Sorry for the lack of posts everyone. I’m trying to figure my life out.
This song is wonderful, and has been a huge comfort to me. Happy Advent and Christmas!
TheBereanWay
…they examined the Scriptures every day to see if the message was true. -Acts 17:11
Category Archives: Worship
Veni Sancte Spiritus
Today was the annual Mass of the Holy Spirit at Santa Clara University, which I had the privilege of attending. The choir at Santa Clara is always stunning, but I found today particularly powerful.
I don’t often attend Mass, but did today as a representative of the Christian club I am apart of on campus. Attending Mass is always a bittersweet affair for me because I am reminded of how much I love the style of worship, the atmosphere of the liturgy, and the distinctly Catholic way of communicating certain biblical truths that we share in common. On the other hand, there are many things that highlight the divide between Protestants and Catholics that keep us from sharing in the Lord’s Supper or being able to consider one another colaborers in the cause of the Gospel.
However, I digress. This is not a discussion on the differences between Catholics and Protestants, but one of my encounter with God during the Mass. As I said, we were celebrating the Mass of the Holy Spirit that is celebrated in the Catholic Church each year. This so-called “Red Mass” is often a time of lifting up students (among others) in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to come and animate all of their efforts, in hopes that the world may be transformed and lives changed by God’s work through us. While our disagreements may be vast, all can agree that we need and must constantly seek communion with the Holy Spirit in our daily lives. As the old creed says, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life…” It is by the presence and working of the Holy Spirit that we are given new birth into life and relationship with God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit, O Wonderful Counselor, descends from heaven as rain upon the souls of those who know Him, giving us Living Water that wells up to eternal life. Could we dare minimize the importance of the Spirit’s presence in our lives? We need the Spirit and the grace that He bestows upon us more than we need the air that fills our lungs. Is it not as Jesus said,” It is better for you that I go, otherwise the Helper will not come” (John 16:7)? Indeed, it is far better that Jesus leave us and send us the Spirit who leads us into true unity with Jesus and the Father. I am so thankful for the presence of the Holy Spirit.
And we sang a wonderful song during Mass that was in the form of Taizé worship. Without going into too many details, the Taizé community is an ecumenical group of Catholic and Protestant men who have formed a monastic community in France. They have become known for very simple worship songs that center around a repetition of a few works or a simple phrase that comes from the Psalms or other passages of Scripture.
For this occasion, we sang Veni Sancte Spiritus (the “Golden Sequence,” as it as been called) in Taizé style. It was one of the most profound experiences I have had in recent years.
The song begins with everyone singing softly, “Veni Sancte Spiritus,” which translates “Come Holy Spirit.” The whole gathering sets the steady, deep, and rich background for the soloists to sing prayers to the Holy Spirit over the repetition. I felt myself going deeper into the reality of the Spirit’s presence in my life and how much I rely on His presence. As the words washed over me, I felt as if God were reminding me again that the cry of my heart is that the Holy Spirit would come and put to death the deeds of my flesh, raise me up into new life, seal me with His presence, and lead me into correct worship of God.
And so we said again and again, “Veni Sancte Spiritus….” Come Holy Spirit.
I’ve been listening to the song on repeat, and it continues to bring me to tears. Interestingly enough, only two verses are in English. It’s a chorus of prayers to the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who gives life to all people who call upon Him, whether they call to Him in English or a tongue unknown. It’s a powerful testimony to the reality of God’s love for all people at all times, not withholding saving grace from anyone who He beckons to Himself. Indeed, it is a beautiful testimony to the Spirit’s descent on Pentecost, causing the believers who were gathered to sing and speak the praises of God in all the languages of the world—worshiping God in tongues of incredible diversity, beauty, and mystery to the speaker.
When the Holy Spirit falls, everything must change. He ushers in a new reality. He transforms everything that He touches.
So come to us, Holy Spirit. Veni Sancte Spiritus.
As surely as the sun will rise…
You’ll come.. Let your glory fall as you respond to me. Spirit rain, flood into my thirsty heart again.
I need this right now. My heart is way too burdened with the past and the shame and the sin and the depravity that I’ve known. He’s my only hope, my only sure comfort, my only true need. I’m lost without Him. I’ve got nothing—nothing to offer and nothing to gain. Please, Lord, don’t leave me in this place. Hear me, lest I be as those who have gone down into the pit. If You do not hear me from your throne, I’ll be crushed under the weight you bore on Calvary. If you don’t take it away, I won’t be able to bear it. I can hardly bear the memories…
Another great version I just found
Why DIY projects honor God
So I’m sitting here in my little Ft. Lauderdale apartment getting over a cold. Last night I took some Nyquil and slept for about 11 hours, awakening to find myself still sick though a bit better. So I’ve been sitting here with a slightly foggy mind—that’s fairly typical of sick Dave (as I like to call him); pretty incapable of any sort of complex thinking—and going through page after page of a fascinating website I like to call CraftGawker. Well… everyone calls it that because that’s what it’s called, but don’t burden me with your facts.
Looking at sites like this is awesome because it makes me realize how much creative people can accomplish for hardly any money at all, completely transforming their homes and making great products that other, less creative people could buy. It makes me excited because there are so many do-it-yourself (DIY) projects that I want to try. It almost makes me a little bit sad that I never took a woodshop class in high school, though I did work for a cabinet maker for 3 months during the summer before my senior year.
Just look at some of these pictures:
He is Alive
He is alive and we are free…
He is alive and we have found our peace…
Our King has come.
I surrender
This song is just incredible. Absolutely incredible.
Here I am, down on my knees again surrendering all, surrendering all. And find me here, Lord as you draw me near; I’m desperate for you, desperate for. I surrender.
Drench my soul as mercy and grace unfold, I hunger and thirst, I hunger and thirst. With arms stretched wide, I know you hear my cry; Speak to me now, speak to me now. I surrender.
I want to know you more, I want to know you more… I surrender.
Like a rushing wind, Jesus breathe within. Lord have your way, Lord have your way in me. Like a mighty storm, stir within my soul; Lord have your way, Lord have your way in me.
I’ve been listening to it on repeat all day since I heard it for the first time. It blows my mind. And it just reminds me of all that I really want God to do. My deepest desire in my heart is to honor and serve this living and beautiful God who has saved me and seeks to save others. I want nothing more than to truly love Him with all my heart and to seek Him as my highest source of joy and satisfaction. He offers more than I could ever imagine, and yet how often do I turn aside to other things when I forget? Momentary forgetfulness is the most dangerous thing imaginable. Satan doesn’t need to inspire hatred for God to trip us up… all he needs to do is encourage us for forget for just one moment that we already have everything we could ever want or need. And isn’t that what sin is? Forgetting for a moment that we are loved beyond all compare, blessed beyond what we could ever deserve, and instead turning aside to seek our joy and pleasure in other things? We turn from the living God to gods and vices of our own fashioning and design.
I just don’t want any of that junk any more. I hate the sin that I know is present in me. I want the Lord to help lift my eyes up to the heavens and see His immeasurable beauty so that I might be captivated once again and forced to fall upon my knees and offer up everything anew.
Take it all, God. Leave me with nothing in my heart but love for you and a desire and passion to become more and more like your Son. Let that be the cry of my heart above all else.
Christ our joy and strength
we were pressed on every side
full of fear and troubled thoughts
for good reason we carried heavy hearts
it is good to come together
in our friendship to remember
all the reasons hope is in our hearts
hallelujah hallelujah
Christ our joy and strength
hallelujah hallelujah
Christ our joy and strength
now with patience in our suffering
perseverance in our prayers
with good reason this hope is in our hearts
hallelujah hallelujah
Christ our joy and strength
hallelujah hallelujah
Christ our joy and strength
oh we saw the face of Angels
many good things well secured
for good reason this joy is in our hearts
hallelujah hallelujah
Christ our joy and strength
hallelujah hallelujah
Christ our joy and strength
hallelujah hallelujah
Christ our joy and strength
hallelujah hallelujah
Christ our joy and strength
for good reason joy is in our hearts
Freedom reigns in this place
Watching Kim Walker-Smith lead worship is practically magical. There’s so much joy in that girl! This song has been a huge blessing to me the last few days.
God of Wonders
One thing that I love more than almost anything about coming home is escaping the haze of city smog and the light pollution that keeps San Jose covered in a shroud that conceals the stars from our view. And while midnight gazing at city lights from a high point above the bustle down below certainly provides a sense of awe at the magnitude of the sprawling city that houses 1 million people, nothing is quite like marveling at the heavenly expanse that could have been created by the word and will of God alone.
Current estimates suggest that our universe is 150 billion light years in diameter, filled with hundreds of billions of galaxies (a most recent estimate says over 500 billion galaxies), and our own Milky Way galaxy contained somewhere between 200 to 400 billion stars. The average number of stars in any galaxy is between 100 billion and 1 trillion. With that average estimate, the number of the stars is between 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That’s a lot of stars. It could be as much as one trillion times a trillion stars occupying 150 billion light years of space, all put there by a God who knows their name, set them in motion, and upholds their existence at every moment by a power that I doubt any of us will ever be able to comprehend in the slightest.
And that same God who created the stars with a mere word and enables them to exist at every moment also governs out lives with the same care. Or did you think that it was your lungs that allow you to breathe? On the contrary, He is not “served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). Everything that we do is enabled by the sovereign appointment of God who enables us to exist and move and breathe and live in each successive moment: For it’s in him that we all live and move and having our being (Acts 17:28).
Check out this clip from R.C. Sproul on God’s relationship to our existence:
I just got back home after completing my junior year at Santa Clara University and, after talking for a few hours with my dad about everything that happened this year, I walked outside and looked up and saw the stars for the first time in a few months and didn’t even know what to say. I didn’t really have any words. What could I possible do to express the magnitude of what I was seeing? But it hit me. That much I know.
So, I took my puppy dog with me on a walk and found a nice place that was dark to sit and stare at the stars unimpeded by the orange street light next to my house. And then I just talked to God about everything: this year, all of the exciting good times, the victories, the sin and foolish decisions, all of the laughter, crying, regrets, and the excitement and fear for the future. This was an eventful year to say the least.
But through it all—the good, the bad, and the ugly—I feel like I can have an absolute assurance in the God who formed the stars and who promises to keep me: “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen” (Jude 1:24-25).
I got to see the work of His hands and marvel at the power He must have… it’s breathtaking. It’s beyond anything I could ever dream of. And then I got to marvel at His promises to me, His child that was adopted because of the blood of Christ, that He would keep me as His own and protect me from falling off this narrow path that He set me on. The one who makes the stars and holds them in His hand is applying that same power for my own good, keeping and protecting me, and making me love Him more and better each day.
How can we have any doubt or fear? Why do we worry about our futures—what we’ll do, how we’ll make enough money, who we’ll love and marry? Do we not realize who He is? Do we not realize what He’s done? Do we not believe that, if He can make the stars, that He can also save us and work our lives out for good in spite of our sin and foolishness?
All news is good news when we have Him as our God. Nothing is by accident. Nothing is for nothing.
There’s a lot in my near future that is uncertain and unsure. I know the convictions God has put in my heart and what I believe He intends to do with me. I will hold out hope and trust that the things I believe He will do and the things I believe He is calling me to. But, no matter what happens, whether or not He lets me have the things my heart hope and dream for and the things that I think must be from Him, I trust that He works for good in my life. I trust that He will bring about everything according to the perfect counsel of His will (Eph. 1:11). And He will keep me and make me more like His Son every day.
Keep me, Lord. Make me Yours. Sanctify me by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Embolden me with passion for your Gospel of grace. Let me love with intensity and serve with sacrifice. Make my tomorrow different than my yesterdays. Let my sin decrease and my faith increase. Lord, I believe… help me with my unbelief. Lead me not into temptation. Deliver me from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and all authority and power and dominion and majesty and glory, now and forever. Amen.
Click here to see some amazing galleries of Hubble Telescope images! Here are a few cool pictures below.
Seeing and Savoring Jesus
This is perhaps the most powerful sermon I have ever seen. I am going to watch it again tonight and I wanted to post it a second time.
John Piper: Seeing and Savoring the Supremacy of Christ in all Things, Passion Conference 2012
Check out my previous post on this same sermon:
“…Your name and renown are the desire of our souls” (Isa. 26:8).
I just watched the most awesome sermon by John Piper on the live stream of the Passion Conference where he was discussing a topic that we each need to meditate on regularly if we want out lives to become progressively conformed to the image of Christ: when we set our sights on the supremacy of the Name and glory of Jesus Christ, the little temptations and struggles of this world become extremely small.
The introduction to Piper’s well known book Desiring God begins with a discussion on the first question in the Westminster Larger Confession, “What is the chief and highest end of man?” The original answer is, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Piper says that we “might turn the world on its head by changing one word” in the creed. He suggests that the chief end of man is to “glorify God by enjoying Him forever.” If this is the case, we can truly say as Piper does, “God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him.”
To continue, Click HERE
