Behind the Praise - Sunday July 25, 2010

"The Lord Reigns"

Here is Klaus' testimony in his own words:

There are moments in each person’s life that shape us and cause us to change our course. One such moment in my life happened in the spring of 2003 at an “Encounter” event in Mexico. I attended the conference to help with worship and ended up with an encounter that would change my life. The word I received that weekend from Lindell was that I had not been forgotten, the Lord had need of me in this hour, and that a fountain for the nations was about to open up.
Soon after, I received an invitation to be the Worship Leader at Christ For The Nations Institute in Dallas, Texas. From the fall of 2003 through the spring of 2005 I had the privilege of entering into the presence each morning with about 1000 students who were hungry to see God move in their life. That season also opened up the opportunity to produce two CFNI Worship projects,"Glorious" and "Overtaken".
I was born in Germany, but by the time I was ten, my family ended up in Canada after several years in Chicago and Michigan. At the age of five I began taking piano lessons and continued training in classical and jazz until I was about 18. I remember hearing Keith Green for the first time and being captivated by the sound of his heart. A lot of other influences weighed in to shape my musical mindset.
In 1984 I left Canada and moved to Dallas, Texas to attend Christ For The Nations, Institute. Soon after graduating, I married Julie, who is an amazing woman and my best friend. We have three children, Candace, 11, Aaron Judah, 2, and Olivia Grace, born June 20th of last year.
After a number of years in music ministry in Plano, Texas, we felt a season of change coming into our lives. In 1995 I left the church where I was leading Worship and began getting involved with real estate and remodeling homes. Through the years I have continued traveling and Leading Worship while building custom homes in McKinney, Texas.
In the spring of 2005 I left Christ For The Nations and started Pure Worship Ministries. We are producing Worship that I believe, touches the heart of God and ministers to His people. The best is yet to come.

Click here to learn more about Klaus Kuehn:
www.klausmusic.com/

Click here to listen online:
www.imeem.com/atst/music/c1gewWR1/klaus_kuehn_the_lord_reigns

Click here to worship along with Klaus:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaWrJtY4fYY&feature=related

"That's Why We Praise Him"

This song was written by Tommy Walker: Tommy has led worship at Christian Assembly in Los Angeles, California with his pastor, Mark Pickerill, since 1990. He has traveled with Promise Keepers, Greg Laurie Harvest Crusades and Franklin Graham.He has also been privileged to serve with such church leaders as Jack Hayford, Bill Hybels and Rick Warren. He has recorded worship projects for Maranatha! Music, Integrity Music, and Get Down Ministries. He has written over 100 songs that are currently being tracked by C.C.L.I. and are being sung in churches around the world, including He Knows My Name, Only A God Like You, That's Why We Praise Him, Lord I Believe In You, Mourning Into Dancing, Break Through, This is What Christmas Means to Me, and his latest song, I Have a Hope.For the last decade Tommy has traveled internationally holding worship concerts and mercy ministry outreaches in places where people are in great need. He has led his worship team to the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Guatemala, Zambia and Brazil. Tommy has been married to his wife, Robin, for seventeen years. They have four children, Jake, Levi, Emmie and Eileen. To be found faithful to His God, his family and his local church will always be his greatest achievement.

Check out Tommy Walker here
www.tommywalker.net/

Click here to sing through the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3OopRS5hYg

Click here to listen to the song:
http://wordmusicnow.com/Song.asp?SongID=100

"I AM" soloist Ben Mclallen

click here to listen to the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHz2_HLw7fg

"Love Lifted Me"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th_L2IA94Gg

Matthew 14: 30-33 (NASB) But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshipped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!”

Rowe and Smith wrote this song in Saugatuck, Connecticut. According to Rowe’s daughter:
“Howard E. Smith was a little man whose hands were so knotted with arthritis that you would wonder how he could use them at all, much less play the piano…I can see them now, my father striding up and down humming a bar or two and Howard E. playing it and jotting it down.”

“There is a Fountain”

This is one of the first hymns William Cow¬per wrote after his first attack of temporary madness. Cowper had been promised a post as Clerk of the Journal to the House of Lords, but was dismayed upon learning he would have to undergo a public examination in the House before beginning his duties. The following article from the North American Review, January, 1834, describes his dilemma, and how God prevented him from destroying himself:

As the time drew nigh, his agony became more and more intense; he hoped and believed that madness would come to relieve him; he attempted also to make up his mind to commit suicide, though his conscience bore stern testimony against it; he could not by any argument persuade himself that it was right, but this desperation prevailed, and he procured from an apothecary the means of self-destruction. On the day before his public appearance was to be made, he happened to notice a letter in the newspaper, which to his disordered mind seemed like a malignant libel on himself. He immediately threw down the paper and rushed into the fields, determined to die in a ditch, but the thought struck him that he might escape from the country. With the same violence he proceeded to make hasty preparations for his flight; but while he was engaged in packing his portmanteau his mind changed, and he threw himself into a coach, ordering the man to drive to the Tower wharf, intending to throw himself into the river, and not reflecting that it would be impossible to accomplish his purpose in that public spot. On approaching the water, he found a porter seated upon some goods: he then returned to the coach and was conveyed to his lodgings at the Temple. On the way he attempted to drink the laudanum, but as often as he raised it, a convulsive agitation of his frame prevented it from reaching his lips; and thus, regretting the loss of the opportunity, but unable to avail himself of it, he arrived, half dead with anguish, at his apartment. He then shut the doors and threw himself upon the bed with the laudanum near him, trying to lash himself up to the deed; but a voice within seemed constantly to forbid it, and as often as he extended his hand to the poison, his fingers were contracted and held back by spasms.
At this time one of the inmates of the place came in, but he concealed his agitation, and as soon as he was left alone, a change came over him, and so detestable did the deed appear, that he threw away the laudanum and dashed the vial to pieces. The rest of the day was spent in heavy insensibility, and at night he slept as usual; but on waking at three in the morning, he took his penknife and lay with his weight upon it, the point toward his heart. It was brok¬en and would not penetrate. At day break he arose, and passing a strong garter around his neck, fastened it to the frame of his bed: this gave way with his weight, but on securing it to the door, he was more successful, and remained suspended till he had lost all consciousness of existence. After a time the garter broke and he fell to the floor, so that his life was saved.; but the conflict had been greater than his reason could endure. He felt for himself a contempt not to be expressed or imagined; whenever he went into the street, it seemed as if every eye flashed upon him with indignation and scorn; he felt as if he had offended God so deeply that his guilt could never be forgiven, and his whole heart was filled with tumultuous pangs of despair. Madness was not far off, or rather madness was al¬ready come. After recovering, Cowper came to realize how God can erase the stain of any sin.

There is a fountain filled with blood
drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day;
And there have I, though vile as he,
washed all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church of God
be saved, to sin no more.

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
and shall be till I die.

Click here to worship along with the Gaither homecoming singers:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH7MH7n3j28

Click here for another arrangement:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=roArM2ldIZ0&feature=related

"He Knows My Name"

This worship song was written by Tommy Walker. Tommy shared in a recent interview his conversion and call experience.
When I was 11 years old – that was a very big year in my life. That's when I gave my heart to the Lord, and I started playing guitar. This group Love Song, which was one of the first Christian rock bands of all time, was touring through town. That night they were in my living room, and Chuck Girard – the piano player – was playing my mom's baby grand piano, and we were singing a few songs together. It was one of those moments. I said, "That's it. That's who I want to be when I grow up." It was actually a very profound moment. It's through worship music that God really touched me and spoke to me. It's only natural I'd pursue that.
The following is how Tommy wrote the song:

The story of how “He Knows My Name” was written is not very exciting, nor is it inspirational. Basically it’s a story of just trying to be faithful to do my job. In that way, it is a story of self-discipline. Let’s just say, routine discipline stories are far from riveting. However, the fruit of the smallest act of discipline and obedience can be quite another story altogether. When my pastor, Mark Pickerall, wrote a sermon with the title “He knows my Name,” he asked me if I could write a song to go with it. I felt utterly uninspired that day; but out of the discipline of song writing, which is part of my job description, I dug in and gave it a shot. I remember thinking as the words and music began to come to me, “wow, this is the simplest song I’ve ever written. Maybe it will work in kids’ church”. Well I went ahead and finished it – something all songwriters struggle to do when something isn’t coming out just right. And like a good, obedient, somewhat disciplined worship leader, I taught it to my church and basically, nothing happened.
A few months later, the women of my church sang it at their women’s retreat and suddenly God moved. They told me that a sense of the love of God entered the room in such a powerful way that many of them were weeping and experiencing all kinds of inner healing. When I heard this, I thought maybe I should give this song one more try. The following weekend, we sang it at church and sure enough it happened: People began to weep. But the funny part is that I also began to weep. God was speaking so intimately to me reminding me that he knew my name and was concerned about the things that concerned me. *(pg 3 He Knows my Name – Tommy Walker integrity press)

Click here to read more about Tommy Walker:
http://www.tommywalker.net/

Click here to listen to Tommy’s music on his myspace site:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=97429791

Click here to worship along with the Promise Keepers worship team:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXsiWoyjw60

"My Jesus, I love Thee"

Sixteen year old William Featherston of Montreal, Canada wrote this simple but profound hymn in 1862, not long after he was converted to Christ. William wrote no other hymns that we know of and his brief life ended just before his twenty-seventh birthday. Here is a story about the influence of this song:
A Protestant Episcopal Bi¬shop of Michigan once related the following incident to a large audience in one of the Rev. E. P. Hammond’s meetings in St. Lou¬is. “A young, talented and tender-hearted actress was passing along the street of a large city. Seeing a pale, sick girl lying upon a couch just within the half-open door of a beautiful dwelling, she entered, with the thought that by her vivacity and pleasant conversation she might cheer the young invalid. The sick girl was a devoted Christian, and her words, her patience, her submission and heaven-lit countenance, so demonstrated the spirit of her religion that the actress was led to give some earnest thought to the claims of Christianity, and was thoroughly converted, and be¬came a true follower of Christ. She told her father, the leader of the theater troupe, of her conversion, and of her desire to abandon the stage, stating that she could not live a consistent Christian life and follow the life of an actress. Her father was astonished beyond measure, and told his daughter that their living would be lost to them and their business ruined, if she persisted in her resolution. Loving her father dearly, she was shaken somewhat in her purpose, and partially consented to fill the published engagement to be met in a few days. She was the star of the troupe, and a general favorite. Every preparation was made for the play in which she was to appear. The evening came and the father rejoiced that he had won back his daughter, and that their living was not to be lost. The hour arrived; a large audience had assembled. The curtain rose, and the young actress stepped forward firmly amid the applause of the multitude. But an unwonted light beamed from her beautiful face. Amid the breathless silence of the audience, she repeated:

‘My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign;
My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art Thou;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.’

This was all. Through Christ she had conquered and, leaving the audience in tears, she retired from the stage, never to appear upon it again. Through her influence her father was converted, and through their united evangelistic labors many were led to God.”

Worship along with Crystal Lewis by clicking here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgjkl_Nv1Yg&feature=related

Click here for another arrangement:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYfBZnMve_E