Behind the Praise - EASTER SUNDAY, April 4, 2010

THREE IDENTICAL WORSHIP SERVICES EASTER

8:00AM 9:30AM & 11:00AM

“Marvelous Light”

This song was written by Charlie Hall. Charlie Hall has been traveling for almost 15 years, from OKC to Kuala Lumpur, enthralling friends and strangers with his goatee and his songs. With a musical journey that has crisscrossed all kinds of rock music, folk music, and electronic music, he carries a songwriting sense that aims to capture dense images of life with God, in compositions that can be carried with the listener.He aims to tell the old story of the Gospel in an ever-shifting world, without resorting to easy truisms, or lazy language. His new collection of songs, The Bright Sadness, echoes a journey pressed to the chest of God, joyful and sorrowful at once, with God's heart clear and pulsing in each note and word. It wraps liturgy with the unexpected, and daily mundanity with daily surprise.

Click here to learn more about Charlie Hall:
www.charliehall.com/

Click here to visit Charlies’ myspace:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=60771694

Click here to worship along with Charlie Hall:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTkB6cBJGZg

Click here for a slower arrangement:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbEEeB0Dyew


“Crown Him with Many Crowns”

This worshipful text is the combined effort of two distinguished Anglican clergymen, each of whom desired to write a hymn of exaltation to our suffering but now victorious Lord.
Matthew Bridges' version first appeared in 1851 with six stanzas. Twenty-three years later Godfrey Thring wrote six additional stanzas, which appeared in his collection Hymns and Sacred Lyrics. The hymn's present forrn includes stanzas one, two, and four by Bridges and the third verse by Thring.

Each crown in this hymn text exalts Christ for some specific aspect of His person or ministry—
(1) Stanza one for His eternal Kingship;
(2) stanza two for His love demonstrated in redemptive suffering
(3) stanza three for His victorious resurrection and ascension, and
(4) stanza four as a member of the Triune Godhead ever worthy of worship and praise.

The tune, Diadernata (the Greek word for crowns), was composed especially for this text by George Elvey, a noted organist at St. George's Chapel in Windsor, England, where British royalty often attend.
Click here to read more about this hymn:
http://songsandhymns.org/hymns/detail/crown-him-with-many-crowns

Click here to listen to the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdK4lzg8gsU

Click here for another arrangement:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWCEFKsZqLY

“The Power of the Cross”

This from Keith Getty one of the composers of the song:

“The Power of the Cross" is a meditation on the sufferings of Christ. In communion we are commanded to 'remember His death 'til He comes'. In the New Testament, Paul and the Apostles often preached and prayed in more detailed and visual ways about the cross, turning all of our senses to Christ's sufferings and their significance.Stuart and I considered how the reality of His sufferings should penetrate our worship services and were challenged by the need to explain the overwhelming significance and implications these have for our lives. 'This the power of the cross Christ became sin for us Took the blame, bore the wrath We stand forgiven at the cross.'Our hope is that the hymn; "The Power of the Cross" will be a resource to the church as a declaration of what we believe and a song which challenges us by affording us time to really consider Christ's sufferings.

I grew up singing hymns in a family where they were greatly loved in fact much of what I understood about the Christian faith was engraved in my mind and heart by those lyrics. Around six years ago I had been involved in many different sectors of the music industry and had not really applied my abilities to writing songs for the church. I was challenged by a Pastor in Belfast to perhaps try and bring some of what the old hymns of the faith had brought to the church through the centuries to the contemporary church; songs that that would have room to breathe out the faith, the great stories of the Bible, the challenges of the gospel in a way that might be sung by potentially many age-groups and generations.

Click here to worship along on the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o5SSQlxNLs

Click here to watch a dramatic portrayal of the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBxEPh7vj2U&feature=related

"Mighty To Save"

This is another song from the Hillsong music ministry in Sydney Australia. This song is by Reuben Morgan & Ben Fielding. This song has a great re-occuring text. "OUR GOD IS MIGHT TO SAVE". This is taken from the passage in Zephaniah 3:17. “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."

Click here to read more about Reuben Morgan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuben_Morgan

Click here to worship along with the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR8rlTIU8_Y

Jesus is Alive
by The Celebration Worship choir & ONC Orchestra