Here are the songs for this Sunday, with background information. We continue our series on PEACE IN THE STORM. No matter what storm you're facing, there is HOPE. Remember what James says, "Count it all JOY, when you face various trials..." May we be full of joy today!
First Baptist Church of Euless – BEHIND THE PRAISE
Worship songs
January 18, 2009
“O God Our Help in Ages Past” 9:45am
Isaac Watts wrote "Our God, Our Help in Ages Past" as a paraphrase of Psalm 90. His desire to write the hymn was born, in part, out of his dissatisfaction with the church music of his day. At 20 years of age, he complained that the metrical psalms they had to sing at Above Bar Chapel in Southampton were grim and ponderous. But to sing anything other than the actual words of Scripture was said to insult to God.
Watts’ father heard Isaac’s complaining and challenged him to "write something better for us to sing." In 1719, he published an important hymnal titled The Psalms of David in the Language of the New Testament. In it he paraphrased the entire Psalter with the exception of twelve Psalms he felt were unsuited for usage.
At this time in England, religious freedom was severely limited and Watts’ father was jailed twice for his religious views. Isaac himself was considered a radical churchman, since he wrote many "hymns of human composure” songs that did not directly quote Bible passages.
In such uncertain times, Watts looked to Psalm 90 for comfort and wrote more than a paraphrase of its heartening words. His hymn actually gave a grand commentary on the subject of time and how God stands above human time.
Originally, "Our God, Our Help in Ages Past" contained nine verses. Today most hymnals use only verses 1, 2, 3, 5, and 9. In 1738, John Wesley changed the first line from "Our God" to "O God." Some feel that the change makes it easier to sing and also calls the vocative case which causes the singer to expect the "Thy" of the second stanza.
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home!
Under the shadow of Thy throne
Still may we dwell secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.
Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.
A thousand ages in Thy sight,
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night,
Before the rising sun.
Time, like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the op'ning day.
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guide while life shall last,
And our eternal home.
Click here to sing along with Westminster Abbey church: www.youtube.com/watch?v=asrwlIxLeko
Click here for an organ arrangement: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo-byfEpXu8
"To God be the Glory" 9:45am
Fanny Crosby was probably the most prolific hymnist in history. Though blinded by an incompetent doctor at six weeks of age, she wrote over 8,000 hymns. About her blindness, she said:"It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me."
Click here for a newer arrangement by Tommy Walker: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qlfNZiDV4A
Click here a more traditional arrangement of the song: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymrZO1PZbU4
"It is Well" 9:45am
Click here to read the story of how the song was written along with the rest of the story http://exchristian.net/exchristian/2003/09/it-is-well-with-my-soul.php
Click here to watch the Gaither video version with David Phelps www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPFVijGcLtI
Click here for more background information:www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Is_Well_With_My_Soul
To listen to the song click here:www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/i/itiswell.htm
“I Will Sing Praise” 9:45am & 10:45am
This meditative song was written by Regi Stone. In the fullest sense of the phrase, worship is Regi Stone’s life. As founder of Experience Worship, Regi produces a steady stream of worship materials ranging from albums to devotionals, and growing all the time. As owner and publisher of Belden Street Music, he produces more than 100 worship songs each year. In addition to his session work for Word, PraiseGathering, Integrity, LifeWay, Prism, Brentwood Benson, and several other Christian music publishers, Regi has recorded multiple vocal projects and instrumental albums. He regularly leads worship at Christ Church in Nashville, TN as well as at conferences and churches all over the country.
I will sing praise, I will lift my voice,
I will sing praise, I’ve made my choice.
I will sing praise in all I do.
I will sing praise to you. (Repeat)
No matter the storms that come my way,
No matter the trials I may face,
You promised that you would see me through.
So, I will trust in You.
Click here to learn more about Regi Stone:
http://www.registone.com/
Click here for a sample of the song:
www.worshiptoday.com/search_results.asp?song_id=415
“God is Great” 10:45am
This song was written by Marty Sampson one of the Hillsong worship leaders from Australia. When asked about the modern worship movement Marty commented recently “I think young people are getting more and more passionate about their relationships with God and His kingdom. They desire to see God moving in their lives and in the lives of those around them.” Marty Sampson (b. May 31, 1979) is a Christian songwriter and a worship leader at the Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia. Originally featuring in the Youth Alive albums of the late 1990s, he was one of original Hillsong United worship leaders and has led worship on every United album to date. He plays guitar and occasionally piano.
When it comes to penning songs, Marty is sometimes a little unorthodox in his approach. For example he explains the inspiration behind "God is Great." "The story is that me and Joel Houston, another guy in our youth group, were cruising along in his car, with a tape recorder. And we were just talking about music and singing, and we decided we needed to write a new song for the youth. We were near my house, and we were singing as loud as we could! Joel started doing this beat box, and then I just started singing, 'God is great, and His praise, fills the earth, fills the heavens!' We both turned around, looked at each other, and said, 'Whoa! That's awesome!' So I put on the tape player and recorded it, and it went from there."
Click here to worship along with Marty:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfZOUVD46TI&feature=related
Click here to learn more about Marty’s ministry:
www.myspace.com/martysampsonmusic
Click here to check out Marty:
http://www.martysampson.net/
“Still Standing” 10:45am
This song was written by Israel Houghton. Israel wrote the following on worship:
When I was 7, I met my grandfather for the first time, who was the same guy who told my mother, ‘You got to move on.’ I saw my cousins and my younger siblings running up and jumping on his lap and hanging out. A great time was being had by all. So I thought, Let me do the same thing. Well, I ran and jumped up on his lap, and the next thing I knew, I was on my back. He had pushed me to the ground. He had still not been able to make peace with this cultural thing. I just said, ‘What’s wrong with me? Why?’
Later on you’d hear, especially when worship started taking shape, you know, Kent Henry was one of those worship leaders, ‘Hey, just crawl into your Father’s lap and let Him love you.’ And I’m sitting there going, I’m having a difficult time with that.
You want to think you’ve moved on from that, but at the same time, the intimacy of worship with God, it affected me. I realized, You’ve gone through all of this, not to hurt you but to shape you, to be acquainted with the pain that a lot of people feel. So it has shaped my life incredibly by just diving into the Father’s love and encouraging others to do it -- not trivializing the pain that a lot of people who come to church and come to a concert or whatever are feeling, but just the sensitivity to where people are at and helping them come into a place of breaking through into what God really has for them.
When you read Psalm 139, it throws out all the ‘I’m here accidentally’ stuff that I believed for so long. I felt like an accident. I felt like a mistake. But when you understand, ‘I’m fearfully and wonderfully made; I’m skillfully crafted; how precious are your thoughts toward me; how marvelous are your works,’ when you start considering all that and going, Ok, I didn’t just sneak into the earth, I was created for something great, the more I dwell on that, the more I meditate on that, the more I share that with people who want to hear it, the better I feel about why I’m here.
I love being home. My first ministry is in this house. The church that I pastor is right here. My congregation consists of Malaysia, Mariah, Duncan, and Mylonlily, and everything else is secondary, including Lakewood.
I believe that if I don’t take care of my family as a great leader and husband and father, I could have all kinds of accolades and awards and a big mantle up there or something with a bunch of statuettes, but if my children don’t respect me, if I haven’t been a good husband, then that’s all a joke to me.
My first real experience with worship, I was 19. I was playing drums in the church band at a church in Phoenix, and they asked me to be the worship leader. They had heard me sing or something and they said, ‘Why don’t you consider leading worship for us?’ I said something like, ‘I’ll pray about that.’ He said, ‘Pray hard because you start tonight!’ Honestly, I didn’t know what I was doing. I was like Ron Kenoly Jr. -- I knew three Ron Kenoly songs, and I sang them every service, for weeks. Finally, this lady came up to me and she said, ‘You might want to go find your sound and go find who you are.’ My first real experience of just knowing this is what I was born for, this is what I was created for, I took my piano in to the kitchen because I had tile on the kitchen floor, and it was great acoustics in there and I would just worship. Four, five, and six hours would go by, and I’d sit there weeping and crying and having this conversation with God all by myself. I like to say I was doing worship before it was popular. I was doing worship as a lifestyle before it was a section at the bookstore.
When I started getting into the recording industry, I would hear, ‘Choose a style,’ and I used to say, ‘How about we just put it all together?’ Because when we get to heaven, there’s not going to be sections -- ‘This is the black section of heaven. This is the white section of heaven. What kind of music do you like? Well you’re going to be over in that room.’
I believe the Kingdom has a sound. I believe glory has a sound. So I want to be a part of doing it. I believe it’s a very multi-cultural mix of sound and style and lyric and melody and everything else.
Click here to listen online: www.imeem.com/etoilegirl/music/3pcmZdiF/israel_houghton_still_standing/
Click here to worship along with Israel Houghton: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvtQ2Y4JCgY&feature=related
"Your Name" 10:45am
This song is by Paul Baloche. Paul is a native of Camden, New Jersey, and is currently the worship pastor at Community Christian Fellowship in Lindale, Texas. You can learn more about Paul on his myspace, and can listen to the song on his myspace standalone player:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=70931079
You can read more about Pauls’ ministry on his ministry website.
www.leadworship.com/
Click here to worship along with Paul: www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5i2pELpqBg
Thursday, January 15, 2009
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