Worship Matters

I received some creative responses in the ESV Study Bible giveaway. Here are a few you might enjoy.

The reason I should get one of those Bible is that if you bring me one, I’ll take you diving and you’ll get to experience worship on a whole new level — about 100 feet below the surface! (from Dave in the Cayman Islands)

I want to receive and read through the ESV STudy Bible so that the whole counsel of God and the wisdom of godly men washes over my mind and my heart to transform me into a white hot, recklessly passionate Jesus freak. (from David)

To combine a lucid translation of scripture with insightful theological essays, pastorally sensitive articles, and exegetical notes that respect the inspiration of scripture can only aid in the breadth of my expositional preaching and richness of my feeble attempts at devotion. (from Chris)

Dreamed I went to Lifeway
You were there with me
We walked past rows of study Bibles,
NAS and KJV.
We heard the cashier saying,
“Which one will it be?”
Not Sproul, MacArthur, but edited by JT.
I’ll read it in 2009
Good for my soul, and mind…(from Justin) 

10. Bob said it, I believe it, I want it
9. Love the ESV
8. Beginning ministry with international students
7. Paying off adoption loan
6. Cannot pay personal scholar
5. Will advocate for ESV
4. Orange cover matches this blog
3. It’s God’s Word
2. I have much to learn
1. I gave my old ESV bible to a counselee and he has never come back (and neither has the ESV Bible) (from Rick - this would have been a winner, but it was more than 50 words…)

There you go.

Last week I shared my desire to give away ten ESV Study Bibles to encourage people to read through the Word of God, assisted by the valuable notes in this particular Bible.

Over 300 of you sent in your reason, in 50 words or less, why you’d like to receive a Bible. I was deeply moved as I read some of the emails. I picked five as “the best,” and picked five more randomly (although since God is sovereign, it wasn’t completely “random”). Here are the five winners:

This is from Juan Zavala. I was inspired by his dedication to the pastoral ministry.

I would like to win the new ESV study Bible for one reason. To help me prepare my sermons. I work 60-80 hours a week in my regular job and I preach on Sundays, many times in English and Spanish at the same time. The Bible will help me with my sermons with all the information it provides.

This one came from Nick Dotson. He’s a worship leader and was one of many who wanted to bless his wife.

I realized that I’ve led many people in worship every week, but I’ve not been leading my wife. She recently expressed a desire to read through the Bible together. We’ve looked for a study Bible that’s Christ-focused, straightforward, and within our budget. I read your post and thought, “Perfect!”

This was sent in by Angelia Dittmeier. I appreciated her creative answer, and was happy to encourage her while her husband serves overseas for six months.

This year when my husband’s gone with the Army for six months, I’d rather study this Bible than engage in all-night Jack Bauer marathons (as I did last time he was gone so lone). Jack is amazing, to be sure, but lacks sovereignty, omniscience (I think), and eternal significance.

This is from Bradley Jones. He wants an ESV Study Bible for a pastor named Joey.

I would like this Bible to give to a pastor I know to help him study. He is the only one who works and has three boys, all under 6, one who has Down Syndrome. He took a pay cut to plant a church in an “unchurched” area.

Finally, this is from Marcelo Sanchez Avila, in Brazil. I just don’t think there’s any other way he’s going to get one of these Bibles.

I like to receive the free ESV Study Bible because I think that to understand and know God is the best activity for man (Jer. 9:24) and this Bible is a good tool for that. I’m a Chilean student of theology who is in the Amazonic area of Brazil for study here. I don’t have money to buy books nor new Bibles.

Congratulations!

Honestly, I had a very difficult time picking five. Many people wanted to give the Bible to someone else who needed it. A few requests came from overseas. Some of you were convicted that you haven’t made more time for God’s Word. I wish I could give a Bible to everyone who wrote in! Holly told me that today is her birthday. So, happy birthday, Holly! (Sorry you didn’t win…)

And here are the five winners selected randomly by my wife, Julie:

Jim Mazzulla (a pastor who asked for an ESVSB for Christmas, but didn’t get one)
Lauren Majors (a mom of young kids)
Jeff Lewis (he and his wife expecting their first child in April)
Jason Nolte (on a tight budget)
Terry Thomas (ministers to high school students and military members)

You all should be receiving your ESV Study Bible this week.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway. I pray that even if you didn’t win, you’ll pursue the goal of reading through God’s Word this year, and consider buying one if you’re able (availabe at Amazon for $31.49). Even more importantly, I pray that God’s Word makes its way into our hearts, resulting in worship, obedience and gratefulness to our great Savior.

Psa. 19:7  The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

I just came across this comment on the Sovereign Grace Music Facebook site:

SGM is available in the UK through 10ofthose.com for £10 a CD. We are about to place a new order from the states so if there is a CD you’d like that we currently are out of stock of please email us at info@10ofthose.com and we will order it in for you.

In the process of hosting this ESV Bible giveaway, I discovered that the “Contact Me” link on my blog hasn’t been working for a while. Like for a year.

So the wonderful IT folks here at Sovereign Grace did some research and found that any emails sent through the “Contact Me” link ended up in a massive spam folder (who sends out all that stuff?). The good news is that we were able to recover 600+ emails. The bad news is that my daughter/assistant Chelsea (who is leaving on Friday for 13 days with a missions team to Uganda) has to individually copy each one to an email and send it to herself. For some reason, forwarding takes much longer.

What does this mean? If you sent me an email in the past year through the “Contact Me” link and were expecting a response, I probably never received your email. I’ll eventually read them all, but if you sent me something time sensitive, you may want to send another email via the “Contact Me” link above, which is now functioning properly.

I AM grateful for technology, I AM grateful for technology…

A while back I posted on why I like the ESV Study Bible and my plan to read through it by the end of 2009. Here’s my first update on how it’s going.

I just started 1 Samuel. If I continue at my current pace, I should be done before the end of 2009. I’ve only grown in my appreciation for the precise scholarship, helpful layout, and pastoral thought that went into producing this study Bible. The maps are abundant, easy to use, informative, and relevant, as are the various charts. The introductions to each book have helped me grasp the overall flow of the book as well as how the book fits into salvation history.

I haven’t spent much time using the online version, but it contains everything in the printed version, only it’s also searchable and you can attach your own notes. My good friend Tony Reinke says it’s outstanding.

Using the ESV Study Bible is like having a Bible pastor/scholar with me each morning as I read. But rather than becoming dependent on the notes themselves, they build my faith for hearing God speak to me directly through his Word.

I’d like more people, especially corporate worship leaders, to benefit from the resources of the ESV Study Bible by reading through it. And what better time to start than the beginning of a new year! (West Breedlove mentions in the comments that Crossway has a great list of Bible reading plans at their site.)

So I’ll be giving away ten of them - free - to people who didn’t get one for Christmas and want to join me in reading through it. Here are the details:

1. Send me an email to me by 11:59 PM EST, Saturday, January 3, using the Contact Me tab above.
2. In your email, use no more than 50 words to tell me why you’d like to receive the ESV Study Bible and read through it.
3. Include your full name, address, and email address in your email. I won’t count those words as part of your word total.
4. If you’re not already signed up to receive Worship Matters by email or through an RSS reader, do me a favor and do one or the other.
5. I’ll pick 5 “best entry” winners, and 5 “out of the hat” winners.
6. I’ll announce the winners on Monday, January 5. You should receive your Bible shortly after that.

Whether or not you participate in the giveaway, I pray you become more devoted to mining the riches of God’s Word in 2009.

Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Prov. 30:5
I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word. Ps. 119:16

UPDATE: Apparently the “contact me” form was not working all day Monday and most of Tuesday morning. It’s working now. If you sent an email to me during that time, feel free to send me another one. Sorry about the inconvenience. We’re working on recovering the lost emails.

UPDATE #2: I’m happy to report that we found the emails that were sent Sunday night through Tuesday morning. They were in the SPAM folder of our off-site server. Ah, the joys of technology.

Just a little over thirty six years ago, I received the greatest gift I’ll ever receive: salvation from God’s wrath and adoption into his family through the gospel. After that, the gifts I’m most grateful for today are in the picture below, taken this past Thanksgiving. Six children, three spouses of my children, seven grandchildren, and one woman, Julie, who has brought me indescribable joy for over thirty two years. I can only say with the psalmist, “How precious is your steadfast love, O God!” (Ps. 36:7)

In case you were wondering, our couch isn’t normally sitting out in the middle of a field. But it does make for a cool picture. And when you have two sons willing to carry it, it’s a lot more appealing.

In the midst of being grateful for the gifts we receive today, I pray we’re most affected by the Father’s costly love — the love that led him to send his Son to take on our flesh, fulfill all righteousness, bear our sins, endure our penalty, and reconcile us to God.

Let the joyful news ring out
The Prince of Peace proclaim
Lift your heart and voice to shout
Immanuel’s Name
God has kept his promises
What a work of grace this is
Son of Mary, chosen One
The Lamb of God has come
(from Glory be to God)

This past Sunday I had the privilege of leading the singing at my home church. At Christmas time there’s sometimes a tension between choosing to sing songs that are “comfortably Christmasy” or songs that help people glory in the miracle of God becoming man. So here’s what we went with:

Hark! the Herald Angels Sing
Glory be to God (from the Savior CD)
Emmanuel, Emmanuel (from the Savior CD)
What Child is This?
Before the Throne of God Above

We started with Hark! the Herald Angels sing because it’s one of the most theologically rich Christmas carols we sing. After that, I shared that there are many things to love about Christmas - carols, food, exchanging gifts, gathering with family and friends. But nothing will bring us more joy or thrill our hearts more than meditating on the nature and purpose of the baby whose birth we celebrate at Christmas. I then recited some of the words to the song we were about to sing - Glory be to God - an updated version of a Charles Wesley hymn. I wanted to make sure that we didn’t sing profound truths without realizing what we were singing…

God comes down before our eyes…
God invisible appears…
He has come who cannot change…
Being’s source begins to be…

We went from there straight into Mark Altrogge’s song, Emmanuel, Emmanuel. Another song filled with theological reflection on the Incarnation. This is verse 3:

You who with a word created
Sun and moon and seas and sand
Lay there sleeping in a manger
Cradled by Your mother’s hand
You who made the mighty forests
Would lie down upon a tree
Fastened there with nails for sinners
Would bleed and die to set us free

After that song, a woman from the congregation shared a prophetic impression that there were people there who lacked peace in the midst of a joyous season. She then read from Ps. 131. Knowing there were probably a lot of guests that morning, I explained what was going on and followed that with a spontaneous song. You can listen to my explanation and the song here.

After I prayed we sang What Child is This, another song that directs our attention to why Christ came:

Nails, spear shall pierce him through
The cross be borne for me, for you

We ended with Before the Throne of God Above, an old hymn set to music by Vikki Cook that we’ve been memorizing as a church. Before we sang it, I explained what we were doing, and how appropriate it was to remember that the baby Jesus we remember at Christmas is now the risen and ascended Savior who is interceding for those he redeemed.

Throughout the morning I tried to help us remember that CHRIST is the meaning of Christmas. I was grateful that we don’t have to sing songs that simply have a Christmas “sound” without the  substance. There simply is nothing more amazing than God becoming man to save us from the just penalty for our sins. Amazing grace that only grows more amazing with each passing year.

I pray that in the midst of a world filled with upheaval, economic woes, terrorism, hatred, immorality, and pride, you would experience the peace and joy of knowing Jesus as the compassionate, merciful, risen, and reigning Savior.

We just learned that Worship Leader magazine has included our Psalms CD as one of six choices for the “Best Worship Compilation CD” for 2008. Boy, were we surprised. There in the midst of Passion, CeCe Winans, and WOW Gospel, is Sovereign Grace Ministries.

Now I’d never want you to do something you wouldn’t do otherwise. But you might consider visiting the Worship Leader site and checking out the choices. There are some good ones there. But if you think the Psalms CD is the best one out of the six, you can vote for it. Your vote could help make more people aware of our music.

In any case, we’re grateful for the opportunity to produce music that serves the church and magnifies the greatness of our Savior.

Even though 2008 isn’t finished yet, I’m in the midst of planning for our next worship conference, WorshipGod09: From Generation to Generation, to be held Aug. 5-8, 2009, in Gaithersburg, MD.

The main messages will address the importance of passing on biblical values of corporate worship from one generation to the next. I was thrilled when John Piper of Desiring God Ministries agreed to come. He’ll be speaking Wednesday night and Thursday morning. I was also able to confirm my good friend, Jeff Purswell, as a main speaker. Jeff has served us well in the past by providing messages that are biblically rich, theologically insightful, and spiritually transforming.  Also, CJ Mahaney and I will be leading a main session tentatively called, “What We’ve Learned the Last Thirty Years.” Looking forward to that.

As I’m reading through the 250+ evaluation forms we received from the last conference I’m getting a lot of great ideas for improvements we can make next year. For one, we’ll be ending earlier on Saturday so people can make it back sooner to their churches. We’ll also be giving more time for group interactions and cleaning up some minor administrative issues. As usual, we’ll be giving away lots of free stuff and seeking to equip everyone who comes to serve their churches more effectively in magnifying the glory of Jesus Christ.

Right now we’re planning on starting registration on Feb. 1, 2009. Initial rates will be $85 for students (high school and college), $110 each for groups of 5 or more, and $135 for individuals.

In the mean time, if you have any specific ideas for seminar topics or speakers, please feel free to leave a comment.

What do you do when in the middle of leading worship you have a train wreck? We had the opportunity to find out at the WorshipGod conference last August.

Joseph Stigora, from Covenant Fellowship in Philadelphia, was doing a great job leading with his team. But as he started into a musical rendition of Psalm 96, things took a turn for the worse. The band was suddenly playing in two keys. At the same time.

You can watch it for yourself here.

In Two Keys at the Same Time from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

While God commends the development of skill (Prov. 22:29), and laziness is no excuse for lack of preparation, there are times that even deliberate practice doesn’t keep us from messing up. But God’s strength is perfected in our weakness. When things don’t go as planned, people are able to see more clearly our humanity, and hopefully our humility.

Of course, some times we can cover up mistakes without anyone noticing or being distracted. If you can do that, great. But there are other times (like playing in two keys) when the best choice is simply to stop what you’re doing and start over. Amazingly enough, God can continue working, even through our mistakes.

What have you learned from a time when things didn’t go as planned?