The other night, we were reading our nightly Scripture, and the story had a lot of really funny names, and for some reason I asked the kids, “Who is the smallest man in the Bible?” Of course, for all you trivia buffs out there, I’m sure you already knew this, it’s Bildad the Shuhite. Well Micah found that to be pretty hilarious. By the time he had finished, he said, “I could be Micah the He-hite, Ellie is Ellie the She-hite, and Anna is Anna the Knee-Hite.”

I got home a few minutes later than I planned, and the guy from B&B was waiting on me. As soon as I got home, I apologized to him and we walked around back to look at the site. We chatted for a few minutes about what I had in mind. He asked me if I was going to build a deck extension on my own or hire it out, and I said something like, “That’s what’s so remarkable about bringing you guys out here to quote this project. I really prefer to do everything myself.” Then he said, “Actually this is remarkable.” And I didn’t really know what he meant.

Then he told me that one day he was driving past NewSpring church and he saw on the sign that we had a website, so he went home and pulled it up and watched a whole service. He said that what he saw really caught his attention because it wasn’t like any church he had ever seen before. He went on to tell me that he has watched every week or every other week since then, but he’s never visited. He doesn’t like organized religion.

He said that lately his life has been pretty difficult, and just last night he prayed and asked God to show him that He’s there and what he needs to do. He said, “I wish you could feel what I felt when I saw you get out of your car and walk toward me and I recognized who you were. And I saw your NewSpring shirt.” It obviously rocked his world quite a bit.

We talked about the project some more, and he said, “Now I feel an obligation…” I said, “For what?” He said that he would fear the wrath of God if he didn’t come and see us at church after God answered his prayer that clearly.

Anyway, I thought that was pretty amazing. Only God could orchestrate something like that! Unbelievable.

So, I thought I’d summarize what I’ve read, throw in a dash of my own comments, and stir until thoroughly blended.

No conversation about Fields of Grace would be complete without simply throwing in the observation that this is one of Mark‘s favorite songs. Now, some of you chuckle at that because it seems like EVERY song is Mark’s favorite. But actually, I asked him this question the other day, and he named Fields of Grace and Let It Rise as his two current favorites.

Now, let’s get ready to rumble.

In the red corner…Fields of Grace…

Fields of Grace has been around for a while, and so it was nice to be able to do a rockin’ cover of this tune.

General Theme: Grace frees us to enjoy the life of following Jesus. That’s what dancing with my Father, God, is all about.

Musical highlights: The very quick, very driving intro, and WHAM, we’re in! Oh, yeah, and I also like the part where I sing “My Father sings over me” (BTW, that’s an awesome allusion to the verse in Zeph. 3) and the vocal team does some kind of cool little echoey thing. Then there’s the repeat of the religion dies verse, where we vocally go up and kind of get to do one of those growl things. I’m sure that’s terrible on my voicebox, but it does a lot for my soul.

Favorite line: Of course, the favorite lyric in the whole thing has got to be: “There’s a place where religion finally dies!”

And in the blue corner…Praise Your Name…

I have to admit that I’ve liked this song for quite a while. In fact, we’ve sung this song at NewSpring forever. It probably holds the title for longevity out of the current set that we sing in 2009. The first time we sang it was June 25, 2006. So, we’re going on 3 years being in the continual rotation. Wow. I just realized that.

I first heard it on a “What to Expect” video from Northpoint Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, and I immediately began trying to track it down. Finally found out that it was written by Todd Fields, one of the worship pastors at that church. (On an interesting side note, another worship pastor at that church is Steve Fee who wrote Glorious One, Beautiful the Blood, Faithful, and All Because of Jesus, and another worship pastor there is Kristian Stanfill, who put together Jesus Paid it All in the arrangement we sing. Pretty sweet, trivial, stuff, huh. See, THAT’S why you read this blog. Now go. Impress your friends.)

General Theme: Uh, praising the name of Jesus. Seriously, though. It cites the passage that if people don’t praise, the rocks might cry out in praise. And, believe me, we don’t want that to happen. I guess that would actually BE a Rock Concert. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Musical Highlights. Love the grungy vocal intro thing just waiting for the inevitable moment when all the guitars come in with their full distorted force. That’s a thing of beauty. Then there’s the very fun guitar riff that was one of the first riffs I learned to play, so it’s kinda special. Incidentally, I still brick it pretty much everytime. That’s why I have true guitar heroes playing on stage up there every weekend. It covers me. One of the odd things about the song, though, is that people would like to clap with it, but it’s much slower than you think it’s going to be. Usually, by about halfway through the second chorus, everyone has given up on clapping. And I HATE that.

My new favorite musical moment was just recently created by our drummer, John Parker. He does a very interesting double time thing on the last chorus, and it makes everything feel pretty topsy turvy, but in a Six Flags, oh yeah kinda way.

Favorite lyric: Hallelujah. (Just wanted to see if you read this far. Actually, I like “And the rocks will not cry out before me…” It sorta sounds in-your-face, but I guess it’s really not.

…And the winner is…

Uh, well, I guess we could still use a few more opinions. What’s yours?

General Theme: Lyrically, it’s obviously not a complicated song. It’s simply a call to worship. A reminder to get off our sitting apparatus and praise Jesus with our whole hearts. (Psalm 103:1 is a great verse for this.)

Musical highlights: Well, the first cool thing is the first verse where we just run a grungy loop and Weezie puts a sweet radio effect on the lead vocal (me). BUT, the highlight has to be when all of the band falls in with that driving Southern Rock riff. That’s good stuff. I like the key change in the middle. And then, of course, the little hiccup stop on beat 4 right at the end. That always makes me smile. On the downside, sometimes I feel like the “Ohhh, let it rise” parts at the end feel a little protracted. Also, it’s a tough song to clap with. You feel like clapping but the tempo is just slow enough that you have to do that cool shuffle with your feet to stay energized and on the beat.

An interesting sidenote. I asked Mark, our Senior Pastor, what were his current favorite songs we do, and this was one of the two. That should count for something!

So, let me hear it from you. What do you think about “Let It Rise”?

General theme: Our response to the cross is that we should be broken about our sin, but it’s sweet because the price has already been paid by the Judge.

Musical strength: Very singable, although maybe a little low and understated at the beginning.

Favorite line: Any of the lines in the verses or the bridge: “In awe of the cross I must confess, how wondrous Your redeeming love and how great is your Faithfulness.”

Anybody else want to chime in on this one?

http://www.planningcenteronline.com/plans/601315/public