one and only

(click here to download this or other original songs)

God above all other gods
share Your glory, You will not
Jealous of Your holy Name
You alone shall be praised

There's no other God
There's no other God
There's no other God but You

From eternity to eternity
You are the One and Only
And above all else, You are glorious
You are the One and Only

For Yourself, You made this heart
that I might see how great You are
So far above, so far beyond
The One, the True, the only God

There's no other God
There's no other God
There's no other God but You

From eternity to eternity
You are the One and Only
And above all else, You are glorious
You are the One and Only

One of my favorite parts of the Bible is found in the book of Isaiah, roughly chapters 40-49.

In it, God is flexing His muscles before the Israelites. They have, again, slipped into worshiping false idols and images of other gods. And in these chapters God looks at them and says, "Are you kidding me?! Other gods? Who made the heavens and the earth? Who made you? Who sustains you? Who set you apart? Who has saved your little butts time and time again? Was it one of the other gods? No. There is no 'other' God. I have no equal. I AM God. Alone. Just Me. No other. So, you best turn to Me now and be saved for it is in deed My splendor that is your salvation."

Isaiah 46:8-10 is a perfect example of this...

"Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago? I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like Me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times to what is still to come."

Later in Isaiah 48:11, He continues...

"For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another."

This is a jealous God. This is a righteous God. This is a God Who has no problem puffing out His chest and gloating of His power and His glory and His supreme standing as Lord of heaven and earth. Why? Because this is a God Who knows that it is ONLY in our heartfelt acknowledgment of His power and His glory and His supreme standing as Lord of heaven and earth that our salvation...that our life...can truly be found.

Bragging on Himself may just be the most selfless thing God could ever do. Because His love and His grace will mean nothing to us if we do not have a deep appreciation of His power and His glory and His supreme standing as Lord of heaven and earth.

He is God and there is no other.

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Track details

(note: this is a live recording from a Crossings worship gathering)

may God bless...

...all who try to make it in the world of music.

Because regardless of genre or style, we have all played shows that looked alot like this:



I'm guessing that is not the 'crowd' they were envisioning during rehearsals.

a word from bonhoeffer...

As a paid minister of a community that strives to incarnate the values and mission of Jesus AND has also chosen to spend a considerable amount of our time and resources on the appeal of our Sunday morning worship gatherings, I often struggle internally with the whole "Missional vs. Attractional" thing. In a lot of ways, Crossings is both. And that paradox can be hard to live with.

Add to that the newfound, and exaggerated, contempt that pop Christianity has for the "Attractional" church...and that makes this struggle even harder. No matter where I turn, it seems like everything that is termed "Missional" is good and everything termed "Attractional" is bad.

Now, please understand that this struggle has nothing to do with labels. Rather, it is has to do with the way we do life has a community.

It is in this place of conflict, that I read the following words from Dietrich Bonhoeffer and in them found comfort and solace. They are found on the last page of his book 'Christ the Center' (note: in the book, he talks often of Christ's incarnation as His "humiliation" and thus refers to Christ as "the humiliated One").

"It is with this humiliated One that the Church goes its own way of humiliation. It cannot strive after visible confirmation of its way while He renounces it with every step. But neither can it, as the humble Church, look upon itself with futile self-complacency, as though its very lowliness were visible proof that Christ is present in it. Humiliation is no proof.

As Paul says of himself that he can be exalted or lowly, so long as it happens for the sake of Christ, so the Church also can be exalted or lowly, so long as in both cases it is the way of Christ with it. This way is the enemy of pride, whether it is wrapped in the purple robe or the crown of martyrdom is set upon it. The Church gazes always only at the humiliated Christ, whether it itself is exalted or made low.

It is not good for the Church to boast of its power and its influence too soon. Equally, it is not good when it is anxious to praise itself too readily for its humble state."

the way

Yesterday, at our worship gathering, Mark taught about the difficult words of Jesus in John 14:6...

"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Kevin Reeve, who is a part of Crossings community, wrote this poem based on those words. I wanted to share it with you for two reasons: 1) its freaking good. And 2) because I am so proud, humbled, and blessed to be a part of a community of people who are so talented and so creative...and in so many different ways. And who so freely share those talents and those gifts.

Here it is...


Way
everybody wins:
anything else
an approximate grace
a synthetic
manmade
substitute
half-Truth
on the way
but not the Way

the Way
is a man
not a mantra
a direction
not an equation
transforming action
not a transaction
a methodology
not a theology
a pearl in a field
to be discovered
or passed over
underfoot
under all

this mercy
the shocking openness
the sheer availability
sometimes lost in translation
the context is crucial
intended as comfort
a farewell assurance
a promise
a weightless yoke:
love my way
it’s the new rule
superseding
engulfing
covering
all before it

mistaken as a wall
misused as a sword
misapplied as limiting
and combined
with dangerous words—
election, chosen, few—
this mercy
has disabled many
its simplicity
simply missed:
the Way
the Truth
is His life


I make videos of myself mutilating Ken dolls and Kevin writes things like this?! Man, its a good thing that our community has a variety of gifts.

and the grammy goes to...

Well, Vance Powell actually...for his work on Jars of Clay's 'The Eleventh Hour' album.

But I took my picture with it.

I am in Nashville at Sputnik Studios with my friend, Greg Adkins, who is working on his second album. I am blogging from here because they have wi-fi...and I want you to think I'm cool.

Sputnik Studios is where Jars of Clay has recorded almost all their albums, as well as Bebo Norman and others. There are Platinum and Gold Records all over the walls. Andrew Osenga is laying down electric guitar stuff right now.

So...yeah, I'm a bit out of my element, but its a pretty freaking cool place. I thought about taking more pictures to show you, but I don't want to look like a TOTAL tourist (I mean I already took my picture with the Grammy for crying out loud!).

So allow me to paint a picture for you: take a "The Real World" house...add hundreds of thousands of dollars of music/recording equipment...put a Wurlitzer in the kitchen...and you've pretty much got it.

We are heading out tonight to get back to Knoxville, but I'll let Vance hold on to the Grammy for now.

my stance on...

Homosexuality.

That topic came up in our small group discussion on Sunday night.

So, what is my stance? Honestly, I think it might be best summed up by a correction to an old Christian-ese standby. If you claim to follow Christ, I know that at some point you have heard or said or spelled out on a church sign this catchy little quip:

“Hate the sin, love the sinner.”

Now, I get what that quip is saying. And really, I think it sounds pretty good (though we Christian are usually horrible at it). But I think a better saying might be this:

“Hate YOUR sin & love all sinners.”

I think that might be closer to what Jesus taught. See, when the topic of homosexuality comes up, we automatically start talking about sin. But if you want me to talk about sin…man, I have got things in my past that you wouldn’t believe; things that I still carry the weight of. So, if you want to talk about it…I can go on all day about my own sin.

To that you might say, “Yes, but there is a difference between sin and a lifestyle of sin.” To which I would respond, “Oh. You want to talk about a lifestyle of sin? Okay then, let me tell you about my lifestyle…”

See, we all live lifestyles of sin in one way or another. We all miss the mark. We all, consciously or subconsciously, skim over or stretch the meaning of parts of the Bible that stand in contrast to the way we live our life. We have a pretty remarkable ability for shrugging those verses off and explaining them away. “Jesus didn’t mean that literally.” “Jesus is talking in hyperbole.” “Jesus was speaking to a specific individual, not giving an universal guideline for all mankind.”

And so on and so forth. We may be right on some accounts. But I, for one, am not going to be so presumptuous as to say that I have found an accurate explanation that serves as a loophole for every verse that condemns my style of life, but as for the passages that condemn your lifestyle…well those are to be taken literally, so have fun burning in hell.

What styles of my life am I talking about? Coarse joking. Consumerism, materialism, greed. How about my unbelievable lack of compassion for the poor. The use of my time and resources. My insatiable desire to be honored among men.

I could go on, but my point is this: of all sinners, I am the worst. Paul actually said that, but I think I could stand toe to toe with him and put up a good fight for that title.

I am NOT saying homosexuality is not a sin. I am NOT saying that there are no absolutes and what is “right” for me, may not be what is “right” for you. You can not correctly accuse me of saying either of those things.

What I am saying is that if you want me to hate a sin, I have a whole list of them that plague my own soul; sins that, for me, hit much closer to home; sins that I know a heck of a lot more about than homosexuality; sins that I live with; sins that I am dying with; sins that, to be absolutely honest, I don’t quite “hate” enough yet.

Sins that, because of my adoration of Jesus and my dependence on and devotion to the blood He shed on the cross, I rest maybe a little too comfortably in knowing are covered by the grace of God.

“Hate the sin, love the sinner.”

I used to think the main problem with that saying is, generally speaking, we too often take an active stance with the first part (hating the sin) and a passive stance with the second part (loving the sinner). We paint signs and preach sermons about the first part and all too often simply assume the second part… “Yeah. Sure, of course I love them.” And I still believe that is part of the problem.

But I am beginning to see, at least for myself, the bigger problem is that the active stance I have been taking in "hating the sin" has simply been taken against the wrong sins: namely, everyone else’s.

ever wonder...

...what it would look if we took Jesus' words about sin literally?