Page CXVI - Free Hymns

The other day I came across a band, Page CXVI, that put together some great hymns in a more modern style. The words of these hymns give glory to our Savior, and these are very good renditions of them. I'm not usually impressed with attempts to remake hymns, but these impressed me very much. And, until Wednesday, these hymns are free! Check it out here:


http://pagecxvi.com/share

Here is an email I got from Page CXVI that explains a bit of their vision for their music:

Friends,

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has
downloaded the Hymns project over the last week. We've met many
wonderful people over the last few years as a band at the churches and
conferences we've partnered with, and we are pleased to say that what
started with telling a just a few pastors and friends has spread to
ministry partners in all 50 states and 104 countries.

Thank you to all of you who have blogged and twittered about the
project. Because of you, the project has grown well past what we
thought possible. We have become first hand witnesses of how closely
connected the church community is. Please be encouraged to continue to
share the hymns project with your fellow pastors, worship leaders,
missionaries, and youth leaders during the final week of the ministry
giveaway. The last day of the giveaway will be Wednesday, March 25th.

The link for the giveaway is

http://pagecxvi.com/share

For all of you who were wondering where our name "Page CXVI" came
from, we'd love to share with you a little bit about it. Page CXVI is
a reference to page 116 of our personal copy of The Magicians Nephew
by C.S. Lewis. It is a poignant passage where Aslan begins to sing
Narnia into creation out of a black void. One of the characters,
Digory, describes it as,

"...it was the most beautiful noise he had ever heard. It was so
beautiful he could hardly bear it."

As the hymns project began to form, our hope was to wrap the strong
lyrical content of the hymns, with music that portrayed our personal
reactions to the life that God has brought to our "black void." The
most personal song on the album is by far "Joy" with the counterpart,
"It is Well" was written by Horatio Spafford after losing his son to
scarlet fever, all of his real estate investments to the Great Chicago
Fire, and his 4 remaining children to the sinking of a boat. The
contemplative turn from "Joy" into the lines from "It is Well" comes
out of our own personal tragedy this past year and combines a Psalm
like lamentation with hope. Our intention with all of these songs is
to be a source of comfort and encouragement to all who hear them.

Thank you again for listening and sharing.

Page CXVI

Drink the Gospel

Here's an example of something I mentioned in the last post, "Drink." To drink in the Scripture, we learn to "look for Christ on every page." Jesus told us that the Scriptures bear witness to Him. Here's how I found the Scripture bearing witness to Christ in my devotion this morning. This story is in 1 Samuel 2:12-36.

Worthless Men

This story starts with the phrase "Now the sons of Eli were worthless men." Why? They didn't know the LORD, and they were supposed to be priests, making things right between God and the people. But instead, they were just stealing from the sacrifices that people brought. They were entitled, as priests, to eat portions of the sacrifices, but they were taking more than their share. So God calls them out on this.

A New Priest

God sends a messenger to Eli to tell him that his sons are not fit to serve as priests. He says in 1 Samuel 2:35 that "I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind." Here, God has a double meaning: He is about to replace Eli's sons and put another man in their spot. But He is also sending us a prophecy about who Jesus will be: a high priest who will do exactly what God wants Him to, not stealing from His people. He says "I will build him a sure house," and the New Testament tells us that we (as Christians) are being built into a temple for Jesus. He says "he shall go in and out before my anointed forever," and in the New Testament we're told that Jesus will serve as a high priest for all of eternity.

Begging for Priesthood

In 1 Samuel 2:36 we're told that everyone who is left will beg to be made a priest, because they won't have food of their own and they know that priests get fed from the sacrifices brought to the temple. They will say "Please put me in one of the priests' places, that I may eat a morsel of bread." This is sweet, because this is exactly what we beg Jesus for when we ask Him to save us. We see that we have no bread of our own, but that priests get bread. We know we don't deserve to be priests, but we beg Jesus to make us priests just so that we can live.

In the New Testament, we see that Jesus has made us priests (1 Peter 2:9) and He has given us bread to eat (Matthew 26:26), which is His body. We do not deserve this, but we beg for it (just as God told Eli we would) and He has given it to us. This is good news.

This is how we learn to read the Word of God in a way that brings spirit and life. Here, in 1 Samuel 2, Jesus can make our hearts burn with the knowledge of who He is and what He does for us.

Drink

Jesus has told us that if we are thirsty, we should come to Him to drink.  What does it mean to come to Christ to drink?

Spirit and Life

The most basic thing to know about coming to Christ to drink is that you need to hear His words.  Jesus put a huge emphasis on the words that He spoke.  In John 6:63 He tells us that the words He has spoken to us are spirit and life.  That's a bold statement.  So bold, in fact, that in verse 64 many of His disciples leave Him.  Jesus says here that only the Spirit can give a person life, the flesh does you no good.  Think back to the previous post on what it means to be thirsty.  When you are thirsty, you want something to give you life.  When you feel that desire in you to live free, live strong, live loud, to really live, where do you go?  Jesus says that when we feel that desire, we need to go to Him, because the words that He speaks are the only thing that can give us that life.  Do you feel that way when you read the Bible?  Do you feel like by reading His words, you're learning to live a more vibrant life?

For many of us, we don't feel like that.  Here's why:  we're often taught to see the Bible as an instruction book for our life.  Who ever got spirit and life by reading an owner's manual?  Jesus tells the Pharisees in John 5:39-40 that their problem when the read the Scriptures is that they aren't reading it right, and we fall into that same problem.  We search the Scriptures because someone tells us that we should, and if we do, we can have life.  Jesus tells the Parisees and us that the Scriptures bear witness about Him.  That is, the point of the Bible is to help us see who Jesus is and believe that He really can do what He says He will do.  

Drink Him

When Jesus said in John 6:63 that His words were spirit and life, it was just after He told His disciples that they would need to eat His body and drink His blood, because His body is true food and His blood is true drink (John 6:55).  When He said this, He was referencing how He would become a sacrifice for them.  (In the Jewish culture, when a sacrifice was made, the priests and the person bringing the sacrifice would cook the sacrifice and then eat parts of it.)  This wasn't just weird because Jesus sounds like He wants us to be vampires, this was weird because Jesus made himself sound like a sacrifice.  This, He did on purpose, because this is what you need to understand if you are going to come to Him to drink:

We failed at everything God expected of us, and worse, refused to admit our failure and told God He has no right to tell us how to live our lives.  We sinned and rebelled.  If, at this point, we realize that we need to come back to God, it's too late, because God has too strong a sense of justice, and we owed Him too much.  But Jesus came to settle things between us and the Father.  We only deserved to die, but instead Jesus died for us.  If we partake in that sacrifice, we are brought back to God.  If you look at at the Bible, at God's words, and look to learn more about this truth of how Jesus has fixed our relationship with the Father (even allowing Him to really be our Father), then the Bible will be like water to you that brings spirit and life.  This is the purpose of Jesus' words, and this is how they bring spirit and life.

Hearts on Fire

At Navigators last week, the message was from Luke 8, and it was about how to read the word in the way Jesus wants us to.  You can listen to it for yourself here:

Receive the Word

The thing to keep in mind is this:  the Bible was written to bear witness about Jesus.  Read it with that in mind, looking for how it helps you better undertans the gospel, and Jesus will use it to bring spirit and life to you.  Reading it as a rulebook just doesn't cut it.

Jesus will help you understand His words.  Pray Luke 24:32 for yourself, that Jesus would walk with you and explain His word to you in a way that sets your heart on fire with His Spirit and His life.