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.

My shameless plug would be about the church I call home and where I am called to serve, Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas.More importantly than that, I would be absolutely remiss if did not mention anything about our worship team.

Because of Gateway Worship and Gateway as a whole, I truly understand what worship is all about: it is the way I live that glorifies God. I will praise and worship my God no matter my circumstance because He is our God and He alone is good. I can’t sing to save my life, can’t keep a beat and can’t play an instrument. It is nigh impossible for me to clap and sing at the same time. But I love nothing more than praise and worship and it is even better when I sing with other believers.

To sum up my thoughts on worship: Robert Morris said it best with “Worship Is Love Expressed”.

Better than anything else, the music ministry of Gateway Worship has gave the yearning to worship God to my 6 year old son. While he will sing the occasional kid song from Veggietales or whatever, his favorite songs are the songs we sing when we worship: “You, You Our God”, “Come Thou Fount, Come Thou King”, “Hosanna”, “Blessed Be Your Name”, “Revelation Song”, “Shout To The Lord”, “Everyday” and on and on and on.

I wasn’t able to be at the live recording since God had me in South Africa at that time. So I will be experiencing this for the first time just like you. But everybody I know who was there said, unequivocally, that God made His presence known that evening. If we can somehow capture that on DVD and CD, then I know you will be blessed.

I worship You, Almighty God
There is none like You
I worship You, O Prince of Peace
That is what I want to do

I give You praise
For You are My righteousness

I worship You, Almighty God
There is none like You

Words and music by Sondra Corbett
© 1983 Integrity’s Hosanna! Music
CCLI #146987

I truly hope you and yours are having a very Merry Christmas.

• Playing: The same Miranda who previously offered a book recommendation recommended the Lego Star Wars game for my son since my son plays it every chance he gets when goes to the older kids class. He popped the game into the console and played with no needed instructions. What was really cool is that two people can play at the same time. This is the first console game I have bought that allowed for multiplayer. It is a bonus since I get to play it with my son!
• Singing: I am in the final days in physically and mentally preparing for this upcoming fast at the beginning of next year. Since I was originally led to do 30 days, I am do some reading on how to do it properly. I went over in my head what to pray for and what to study over those 30 days. I suddenly then realized it is not asking God for this, that or the third. It was simply to worship and praise His name. Anything less that does not give God all the glory is not even worth my time or the effort. I work up the morning and drove 30 minutes on the nearly deserted highways of Dallas and Fort Worth. I began to sing “Bring The Rain” by MercyMe and so much joy filled my soul that I was smiling, laughing and crying while singing. I have never experienced anything like that.
• Thinking: That might have been a private moment but, meh. I have never been a private person so why start now?