Monday, November 30, 2009

coffee coupon


by the way... if you want to leave a comment on this 'big talking small fry' blog and aren't part of the whole 'blogosphere' thing, (with your own OpenID, Name URL or Google account) just log your insights as 'anonymous' and then type your name in as part of the comment.
(as per the example on this blogpost)


this way i know who gets a free coffee from northview's 'He-Brews' coffee bar!

Saturday, November 28, 2009

tubsong


so according to 2samuel12.20, after having the death of his child confirmed, king david got up and
  1. washed (cleansing)
  2. put on lotions (anointing)
  3. changed clothes (casting off the week's travail)
  4. worshiped (declaring/testifying/ enthroning the Divine)
  5. had breakfast (getting on with living)
and amidst the cleansing, anointing and changing stages of his personal restoration disciplines, david wrote psalm 51- possibly the first worship song to be sung in the tub…

Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.

Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.

Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Surely you desire truth in the inner parts;
you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.

Save me from bloodguilt, O God,
the God who saves me,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.

In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
build up the walls of Jerusalem.

Then there will be righteous sacrifices,
whole burnt offerings to delight you;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.


so now what do I do to prepare for these life-changing encounters with God? how am I engaged in cleansing, anointing and casting off the caked-on dirt of a hard week?

surely this is about more than just taking a bath

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

escape from this mind prison?


last week, vandals left a simple but poignant message on the steps of the church:

Escape from this Mind Prison

i almost put it on the sign out front, not as some kind of a gesture against those who took the care to stencil the letters and then spray paint them, but as an invitation to those carrying a load or burden that continues to box in their perspective, framing it in pain, fallenness, broken faith, betrayal and resultant mistrust, as well as basic lack or loss of hope.

as we shared a few weeks back, the writer of the book of hebrews challenges us (in hebrews 10.25) to be instrumental in opening each others’ minds, inspiring each other to revolution and beautiful action.

(this is explored a bit further in the blogpost 'you say you want a revolution' and can be found by clicking here. )

when I think about the message that was neatly and poetically written on the sidewalk, I am reminded once again that the power of darkness in our world has some struggling with the difference between freedom and slavery: the worship gathering affords us the opportunity to escape from the prison of hopelessness and pain that masquerades as life here, just east of Eden, gaining some perspective in order to more lovingly serve hope to those still pacing back and forth in their cages.

there's a reason that the word sanctuary is used.

Monday, November 23, 2009

he's david the king, not david the letterman


We must correct and chasten one another when it is needed. We must not let our love for brothers or sisters cool when they sin; but neither must we speak as though all is well when it is not. True love shows itself not only by smiling at one another and speaking pleasantly. Real love desires the eternal welfare of our brothers, and it may become necessary at times to speak stern, unpleasant truths. I am not grateful to the brother who would see me go astray without trying to rescue me.
(
J.N. Kildahl, 1857-1920)

in 2samuel12.1-13, king david is confronted by his spiritual guide/ life coach because it is obvious that the spring of his conscience has become stretched to the point where it no longer reels him back in. one whom both he and God have called and empowered to speak into his life does so and
the king is reminded that everyone answers to someone, that he has abused his calling and his office, and in doing so has broken something that God has been using to move his larger plan for the redemption of the whole world forward. there needs to be some repentance in here if the king is ever going to once again be the giant killer- the 'man after God's own heart'

the fact that God actually accepts this repentance and resumes business, not as if it has never happened, but from where we are now- indeed, that God seems to be okay with having his messianic promise ultimately realized generations later in Jesus through this union that has begun so badly, serves to remind us all that God is especially good at redeeming everyday fallenness in order to further God's greater purposes.

grace makes beauty out of ugly things
(bono)

what about can draw our focus away from the role we are to play in God’s kingdom coming? what manner of calamity has this power in life?

relationships;
work stress;
personal baggage and burden;

emotional/physical health and wellness;
temptation…


in king david's case, it happens to be the sight of his neighbour's wife out bathing... a sight that is not only not his to drink in for obvious reasons, but which blows the whistle on the fact that he is already slipping off of his game a little. after all, the moment (chronicled in 2samuel11.1-2) takes place 'in the spring, at the time when kings go off to war...' and, whereas there is still kingly work to be done, he chooses to delegate, only to find himself walking around in the middle of the night looking for something to do. opportunity and motive. he's guilty of a number of things before he ever gives the order to have his neighbour placed on the front lines (a placement not in keeping with the man's rank... he does have a house in the same neighbourhood as the king) to be killed by the enemy.

well, whatever the case, king david confesses and repents when his soul friend confronts him with the truth- and he doesn't really have to. it is a choice he makes. he is david the king, not david letterman, and could have this holy man executed for treason and no one would be able to voice any question, lest they be put to death as well.

however, the king recognizes that one sin has already led to another and chooses to break the cycle before it escalates further. confession and repentence are the first steps on the restoration road.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

a long ride down a curvy road






















a friend was in my office one day and he presented me with a poser:

when you buy a car, you need to take it in every six months or your warranty is void. some employers require employees to get a yearly physical as part of their contract agreement. so why doesn't the church require people to come in for a check up on their marriage once or twice a year?

it was a good question, for which i did not have a good answer.

***

in his classic book zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance, robert pirsig discusses what he believes are the fundamental differences between classicism and romanticism.

The romantic mode is primarily inspirational, imaginative, creative, intuitive. Feelings rather than facts predominate. 'Art' when it is opposed to 'Science' is often romantic. It does not proceed by reason or by laws. It proceeds by feeling, intuition and aesthetic conscience...

The classic mode, by contrast, proceeds by reason and by laws- which are themselves underlying forms of thought and behaviour...

Although motorcycle riding is romantic, motorcycle maintenance is purely classic.

There is a classic aesthetic which romantics often miss because of its subtlety. The classic style is straightforward, unadorned, unemotional, economical and carefully proportioned. Its purpose is not to inspire emotionally, but to bring order out of chaos and make the unknown known. It is not an aesthetically free and natural style. It is aesthetically restrained. Everything is under control. Its value is measured in terms of the skill with which this control is maintained...

Persons tend to think and feel exclusively in one mode or the other and in doing so tend to misunderstand and underestimate what the other mode is all about... (Pirsig, p67)

i was intrigued by the common thread that seemed to be pulling some personal reading, a personal conversation and a pile of relational circumstance together, synthesizing them into an idea that i could grasp. as i thought about marriage relationships and the need for ongoing and intentional connection within them, as well as regular diagnostic exercise, the thought crystalized:

in order to enjoy a longer ride (romantic), we need to tend to the necessary maintenance (classic). classicism is the key to a more satisfying and prolonged romance.

not wanting to oversimplify relational dynamics, i would contend that, in some way, every action and interaction taking place between a man and woman contributes to either a bond between them or its opposite: a rift.

looking closely at the biblical story of david and michal (chronicled in 2 samuel 6.14-23) i recognized a single, rather straightforward problem that results in a fight so final that a rift is formed between them where a bond once existed- a rift which endures the rest of their days and leaves them childless together. the problem is this:

somewhere along their way, they stop relating to each other.

they lose track of the fact that they are one flesh, meant to share intimately together on all levels. they stop connecting. they stop feeding the living thing that is the relationship which has been established between them over years of knowing and growing.

having not attended to the basic classical maintenance needs within the relationship, the romance has ended, leaving a man and woman shouting at each other in the same street that, just hours earlier, has been the location for a great celebration of God's favour and restorative power.

it's a sad story and the sadness is increased by two things:
1) its preventability- things didn't need to go this way
2) its familiarity- we see the same things happen daily within our relational circles. just as i sat in my office listening to my friend share of his own marital journey, we all find ourselves sitting together, either sharing our own tales of marital disappointment, confusion and pain, or listening to those of another. the story of david and michal is neither the first, nor last story of distance that has opened up between a man and a woman.

No one can escape ‘bad’ moments in marriage, but no one is meant to drown in the difficulty. (Dan B Allender)

in his book The 10 Conversations You Must Have Before You Get Married, dr. guy grenier opens with a list of 15 rules of good communication (which are really strategies for meaningful discourse) and they are fairly predictable:
7 productive communication strategies to embrace
4 destructive communication tendencies to avoid
2 anger control strategies to apply, and
2 long-term maintenance strategies to lock in...

long-term maintenance strategies?
yep, with a rather familiar analogy that brings us full circle:

You've probably heard that changing the oil in your car is the single most useful thing you can do to maintain your vehicle. Every five thousand miles or ten thousand kilometres, you're supposed to do this basic, standard maintenance. Depending on how much you drive, this typically means an oil change every three or four months. Metaphorically, this type of regular maintenance is what you want to be doing with your relationship as well. To extend the metaphor a bit, in the same way that a regular oil change is perhaps the best thing you can do for your car, checking in with your partner as to the ongoing status of the relationship may also be the best possible approach to long-term relationship maintenance you can take...

"How we doin'?" conversations prevent lingering resentments from coming to full flower by ensuring that there are regular opportunities to deal with upsetting issues. They demand a culture of problem solving in the relationship and dramatically reduce the possibility of issue avoidance and the use of passive-aggressive strategies. Essentially, "How we doin'?" conversations make being frank and candid with each other a regular and expected event rather than one that's exceptional. (Grenier pp63-64)


so what if everyone who is married made a 'diagnostic' appointment once a year to spend an hour just talking together with someone who was there to help them explore the existing relationship between husband and wife and attend to some possible maintenance needs that exist within the marriage and which may be keeping that thing from really flying down that curving road that stretches from now 'til death do us part?'

*note: to celebrate their 30th anniversary, my mother and father rode a motorcycle diagonally across the continent, from british columbia to the tip of the florida keys. it took them thirty days to make the round trip. that was twenty years ago and they still ride the bike together. that's what i'm talking about.

Monday, November 16, 2009

the big snit



There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion, or company than a good marriage. (Martin Luther)

God set this one up- talk to him. looking upon all of creation, God noted that it was not good for the man to be alone and that a suitable helper was the solution. historically, many have missed God’s point, concluding that ‘helper’ is an assistant rather than an associate. however, the hebrew word ‘ezer from the original text brings with it the idea of relief and aid, not simply help.

it is a word of collective strength and equality.

No marriage- no matter how good- is immune to bad things. We all suffer private problems and sometimes public pitfalls. Sexual unfulfillment that quietly hardens our hearts. Financial debt that shrouds us in shame. Hope deferred by the anguish of infertility. Communication meltdowns that tempt us to quit trying. Ugly addictions that drive us into secret lives. Problems with anger that cause loved ones to walk on eggshells. Personal pain from an abusive past that keeps us from loving in the present. The list could go on and on. The bad things, both big and small, that interfere with a good marriage are countless...

If we were to
ask you where on a continuum- from very bad to very good- your marriage falls, chances are you would say somewhere in the middle. And chances are that your self ranking has propelled you, at one time or another, to ask a potentially painful question about your marriage:

Is THIS as good as it gets?

(Les and Leslie Parrott)

king david may very well be thinking this as he, the great warrior king of Israel, leaves his house following one of the biggest battles of his career- one he has with his wife over worship style (2 samuel 6.14-23)… however, if we look at the back story, we can see that the marriage of david and michal has been a ticking bomb waiting to go off…

  • 1 sam14.49: michal is the youngest daughter of saul, israel's first disappointing king.
  • 1 sam18.20-1, 27-8 as a girl, she is smitten with david, and then strategically betrothed
  • 1 sam19.11-17 she chooses faithfulness and protection to david over supporting her father's insecurity
  • 1 sam25.44 she is given to another by the king to punish both her and david for 'treason'
  • 2 sam 3.13-15 for political reasons years later, she is taken out of what appears to have been a good marriage and dragged back to the house of david, now king. her husband follows the royal procession for miles, weeping and begging in vain for clemency.
now whether she has been keeping a candle burning in her heart for dave or not, the reality is that she is a different person now, as is he. the thrilling young giant killer is now a man of power and consequence, and she is now another man's woman, regardless of having been betrothed to the king in her earlier life. her heart has been broken a couple times by politics before she comes to be legislated into the king's household as another of his many brides.

whatever the case, over the next 3 chapters of samuel's 2nd book, david and michal grow further apart, as the demands of his job and some unresolved conflict take their toll. there is a thickening plot repleat with many job-related challenges. it's tough to be a king (or a king's wife) amidst:

a civil war
two major assassinations and their political ramifications
the uniting of the country
the taking back of jerusalem
the defeating of the philistines
the returning of the ark of the covenant (God’s physical presence) to jerusalem, symbolizing the restoration of the people and the promise...

so when david comes home to bless his own household after the great celebration in the streets of jerusalem in which he stripped down to his umbros and danced in worshipful joy in front of God and everyone, he walks right into that which has poetically made the very fury of hell seem like a nice breeze- a woman's scorn.

marriage expert gary smalley, in his video ‘The Art of Communication part 1: Forgiveness’, identifies anger’s Big 4. they are clearly part of david and michal’s big snit. now, i realize there's no need to somehow draw attention to the fact that, within this story, there is anger. the idea here is to explore the shape and the structure of this example of anger with the hope of more clearly understanding it and taking measures to prevent it within our own relationships.
  1. withdrawal: michal is detached, watching from a window. (6.16) she does not come down and participate in the festivities as the wife of the victorious king might. she remembers being drawn into the street dances as a young girl, singing with the crowd how 'saul has killed his thousands, david his ten thousands.' all these years later, david's still the celebrity, but she is seeing it all through older, embittered eyes, perhaps feeling like one of the ten thousand. was that old song about breaking hearts, she wonders?
  2. escalation: michal despises him in her heart, and does eventually come out when the crowd has dispersed and david is once more not a returning king but just a man coming home. (6.16, 20) the anger has been steeping for quite awhile, now, and is about to be served.
  3. belittling: michal uses sarcasm, attacking both david’s kingship and his worship expression. (6.20) she knows his heart, knows that the dance wasn't about her, but also knows that the dancing king who has once again captured not only jerusalem but the hearts of its people has a soft spot when it comes to personal worship. she attacks him in a place where he is most vulnerable- his worshiper's heart.
  4. negativity: michal sees this as reinforcement of her negative thoughts. (6.20) she has come to believe things about her husband that are probably not true: that he is intentionally breaking hearts and seeking celebrity among the lusty hearts of the young slave girls of jerusalem in one of those brad pitt scenarios where all the men want to be him and all the women want to be with him. her defaults have been reset and she now sees her husband through the eyes of well-maintained pain, disappointment and heartbreak.
david, for his part, strikes back fairly well.

having been on the run for so many years, his limbic system is sharp and he is not to be overcome by one of the women in his world. if he's taken aback by michal's words, he bounces back fast (6.21) with a strong reminder that the dance in question was for the same God that had rejected her father as king. if michal has somehow thought of or eluded to the past, david cites it outright.

he is, after all, a great fighter of battles. he knows how to win. and as far as the insulting nature of michal's attack on his publicly demonstrative worship expression, the public humiliation delivered to michal by establishing her as a wife of the king who fails to give the king an heir to the throne in a culture where this is really her only real function (6.23) is like returning a slap in the face with disfigurement. yes, david wins, i suppose.

sadly for both of them, though, marriage isn't about winning. it's about being there for one another- being that helper; that God-intended relief.

clearly, david and michal had become disconnected long before their big fight. the challenge for those of us reading the story over 3000 years later is to not take sides in the conflict, but to see the mutual sadness and work at preventing it from taking root within our own relationships.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

eating words for breakfast






















at the recent Global Leadership Summit, i found myself sitting, once again, in a session where someone smart and together challenged the rest of us to embrace balance in our lives if we are to succeed beyond mere survival in our leadership exploits.

being what i like to call chronically overextended, i heard the message, recognized it was for me, and logged it away. so when the guy who had been charged with transitioning us from session to session through some presumed teachable moments said 'let's take a couple minutes to just hear from God' i was ready to check out because, after all, i had already heard from him and he was reminding me of some things of which i was already aware and in a perpetual battle with the demands of life to apply.

but in the few minutes taken, God said something else.

the message was rather simple and direct:
go to bed at night and read your bible in the morning.

i did NOT see that one coming.

see, late at night is when i often play catch-up ball. answer emails, read books for classes, listen to music- i've always stayed up late. late at night is even historically when i have read my bible...

except when its too late and i'm too tired, having attended to everything else. that's when the justifications defaults pop-up. the best one is

in the interest of balance, i should probably just go to sleep.

there are a couple of compromises that are tied for second, should the best one not be able to continue its reign. they both involve doing spiritual disciplines like prayer or bible reading for a minute or two before falling asleep.

not much of a spiritual growth regimen.

so when God invited me to just switch it up, going to bed at night and reading my bible in the morning, i found myself and my life radically reoriented in a couple rather necessary ways:

1) going to bed at a decent time is an act of faith- a form of ongoing sabbath that implies by its practice that i believe in my God to sustain me- indeed, in some cases to speed me- through the responsibilities and challenges of each day, attending to it all in the time allotted. this has required greater discipline and some important reprioritization with careful attention to the time wasting that needs to be trimmed off of the edges of things.

2) beginning each day with scripture has become like starting it off with a good, balanced breakfast. i have fuel for the day which powers me through it with the perspective that i need in order to make the very action of living, worship offered in spirit and in truth.

and living life- giving away love and hope in service of the people placed in our path- is that to which we've been called into existence to do by God's power for God's glory, right?


Tuesday, November 10, 2009

you say you want a revolution...



in the musical version of victor hugo's Les Miserables, there is a lot about revolution. a lot of angry young citizens planning to overthrow a corrupt government in response to gross injustice that is gripping the country- indeed, the whole world:

It is time for us all to decide who we are
Do we fight for the right to a night at the opera now?
Have you asked of yourselves what's the price you might pay?
Is it simply a game for rich young boys to play?
The color of the world is changing day by day...

Red - the blood of angry men!
Black - the dark of ages past!
Red - a world about to dawn!
Black - the night that ends at last!
(Boublil/Kretzmer)

and yet, because this scene and song are as passionate as they are, most of us fail to recognize any similarity between them and our small group bible study/fellowship experiences.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
(hebrews 10.24)

it's a simple little verse, but if we dig into the words of paul in hebrews 10.22-25, we might see more comparison... perhaps not to what our gatherings are but to what they could/should be. paul, writing in greek, uses three key words in shaping this verse. although i'm not any kind of greek scholar (in fact, i looked these up using pradis6 on my computer) i was blown away by the intensity and implication of the words used.
  • paroxusmos (par-rOX-soos-MOS): to stir up, spur on, incite, irritate
  • kalos (ka-LOS): beautiful, excellent in its nature, pure and genuine
  • ergon (AIR-gon): resultant action
in other words, paul is urging us to become so stirred up together that we are driven through relationship to beautiful action… to actively love others; to be missional; to get so worked up over injustice and the needs surrounding us that our coming together is paroxysmic. this is the effect we are to have upon one another.

a church, whether a big group or small one, is to offer catalytic connection. being part of this should not only be spiritual, neither should it only be social, but it should be both socially and spiritually impactive- leveraging the commonality and natural affinity that exists among its members in order to foster relationships that, in their deepening, are- as our communion liturgy words it-

one with Christ,
one with each other,
united in service to the world.

Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching. (hebrews 10.24-25- The Message)

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

glory party pt II



the passion of one heart
the surrender of one life is all i have to bring
there is no special time
there is no special place, my song of love to sing

in my every conversation
and my every meditation, Lord be glorified
and may everything i do
be a sacrifice to you that's pleasing in your sight

the beating of my heart
is all my spirit needed to make music in my youth
but what am i to do
that my life would sing to you in spirit and in truth?

day by day and hour by hour
i seek to serve you selflessly, my Lord
step by step and breath by breath
i sing this lifesong freely for you, Lord

Jesus' only words in scripture dealing directly with worship, remind us that truth needs to be an integral part of the offerings we offer the Divine. the truth of God is found in God’s word, the bible, and without it our offerings of praise and service are translucent at best.

scripture establishes who God is and why God alone is worthy of our worship. the truth qualifies our worship by aligning our practice with his person… and if life is worship, then the foundation of that worship must needs be the word of God if it is to be all that God desires for it to be. (Psalm 119.105)

If we are to worship in truth
then the Bible must be the centerpiece of our worship experience.
(Sammy Tippit)

when our lifesong is in direct response to the truth as presented in scripture, contextualized in life and relationship, that life is the realization of God’s greatest purpose for it…

that this life would be lived to the glory of God and the restoration of God’s shalom in the small, seemingly insignificant moments which are the foundational building blocks of God’s kingdom coming…

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

glory party pt I





















what do i love when i love you

what is the object of my affection
God? what is my God?

who do i love when i love you
who is my hope and my salvation
Lord? who is my Lord?

you shine into my soul where space cannot contain you
you speak with a sound that does not fade with passing time
the fragrance of your presence remains with me in essence
the sweetness of your name does not grow stale

what do i preach when i preach you
what is my message of exhortation
word? what is my word?

salvation belongs to our God and our God alone
all honour and praise to the one who sits on the throne
“worthy is the Lamb, worthy is he…”
is the eternal song of a soul set free

where do i go when i seek you
where do i look for your revelation
God? where is my God?

this is a song that came from some life, some scripture (revelation 5.6-14; 7.9-12) and a section of augustine's confessions. although at first glance the lyric might come off as faithless, in fact it is probably one of the most faith-filled lyrics i've ever put to music... it takes great faith to ask questions freely, knowing that God's answer is there, if only as yet unrevealed. as a call to worship, it invites us to explore just what it is we have chosen to accept about the nature of God- what outdated defaults may be in place and how we might, through the questioning itself, refresh our relationship with the divine creator of all things.

probably not an easy song to sing some days.

but up to my eyeballs in fallenness,
i'm not sure true worship can come without some effort.

when we take in the scene as described in revelation 5 and 7, we are served up a veritable feast of cosmic worship imagery that makes even the largest earthly worship events seem a bit spare by comparison. however, too often we see revelation as a section of the bible that reveals to us things that are to come, and whereas that is true, it's not the only truth. revelation also reveals to us things that are taking place in this very moment at the throne of God.

time and space are created for us, and God exists outside of them, as does his throne and those who attend it. therefore, when we read of things that take place around the throne of God, we need to remember that these are things that are taking place in the eternal now, outside of this orderly succession of moments that we see (from the inside of them) as the dimension of time.

in other words, closing the worship loop by joining with all of the angels and heavenly creatures in an intentional and active giving to God of that which is his (1 Chronicles 16.28-29) effectively unites us with those who exist with God outside of time in a perpetual and ongoing glory party.

worship isn’t simply activity, it is being. it is not something we initiate- it is a response to the overtures and grace of God. it is not a flow we generate- it is a tapping into that which is already flowing.

Worship is the highest priority of the human race.
It is what we were created for and it is why we are here.
It is our defining characteristic.
(Mike Pilavachi)

although i've said this before, it bears repeating here:
worship isn’t a designated time or place- it isn’t a calculated emotional curve or a mosaic of isolated holy moments. no, although these can all be part of worship, it is a gestalt of all of them for the earnest servant of God… it is a day by day, hour by hour, breath by breath, heartbeat by heartbeat song to God.

it begins at the foot of the cross, through the moment of acceptance and straight on ‘til morning. it is both active and passive and therefore all consuming. it is the reason that all of creation exists- to reflect back the glory and the love of Almighty God.

worship is saying ‘Your Are’ to ‘I Am.’

ascribe to the Lord all power
ascribe to the Lord all strength
ascribe to him and enter into the glory of his name
and worship the Lamb for sinners slain

the word of the Lord can raise a mountain
the word of the Lord can calm a sea
the voice of the Lord has broken the silence of the fall
so all who would follow shall go free