Several months ago, I had a friend who passed away.

I just found out last night that his widow took her own life.

I am not sure if they believed God is their Savior and Lord.

Up until recently, I thought it was enough for me to boldly walk my faith, set myself apart and others will catch on.

I now have proof in hand that it is not enough.

Their lives have now flipped my head inside out.

For some reason, I am reminded of one song, One Mic by Nas.

In that song, I will constantly ask..

One God to show me how to do things His Son did

That I won’t quit praying…

One prayer - tell God forgive for one sin

The desire of my heart is that…

All I need is one life, one try, one breath I’m one man
what I stand for speaks for itself, they don’t understand

Now is the time to make my life worth something.

Been playing around with the greatness of Muxtape and uploaded what I have been listening to up until 4AM in the morning. (Yes, good music, 5 hour nap in the afternoon and two (2) Monsters will do that to you.)

Warning: Explicit Lyrics. In other words, there might be some cussing.

No More Tears by Anita Baker
Next Level (Nyte Time Mix) by Show & A.G.
Mes Yeux Fermis by Zero Noel
When You Say Nothing At All by Alison Krauss
Thinking of You by Tony Toni Toné
I Got A Love by Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
Happy Feelings (Live) by Maze
Lies by Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová
Survival by Yes
Barracuda by Heart
These Are Days by 10,000 Maniacs
Can You Rock It Like This by Run DMC

I was born in 1975 so thus I listen to everything my dad listens to which includes lots of Marvin Gaye, Lionel Richie, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, ZZ Top, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. The I grew up during the 80s and 90s so that brought about my love for Rock like Rush and Metallica and Hip-Hop like Nas, Wu-Tang and Eric B. & Rakim.

This muxtape on this site will usually be all worship but from time to time, I will wipe and post up something I am listening to during a late night session. Enjoy.

Jon (of prodigaljohn.com and 97secondswithgod.com fame) brings us the genius of Stuff Christians Like.

Genius? Yes. Original? Meh, not so much. Heck, Jon even admitted to this.

Whatever the case, it is a hoot just like #159 of what Christians like, the “pray if you feel led” prayer, where he breaks down the 6 people you are going to meet in a prayer circle:

1. The Almost-er
2. The Gun Slinger
3. The Opener
4. The Rambler
5. The Cave In
6. The Closer (touching a bit on the The Encore-ist)
Bonus: The Shot Blocker

I have gone into group prayer with no clear opener or closer. It is some of the craziest toe-stepping you have ever seen. In the last grouped I prayed in, we even had a Encore-ist.  But alas, no Shot Blocker.

With all that said, I still love praying in groups even with all of these people you might meet. Some will pray boldly, others quick and timidly. However, in being before the Lord with your heart exposed, you in turn exposed your heart to others and thus, the love between your brothers and sisters grows even stronger

That said, I just figured out why two people dating should never pray together. Hmm.

Muxtape: Hillsong United’s Desperate People from All Of The Above

Our young adult ministries, Seven, wants to lift each other in prayer: Seven Prayers

My prayer is for Tam Hodges and her family.

I love you Tam, Brent, Kass and Kota.

May God show us all His glory and His heart.

Muxtape: Hillsong United’s Saviour King (Live) from With Hearts As One

Written by David Moore

A lot of the songs written at Gateway Church are written out of the things God is doing in our church body. We want our songs to capture the heartbeat of the church and bring a connection point between the people and our message. “Real” is an example of such a song. Our church was in a series called “Real.” This series encapsulated the relevance and importance of being a witness to the world. Together we learned that witnessing is not far off and hokey, it’s simply telling your story of God’s faithfulness in your life. No one can argue with your story and your story can turn hearts toward God.

When our worship team first heard about this series, our executive worship pastor, Sion Alford and I decided to sit down and write a song about it so our church would have an anthem to sing during this sermon series. We wanted to portray a story of how God has changed us and empowered us to change others. In just a matter of a few hours we had a finished song, and within a few days our church embraced it as their own.

I wanted to take a couple of excerpts from this bulletin on MySpace from Gateway Worship on their new album, Wake Up The World, which is released this week nationwide. Lyrics, tabs, chords are available for download at Gateway Worship. A muxtape will accompanying this series of perspectives. - Ed.

Written by Kari Jobe

“You Are Good” is the first piano song I’ve written. The melody came to me first. For about a year, every time I sat at the piano, I would play this melody. It was the melody that I would always have free worship to and intercede with as I was spending time worshipping the Lord. One day, I just began to sing the words, and this time, I felt in my spirit that it was a complete song instead of just free worship. So, I wrote it down.

The theme comes from two scriptures that the Lord was speaking to me during that time in my life. The first is Romans 2:4, which says that His kindness leads to repentance and it’s His goodness that draws us to Himself. The second scripture comes from Psalm 145: “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all He has made.”

These verses say a lot about how good God is. As I played through the melody, my heart just overflowed with this theme. For me, this song was birthed from a season of what God was teaching me and showing me about Himself, and my response was and still is, You are good.

I wanted to take a couple of excerpts from this bulletin on MySpace from Gateway Worship on their new album, Wake Up The World, which is released this week nationwide. Lyrics, tabs, chords are available for download at Gateway Worship. A muxtape will accompanying this series of perspectives. - Ed.

Written by Walker Beech

“We Cry Out” was conceived in my garage/studio during a time of worship one morning. I was running late to go to a morning chapel at Christ for the Nations and about to face terrible Dallas traffic, but just kept staying there weeping as I sang this song to my heavenly Father.

Hundreds of times in the Old Testament you read how God’s people “cried out to the Lord” or “called on the name of the Lord”. Based on the number of times it’s mentioned, it seems to be a primary form of worship, or almost synonymous with the act of worship. Just do a word search on “call on the name of the Lord,” it’s amazing! Then in the New Testament on the day of Pentecost we read that, “Éveryone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” as prophesied by Joel. (Acts 2:21, Romans 10:13, Joel 2:32) Basically, God likes and seems to respond to having His name called, cried, and sung out loud over and over again.

As a father of 3 young boys, I hear my name called a lot. Also, I hear it in every variation possible for children to come up with, dad, dadda, daddy, best friend, hey hey hey, and so on. Mostly I hear, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy. You get the picture.

Everyday I hear my name on the phone, Walker, Mr. Beach, Dude, Bro, and my favorite, “are you the primary resident at this address,” gotta love telemarketers. Sometimes I get the sweet sound of, “hey baby”, or the consistent name of, “honey”, from my beloved wife. All of these either get a response right away, or will eventually get my attention if they are said enough times. So how much more does this apply to the Father who is eagerly waiting to hear His name spoken by His children.

This song is that concept put to music. I wanted to call on the name of the Lord in every biblical way I could (as long as it rhymed of course:). I wanted to call God’s name the way the Hebrews did (Adonai), the way the early church did (El Shaddai), and the name we now call Him every day (Jesus Christ). This song was birthed out of just calling on the name of the Lord over and over again in intimate, private worship (until my wife came and reminded me how late I was).

I pray this song will help inspire you to call upon the name of the Lord in the midst of the congregation, in the middle of a busy day, and in the quiet place when only Jesus can hear you.

I wanted to take a couple of excerpts from this bulletin on MySpace from Gateway Worship on their new album, Wake Up The World, which is released this week nationwide. Lyrics, tabs, chords are available for download at Gateway Worship. A muxtape will accompanying this series of perspectives. - Ed.

Written by Zach Neese

When I write a song, I begin in a moment with God, a gem of truth, and a cry that the Church needs to learn to vocalize. Alabaster Jar is a moment in the life of a person who remains at the feet of Jesus. The truth is that worship is not something we simply sing, but it is an attitude of the heart that motivates the actions of our lives. The cry is the chorus, “Here I am. Take me as an offering. Here I am giving every heartbeat for Your glory.”The title refers to the sinful woman in Luke 7 who anointed Jesus’ feet with oil and tears and wiped them clean with her hair. I understand that woman. When you have been pulled off of the dung heap where the world casts aside its used-up, worthless garbage you cannot remain unmoved. This woman permitted God to move her. And when she moved, it was an all-out act of worship; selfless, pure, extravagant, even embarrassing to the religious establishment. It takes a heart that has been wooed by forgiveness to love that deeply. She bowed at His feet and poured out the wages of her past - everything she was. She poured out the security of her future - everything she could ever afford to become. She even poured out the tears of her broken heart and laid bare the wounds that they had pooled in. Then this amazing woman loosed her glorious hair and used it to wipe Jesus’ filthy, neglected feet clean. She used her glory as a dust rag to serve Christ.

Her actions more eloquently expressed gratefulness than any words she could have spoken. That is worship. Worship is not lip service, but the grateful response of a heart that has been won by mercy (Romans 12:1).

That is how I want to live. God is worthy of nothing less.

I wanted to take a couple of excerpts from this bulletin on MySpace from Gateway Worship on their new album, Wake Up The World, which is released this week nationwide. Lyrics, tabs, chords are available for download at Gateway Worship. A muxtape will accompanying this series of perspectives. - Ed.

Written by Thomas Miller

I was experiencing some of the most incredible successes of my life.My wife Mary Beth and I had been blessed with our first child, our church was experiencing an amazing amount of growth, my ministry was reaching new levels of influence and effectiveness. On top of it all, I was (at that very moment) relaxing on a month-long sabbatical. Truly everything was great, except everything wasn’t great.

I was depressed.

Actually, I was more than depressed - I was devastated. And for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why. Everything on the outside was so fantastic, overflowing with God’s blessing. And yet, I was utterly overcome. Mary Beth and I felt helpless. It was beginning to take a major toll on our relationship. Although I was trying to give my best emotionally to her and to my son, I was falling very short of success. In the middle of our desperation, we cried out to God, “Save us!” And He answered our prayer.

Throughout the next year, God took us on an incredible journey where we discovered that I was going through a deep level of emotional exhaustion and burnout. The Lord showed me that although I kept a close eye on my physical and spiritual health, I had all but ignored my emotional well-being. Through a series of answered prayers and obedience in my day-to-day life, I received God’s complete freedom and salvation.

Mary Beth and I have since discovered that we need God’s salvation in our lives every day. His salvation goes so far beyond the initial prayer of faith for spiritual salvation. Whether the prayer is for a healing, an emotional deliverance, a relational hardship, a business decision or any other situation, we can rely on His salvation every point of every day.

David consistently cried out to God for salvation from his emotional hardships and from his enemies. Blind Bartimaeus cried out to God for his physical healing. Paul reminded us that God’s salvation is simply believing in Christ and calling on His name (Romans 10:9, 10, 13).

Today, I’ve developed a new level of dependence on God. Although I’m a couple of years removed from that hard time in my life, I now more fully trust in God’s daily salvation to sustain me through every day and every season of life. I know that at any time I can call on the Lord to save me.

I wanted to take a couple of excerpts from this bulletin on MySpace from Gateway Worship on their new album, Wake Up The World, which is released this week nationwide. Lyrics, tabs, chords are available for download at Gateway Worship. A muxtape will accompanying this series of perspectives. - Ed.

I suck.

Romans 3:23 (ESV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

I was going to die.

Romans 6:23 (ESV) For the wages of sin is death…

Fortunately, God doesn’t suck.

Luke 18:19 (ESV) … No one is good except God alone.

God knew I sucked, loved me anyway and because He loved me so much, He sent His Son to fix it all:

Romans 5:8 (ESV) but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God gave me the wisdom to know of Him and His love for me.

1 Corinthians 2:12 (ESV) Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

So I call upon Him.

Romans 10:9 (ESV) because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

God saved me from death.

John 3:16 (ESV) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

God made me righteous.

Job 33:26 (ESV) then man prays to God, and he accepts him; he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he restores to man his righteousness.

God made me pure.

Zechariah 3:4 (ESV) And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.”

God made me holy.

1 Peter 1:16 (ESV) since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

For this point on, I cannot be condemned for my past.

Romans 8:1 (ESV) There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

What did I do to save myself? Not a darn thing.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (ESV) For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

What can keep Jesus from stop loving me?  Uh, nothing:

Romans 8:35-39 (ESV) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Simply put, who is like our God and who dares to compare themselves to Him?  Because the last time I checked, my God is holy.

About the Author:

Joseph Louthan was born on May 17, 1975, to American soldier and a Korean waitress in Carswell AFB (near Fort Worth), Texas. Oldest of six children which includes two brothers and three sisters. Raised by paternal grandmother after parents divorced when Joe was 5 years old and lived with his dad until 12 years old.   Joseph has one son, Yusef and is a member of Gateway Church in Southlake, TX.

Want to read about Joseph’s path from death to life?  Read more  One Year Ago.

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