Great Christian Music – Awesome God

Decided to pick a “newer” song this time around.

Rich Mullins, the author of this praise song, delighted in doing the unexpected. He was raised in a Quaker church that celebrated quietness and waiting upon God in stillness. But when he went to bible college, he formed a rock band and, later, a touring group called the Ragamuffin Band. He had a zany sense of humour and at the same time a deep appreciation for St. Thomas of Assisi. Like St. Thomas, Mullins liked to work with poor children, and he spent the last two years of his life on a Navajo Indian Reservation in the Southwest of America.

Once as he was driving across country on his way to a youth conference, he began to doze off. Trying to keep himself awake, Mullins began preaching to himself. The sleepier he got, the more exuberant he got in his preaching; by the time he arrived at the youth conference, he had written a new song called “Awesome God.” He didn’t think it was a great song, but the kids at the conference loved it, and soon its popularity spread across the country.  

   

Scriptures: Psalm 48:1, Psalm 147:5, Isaiah 40:28

Themes: God the Father, God’s Power and Love

When He rolls up His sleeves

He ain't just putting on the ritz
(Our God is an awesome God)
There's thunder in His footsteps

And lightning in His fists
(Our God is an awesome God)
And the Lord wasn't joking when He kicked 'em out of Eden
It wasn't for no reason that He shed His blood
His return is very close and so you better be believing that
Our God is an awesome God

(Chorus x2)
Our God is an awesome God
He reigns from heaven above
With wisdom, power, and love
Our God is an awesome God

And when the sky was starless
In the void of the night
(Our God is an awesome God)
He spoke into the darkness
And created the light
(Our God is an awesome God)
Judgement and wrath He poured out on Sodom
Mercy and grace He gave us at the cross
I hope that we have not too quickly forgotten that
Our God is an awesome God

(Chorus Repeat x5)

Our God is an awesome God
Our God is an awesome God

Rich Mullins (1955 – 1997)

Information taken from; The Complete Book of Hymns by William J Petersen and Ardythe Petersen.

Great Christian Music - Blessed Assurance

Fanny Crosby wrote more than eight thousand hymns and used more than two hundred pen names. Under contract to a music publisher, she wrote three new hymns each week during much of her adult life. The fact that she was blind didn’t diminish her productivity. She would formulate an entire song in her mind and then dictate it to a friend or a secretary.

One of her good friends was Phoebe Palmer Knapp, wife of the founder of Metropolitan Life Insurance  Company. One time when Knapp came to Brooklyn to see Crosby, she brought a tune with her that she had composed. “Play it for me on the organ,” Crosby requested. Knapp did and then asked , “What does this tune say?” She turned to see Crosby kneeling in prayer. Knapp played it a second time and then a third. Finally the blind woman responded, “That says, ’Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine!’”

Scriptures: Romans 8:1,16-17; 2 Timothy 1:12; Hebrews 10:18-20; 1 John 5:13

Themes: Assurance, Submission, Praise, Salvation

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!

O what a foretaste of glory divine!   

Heir of salvation, purchase of God,

Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Saviour all the day long;

This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Saviour all the day long;

Perfect submission, perfect delight!

Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;

Angels descending bring from above

Echoes of mercy , whispers of love.

Perfect submission – all is at rest,

I in my Saviour am happy and blest;

Watching and waiting, looking above,

Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.

Frances (Fanny) Jane Crosby (1820 - 1915)

Information taken from; The Complete Book of Hymns by William J Petersen and Ardythe Petersen.

What an amazing woman of faith!! Here is a version of the song by Third Day. Hope you enjoy it! 

Blessed Redeemer

Wrote this email on the 10 September 2010, posting with current date.

Precious Saints,

Tears kept coming into my eyes as I was listening to this song (on my ipod) on the way into work this morning on the bus......quite a surreal experience......have had a different kinda week, cancelled cell group, won’t be able to go to mens' group at Salem tomorrow (Matt’s soccer) and then we have decided to go to a family braai instead of evening service at Goodwood Methodist(apologies to you Pete love to be there for your sermons)

The apostle Paul wrote this almost 2,000 years ago;

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14)

So on the day of Eid as the Muslims break their fast of Ramadan I will boast only about the cross of Jesus Christ my saviour and don’t burn their holy book the Koran just pray for them, point them to the cross.

Please cover Adam in prayer, he is preaching at 8.30am on Sunday morning at his home church in Durban and Peter C, he is preaching 6.30pm at Goodwood Meth.


Casting Crowns - Blessed Redeemer (some of you have this CD)
Songwriters: Mark Hall, Bernie Herms

Up Calvary's mountain one dreadful morn
Walked Christ my Savior, weary and worn
Facing for sinners, death on the cross
That He might save them from endless loss

Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer
Seems now I see Him on Calvary's tree
Wounded and bleeding, for sinners pleading
Blind and unheeding, dying for me

"Father, forgive them," my Savior prayed
Even while His lifeblood flowed fast away
Praying for sinners while in such woe
No one but Jesus ever loved so

Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer
Seems now I see Him on Calvary's tree
Wounded and bleeding, for sinners pleading
Blind and unheeding, dying for me
Dying for me

Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer
Seems now I see Him on Calvary's tree
Wounded and bleeding, for sinners pleading
Blind and unheeding, dying for me

Oh, how I love Him, Savior and Friend
How can my praises ever find end?
Through years unnumbered on Heaven's shore
My songs shall praise Him forevermore

Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer
Seems now I see Him on Calvary's tree
Wounded and bleeding, for sinners pleading
Blind and unheeding, dying for me

Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer
Seems now I see Him on Calvary's tree
Wounded and bleeding, for sinners pleading
Blind and unheeding, dying for me

Blessed Redeemer, precious Redeemer
Seems now I see Him

Great Christian Music - I Stand Amazed in the Presence

In the early 1900s, Charles H. Gabriel was the king of gospel music. Gabriel wrote the words and music for a number of hymns used by popular evangelists of his day such as Billy Sunday and his song leader, Homer Rodeheaver.
Gabriel’s hymns reflect a change in the style of gospel music. In the 1800s, hymns were deeply theological and often meditative. But with the revivals of Moody and Sunday, Christians learned to love songs that were fun to sing, highly energetic and easy to remember. Perhaps Gabriel’s most popular hymn is “O That Will Be Glory for Me,” with its rousing chorus. He also wrote “Send the Light,” a stirring missionary call with a tune that drives the singer halfway across the ocean.
These songs, like “I Stand Amazed in the Presence,” focus on a simple emotion and celebrate it. In this case, it is raw amazement at the magnitude of Christ’s sacrifice. We love this song because we can identify with it. How can we help but “stand amazed” in His presence? How marvelous! How wonderful!

Scriptures: Matthew 26:43; Luke 22:41; Romans 5:6-8; Ephesians 3:18-19
Themes: Love of Christ, Passion, Gethsemane, Praise

I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how He could love me,
A sinner, condemned, unclean.

How marvelous! How wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
How marvelous! How wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!

For me it was in the garden
He prayed, “Not My will, but Thine”;
He had no tears for His own griefs,
But sweat drops of blood for mine.

In pity angels beheld Him,
And came from the world of light
To comfort Him in the sorrows
He bore for my soul that night.

He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own;
He bore the burden to Calvary
And suffered and died alone.

When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see,
‘Twill be my joy thru the ages
To sing of His love for me.

Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (1856 – 1932)

Information taken from; The Complete Book of Hymns by William J Petersen and Ardythe Petersen.

Here is a version by the Passion Band featuring Chris Tomlin amongst others, just click on the play button.



Please feel free to give feedback on this player and it's performance. Thanks!!

Stay (I'm leaving now.....but I don't want to go....)

Earlier this year one of my close and dear friends, Craig, asked me to go with him to minister to a couple who are close friends of his. The wife had been diagnosed with cancer and it was in an advanced stage and there was nothing that any of the doctors could do. Craig and his wife had been ministering to this couple, since sometime in the previous year and asking their friends to lift them and the couple in prayer.

So after a few false starts we eventually got around to visiting Mike and Karen at their small home in Table View. Karen had just been discharged from the hospice as she just wanted to spend as much time with her family as possible. The doctors had estimated that she had month or possibly two left to live. Karen was 37 at the time and her and Mike had a son and daughter aged 5 and 7.

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Bible Reading by Matt Redman - Psalm 84:1,2 and 9-12

1 How lovely is your dwelling place,O LORD Almighty! 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 9 Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one. 10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. 12 O LORD Almighty,blessed is the man who trusts in you.

This Psalm has been sitting in my heart lately, very relative to the election results in the USA.

Matt Redman - Better is One Day

Bible Reading by Third Day - Psalm 36:5-10

5 Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. 6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast. 7 How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. 8 They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. 9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. 10 Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart.

The Shadow of Death 2: My Brother

Precious Saints !!!!

So there I was relaxing on a Thursday evening looking forward to going on leave in a weeks time. When the death part of life suddenly happened to me. My brothers wife Libby phoned me at about 9.30pm from Johannesburg and calmly told me that my brother Clive had had a heart attack and passed away at 'bout 11am that morning, he was 54. Talk about being hit in the guts. I didn't know what to do or how to feel. While listening in disbelief, I cried, felt empty, shocked, numb, angry, dazed, confused you name it I felt it.

While listening to Libby, God's Spirit inside me just convicted me so deeply to go up to Johannesburg for the service and to spend some time with my brothers family. To be honest with you all I did not really want to go, I mean my brother and I were not even close, I don't really think anyone really expected it of me to go. It would be so much easier just to stay put here in Cape Town send my condolences along with flowers and a card. God just said to me you go, you are my mercy, you are my grace, you are my love. I still didn't really want to go it would just hurt too much.

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My Father Who Was On Earth

Precious Saints !!!!!

Last week was pretty quiet at work, most of the people were away on holiday and those that had pitched seemed pretty much in a holiday mood. Our mainframe systems were down. So I'm just catching up on reading a few emails. There was this one devotion about missing loved ones over the festive season. When out of nowhere without warning there came this tremendous pain of loss for my dad. I just hurt so bad and I cried and cried and just missed him soooo much, I wished that I actually had got to know him a lot better while he was alive.

A whole stack of memories just came flooding back, some good, some bad. Sitting by the window when I was a little boy waiting for his car to come around the corner on Friday nights. He would be away from home the whole week working at such exotic places like Stompneesbaai, Piketberg, Grabouw and Bredarsdorp. Then I would run down and open the big back gate so he could pull his car in. He'd be dog tired and would pay me to "iron out" the creases on his forehead as he sat down and relaxed on the couch. The way we started having a cup of tea and biscuits together in the evenings (I was a teenager then)and he would tell me very entertaining and amusing stories about his day at work. He'd changed jobs by then so I at least got to see him a bit more. How he was always around to help out his klutzy son, who couldn't knock together two pieces of wood. That was after I got married. Fixing up and helping me buy my first car, a 1970 Mini for R700. Always being there for me but not really being able to show and tell me how much he loves me and I also did not know how to show and tell him of my love for him. His way of showing love was helping me out and doing stuff for me.

Then the emphysema took hold and this incredibly hard working, (I've never ever seen anybody work as hard as my dad) energetic and impatient man struggled just to dress himself and tie his shoelaces. Any visits had to be carefully planned as my mom and dad would prepare and rest before we visited. The weekend before he passed away we went to visit him and he was in bed with the flu. He asked me, "Have I been a good father?" I answered that he had been the best father that he could be. He had known for some time that he was dying and did not have much time left. I could see(and somehow feel) that he was reading his bible and really searching. I was not a Christian then and all I knew was the teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Somehow I knew to leave him on his own while he searched. I could not really help him and I knew that the stuff that I knew would not help him in his search.

Then a week later on a Friday evening I got a frantic phone call from my mom. My dad had fallen off the bed and he was really struggling to breathe (he had not gotten over the flu) and she had put him on oxygen. Then came the battle to get a doctor around to them, to keep my mom calm, to organise an ambulance. By the time Allie and I got there my dad had slipped into a coma. An ambulance eventually pitched up at about 11.30pm. I got in the ambulance with my dad, he was making these horrible sounds as he struggled so desperately to breathe. All I could do was "iron out" the creases on his forehead. The ambulance took him to this run down emergency unit at Conradie hospital. Wounded criminals handcuffed to the beds, paint peeling off the ceilings, Capil asbestos heaters propped up on bricks,doctors so disinterested they hardly seemed human. There was basically nothing they could do for my dad. No matter where I walked in that emergency unit I could hear him, gasping, rasping, gulping to get air into his lungs. It was a truly haunting sound.

Saturday sometime (can't remember exactly when) I had to phone my older brother (Clive). I just remember that he had a choice of two flights from Jo'burg to Cape Town. The first one was a midnight flight and it would get him to Cape Town early hours of Sunday morning. I said he shouldn't hassle too much and take the flight that would get him to Cape Town at 10.30am(or there abouts). I was wrong! Our dad passed away at 8am that Sunday morning, he never came out of the coma. I really should have told Clive to get that earlier flight. It was really hard to tell him when we picked him up at the airport that dad had already passed away. We just went to the hospital and saw his body in the morgue. I think I ironed out his creases for the last time, can't fully remember what we did. My boet was really cut up. I'd never really seen him like that. I know we sat on the grass for a while at the hospital, can't remember what we said to each other, even if we said anything at all.

Of course there is always all the other stuff that happens when there is the death in the family and Clive was a tremendous help. Ja so dad died 11 years ago, Matthew my son is 9 years old. I know my dad would have loved him to bits. There are always those few things that I carry in relation to my dad's death. I'm getting better at letting it all go and trusting God that he is in heaven but sometimes it suddenly just all comes flooding back and then I find a place to weep in my weakness on the shoulder of Jesus Christ our Lord.

It used to be really hard for me to go to hospitals after that and its only after I became a Christian that this experience and the also the death of my mother-in-law the following year that has helped me to minister to people in hospitals, that is when (our eternal daddy)God calls me. Oh yeah that old Mazda was my dads' car, Allie named it after him; Stanley. Somebody shortly after my dads death told me that you only start growing up when your dad dies I haven't really got a comment on that one. I still just simply miss him and want to see him again, maybe have a cup of tea and chat 'bout what he's been doing.

I did not really want to put this together and send it out but somehow I've been convicted to do so. So there it is.

When this happens - when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die - then at last the scriptures will come true:

"Death is swallowed up in victory. (Isaiah 25:8)
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?" (Hosea 13:14)

For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. How we thank God, who gives us victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord! (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

My Hope Is You - Third Day (Live Version)

To You, O Lord, I lift my soul
In You, O God, I place my trust
Do not let me be put to shame
Nor let my enemies triumph over me

My hope is You
Show me Your ways
Guide me in truth
In all my days
My hope is You

I am, O Lord, filled with Your love
You are, O God, my salvation
Guard my life and rescue me
My broken spirit shouts
My mended heart cries out

My hope is You.......
(Third Day 1997 taken from Psalm 25)



LoCTY !!!!!

PS Okay John I did it!

Growing Up

Precious Saints !!!

Was woken up one morning with this song by Chris Rice (thanks Helga on CCFM) and the first few lines just kinda stuck in my mind for a few days and evoked a ton of memories both good and bad.

What dreams did you have as a child as to what you wanted to be when you grew up and became an adult? Well I wanted to be a fireman, policeman, doctor, vet, soccer star, rock star and so on. As I grew older my ideas changed as to what I wanted to be. So by the time I was a teenager I wanted to be a rock star. Hey I really loved music but did I have any talent? Sad to say just about zero.

So we become all 'grown up' and stumble into a job and the 'real' world starts knocking our dreams to pieces. Sorry man, you can't do that, you're too short, too skinny, too white, too stoopid and so on. I remember going for job interview after job interview where they asked the same dumb questions. "Did you captain the 1st rugby team, 1st soccer team, 1st dis, 1st dat, I see you don't have a post matric qualification"....drone on and on. Hey can't a guy come second here? As a scrawny 20 something I just about used to wet my pants(or something worse) when I went for job interviews.

The other really intelligent question was, "I see you don't have any experience....." Well knock me down with a perfumed pink feather. I had just come out of the army where I was trained to meet interesting people and kill them!!! My young friends and I were giving up our lives to protect your sorry fat backside. How am I gonna get any experience if you don't want to hire me. Well that's what I felt like saying but I really did not have the guts to say it.

Anyways you eventually get a job, get married, get divorced, get married, get divorced and then get married again and hopefully stay employed throughout. And all this time you are kinda thinking to yourself there has just gotta be more to life then this. By the time I'd reached 40 I'd carefully patched up my heart, sealed it reasonably tight and would only let in people if they would be able to give me something in return. I would give love but you better give me some love back.

And then at that stage I had almost reached breaking point. Allie my lovely wife after giving birth to our only son had two nervous breakdowns in the space of three/four years. I mean what had I done to deserve this? I was really losing myself and finding it so difficult to really put others first. Then Allie started seeking for something bigger, higher then herself and she literally upset my whole wheelbarrow of manure. She actually started going to church! This kinda freaked me out initially I mean I was kinda steeling myself to push my wheelbarrow for the rest of my life and work out some kinda plan to make the manure smell better.

Well one thing led to another and one Saturday evening I met my saviour Jesus Christ. WOW!!! He gave me a tiny glimpse of his glory and my life was changed forever. Now I wanna do things 'cause I know that He loved me first, I'm learning more and more His purpose and plan for my life. And guess what I am really super duper special, I'm so precious that God himself came down and died for me. He purchased me with His own blood! Can you actually fathom the depth, the width the height of that love? Not likely this side of heaven. Now all this does not give me a big fat head but makes me feel truly grateful and humble and just wanting to serve Him with all that I have. Oh yeah, am I perfect? No ways, I'm full of holes and frayed at the edges but I'm really trying to love God back and the more I get that right the more I am able to give of His love back to the world.

God just blows me away constantly with His love. A youth pastor from Khayelitsha phoned me yesterday on my cell to tell me that He loves me as a brother in Christ. A woman the other evening introduced me to her sister and said that I'd saved her live. And it goes on and on. I'm not saying all this to get a Noddy badge or to tell you how great I am but to tell you how great God is. Love Him back more and more and you will see how He uses you. Go on I dare you!

Here's that song

The Power Of The Moment (by Chris Rice)

What am I gonna be when I grow up?
How am I gonna make my mark in history?
And what are they gonna write about me when I’m gone?
These are the questions that shape the way I think about what matters
But I have no guarantee of my next heartbeat
And my world’s too big to make a name for myself
And what if no one wants to read about me when I’m gone?
Seems to me that right now’s the only moment that matters

You know the number of my days
So come paint Your pictures on the canvas in my head
And come write Your wisdom on my heart
And teach me the power of a moment
The power of a moment, the power of a moment

In Your kingdom where the least is greatest
The weak are given strength and fools confound the wise
And forever brushes up against a moment’s time
Leaving impressions and drawing me into what really matters

You know the number of my days
So come paint Your pictures on the canvas in my head
And come write Your wisdom on my heart
And teach me the power of a moment
The power of a moment, the power of a moment

I get so distracted by my bigger schemes
Show me the importance of the simple things
Like a word, a seed, a thorn, a nail
And a cup of cold water

You know the number of my days
So come paint Your pictures on the canvas in my head
And come write Your wisdom on my heart
And teach me the power of a moment
The power of a moment, the power of a moment

Copyright Clumsy Fly Music (ASCAP)



LoCTY !!!!!!!


We know what real love is because Christ gave up His life for us. And so we also ought to give up our lives for our Christian brothers and sisters. (1 John 3:16)

How Great Thou Art

To The Saints !!!

Dean came to take our ole faithful Mazda(Stanley) away this past Saturday to see if he can sell it. It was rather whimsically that I stood in our driveway and waved goodbye to Stanley. So many memories are tied to that car. Stanley certainly motivated me to pray a lot, both while driving along in him and also many a night when I would apologise to God for praying over our 'bucket of bolts' yet again as he stood in our driveway often with some sort of mysterious ailment(mysterious to me that is).
The latest memory that he left us with was last week Wednesday when we drove home from Parklands while it was pouring with rain. It was a real storm. Visibility was not very good and it was a lot worse from inside Stanley(wot's a demister?!!). When we turned the corner onto Koeberg road the wind hit us at a different angle which caused the windscreen wipers to go too far to the one side and then get stuck, Allie had to keep on pushing them back. Val (Allie's sister, who is a nun) suggested to me that we should pray. I was already having a serious monologue with God at the time but I sure could use all the help I could get. So Val started singing How Great Thou Art and listening to the words kinda just put everything in the right perspective as we drove home in our leaky spluttery car with our singing nun and you really really got the feeling of how close God can be to us, so close he is right inside . And you know He is there all the time and He will never ever leave us(Hebrews 13:5&6). But that is the promise written in His word.

How Great Thou Art by Aled Jones

O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hands have made
I see the stars , I hear the mighty thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee;
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee;
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

And when I think that God, His son not sparing
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin.........

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy will fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, my God how great Thou art!
(How Great Thy Art.... you can sing along and praise Him)



LoCTY !!!!!!!!