This is one of my top 5 desert island albums. Taylor does some masterful lyric work layered on top of gritty guitars. Get it on iTunes and while you are at it, get Taylors earlier work The Overflow too.
Key Listens: Mumford & Sons
Mumfod & Sons An amazing piece of work from an amazing band. Fresh takes on faith and life, grace and love. Contemplations of our relationship with God. Pure, heartfelt, and real. NOTE: One song (Little Lion Man) I advise caution with kids.
Album drops February 16th, unless you happen to be in the UK ;)
Recommended Reads
No Perfect People Allowed: Creating A Come As You Are Culture in the Church
John Burke
Fabulous book for anyone trying to build the Kingdom of God in a postmodern society. Get it here!
This is a personal message for YP and perhaps GC on the CC, part of T4C. Of course, it is good stuff so if it applies to you, then you are welcome to take it ;)
As I was praying this morning, God gave me a word, a phrase, that came from a song the Pastor Steve Carpenter sang prophetically. This is an important word for us at The City Church Central Coast, for right now. God is saying:
"Keep your eye on the ark, you've not been this way before."
Scripturally, it comes from Joshua 3:3,4.
"When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before."
The ark represents the presence of God. It contained the Word of God, given to Moses on the mountain. Keep your eyes on the ark. Keep your focus on the presence of God, on the throne. Keep your eye on the ark. Keep your eyes on the Word of God.
This is a critical time for us all. We are being stretched for a coming harvest. Keep your eye on the ark. We've not been this way before!
In the interest of not dragging this out and getting on to the creative stuff, I've decided to just go ahead and lay out what I am thinking worship is. I've come down to 5 things that I think make up the essence of worship. I'm just gonna lay them out here and then double back and explain them a bit.
1) Fear of the Lord 2) Obedience 3) Availability 4) Purity 5) Excellence So what does that mean and why these 5? I am sure there are more, but these 5, at least to me, biblically represent worship--the core, or essence of worship. These things, when put together, add up to a wonderful whole that leaves very little out.
Just a quick note to answer a question that has even been bothering me. Why am I writing about worship when we could be talking about Christians in culture, and the arts, and what not. I mean, isn't that the focus of Renovo.
And the answer is that if we are to see a Renaissance, if we are to see God's people rise up and take their place as leaders in the creative arts, if we are to tap into the creativity of the Creator, we have got to understand what worship is and what it is not.
When God wants to do something, he looks throughout the earth to find someone willing. When we worship, we are telling God, "Here I am, here I am, pick me, pick me!" He doesnt have to look far because he would trip over us just getting out of the throne room.
That, to me, is the heart of worship. The major word used in the Old Testament for worship is also translated bow, bow down, obeisance, reverence, and fall down. In the New Testament, the dominant word means to kiss the hand, bow on knees with the head to the ground; the root implies the word picture of a dog licking the masters hand.
If obedience is step one, then availability is step two.
We are told in various places throughout the Bible that we are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, and that praise is our spiritual sacrifice. No longer do we need to bring the bull, the ram, the dove, we can offer a sacrifice by lifting our voices to God.
So the praise of our lips, the worship of our hearts is the equivalent to the temple sacrifices.
