I Heart Worship
Praise and Worship Songs
I Heart Brooke Fraser Music!
Feb 16th
I am a massive fan of creative song writing and lyrics are so important to me. My favourite song writers at the moment are:
- Joel Houston
Just the way that he has created his own ‘sound’ even within Hillsong – and the way that he uses words that are not usually associated with Christian worship music, but they work so well. - Leeland Mooring
When you are talking amazing new song writers I dont think you could miss Leeland. With songs like ‘Carried To The Table’ and his whole new album, he is set to be a major influence!
But one song writer that has just amazed me with her music and lyrics is Brooke Fraser.
Brooke Fraser
I purchased her album Albertine a couple of months ago – and it is still one of my most played current albums. The way that she poeticly can mould such phenominal lyrics that draw you into the story that is being told.
Brooke fraser’s albums include songs on both God and life (can they be separated) and I just wanted to share some of my favourite lyrics and a few links to try to show you why I heart brooke fraser music so much!
I will be including links straight to the song on iTunes shortly which will make it easier for you to get the song if you love it!
Brooke Fraser Lyrics
C.S Lewis Song (Youtube Video)
Am I lost or just less found? On the straight or on the roundabout of the wrong way?
is this a soul that stirs in me, is it breaking free, wanting to come alive?
‘Cos my comfort would prefer for me to be numb
And avoid the impending birth of who I was born to become
Hosea’s Wife (Youtube Video)
I see the scars of searches everywhere I go
From hearts to wars to literature to radio
There’s a question like shame no one will show: “What do I live for?”
We are Hosea’s wife
We are squandering this life
Using people like ladders and words like knives
Waste Another Day (Youtube Video)
‘Cos we could stare until we both are blinded
We could fall ’til gravity gets tired
We could lose our love just to re-find it
But I’m just happy here
Happy staying beside you
Shadowfeet (Youtube Video)
when the world has fallen out from under me
I’ll be found in you, still standing
when the sky rolls up and mountains fall on their knees
when time and space are through
I’ll be found in you
Love Is Waiting (Youtube Video)
In the autumn on the ground, between the traffic and the ordinary sounds
I am thinking signs and seasons while a north wind blows through
I watch as lovers pass me by
Walking stories – whos and hows and whys
Musing lazily on love
Pondering you
I’ll give it time, give it space and be still for a spell
When it’s time to walk that way, we wanna walk it well
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Lord Of Lords Hillsong Lyrics
Feb 14th
Music Lyrics – Christian
I was thinking about one of posts that I made yesterday about how I love that a lot of Hillsong songs focus on who God is, instead of who we are. And it made me think about a song from Hillsong United from one of my favourite songwriters Brooke Fraser – Lord Of Lords.
This song is amazing and it really paints a picture of who God really is and how He is the not just the Lord, but the Lord of Lords.
If you haven’t heard it, here are the lyrics – I will continue my thoughts about the lyrics after.
LORD OF LORDS – Hillsong Lyrics
You Are – Hillsong Albums & Songs
Feb 13th
One of the things that I love about Hillsongs music is their lyrics focus on God – with a lot of their songs including the phrase ‘you are’. Hillsong knows that the most power worship songs are those lifting God up, not focusing on us.
Today I want to take a quick look at a few You Are Hillsong Songs: (including excerpts of lyrics)
You Are – Hillsong Albums Hope
You ask me who do I
Say that You are and I
Say that You are the Christ
Son of the Living God
Life Is A Fleeting Breath, But Is Life Meaningless?
Feb 12th
4 “Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. 5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath. Selah 6 Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it. 7 “But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you. 8 Save me from all my transgressions; do not make me the scorn of fools. - – Psalms 39:4-8
David here questions the purpose of life – just as his son Solomon does years later.
David states, “Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro.” while Solomon puts it a little bit more bluntly when he says, “Life is meaningless.” But they are both in the same situation , wondering what is the purpose of their lives. Do we really matter in the scope of eternity? With our lives being so miniscule in relation to eternity – a drop in the ocean of time, then what is really important?
I love what David asks of God in verse 4:
“Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.”
Our lives on earth are limited . From the moment of our birth we are like an hourglass and the grains of sand are quickly passing with each moment. Yet we still get caught up in the little meaningless things and forget what is really important.
David realised this and knew that if he could really grasp how brief his time on earth really was, then he would start to find out what was really important in his life.
Have you ever had a near death experience or know someone who has?
Notice how almost instantly their priorities change? Thigs that were important are tossed to the side as they chase the dreams they were to afraid to live. They always seem to ‘get their lives in check.’
David mentions the meaningless of wearch in verse 6, just as Solomon does in Ecclesiastes 5. He also casts aside these as meaningless as well:
- Wisdom 16 I thought to myself, “Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind. - – Ecclesiastes 1:16-17 More >
Godly Success In Three Easy Steps!
Feb 12th
Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
- – Joshua 1:7-9
What God is doing here is laying out to Joshua His strategy for success. As Joshua takes over leadership from Moses God wants to ensure that Joshua will leader Israel into victory and live a successful and prosperous life.
God Wants You To Be Successful
But before we can look at God’s plan for success in our lives we mush first understand what true success is. The dictionary defines success as:
The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted
So putting this into God’s point of view, we are successful when we acheive what God has desired fulfilling the plan he has for our lives.
I don’t know about you, but I definately want to be successful in God’s eyes, so lets pull that verse in Joshua apart and look at 3 things that we can do to ensure that we are doing all that God has called for us to do.
- Guard Your Heart And Your Tongue
I love the Message version of Proverbs 18:21Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose.
Words are powerful. Think about it, God formed the universe with His words, He spoke and light was. This is why He says to Joshua: ‘Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth.’
God wants us to be speaking life into situations, into people and into ourselves. He wants us to confess His promises, His laws and His love. However His promises have to be in us before they can come forth from our mouths. They need to be ingrained into our spirit before we can speak them with authority.
I love Luke 6:45 where it says: ‘Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.’
How often do you hear someone says something that is hurtful, only to add ‘I was only joking.’ Maybe you have done this yourself. I know I have many times, which is why this verse really hit home with me. Usually when we say these things, they just come out, before we can stop ourselves we have already blurted out this hurtful statement – because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
Knowing this, I decided to make a change. But instead of trying to stop myself from saying these things, I went to the root of the problem - my heart. I had to examine what I was allowing into my heart, and put up walls and set boundaries to stop certain things from influencing my heart.
But stopping things from getting into your heart is only one part of seeing God’s heart flow abundantly out of our heart – and mouth. We need to make sure we are letting God’s word in. More >
Justice Is Worship: Talk Is Cheap
Feb 11th
Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” — Isaiah 1:17
This verse was written by Isaiah in a time when God’s people were living for themselves. Infact verse 18 says, ‘…your sins are like scarlet.’
I find it interesting that when God tells them to trun from their ways, He doesn’t tell them that they need to be in church – that they need to worship Him with their words or their voices. Infact He says, ‘Stop bringing meaningless offerings.’ and. ‘even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen’.
Instead He says, ‘Take your evil deeds out of My sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right. Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”
You see,TALK IS CHEAP! How easy is it for us to live our own life and continually come to him and ‘worship’ Him with our songs, using phrases such as:
- All I am is Yours
- Send me, I will go
- Take all of me
- Youre the only one that I could live for
Yet we leave the same way as we came in – living for ourselves, with no second thought to how we live our lives. TALK IS CHEAP!
That is why God calls us to action. He wants to see if our hearts are really committed to Him. He calls us to justice and our response becomes our worship to Him.
But how is feeding the hungry an act of worship? And why is befriending the friendless what God desires to see us doing more than voicing words to Him?
Because GOD IS JUST!
Wasn’t Jesus the most perfect example of this. The way that He would hang out with the poorest, the weakest, the most sinful. How He wouldn’t let the thousands of hungry people on the mountain leave before they had been fed, or how He dined with Zacheaus even though everyone was gossiping that he was having dinner with a sinner.
Now if God is just then would not the biggest compliment that we could give Him as His ‘followers’ to actually follow His example and do what He does?
As we give to the poor, we are saying to God that we want to be like Him. As we feed the hungry we show that we have chosen His way and His path!
That is true worship! And that is why justice and worship cannot be separated.