I Am Living Proof

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.

Read:

Mom, Are You Crying Again then Holding Worship.

You see that man holding up that other man to worship our Almighty God. One brother carrying another brother to worship and praise the King of Kings and Lord of Lords… the only One who is even remotely worthy of our praise.

They praised the One who is Perfect.

The worshiped the King who is Matchless.

That man, lifted somebody other than himself, shows the full glory of our King and the heart of our Father here on earth.

Who is like our God and who compares to Him? In case you don’t know the answer, nobody does.