This is a blog series I like do where I examine “secular” songs that if sung with a different heart, perhaps a different perspective or a changed line here or there would make for a wonderful worship song. This really is an exercise in showing how these songs could be redeemed to worship the Father. Today I bring you “Sailed On” (<-playable link) by Landon Pigg, an absolutely incredible song. I imagine these words being song over us by God as a rebuke of our religious lifestyles and failure to abide.

Please don’t do what I say
Cause if you don’t love me, its worthless anyway
Please don’t trouble yourself
You’ll only go away in the end

Please don’t follow all my commands
Cause whats the point in that
I keep hoping that all of your plans
Will fall through the roof

Chorus:
Like two ships passing in the night we’re gone
Only the moon and the stars in the sky did know
To cry for me
As I sailed on

Please don’t trouble yourself
I only want your love
You keep giving me your help
Oh please stop playing along
You know your wasting your energy
And your breaking my heart

(Chorus)

Oh I can just see it now (I can see it now)
Your recklessly in love
Your hearts boiling over
Oh I can just see it now
Your coming around

In ministry I can’t tell you how many times I could relate to the lines, “Like 2 ships passing in the night we’re gone.” Feeling like I’m moving but not sure if I actually asked God if this is where I should be heading or stop to notice if I left God behind a long time ago. Another convicting line is, “I only want your love and you keep giving me your help“, how easy it is for me to replace love for service and activity.

Sometimes when listening to great music I think, man this song would be such an amazing worship song if they knew Jesus. A changed phrase here and there, changed object of worship, of course a changed heart, and what a powerful worship song it would be. One great example of this to me is a song by Ryan Adams called Desire(<- playable audio link), off his amazing album Demolition.

Not just in lyrics, but the whole vibe of the song, the mood, it’s a very worshipful, mindful, passionate song.

Two hearts fading, like a flower.
And all this waiting, for the power.
For some answer, to this fire.
Sinking slowly. The waters higher.
Desire

With no secrets. No obsession.
This time I’m speeding with no direction.
Without a reason. What is this fire?
Burning slowly. My one and only.
Desire

You know me. You don’t mind waiting.
You just can’t show me, but God I’m praying,
That you’ll find me, and that you’ll see me,
That you run and never tire.
Desire

Man that last verse always gets me, intense. Ryan, chicks will tire but God won’t tire brotha, he’s after you.

A few weeks back I wrote a post here about an idea I had for our church and that was to let our congregation write a worship song, literally. This was sort of a group songwriting exercise taken to the extreme. I value worship songs that exposit biblical truth and also draw upon life experience to bring it into context. I see value in both and try not to use one to the exclusion of the other. The problem is that when I’m the only one writing songs for the church the life experience that I write through might not be relateable for others or might not necessarily impact others in the way it impacts me. This is why biblical truth in worship songs should be paramount and not the other way around because the only thing we find true unity in is the Holy Spirit.

So I wanted to give the church a chance to give testimony to the mighty works he’s accomplished in each person’s life that others might not know about. Thus giving glory to God and magnifying Him for the great works right before our eyes. I asked the church a question and requested responses from the congregation. The question was, “How has God’s grace changed your life specifically?” and here are some of the amazing responses I received:

• Hearing the cry from the depths of my soul, God met me in my dark place and He saved me with His most honest embrace.
• I lived a life full of shame, now God is using me to bring others out of a life of shame through His grace.
• God saved me from my self destructive ways and is showing me His way.
• I lay weak in the hands of grace and receive His strength.
• God showed me His heart and healed a life full of pain, tears and fears.
• Shame welcomed my sin, but it was God’s grace that lifted me up.
• In my self hate I gave myself away, but God’s grace came softly to me and drew me by love and set me free.
• God’s grace for me has drowned out the religious view I had of Him.
• A life of mistakes and pain dramatically transformed by a hand of grace, too big to understand, that’s my Jesus that’s my King.
• God’s grace has spared my life, literally.

Amen.

I am on a Holy Spirit anointed mission. I have been sent by God to not only proclaim the good news of spell check, but to preach repentance to all those(me) who did nothing to help those authoring the lyric presentations for worship. By the good grace of God never again will there be a typo during any worship service I am leading. For to me to live and praise with a correctly spelled lyric slide show is Christ but to die is gain. Never again will we look as silly as the gym I was at this morning who had this sign posted:

Tim Hughes has posted an interesting question on his blog raising the question, “Can we sing songs of worship directed to the Holy Spirit?.” I think the question is more interesting in its choice of phrasing and inference then the actual answer to the question. We should all agree that we can’t sing any songs of redeemed worship but through the empowering of the Holy Spirit. And if we can agree that worship is a response to God rather than self instigated, than the direction of our worship becomes evident by whom we are responding to.

The question posed implies a dissection of our theological view on the trinity. But to me that question is working of an improper assumption that redeemed worship(I quite purposefully distinguish between redeemed/fallen worship) could be “directed”, employed, engaged in, taught or experienced by, to or through anyone but the Holy Spirit. Our model of a perfect life of worship is of course Jesus Christ and Luke 10:21 gives us insight into how Jesus worshiped in a trinitarian life:

At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.”

The Son worshiping the Father, full of joy, through the Holy Spirit. Jesus was also full of and led by the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1-2). I don’t think we should be fearful of addressing the spirit of God we are to be filled with and led by. For it’s the same spirit that gives us the ability to worship the Father, Son and Spirit at all.

Tim does acknowledge this in his blog and points to more of a practical question of lyrical content.

“…can we sing ‘Holy Spirit, glorify Your name?’”

I don’t think we have any basis for removing worship of 1 part of the trinity. From a trinitarian view that would be to deny the worship of God entirely, and that my friends, I don’t intend to do.

“Here’s my heart Lord take and seal it, seal it for thy courts
above”

God’s amazing expression of love was shown through His Son Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. His death and resurrection was a guarantee that those who would believe will have everlasting life. What could possibly be enough from us to pay back such a act of love? When all that we’ve done has been covered in His blood, the countless times of rejecting His ways to pursue our
own they too have been forgiven. So, because of this, we give to Him our lives (heart), an expression from us that is just basically responding to what he has done.

Romans 12:1 says it’s our reasonable service to Him.

Ephesians 1:12-14 Because the Jews were God’s chosen people I kind of get the impression that their view of God’s grace was a bit different than the Gentiles. It’s just like the analogy of a rich kid and a poor kid. Just because the kid was born to a rich family he may not go through life struggling. The poor kid struggles and gets through life, and when he gets to a higher status quo he tends to be a bit more thankful for what he’s gone through. It’s the same way I view the Jews and Gentiles because they were
born a Jew maybe them giving their heart to God was something they didn’t think needed to be done because after all they were born a Jew and Jews are God’s chosen people. But Gentiles, who at first needed to abide by Jewish
laws in being circumcised before they could be accepted,had to deal with the struggles of being a Gentile in the Jewish community. But no matter Jew or Gentile it was with one Spirit that sealed both to be saved.

“seal it for thy courts above”

When a debt has been paid in full I always ask for “proof” that says I’ve paid my debt in full. Without that “proof” I have no
guarantee that I’ve paid in full. God’s “proof” was giving us His Holy Spirit as the guarantee that we belong to Him and we will be in His presence forever when Jesus comes to redeem us. And it’s for His pleasure that we are saved and spend eternity with Him.

I think of this huge court case and the only proof that will mean either life or death is the evidence that proves the truth. We were given a promise of the Holy Spirit(“proof”) and with that came the eternal seal(“evidence”) that will show who we belong to. In the presence of all witnesses we strive to hear the words” Well done thy good and faithful
servant.”

Because of all you have done for me Jesus I say “here’s my heart Lord take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.”

“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the One I love”

From the first time I really listened to the lyrics of Come Thou Fount, I found myself drawn to this line. I love the raw honesty and vulnerability it shows. It recognizes the weakness within and the foolishness of a “Peter-like” mentality when he promised to follow Jesus even to the death. Let me explain this a little clearer:

Galations 5:16-17 says:

16 “So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.”

What this passage is saying is that without choosing to live according to the Spirit, we are setting ourselves up to give in to our old cravings. I have to recognize that I am not above sin. As much as I know that I am never going to leave my God, or deny Christ… I am just as prone to wander as anyone else in my own human efforts. I have to choose to live according to the Spirit and His desires. In a single moment of weakness, with one wrong decision, I am prone to wander. The crazy thing is that I am so excited at this truth. I love that I have to depend on Him everyday. There is a constant battle within me and that is not a sign of inadequacy or failure. The battle gives me a constant opportunity to prove my love by my obedience. Every time we choose to crucify our sinful deeds, we prove our love.

I am prone to wander. But I am now fully aware of the battle within myself and I know that I have to keep myself in fellowship with the Holy Spirit in order to keep myself above reproach.

“Thank you Lord that You have given Your Spirit as a means to put to death my sinful cravings. That You allow the battle of flesh v. spirit to take place in order to give opportunity for the Spirit to have daily victory. I know that I am weak and prone to stray, but in my weakness, You show Yourself strong and faithful and victorious. All for Your glory, Jesus. “

“Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee”

Perhaps the best illustration of a wandering heart is an adulteress relationship. It is flawless in its depiction of God’s people roaming in and out of covenant with the bridegroom (Christ). This phrase displays the idea of being bound to the heart of Christ because of a deep understanding of His Goodness. This line is a perfect thesis statement for Hosea chapter three. He uses the prophet Hosea to depict His goodness towards his people by having Him marry a prostitute. Then woman wanders in and out of covenant with Hosea and yet he still draws her back time and time again. The word goodness seems such an understatement. I find myself searching for a better word then “goodness”. But is this very word, “goodness”, that is used in verse five that will turn the hearts of His people back to Him. We need to constantly reflect on the goodness of God, and allow it to act as the anchor to His heart. I long for a heart that is at rest. It is impossible to be at rest with when your heart is wandering. “Let your goodness act as fetters in binding my heart to Yours.”