ChristianDance

Have you ever grieved in secret while smiling on the outside?  Matt Rees wrote “Death Like Yours” during a bachelor weekend, of all places. He’d just learned that a close friend and mentor of his would be leaving his church in the midst of a messy split, but he couldn’t say a word to the rest. So he was internally grieving while celebrating with friends on the outside. That night, in the quiet and feeling absolutely devastated, the words poured out: “Hollow me out on the inside, stick me with nails, rip me open wide.” Sure, that’s some pretty brutal imagery to express his grief, but it’s honest.  Something changed for him that night. Romans 6 suddenly felt personal instead of theoretical. The apostle Paul writes in this chapter that we’ve been “buried with him by baptism into death, in order that… we too might walk in newness of life.” Matt began to sense, in some small measure, what Christ endured… being misunderstood, stripped of everything, and nailed to wood. He emphasiz...

Grudges or grace — which one am I holding onto?  “Seventy Times Seven” by Tony Thomas opens with a guess. “Three? Seven?” Tony wonders, unsure how many times forgiveness is required before it’s enough. It’s a fair question. Most of us keep some kind of tally, even if we’d never admit it out loud. ‘Enough is enough…’ , ‘This can’t go on…’ , ‘There’s a limit to my patience…’ , etc. The lyrics go back to a real conversation between the apostle Peter and Jesus. Peter once asked Jesus the same question, wondering if seven times was generous enough. Jesus answered with “seventy times seven” . The message here is that math was never the point. It’s about breaking the habit of counting altogether.  That answer sits at the center of Matthew 18:21–22 (NKJV), where Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus replied, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”   In Biblical numerology...

Would you give your son (daughter/family) a stone? Three friends spent a night writing a song about a good Father, and somewhere in that room, a deeper truth surfaced and the song “Good Gifts” came to life. They kept circling back to Matthew 7:9–11, where Jesus asks a simple question: “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” What kind of person would do that, regardless of whether the person asking is their child, family, friend, or neighbor? In the song “Good Gifts”, Hanna Noel takes this scene from Matthew 7 and turns it into a song of worship. At the same time, the song is an invitation to trust that God is also there for you: “Which of us would ask for help // And you in turn would hide yourself.” The answer, obviously, is that God isn’t going to turn around and hide, because that’s not who God is. But here’s where the song changes our focus from the bread & stone to a more significant gift. The chorus declares, “You know how to give good gifts // Bu...

Have you ever grown numb to a miracle?  “What A Savior” by Will & Jacinta Ellis and Crossing Life Worship began as a chorus in a co-write, before it took on a life of its own. Will & Jacinta wanted something rich and almost hymn-like, a bold declaration of who Jesus is — not a tired restatement, but a fresh look. They never wanted to grow “used to” what Jesus accomplished, so they wrote about holding on to Him in every season, regardless of whether it’s calm or chaotic.  The opening lines start with the redemption through Jesus’ blood: “The precious fount, that cleansing flow, the Son of God poured out for all.” That’s the blood that Jesus spilled for you. The song moves from the cleansing through His blood to the result: “The debt I owed and all sin’s claims were buried with You in the grave.” Your debt. Buried. Gone.  Here’s where it gets even more personal. Romans 5:8 says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” ...

Remember what it felt like to be simply loved?  Kids don’t overthink love. They run toward it, arms open, no résumé required. Somewhere between our childhood and adulthood, most of us lose that instinct. We start to believe that love is something that has to be earned.  Ash Wiseman wrote “Like a Kid Again” after sitting with the words Jesus speaks in John chapter 15. Jesus told His disciples something staggering: He doesn’t just want followers, He wants friends. The song opens by describing the majesty of God, the “God of the universe” who “spoke the light to birth,” the “Holder of all the stars.” When you hear the first lines, it may seem like we have a distant God, but as the song continues, we are reminded that He bends down into intimacy with each of us. “In your humility // Lord you came down for me.”   That’s the same God who, as the lyrics put it, “still holds my heart.” Why would the One who holds galaxies together care about you? The pre-chorus asks that ques...