Father in Heaven

I've been listening to a series of sermons by Tim Keller on the Lord's prayer, and one of his messages especially touched me. "Father in heaven..." Keller really drove home the difference between the kind of prayer that Jesus was advocating and the kind of prayer that was predominant in his day and age (and is arguably predominant today as well).

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:7-8)

If we come to prayer anxiously, it is because we don't realize it is our Father we are speaking to, and when we come to prayer with a set a of demands, it is because we think we're speaking to a business partner rather than a friend. The ability to call on God as Father completely transforms our approach to him. We need not assert ourselves (doing so is really ridiculous when you realize that God is not obligated in any way to us), but we can have an incredible confidence that God hears our prayers with a caring heart. Dad pays attention to the concerns of his kids.

The main scriptures I pulled from were Matthew 6:7-13 and 1 John 3:1.

(hope you enjoy the new instrument...)
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Verse 1: (A F#m D E)
Father in heaven, O what a name
I am invited to call You each day
What wondrous love You lavish on us
That You would call us daughter and son

Refrain:
E/G# A E/G# A
Give us today our daily bread
E/G# A E
Forgive us all our trespasses
E/G# A E/G# A
And lead us not into temptation
E/G# A E
Heavenly Father, deliver us

Verse 2: (A F#m D E)
Heavenly Father, hallowed be
Your name forever from sea to sea
As in the heavens, Your kingdom come
Here on the earth now, Your will be done

(Refrain)

Ending:
E/G# A E/G# A E/G# A E
Yours is the king- dom, the pow- er, and glory
E/G# A E/G# A E/G# A E
Now and forev- er and ev- er, Amen

More Than Watchmen (Psalm 130)

I wrote this song a few weeks ago, also in response to one of my pastors' request for "hope songs" for us to sing in worship on Sunday mornings (He's doing a sermon series on hope). Most songs take at least a week or a few days of coming back to it a number of times for me to finish them, but this was one of the rare ones that came rather quickly, probably because the theme of hope resonates so strongly with me, and because Psalm 130 has been one of my favorite Psalms for years. I have been especially moved by its description of waiting on the Lord:

I wait for the Lord

More than watchmen wait for morning,

More than watchmen wait for morning.

I heard a story yesterday about a navy chaplain who was visiting soldiers who were standing guard through the night on the frontlines of a battlefield. He described the incredible tension, as a moving camel in the distance seemed so certainly to look like an enemy soldier, and a twinkle of light would set the whole camp on alarm. In the final hours of night, everyone was desperate to see the morning light, longing for the clarity of vision it would bring. These words from Psalm 130 became all the more real to the chaplain after this experience.

I have written below about how the Christian is always, in this life, waiting. For every answered prayer, there are many unanswered ones. And the ultimate fulfillment for what we can best desire will always remain unfulfilled until Christ returns. But we can still wait with confidence, believing that the morning will come and that the God who is in the business of making things new, will finally, one day, make all things new in Christ.

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Verse 1: Bm7 G D A

Out of the depths I call to You

Listen to my plea

Out of the depths I cry the name of Jesus

Battered by my circumstance

Broken at Your feet

But voice enough to sigh the name of Jesus

Pre-Chorus: Em7 D/F# G A

Where else would I go

You're my only hope

Chorus: Bm7 G D A

More than watchmen wait for morning

I will wait for You, my God

In Your promise I will glory

All my hope is in Your love

Verse 2:

If you kept a record of

All our sinful ways

Who, O Lord, could stand to face Your glory

But full of mercy, rich in love

You have come to save

So in my weary bones I whisper, "worthy"

Bridge: Bm7 A/C# G Bm7 A

My soul waits for the break of day

You will surely come as the rising sun

Bm7 A/C# G A

My soul longs for the coming dawn

You will surely come to us

Love and Justice

I wrote this song a couple of months ago in response to a study that one of my pastors encouraged me to do on the connection between worship and justice, that is, the necessary integration of justice into the lives of those who claim to worship God. As Christians, we are called to live lives that are concerned with justice for those who are oppressed, and this should be the natural outflow and expression of our worship, especially as we consider the character of God, who's love and justice are displayed perfectly and simultaneously at the cross. In order to appreciate God's justice, however, I believe we need to first understand our own personal injustice against God and his justified indignation against our sin.

A couple of passages were in my mind as I wrote the lyrics for this song. The first was Isaiah 53, where it says that It was God's will to crush "him" (the coming messiah), and to lay upon "him" the iniquity of us all. This convinces me of how seriously God takes sin, and how justified He is in punishing it. Yet he chose to bear the punishment himself in Christ. This leads me to the second passage I had in mind... Luke 7:36-50, where Jesus is annointed by a "sinful" woman. This woman had a very real sense of her need for grace, and it is her acknowledgement of that need that leads her to worship Jesus, the source of that grace. Jesus goes on to tell a parable about two men who had different quantities of debt, both of which were forgiven by their master. When Jesus' audience is asked which one will love the master more, the obvious answer follows: "...the one who had the bigger debt cancelled." So in writing this song I wanted to own this truth and to personally ackowledge that I had a great debt cancelled at the cross. I wanted to say with Paul, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience." (1 Timothy 1:15-16) Hence the lyrics for the bridge: Mine was the greatest debt forgiven...

We must have a clear appreciation of the seriousness of our sin in order to appreciate God's forgiveness of it. But we must also take God seriously and understand that He cannot simply forget our sin...it must be punished for his holiness to hold legitimacy. But glory to God! He satisfied both his desire to love and his need to punish sin by bearing the punishment himself on the cross. So we see both God's hatred of sin (in crushing Jesus) and his extravagent forgiveness (in bearing our sin for us in Christ) displayed perfectly at the cross. I want this to always remain at the center of my worship, and to say with Paul, "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ..." (Galatians 6:14)

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Just One, You were crucified for us
O sinless savior You were beaten You were crushed
Unto death our God has loved us
Unto death which we deserved
Into life our God has called us
Into love forevermore

Here where love and justice meet
I will bow and kiss your feet
You who suffered violently, I love You
Here my sinless Savior dies
In three days I see Him rise
Now exalted in my eyes, I love You Lord

Mine was the greatest debt forgiven...