When did you last dance?
I hope today you get so excited about the grace and mercy of your God, that you get so excited about the fact that he is for you, that you get so overwhelmed by his presence, so lost in your praise and adoration of Him, that you can’t help but dance. When my worship becomes more about my experience, I dance less – but when I allow myself to focus on his goodness, I find myself overwhelmed and I can’t help but dance. When did you last dance? Today’s a good a day to dance…
Won’t Be Moved
On September 19th, 2001 – I sat at a piano and Chels set on the bench next to me and we wrote our first song. It’s pretty simple, but there are seasons in life that I have to go back and sing the words over and over. I remember the date because it was the Wednesday after the bombing of the WTC. Everything felt like it was shaken then. Things feel a little unsteady today, so I sing in advance:
When the earth quakes
And my life shakes
When the darkness surrounds
And the shadows invade
I won’t be moved
But by you
Find me here
There’s no need to fear
You keep me from harm
Right here in your arms
When my heart hurts
And the pain lurks
When all grows still
And the tear start to fall
I won’t be moved
But by You
One Thing
I woke up this morning with an old Charlie Hall song on my heart:
Single Minded, whole hearted, one thing I ask
Single minded, whole hearted, one thing I ask
That I may gaze upon your beauty oh Lord
That I may seek your holy face
That I may know you an intimate way
And follow after you all of my days
And follow after you all of my days
Cause all of life comes down to just one thing
That’s to know you, oh Jesus, and make you known
Cause all of life comes down to just one thing
That’s to know you, oh Jesus, and make you known
The video isn’t from him, but it’s someone playing the song:
Sing my Song
I have a friend and we used to talk about our “songs” all of the time. We used to say we had to sing our “songs” to each other so we wouldn’t forget them. I need to hear my song sung back to me right now – seems like I can remember the lyrics, but the tune and passion around it seem long gone. Sorry to sound like an artist for a second, but one of my goals for 2010 is to find my song again.
mjd
A Return to the Blogosphere?
I’m quite sure I have allowed this blog to lapse into anonymity, but I’ve got to get back to writing for me. It’s my outlet, it makes me think, it makes me publish what’s going on inside me and process it all.
Work for the past 10 months has been brutal. I’ve worked in an environment always short on time and always short on funding trying to put together high quality e-learning – and we’ve done it. It hasn’t been easy, it’s required a lot of sleepless nights, tough conversations, and sacrifice, but looking back at the increased quality of our products, I’m proud of what we’ve done. Today, I got a glimmer of hope. I’m not looking forward to traveling again, but the time for a new customer has come. Here’s to an adventure, another life change, and all of the ups and downs that come with it!
mjd
Defining Value
In recent months, I’ve become overwhelmed with value. A few definitions:
*to consider with respect to worth, excellence, usefulness, or importance
*to regard or esteem highly
I’ve always been someone who was focused on purpose. I think finding yours and living it is key, but over and above your purpose, you have value. You were designed with values, to be valued, and with certain things that you value in others. Here are a few questions that are racking my brain over and over right now:
1. What is it that I value?
2. What value (worth/usefulness) do I bring to the table in my friendships/work/ministry?
3. Who values (esteems/regards) me?
Music from Oasis Church
There’s some good stuff going on at Oasis with our musicians starting to cut some of their own music. I hope I get to share more of it in the future as it becomes available, but here are two recorded by Joel Buckner. You can buy a copy of his demo CD off his Myspace page. For my Pine Bluff folks, he’s going to be there in July…
Psalm 9
I Will Live
Set List: 05/31/09
Another powerful week in our video venue at Oasis Church, the Pulse Cafe. Even with rotating new musicians every week, the confidence level and team dynamics are improving every week – I hope we’re able to transfer this to our campus launch in Murfreesboro this fall! Without further ado, here’s this week’s set list in participation with Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Setlists.
Again I Say Rejoice
We use the Promise Keeper’s arrangement, but this is Israel…
Moving Forward
Still a crazy powerful song. I love when the voices of the worshipers are so loud you can hear them over the team…
How Great Is Our God
We’ve all heard the song before, so this video is the “story behind the song.”
Two final thoughts:
1. I’ve got to quit stripping my voice half way through the service – I couldn’t hear myself well and instead of pushing for more monitor, I damaged my voice – stupid. Janelle flippin covered for me and I can’t tell you how much I appreciated it!
2. It was AMAZING to lead worship with my wife beside me again. It’s been too long. We just hadn’t been able to line it up to play together. I love leading with her… and no one can read me like she can. Plus, she’s pretty hot when she’s rocking out on the guitar…
mjd
Don’t Be Afraid of the Quiet (Pt 2)
One of the worst dangers of giving someone a mic, is the fact that they may use it… Far too many of us who lead worship are afraid to let the air get a little thin for just a moment – don’t let people stand in the quiet too long, they may get distracted. The truth is, we need far more quiet times in our corporate worship. No “leader” singing or talking, just a group of 400 people standing together at one moment reflecting on the greatness of their God.
In the training field, we use deliberate pauses to let content soak into our students head, to allow them to form questions and relate new content to previous life experience. We’ve found that the level of learning increases when people have time to process what you’re talking about…
When you lead this weekend, don’t be afraid of the quiet. Allow some room for God to do his thing, for minds to be opened, for people to be just a little uncomfortable as they realize how the song and the message were put into action in their past and will be fulfilled in their future…
mjdaniel