Ascribe

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“Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord, glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.”
– Psalm 29:1-2

(The rest of the psalm talks about the voice of the Lord being like thunder and lightning, shaking the foundations, and so on. Might make a good song.)

But back to the word “ascribe”. I always assumed it meant something like “give”. Give God glory and strength. Give Him the glory due His name. That made sense to me. But it turns out that’s not actually what it means. Merriam-Webster defines “ascribe” as “to refer to a supposed cause, source, or author.” In other words, “to attribute to“. That really changes the idea of ascribing glory to God in our worship. We are not giving God glory or strength; we are searching and finding glory and strength and recognizing that it belongs to God. We discover an example of strength and realize that its source is God’s. We are not asked to give God the glory due His name. What glory do we have that we can offer Him? We are supposed to study and come to new and deeper understandings of His name, and then recognize the glory in that and attribute it to God.

Which leads me to the idea that…, worship doesn’t start on Sunday morning. Every moment of every day we are seeking the strength, the person, the glory of God in the scripture, in the world, and in our lives. On Sundays, we merely get the joy and blessing of joining together to ascribe the glory we’ve seen during the week to our Savior, Redeemer, Creator, and Friend. Tomorrow, let us look throughout our day for strength. Let us look for glory. Let us find His names, Healer, Provider, the One Who Sees, Almighty, Comforter, Love, and recognize when He is being those things for us. Every time is an opportunity to worship, to ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name.

Todd

Caswell

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Thanks to all the students who worshipped with us this weekend. We’d love to hear some stories of what God did in your lives and in your groups at this I Am Second weekend. I’m posting the songs we did and who really sings them so you can find them.

God Undefeatable will be on the new Austin Stone Worship album coming out December 6. It is also on the new Ross King EP.

Song of Moses will be on the new record by Unhindered and is already on the Dwell CD by Aaron Keyes

Rise and Sing is by Fee.

It was great being with you this weekend. Hope to hear some of your stories.

Todd

By The Church For The Church, A Post For Worship Leaders

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Hey friends. I have three stories and a question for you. I am wanting to start writing, co-writing, pushing others to write songs that the church needs. I am looking and asking what those songs are. If you are a worship leader, then please respond. If you are a worshipper and have a good idea, I’d love to hear it. In addition, please pass this post on to the worship leaders at your church or others you respect.

Here are the stories…

1) It was Wednesday. I received the order of service and found we were doing communion. As I tried to put together a worship set, I realized we don’t really have communion songs anymore. That led to the creation of You Are Good, one of the songs we now do at church and is on the new record.

2) I was talking to my pastor one day about why The Stand still has such an impact every time we play it. I hypothesized that we don’t have many songs of declaring commitment anymore. In fact, for an invitation, I’m much more likely to go back and pull out a hymn.

3) I was talking to a friend, a great worship leader a few years ago about Christmas songs. He talked about how we have songs about Christmas, but we don’t have many corporate worship songs for that occasion. We just end up singing Christmas songs corporately.

So my question to you is “What songs does the church need?” I’m not asking what you care about or what’s impacting you. Because I believe you will write those songs anyway. I believe our generation is doing a great job declaring the majesty of the Lord. I’m asking you what songs will help the Church worship. What topics are we missing? Giving? Sacrifice? I don’t know the answer. That’s why I’m asking. And I’m really excited about what the answers may lead to.

Thanks.

Todd

FUGE Camp with Landon Dowden

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Hey everyone. Thanks so much for worshipping with us this week. It was truly an honor to be a part of what God did here at Ridgecrest. We’d love to hear more about what God did in your life this week if you’d like to post below. But I wanted to let you know where you can find the songs we did this week if you want to jump on iTunes and download them. Or you can always head to the store or Amazon or wherever and buy the whole record.

Song Title / Artist / Album Title

Rise and Sing / Fee / Hope Rising
Found / Aaron Ivey / Between the Beauty and the Chaos
Hallelujah (All I Need) / Stephen Cole / Catalyst Music Project
Dance With Me / Chris Quilala / Consumed: Jesus Culture

Thanks again.

Todd

FUGE Camp With Rob Turner

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Hey everyone. Thank you so much for worshipping with us this week. Here is a list of most of the songs we played this week. We play songs from many different artists, so I wanted to give you a list so you can find them on iTunes or at your local store.

Song Title / Artist / Album Title

Rise and Sing / Fee / Hope Rising
Found / Aaron Ivey / Between the Beauty and the Chaos
Hallelujah (All I Need) / Stephen Cole / Catalyst Music Project
Your Great Name / Michael Neale / Shine Out
Soon / Hillsong United / Across The Earth: Tear Down The Walls
Dance With Me / Chris Quilala / Jesus Culture: Consumed
How He Loves / John Mark McMillan / How He Loves
Amazing Grace / Chris Tomlin / See The Morning
Hosanna / Hillsong United / All of the Above
Here I Am To Worship / Tim Hughes / Here I Am To Worship

If you want to post, we’d love to hear about what God did in your life this week. Thanks for hanging with us this week.

Todd

Set from Online Camp Worship

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Here are the songs we played tonight in the service that was streamed live
online. If you saw it and wanted any song info, here it is.

Song Title / Artist / Album Title

Rise and Sing / Fee / Hope Rising
Found / Aaron Ivey / Between the Beauty & the Chaos

Your Great Name / Michael Neale / Shine Out
Grace Like Rain / Todd Agnew / Grace Like Rain
Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) / Chris Tomlin / See The Morning

How He Loves / John Mark McMillan / How He Loves

Thanks for worshipping with us.

Todd

Camp Songs

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Hey campers. We’ve finished two great weeks, one in Estes Park CO with Matt
Carter and one in Ridgecrest, NC with Dave Edwards. I wanted to post the
songs we’ve been playing so you can jump on iTunes and download them. Or
however you may choose to purchase them. Thanks so much for worshipping
with us. We’d love to hear what God did in your lives.

Song Title / Artist / Album Title

Hallelujah (All I Need) / Stephen Cole / Catalyst Music Project
Found / Aaron Ivey / Between the Beauty & the Chaos
Soon / Hillsong United / Across the Earth: Tear Down…
Your Great Name / Michael Neale / Shine Out
Dance With Me / Chris Quilala / Consumed: Jesus Culture
Mighty To Save / Hillsong  / Mighty To Save
How He Loves / John Mark McMillan  / How He Loves
Hosanna / Hillsong United / All of the Above
Healing Is In Your Hands / Christy Nockels / Passion: Awakening
Healer / Kari Jobe / Kari Jobe

See you next summer.

Todd

Returning From Camp In India, Pt. 3

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I saw college students do motions to songs. I mean, Big House. They were unashamed and if this was worship, they wanted to be a part of it. I saw students sit for over two hours on the ground, worshipping and being taught. There were no side conversations. Their attention did not drift. Because they longed for what they found there. There were very few cool illustrations and no jokes. They didn’t need to be entertained. They wanted to be taught. They wanted to be transformed. It was challenging to me.

Everyone was kind. They took care of us so well. One young man wouldn’t even let me fill my own plate. He always served me, every meal, all week. But in their kindness, they didn’t avoid the truth. If they had a hard question about something I said, they asked it. And if they didn’t get it the first time, they asked again. I was grateful for the atmosphere of truth and love that I found there.

Once the camp was done, a couple of guys took Aaron and I to see some sights in that part of India. We saw some of the ancient carvings and such, but the last stop took the prize by far. The tomb of the apostle Thomas is in Chennai. We went to the church built on the site. It was amazing just to be that close to the stories I’ve always heard. I can’t imagine what it would be like to go to Israel. I was so humbled to be there. It is over 3000 miles from Jerusalem to Chennai, and that’s measuring in a straight line. It must have taken most of his life just to travel there. But in a land where Hinduism reigns, there are sincere Christ followers. And it started with him.

I’m not an apostle, but I can’t imagine having that kind of dedication, that kind of impact. It pushes me to study, to prepare, and maybe to take risks.

And then it was time to come home. I ended up traveling for longer than I was actually in India. But it was well worth it. I hope to return. And I hope that you will join me in praying for these fellow believers, these brothers and sisters across the world. They need strength. They need wisdom. They need courage. And soon, I’m going to find a way for you to give to support this camp in the future. So that’s coming soon. Until then, pray.

And maybe you can let me know what part of the world is on your heart. And what ideas you have about God’s heart for there. I’m looking forward to hearing about it.

Todd