Rock of Ages, when the day seems long
From this labor and this heartache I have come
The skies will wear out, but You remain the same
Rock of Ages, I praise Your name.

Rock of Ages, my great hope secure
Your promise holds just like an anchor to my soul
Bind your children with cords of love and grace
Rock of Ages, we give You praise

Sandra McCracken

Download a sampler of Sandra’s most recent album for free here.

Washed My Hands In Muddy Water

I was born in Macon Georgia
They kept my daddy over in Macon jail
He told me if you keep your hands clean
You won’t hear them bloodhounds on your trail 

Well I fell in with bad companions
Robbed a man, oh up in Tennessee
They caught me way up in Nashville
They locked me up and threw away the key

I washed my hands in muddy water
Washed my hands, but they didn’t come clean
Tried to do what my daddy told me
But I must have washed my hands in a muddy stream

Well I asked the judge now when’s my time up
He said son, oh you know we won’t forget
If you try just to keep your hands clean
We might just make a good man of you yet

Oh I couldn’t wait to get my time up
I broke out, broke out of Nashville jail
I just crossed the state-line of Georgia
Well I can hear those bloodhounds on my trail

I washed my hands in muddy water
Washed my hands, but they didn’t come clean
Tried to do what my daddy told me
But I must have washed my hands in a muddy stream

The new Avett Brothers album I and Love and You has recently been released.  The one song in particular that has been playing on my Ipod quite a bit is “Ill With Want.”  I don’t know if the Avett Brothers are believers, but “Ill with Want” perfectly summarizes the Apostle Paul’s struggle in the final verses of Romans 7.  The song speaks specifically of greed, but greed could easily be substituted with any idol such as lust, pride, or fear.  Read lyrics below:

I am sick with wanting
And it’s evil and it’s daunting
How I let everything I cherish lay to waste
I am lost in greed this time, it’s definately me
I point fingers but there’s no one there to blame

I need for something
Now let me break it down again
I need for something
But not more medicine

I am sick with wanting
And it’s evil how it’s got me
And everyday is worse than the one before
The more I have the more I think:
I’m almost where I need to be
If only I could get a little more

I need for something
Now let me break it down again
I need for something
But not more medicine

Something has me
Oh something has me
Acting like someone I don’t wanna be
Something has me
Oh something has me
Acting like someone I know isn’t me
Ill with want and poisoned by this ugly greed

Temporary is my time
Ain’t nothin on this world that’s mine
Except the will I found to carry on
Free is not your right to choose
It’s answering what’s asked of you
To give the love you find until it’s gone

I need for something
Now let me break it down again
I need for something
But not more medicine

Something has me 
Oh something has me
Acting like someone I don’t wanna be
Something has me 
Oh something has me
Acting like someone I know isn’t me
Ill with want and poisoned by this ugly greed
Ill with want and poisoned by this ugly greed

Today marks the 31st anniversary of the untimely death of the greatest entertainer of the 20th century.  Elvis Presley, by mixing the blues music that he had come to love with the gospel music that was sung in his church, stumbled across a sound that would change the face of American music forever. Elvis was shot to super stardom over night.  He had money and fame and anything that he could ever need.  Elvis Presley embodied the American dream.  He was “The King of Rock-n-Roll” and king of the world.  Along with his success, Elvis also encountered a great deal of temptation.  He denied himself nothing that interested him. He overindulged in women, food, and drugs.  He had the world in his hands, but he died a very sad and very lonley man.  Elvis was a great singer and entertainer, but his life is evidence of the heavy price that sin demands of us. 

The first video posted below shows Elvis in one of his first television apprearances.  Elvis is young and has his whole life in front of him.  The second video shows Elvis on his last television appearance 21 years later.  He is bloated from over-eating and drug use, and he is just a characiture of his former self. 

From Reformation 21:

Reformed Worship: Worship That Is According to Scripture
By Terry Johnson
72 p.
Reformed Academic Press (2002)
Reviewed by Rob Hill

It has recently been noted in Christianity Today, among other places, that Reformed theology is enjoying a resurgence among the younger generation of Christians in America. [1]   For that we can give thanks to God.  It is questionable, however, whether Reformed worship is enjoying a similar resurgence.  But can the two be legitimately separated?  Terry Johnson, pastor of Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Georgia, thinks they cannot.  In his recent re-release book Reformed Worship: Worship that is According to Scripture (Reformed Academic Press: 2008), Johnson argues that we must return to “the simple, spiritual, reverent worship of the Calvinistic heritage… It alone can sustain and nurture Reformed faith and piety” (p. 59).

What makes Reformed worship distinctive?  Johnson takes as his starting point John 4:24, where Jesus says, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  To “worship in truth” means that we worship according to Scripture, namely, only those ways that God has prescribed in his Word (also known historically as the Regulative Principle of Worship).  But it also means that our worship should be filled with Scripture.  One of the most disturbing aspects of much contemporary evangelical worship is its lack of biblical content; instead, Johnson says worship should be characterized by reading the Bible, preaching the Bible, singing the Bible, praying the Bible, and celebrating the sacraments as visible words.  Biblical worship must also be “in spirit.”  This means, in Johnson’s words, that worship should be “internal or of the heart,” “simple,” and “reverent.”  

Possibly the most significant insight of this book is that Reformed worship must be distinguished from both its low-church and high-church alternatives.  It does not neatly fit the categories of “contemporary” or “traditional,” categories often used by those who assume that worship-style is morally neutral and merely a matter of taste.  Low-church charismatic or revivalistic worship is often driven by personal and emotional experience rather than the truth of God.  In fact, throughout the book, Johnson responds to many of the arguments made by John Frame, who is the most popular Reformed defender of contemporary worship.  High-church liturgical worship, on the other hand, is often filled with extra-biblical ritual that appeals to the senses, but in the end obscures Christ and becomes nothing more than a form of entertainment.  In contrast to these alternatives, Johnson makes a positive case for distinctively Reformed worship that is simple, reverent, and filled with Scripture.
 
This is a timely book for today’s evangelical church. If you are looking for a fresh contribution to the in-house debates among Regulative Principle enthusiasts (such as exclusive psalmody, the use of musical instruments, or the legitimacy of choirs), you will not find it here.  The size of the book, only 71 pages, excludes such discussions.  But what you will find is a brief, spirited, and thoroughly biblical defense of distinctively Reformed worship.  Can Reformed theology be grafted onto any form of worship and still flourish?  Johnson says no, and I believe he makes his case.

Derek Webb, singer/songwriter of The Ringing Bell, and Brannon McAllister, founder of Portland Studios, have created a new and innovative website that allows artists to give away their music to their fans.  The name of the website is noisetrade.com.  The fans agree to tell three friends about the album or pay whatever they want, and they can download the entire album for free.  I’ve already downloaded two albums and am very impressed with the easy and usability of the site.  In the “about us” section of the website, the following statement was posted.

Music fans want high-quality, free (or variably priced) music and to be rewarded, not punished, for sharing the music they love with their friends. We believe that if artists and fans work together, everyone can get what they want.

“A great record is its own best marketing tool,” says Derek Webb, singer/songwriter and Co-Founder of NoiseTrade. “All the marketing dollars in the world can’t accomplish what one great record can, especially if it’s set free to roam around and connect with the right people.” In 2006 Webb gave away his ‘Mockingbird’ record for free online, asking in return for a little information (name, email address, and postal code), and as part of the process, for fans to invite their friends to download as well.

In three month’s time Webb gave away over 80,000 full downloads of his record and collected valuable information for as many new fans. In addition, Derek has since seen many sold out shows and increased merchandise and record sales, including a curious spike in sales of the very record that was given for free.

It was the massive success of this experiment that inspired Webb, with the help of a few trusted friends, to start NoiseTrade. Now any artist can freely distribute their music online, via NoiseTrade’s remarkable and embeddable widget, offering fans the choice to tell 3 friends or to pay any amount in exchange for an immediate download.

“Who needs peer-to-peer when you can have artist-to-fan?” Derek concludes, “If artists and fans realized how they could help each other and started making direct connections, without a middleman, the whole industry would change overnight. It would start a revolution.”

I’ve been listening to this Cd for the last month.  I really like the music that Red Mountain Church releases, but this is definitley one of my favorites.  The songs all share common themes of sin, doubt, and confession.  Like Indelible Grace Music has done in the past, Red Mountain Church has used the poetry of the old hymns and set them to new music.   The Christ-centered poetry of such writers as Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, John Newton and William Cowper is preserved, and new music is added to make them a little more accessible to christians in the 21st century.  The Cd is available on the Red Mountain Chuch website and on Amazon. It is also available for download on Itunes.  The following paragraph is from the the Red Mountain Church website.

We decided to call this record Help My Unbelief. Many of the texts in these particular songs carry themes of doubt and longing. We believe that the Christian life is a complexity of emotions, a marriage of sorrow and joy. Valleys and mountaintops. Light and darkness. The hymn writers of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries seem to have captured these tensions with more honesty and depth than many contemporary writers. Because these writers have given us glimpses of their own doubt and unbelief, working through their hymns has given us much hope. Hope that we are not alone. Hope that sorrow, pain and hardship are not exclusive to our small, believing community here in Birmingham, AL. Rather, that Christians from different parts of the world, hundreds of years ago struggled with the same things. This is one reason why we sing hymns, to remember that the Church is bigger than just us at this moment. We hope you will join us in confessing, “Lord I believe; help my unbelief.” Believing that in our doubts and fears Jesus will meet us with patience and grace. This collection of hymns is for God’s prodigals and sojourners as they wait patiently for the Kingdom to come.

Below are a few samples of the songs on the Cd:

With Melting Heart and Weeping Eyes

Help My Unbelief

It Is Finished – Part II (Hark, the Voice of Love and Mercy)

Love Me to the End