We’re starting the sermon on the mount this week, specifically a passage that modern bible translations have given the subheading: beatitudes. As we study Jesus’ words and see him flip upside down our understanding of being blessed, “It is Well” seems an appropriate song. I’m sure many of us can reflect on a time when our soul shouldn’t have been well by the world’s standards, but with the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, we were able to have a peace and joy that surpasses all understanding.

This version of the traditional hymn was done by Michael Bleecker, the same guy who wrote “Overwhelm Me” which seems to have become a favorite at Origins. My hope is that hearing and singing it in a non traditional way will cause those of us who’ve known this song for years to re-listen to the lyrics. It is such an incredibly powerful song and I don’t want for us to pass by it without hearing the truth in it and worshiping through it. I hope you guys like it.

I recorded this while I was in New Mexico a few weeks ago and it was pretty awesome being in the mountains and singing this song. I’ll shout out a special thanks to Justin Caldwell for all of the help recording as well as the vocal coaching.

I can’t wait for the concert!

This is the view from the balcony at this house, which is why singing the lyrics “praise Him under open skies, everything breathing praising God” is so inspiring and fitting:

I hope that you enjoy this song when it comes up Sunday morning “in the company of all who love the King.”

A couple of things to note… 1) this is my new guitar! 2) this is just a quick preview so you can hear how it goes – the actual song on Sunday will be structured somewhat different.

Oh, the girl singing is Whitney. She’s just one of many talented musicians at Origins. It was a blessing getting to sit down and record with her. Thanks, Whit!

I would usually post a video here, and I did record a video, but I can’t find the stupid cable to get the stupid video off the stupid camera. I’m not frustrated at all . However, since I record the audio directly into the computer and sync it with the video, I do in fact have the audio, so I will at least post that.

I used my electric this week instead of my acoustic and I also threw in an ambient “pad” in the background that was made by this dude, who blogs about guitar and worship. Thanks for the pad, I’ll be using it Sunday!

Anyway, I really like this song and it fits perfectly with the sermon series that we’re in. Give it a listen below and check out the lyrics as well. I hope you’ll dig it.

As usual, I only give this one take because I don’t have time to do a real recording, so please be forgiving of my singing and a couple of wrong chords.

We’ll be starting off worship with this Sunday morning. It’s a super easy song and will likely be familiar to some of you.

Oh yeah, some of you may remember my new delay pedal…I decided to figure it out a little more and I recorded this video using the pedal which is why it’ll sound a little weird (weird but hopefully good!).

Matthew 7:8, Matthew 21:22, Mark 11:24, Luke 11:10, John 16:24, James 4:3, 1 John 3:22, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Psalm 2:8.

As I reflect on these verses I realize how little I pray and how weak my prayers are.  I hope I can step up to this week’s challenge and begin to pray big!

This song, by Shane Barnard, is a reflection of these verses and others.  We’ll sing it right after the message and I hope that it draws us into the message and turns our hearts to worship.  I’m looking forward to this week and what everyone’s response will be.

So why bring this up? Well, it really does have me thinking about what songs we sing, what they say, if they’re biblical, and whether or not I can relate. We’re introducing a song called “It is You” this week that I hope and pray doesn’t disgust anyone, isn’t cheesy, and speaks truth. It’s a pretty simple song…lyrics like ~”will you meet us here? we have come to worship you. god of mercy and grace. it is you praises are for”, etc. There is, however, something that the conservative backgrounded peeps may not be used to, “As we life up our hands…” To expand on point #5 above, if I ask you to lift your hands, it’s not because it’s a proper way to do things and it’s not to try and conjure some emotion that wouldn’t otherwise be there. Instead, I think there’s something to be said of us taking a certain posture towards God. In scripture we see bowing on knees, face to the ground, jumping and dancing, lifting of hands, quiet reflection, and more. I believe as we get out of our comfort zones, we create the potential to encounter God in a unique way. Come Sunday morning, you’re free to sit, stand, kneel, jump, or whatever you want…but I encourage you during this song in particular to try lifting your hands. If you relate at all to the blogger, then singing something that isn’t true probably won’t sit well with you. So singing, “as we lift up our hands” while we’re all standing there twiddling our thumbs is a tad silly, isn’t it? Again, I’m not going to force anyone into anything, but I don’t want us to be a congregation that just goes through the motions. I suppose the other option is to metaphorically lift your hands, or perhaps to just not sing those lyrics.

I first heard this song done by The Stillpoint Band down at Hill Country SW and it always engaged me in worship. Unfortunately, the only recorded version I could find out there was by the Newsboys and I don’t like it at all. But rest assured, it should make for a great song Sunday morning! Check it out below, but a little disclaimer: I just recorded this during my lunch break and thus didn’t bother to set up a mic and plug in my guitar. The audio is straight from the camera so won’t sound as good as usual. I also widened the lens angle so you’ll have to see my face on this one…I heard that just the guitar was awkward, but this feels more awkward for me!

“Here I Am” was written by Michael Bleecker, the worship leader at the Village Church in Dallas. The Village is one of my favorite churches of all time, despite the fact that I’ve never actually been there. I love their philosophy, their theology, and their approach towards doing church. The teaching pastor, Matt Chandler, is a guy who I podcast every week and I highly recommend the podcast to all. God has gifted Matt in a very powerful way and I am constantly challenged by his preaching. God has also used the ministry of The Village over the last year to get a hold of my brother in a much deeper way than he’s ever experienced before.

Michael Bleecker is a great song writer and from the little I know of him, also has an awesome heart. And a bit of randomness, he also named his kid Jude and I think our Judes are about the same age…weird. Soon I will introduce his song, Overwhelm Me, as it is one of my favorites, but for this week, “Here I Am” fits really well with our series and with the message that Brannen will be preaching this week. I would go into an explanation of what the song means, but it’s pretty straight forward, so make sure to check out the lyrics link below the video. My prayer is that we will be moved by the message of demonstrating the gospel and that the lyrics of this song will be a true cry of our hearts.

I find it strange that we are so quick to praise unimportant events in our life, but tend to be so quiet concerning God. Think about it, “have you seen such and such movie!?” or “did you see that catch!?” or “that was the best weekend ever!” or even “you’ve got to try this beer!” The act of praise comes naturally to us, we praise when we experience something that stirs up excitement in us. Yet when is the last time you went to work on Monday morning and when asked how your weekend was you responded with, “it was awesome, I had an incredible encounter with the God yesterday at church.”?

This song starts out with the charge “make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth” then acknowledges that creation itself is crying out to the Lord. Finally it hits the Crowder-added bridge of “I will not be silent, I will not be quiet anymore.” I’m guessing he had thought the same thing I just mentioned above and has a deep desire to proclaim the goodness of our God. I’m excited about the message this week and I hope this song moves from being a cool lyric to a reality in our lives that we will not be quiet about our God who loves us with reckless abandon.

Disclaimer: I didn’t do a lot of takes on this recording and listening back makes me cringe a little. It’s been way too long since I’ve done studio recording with guitar and it shows in how bad I change the timing throughout this video…I think I started off way too slow and kept wanting to speed it up. Please forgive…I’ll see if I can set up a click track for next week.