This weeks feature song is "Honor and Majesty" inspired by the imagery of Psalm 96.
"Honor and majesty are before him,
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary" v.6
Part 1 of the song is for the inner court, that place of intimacy where we sense and express Adoration.
"Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" v.9
Part 2 of the song is about celebrating our future in God (fancy idea - eschatology) , where all creation rejoices at the return of the Lord. This is the message of verses 11&12 - a Celebration.
This weeks featured free song, “Never Alone” was inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “A Knock At Midnight.” This is an incredible story. Living everyday under the threat of death and extensive criticism left him discouraged and full of doubt, then he had a profound encounter with God at his kitchen table. "I discovered then that religion had to become real for me and I had to know God for myself, I bowed down ... and then the Holy Spirit revived my soul"
It tears me up every time I hear him say “He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone, never alone, no never alone .“ This speech inspired the lyrics for “Never Alone”. In remembrance of Black History month, here is Kings speech.
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Musically, I was trying to compose a black gospel vibe with a Southern California twist - like Jackson Browne’s “Here Come Those Tears Again” or some of Karla Bonoff’s songs.
We recorded the basic tracks back in the day at the Orchard Recording studio.
Will McKelvey cut the guitar solo this summer (check out his awesome podcast here) . The amazing Chris Lowry arranged and played all the strings in December (he did the perc too). At the last minute I decided I couldn’t live without an organ part, so in the Christmas spirit, Larry Hall did me a big favor and added the organ. The choir was all my Belmont Worship Leader friends, arranged by Jonathan Riggs , we had a nice night of chili and my famous bread to fuel our vocal session back in October.
If you like this song or the “What Words Can’t Say” project , you can help spread the word by liking it on Facebook, or write a review for I-Tunes or CD Baby. Thanks for your support!
“When the heart is in a right state it must praise God, it cannot be restrained; its utterances leap forth as waters forcing their way from a living spring. With all his strength David blesses the God of his strength.” (from Spurgeon’s commentary on Psalm 144)
This weeks free download song is “A New Day”,based in part on David’s Psalm 144:1 “Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.”
It is my prayer, my hope that this song arouses faith and confidence in God’s love and power. That our hearts may respond “in a right state”, and believe His promises. He ready, willing and able to deliver.
Well hallelujah I'm done mixing the new project. You can check it out now for free - my birthday gift to you. Watch the video and check out the link below.
Hanging out with the kids on Day One in the dorms @ the school of worship. This was just for fun . "Ang Dios Aye Mabuti." Yes, it's an American teaching Romanians how to sing in Tagolag, a language of the The Philippines. Go figure. I wrote this with the students of the songwriting class in Quayan, Phillipines many moons ago.
As I write this, in about 72 hours I'll leave to teach at
the School of Worship in Romania. This will be my 5th year and the school is
already off the hook. From what I understand, this will be the largest class
ever pre-registered. I'll teach for 2 weeks in Timisoara and lead a weekend
conference in Arad in between. I'm pysched.
It seems like we just got back from Sozo England and I'm
taking off again. There's been a lot of personal crisis since then and I feel
drained to say the least. Nonetheless, I'm excited about this mission and the
joy of the Lord is my strength.
Prayer Requests:
1) Clarity and focus in final preparation of my teaching
notes. Also anointing for the translations.
2) Rest and refreshing before I leave Sunday Aug 1, 1:50pm
CDT
3) More intercessors - oh please do pray!
4) Money (about three grand for travel and to help support
the school). There's a donation link on the Rob Still Ministries Facebook page.
5) Traveling mercies and grace for Ivy @ home.
Thanks for praying. "The prayer of a person living
right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with." James 5:17
(Msg)
How do we grieve? I'm no expert, but this is my Nancy Demus tribute ...
As Ivy and I were packing to leave for Sozo/Engalnd yesterday I felt the urge to write Nancy Demus a letter, the reasons will be obvious. Is sent this to her about 4 or 5 hours before she passed.
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Hey Nancy
Ivy and I are praying for you. Our worship team at Belmont
prayed for you before this weekend’s services.
She and I leave for England tomorrow for Sozo Festival with
Randy. And I’m thinking when I was at Sozo with you guys in Hungary for the first
time in 2001. I was desperate for some coffee and you guys had brought a coffee
maker – you are the coolest! You and Mike and I were talking about the
countries, the people there, and worship and music and stuff and - Nancy, you
told me this little word of encouragement- “Rob you were made for this”. And I was like … nobody, not a leader,
just trying to find my way and serve God.So I had a few opportunities with worship that year, but not a whole
lot.
The next year I was discouraged in general and
uncertainabout whether I would go
again to Sozo, but decided to at the last minute.My faith was on fumes. I wasn’t expecting to lead,but I threw a couple of songs in my
guitar case - just in case. So, in his typical Randy way, he makes the staff
assignments the first day when we’re all jet lagged and puts me in charge of
worship with Nick Decean. And I was like – “dude you could have told me ahead
of time and I mighthave been able
to prepare…” But anyway, we had an awesome, amazing time. One morning, I’m
walking that looooooooong walk from the Sozo house to the Big Tent, getting
ready for worship, really enjoying this gig, and God’s talking to me and I’m
getting all kinds of revelation and I realized – “this is what Nancy Demus was
talking about – I was made for this” I never forgot that.
The whole Sozo thing changed my life. I’ve gone back every
year, I teach in Romania, they sing my songs over there and Hungary and Serbia
. It’s unbelievable. And it would never have happened with out somebody speaking
a word of faith and encouragementat just the right time. That was you.
Thanks Nancy, you’ve always been a great encourager to
me.You were one of the first to
say you liked my music. You have no idea how much that meant to me back then.
Anyway, I was reflecting on these things before we leave and
wanted share these memories and my appreciation with you. May God bring you
complete healing and joy.We’d
love to help in some practical way after we get back
It was a joy to be there. Met some great folks who came from all over the country. Inspire Worship Conference is a really cool event hosted by Carl Cartee at Fellowship Bible Church in Brentwood TN. Refreshing and encouraging.
Also had the great honor of meeting the legendary Bob Kauflin of Sovereign Grace Minstries and author of the book "Worship Matters". His really insightful blog is WorshipMatters.com . Bob's keynote teaching was powerful and healing.
Below is a pic of Carl Cartee, Bob K and yours truly.
