Track 2- Mystery of Mercy

"Mystery of Mercy"
by Josh Huff (March 23, 2005)

Verse 1

In eternity past, before time was made

You started a plan to bring glory to Your Name.

You would create a world, both captive and free

Where creation would declare Your holy majesty.

Then sin entered in, enslaving mankind,

Making men blind to You, loving the night.

But You promised grace and mercy would come,

even though we, Your enemies, deserved none.

Chorus

The mystery of mercy; it is Your sovereign plan.

The mystery of grace; we will never understand

How You could send Your own Son to die

For depraved enemies of Your name, such as I,

To adopt us as children of life, Oh myster of mercy...

Mystery of mercy.

Verse 2

As time wandered on Your plan was revealed

You would send us a Savior who's wounded hands would heal

He would live in our world, as a babe enter in.

The man fully God who would free us from sin.

But He was despised, rejected by men.

He suffered Your wrath as the payment for sin.

As a dead lamb He lay 'til the third morning came

When He conquered death as He rose from the grave.

Bridge

So now that I know that I will never know

Why Your Son would die just to save my dead soul

I'll give You my life and all that I have

And praise You for giving us Christ!

This is one of the first songs I ever wrote. I came about just before Easter in 2005 when I was on staff at Community Baptist Church in Elgin, IL. I was planning the Easter service and was thinking about a few different ideas for a song when Mystery of Mercy started to form. I worked on it for a few hours, then a few hours more, and soon this song came together. I'm sure you'll recognize the Easter theme at the end of the second verse with our conquering Lamb rising from the dead.

As I thought through the mystery of God's mercy, I really wanted to tell the whole story of our salvation. It is truly a mystery why such a great and powerful God would choose to save his creatures that had openly rebelled against Him. I often wonder about my own life as I continue to struggle with sin why God continues to love and care for me. But that is the definition of grace: getting something we don't deserve. We have received so much from God; adoption into His family, eternal life, not to mention the mercy of God to keep us from suffering His wrath for all eternity.

I hope this song is a great reminder of how much God has done for a people that didn't even want the blessings God offered.

Track 1- "Jesus, Lover of My Soul"

Jesus, Lover of My Soul-
Verses 1-3 by Charles Wesley / Verse 4 and music by Josh Huff

Verse 1:

Jesus, Lover of My Soul, let me to Your bosom fly.

While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high;

Hide me, O my Savior hide, 'till the storm of life is past;

Safe into the haven guide; O receive my soul at last

Verse 2:

You, O Christ, are all I want; more than all in You I find;

Raise the fallen, chear the faint, heal the sick and lead the blind.

Just and holy is Thy name, I am all unrighteousness;

False and full of sin I am, Thou are full of truth and grace.

Verse 3:

Endless grace with You is found, grace to cover all my sin;

Let the healing streams abound; make and keep me pure within:

You, the fount of life do flow, freely let me drink of Thee;

Spring Thou up within my heart, rise to all eternity.

Verse 4:

Heav'nward I life up my eyes, Christ is on the mercy seat;

There I may receive the prize for He intercedes for me.

Sin's dark curse of death has died; Christ the Lamb is all I see;

Joys eternal from my soul; satisfied at last in Thee.

This song is a hymn most of you can find in your hymnal. It was put to a melody that I didn't think quite fit the text. The original tune sounded a bit like the tune for "O, the Deep Deep Love of Jesus"; very minor and sad sounding. I wanted to write something a bit more upbeat and in a major key. Also, I was hoping to make it a bit more accesible by having a bit more repetition in the melody line. So, after noodling around with the melody, I came up with what you will hear on the album. It's a bit of a folk sound, reminiscient of Indellible Grace.

When I finished writing the music for this, I couldn't help but think that the song felt incomplete, and that's not just because I thought it should have 4 verses. The text covered a ton of Biblical topics, including sin, depravity, justification, adoption, protection, and a great focus on what Christ accomplished and still does in the life of the believer. But I wanted some focus on the finish line, on the final prize of actually being with Christ in heaven. That is where the last verse came from.

I actually wrote it right before a Sunday evening service as my dad and I were discussing this very issue. I had some time before the service, so I thought about what we had talked about and God was gracious enough to help me get it together in just a few minutes. Before the service I showed it to my dad (our Pastor of Worship), and he said we should sing it, and that's how verse 4 came to be.

I especially like the imagery of that last line, because that is really what I am looking forward to. We do get a taste of heaven now by enjoying the joys of pleasing God and worshipping God in this life. You could even say that those joys are eternal joys because they spring from what will be an eternal relationship with God. But those joys won't be realized until heaven. In heaven is where those joys will find their satisfaction, their rest, in their creator, Jesus Christ. That will be an incredible day, when we no longer see pain, destruction, or sin, but see Christ and find satisfaction for all our joys.

Enriched Affections- A Purposeful Album

Over the years I have had a lot of time to think about worship. I was raised a pastor’s kid, with my dad being a full-time worship pastor. In college I even developed a personal philosophy of worship. Throughout all that time, I fell in love with God and worshiped Him through music. But it is so easy to fall in love with the music we worship God with, to get caught up in the emotion of it all, and to not really know the object of our worship. Sure, what we sing may be true, but is there enough truth in it to eliminate all other objects of worship so that the only possible being we are worshipping is God?

As plans for this album began almost two years ago, I began kicking around the title of Enriched Affections. If you notice the first post on this blog, you’ll see that the idea for this phrase came out of Together for the Gospel and also a few trips to New Attitude. C.J. Mahaney had a phrase he mentioned… “If you want to feel deeply, you need to think deeply.” All of this made me think about the affections.

All of us have affections, or emotions, desires, wants, things that make us want to do what we do. In worship, often those affections are lifted up with an upbeat tune, or an intricate harmony. Too often however, there is no substance to go with the emotional lift. Thankfully we have had a number of artists step up over the past few years to help with that problem. Sovereign Grace Music has produced a number of albums that accomplish what I am trying to also do with this album.

In a proper worship song, there is a beautiful marriage, an intricate harmony if you will, of text and tune. There is theology that acts like fertilizer in a nutrient deprived soil. When this theology enters into our hearts, our affections become enriched with God’s Word and we can truly worship the God of the Bible. That is my goal with this album, to properly fertilize our hearts so we can worship God joyfully in spirit and in truth.

I don’t know where it will lead in the future. My hope is that it will become a tool that many churches can use to help their congregations worship God more effectively. But that is up to God. I’m content with whatever He decides.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting the lyrics to the songs on the album and explaining a bit about the doctrine and the history of each song. I hope you enjoy.

Grace and Peace- Josh Huff

Our Right to Vote, and Pray

It has been a while since I've done this, but I think its about time I throw my hat back in the blogging ring. Today is a very special day, it is election day. Many of you may think that this is the most important day in our nation's calendar, and I would agree. This is our chance as a people, as citizens to influence the future direction of our country. For many, this is a day of personal expression and excitement, while for others, like myself who is from a state that consistently disagrees with my personal politics, it is an exercise in frustration. But for the believer, this day should by the end of a long period of petitioning our God to do what is best for our nation.

I wonder how many of us have taken time to consider what God's desires might be for this country. How much time have we spent searching the scriptures to know the mind of the Lord in regards to our future. Scripture is full of passages that speak to God's involvement in the politics of a country. Here are just a few:

2 Chron 20:6 - ... "O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.

Psalms 22:28 - 28 "For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations."

Jer 27:5 - "It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me. "

Prov 21:1 - "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will. "

In light of these verses, we should be supremely confident that no matter the result of the election, God is still the one on the throne and His plans for our nation cannot be thwarted.

The other aspect to a believer's approach to this election should be one of continued prayer. You see, in the same way we show our involvement and influence in our government through voting, so we show that same interest and involvement in spiritual kingdom through prayer. How much time have we spent on our knees praying for the candidates, praying for God's will to be done, praying that our nation would repent and turn to the Lord. If we haven't spent time in prayer over this, that is just as bad as not exercising our right to vote. I confess, this is something I struggle with as well. My prayer life is often limited to my own day to day concerns with never a thought to the greater world outside my little area of ministry at FVBC.

I have been supremely convicted that there is a greater need for prayer than there is for voting. With prayer, we petition the ultimate King of kings. God has given us this great gift of communicating with Him and even being a part of God's actions as He uses our prayers to accomplish His will on earth. James 5:16 tells us to pray and that our prayer has greet effect. Pray should be a regular part of our day, but is it? Do we spend as much time on our knees as we do worrying about the outcome of an election? Where is our heart? Do we trust that God is in control and can and will do whatever He deems best for His people? If we don't, we should. Romans 8:28 is clear on that issue. Whatever occurs, it is the best and will be used to accomplish the best for God's people.

So exercise your greater right as a believer. Yes, by all means vote if you are able, but don't stop there. Continue in your petitioning our great God to continue to do His will in our land for the good of His people and for the ultimate glory of His Name.

Anniversary Day

So, today is my fourth anniversary, and I wanted to reflect on what marriage has meant to me over the past few years. In Sacred Marriage, Gary Thomas writes that marriage is more about our holiness than our happiness. I think that is a very interesting way of putting it. Although our marriage has been full of happy moments, I think the greatest benefit to me personally is how it has grown my character closer to that of Christ. Holiness is all about conforming to the image of Christ, forsaking the world, and setting yourself apart for God. No one exemplified this more than Jesus. As I've traveled down the road of marriage just a little I can see many instances in which I've had to resist my sinful temptation and do what God would want.

For example, I don't really enjoy washing the dishes. I know my wife shares my same distaste for this task, yet is still needs to be done. We don't have a dishwasher at the moment, so the duty has to fall to someone. I think not washing the dishes would certainly make my happier, but being selfless and putting my wife's happiness first helps me to be more holy, more Christlike. Now, I want to give credit to Moriah. She does the dishes a lot. This is mainly due to her need for the house to be in order and clean (which I really appreciate). But, when there is a chance for me to do them, I need to jump at that to show my love for my wife.

This is just a small thing, but one of many that grows my character. I am so thankful for all that Moriah does, from laundry every week, to cooking, to teaching our girls little things like their colors and how to love each other. I really struck it rich with her, although my theology tells me that God ordained that she would be my wife. Praise God for pairing her with me. I think I got the better end of that deal.

Although this is our fourth anniversary of marriage, we are approaching eight years of being together as a couple. That's almost a third of my life that I've been with this wonderful woman. I'm pumped for what God has in store for us over the next years and decades. I'm sure there will be plenty of happy times, but what I'm really excited about is how God will grow both of us into the image of His Son through our covenant of marriage.

I love you Moriah...

Bible Q & A- Na Session 3

Questions and Answers concerning the Bible- Al Mohler

This message wasn't really a message. They had people come down to two mics and ask their questions about the Bible. Below is the list and some notes on the answers given. It was great to see the interest. There were at least 50 lined up to ask questions, and he only got to about 10 of them. He is a very smart guy and answered the questions like he had prepared answers ready to go. He speaks from a wealth of knowledge and I think you'll find the responses helpful.

Na Session 3- Al Mohler

"Q & A about the Bible"

What separates the Bible from other books?

-When we say that the Bible is inspired, we aren't paying it a compliment by saying it is so good that it qualifies as holy text. It is inspired for many other reasons

How did we get our 66 books and why were some ommitted?

-Apocryphal writings- the early church considered them important spiritual books, but never on the same level as the cannon (Maccabees, etc.)

-Pseudo-pigraphal- not actually true writings (gospel of Mary not actually written by Mary)

-Gnostic groups- a few who believed they had the key to scriptures that wrote books they believed were true, but weren't scripture

Apostalicity- had to be linked to an Apostle

Catholicity- all churches recognize that these are the correct books

-By the 2nd century, the church had already settled on the 66 books we have now, and they believed it was complete, nothing needing to be added and nothing needed to be taken away

What about passages that are in some Bible's and not others (end of Mark 16:9-20 , etc.)?

-There a significant textual questions about those texts, although he believes they should still be in the scriptures

-The original manuscripts are gone so we don't know exactly what they should look like

What parts of the law are applicable today? Why some things and not others?

- the law shows us our need for Christ and it teaches us how to live

-Different kinds of law

-Moral law (repeated in the NT and inhanced- murder to anger, adultery to lust)

-Ceremonial law (what happens in worship- sacrifices, festivals, holiness code) which is done away with completely in the NT because it is fulfilled in Christ

-We need to discuss homosexuality one of many sexual sins that all of us can fall in left to ourselves

Is the Bible inerrant, infallible, consequentially inerrant, etc.?

-Infallible- it will never fail... this is true, but not a complete statement

-Inerrant- no errors

-If we say that the inconsequential parts may have errors, then what do we say is inconsequential? Every part of scripture is essential. Either it is without error or it is. There is no in between.

Postmodernism

-Takes into account that worldview establishes the way we construct reality

-some truth applies where other truths don't, that there are different people groups with different stories that historicize their background

-this produces the wrong type of humility by saying that no one can really know truth.. truth is only meaningful to the individual

-it states that the reader is the authority, not the writer

-postmodernism denies that there is a great universal truth that we can know and are held accountable to and that there is a metanarrative that ties everything together

What about the Doctrines of Grace and people who don't believe in them?

-people want to have some part in salvation

-semi-palagian: our environment makes us sinful and we only need a certain amount of grace to boost us across the finish line

-it is hard to show people grace when we are strangling them with the doctrines of grace

The Authority of Scripture- Na Session 2

Mark Dever- The Authority of Scripture

I found this message particularly encouraging in regards to bolstering my faith in the authenticity of the Bible I read today. To understand the depths God has taken to ensure the security of His Word is just astonishing. I hope you will be as encouraged as I was by this message and that it will instill a new confidence in the authority of scripture in your mind.

Just like last time, here are my notes. I apologize for the fragmented nature of them, but it is better than nothing. Enjoy...

New Attitude- Session 2

Mark Dever

"The Authority of Scripture"

-this rising generation struggles with replacing the things of God with the passing things of this world

-The question before us today is

What do we believe and how will we answer questions about belief?

How can we have confidence in the authority of scripture?

Bibliography

-F.F. Bruce- The NT Documents: Are they reliable?

-J.I. Packer- Fundamentalism and the Word of God

-John Wynam- Christ and the Bible

I. The Reliability of the Bible (Apologetic Question)

-focus on the gospels- if we agree that the gospels are historically accurate, then we can move from that to understanding the reliability of the rest of the bible.

A. Is the Bible reliable in reference to all the translations (ESV, NKJV, NASB, etc.)

-all the translations don't negate that the Bible is translatable

-they all say the same thing at the root and basic point

B. Is this really what was written down all those years ago?

-Yes, there are texts old enough to prove that they are still accurate

-The NT is only 50 years removed from the original manuscripts

-The Bible is unprecedented in terms of ancient documents that we still have (22,000 ancient manuscripts)

C. Was what was written down by the original authors accurate and not just propaganda?

-things passed down orally from memory can be and usually are accurate for ancient cultures

-We need to ask why we doubt the reliability and then address those individual issue

-The Bible is historically accurate and is backed up by archeology. The authors take great care to be historically accurate (Luke 1:1-4)

-1 Cor. 7:10 - I, not the Lord, means Paul is adding to what Christ(Lord) said.

-There are a lot of details in the NT that wouldn't be smart in starting a new religion, but are recorded anyway because that is what happened.

-The gospels show the flaws of their own authors

D. Is it true?

-That is the real question to spend our time on, as well as the implications of what it means if it is true.

II. The Authority of the Bible (Question to the Believer)

-Just because I don't know everything doesn't mean I don't know anything.

-We are made to know God... and the fact that we don't know everything doesn't imply that we can't know anything for certain. That is a lie from Satan implanted in the world

OT Verses Exodus 24:4 , Ezekiel 34, Deuteronomy 4:1-2 , Deuteronomy 17:18 , Psalm 19:7-10 , Psalm 119:11, 89, 105, 140,

NT Verses: Acts 1:16, 17:11, Romans 15:4, James 2:8, Acts 4:25, Galatians 3:8, 2 Tim. 3:16, Hebrews 4:12, 2 Peter 1:20-21, 3:15-16

Jesus' verses: Matt. 4:4, Luke 21:33, Mt. 19:5, John 5:46-47, 10:35,

Luke 24, Matt. 5:17-18

-If I am to be a disciple of Christ, I must see the scriptures as Jesus saw them.

-We should be regularly fed by faithful exposition of God's Word

Ephesians 5:10 - we are to find what is pleasing to God through scripture

-You cannot read too much in scripture. What you read you cannot read too carefully... -Luther quote

-We fall into the trap of thinking collecting the words and knowledge of Christ without putting them into practice

Matt. 7:24-27

-God's means of transforming us is by His Word (Romans 12:2)