Music Mondays

Like many Americans and many pastors in America, my attention has been fixed on the recent murders in Charleston, South Carolina. The underlying racism and senselessness of the entire event is shocking - and yet understandable when we recognize that prejudice and racism still exist in our nation.

The fallout from this tragedy has been astonishing as well. The love emanating from the affected community and the fact that the victims' families were able to share the hope of Christ and extend their forgiveness to him brought reporters documenting the story to tears.  

It seems weird to say, but I've never been prouder of the body of Christ. I say that because their response is not just astonishing, it is unexplainable. This is a divinely-inspired reaction that can only be attributed to the Spirit of God. Our natural responses involve anger, bitterness, desire for revenge, and hate.

A similarly amazing story of forgiveness lies behind this week's Music Monday selection and I believe it is significantly relevant to what is going on in South Carolina. This video is a little lengthy because it tells the story and includes the song. Definitely worth watching if you have 8-9 minutes:

Music Monday

Ever have a song totally grow on you?

You hear it once and don't really like it, then after a couple plays later, you wholeheartedly are singing along to it. It happened to me. Yesterday.

I heard this song twice before church. I think I may have heard it another time earlier in the weekend too. I'm not a fan of Matthew West, he's always struck me as a little to Christian-Pop or too radio-friendly.

But wouldn't you know that this song and it's message didn't get stuck in my head and grow on me. It focuses on our identity in Christ, which just happens to be one of my 'pet issues' that I find under-appreciated in Christians and under-preached in churches.

So with out any further ado, here's a video for "Hello My Name is" by Matthew West.

Note: Acoustic Version was the only official kind I was able to locate on the interwebs this morning.