No One Higher - TuesdayTunes

Lyrics for "No One Higher " by Aaron Shust

Our Father, Creator
You hold our hearts together
There's no one higher than You

Redeemer, Defender
Our great and mighty Savior
There's no one higher than You

You are always with us
Gracious to forgive us
By Your power we've been set free

And Lord we stand amazed in Your presence
Astounded by Your mercy and love
Our hands are lifted high in surrender
Your grace for me is always enough
And there is no one higher than our God
There is no one higher than our You

Majestic in wonder
You reign with love forever
There's no one higher than You

Your beauty, Your splendor
Your glory knows no measure
There's no one higher than You

You are always with us
Gracious to forgive us
By Your power we've been set free

And Lord we stand amazed in Your presence
Astounded by Your mercy and love
Our hands are lifted high in surrender
Your grace for me is always enough
And there is no one higher than our God
There is no one higher than our You

Let my life forever praise the glory of Your name
There is no one higher than You

There is no one higher
No one greater
No one like our God
There is none more able
Christ our Savior
Great and glorious

And Lord we stand amazed in Your presence
Astounded by Your mercy and love
Our hands are lifted high in surrender
Your grace for me is always enough
And there is no one higher than our God
There is no one higher than our You

Let my life forever praise the glory of Your name
There is no one higher than You

It's Good to Give Thanks

Lydia Sings "It's Good to Give Thanks"

Lydia sang this song with her pre-school classmates to start Zion Lutheran's Saturday evening service tonight. Five years ago at basically the same time Lisa and I were eating mostaccioli at Sarah and Matt's house, watched Iron Man and drove the whole way home talking about how the baby inside was going crazy and flipping all around. We thought we might be headed to the hospital that night. Lisa had contractions basically all night and the next day we finally made our way to the hospital (via a trip to Sam's and then the doctor's office).

It is good to give thanks.
I am thankful to God for this wonderful little girl who is growing up so quickly...

When the Stars Burn Down - TuesdayTunes

Today is a double dose of the same song.

Here it is performed by Travis Cottrell:

Here it is performed by Phillips, Craig and Dean , which is where most people have heard it:

Lyrics to "When the Stars Burn Down (Blessing and Honor)" written by Jennie Riddle and Jonathan Lee:

When the stars burn down and the earth wears out
And we stand before the throne
With the witnesses who have gone before
We will rise and all applaud

Singing blessing and honor, glory and power
Forever to our God
Singing blessing and honor, glory and power
Forever to our God

When the hands of time wind fully down
And the earth is rolled up like a scroll
The trumpets will call and the world will fall
To its knees as we all go home

Star of the morning, Light of salvation
Majesty
God of all mysteries, Lord of the universe
Righteous King

There will come a day standing face to face
In a moment, we will be like Him
He will wipe our eyes dry, take us up to His side
And forever we will be His

Singing blessing and honor, glory and power
Forever to our God
Singing blessing and honor, glory and power
Forever to our God

Anthony Evans and The Voice

My wife and I have watched several episodes of The Voice so far this season and have found them quite enjoyable. Last night we caught "the battles" episode that featured Anthony Evans up against Jesse Campbell. I briefly met Anthony Evans one Sunday after our church service. He was in town for a songwriters seminar and sang a couple of his songs in the service. He was/is a very likeable guy, with an incredible heart for God and some seriously amazing talent.

Last night, Anthony "lost" his battle and exited the show. It's hard to say he "lost" when he sang better than most people can sing in their dreams. Jesse did an amazing job as well. In my opinion, these two could have easily been the final two on the show. America will miss out on some incredibly talented performances now that Anthony is gone.

Enjoy this amazing 2 and a half minutes of live vocal awesomeness.

O Holy Night - TuesdayTunes

If you have never seen or heard this rendition of the classic "O Holy Night", then you need to repent and give it a listen. David Phelps absolutely nails this song. I especially love the moment at 5:07 when Mark Lowery (red shirt and tie behind Phelps) expresses what everyone else in the building must have been feeling at that moment. This is a tremendous live performance of a song everyone knows. Few people could sing this song in this manner and do so sounding anything near as amazing as Phelps does in this video.

Labor of Love - TuesdayTunes

This song has been playing in my head and on my iPod for weeks now.
The following lyrics have really caused me to dwell on the incredible reality of the Incarnation:

"But the baby in her womb, He was the maker of the moon
He was the Author of the faith that could make the mountains move"

Lyrics for "Labor of Love" from "Behold the Lamb of God" by Andrew Peterson:

It was not a silent night
There was blood on the ground
You could hear a woman cry
In the alleyways that night
On the streets of David's town

And the stable was not clean
And the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
Had no mother's hand to hold

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love

Noble Joseph at her side
Callused hands and weary eyes
There were no midwives to be found
In the streets of David's town
In the middle of the night

So he held her and he prayed
Shafts of moonlight on his face
But the baby in her womb
He was the maker of the moon
He was the Author of the faith
That could make the mountains move

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love
For little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
It was a labor of love

On the Other Side of Through - TuesdayTunes

This song reminds me of my days serving along side the other members of the Isle of Dreams. I believe that I first heard it at one of our Sunday morning services at the St. Louis Avenue nursing home. There's so much encouragement in this song that I can't help but get fired up when I hear it.

Unfortunately, embedding is disabled, so you will have to click here to hear it. You'll be glad you did.

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Lyrics for "On the Other Side of Through" by James Bignon


Floating on a sea of trouble
Sorrow falling like rain from the sky
Trodding through life's murky waters
Trials form the tears in your eyes
Don't stop
I'm telling you
There's a blessing on the other side of through

We may not see the other side
The light from darkness may seem to hide
But don't give up
What ever you do
The presence of God is there with you
Don't stop
This word is for you
There's a blessing on the other side of through

On the other side of through
There's a blessing waiting for you
Hold fast
Hold fast
Your troubles will not last
There's a blessing
There's a blessing
On the other side of through

What God has prepared for you
Is better than what you're going through
So run this race with determination
God has prepared your destination
Don't give up
I'm telling you
There's a blessing on the other side of through

On the other side of through
There's a blessing waiting for you
Hold fast
Hold fast
There's a blessing
There's a blessing
On the other side of through

Weeping may endure for a night
But joy comes in the morning light
Hold your head up
Stick your chest ouyt
Hang on in there
Hold fast in the good times
Hold in the bad
Hold on when your happy
And hold on when you're sad
Hold and rememeber that in Jesus' name
Your faithfulness will not be in vain

College Students Impact the World

When I heard Louie Giglio read the stats of what was accomplished in 4 days by college students at the final session of Passion2011 in Atlanta, I was surprised by the shear amount of it all. In the days since, the tally has grown even more. Here's the final recap:

Here’s what happened:

Cause//Goal//Given

Homeless//Towels and Socks for Atlanta area shelters. Given: 18,400 towels and 88,000 pairs of socks!

Clean water//$75,000 for 15 wells in villages in India. Given: 24 wells!

Micro-finance//200 small business loans for Afghan entrepreneurs totaling $40,000.
Given: 387 loans!

Bibles//20,000 New Testaments to unreached in Colombia at $20,000. Given: 31,554 New Testaments!

Feeding Children//Feed 1,000 at risk children in South Africa for one year at $50,000. Given: Feeding 2,225 children!

Homes//Build 15 homes in Haiti at $54,000. Given: 39 homes!

Sponsor Children//Sponsor 150 children and provide family essentials at a cost of $100,00. Given: 442 children sponsored!

Human trafficking//Restoration and a future for 10 girls trapped in sex slavery in Bolivia at a cost of $36,000. Given: 22 girls rescued/restored!

Surgeries for Children//$50,000 to fund 50 Hydrocephalus surgeries in Uganda. Given: 141 surgeries!

Rescue women//$45,000 to fund 10 rescue operations to free sex slaves in the Philippines (each operation frees 15 women on average). Given: 29 rescue operations!

Plus, College fund for Haitian earthquake survivor, Therissa Leo. Given: $23,106!
(This was not planned beforehand or factored into the $470,000 goal.)

Total Given at Passion 2011 Atlanta: $1,167,249.24

 I love the work that Passion is doing and the desire that they have to impart upon this generation the supremacy of Christ and a passion for the Scriptures. I pray that God would continue to bless their efforts to change the world for God through college students.

What Else Can I Do? (A Capella) - Tuesday Tunes

For Christ's Sake A Capella singing "What Else Can I Do?"