The best CD I have ever listened to, and I have listened to a lot of CDs, is Urban Light Community Church's CD, To God and To Each Other.
Am I biased? Absolutely! I have found that there is nothing like having a connection to the music, to know the people who are singing it. That's why I liked Garth Brooks so much, he made me feel like the music meant something and that he was very personable. From my friend who met Garth Brooks I hear that he is very personable, wanted to know more about my friend that talk about himself.
My wife is one of the soloists on the album. Am I biased? Yes!
There is nothing like your own church's music. I hope you feel the same way.
Listen to my friend Destiny sing and tell me I am not blessed to be a part of Urban Light Community Church!
When my daughter was 4 or 5, my wife and I went to pray for her before bed, and as we did she began singing a song to Jesus. Both of us must have been in the mood to humor her, so we thought we would let her sing a little song. So we sat there and listened to her sing. I cannot take you there, but I can go there myself in my mind. After a few minutes I was thinking, how long is this going to go on? She kept singing, making up her of words and notes to sing to her Savior.
After a while she was not the only one caught up in worshiping Jesus. As this went on for ten to twenty minutes, we began to realize that this was one of those moments when we were in the presence of the Almighty God. It is one of the most special times of my life.
With kids, often times we want them to be quiet or go play in the other room. But that night I learned from my daughter something as she ushered us into the presence of God.
Idea: Learn something from a child about the worship of God, whether it be in their rambunctiousness or their silliness or their sweetness.
I am the father of four children and many times found myself with a fussy child trying to calm them. My babies, like most babies, did not want me to just sit there with them in my lap. So sometimes I would stand up and sing to Jesus while I was holding them.
It is hard for me to know, even as I write this, what a big deal that is. Holding my child and singing,
"in moments like these, I sing out a song, I sing out a love song to Jesus,
in moments like these, I sing out a song, I sing out a love song to Him,
singing I love you Lord, singing I love you Lord, singing I love you, Lord I love you."
Without really knowing it I was teaching my babies to worship God, the same way I was teaching them how to lose their temper, and many bad things that I did, I was also teaching them to worship Jesus.
My mother would no doubt have done the same thing when I was a little baby. Many of the first words I learned were from my mom praising Jesus while holding me. I was blessed to learn from her.
Question 1: Who have you learned to worship Jesus from? Who taught you? Maybe it was not a family member, but who was it?
Question 2: Who is learning to worship Jesus from you?
Idea: Think about those who are watching you, and how you can help them in learning how to sing to Him.
The Psalms are the music book of the church. This has been the case for a long time, and for longer than I will be alive. Much of the best of Christian Music is reflecting the Psalms in our lives. One of my favorite Psalms is a very sad one, like a country song Psalm. Psalm 88 began to mean something to me when my mom died in a car accident. In Psalm 88, our spiritual ancestor Heman pours out his soul unedited before the Lord.
Read it for yourself. . .
Psalm 88:1 A SONG. A PSALM OF THE SONS OF KORAH. TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO MAHALATH LEANNOTH. A MASKIL OF HEMAN THE EZRAHITE.
O LORD, God of my salvation;
I cry out day and night before you.
2 Let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry!
3 For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am a man who has no strength,
5 like one set loose among the dead,
like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
for they are cut off from your hand.
6 You have put me in the depths of the pit,
in the regions dark and deep.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
8 You have caused my companions to shun me;
you have made me a horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
9 my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call upon you, O LORD;
I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah
11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But I, O LORD, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me?
15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
16 Your wrath has swept over me;
your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long;
they close in on me together.
18 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
my companions have become darkness.
A friend of mine from summer camp has become a great Christian Musician. He sings a song based on Psalm 88 that I got from someone for Christmas. This would be a great Christmas present to someone on your list who is into music. "Last Chance" by Jeremy Casella
The Psalms are the music the Church has been singing, what Psalm will you sing today?
I was on top of a church in Chicago with brothers and sisters from the Dominican Republic who were teaching me to worship Jesus in a language that was not my mother tongue. "Christo es la respuesta para el mundo hoy, sobre el no hay nada, El es nuetro Rey."
Jesus has always been big, but multilingual worship has helped me to recognize that Jesus Christ is bigger than my hometown or my country. Jesus is bigger than America. This may seem like a simple lesson. But for me, and I suspect for others, this is an important lesson.
In Acts 2 Luke the author chose to write it all in Greek, but the words of worship to God were multilingual. When the Holy Spirit came down, worship was in more than one language. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Greek.
I went to Israel and Greece and heard the worship of God in a language I did not understand. I went to Kenya and heard, "Yesu ni wangu wauzima wamilele, wauzima, wamilele, wauzima wamilele."
I went further into Kenya and was heard in the mountains, "Mwathani agosho." I went south in Nyanza province in Kenya and heard many songs and "Eenookoe agongwe!" began to mean something to me.
In praising God in English, the tongue I learned from my mother, I feel as an adult worshipping Jesus Christ. In praising God in Spanish, Swahili, igiKuria, Kikiuyu, and other languages foreign to me have taught me to praise God like a child, being taught by others how to praise God.
If we shy away from the falling and tripping and stumbling of praising the Father in other tongues, could it be that we are too "adult" to become like a little child and enter into the kingdom of heaven. Or in the tripping and stumbling of worshiping the Father in other languages, and we falling into the lap of the Father who cuddles us like a child, for we are His children, and He is our Father.
