is no liar and our worship shouldn't lie, either.

This hymn by Charles Wesley was running through my mind as Mary Lee and I cleaned up the kitchen before going to bed early this morning. It's a good hymn for the new year. This is a pic of the hymnwriter preaching to American Indians.

Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.

Since I started the two posts on Sobran put up a little while ago, I've had this song playing in a loop, turned up real loud like it's a war-song and the warriors are all men.

It's a fitting song for Sobran, but not for Buckley. When a real warrior leaves the battlefield, it's not his wit or vocabulary the men who stayed back home with the women and children remark over. It's the smell of blood and death, and he can't wash them off.

Last summer we asked you to help us with the My Soul Among Lions Psalms 1–10 Kickstarter. Many of you did so and God used your generosity to bring about the production and distribution of seventeen new versions of the first ten Psalms. God has blessed this work as these songs have become part of the household music of many individuals, families, and churches both near and far.

Now we’re ready to roll tape on the second volume, Psalms 11–20. Yup! We need your help this time, also.

Would you please watch and share this Psalm 11-20 Kickstarter video and do whatever you can to help us with this work? And if you can't help with the Kickstarter campaign, we ask you to pre-order the album because even that will be a help and encouragement to us. Thanks. To God be the glory!

We're also pleased and excited to announce that My Soul Among Lions will be on tour this week in South Carolina and Tennessee...

This announcement from Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Spartanburg:

Evangelicalism has been gutted. The core has has been scooped out and little more than a thin shell remains. Churches are clubs, sermons are stand up, and the sheep are fed with the sawdust of entertainment. No wonder most Christians can’t define or defend basic doctrines of Scripture. Like the rest of the West, the church is amusing herself to death. 

The Reformed answer usually comes in the form of a toothless scholasticism. We find a way to do nothing that requires faith. Instead, we rest complacently within the technical confines of our confessions. In other words, we snore to Bach rather than Lady Gaga. 

This isn’t the faith of Calvin, Ryle, and Hodge. These men demonstrated that a mind possessed by the glories of biblical doctrines leads to a life of faith and holiness. Harry Blamires says, “The Christian mind is the prerequisite of Christian thinking, and Christian thinking is the prerequisite for Christian action.”

In just a few weeks, Dr. David Talcott, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at The King's College, will tackle how the church got here and what we can do to return to a Biblical way of thinking. We'd like to invite you to attend The Christian Mind conference at Trinity Presbytery Church in Spartanburg, SC on August 19 & 20. Then, in a Friday night concert, My Soul Among Lions will demonstrate the power the Psalms possess to shape the Christian mind. Both the conference and the concert are free. 

Here's a rundown of the sessions, followed by a link for more information and registration...

Prince ...was able to negotiate God and sex in his subject matter in a way that we had never seen before. Every song was either a prayer or foreplay.  
         - Prince's former hairdresser, Michaela Angela Davis

So far this year, our wicked world has witnessed the death of two of its androgynous gods. First it was Bowie, now Prince.

Here's Prince playing lead on the occasion of his 2004 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The song is "While My Guitar Gently Weeps":

More recently, Prince claimed conversion to the Seventh Day Adventist faith (but note correction in comment below). Other than that, he and Bowie were birds of a pair sharing a debauched affect, debauched music, debauched coupling...

The world will keen for Prince as it did for Bowie. Religious language will describe their loss. Decadent societies' artists are their gods.

A couple days after future Hall of Fame pitcher, Curt Schilling, was fired by ESPN for his FB post saying men playing dressup as women and demanding entry to the Ladies Room is "pathetic," Prince joins Bowie in the grave...

Glory, the Everlasting Word Band's Christmas album has been out a month. If you haven’t heard it yet, give it a listen. Cheryl and I can't get enough of it. We're listening to it over and over, kind of like we listened to Good Shepherd Band's Repeat the Sounding Joy several years ago, and some of the latter albums by the musicians of Mars Hill Church--Ghost Ship and Dustin Kensrue especially. Several years ago Cheryl and I drove through southern Europe for a month with our youngest son and daughter, listening to the Ghost Ship and Dustin Kensrue worship albums over and over and over on the rental car's stereo. This album is the Christmas equivalent. It's a fabulous piece of work.

After two years of recording silence, the Everlasting Word Band is excited to announce the release of its third album, Glory, on November 24th...