Peace | The Podcast

The Road to Kingdom Come | The Music That Made Us

What songs have resonated with you? What lyrics have put words to your longings and your struggles? How has music touched your soul and impacted your faith? This summer we will highlight the music that has made us.
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In this final part of our Summer Series called The Music That Made Us, Dave Tidball leads us on a musical journey. Through song and scripture reflection, we are able to reflect on the journey towards the coming Kingdom of God. 
 

An Interview with John Kerns | The Music That Made Us

As we near the conclusion of our series on The Music That Made Us, we sat down with John Kerns to discuss how he got his start in music, why music and faith are so powerfully linked, and what the future of music in the church might look like. 
Enjoy this expansive and thoughtful interview!

Think On These Things | The Music That Made Us

What songs have resonated with you? What lyrics have put words to your longings and your struggles? How has music touched your soul and impacted your faith? This summer we will highlight the music that has made us.
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Thankful by Joe Cocker is a simple song about gratitude for the simple things in life like taking a breath in the morning, and the larger things in life like a relationship that lasts. 
Gratitude is such a needed spiritual discipline. So often the negative and troubling things in life stick in our brain - they shape how we see the world. Gratitude and being thankful is a way to rewire our brain towards the good and meaningful. 
Paul encourages the church in Philippi to do this when he concludes his letter to the Philippians by writing to 'think on these things' (4.8). 
 

Like A Mustard Seed | The Music That Made Us

What songs have resonated with you? What lyrics have put words to your longings and your struggles? How has music touched your soul and impacted your faith? This summer we will highlight the music that has made us.
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Fields of Gold by Sting is a beautiful song about a couple that grows old together; and as their time is coming to a close, they hope to remember one another when they look out over the barley field just beyond their window. It's a song about belonging, feeling grounded and connected, feeling known. 
In many respects, that's the journey that God has us on, to make home and belonging for people. We are invited to bring God's kingdom (kin-dom) on earth as it is in heaven. But what does that look like and how do we walk this road?
In Matthew 13, Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that is planted In a field. Maybe this imagery will give us insight?
 

Where You Invest Your Love, You Invest Your Life | The Music That Made Us

What songs have resonated with you? What lyrics have put words to your longings and your struggles? How has music touched your soul and impacted your faith? This summer we will highlight the music that has made us.
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Awake My Soul by the band Mumford and Sons begs the question, how can we keep our faith when all the rules of our religion have seemingly failed us? (At least that's how I'm interpreting this piece of art.) 
In a similar way, David is confronted with a strange moment in a cave. He's followed all the rules, done everything his king and country have asked of him and rose to prominence, but now he's being stalked by Saul the king, who wants to kill him. And in this cave, David has Saul within his sights - he could kill Saul. 
But love compels him to chart a different course. In Psalm 57, we read David's anguish and hope while hiding out in the cave. 
We will all have times in life when the path we thought doesn't work anymore, when following the rules has failed us. What then? What will be our next step? Will we keep our soul or lose it down a path of vengeance and despair? Or like David, will we choose for this to be the moment that our soul is awoken to love?!
 
 

Is It I Lord? | The Music That Made Us

What songs have resonated with you? What lyrics have put words to your longings and your struggles? How has music touched your soul and impacted your faith? This summer we will highlight the music that has made us.
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Here Am I Lord is a well-known hymn based on Isaiah 6.8. It's about calling, hearing God's invitation for good work. But in order to answer that call we need the autonomy to answer, the creativity to know if the call is ours to do, and to see the purpose of that call. 
 

Inseparable | The Music That Made Us

What songs have resonated with you? What lyrics have put words to your longings and your struggles? How has music touched your soul and impacted your faith? This summer we will highlight the music that has made us.
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Thank God I Do by Lauren Daigle, is a song about identity, a song about being known. Often in life we can get knocked down or things don't go the way we expect or hope, and the story we start to tell ourselves isn't true or filled with God's love. 
These stories have a way of working on us in an unhealthy way. But what if we told ourselves a different story? Like the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans, who tells the people facing division and persecution that they are more than conquerers and that nothing can separate them from God's love.
The stories we tell impact the stories we are living.
 

A Place At The Table | The Music That Made Us

What songs have resonated with you? What lyrics have put words to your longings and your struggles? How has music touched your soul and impacted your faith? This summer we will highlight the music that has made us.
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A Place At The Table by Shirley Erena Murray, is a modern day hymn about the expanding and growing table of Christ that is offered to all! 
In the book of Luke, Jesus is confronting some marginalizing habits and patterns of the Pharisees. They believe the table is exclusive, only for the elite and the perfect. And Jesus is going to challenge their expectations with a parable about a dinner host who invites EVERYONE!
At the end of this message, we talked about a situation with our Little Free Library. The books have been emptied on three occasions - so we decided to respond - but maybe not in the way one would expect. 
What does it look like to expand the table?
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Generations of __________ | The Music That Made Us

What songs have resonated with you? What lyrics have put words to your longings and your struggles? How has music touched your soul and impacted your faith? This summer we will highlight the music that has made us.
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Cat's In The Cradle: Harry Chapin said that he stole a few of the lyrics from his wife and that the song is dedicated to his son Josh. And he also said that this song terrifies him!
The theme of what we pass on to the next generation is not only a modern day parable, but it's a central component of what the LORD tells the people when they receive the 10 Commandments on Mt. Sinai. 
Steadfast love will be given to the 1,000th generation, but iniquity will be given to the 3rd and 4th generation. 
We pass on all the ways we cause injustice, and we pass on relational wholeness. What type of generation are we passing on? Generations of _______.
 

All You Need Is Love | The Music That Made Us

What songs have resonated with you? What lyrics have put words to your longings and your struggles? How has music touched your soul and impacted your faith? This summer we will highlight the music that has made us.
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All You Need Is Love: There are too many Beatles songs that we could have chosen...so we did 4!
Help | With A Little Help From My Friends | All You Need Is Love | Let It Be
We specifically looked at the type of love that is shared between friends...the family that we choose. And Jesus models for us how to love as a friend...but it's hard to see until we dig deep into the Scriptures and actually look at the Greek words for love.