Archive | —Books

Sovereign Grace CDs and Books for Ridiculous Prices — and Free Shipping

So yesterday I’m sitting in my office and I receive an email from Pat Ennis, the executive director of Sovereign Grace Ministries. It’s brief and to the point. He says he wants to reduce the price of our Pursuit of Godliness books and all our CDs to $6 and offer free domestic shipping. For a full month. He also says to come by his office if I want to appeal his plan. So I stop by and find him talking with Tommy Hill, the financial wizard of Sovereign Grace. I appeal that maybe we should consider $7. Nope. Not enough of a reduction in price. In fact, Pat ended up dropping the price of the books another dollar. The bottom line is this. From February …

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I Hasten Towards an Hour

The theme of this year’s New Attitude conference was discernment. One of the primary ways we develop a right perspective on things is by seeing them in light of eternity. What really matters will be so easy to discern the moment we stand face to face with our Creator. At the last session of the conference, I read a quote from The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions edited by Arthur Bennett. I have used this book in my personal devotions for years and it’s helped me grow in my awareness of my sin and my gratefulness for the Gospel. This particular section from the prayer "Openness" helps me better understand …

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Keeping Busy…

For those of you who regularly read Worship Matters, it’s obvious I’ve been doing other things. But they’re all enjoyable and I pray fruitful. We had a wonderful Resurrection Sunday. I am once again astonished at the power, goodness, and mercy of God displayed in our redemption through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This week I’ll be at the Sovereign Grace Leadership Conference. R.C. Sproul, who will be speaking on the holiness of God, and David Powlison will be guest speakers, but I’m probably most looking forward to C.J. Mahaney’s message Friday night on Trinitarian Pastoral Leadership. The longer I’m alive, the more persuaded …

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Book Review – The Art of Worship

Last week I had the privilege of speaking and leading worship at the Calvin Worship Symposium in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Why I chose to go to Michigan in January is a question I still haven’t answered. On Thursday, I taught an all-day seminar called Musical Arranging for God’s Glory. I shared thoughts not only on ways we can arrange music, but suggested three biblical reasons behind the choices we make: to serve the word of Christ, to serve the context, and to serve the congregation. Hosting me that day was a gentleman named Greg Scheer, whose book, The Art of Worship: A Musician’s Guide to Leading Modern Worship has recently been published …

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Sin and Temptation

Worship is about gladly giving God the glory he alone deserves and is worthy of. God is the only being in the universe whose glory is intrinsic. All other glory is derived and second-hand. God is absolutely committed to his glory above all else, especially through those his Son has redeemed. I found that out the hard way in 1994. I had helped start a church in Charlotte, NC in 1991, and was serving along with the senior pastor, Brent Detwiler, in various capacities. Things were going well in the church, but not in my soul. In January of that year I experienced what is often called a “nervous breakdown.” It began at a friend’s house, where …

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What Books to Read?

At the WorshipGod06 conference, and a number of times since then, I’ve been asked to recommend a basic reading list for worship pastors and musicians. While no book can replace the study of God’s Word itself, other books can help us grasp biblical truths more clearly so that we return to Scripture with renewed vigor and faith. Here are a few books that I think are helpful, although I know many more could be added. This is just to get you started. I’ve listed them by category, starting with books that are smaller and more introductory in nature, and ending with books that are a more challenging (but very fruitful!) read. By the way, I wouldn’t …

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Vacation Quote #4 – The Difference Between

I’m still away with Julie on our 30th anniversary trip, seeking to bless her for God’s glory. This is another quote from Harold Best, this time from his book, Unceasing Worship. He is helping us to distinguish between music as an act of worship and music as an aid to worship.We make and offer art because we worship; we should not make it to lead us into worship.  We can carry [this concept] into the weekly corporate gathering. Since Christians come to such gatherings as continuous worshipers, it should now be obvious that it is erroneous to assume that the arts, and especially music, are to be depended on to lead us to worship or that …

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Vacation Quote #3 – On Forms in Corporate Worship

This quote comes from Music Through the Eyes of Faith, by Harold Best. It’s the most biblical treatment of using music for the glory of God that I’ve read.The Scriptures include or allude to just about every approach to worship there is: organized, spontaneous, public, private, simple, complex, ornate, or plain. Yet there is no comment anywhere about any one way being preferred over another. Rather, it is the spiritual condition of the worshiper that determines whether or not God is at work. This fact alone countermands the tendency to assume that if we could just find the correct or fashionably relevant system, all will be well and God will come …

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Vacation Quote #1 – On Reading Books

I’m in Europe right now with my bride of 30 years, seeking to communicate how much I love her for the glory of God. In the mean time, here’s a quote I pray will encourage your soul today. It’s from an article entitled “Advice on Reading,” by the Puritan pastor, Richard Baxter. After commending Scripture as the ultimate book to read, he highlights the benefit of reading godly books. Finally, he offers a few questions to help us make the most of our reading. Every congregation cannot hear the most judicious or powerful preachers: but every single person may read the books of the most powerful and judicious; preachers may be silenced or banished, …

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Announcing…

Waiting for a CD project to be released is a little bit like having a baby. I say “a little bit” because I’ve experienced absolutely nothing like labor pains that every mother goes through. However, we have been working on this for about nine months… If you’re a regular reader of Worship Matters, you know how much I appreciate The Valley of Vision. Edited by Arthur Bennet, The Valley of Vision is a collection of prayers and devotions from various Puritans, including John Bunyan, Richard Baxter, and Isaac Watts. We might assume that people who lived three hundred years ago wouldn’t have many relevant things to say to us about what it means …

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What We All Need

I’ve been a little lax on my posting lately, as I’m in the thick of preparing for the WorshipGod06 conference. I’ll have the privilege of teaching three seminars and one main session there, and appreciate the opportunity to meet and serve those who are coming. In the midst of my preparation, I came across this quote from a book I read a while ago, called The Future of Protestant Worship, by Ronald Byars. “Here is where we put a finger on the weakness of the marketing approach when it comes to matters of faith and worship. It presumes that people can tell you what they’re looking for. Most people can’t.” (p. 23) Later on he writes: “Even …

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Songbookcombo

Sovereign Grace Songbook Now Available

For over 20 years, Sovereign Grace has been seeking to write and publish biblically faithful, Christ-exalting, emotionally moving songs to serve our churches in congregational worship. Songs that help us, as John Piper has said, think truly so that we might feel duly. Songs that enable God’s Word and purposes to be planted deeply in our hearts. About 7 years ago, we published our first songbook. I’m happy to let you know that we’ve finally updated that songbook and released a a two-volume set that contains nearly every song we’ve published for the past twenty one years, including Mark Altrogge’s "I Stand in Awe," "Forever Grateful," …

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Worship and Truth

I’m in the middle of a writing retreat, working on a book for Crossway tentatively entitled Worship Matters. Catchy title, I know. Lord willing, it will be published some time in early 2007. I’m working on a chapter related to worship and the Word. One of the quotes I ran across is from a book entitled Worship At The Next Level: Insight From The Contemporary Voices, edited by Tim A. Dearborn and Scott Coil. Chapter 10 is called “New Approaches to Worship” by Mike Riddell, Mark Pierson, Cathy Kirkpatrick. Here’s the quote: Worship preparation is primarily about providing a context rather than a content. The context being an environment …

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Watts on Prayer #5 – Persuading Us to Pray

I’m in the middle of a writing retreat, working on a book for Crossway Publishers. I mentioned a while back that this book was going to cause me cut back on blogging somewhat. However, I wanted to finish this series today so that I could move on to other things next week. Watts’ final chapter is called “Persuasive Arguments to Learn to Pray.” He begins:“It is to little purpose that the nature of prayer is explained, so many rules framed and directions given to teach persons this divine skill of prayer, if they are not persuaded of the necessity and usefulness of it.” (p. 167) In other words, it’s useless talking about it if we …

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Watts on Prayer #4 – The Spirit of Prayer

Over the past few weeks I’ve been sharing summaries of chapters from the book A Guide to Prayer by Isaac Watts. I’ve been using it in my own prayer times, and want to share the benefits. I know I could be addressing many other topics, and will eventually get to them. But if my sense is right, I think that prayer, both public and private, is an area of our relationship with God that we would all love to grow in. In his chapter on The Spirit of Prayer Watts reminds us that all the rules and directions he’s laid out for praying will be ineffective without the aid of God’s Spirit. After providing extensive Scriptural support for the Spirit …

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