The Gomez Blog » Music

Sermon, Song, and Book of the Week

Mark — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 04:04:22 +0000

This morning we had a great time of studying the Word and spending time together as believers. Bobby Endyk walked us through Philippians 1:12-18, with great discussion along the way. The pumpkin roll and banana bread were amazing as well.

Sermon of the Week

The sermon of the week is actually a series on election by Pastor Mike Abendroth. Pastor Abendroth is a friend of mine from Massachusetts where he is an elder at Bethlehem Bible Church. This sermon series was very helpful to me as I was starting to come to an understanding of what the Bible meant by election. The series is formatted as answers to “frequently asked questions” about election. He was kind enough to give me permission to post them here for you to listen to.

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 1

Ministry\’s Only Hope: Election Part 1

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 2

Ministry\’s Only Hope: Election Part 2

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 3

Election Part 3

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 4

Election Part 4

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 5

Election Part 5

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 6

Election Part 6

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 7

Election Part 7

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 8

Election Part 8

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 9

Election Part 9

Ministry’s Only Hope: Election Part 10

Election Part 10

Song of the Week

Marcus sent me this song to use as song of the week this week and its an awesome one to use to draw your attention to God and His glory. Sing along and enjoy the God you serve.

Book of the Week

The book of the week is The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by D.A. Carson. Here are some quotes from the first chapter to whet your interest:

To put this another way, we live in a culture in which
many other and complementary truths about God are widely
disbelieved. I do not think that what the Bible says about the love
of God can long survive at the forefront of our thinking if it is
abstracted from the sovereignty of God, the holiness of God, the
wrath of God, the providence of God, or the personhood of
God—to mention only a few nonnegotiable elements of basic
Christianity.
The result, of course, is that the love of God in our culture has
been purged of anything the culture finds uncomfortable. The
love of God has been sanitized, democratized, and above all sentimentalized.
This process has been going on for some time. My
generation was taught to sing, “What the world needs now is
love, sweet love,” in which we robustly instruct the Almighty
that we do not need another mountain (we have enough of them),
but we could do with some more love. The hubris is staggering.

Precisely how does one integrate what the Bible says about the
love of God with what the Bible says about God’s sovereignty,
extending as it does even over the domain of evil? What does
love mean in a Being whom at least some texts treat as impassible?
How is God’s love tied to God’s justice?

Download it here. Or order your own copy here.

Hope you enjoy some of these materials. Take a look and bring your questions to our next meeting on February 13.

Song, Sermon, and Book of the Week

Mark — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:28:50 +0000

We had our regular Bible study this morning and enjoyed some time looking at Philippians 1, celebrating the diversity of Grace that God has given, and the reality of peace that we experience because of that grace. We had interesting discussions on the ramifications of the atonement and who God actually brought peace to through the blood of Christ.

Our song of the week is “All I Really Need” (click for a free download) by Mark and Stephen Altrogge. The song is part of the In A Little While album put out by Sovereign Grace Music. The focus of the song is that our real need is peace with God through Christ and He has provided that for us. We pondered a quote by K. Scott Oliphint and Rod Mays in the book Things that Cannot Be Shaken:

Our true need is not physical water or husbands or pleasure, or. . . . Our true need is for a permanent solution, one that does not ebb or flow with the times, one not subject to the whims and wishes of our fickle hearts. We need living water. We need permanent change. We need the Holy Spirit to unite us to Christ. In Him we have the True Bread and Living Water, so that we will never be hungry or thirsty again. All of our needs are met in Him, because in the end, our only real need is to be united to Christ by the Spirit.

Our sermon of the week is “The Holiness of God” by Paul Washer. Washer discusses what it means for God to be holy and it establishes a high view of God that is foundational for us to understand some of the truths, and some of the hard truths, of the Gospel.

Our book of the week is God is the Gospel by John Piper, which can be downloaded for free from Desiring God ministries. In God is the Gospel, Piper grounds the magnificence of the Gospel in the fact that we get God. That God is the primary object of the Gospel. And that God is the one who initiates and accomplishes the Gospel power in our lives.

Our next meeting will be Saturday, January 16 at 10:00am. Feel free to join us for some breakfast foods and Bible study.

Song of the Week

Mark — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:44:46 +0000

We had our first Bible study in our home last night. Overall, I think it went well. We set some ideas out there and began to establish some new traditions, one of which is the song of the week. The song of the week is meant to encourage our attendees to find good music that will encourage them in Christ.

This week’s song of the week is “How He Loves” by David Crowder.

Listen to the full version on YouTube:

How He Loves

I love the way this song revels in awe at the fact that God loves us. That He is jealous for us. We feel awash in the ocean of God’s love and that love transforms us into His image. Oh how He loves us!

Christianity, Culture, and Hip Hop

Mark — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:06:59 +0000

A while back I listened to an interview between Bob LaPine and a Christian rapper, Shai Linne. I always had an aversion to rap music, partly due to my upbringing and partly due to the fact that the rap being put out by Christian artists was lyrically and doctrinally weak. Then I was exposed to a new set of rappers, including LeCrae and Shai Linne. I was stunned by the doctrinal content of their lyrics. A lot of conservatives rail against the shallowness of contemporary Christian songs. These songs break that mold and devastate that argument. See some samples at the end.

But the question that tends to come up is whether or not the medium of hip hop in general (and rap in particular) is an appropriate medium for conveying Biblical truth. Shai Linne tackles some of those ideas head on and discusses his journey as a Christian and as an artist. He is intelligent and well-spoken. He is obviously educated in the reformed tradition (his song, Mission Accomplished, is an excellent defense of Limited Atonement). I offer up a few quotes from that interview for your contemplation.

I didn’t have to leave my culture in order to become a Christian, but rather allow Christ to inform my expression of my culture.

We’re trying to capitalize on the power of the medium of hip-hop. One of the benefits that it has is that you’re able to pack a lot of information into a small amount of musical space and that really just lends itself to exposition and some of the deeper things of the Word.

I would never try to force anyone to like hip-hop. My main thing is, can we unify around the centrality of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You don’t have to become a rapper or even enjoy rap, but my hope is that you would appreciate the truth that is being communicated. That’s the same with any genre. I wouldn’t want to blindly accept anything because it came in a certain package, but I want to Biblically attempt to listen and discern, What’s the content? What is the message that’s being communicated?

So, if you’re a traditionalist, what’s your argument against an artist like Shai Linne. The shallowness argument is gone. He traces the roots of hip hop to a positive origin. And what of his statement about Christ informing the expression of his culture? Does sanctification require a cultural transformation? Some interesting thoughts here.

Congrats to New Artist of the Year

Mark — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 03:50:01 +0000

I’ve pushed Tenth Avenue North before on my blog. They continue to be one of my favorite bands. My wife got to meet them before seeing them in concert. I’m still jealous. Anyway, I went ahead and voted for them and enough people agreed with me to win them the Dove Award for New Artist of the Year. So congrats to them and I hope to be able to catch them in concert. Catch some lyrics from my favorite song on my Good Friday playlist after the jump.

Hallelujah

Artist Explanation: “‘Hallelujah,’ for me, is a need to understand the gospel. The chorus is a phrase in Revelations that says, ‘The church will sing for ever and ever’ which is hallelujah for the blood of the lamb that was slain. The very end of the bridge says, ‘Inside your wounds we hide away.’ So this song is just a reminder that if God is who He says He is, if He’s holy, we should be really scared, unless someone gets in between the glory of God and us little simple humans. The beauty of that song is we have a savior that has come in between the wrath of God and us.”

At first I am afraid
But not because of fear
But the holy of holies is drawing me near
Your voice like thunder
Shakes the ground I’m on

Hide my face in the shadow of Your wings, oh Lord
Hide my sin from the beauty here before Your throne

Hallelujah for the blood of the lamb that was slain
Hallelujah for the blood of the lamb that was slain
And so we enter in to see Your face
Enter in to see Your face, oh God

I’m falling to my knees
I feel the earth beneath
With the weight of my sin and this crushing unbelief
Could You really love me
With all that I’ve done?

You spread Your hands
And made a refuge for the weak
And blessed the weary bruised and broken
Took us in
Inside Your wounds we hide away
Inside Your wounds we hide

Some Spiritual Songs

Mark — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:49:09 +0000

I always liked Pastor Heinze’s interpretation of Ephesians 5:19 (and Colossians 3:16) that spiritual songs can be interpreted as contemporary songs (“ode to a breath”). These may be songs that might not stand the test of time and become hymns, but speak to a generation for a time being. In that vein, I wanted to share some more about my new favorite band, Tenth Avenue North. (Click read more. . .)A student of mine introduced me to this band and I quickly became hooked on the three songs they stream on their website: ”Love is Here”, “By Your Side”, and “Hold My Heart”. They are incredibly encouraging and uplifting songs that exult in the love of God. ”Love is Here” emphasizes the love of God that is displayed in the cross, a la Romans 5:8. It seems like these guys read Romans a lot, because my new favorite song, “Times”, is an echo of Romans 8:31-39. Listen to the song and read the lyrics here. I got the album for Christmas from a student and it has been streaming from my iPod constantly since then.

I checked out their YouTube page and was impressed by their introduction video. Notice how many times they say something like, “The Bible says. . .” or “Jesus said”, etc. Their songs are obviously influenced by specific passages of Scripture. I look forward to more from these guys and praise God for their ministry. Watch the following video to learn more about them.