Sharing the love

Ever since I started doing worship music, I've always tried to make it a rule that I'll never do a song that I haven't been able to worship to myself.  Though that sounds all cool and stuff, a lot of the motive behind it is from knowing how miserable(and bored) I'd be if I were not able to worship to the song I was singing with and in front of others

In order to avoid the misery,  inauthenticity and boredom, I have to take some time to let a song sink in a little bit, allow it to influence my faith, and then process how God has used it.  After it has had an impact on me, then I feel comfortable with sharing it outwardly.  

A little while back I stumbled across what has become somewhat of an exception to that rule.  It's a song called "How He Loves" by John Mark McMillan.  After hearing this song once, I was completely hooked.  I listened to it probably 20 times the first day(a Sunday) I heard it(and all the other songs I could find by John Mark on myspace) and again the next day.  Almost immediately, I worked at learning the song and by Tuesday, we were putting it in the worship set for Friday night.   

I have become so thrilled with this song that I can't help sharing it with anyone willing to listen. Most of my musical friends knew about it within 24 hours and my poor wife was forced into listening to it repeatedly.  

The reason I'm so thrilled with this song is that it expresses what I experienced in my return to relationship with/faith in Christ. I don't know how to describe any better just how wonderful this song is for me and more importantly how much its message (which existed long before me or the song) has changed my life forever.  

Here are the lyrics:

"How He Loves" by John Mark McMillan

He is jealous for me
Loves like a hurricane
I am a tree
Bending beneath 
The weight of his wind and mercy
When all of a sudden
I am unaware of these 
Afflictions eclipsed by glory
And I realize how beautiful you are
And how great your affections are for me

Oh how he loves us so
Oh how he loves us
How he loves us so

He is jealous for me...(repeat 1st verse and chorus)

Yea He loves us 
Whoa how He loves us

Whoa how He loves us

Whoa how He loves

We are his portion
And he is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in his eyes
If grace is an ocean we're all sinking
So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss
And my heart burns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets
When I think about the way

He loves us
Whoa how he loves us so
Whoa how he loves us
How he loves us so

I thought about you
The day Stephen died
And you met me between my breaking
I know that I still love you God
Despite the agony
See people they want to tell me your cruel
But if Stephen could sing 
He'd say its not true
Cause your good

I just stumbled across a couple videos on youtube with recordings of this song. The first is John Mark explaining the song and singing a portion of the song.  I had no idea about the entire context of the song.  This only adds to the incredible meaning I've already found in this song.  The 2nd is some woman with incredible pipes completely rocking the song.  Also, John Mark has a recording(definitely the best version over any covers) posted on his website-- thejohnmark.com

"Tonight, God wants you to encounter His love.  Without it these are just words, these are just instruments.  It's like we're just up here making noise.  But the love of God changes us and we're never the same again..."

enjoy!

-dave

The CSF Story

A couple of weeks ago David and I had the opportunity to speak about Christian Student Fellowship at the main campus of the church we attend which is South Side Christian Church. South Side has been so generous in allowing us to share about CSF with the congregation at the Southwest campus in the fall and now at the MacArthur campus. Instead of giving a sermon we decided to tell the story of what God is doing right now in our campus ministry. God is doing wild and crazy things in our students as they encounter Him and our transformed by his love and grace.

If you are interested in checking out the message here is the link http://www.southsidechristian.com/#/Media/

We gave the message of 4/26.