Posts Tagged Worship
Media Monday-Light On Their Faces
Posted by Randall W. Ross in Media Critique, Media Monday, Music, Thoughts and Reflections on July 18, 2010
During one of my usual browsing sessions through YouTube I came accross this video from Owl City. I’ve only recently become aware of this artist…which I guess just shows how out of touch I am. Its electronic. Its catchy and fun. But I like it.
I was telling a friend the other day that electronica music is great for winter-time. I’m not sure why, it just is. I find myself grabbing for it on summer days as well.
What I like about this video is the way the face of each individual is changed by what they see. Each person begins the scene in a gloom and sadness. Then, one by one, their face turns toward a light. Something caught their eye, they turn toward it, and they begin to change. The gloom turns into faces full of hope, joy and even a sort of worship (clearly seen in the case of Shaq).
If you read the lyrics you gather that this is basically a love song. However, the way the video is produced and the focus of the last stanza, one could easily wonder if something else is the focus of the song. What is the artist aiming at here?:
When violet eyes get brighter,
And heavy wings grow lighter,
I’ll taste the sky and feel alive again.
And I’ll forget the world that I knew,
But I swear I won’t forget you,
Oh if my voice could reach back through the past,
I’d whisper in your ear,
Oh darling I wish you were here.
The first time I watched the video, I was impacted by the simplicity of what was taking place. These people were changed by this strange light in the sky. You see their faces reflecting something…as the observer you’re drawn in. What do they see? What is so compelling? Why are they being changed?
I immediately thought of one of my favorite passages of Scripture- 2 Corinthians 4:1-6:
Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Indeed, we do not lose heart…because we have see the Light of the Jesus Christ. It has shone upon our face…and it has changed us forever. We were walking in gloom…and then something caught our eye, something was shining upon us. By grace it was a light shining out of darkness. We looked and saw Christ as Lord.
I have no idea if this is what the artist has intended here. But I do find it compelling…and powerful…to think that maybe he has seen such a great Light, and has been changed himself.
Media Monday- A Branch Lifted Up In Worship
Posted by Randall W. Ross in Media Critique, Media Monday, Music, Thoughts and Reflections, Worship on June 28, 2010
It seems a little crazy, and a little more providential…but I was doing a Google Image search for ‘branch’ to find some pics for a design project I’m working on and I came upon a picture of this band. So, of course, I clicked on it. I was pleased to find what was there…pleased so much that I downloaded one of their albums an hour later.
Their site offered a great introduction to the Branch story and heart:
The husband/wife duo in Branch began at a local Bible study and two albums later they have found a voice and platform to champion Jesus Christ and the things He’s about: Love, Justice, and Hope. When the band isn’t actively involved in their base church in Athens TX, they are traveling the country striving with all they are to create an atmosphere of worship where people can get their eyes of themselves and onto a God who can change everything (2 Cor 3:18).
Living in a city with four college’s, the band got it’s start leading worship for a city-wide collegiate Bible study called Grace. Steven Patterson was attending college at Hardin Simmons where he met his wife Rachel and ultimately formed a band. The band got a great opportunity to trade weeks leading worship with Jeff Berry alongside the teaching of Matt Chandler at Grace (Abilene’s collegiate bible study). After consistently leading worship at the Bible study and at their local church (UBC), the band began traveling the country to lead worship at various camps, conferences, and retreats. In the Fall of 2005, the band officially became Branch with the release of their debut album “Desperate for Real”. The band name comes from John 15 with the key verse being “abide in me for apart from me you can do nothing (15:5). “We felt like we always needed to remember that!” With this first record, the band’s ministry reached beyond the borders of the Bible study and soon the band was traveling full time leading others to experience, know, and worship God. Branch’s newest released “The Side Effects of Seeing,” released in September 07. The bands purpose could be summed up in this sentence: to creatively and effectively lead others into the presence of God where they can respond to God and be changed into His likeness. We strive with all we have to create an ATMOSPHERE of praise where people can get their eyes off of themselves and on to the GLORY of GOD they will be transformed!
What impressed me at quick glance was the way their music was simply focussed on glorifying Christ. Over the years I have grown weary of worship bands that are leading others to long for something that, if they had a clear grasp of the Gospel, they already posses in the finished work of Jesus. Branch gets the Gospel, and it makes the worship powerful.
A song on their live album Nothing to Lose captures this well. The song is Victory. Christ is our victory! Amen!
Here is the Audio:
Here are the lyrics:
VICTORY
You left Your rightful throne
You came and took my place
You suffered all alone
Then You rose from the gravePre-Chorus
Now my sin is gone
Now my sin is goneChorus
You’re my victory, You’re my victory
You won the war for my soul and I’m Yours forever!V2
When darkness wages war
Death on every side
You’re my only hope
Jesus You’re my only lightYou’ll deliver me
You’ll deliver meBridge
I stand pure by Your blood; strong in Your power
I am confident in Love and I stand, I stand in You
This is the good news. We need more artists like Branch to proclaim this in ways that we can sing with communal joy. When you can…support these artists. If it burns in you….become one!
Media Monday-Free Music that’s Alive!!
Posted by Randall W. Ross in Christian, Media Critique, Music, Resources, Worship on September 14, 2009
I recently came across this website (for the organization Come and Live) that endeavors to reach and enrich the lives of people through music. They want to do so without any financial obligation. You can download a recent compilation of Artists that they work with. Just Click on the image to the right and go to their download page.
I’ve been listening to this for the past week and I love it.
Enjoy.
(PS. My favorites so far are Tracks 2, 5 and 9. Good Stuff!!)
I will boast in this.
Posted by Randall W. Ross in Theology, Thoughts and Reflections on April 12, 2009
I love this time of year. I’m not talking about the warming of the weather, or the holidays and vacations that we get to enjoy. I am referring to a special season in the life of the church. This time of year enables us to focus in on the center of our life. We get to celebrate Easter.
One moment in this year’s Easter service sticks out to me. It came in the form of a song: Stuart Townend’s How Deep the Father’s Love for Us. These lines in particular:
I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom
What other reason do we have to rejoice on Easter but the truth in these lines. We have done nothing to earn God’s favor, His grace. We bring nothing into the transaction…no gifts, no power, no wisdom. It is purely an act of mercy from the Father to draw us to Himself, through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus.
Why? Why would we gain from this? We are the ones that put Him on that tree. It was our sin that put him there…the sin of our despising and rejecting…our sin of cursing His name and mocking Him. It was our sin of nailing our Savior to a cross.
But God, even in this was at work. It was our sin…the weight and burden…the guilt that we rightly bear…that held Him there. In his great love, Jesus Christ went to the cross and bore our sins in his body. He died upon our cross. The wrath of God was poured out on Him instead of on us.
His wounds have paid my ransom.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God
2 Corinthians 5:21
I will boast in this.
It was all Him.
It was all by Him.
It is all for Him and His Glory.
Amen.
This the Power of the Cross
Posted by Randall W. Ross in Media Critique, Music, Thoughts and Reflections, Worship on April 7, 2009
Oh, to see the dawn
Of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
Torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood.
CHORUS:
This, the pow’r of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross.
Oh, to see the pain
Written on Your face,
Bearing the awesome weight of sin.
Ev’ry bitter thought,
Ev’ry evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow.
Now the daylight flees;
Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two,
Dead are raised to life;
“Finished!” the vict’ry cry.
Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death;
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.
FINAL CHORUS:
This, the pow’r of the cross:
Son of God—slain for us.
What a love! What a cost!
We stand forgiven at the cross.
“The Power of the Cross”
Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Copyright © 2005 Thankyou Music
