October 25, 2009
“I Have a Hope”
I have a hope, I have a future
I have a destiny that is yet awaiting me
My life’s not over, a new beginning’s just begun
I have a hope, I have this hope
God has a plan, it’s not to harm me
But it’s to prosper me and to hear me when I call
He intercedes for me, working all things for my good
Though trials may come I have this hope
I will yet praise Him, my great Redeemer
I will yet stand up and give Him glory with my life
He takes my darkness and He turns it into light
I will yet praise Him, my Lord my God
My God is for me, He’s not against me
So tell me whom then, tell me whom then shall I fear
He has prepared for me
Great works He’ll help me to complete
I have a hope, I have this hope
Goodness and mercy, they’re gonna follow me
And I’ll forever dwell in the house of my great King
No eye has ever seen all He’s preparing there for me
Though trials may come, I have this hope
There’s still hope for me today
‘Cause the God heaven loves me
Tommy Walker has led worship at Christian Assembly in Los Angeles, California with his pastor, Mark Pickerill, since 1990. He has traveled with Promise Keepers, Greg Laurie Harvest Crusades, and Franklin Graham.
He has also been privileged to serve with such church leaders as Jack Hayford, Bill Hybels, and Rick Warren. He has recorded worship projects for Maranatha! Music, Integrity Music, and Get Down Ministries.
He has written over 100 songs that are currently being tracked by C.C.L.I. and are being sung in churches around the world, including "He Knows My Name", "Only A God Like You", "That's Why We Praise Him", "Lord, I Believe In You", "Mourning Into Dancing", "Break Through", and "This is What Christmas Means to Me".
For the last decade, Tommy has traveled internationally holding worship concerts and mercy-ministry outreaches in places where people are in great need. He has led his worship team to the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Guatemala, Zambia and Brazil.
Tommy has been married to his wife, Robin, for seventeen years. They have four children, Jake, Levi, Emmie and Eileen. To be found faithful to His God, his family and his local church will always be his greatest achievement.
Click here to learn more about Tommy Walker:
http://www.tommywalker.net/
Play the song on Tommy’s myspace:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=97429791
Click here to worship along with Tommy Walker:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcjhNjO_l5o
Click here to purchase Tommy Walker's version:
“The Wonderful Cross”
ISAAC WATTS and CHRIS TOMLIN
The original song was written by Isaac Watts, the new chorus was written by Chris Tomlin. Isaac was born in 1674 and Chris was born in 1972. Even though they are separated by three hundred years, there is no separation between their passion and commitment to leading God's people in worship. The past meets the present.
Click here to hear Chris Tomlin talk about how this new arrangement came about: www.theheartofworship.org/stories/Story-306-TheWonderfulCross-Tomlin.mp3
Click here to learn more about Chris Tomlin:
www.christomlin.com/
You can listen to more of Chris Tomlin's music on his myspace website:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=94631118
Isaac Watts (July 17, 1674 – November 25, 1748) is recognized as the "Father of English Hymnody", as he was the first prolific and popular English hymnwriter, credited with some 750 hymns. Many of his hymns remain in active use today and have been translated into many languages.
Click here to read more about Isaac Watts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Watts
This is an interesting read on Isaac Watts:
www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/w/a/t/watts_i.htm
Isaac is best known for his emphasizing the role of music in worship, where the congregation actually began to sing with the choir. Watts became the congregation's pastor in 1702. Just five feet tall, he was an unprepossessing figure in the pulpit. Health problems continued to plague him, and an assistant had to be appointed to fill in for him after a severe bout with illness in 1703. Despite these problems, Watts was a powerful preacher. The Mark Lane congregation outgrew its quarters and twice had to move to larger facilities, and Watts' sermons began to be collected and printed. Part of his success was due to his emphasis on the role of music in worship. A minister, he felt, should not only write sermons but should seek to involve his congregation in worship through music.
Click here to purchase Chris Tomlin’s arrangement:
“Redeemed”
The word redeemed implies the idea of a slave standing on the trader's auction block being offered to the highest bidder. At last the price is paid by a compassionate new owner, who then gives the slave his unconditional freedom. But the freed slave, out of gratitude to his new owner, offers himself as a loving bond-servant for life to his redeemer.
This popular gospel song by Fanny Crosby first appeared with William Kirkpatrick's jubilant tune in the hymnal Songs of Redeeming Love, published in 1882. It is another of the more than 8,000 hymns by the blind American poetess, Fanny Jane Crosby, the most important writer of gospel hymn texts in American history.
Redeemed--how I love to proclaim it! Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
redeemed thru. His infinite mercy--His child, and forever, I am.
Redeemed and so happy in Jesus; no language my rapture can tell;
I know that the light of His presence with me doth continually dwell.
I think of my blessed Redeemer. I think of Him all the day long;
I sing for I cannot be silent; His love is the theme of my song.
I know I shall see in His beauty the King in whose law I delight,
who lovingly guardeth my footsteps and giveth me songs in the night.
Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
redeemed, redeemed, His child, and forever, I am.
Click here for an arrangement by The Martins:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QojShzCMK4&feature=related
Click here for a jazz arrangement of the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNxhcuVodBs
Click here to purchase the Buddy Greene arrangement:
“The Power of Your Love”
Hold me close, Let Your love surround me
Bring me near, Draw me to Your side
And as I wait, I’ll rise up like the eagle
And I will soar with You, Your Spirit leads me on
In the power of Your love
Click here to learn more about Geoff Bullock, the composer of this song:
www.geoffbullock.com/
Click here to read the story behind the song:
www.simpleworship.net/pdfs/song_stories.pdf
Click here to listen to the song:
www.imeem.com/people/ejWQlv/music/bS3_d_n2/geoff-bullock-the-power-of-your-love/
Click here for a powerful video of the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA4narr2wyE&feature=fvst
Click here to purchase the Hillsongs version:
“You, You are God”
This song of declaration was written by Walker Beach. Walker Beach is a Pastor of Worship Production at Gateway Church in Dallas, Texas, and a prolific writer of worship songs for the Gateway Worship team. Walker's life motto is “My relationship with you is more important than the project we are working on”. Before becoming Pastor of Worship Production at Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, Walker served as director of the School of Worship at Christ for the Nations in Dallas. Walker reminds us that we are to bring an offering of praise into the house of the Lord.
Here I am, I've come to find You
Here I am, to see Your grace
To bring to You an offering
I have to ask myself one thing
How can I do anything
But praise, I praise
You, You are God, You are Lord
You are all I'm living for
You are King of everything
I want my life to praise You
Here I am, I've come to thank You
Here I am, a life You've changed
Because You gave Your life for me
You crucified Your Son for me
Now how can I do anything
But praise, I praise
Click here to worship along with the Gateway worship team:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa0EIFFc6xk
Click here to purchase “You, You are God”:
“Still Standing”
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 into 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 worship along with Israel Houghton: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvtQ2Y4JCgY&feature=related
Click here to purchase Lakewood's version of “Still Standing”:
"Everlasting God"
Brenton Brown wrote this song after both he and his wife had being diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Brown described their illness in the following excerpt from Christianity Today.
It's called fibromyalgia, a form of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. What defines it are the symptoms, the most obvious one [being] fatigue. You feel jet-lagged most of the time. There are other symptoms like nausea, muscle pain, muscle aches. There's no known cure. Basically it was just like waking up one day and finding out that I had someone else's body. Very strange. I wasn't thinking as clearly. And over the last three years we've basically had to relearn how to live life with our new bodies. It's been a challenge.
Chronic Fatigue is a little bit like having mono[nucleosis]. You feel very fatigued, very drained. And no matter how much you sleep, you're still going to feel tired. You can never shake off that tired feeling. I just kept going for six months. And then my pastor, the board of our church and the group of doctors that I was seeing all decided, "This is not working. You're not going to be able to force your way through this."
Brenton Brown, born in South Africa, is a Christian songwriter and worship leader. He left South Africa for Oxford, England in his early twenties on a Rhodes Scholarship. While studying politics, philosophy and theology, he joined Vineyard Music (UK), serving as worship pastor at the Oxford Vineyard, UK, and eventually as coordinator of the Vineyard (UK) Worship Development Team. His songs, "Lord, Reign in Me", "All Who are Thirsty", "Humble King", "Hallelujah [Your love is Amazing]" and "Holy" were recorded on the popular Vineyard UK projects during this time. He has since left the UK and now lives in Malibu, California with his wife, Jude. Brenton is an artist on the worship label Survivor and in 2006 released his first solo album, Everlasting God with Survivor in the UK and rest of the world, and with Sparrow in the United States and Canada.
Check out Brenton’s ministry here:
www.myspace.com/brentonbrownmusic
Click here to listen to him share about how the song came about:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YePOcs88kqw
Click here to listen to Lincoln Brewster's arrangement:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP2nz6PG8KM&mode=related&search=
Click here to listen to Brenton Brown and Paul Baloche:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bLWwnVBuF8
Click here to purchase Brenton Brown's version of “Everlasting God”:
"Jesus Paid It All"
The following is from Alex Nifong, who wrote the additional chorus:
I have an old hymnal that I frequently play through sometimes during my private times alone with the Lord. I was playing through that song one day in January of 2005 and I just started praying and singing out the phrase, "O praise the One who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead". It was as simple as that. Just a prayer that came right out of my heart.
This is a new arrangement of the old hymn, based on the recording from the Passion album Everything Glorious. It adds a new line "O praise the One who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead". Check out the composer of the tag on his website, www.alexnifong.com/
Here’s a story about the song: The words were written by Elvina M. Hall and the music by John T. Grape on New Year’s night, 1886. Some missionaries were holding open-air services in order to attract passers-by to a near-by mission, where meetings were to be held later. "All to Christ I Owe" was sung, and after a gentleman had given a short address he hastened away to the mission. He soon heard footsteps close behind him and a young woman caught up with him and said: "I heard you addressing the open-air meeting just now; do you think, sir, that Jesus could save a sinner like me?" The gentleman replied that there was no doubt about that, if she was anxious to be saved.
She told him that she was a servant girl, and had left her place that morning after a disagreement with her mistress. As she had been wandering about the streets in the dark, wondering where she was to spend the night, the sweet melodies of this hymn had attracted her, and she drew near and listened attentively. As the different verses were being sung, she felt that the words surely had something to do with her. Through the whole service she seemed to hear what met her oppressed soul’s need at that moment. God’s Spirit had showed her what a poor, sinful and wretched creature she was, and had led her to ask what she must do. On hearing her experience, the gentleman took her back to the mission and left her with the ladies in charge. The young, wayward woman was brought to Christ that night. A situation was secured for her in a minister’s family. There she became ill and had to be taken to a hospital. She rapidly failed and it became evident that she would not be long on earth. One day the gentleman whom she had met on New Year’s night was visiting her in the ward. After quoting a few suitable verses of Scripture, he repeated her favorite hymn, "All to Christ I Owe"…and she seemed overwhelmed with the thought of coming to glory…Two hours afterward she passed away.
Click here to worship along:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=onxhvivQYfI
Click here to worship along with a younger generation led by Kristian Stanfill:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-OOjfaBGnA&mode=related&search=
You can go here to Kristian's myspace and click on the song just to listen:
www.myspace.com/kristianstanfill
Here it is in Spanish:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRRBtWP_buA
Click here to purchase Kristian Stanfill's version:
“Unfailing Love”
Jonathan Stockstill is the worship leader for Bethany World Prayer Center in Baton Rouge, LA. Also a songwriter, he has written or co-written over 50 songs for the body of Christ. Stockstill has played the piano and guitar for over 20 years. Son of Bethany’s current pastor Larry Stockstill and grandson of church founder Roy Stockstill, Jonathan has attended Bethany his entire life. Jonathan has a heart to train and equip worship leaders and further believes this is the generation that will usher in the return of Jesus. His music emphasizes both the necessity for holiness before God but also the urgency of speaking out for Jesus. He and his wife Angie have been married since February 2005 and together they are a fresh voice for God’s kingdom.
Click here to listen online:
www.imeem.com/heavenzsapphire3578/music/HGS06BKi/jonathan_stockstill_unfailing_love/
Click here for a music video of the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pio7U51a93Q
Click here to purchase Jonathan Stockstill's version:
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