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Working to advance the kingdom
To reach lives, to touch souls
Being a generation that seeks God’s face

Pride and the heart

Everybody likes getting a bit of recognition and applause.

The other day I was dissecting a human heart (as part of my medical school anatomy learning, not just for the banter!). I was the only guy in the group, and as it was somewhat messy and the girls didn’t want to get too hands on, I was left doing it all myself, holding this heart in my hand, cutting open the various chambers of the heart and feeling around for various structures. And if you donate your body to medical science after you die and they preserve your body so that people can dissect it, whatever they do causes the blood in the atria of the heart (the two top chambers) to solidify into a huge clot, which requires a lot of chipping away at and considerable picking out with tweezers to clear. It’s the kind of thing that you don’t want to eat too soon after doing. And at the end the girls were all like ‘Good job’ and even gave me a wee round of applause. (Is it just me or is praise that bit sweeter when it comes from members of the opposite sex…?)

Stuff like that is great for inflating your ego, making you think you are great. I’m sure you can recall some sort of situation where you got praise for doing something well. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll have had a feeling of satisfaction, and taken some pride in the fact that something you did well was recognised (especially if it is a member of the opposite sex you have managed to impress). But here’s what the Bible has to say about pride: “Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” (Proverbs 11:12) Continue reading this →

Man Up

This is one aimed just at the guys, but girls feel free to read along if you wish. And if there is interest I’ll try and get someone to do a similar article for you – leave a wee comment or get in touch in some other way if you would like such an article.

There are all sorts of expectations put on guys today to live a certain way going through school, uni etc, both by the media and by our own peers. The big question is who do we let define our identity – society’s expectations or Jesus’ ultimate example? In this article I’m going to take a look at what it means for us to be young men of God, based from the example of Daniel (the guy from the lion’s den.)

Society tells us that the most important thing is to have a good time and not worry about the consequences, what counts is enjoying ourselves, but Jesus says that the most important things are to love God and to love others. Loving God means striving not to do things that grieve Him, and loving others means treating them with the respect they deserve as a person made in God’s image.

In the Bible Daniel gives us a great example of how to be a young man of God when society around you is going the total opposite way. In Daniel chapter 1 we find him dropped 500 miles into an alien culture when the Babylonians take him and his companions captive. For us, as people who are called to be ‘not of this world’, the culture we are in is alien, and we should “not be conformed to the patterns of the world” (Romans 12:2 NIV) Continue reading this →

Strength

At many times you will feel that you can’t manage on your own. At those times you need to remind yourself that you’re not alone.
God is with you. He is your strength. “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1v37)
If the task ahead of you looks undoable by human efforts fear not. God is with you, helping you.
Isaiah 41v10 says “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.”
We can always rely on God. Unlike our friends or family he will never let us down.

Psalm 121 v1-2: I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?

My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth. (NIV)

In life God is always there for us. He will always help us – if we ask Him to.
He will never fail us. Sometimes to see this we need to step back and look at the bigger picture.
There will be ties when you are wondering “What is going on here? Why is this happening?”, and at times like that it is important to remember the promise of Romans 8v28 – ultimately all things work for our good.
It can be hard to see from where you are now. But one day it will be clear.
What may look like a tragedy may be a blessing in disguise. As John Piper put it, the guy who appears to die suddenly in a car crash may have had cancer that would otherwise have caused him a slow and painful death.

The Glorious Unseen Interview

We like bringing you interviews with the very best in Christian music here at All4God. We’ve done interviews with the likes of Casting Crowns, Leeland, 33Miles, and Nathan Jess. But it has been a while since we’ve brought you a big name interview. Today we are remedying that by bringing you an exclusive interview with the class American band The Glorious Unseen (check out the previous band of the month post if you haven’t heard their music – I can almost guarantee you’ll become a fan!)

Lead singer Ben Crist took some time to answer a few questions for us, and this is what he had to say:

• First off, for those who haven’t heard of The Glorious Unseen, or don’t know much about you, who makes up the band, and how long have you been together?

The current lineup is myself (Ben) on guitar and vocals, Jon Todryk on drums, Adam Smith on keys, Ryan Stubbs on guitar, Ben Harm on bass. I’ve personally been doing this project for about 8 years – it started as a worship thing at my church, and then grew into something that has gone beyond our church.

• Where did the name come from?

When trying to think of a name – I wanted to communicate something about the mystery of God – something of His greatness. There is so much to him that we could never understand, I wanted to communicate that in the name. So that’s how that came together.

• How/why did you get into the music scene, and why did you decide to form a worship band?

I’ve been playing music from a very young age. Started drums at age 7, piano at 10. Played worship in church often growing up. Naturally kinda started doing it myself when I got to college. Didn’t really set out to start a “worship band” – That just kinda happened naturally when I started writing my own songs…

• If you had to describe your musical style in three words, what would they be?

Mix Delirious and Sigur Ros together – with Pedro The Lion vocals – and maybe you have something like us… At least that’s what people say a lot… haha. 3 words? Ambient, Epic, Honest

• While your music is clearly worship music, it is very different to most modern contemporary worship music being produced at the moment. What would you say are the main differences, and why have you made them?

ummm I don’t really like modern contemporary worship music. I would not set out to be a part of producing songs like that – A lot of them seem to say the same thing over and over again, and songs are arranged and produced in much the same way – basically, they all sound the same to me. I would say, I just wanted to create music that inspired me, but also – I really value the experience of worshipping together with a community at a church. So, I WANT to worship – but, I want it to be music that I like. So, I just brought the 2 together – along with lyrics that said something I hadn’t already heard before in other worship songs.

• What is the most important message you want people to pick up on as they listen to your music?

Honesty with God, authenticity before God. No putting on a show – no “puffing ourselves up” so we can get before God. We come as we are – we let him heal us. Continue reading this →

Band of the month: The Glorious Unseen

Start here book bomb

Start Something Book Bomb

You may have heard of (and possibly even read) the book Do Hard Things by Brett and Alex Harris – a book about turning societies expectations of teenagers upside down, by doing hard things for the sake of Christ. It was written while they were still teenagers, is an extremely challenging and powerful book and well worth a read if you haven’t already. Brett and Alex have a new book out soon (USA 16^th March, UK 1^st April) which is totally focused on the practical side of things – how to live out a life of doing hard things and exceeding expectations in order to make an impact for God.

I haven’t yet read the book, so cannot give a definite vouch for it, but having read Do Hard Things, and being a regular reader of their blog, and a member of their Rebelutionaries web-forum I can be fairly confident that it will be worth getting. And I mention it today because they are doing something really class – for every copy sold on Amazon today, they will be giving away a free copy to someone/an organisation that isn’t able to afford it, but would benefit through it. It’s all part of something they are calling ‘The Book Bomb’ – an attempt to get the book into the daily Amazon bestseller list (a la Rage against the Machine’s Christmas number 1) in order to bring it to the attention of people who otherwise would never hear of it. Basically they are trying to co-ordinate everyone who is interested in it buying it today through Amazon rather than spreading sales over various sites/shops and dates. (You might be wondering why Amazon? It’s because that is where it is cheapest.) Continue reading this →