"40" by U2. This song is based on Psalm 40, David's testimony of God's saving action, causing all people to sit up and take notice. May all God's people be able to sing a new song every day of what God has done for them.
"A Kiss to Build a Dream On" by Louis Armstrong. I love New Orleans Jazz, and Satchmo is one of the greatest. This song reminds me of all the wonderful memories Kim and I have of our time in the Crescent City, either on vacation or on mission trips. Good memories.
"All Because of You" by Kate Hurley. This song was included as a bonus track on some random collection of Christmas music by Christian artists, and now it has become one of my all-time favorite Christmas songs. Kim will sing this song this Sunday (Dec. 20) in the 8:30 service, by the way. The Christmas story is so familiar that we need to hear it again for the first time -- a passionate God becomes one of us, to live and to die for us, all because of His love.
"Cantata 140, 'Wacht auf, ruft uns die Stimme,' BWV 140: Sleepers, Wake!" by Johann Sebastian Bach. I love Bach's organ music. I love that he wrote these pieces as music for worship. I love the way the old pipe organs sound as his music bursts forth from the various registers. I love that his works are not easy to play on an organ - involving both hands and feet moving rapidly on the instrument. And I love to hear someone play it as Bach intended: to bring glory to God. Choosing a favorite piece usually depends on what mood I am in, and today I choose "Sleepers, Wake!"
"Farther Along" by Willie and Bobbie Nelson. This comes off the album of old hymns that Willie recorded with his sister, Bobbie. I love this album, along with Johnnie Cash's similar project. The songs are simple, spare, and powerful. I don't hold up Willie as any kind of a spiritual leader, but his version of this classic hymn is moving and hopeful.
"Hallelujah Chorus" from Messiah, by George Handel. I kid you not, every time I hear this I am moved to worship and end up weeping like a little girl. A moving and powerful expression of uncontained joy for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who will reign forever and ever. I like to think heaven will sound a little like this.
"Hard to Get" by Rich Mullins. This song is taken from the last project Rich worked on before his untimely death in a traffic accident. He was making an album about Jesus when he died, leaving behind a cassette tape of the songs he recorded in an old church. Rich's voice is scratchy and haunting on the recording, and the lyrics are a brutally honest prayer to Christ about how frightened we feel during those times when he seems so distant from us.
"Heading for the Light" by the Traveling Wilburys. I have been a fan of the Wilburys since high school. This is George Harrison's tribute to his spiritual journey set to a wailing sax.
"Help Me" by Johnny Cash. Yes, I like the old Johnny Cash songs just fine, but the songs he recorded in his last years are especially powerful and moving. This song, for instance, is the prayer of a man who has tried everything his way and failed. Now he is desperately crying out to God for help. This is one of the last songs John recorded in the time between his wife's death and his own. Very moving.
"I Need Thee Every Hour" by Jars of Clay. This is Jars' version of the old hymn, included on their album of similar renditions of Christian classics. Somehow they are able to take the lyrics and tune of a familiar hymn and make it sound urgent, passionate, and sincere. In my opinion, the future of modern worship should include songs like this as we reach back into our heritage and find the songs of faith that have meant so much to so many over the centuries, and then reinterpret those songs so that they become an expression of our experience in worship.
"If I Stand" by Rich Mullins, performed by Jars of Clay. This is my all-time favorite song. I first heard Rich's version in college after struggling for a few years to leave an old way of life behind and live a new life in Christ. It was also the time in which I struggled to comprehend God's call upon my life, a life which seemed to me to be wasted and profane. The lyrics assured me that there is more to reality than what I can perceive, and I must stand on God's promises alone. The version by Jars of Clay is soft, subtle, and powerfully sincere.
"In My Life" by the Beatles. This is a long-time favorite for me and Kim. I actually enjoy other versions of this song than the Beatles'. I haven 't been able to find one I like better than others, but I think my favorite version is the one David and Celeste McCraw sing from time to time. You FBC Rockport folks have probably heard it.
"It's True" by Sara Groves featuring Toby Groves. This Christmas song is about the doubt people often feel as they ponder the love of God. Could all this supernatural stuff be real? Did God really come down to us as a child? Oh yes. Sara's son Tobey reads the Christmas story from the same children's Bible our son Michael uses. Beautiful.
"Linus and Lucy" by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Who's Christmas wouldn't be complete without the Peanuts music? Joyful, playful, and enduring, like Snoopy himself, this song makes me think of my son playing.
"Maybe I'm Amazed" by Paul McCartney. As I have said before, I don't like all of Macca's solo work post-Beatles, but this one is greatness. A love song to his wife Linda, he captures that inexplicable feeling men often feel as they are falling in love.
"Piano Sonata #14 in C Sharp Minor, Op. 27/2, 'Moonlight,' - Adagio sostenuto" by Ludwig Von Beethoven. I first heard this piece when I was a teenager struggling to understand my own emotional swings. For some reason it meant a lot to me that Beethoven could feel melancholy so deeply. This music is moody and marvelous. One can almost see moonlight reflected on ripples of water.
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What A Wonderful World" by Isarael Kamakawiwo'ole. You would recognize this song if you heard it. Izzy's distinctive voice singing the lyrics to these familiar songs, accompanied only by his ukulele. Somehow the song manages to sound both melancholy and hopeful at the same time, a tension many of us have learned to live in.
"Speak, O Lord" by Keith and Kristyn Getty. The Getty's are worship leaders and modern hymn writers. They wrote this song to be sung at their church before the pastor gets up to preach. It expresses the desire of my heart as I approach the word of God.
"Symphony No. 3 in E flat, Op. 55, 'Eroica,' - 1: Allegro con brio" by Ludwig Von Beethoven. Beethoven originally wrote this piece in honor of Napoleon's armies marching across Europe. He loved the idea that democracy would replace aristocracy and the entitlement of royalty. As you can imagine, he was bitterly disappointed and disillusioned when a victorious and triumphant Napoleon then declared himself Emperor. He changed the title of this symphony and dedicated it to a no-named "Hero." How many of us have been let down by those we held in esteem? This music celebrates an ideal hero who may not exist, but should.
"Symphony No. 25 in G Minor, K. 183 (173dB) - Allegro con brio" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I discovered Mozart, like many of you, after watching Amadeus on HBO one day when I was a teenager. I was dazzled by the power, passion, and beauty of the music as well as the complicated life of Mozart himself. Up to that point I did not ever think that the great composers were actual people like you and me, at least a little! This selection from Symphony 25 is part of the music that begins the movie, and it remains my favorite of Mozart's.
"The Valley Song (Sing of Your Mercy)" by Jars of Clay. This song became a constant companion after Kim's second miscarriage, and it has remained a favorite ever since. God leads us through valleys of sorrow to rivers or joy, but you must still pass through the valley. Don't stop, my pilgrim friend, keep moving.
"Two of Us" by the Beatles. This is one of the first songs John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote together as boys in Liverpool, and one of the last songs the Beatles recorded before they broke apart. The song is about the sustaining power of friendship over the years. You can't help but wonder at the irony. Did John and Paul mourn the loss of their own friendship among the bitterness and animosity surrounding the breakup of the Beatles?
"Winter Snow" by Chris Tomlin and Audrey Assad. This is off the new Chris Tomlin Christmas worship album. The Almighty Creator of the Universe, the Infinite and Ultimate King of Kings could have come to us in great power and judgment, causing much fear and dismay among us. But He chose to come quietly, as a small helpless baby born almost unnoticed in the night, like a winter snow falling quietly to the ground.
"Worlds Apart" by Jars of Clay. Off of Jars' first album, this is still one of their very best. This song is sung by a person who has experienced failure at his or her own hands, and finally gives God permission to take their world apart and have His way with them. Anyone been there?
Comments
Thanks again!