All to Us - Music for Sunday, July 31

"All to Us" is a great song of testimony. It was written by Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Matt Maher, and Matt Redman. You can hear Chris Tomlin talk about the inspiration for and the writing of this song and hear him sing it by clicking here . 

It's a nice song when Chris Tomlin sings it, but Mary McDonald's arrangement of it for choir turned it into a really powerful song. Listen to it here as sung by the Forest Hills Baptist Church choir directed by my friend, Wayne Causey. 
9.8.13 All to Us - Sanctuary Choir from Forest Hills Baptist Church on Vimeo.



The men in our choir sang the all men's version of Mary's arrangement (As sung by the Tennessee Baptist Men's Chorale) and now we use that version for our congregation when we all sing it. The verses are great. Then, when you get to the chorus, it is so awesome when hundreds of people stand together and sing these words. 

Let the glory of Your name be the passion of the Church
Let the righteousness of God be a holy flame that burns
Let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives
We believe You're all to us

It's my prayer that we will do more than just sing these words, but we will work to live out these words!

After the congregation sings "All to Us" our choir will sing "Thou, O Lord" a wonderful setting of Psalm 3. Psalm 3 - KJV
"Victory in Jesus" will round out our time of praise and testimony through song.

Then - what may seem like a totally unrelated set of songs - we're going to sing two songs about the Word - scripture: "Thy Word" and "Ancient Words." Here is my thinking of why I put these songs with the others. For us to say that Christ is "all to us" and in Him we find "victory" we need to know and spend time in the Bible. I don't mean we follow along on our Bible app on our phone while the preacher reads the scripture for his sermon. I mean spend time EVERY day reading the Bible. If you need help knowing what to read find a reading plan that will keep you on track. 

There are many great verses that talk about the importance of God's Word. 
Here are a few:
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
Psalm 119 will give you 176 verses about the Word. Psalm 119 NIV 

Psalm 1 is one of my favorite passages that talks about the importance of knowing scripture.

Psalm 1

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither;
The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.