The Stand by Hillsong United - with a really unique video.
Our God Reigns by Delirious. Delirious is one of my favorite bands of all time. I've been listening to them since the mid-90's. This song proclaims the gospel of the Kingdom.
This is the song Rescue set to scenes from mission work in a Romanian Gypsy village.
Yesterday, we celebrated Caelan's third birthday. He is doing great! He is strong and healthy and he is also alive. We praise God for that. When we had the cancer scare back in March, we knew that if the cancer had returned and God did not intervene, Caelan would have probably not made it to his third birthday - today. Scary. Sure, there was a chance he would make it, but a recurrence of his type of cancer is brutal and fast acting. But, God was gracious and He did intervene! I brought Caelan up on stage on Sunday and praised God before our church. It is important for me to remember what an awesome God we serve by recounting His gracious acts and praising Him continually.
I wanted to link to what is probably my favorite worship song right now, "He Has Made Me Glad," by Hillsongs (HT: Micah Fries). Our praise team does this song every once in a while and it always moves me deeply. I hope that it touches your heart and leads you to the God who is our shield, our strength, our portion and deliver, our shelter and strong tower - our very present help in time of need. The God who makes us glad.
We have a brilliant pastoral intern this summer named Micah. He will be a senior in college this year and he is praying about going into vocational ministry. So as a formative experience, we developed a learning internship for him this summer. He has shadowed me to meetings and events and he went with me to the Alan Hirsch conference this past weekend in New Orleans. We've spent a lot of time together, and even though Micah's been a part of our church since he was 13, my respect for his heart for God and intellect has grown exponentially in the few weeks that we have been doing this.
I've given Micah quite a few books to read as the internship has begun and have asked him to write a short reflection on each book. We sit down and talk through it together, exploring different issues that emerge. Initially, we are looking at issues that might frame his perspective on ministry in the 21st Century. Where and how can he most faithfully represent Christ to a dying world? He has posted his reviews online at http://collegerambling.blogspot.com/ . You seriously need to check out his reviews from writers like Eugene Peterson, Ron Sider, Bob Roberts, Alan Hirsch, George Grant, Watchmen Nee, and Marty Duren (Micah is going to spend some time at Marty's church in North Georgia this weekend). Micah will be interning with us through the summer and his experiences and learning have just begun. Keep him in your prayers, especially if you are a part of Gateway and you are reading this. If you have any advice or encouragement for a young man trying to discern whether or not to enter vocational ministry, I'm sure that it would be appreciated.
I sang this song yesterday morning with several thousand people here in Montgomery. I can't get it out of my head. It's Majesty by Delirious (we were led in it by a band from Kansas City). I pray that you have a great Lord's Day and that you fully worship God with all your heart!
I went to The Call yesterday in Montgomery. It was a gathering of thousands of people from all over the country that met to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our land. It was a day of fasting, prayer, and worship, primarily targeted at the younger generation. They planned it to coincide with the 40th Anniversay of the assasination of Dr. Martin Luther King, so racial healing and repentence for our country was a major theme of the gathering. It was inredible to see thousands of young people from every ethnic group worshiping God with abandon with nothing separating them. We are truly ONE in Christ.
I know that I have written a lot about racial healing lately. Living in Montgomery, the past surrounds you and you realize how much God has done, but how much more needs to happen - especially in the Church. But, God is at work in our city in that regard among believers and I have become a part of it. I am also working on a book on the subject, so I am praying and studying our history quite a bit and am also working through solutions. I am completely convinced that the only answer to the problems and the pain of our past is a moving of the Holy Spirit in the Church. When God shows up in our lives, all dividing walls come down. We don't need more programs or more words. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to bring conviction, repentance, healing, and restoration to our land. I got to taste a little of that today and I praise God!
