Worship | Prayer | Music | More
Here’s the second installment of my series, the YouTube Sessions. Today’s song is “All of Me.” It’s a fun, upbeat song made for celebrating. I always read in Scripture about the Lord being the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” or the “God of Israel.” What struck me is that, because of Jesus, He is also the God of me – all of me.
Download the MP3 here.
I know there are lots of different people with different views that read this blog. I have my friends from the Church who, by and large, are conservative. I have my music friends who are mostly liberal. I even know some who cherry pick from one side or the other. If you know me, you know that I lean conservative and this is mostly on social issues. I’ve lived in overwhelmingly liberal communities a lot, so I’ve learned to just keep quiet and nod when politics comes up. This is a shame, but I know as soon as I express my support for certain positions that I will not just get a disagreement from some liberal friends, but a moral judgment that could threaten their opinion of me as a person. The same goes for select conservative brethren. If, by some chance, I happen to feel that the Left has some insight on a particular issue (I can’t think of one now:) then I am lambasted as not holding to the straight and narrow.
So it is with this disclaimer that I offer you the following words…
A few months ago I was taking a walk along the Harlem River in Manhattan. If you don’t know the geography of New York City, there are several rivers/bodies of water that meet here: Hudson, Harlem, East, Long Island Sound, and, of course, the Atlantic Ocean. I’ve been taking walks and spending time praying as I explore the City and this particular day I felt God say “Pray for justice.” Now, there are those that pray for justice all the time and it is burden on their hearts. Let’s just say it’s not one of my regular prayer topics. So I began to pray in the Spirit for justice; justice in the City, in the Nation, and justice in the lives of my friends and family. As I finished, the Lord began to speak to me. He said that the election of Obama as president is a river of justice for African-Americans. Just as the Harlem River cuts through the rocky land, justice cut through the rock of hard hearts that brought oppression to an entire race and is now bringing about righteousness.
You have to believe me when I say I wasn’t really pursuing this revelation. It was if the Lord wanted to reveal it to me for some reason I’m still not aware of. I am just overwhelmed that He would choose to speak to me at all.
Considering my views and the fact I voted for John McCain, I began to ask God how this could be with Obama’s positions, particularly on abortion. What about justice for the millions of unborn babies that never see life? He answered that I, as a human, could not see justice the way He sees it. We tend to only focus on one thing, one issue at the detriment to all the rest. He can bring about His purpose in as many streams as I could imagine and beyond. He showed me that there was justice coming related to abortion and it would be a wide, mighty river (think of the Mississippi). And not just for abortion and racial injustice, but for all the wrongs that require His ability to make them right. The streams of righteousness are flowing strongly through all the Earth.
The thing all of these “rivers of justice” have in common is that they flow to one place: the ocean. Remember that I said that in New York City many rivers/bodies of water flow into the Atlantic? When I saw that they were metaphors for justice, I asked the Lord if the ocean was a place of judgment or mercy. He conveyed that it could be either. The atrocities committed are more than deserving of judgment, but because of Jesus, because of His sacrifice, the rivers flow together into an ocean of mercy. This mercy stretches as far as we can see like the horizon line on the water that just keeps going. The rivers flow into Him – the true ocean of mercy.
Your Love Never Fails (CD/DVD and/or MP3 download)
I was a big fan of the previous Jesus Culture release We Cry Out. I thought many of the versions of the worship songs were better than the originals. Bethel has a special atmosphere of worship and their recordings convey it.
What prompted me to buy the download of this album was a conference I went to in April where Kim Walker from Jesus Culture was leading worship. At first I was skeptical because everyone thinks she is so great (There’s something in me – and I don’t think it’s a good thing – that makes it so hard to jump on the bandwagon…I’m working on it!). But after a couple of sessions, I was in a new place of worship. She doesn’t face the congregation when she’s leading in her pursuit of giving all the focus to God. Chris Quilala was also there playing drums and leading.
Your Love Never Fails, like We Cry Out, features Kim, Chris, and Melissa How alternating the role of worship leader. The Spirit is strong as they lead us into the presence of the Lord. The standout is a John Mark and Sarah McMillan song, “Sing My Love.” Such an intimate yet celebratory expression:
You would not believe The way He touches me He burns right through me I could not forget Every word He said He always knew me
I highly recommend this album…learn the songs and sing them!
So I’m starting a new series this week. I’m going to play a new original song straight from my kitchen — just me and the guitar. I’ve got so many new ones (and old ones) that I want you to hear. You can watch them here or at youtube.com/benwardmusic.
You can also download the audio for free right here: Song of Freedom.
I’ll keep an archive of the MP3s on the Current Music page.
Enjoy!
It’s coming up on one year since I went to Beirut, Lebanon and I realized I haven’t done a proper wrap-up post. It’s actually kind of nice to have some time and perspective on the trip. So much has happened since last summer and so much had happened leading up to it. It is really amazing.
I had just left the church in Peoria after a dizzying chain of events that I still can’t quite explain. We saw God do amazing things most notably by selling our two-month-old house in four days for more than we paid for it. He really wanted us out of there! But we didn’t know where to go. No job, no house, no prospects, really. So Olivia’s Dad, Keith Curlee, felt like the Lord wanted him to take me to Beirut on his next trip. He has a ministry there (Triumphant Mercy Lebanon) that partners with local believers. In 2007 they opened a prayer and worship center in a mall called the Tent of Praise, or TOP. We went for a month and stayed with the family that leads the TOP and ministered with the precious people there.
It was great to just be a part of what God is doing in the Middle East. I played bass in the worship times (I had never done that before — they were short a bass player), I spoke at the youth meetings, and conducted some music clinics on songwriting, playing, etc. I was even honored to lead worship one night at the TOP (in English, of course :). I got to experience a lot of the Lebanese culture (you can look back at the older posts for stories).
What struck me the most was the power of the Holy Spirit to make vast cultural differences so insignificant. When it came down to it, we were brothers and sisters in the Lord and that made us fast friends. We still keep up with each other on Facebook and I hope I get the opportunity to go back. When I think about Lebanon, I get a strange feeling that I’ve struggled to define. Like any “mission trip,” there is great spiritual fire that happens and you long to be back in that place of seeing God use you and seeing people’s live changed in amazing ways. But this is deeper – the Cedars have a strong effect on you.
New Songs, Nations, Young People
I wrote these down before I left. I felt that these words summed up what God had shown me in Lebanon. In fact, I’ve already seen the fruit of them here in NYC.
Nations – There is no other city in the world that has so many nations represented and living together. The nations are truly represented here. I believe that’s one of the things God has placed on my heart – to reach out to the nations; to minister His power in different cultures. To not only help bring change to the nations, but to be changed by the nations.
New Songs – Since I’ve come to New York I’ve written more songs in a short time than at any other time since I started writing songs. I’ve probably written twenty or thirty this year. Not all of them are keepers, of course, but I have been overwhelmed by the inspiration. Many are spiritual/worship in nature, but many are just about life and relationships. In Lebanon, I feel the Lord cemented the fact that I am a writer of songs by allowing me to teach others how to do it.
Young People – I remember a prophecy I received at IHOP back in 2007. The guy said that the Lord was fascinated at how I loved young people. This struck a chord with me because I do. I feel God has given me a heart for the young. To see them go further in their gifts and further in their relationship with Him. I haven’t seen as much fruition of that yet, but my awareness is surely up. I’m waiting for God to bring opportunities to work with and encourage young people.
So, that’s just a few of the impressions and insights the Lord gave me in Lebanon and since. I’m even more thankful than last year that Triumphant Mercy paid for me to go (not an inexpensive endeavor) and that I got to be a part of something much larger than me: God moving in the Middle East.
I first read about John Mark McMillan after I googled the writer of “How He Loves.” I heard it on the Jesus Culture (Kim Walker) album We Cry Out. It is such a powerful song and even though I’ve never been quite able to get cozy with the “sloppy wet kiss” line, the song still moves me. There’s no doubt the Spirit is all over it. I also read his blog and enjoy his views on all sorts of things from songwriting to sleeping in on Easter (not to mention his appreciation of Springsteen, which I’ve been known to share :).
So I was excited to download his newest album, The Medicine, a couple months ago. If I was going to make a comparison voice/soundwise it would be to Shawn Mullins. The writing is original and intricate; full of striking imagery and evocative sounds. The production is intricate and you truly get an album born in the studio with a soundscape of layers that reveal themselves in new ways with each listen.
“Carbon Ribs” exemplifies this with its plucked strings and layers of electric guitars. There is a definite moodiness to the track as it explores the wonder of being dead but yet alive.
My favorite track, “Dress Us Up,” contains a lyric that took my breath away (literally) when I first heard it. It begins, “Dress us up in your righteousness/Bring us in with a ring and a kiss/When you walk into the room you know we can’t resist/Every bottle of perfume always ends up on the floor in a mess.” I don’t think I’ve heard a more original description of what happens when Jesus comes in a room: we have to worship. If there’s perfume (as with Mary in John 12) the bottles come out and we pour it on His feet. We give Him the very best of what we have — it’s automatic. He elicits this kind of response when we see Him for who He really is.
There are many other standouts like “Skeleton Bones” and “Philadelphia,” but I recommend digesting it as a whole album. Turn off the shuffle and enjoy a well thought-out and imagined work of art.