Most people know that my husband is the music know it all guru in our marriage. But, I'm a pretty big music lover myself. Yesterday, I found out the best music news in all of 2015. adele. is. back. November 20th. That's less than a month away. I had to repaint no bite nail polish on my nails from biting my nails in excitement. Not only that - she made a video to remind us that she hasn't lost her touch. 25 was good to her. I just love the fact that the song is called "hello". Well here I am saying hello to you too Adele. Welcome back. Words cannot describe my excitement.
p.s. Hutton was a pretty big Adele lover himself and at the mere age of 6 months "rolling in the deep" was his favorite song. Mills is excited to follow his brother's footsteps and become Adele's next biggest fan.
p.p.s. Adele please go on tour and inform my husband that if he does not take us to the closest concert that he will sorely regret it.
Chris and I have always been huge fans of the worship music coming from Hillsong in Australia. Each summer they release new music and we look forward to that release each year. This year the morning it came out I immediately purchased it and played Chris the song "This I Believe (The Creed)."
The song is so powerful and puts the Apostles Creed into a contemporary song. You can hear from Ben Fielding of Hillsong here about how this song came to be. I love how he notes that in contemporary churches these songs are becoming the confessions of the modern church and this song is able to take a historical unifying piece of liturgy and allow it to be used today.
I used to blog more. I also used to post worship songs on Wednesdays. Whether anyone read them or not they were one of my favorite posts. It inspired me to seek out and listen to new worship music and it always seemed as if God pointed out one to me that helped me through a difficult time or just encouraged me that day. Today's worship Wednesday features a song by Shane and Shane. I LOVE Shane & Shane. They have produced some incredible music and I've never heard harmonies quite like what they have.
They released a new album in 2013 called Bring Your Nothing- go out and buy it now. You won't regret it. They wrote this song "In A Little While" based off of Hebrews 10:37 where the verse says "For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay." I couldn't find a video for this song but I have the lyrics for you to enjoy below.
I'm not going to lie, I almost forgot it was Worship Wednesday! My days are off from being out of town but I love the pleasant surprise of it being a Wednesday. Today's song is special to me! This is one of the first songs I ever remember hearing Chris sing at church and therefore it has always been a personal favorite. So why am I sharing it with you today you ask? Well this Sunday are Church is having a special service for Orphan Sunday as November is National Adoption Month. It is going to be a special time I know since I have some dear friends who are in the planning process of it because Adoption is something they are super passionate about! More on them a later today because they are an AMAZING family and you should know all about them. Well, this Sunday Chris is leading worship at our church for Orphan Sunday and will be opening up the service with this song... Marvelous Light. Enjoy and remember that God does love you and has taken you out of any shame or darkness your sin may have produced and brought you into his unending love and light.
Into marvelous light I'm running
Out of darkness, out of shame
By the cross You are the truth
You are the life, You are the way
I once was fatherless
A stranger with no hope
Your kindness wakened me
Awakened me, from my sleep
Your love it beckons deeply
A call to come and die
By grace now I will come
And take this life, take Your life
Sin has lost it's power
Death has lost it's sting
From the grave You've risen
Victoriously
Into marvelous light I'm running
Out of darkness, out of shame
By the cross You are the truth
You are the life, You are the way
My dead heart now is beating
My deepest stains now clean
Your breath fills up my lungs
Now I'm free, now I'm free
Sin has lost it's power
Death has lost it's sting
From the grave You've risen
Victoriously
Into marvelous light I'm running
Out of darkness, out of shame
By the cross You are the truth
You are the life, You are the way
Lift my hands and spin around
See the light that I have found
Oh the marvelous light
Marvelous light
Some of you may know that worship is a pretty big part of Chris and my lives. Being involved in worship at St. James is actually how we met. I will save that story for another day but you may know that Chris plays and sings in our praise team at church. He plays both acoustic and electric guitar and has an awesome voice! Yes, I completely understand that I am bias but in reality, he's really talented. Anyway, worship consists of so many different aspects but I'm starting something called Worship Wednesdays that will consist of me posting a praise song every Wednesday that really speaks to me or something I see going on so that I can share it with you. When I decided to start this I knew exactly what song I would use first. Jesus Culture is one of our favorite worship bands out there and we love their cutting edge style. When I first heard this song it spoke to me in so many ways which I will explain below.
Here inside Your presence Taken by the wonder of You Here inside Your glory We give our lives fully to You
We cry Holy, Holy are You We cry Holy, Holy are You
Your love it burns inside Our hearts are satisfied by You Your love is our reward It’s why we ask for more of You
We cry Holy, Holy are You Our hearts are burning, burning for You We cry Holy, Holy are You Our hearts are burning, burning for You
We are Your burning ones We are consumed by You We set our lives apart We are consumed by You
So let this love be like a fire Let our life be like a flame Fill our souls with Your desire Let our passion bring You fame
So much of those words speak to me as I desire to be more and more consumed by God instead of the things that we allow to consume ourselves. I made that last line bold though for a reason. That line has always stuck out to me since the first day I heard it. What if I was like that? What if you were like that? What if we were so consumed and so passionate about God that we truly brought him fame.
Fame: The condition of being known or talked about by many people, especially on account of notable achievements.
Now, God definitely does fit this definition. He is talked about by many people and talked about because of what He has done. However, when I think of fame what comes to my mind is Hollywood! Those people who you want to go pick up the latest People magazine to read about their lives and what they are up to. The people that fill up an hour of Entertainment Tonight or E! News daily. God is definitely talked about (mainly on Sundays) but I don't see people RUSHING out the door to hear the latest story of what He did in someones life. I pray that we can all live this way- that our passion truly does bring Him fame.
As of today the countdown is at 19 days! Wow, literally only 19 days until I am Mrs. Chris Whatley! It has a pretty ring to it doesn't it? Well 19 days makes us pretty busy! I devoted my entire Saturday to my Mom and helping her to complete wedding stuff! We had LOTS to do! We went and had bows made, we bought things to wrap things in, we went to the rental place, we bought almost every ivory candle that Hobby Lobby had and plenty more!! Although we were super busy it was so much fun!! She has been amazing throughout the whole time and I am so thankful for her!
Then on Sunday Chris and I both went over (he's so helpful) and helped my Mom do some things to put together programs! Even she said when she got this grand idea about making these programs she never knew how much work it would be! I will say, they are BEAUTIFUL! The picture below is kinda what they look like but not really! They don't have the vellum cover and they have a little flap that goes down where the ribbon is and then the ribbon comes through that flap! All in all, they are very labor intensive! Chris and I only helped a little so all the credit goes to my wonderful Mom who not only thought up the grand idea but has pretty much put them all together single handedly! Not to mention she did all the creating and printing! Wow- I'm a lucky girl/Bride!!
That is the wedding update of the week! On another note which I will give you all the details of tomorrow, Chris and I are going to see Kings of Leon tonight in Birmingham! This is so much fun for multiple reasons...
1- Chris is so musical but this is the first concert we've been to that is music that I introduced him to!
2- We missed seeing them in concert last year because we were out of town at a family wedding and so this has been a long time coming!
3- They are my favorite favorite current music!! (For all music prior to now I'm obsessed with Van Morrison)
If you don't know who Kings of Leon are grab a song on ITunes and check them out!! I will fill you in on how incredibly wonderful it is tomorrow! Yay :)
They will be standing firm like a flourishing tree planted by God's design, deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss; bearing fruit in every season of their lives. Psalm 1:3
