Only Your Blood is Enough

From Sojourn Music, Over the Grave, "Only Your Blood is Enough"

No bleeding bird, no bleeding beast
No hyssop branch, no priest;
No running brook, no flood, no sea
Can wash away this stain from me.

For only your blood is enough to cover my sin;
For only your blood is enough to cover me.

More Like Whatever

So there's this song on the radio. I don't get it.

The song is "More Like Falling in Love" by Jason Gray.

Here's the chorus:

Its gotta be
More like falling in love
Than something to believe in.
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance.
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now.
Its like I'm falling, Ohhhh.
Its like I'm falling in love.

Um. What?

Is the song really saying that knowing Christ (or maybe a conversion experience?) is more like falling in love than believing in something?

What about, "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12)? Or, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household" (Acts 16:31)? And what about, like, the rest of the Bible?

I'm having a hard time finding a text that says, "Engage in a Twilight-like romantic experience with a middle-eastern dude who lived two-thousand years ago who may or may not have performed some miracles and you will be saved, you and your household."

Believe in the name of Jesus. Then you have the right to be called a child of God. And when you belong to God, then comes the command to love him. And how do you love the Lord your God?

The song is confusing:

Give me rules, I will break them.
Show me lines, I will cross them.
I need more than a truth to believe.
I need a truth that lives, moves, and breathes
To sweep me off my feet.

Hmmm. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). The song seems to be indicating that some dramatic experience needs to take place and then rules won't be broken and lines won't be crossed. But the biblical portrait of the Christian life is like this: repentance of sin, faith in Christ, obedience of commands.

But that formula is just too religiony.

Love, Love.
Deeper and deeper.
It was love that made me a believer.
In more than a name, a faith, a creed,
Falling in love with Jesus brought the change in me.

I guess this experience deal is more than the name that will incite the bowing of every knee and bring every tongue to confess "that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:11). Yeah. Definitely. More than that.

Atop the Christian music charts, Christian radio is playing "More Like Falling in Love" every fifteen minutes. But I guess Christian radio doesn't claim to be anything more than inspirational, encouraging, and positive.

I just thought that it might try and play songs that are--I don't know--Christian.

Ok Go: Truly Creative Music Videos

The original.

The intricate.

The recent.

A John and a Jon I Want to See in Concert

John Mayer...

...and Jon Foreman.

The Gift Goes On

The lyrics to "The Gift Goes On" remind me of the Filioque Controversy. This probably was not Sandi Patti's intention.

Christmas Worship

We had a Christmas worship service at church tonight. Rebekah sang in the choir and I am happy to report that she got all the words right.

Riders of Fauxhan

My bro-in-law and I made some music this weekend. We call ourselves the "Riders of Fauxhan." Check it out and download it if you like...

Free or Cheap Music

Free or cheap music from Noise Trade is not always the best quality. But if the music was a better quality it wouldn't be free or cheap. And sometimes a likeable artist can be found.

Resolution 17

Resolved, that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.

In short, don't waste your life.

Tradition

Joy to the... Moon?

At the Christmas Eve service I was wondering if my wife had ever sung traditional Christmas songs before when in Joy to the World she sang,

"No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the plow."

The plow?

Or on the ride home, Away in the Manger:

"The cattle are lowing,
The poor Baby wakes,
But little Lord Jesus,
No dying He makes."

Well, not until Good Friday at least...

Bad Ideas at a High School Choir Concert

Last night my wife and I attended the Christmas choir concert of my brother-in-law and his girlfriend. And although it was an excellent concert I observed a few bad things occurring in the audience. While some of the following are completely tongue-in-cheek, some could be turned into serious suggestions. I will leave you to decide which are which.

1. Paper Programs: These are the single most disruptive force at a choir concert. People fold them, crinkle them, drop them, and wave them. They are, in short, a terrible idea.
2. Audience Participation: I like to sing. But being asked to participate in singing a song that no one else knows but the choir, is a little awkward.
3. No Coat Check: When you live in the frozen tundra of the north, having a place to either check your coat or simply hang it up is imperative. Not providing this leaves people dragging their coat around and turns one person into approximately one and a half people.
4. Allowing Cameras and Camcorders: Constant flashes get annoying and someone should tell the people with the cameras that the pictures don't even turn out because it is impossible to get close enough for the flash to be effective in the near complete darkness. And no camcorder has the ability to turn off that obnoxious beeping.
5. Making the Concert Longer Than Four Minutes: Four minutes is apparently the threshold for sitting still at a choir concert.

For a slightly better perspective on choir concerts, check out Josh's blog post "Evangelism."

Christmas Music

Nothing can send me into a blind rage as quickly as Christmas music in October, but since Thanksgiving is over, now would be an agreeable time to talk about my preferences.

There is a serious lack of good Christmas music. For the most part I respect the musical choices people make. But when holiday season rolls around, any standards that are adhered to for 320 days out of the year suddenly go out the window.

This does not need to happen. Here are three suggestions to begin the holiday season while maintaning standards.

1. Bing Crosby: My wife has a nice collection of Christmas songs performed by Bing. Very classy and representative of a person with uncompromised Christmas music standards.
2. Vince Guaraldi: He wrote the music featured in A Charlie Brown Christmas, the best Christmas production of all time. Christmas trees and smooth jazz were made for each other.
3. The Trans-Siberian Orchestra: Christmas tunes with face-melting guitar licks. What more could you ask for?

Please, please, please don't listen to that lame, non-stop Christmas music radio station any more. You wouldn't listen to a non-stop stupid music radio station in July, so why now?

Phil Wickham

Resident Thorns poet, Jordan, recently pointed me to a free download of Phil Wickham's album, Singalong. I have really enjoyed the album in its entirety, but this song has stuck out to me, especially the final stanza.


"Beautiful"

I see Your face in every sunrise,
The colors of the morning are inside Your eyes,
The world awakens in the light of the day,
I look up to the sky and say,
You’re beautiful.

I see Your power in the moonlit night,
Where planets are in motion and galaxies are bright,
We are amazed in the light of the stars,
It’s all proclaiming who You are,
You’re beautiful.

I see you there hanging on a tree,
You bled and then you died and then you rose again for me,
Now you are sitting on Your heavenly throne,
Soon we will be coming home,
You’re beautiful.

When we arrive at eternity’s shore,
Where death is just a memory and tears are no more,
We’ll enter in as the wedding bells ring,
Your bride will come together and we’ll sing,
You’re beautiful.

Newport Folk Festival

If you at all enjoy folk music and are not already familiar with the Newport Folk Festival, get familiar. You can listen to all of the concerts in their entirety on the NPR website.