To Worship Him

I wrote this song Friday Night sitting at the piano, and took it to our Venue Band on Saturday Afternoon and we sang it this weekend for both the Saturday and Sunday service. Way to go guys! I wrote this after listening to Mark Driscoll's recent sermon on worship. All of life from Creation (Vs.1), to redemtion (Vs.2), to suffering (Vs.3) is a gift from God to give creation an oppurtunity to Worship Him. So thus the song is entitled, "TO WORSHIP HIM". Some of you have requested to words. So here they are. All the glory to God of course:

To Worship Him

The earth was spoken into place
The darkness ran to hide it's face
To Worship Him
To Worship Him

Creation rose with morning light
Dressed in flesh to see His might
To Worship Him
To Worship Him

And we are Your people
And you are our only God

CHORUS:

You are God the Father
God the Son
God the Spirit
Holy Three in One

Your name exalted
Your fame restored
Until all the nations
Worship and Adore

Vs.2

A curse was placed on Adam's race
When we had failed to revere His name
To Worship Him
To Worship Him

Bur now through Christ we've been redeemed
Satan's crushed and all our free
To Worship Him
To Worship Him

And we are your people
And you are our only God

(Repeat Chorus)

Vs.3
Even when in suffering
Your love endures so I will sing
To Worship You
To Worship You

And whenI faill into this earth
I will share in this new birth
To Worship You
To Worship You

(Repeat Chorus)

BRIDGE:
So come and Adore Him
Worship the Lord of all (2X)

(Repeat Chorus)

99 Balloons

This past week we had a guest speaker, Josh Hossler speak. We are helping him and his team plant a church in Macomb county outside of Detroit. www.evidentchurch.com At the end of his message he showed a video that made everyone in the audience cry like I've never seen. What a powerful video. God bless this couple:

Worshiping Worship

Worshiping Worship - Written by: Jonathan Seller

Oh how subtle this modern allure
How worship becomes our self indulging cure
Dressed in white but black beneath
A worshipers confession of songs sung only for me:

Echoes of glory on Sunday I hear
And traces of majesty don't soon disappear
But I am not mistaken and neither is He
This is not for Him, it's simply for me

I savor on the melodies
Relish in the symphony
Raise my hands in familiarity
To a King who's no longer a mystery
He's brought down to my reality
Only to give him my idolatry
My selfless self sufficiency

It is I the King of Glory
The recipient of these songs
It is I the great magician
who fools the crowd but only so long
My secrets are revealing now
My illusion has now appeared
Those that believe I'm giving praise
Take heart, "Consuming" is what you hear.

Every line of every song
Describes Him but serves me
Every note on every page
I've hijacked selfishly
They serve my feelings
Deep down inside
Where true worship occurs
For self to Thrive

Basking in the created
And leaving no room for Him
For this "worship" is immediate
A thrilling temporary whim...


There was no God in church today
And that's quite okay with me
I haven't missed His presence
And I never miss a beat
I'll keep singing sweet familiar songs
As long as I grow old
Describing the wonder of His love
And never knowing it in whole.


Oh how I pray for those that lead worship every Sunday. Woe be to us if we exalt the means over the end, worship the created (music) rather than the Creator, and fall in love with a Heaven and care less if God were there. Our Worship must come from the power of the Holy Spirit as he hides us from the familiar, shakes us into reverence, and causes our hearts to delight in the person of Jesus and the accomplishment at the cross. To this end we labor: for our affections to rise and our motives to fall. Truly, He must increase, and We must decrease in order for our songs to leave the ceilings of our churches and reach the heart of God.

Bad Day At Work

There is something to be said about a Bad Day at Work, but this just seems to be over the top! This recent video is tearing up the web: Check it out and thank the Lord everyday for wherever you work!

Cardboard Testimonies

For all the Pastors that wonder if it's worth it!
I sat in my office today crying as I watched this video.
Praise God for changed lives!

Take Me To The Alter... or just to Olive Garden

Being a worship leader I am sometimes frustrated when it comes to closing a worship service. It's like winning the Stanley Cup (Go Red Wings!) and having everyone rush off the ice so they can get back to the lesser things of life. Can you imagine telling God we treasure him above all things only for him to find us rushing out the door on Sunday Mornings so that we can beat the line up at the Olive Garden. What ever happened to savouring Victory... to delighting in the presence of God and his people... to meditating on what the Holy Spirit has just been doing through the sermon... or to sit silently before the Lord.

In our church, we have been practicing being silent for periods of time in our worship service for corporate silent prayer. I want our people to know that Church is not an observation deck where we view all the fancy talented singers, prayers, and sermons on stage. God is the Grand Canyon of awe. He is the one our hearts so desperatly long for each and every week when we come into a corporate worship service. Every week I must fight for our peoples affections. Oh how I long for people to stick around after a service only to let what God has been speaking to them about sit for a while.

The best steaks are always the ones that have been marrinated for a while.

So, in contemplating the above I wrote a response song that I want to introduce to our congregaton. It's not a pretty song. It's a song about death. It's a response song, saying to God, "Now that I have heard Your Word, Take Me To The Alter, and kill this part of me in order that you may give me new life." For this is the only response that God delights in.

A broken and Contrite heart the Lord will not despise...


Take Me To The Alter - written by: Jonathan Seller

Take me to the Alter
Past the Gates of Pride
Into Your Courts of Mercy
For here, I must die

For this is where Your Spirit's found me
I am broken wanting more
Spirit come make me humble
Take my life, and give me Yours