Friday, February 09, 2007

The Gospel

Though my life as a Christian has been marked with a passion for leading worship, it was not always the career path I wanted to take. My wife and I were pretty set on a life spent in missions. We wanted to work with college students, raising the banner of the Gospel and mobilizing them to take that Gospel to the world.

As I felt God redirecting my life and sending me down this path, I wrestled with this question:

How can I be a worship leader and still be a part of the work of the gospel?

I realized though, that worship is the work of the Gospel! When we come together corporately or when we worship in our own, we are declaring the beauty of the good news of Jesus simply by honoring Him rightly. As we sing songs or pray or dance or shout or lay prostrate we take part in what the Gospel allows us to do; namely, see God for who He is and allow Him to change us.

The words of this song by Jimmy Needham speak to the beauty of the Gospel and cry out what I believe should be the prayer of all of our hearts, that the Gospel would completely overtake us; that it would wash over us and make us new.

The gospel, the gospel fragrant in words
The sea of my soul is calmed when it's heard
Peace to the broken, the captives set free
May the Gospel of Jesus wash over me

The Gospel, the Gospel my freedom explained
No more shall these garments I'm wearing be stained
The old man is missing the new man is free
May the gospel of Jesus was over me

Wash over me and
come make me clean

The Gospel, the Gospel she's good and she's true
She costs quite a fortune to make all things new
So breathe in with faith and out with His peace
May the gospel of Jesus wash over me