Category: Worship
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Christ is Risen, Sins are Forgiven
It seems odd that we sometimes stop in our thinking (and our theology) after 1 Corinthians 15:3, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” It’s tempting to think of the resurrection as the icing on the cake, something nice and sweet but not essential. When reading the New Testament and particularly the gospels, […]
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Songs for the Easter Season: Wake Up
I love the serendipity of finding new artists that I enjoy, but particularly when their music aligns with one of my other interests. One of my sources for discovery is Dave Trout’s Under the Radar podcast. Dave “highlights some of the best undiscovered and under-appreciated tunes from Christian artists.” I regularly find new tracks and artists […]
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Singing about the Resurrection?
“It is a remarkable fact that there are many monographs on the theology of the death of Christ, but very few, by comparison, on the theology of his resurrection.” —I. Howard Marshall, Aspects of the Atonement: Cross and Resurrection in the Reconciling of God and Humanity I wonder if this is true about songs about the […]
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Songs for the Easter Season: All Things New
I read this last year around Easter: “If Calvary means putting to death things in your life that need killing off if you are to flourish as a Christian and as a truly human being, then Easter should mean planting, watering, and training up things in your life (personal and corporate) that ought to be […]
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Songs for the Easter Season: “This Changes Everything”
Today is Pentecost Sunday. That marks the end of the Easter Season. Here’s one last song to recommend, Matt Papa’s “This Changes Everything”: I grew up in a little town Used to sing in the old church house There in the pew where I used to hide Learned the story bout the man who died […]
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Throwing Away Easter
N.T. Wright’s thoughts on the resurrection and Easter are invigorating me recently: So how can we learn to live as wide-awake people, as Easter people? Here I have some bracing suggestions to make. I have come to believe that many churches simply throw Easter away year by year; and I want to plead that we rethink […]
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Songs for the Easter Season: “Death Has Lost Its Way”
It happened at Jason Gray’s Christmas Stories stop in Chatham, Ontario last December. I encountered the music of Carrollton. I hadn’t paid any attention to them, even though they are also signed to Centricity. I enjoyed their music so bought their debut EP in one of Centricity’s crazy $5 sales. When I has refining my […]
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Songs for the Easter Season: “Risen Today”
I blogged at this time last year about the importance of singing and listening to resurrection songs. [Yes, I know that I haven’t blogged much since then. I’ve gotten over it. I hope you have too.] I’m convinced of the importance of this more than ever before. Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 15 […]
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Songs for the Easter Season: “Come Back Soon”
The Internet in general, and social media in particular, thrives on currency. Posts get greater exposure when they relate to current events. It seems that the news cycle keeps getting shorter. My blog doesn’t get a lot of my time or attention. That will be apparent to anyone who visits. I’m grateful that it is getting […]
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Songs for the Easter Season: “Everything Sad Is Coming Untrue”
Another Song for the Easter Season, this one more recent and alluding to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: “Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world?” “A great Shadow has departed,” said Gandalf, and then he laughed […]