For those of you who don’t know me very well, I love to sing and am on the Worship Team at my church. I also happen to work at the front desk of my church. One of my many tasks is to harass people to turn in their newsletter updates so that they can be published. When I was doing my monthly harassment rounds in May I was asked “Do you want to just write it?” I started thinking about it, wasn’t sure if I wanted to go THAT far just to have something to publish and thankfully I received an update. But I kept thinking. This is what was just published in the June newsletter (available in mailboxes – literal and virtual – today!).

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
How unsearchable His judgments, how unknowable His paths.
Who knows the mind of our God? And who can bring counsel to Him?
Who has given to God that God should repay?
For from Him, Through Him, to Him is everything.
To God be the glory, forever and ever, to God be the glory forever! Amen!*

If you have been at Trinity in the last five months, chances are you have heard the Worship Team sing this song at least a few times (hint: we sing it during the Offering every Sunday). The title of the song is Doxology (Romans 11) and the text is taken from Romans 11:33-36. For those of you wondering, like I was, the word “doxology” comes from two Greek words: doxa, meaning glory and logos, meaning word or speaking. It is generally used to refer to an “expression of praise to God, especially a short hymn.” (Thank you, Wikipedia.) I have been around the church and church music for my entire life, but until a few weeks ago I never really thought about what the word meant. We are to speak glory, and not just glory about some created thing – glory that belongs to the only true God, our Maker and Redeemer. We spend so much time speaking our own glory, that often speaking of His glory is an afterthought. Not to Paul. Paul speaks of His glory and His glory only. More importantly, he doesn’t stop there. I decided to look up the verses in Romans and found that directly after this speaking of His glory are these verses:

¹I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ²Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

As Tim (our pastor & my one of my bosses) often reminds us, the chapter notations were not originally in the Scriptures. This is a continuation of chapter 11. The “therefore” is referring back to the speaking of His glory. Looking at the holy and incomparable wisdom and knowledge of God, how can we not praise Him? How can we hold back our worship? There really is no separation. When we see His holiness, we are to be transformed to have a mind for Him. Making this connection has only made the words of this song sweeter as I sing them on Sunday and as I call them to mind throughout the week. It is a weekly reminder of just how glorious our Maker is. I pray that you will think about this as we all sing together of His glory.

-Heather Parker, Worship Team Vocalist

*Doxology (Romans 11) By Andrew Peterson ©2004 New Spring Publishing, Inc (a division of Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc.) used by permission

On this quiet, dreary afternoon, I’m sitting in the office listening to my “Square Pegs & Friends” playlist and I felt compelled to post the lyrics to this song, written by John Newton and, in the case of my iPod, played by Matthew Smith.

The Lord Will Provide

Though troubles assail,
And dangers affright;
Though friends should all fail,
And foes all unite,
Yet one thing secures us,
Whatever betide:
The Scripture assures us,
“The Lord will provide.”

The birds, without barn
Or storehouse, are fed;
From them let us learn
To trust for our bread;
His saints what is fitting
Shall ne’er be denied,
So long as ’tis written,
“The Lord will provide.”

His call we obey,
Like Abram of old,
Not knowing our way,
But faith makes us bold;
For though we are strangers,
We have a good Guide;
And trust in all dangers:
“The Lord will provide.”

When Satan appears
To stop up our path,
And fills us with fears,
We triumph by faith;
He cannot take from us,
Though oft he has tried,
The heart-cheering promise,
“The Lord will provide.”

He tells us we’re weak,
Our hope is in vain;
The good that we seek
We ne’er shall obtain;
But when such suggestions
Our faith thus have tried,
This answers all questions,
“The Lord will provide.”

No strength of our own,
Nor goodness we claim;
Our trust is all thrown
On Jesus’ dear name.
In this our strong tower
For safety we hide;
The Lord is our power,
“The Lord will provide.”

When life sinks apace,
And death is in view,
The word of His grace
Shall comfort us through;
Not fearing or doubting,
With Christ on our side,
We hope to die shouting,
“The Lord will provide.”

Ok, so I know that I don’t have THAT many readers, but I wanted to share this with the ones that do read. One of my favorite Nashvillians, Andrew Osenga, has just released a new EP. It’s available for download HERE. Here’s the interesting part about said EP. The idea for it was thrown out to those of us in the blogosphere on May 23rd. He asked for stories, ideas, pictures, etc to be inspiration for the songs and artwork for the album. Then, and this is what I find to be the coolest idea ever, he asked for people to download the songs in their rough form and add “webground” vocals (a.k.a. background vocals sent via the web). And now, three weeks after the first mention, we have the finished product. And it’s great. To top all that off, Andy had been getting calls and emails about the album, telling him what a great job his promoters are doing. Well, that’s the funny part. He doesn’t have promoters; he just has us, the crazy bloggers and fans that are spreading the love of music all around the internet. So, take a listen, send him a few bucks through paypal, support good music, give 2 little girls more time with their dad because he’s not having to go out on the road.