Sunday Morning Music: Leeland "I Wonder"

GACS - Senior High Spiritual Retreat 2013

Bellarive - Taste of Eternity

Great new band that opened up for Gungor on Friday night at the Variety Playhouse here in Atlanta. I don't go to many concerts these days but when I heard Gungor was coming in town I knew I had to get tickets. Turned out to be a great decision. Not only did I see one of my favorite bands (Gungor), I also was introduced to Bellarive. Wow, what a passion for worshiping God. What you see in this video is much like you would experience in concert. Heart-felt, organic, indie worship. Truly awesome. Hope to have the chance to see them again someday.

Father we come
So aware
Of all that You’ve done
Of all that You are
Nothing above
No none compare
So Father we come here

The taste of eternity 
Is here on our lips
With every breath we sing
With every breath we sing of Your majesty
It’s here in our midst
With every breath we sing

All else will fade
As You draw near
All that we want 
Is all that You are
Nothing above 
No none compare
So Father we come here 

Oh, how Holy
Oh, how worthy
For every breath we sing is Yours
Every breath we sing is Yours

Mountaintop - The City Harmonic

Ever since this Canadian band entered my music library, they've continued to impress me. On their EP entitled Introducing The City Harmonic, the band from Hamilton, Ontario floored me and everybody else with 'Manifesto' which remained on Billboard Magazine's Christian charts for 15 weeks. When 'I Have a Dream (It Feels Like Home), their first LP, came out last October, I couldn't get past the first song, 'Yours.' I must have listened to it 50 times before I really spent anytime with the remained of the album. Check that song out when you get a chance because it's an amazing worship song. 

My second favorite song on this record is Mountaintop and for good reason. Another heart throbbing, fist pumping anthem to worship our Creator. Just awesome stuff. I think you're gonna enjoy the video as well. Great setting...on a mountain!

For more insight into this song take a look at an interview with lead singer Elias Dummer by Kevin Davis of New Release Tuesday. Here's a snippet of that great interview.

The song is about living out the message of the lyrics: the valley low, that's where we'll make our homes, but this I know that's what He saved us from. In Martin Luther King's final speech the night before he was assassinated, he delivered a hopeful speech. He knew there was trouble brewing and nonetheless, he said, "I just want to do God's will, I may not get there with you, but we as a people will get to the promised land…" 

To me, it was the perfect illustration of what happened in Matthew 17 (vv 1-13) during the Transfiguration. Jesus reveals Himself to the disciples, and because of their religious context, Peter tells Jesus we're going to put you away now, and build a place for you to live, and for us and our friends to live, building tents or to "tabernacle." He tells Jesus that they'd like to stay there with Him forever and come see Him in His holy place. Jesus stops them in their tracks and He says, "Trust Me," and down they go back down the hill (vv 14-20) to the valley. What's interesting is that they encounter the demon-possessed boy when they come down from the mountaintop. That illustrates that God is in both places, as Jesus came down as well. What's fascinating is that many years later as Peter reflects on this encounter in 2 Peter (1:12-14), and having seen God's face, he says, "So long as I am in the tent of this body, so I will tell of these things that I have seen." Peter could have said that a number of different ways, but he chose the word "tent" or "tabernacle" to symbolize that so long as our bodies are the place that God lives, and we are the body of our God, we'll continue to tell this story and embody Jesus in our bodies and as the body of Christ as His Church.

Lyrics:

The valley low that's where we'll make our homes

But this I know that's what He saved us from

Cause we've seen the glory of our King

On the mountaintop

[CHORUS]

We've been to the mountaintop

We've seen the glory of our God

He is here in the valley low

He's here I feel it in my bones

Our God here and now

We are the body of Our God

Oh I've done bad what happens to me now

I know for sure that we've been changed somehow

And we'll be the glory of our King

In his kingdom come

[CHORUS]

We build our temples

We build our walls

But they can't hold Him in

We are the temple of Our God

But we can't hold Him in

[CHORUS]

Visitors

Does anyone else still think we should have visitors to our churches wear that visitor name tag? I'll gladly wear the member name tag if that will help.
In fact, when you are a part of a large church and you have a poor memory, maybe having the members wear them would be more beneficial and not have the visitors wear one. I am just tired of being embarrassed on Sunday mornings when I shake hands and say my name to a new person or someone I should know their name but I don't know their name or they've been attending the church for 5 years.

That's why I think being a part of a small group or Sunday school class is so important. Connecting with members of the church can be impossible if the only time you have a conversation is the 2 minutes after the greeting and before the next song in worship.
Making connections takes time and effort. Making connections means you are spending time outside of worship with others. Bringing up prayer requests for your hurts or joys in life. Having folks over to your house for a meal or fellowship. Opening up the Scriptures with one another and having a real conversation about it.
That's a community that I want to be a part of.

But it takes effort on my part. Let's be honest, if I want to exclude myself in a large church I can. The job of the leadership in a church, I believe, is to give opportunities for people to lead and meet and worship.

As a coach and teacher, I don't really have any power. It's up to the individuals on my team or in my classroom as to whether real change or learning is taking place. It's not me, it has to come from them. Same goes for the church.