Music Blog

It's Reformation Sunday this weekend, and many of us know what that represents - a celebration of the Gospel, and specifically the precious doctrines of the centrality of Scripture, salvation by faith alone, and more that were rescued from obscurity 500 years ago by the work of God through men like Martin Luther. 

 

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the doors of the Wittenberg Castle Church which sparked the Protestant Reformation.  While the effects and results of that movement are well-documented, a less well-known but still precious product of the Reformation was the songs that have been written over those last 500 years, to be sung by the gathered people of God, in their own languages, to the praise of his glory.  In fact, another of Luther's accomplishments was writing a hymn that we are still singing in christian churches all over the world today: Ein Feste Burg, which translates in English to: A Mighty Fortress.  

 

And since the 1500's worship songs have continued to be written (and some have survived "christian contemporary" status to be sung for decades and centuries).  So this Sunday, as we reflect on and celebrate all God did in the Reformation, we're going to sing hymns from each century since then, all of which will point us to the grace of God poured out on his people.

The songs we'll sing will be:

 

-A Mighty Fortress - circa 1529

-Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow - circa 1674

-Amazing Grace - circa 1779

-Holy Holy Holy - circa 1861

-Great Is Thy Faithfulness - circa 1923

-In Christ Alone - circa 2001

-He Is Our God - circa 2017

 

 

Let's come ready to stand amazed and sing praises to our God as we contemplate his grace, his kindness, and his faithfulness!

10-19-2017

 

This Sunday, we'll be celebrating communion...which is always a highlight of our Sunday services.  What a privilege to have the opportunity to corporately pause and remember the grace of God on display in sending his Son to die in the place of ruined sinners!  As I've prepared for our gathering this week, I've been struck again by the mystery of Grace...the wonder of it all that Christ took our place as the substitutionary sacrifice, the propitiation, to satisfy the wrath of the Father.  So many of the truths we hold so dear at Grace Church are endlessly amazing and full of mystery.  These truths make us want to ask "Why" and "How" over and over like a little kid who doesn't understand.  And the beautiful thing is, the more we learn, the more we're amazed at the mystery of Grace.  The deeper in we go on this journey of "...grow[ing] in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..." 2Peter 3:18 (ESV), the more mystery there is to see.  Jonathan Edwards explained it like this:

 

"’Tis so not only in divine things but natural things. He that looks on a plant, or the parts of the bodies of animals, or any other works of nature, at a great distance where he has but an obscure sight of it, may see something in it wonderful and beyond his comprehension, but he that is nearer to it and views them narrowly indeed understands more about them, has a clearer and distinct sight of them, and yet the number of things that are wonderful and mysterious in them that appear to him are much more than before, and, if he views them with a microscope, the number of the wonders that he sees will be much increased still, but yet the microscope gives him more of a true knowledge concerning them."

 

So this weekend, as you prepare to come and worship the Lord, embrace the mystery of grace.  Zoom in, come closer to them, and be more assured and more amazed by the grace of God poured out on you.  And let's come on Sunday, ready to celebrate how amazing the grace and love of God is, that we should be his children.

 

Here are the songs we'll be singing this week.

 

This Is Amazing Grace

His Mercy is More

Grace and Peace

Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery

 

And here's a Spotify list of those songs so you can know them well and sing them loudly with us on Sunday!