“Beautiful King”

Our free featured song this week over at GreatWorshipSongs.com is “Beautiful King,” a new modern worship song by worship leader Jonathan Lee. We’d love to hear your thoughts on it, so leave them in the comments!

Behind The Song “Where You Are” With Carl Cartee

Psalm 27:4 (NIV)

One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.

Carl Cartee’s “The Lion And The Lamb” Story & Video

Longtime readers, you may remember this story-behind-the-song from a few months ago, but we wanted to post it again for those who missed it the first time. Enjoy reading the story behind how Carl Cartee wrote “The Lion And The Lamb,” and the accompanying teaching video. Thanks for reading!

THE LION AND THE LAMB – Carl Cartee

I am unashamed to say that I am a truly blessed man. My wife and my boys are crown jewels in a life crowded with the goodness of God. Aside from my family, one of the great blessings of my life is the people that surround me. I have a way of stumbling into the most amazing and generous people. My life is built on the shoulders of remarkable men and women who let me hang out with them. Writing this song reminds me of the blessing of community and friendship.

The day we wrote “Lion and The Lamb” started out incredibly average. A weekday with a typical writing session booked with Tony Wood and Ronnie Freeman. I had written with these guys before and looked forward to the time we would spend together.  Other than just showing up to work, I had no inspiring story or unusual experience from which to gather song material. We began with some casual pleasantries and opened up the laptops. As the session started, Ronnie said that he wanted to write an idea that explored the dual nature of Christ, exploring how He was one-hundred percent God and one-hundred percent man. At first, it seemed like that was a lot to fit into a corporate worship song, but the idea was compelling enough to get us talking about Jesus.

Now, understand that both of these men are really good writers…solid and reliable craftsmen, who know what it takes to write a good song and execute ideas. More importantly, both of these men are also serious followers of Jesus. I know that their lives are lived in service to Christ and to the glory of God. When an ordinary moment collides into extraordinary people, the day tends to start filling up with the beauty and glory of God. I am not sure how we got to the contrast of lions and lambs (I think Revelation 5), but once we landed there, we just started talking the song out, remarking about Jesus’ might in view of His humility, His universal kingdom and our friendship to Him and the agony and beauty of His cross carried for our sin. Pretty soon, a guitar groove materialized around a melody, a chorus started to emerge and I could sense myself move from songwriting session to worship service. Through conversation and imagination about the amazing identity of Christ, a song of praise began to rise. The thing I love most about the experience was that it came from the personal and tangible experience each of us had with the Savior. It was an overflow of God’s work inside each of us and now that work was being synthesized into something that had the potential to bless the world. I love the community of faith.  When we come together and start telling of the great and complex beauty of Christ, His glory makes us grow and produce fruit; eternal fruit. The better thing is that it happened in the middle of what could have been average.  When the choice was made to explore the greatness of Jesus, the atmosphere changed into something beautiful. We finished up the song and headed home, excited about what happened and hopeful that God would use it to bless others.

About three months later, Ronnie and I had taught the song to the church where we lead worship (Fellowship Bible in Brentwood, TN) and people were singing it with great response. One Sunday, I was in the back of the church during a testimony time where people shared how God brought them through adversity. A woman came to the microphone and described how she’d had shoulder pain for months because she needed a surgery she could not afford. She described a recent experience in worship where she wanted to raise her hands, but her shoulder injury had kept her from being able to do that. Compelled by the song being sung, she decided to push through the pain and lift her hands in response to the work of Christ. She told everyone that “it was during that moment, during that ‘Lion and Lamb’ song” that God healed her shoulder! I was thrilled to think about how something that began so normally became such an incredible stage for the glory of God. It’s beautiful to think that when a few men committed to worship, raising their voices to the glory of God, it keeps repeating, echoing the goodness and power of Jesus.

-Carl Cartee

“This Is The Gift Of God” Story Behind The Song With Carl Cartee

“This Is the Gift of God”

Words and Music by Carl Cartee and Jon Abel

Song Story by Carl Cartee

I really love the story behind “This Is the Gift of God” because was truly a five loaves and two fish kind of experience. Jon Abel, a fellow Great Worship Songs writer (and friend) and I had been writing all morning and not getting very far. Sometimes the best intentions to create a great song fall short, and that day we were fading quickly. We were having a good time, but just not coming up with anything worth putting on the page. In an attempt to revive the creative fire, we decided to go eat some fish tacos. After all, Jesus ate fish and we were trying to be faithful. After a good conversation about worship and the Bible, things started getting on track.

Once we came back from lunch, Jon started playing this progression and humming something totally different than what we had worked on earlier.

I loved it and started singing some ideas. The first two chapters of Ephesians have always been of particular importance to me because of their beautifully written truths about salvation. The “Gift of God” started coming into focus when we started singing about the great truths of grace, adoption and mercy from the first two chapters of Ephesians. As a kid who grew up thinking I had to convince Jesus to love me, it’s very easy to recall the moment that I was given the gift of grace. It never gets old to sing about the greatest free and unearned gift ever given. Jon and I went to the scriptures and crafted the lyrics from what we both knew was the cornerstone of Christianity: Salvation through faith, not of works, lest any person boast. In another hour we had finished our song and the power of God, once again, received what started as a meager offering and turned it into a huge blessing for worshippers everywhere.

more about ““This Is The Gift Of God” Story Behin…“, posted with vodpod

 

New Jars of Clay Album

Anyone else excited about the new Jars of Clay album?

Round Table Discussion: Christian Artists?

Tell us what you think…

Is it important for us to support Christian artists, such as Switchfoot, Jars of Clay and RED, as they become more relevant in mainstream music? Should their focus be on evangelism or on producing positive entertainment?

“Bless The Lord” Song Devotion By Laura Story

This week, we’re featuring “Bless The Lord” by Laura Story. Get the mp3, lead sheet and chord chart for free at GreatWorshipSongs.com. We also have a video of Laura teaching how to play “Bless The Lord” on YouTube.

Laura was kind enough to share her heart behind the song in this song devotional.

BLESS THE LORD

“Bless the LORDLORD , O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits;
Who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases;
Who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you
with lovingkindness and compassion;
Who satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth
is renewed like the eagle.”
- Psalm 103: 1-5 (NASB)

Do you ever have days when you don’t feel like worshipping? As someone who leads worship
for a living, I have to admit that sometimes I don’t feel like worshipping. Some days I am tired and my throat hurts; other days, I am feeling down or distracted by other things. Sometimes life just seems too hard. Though I am ashamed to admit these thoughts and feelings, I know that they are more common than we would like to admit. How do we come before the Lord of lords in all His splendor and majesty when our hearts feel so apathetic?

It is in times like these that I look to the Psalms, one of my favorites of God’s gifts to us. The Psalms provide an entire arsenal of prayers and petitions that we can use when we find ourselves in a spiritual drought. Take David for example; certainly his life was no picnic. Between his bouts with sexual sins, murder and seasons of even running for his life, there must have been times when he felt reluctant to worship God. But still we see him faithfully proclaiming the greatness of our Lord. For David knew that the very quality of his worship was not based on his own volition but on the object of his worship – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Though our affections for God may wax and wane, His character is unchanging! We even see David speaking to his own soul, demanding of it, “Bless the Lord!”. He reminds himself even in the harshest of circumstances how good God is, recounting blessings that the Lord has bestowed upon him.

I think God knows that worshipping Him can be a discipline at times. And like any other
relationship in our lives, our relationship with the Lord takes work. But on those days that are hardest to praise His name, that’s when I find worship to be the sweetest. Though I may enter feeling tired or disconnected, I find joy and peace in the presence of God and the Holy Spirit sustains that worship, renewing my mind and restoring my heart. All I have to do is show up. God is not only the author of worship, but His radiance inspires us and enables us to bring Him the adoration due His name.

So, next time you are tired and feel as though you have nothing to give to God in worship, know that you are right. There is nothing we can bring before Him that He hasn’t first given to us. And on those hard days, we must confess that we don’t want to worship Him, but we want to want to worship Him. Over time, He will cultivate that desire in our hearts and souls to say, with the great psalmist,

“I will bless the Lord at all times.” (Ps. 34)

I Hear The Trash-Man…

I Hear The Trash-Man…

Posted using ShareThis

Busy 09 so far

We just finished our second week of the year but it feels more like a month.  Let’s see…  What all have we done????  Let me list a few things…

1.  Recorded three new worship songs and starting transcribing the sheet music.  “Show My Love” from Ronnie Freeman and Tony Wood.  “God is Moving” from Jon Abel, Chad Cates and Lee Black.  “This Is Our Song” from Jeromy Diebler (FFH), Carl Cartee and Jason Ingram.  Look for these soon on GreatWorshipSongs.com.

2.  Partnered with Travis Cottrell to release a live DVD featuring, of course, Mr Cottrell, Beth Moore and Max Lucado. By the way, good luck Travis on blogging more this year! We’ll be recording the DVD Jan 24 and 25.  Release date to be sometime in April or May.

3.  Approved the final master for Worship Arising, a compilation featuring Aaron Shust, Laura Story, Carl Cartee, Jon Abel and Andy Kirk.  This record, which I refer to as a worship resource, is enhanced with PDF lead sheets and song devotions/stories per song.  LOVE IT!  Look for www.worshiparising.com coming soon.  Hopefully, this will become a popular site to discover new worship songs for FREE.

4.  Finished mixing the new Carl Cartee live worship album Everything You Do.  Mastering will be next week and then we’ll release March 17!  Finishing up artwork now!

5.  Preparing to host an evening for the Re:Create worship conference Feb 4.  We’ll be dinning at Safire in Franklin, TN and enjoying live music from Travis Cottrell, Aaron Shust, Carl Cartee and Chris Sligh (American Idol, Brash recording artist and writer of “Here Comes Good-Bye,” the new single from Rascal Flatts!!!  CONGRATS CHRIS!!!!). And yes, this is a closed event…

WOW…  09 is going to be more than fine!!!!

Oh…  We have a FaceBook page…  Search for us!

John

Light The World – Andy Kirk

Light The World – Andy Kirk

“A City on a Hill Cannot Be Hidden”

 

Click here to download the song “Light the World” as a lead sheet, chord chart and mp3.

Visit www.AndyKirk.tv for more…

 

 

In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus explains, “You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Mathew 5:14-16).  When we read this passage we can see the true weight of the responsibility that our Creator has placed on our shoulders.  As the lyrics of “Light The World” express, Jesus has “set our hearts on fire” and what we do with that passionate flame is the story that will stand the test of time.

 

Sometimes we forget that inside of the light bulb that Thomas Edison invented there is first the energy of heat that he did not.  The heat of the flame is what gives light and we discovered fire long before we could contain it, box it up and put it on a shelf at Target.  The flame is one of the purest forms of energy on our planet.  The energy that creates heat and ultimately a flame is written into the DNA of our universe.  It makes up our sun, and is responsible for everything our eyes can see.  Everything that gives light was once set ablaze, much like our souls; God has forgiven us of our sins and set us apart to be a light shining in darkness to those who cannot see.

 

Often times in our daily lives we forget that we are the only Christ that some will ever see.  It’s easy for us to think that in our sins that can separate us from God, we’ll never be good enough to know Him the way we should.  Though we strive to be more like Christ, we are crippled by the fear that we are not close enough to God to share Him with others.  The Bible records over and over again God working through ordinary, broken, humble, and sinful people, to bring glory to His name.  In “Light The World” we find this same picture of God’s grace and desire to restore our relationship with Him.  In the chorus we sing, “Jesus, You catch us when we’re falling” and this reminds us that our God is always close enough to reach out and break the fall of our selfish desires so that the world will see what He’s done in us.

 

God makes a promise to us in Isaiah that says those who hope in the Lord, will renew their strength and they will soar on wings like eagles (Isaiah 40:31).  It’s comforting to know that no matter how distant we feel, we’re never too far away to reach out in worship and put our trust in the true light of the world and watch Him do through us, what we could never do on our own.

 

Prayer –

God, we repent for falling away from You in any way.   I pray that You would give us the courage to reach out and light up a dark world for Your name’s sake.  Lord, by Your grace, You have given us a second chance, You have truly set our hearts on fire, and we pray for the endurance to light the world until Your return! – Amen