Last year our awesome worship team at New Life Lincoln
Park recorded a Christmas CD for our church family. It is incredibly
well done and a great download for your next couple days of festivities.
Though obviously biased, our fam has been jamming out to it in the car
the last few days and love it!
It's completely for free however in the spirit of Noisetrade if you'd like to make a Christmas donation to New Life Lincoln Park then just CLICK HERE. While following the instructions make sure to choose "Lincoln Park" under the locations. Thank you!
Continuing in our teaching series called CONTRASTS this past Sunday, the message was on 1 John 3:11-24. The whole talk can be summarized with these four statements:
Anger and hate make broken things more broken
Love brings the power of God to broken situations
God provides what we need to love when it's difficult to do so
Only God's love can fix the broken
To help get my message going, our phenomenal worship teams at New Life Lincoln Park performed Coldplay's "Fix You." We have a service at 10am and one at 5pm so it was awesome to hear each team's take on the song. Here they both are:
I have always been a Monkeys fan. Loved reruns of the show when I was little and have always loved their music. The Monkeys Greatest Hits isn't one of those CD's you listen to all of the time, but when you do bust it out it is guaranteed to produce loud volumes, big smiles, and sing-alongs by even the most untalented of voices (speaking of myself).
So finding out that Davy Jones passed away yesterday was a sad blow to cherished memories. I can't think of him or The Monkeys without starting to hum this song...
The end of this was always my favorite, when they all battled over who would stand in front.
This week indeed is an appropriate time to crank up "Last Train to Clarksville" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday." Appreciate this artist and all of the great enjoyable times he contributed to over the years.
As part of the
message Sunday during our Christmas service, our amazing New Life
Lincoln Park worship team did this song by Coldplay, "Christmas Lights":
The theme of this song rings true: Christmas is an amazing time of year, but it doesn't always feel amazing.
Along
with all of the fun, celebrating, and connecting with others, for some
this season was nothing but the opposite. It was a stressful season:
Who all do I buy for? What do I get them? When am I going to have the
time? That woman took the last pair, could I take her out before she
gets to the register? It was a time that raised old hurts: remembering
loss, broken dreams, loneliness, no presents under the tree. And these
could create feelings of doubt: What’s the point? Anyone care? Is anyone
out there?
I'm really excited about our first Christmas with New Life Lincoln Park!!!
This is an email I just sent out to our location's community about our Christmas services and explaining how to get some free Christmas music! Our amazing worship team recorded a Christmas album that we are giving away tomorrow, but the link is below so that you can download it now!
The worship team at New Life Lincoln Park is AMAZING!!!They are an incredibly talented group of people who all love Jesus immensely, and they had both these things in full display last night when they put on ROCKTOBER! It was an all-out rock-out fund-raising Halloween party!
Because of traveling for work I wasn't able to get there till late, but I could hear the music as I approached the building. A huge song list was available for people to choose from, and songs were priced out at $3, $5, and $10 (I think that was the price range). The bands then took turns performing the purchased songs, with all proceeds going to New Life Centers, our church's non-profit organization. At the end of the night $400 was raised!!!
The amazing worship team at New Life Lincoln Park is throwing one awesome party this Saturday night to help raise money for New Life Centers. You WANT to be there!!!!
Here's all the info (click the image to enlarge it):
Firework shows across the country are wrapped up by now. Bottle rockets, jumping jacks, roman candles and the like will still be going off for quite awhile. Some of the firework shows were probably lame (like the one I saw in Cincinnati) and some were probably awesome (like Navy Pier most likely). Most all of them are set to some type of music. I can't imagine how many of the shows in our country will include Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA"
We're driving around last night and from the back seat Baylee begins the conversation:
Baylee - "Daddy, when I'm five can I listen to Justin Bieber?"
Me - "No Baylee, not till you're 13. And then it will be a maybe."
Baylee - "Whhoooaaa!"
Yes, I am a cruel father.
During youth group days I was asked numerous times by people if I thought their kid was old enough for Harry Potter. The parents hadn't read them yet, knew I had, so they wanted some insight. I'm still asked that question from time to time, but also now is added to it inquirires on Hannah Montana, Justin Bieber, & the like.
First off, let the following be established and understood: I have read the Harry Potter books. I have NEVER watched an episode of Hannah Montana. I am INCAPABLE of identifying a Justin Bieber song. Just want to clarify all that so I don't lose any street cred.
If you don't know who Johnny Cash is then stop reading this now, turn off the computer, get on your knees and ask God for forgiveness, go buy The Essential Johnny Cash CD's, listen to them 5-10 times, and then come back to finish reading this.
The first time I saw Rich Mullins was in the summer before my freshman year of high school. Our youth group went to a conference at Taylor University, where he was the recording artists for the weekend. My friends and I had front row center for this guy I had never heard of, but by the end of the night would never forget.
Because there aren't really any radio stations that I like or can stand for long periods of time, I normally listen to audiobooks while driving and then music when I'm working or just hanging out. Yesterday morning, on the drive from Bridgeport to Oak Forest, I had a couple old songs from when I was in youth group that I couldn't get out of my head. Therefore, I put my book on hold for a trip.
Though there aren't a ton of Christians artists/bands that I really like, Steven Curtis Chapman has indeed always been a favorite. I honestly can't think of one of his projects that I'd consider a "bad album." Sure, there might be a song, or at the most two songs on a CD that I don't care for (Ex: Dancing with the Dinosaurs), but normally 8 out of 10 songs are great. Of those, 2-3 are usually amazing to a caliber that other artists can't compete or compare (Ex: Speechless, Magnificent Obsession). He's consistently a quality artist, consistently an incredible and fresh song writer.
And then his adopted daughter was killed in a freak car accident.
Along with everyone else who knows who he is, I was completely shocked by the news (article). Being Baylee's dad, my heart broke for him. Broke! I remember holding Baylee tight that night and praying, "Be with him Jesus. My heart feels his pain, but at the same time I can't imagine it. I don't want to."
How can he come back from that? How can he keep singing and performing?
And if he does keep going, what's the first single going to be? It's not like he can just ignore the tragedy. At the same time, I'd selfishly think, "don't let him sugarcoat it."
Well, SSC's new song is out. It's called "Heaven is the Face." And as always, as should have been expected...it is amazing!!! And it is so for two reasons.
It's amazing because it's the same quality music and song writing I've always expected and received from Steve Curtis Chapman. The rhythmic guitar playing, the melody, the lyrics - pure and total SSC - as always.
It's also amazing because he put his heart out there. He didn't sugarcoat it at all. Instead he's honestly and genuinely shared part of what he's experiencing with us in a 3min, 46 sec song.
Here's the tune, followed by a video of his comments about it. I encourage you to give it a listen, maybe it can be an encouragement to you or someone you know.
The video game Guitar Hero is pushing their brand by releasing band-specific titles, such as Guitar Hero Aerosmith and Guitar Hero Metallica. Apparently the artist everyone knows as Prince was also asked to do such a title. According to an article on Gamespot, here was his explanation as to why he told them, "No"
"Well, I ain't mad at them. I hear it made, like, $2 billion and they came to us and offered us a very small portion of that," explained Prince. "But I just think it's more important that kids learn how to actually play the guitar. It's a tough instrument--it's not easy. It took me a long time, and it was frustrating at first. And you just have to stick with it, and it's cool for people who don't have time to learn the chords or ain't interested in it, but to play music is one of the greatest things."
Regardless if you care that doves cry or not, his is a respectable answer. It goes along with what I heard in a message once, "If you actually took all of the time you use to play the game to practice the real guitar you would literally become a real Guitar Hero!"
It's one thing to make a buck making your own video game, but I respect that Prince is encouraging kids/teens to take up the actual instrument. It would be great if some of the other big names would do that as well.
Oh...but what all could be accomplished with wasted time? I'm a fan of video games, but there needs to be balance - I need to remind myself that there needs to be balance. But video games aren't the only thing people waste time on - we all do it in one way or another.
Think about this - some people actually waste time on doing more work. Being active doesn't equal being efficient. Within the time economy we're given to budget, time used to do more work that should be used with family or for resting is wasted time!
And there is so much that can be done with that extra time. Even learning to play guitar like Prince. Hey...he might be kinda weird, but he definitely can jam.
The other night I was driving home from an awesome 20's group around 10:30pm. It was a beautiful night, the first drive of the new season when I could roll down the windows and crank the music. Exactly what I did. Wanted to just listen to some of my all time favorite songs, so I jammed to some Pumpkins and other randoms, but eventually rolled the Zune over to The Boss. Couldn't get Badlands any louder, or Thunder Road. But the one song, my favorite all-time Bruce track, "Better Days," really hit me in a deeper way than just jamming on the way home:
Well my soul checked out missing as I sat listening To the hours and minutes tickin' away Yeah, just sittin' around waitin' for my life to begin While it was all just slippin' away. I'm tired of waitin' for tomorrow to come Or that train to come roarin' round the bend. I got a new suit of clothes a pretty red rose And a woman I can call my friend
These are better days baby Yeah there's better days shining through These are better days baby Better days with a girl like you
Well I took a piss at fortunes sweet kiss Its like eatin' caviar and dirt Its a sad funny ending to find yourself pretending A rich man in a poor mans shirt Now my ass was draggin' when from a passin' gypsy wagon Your heart like a diamond shone Tonight I'm layin' in your arms carvin' lucky charms Out of these heard luck bones
Now a life of leisure and a pirates treasure Don't make much for tragedy But its a sad man my friend who's livin' in his own skin And cant stand the company Every fools got a reason to feelin' sorry for himself And turn his heart to stone Tonight this fools halfway to heaven and just a mile outta hell And I feel like I'm comin' home
These are better days baby There's better days shining through These are better days Better days with a girl like you
My wife, my daughter, my family, my friends, my church - I really don't have anything to complain about in my life. And even if I did, I feel like I have clearer, healthier outlook at present. "These are better days" is the epitome of how I feel about life right now.
I came into 2009 praying for a renewed sense of joy and purpose in my life. Though I've heard it 100x's or more already, the way the lyrics of this song really hit me emotionally was a proof to me that I'm gaining that joy, deeply.
The first line is a good word to where I was a year, year-and-a-half ago: "my soul checked out."
But the last line of the bridge is where I am today: "Tonight this fools halfway to heaven and just a mile outta hell, and I feel like I'm comin' home."
Yep...these are better days. Better days it's true.
