Music Mondays

This is the next-to-last entry in this series of my favorite new versions of old hymns.

"Crown Him with Many Crowns" has many of the elements of a classic hymn. Five full verses, each beginning with "Crown him..." and the last four beginning with "Crown him the Lord of _________".  While it doesn't have a familiar, repeatable chorus, each verse does build off the others. Each verse also resounds with themes of God's glory and kingly power. I was not a music major, but the music itself is uplifting and joyous - matching the lyrical content well.

Re-mixed with the contemporary chorus "Worthy is the Lamb", the newer version resonates even more with the images of Revelation and the future heavenly worship we will enjoy after He has made all things new. This version employs a perfect sense of timing, including the "Crown Him with Many Crowns" verse at peak of the song's emotive wave.

Sermon Snippets

Daniel 8 is an apocalyptic vision of the future, much like Daniel 7. It's interesting that this follow-up dream that God gave Daniel (two-years after the first one), has some elements in common with chapter seven's dream but narrows the focus to the kingdoms of Persia and Greece.

At this point in our series in Daniel, I think it's worth taking some time to talk about the interpretive issues that must be dealt with when dealing with chapters like these.

As my former professor Dr. Brent Sandy eloquently describes, prophetic writings are made up of three categories:

• Oracles of Salvation - These focus on encouraging downtrodden people with visions of hope for the future.
• Oracles of Judgment - These criticize those who are spiritually numb with warnings of coming punishment for their sins.
• Apocalyptic Visions - These are sci-fi type episodes that contain fantastic visions of the future that are totally unique and other-worldly.

Apocalyptic material "addressses a serious crisis of faith. If God is truly in control, why has he allowed things to get so bad her on this earth?"*

There is so much going on in this world that seems pointless, out-of-control, and unjust. I encourage you to turn to books like Daniel and Revelation. Instead of trying to parse every detail and figure out an end-times timeline, why not try another approach?

Why not let those incredible visions and images point you towards God's sovereignty and His ultimate plan that He is working out. God is at work and will have His good purposes come to pass. The apocalyptic visions may blow our minds like they did Daniel (Dan. 8:27), but may they also embolden you to see past the shadows and remain faithful to our sovereign Lord.



*Sandy, D. Brent. 2002. Plowshares & pruning hooks: rethinking the language of biblical prophecy and apocalyptic. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press. Pg. 103-128.

Music Mondays

"O Holy Night" is my favorite Christmas song of all time. It's not even close. The verses beautifully describe the wonder and spiritual significance of that event over 2000 years ago.

There have been better sung versions of this song, but Chris Tomlin's resonates with me the best. It's not the classical arrangement, but it's more temporary tune lines up perfectly with my personal preferences. So I present this week's revised hymn via youtube:

Click here for a version that skips straight to the song.

Sermon Snippets

EPIC.

This term has become more and more popular over the last decade, especially by the youth of our nation.

My memory is probably totally wrong, but I seem to remember it finding its way into our everyday vernacular after the Lord of the Rings movies and others came out that featured broad and detailed plots. It began to be used about anything that was really enjoyable and great in scope.

Surfing a big wave could be 'epic'. A road trip with college buddies could be 'epic'. A TV show could be 'epic'. Even a wedding could be 'epic'.

Daniel chapter seven reminds me that God invented 'epic'.

God gives Daniel a vision in a dream that displays for him hundreds of years of human history symbolized by beastly creatures who represent human kingdoms that are to come.

Daniel is overwhelmed and dumbfounded by the images and the interpretation he receives. Twice he records that the color left his face (vs.15, 28). This epic vision really is nightmarish, but at its core, it has a message of hope.

While the earthly empires are powerful and terrifying, they are only temporary. God will establish his kingdom and it is one that will never end.

It's a bit of a mystery where we find ourselves exactly within this epic vision, but we know that the Son of Man will return and fully establish the Kingdom of God. We as Christians have a bright hope. While there will be pain and suffering, it's going to be EPIC.

Music Mondays

This week's featured revised hymn is one of the more faithful renditions when it comes to the original songs. Some of the others have drastically changed the music and/or lyrics while keeping the theme of the original.

"Jesus Paid It All" by Music Monday favorite Kristian Stanfill is very true to the original but adds a powerful yet simple bridge:

"O praise the One who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead!"

Repeating those lines while ratcheting up the intensity of the vocals and music is breathes new life into this familiar classic hymn.

Sermon Snippets: Daniel in the Lion's Den

If someone were to survey churches across the country and poll members on what bible stories they are most familiar with, I'd guess Daniel in the Lion's Den would be in the top 5.

I'd guess the results would turn out something like this:

1. The Cross/Easter
2. David and Goliath
3. Daniel in the Lion's Den
4. Jonah in the belly of the Whale fish
5. Noah's Arc

The challenge as a pastor is when you come to those stories in your sermon series. How do you preach them in a fresh way? How do you hold the audience's attention when they've seen this movie a hundred times and have all the lines memorized?

This week, I'm going to organize my sermon around both the story structure, as any good expositional preacher would, and around facets of the story that may get overlooked or forgotten.

In this week's edition of "Sermon Snippets", I'm including some info. that I find interesting, but failed to make the cut in the sermon because it has the potential to distract from the focus of the message.

The experience of Daniel and the Lion's Den is similar the experience Daniel's friends had to endure with the Fiery Furnace in chapter three. Both events forced our faithful heroes to stand up for their faith under the threat of death. Both events record the miraculous deliverance by God of his faithful servants.

However there are several differences between the episode with Daniel's friends and the episode with Daniel himself:

• With the Fiery Furnace account, King Nebuchadnezzar is the enemy, whereas King Darius is Daniel's sympathetic friend in the story of the Lion's Den.
• In the Fiery Furnace account, the King expresses doubt any god can help them (3:15), while Darius hopes Daniel's God will rescue him (6:16).
• In chapter three, Daniel's friends get in trouble for not worshiping an idol. In chapter six, Daniel gets into trouble for worshiping his God.

Many people over the years have also drawn comparisons between Daniel and Jesus. Some of the similarities include:

• Both were blameless, but had enemies conspire against them.
• Both had sympathetic authority figures who were unable to help them (Darius, Pilate).
• Both fully submitted to God during their suffering.
• Both Jesus' grave and Daniel's pit were sealed with a large stone.
• Both were discovered to be ok during morning visit's to the grave/pit.
• Both were saved by God and prospered upon their return to normal life.

Major differences cannot be ignored though. Especially the fact that Jesus actually died and was raised. Along with the fact that he alone was sinless, his faithful endurance of his trial enabled the salvation of all men. While Daniel was great, Jesus was greater.

Music Mondays

This week's re-mixed hymn is one I consider to be vastly underrated. In fact, it may be the most underrated hymn in our hymnals today.

Charles Gabriel wrote "I Stand Amazed" well into his prolific song writing career. His was a career that saw him work with Billy Sunday and Homer Rodeheaver - the Billy Graham and George Beverly Shea of the early 1900's.

If this source is correct, this beautiful song that praises Jesus' sacrifice was very personal to Gabriel, who earlier in his life had his first marriage end in divorce. The song rejoices in the precious forgiveness we have in the Cross and the incredible dedication Jesus had as he demonstrated God's love for us.

The song itself is made up of 5 verses, focusing on our unworthiness, the torturous hours leading up to Christ's death, and also the future privilege that will be ours to praise Him for His substitutionary sacrifice for us.

I couldn't find a live video of Chris Tomlin singing this, but I did find the video below with audio mixed with the lyrics and background images. As one who spent years running PowerPoint and video for worship services, I normally get really annoyed at typo's within the presentation. This song has one that repeatedly comes up, but it doesn't really bother me all that much due to the nature of what the typo is and the focus of the song overall.

Specifically I like this version of the hymn because of the way Tomlin controls the pace of the song. You might anticipate that the song is over after he sings through the second verse (which is actually verse 4). The crowd in the audio seems to think so. But he builds it back up and comes back with verse 5, appropriately casting our vision on our future in heaven, when "His face I at last shall see". This is excellent worship leading.

Enjoy: