The Living Room 2???

Last night's house church meeting reminded me of this:

Back in November of 2005 we were having such a great time worshiping God together in song, and we were having many new songs written by Oasis people, so we decided to record a worship gathering live at one of our house church meetings. It started out as a simple acoustic plan, but we ended up adding drums and bass, and it came out pretty nice for an off-the-cuff effort. Here's a sample: Trading My Sorrows.

Back to last night. About 45 minutes of our time was spent invested in worship in songs of praise to Christ the King. Such an experience is evidence, in my opinion, that the church body is truly "getting it" in our study of Revelation. Revelation is not an intellectual book to be debated, but an artistic book to be experienced. Likewise, Christianity is not a philosophy to be argued and fully comprehended intellectually. It is a love song to be sung. Of course, this love song is rooted in truth and understanding. But it also must be felt and passionately responded to. The book of Revelation is filled with songs. People often wonder why the church sings songs all the time. Why is music such a large part of church gatherings? We can easily find our answer in the pages of Revelation. If God created humans as worshipers, then that is what we do. That means Christianity is about worship. How is worship most often done? In our Bibles we see that a great majority of the time when worship occurs it is accompanied with singing, playing instruments, bowing down, kneeling, lying prostrate on the ground, raising hands, dancing, shouting, clapping, and loud choruses of song after song after song! God LOVES music. And we are created in the image of Him. We love music because we are image-bearers of God.

God could have chosen anything He wanted to be the primary tool used as means to worship Him, and He chose songs, music, instruments, singing. Yes, there are many ways we worship Him as living sacrifices. But there is no arguing that the primary means surrounding the throne of God as we glimpse into heaven is song and music and loud choruses of praise made by all the created beings.

What does this mean to me? What should this mean to our church? It means that we have been given the privilege of participating in something here and now that occurs constantly in heaven. Concerts, light shows, sound systems, amazing guitar riffs, soothing vocal harmonies, all of those aesthetics combine to draw us closer to the throne of God. Why? My guess is because that is where those things originate. That is what currently, and eternally, surrounds the throne of God.

I could hear and see last night that we are all starting to learn this fact. And we are learning it with more than our minds. God is doing something in our hearts. And He is moving our bodies to respond.

Is it time for a Living Room 2?

Comments

[Sharon]

Question:

Is it time for a "Living Room 2"?

Answer:

YES! YES! YES!

[Travis]

I was telling Emilie a couple of weeks ago I couldn't wait for Living Room 2 to come out. We miss the atmosphere of worship at Oasis and would love to share in it through a new CD.

[Chris]

How about these... just to get the song list started:

- The King
- Unrivaled
- Sovereign God
- Hebrews 1:3
- You Never Let Go/Nothing but the Blood/Everlasting God/How Great is Our God MEDLEY
- Our God Reigns

Just to get it started... what would you like?

[Jared]

If we're doing 'other' songs as well as original songs written by Oasis people, I'll put in a vote for Marvelous Light. I know it isn't real new but it's a good one.

[Chad Dodson]

Be careful with any aerial shots for the CD booklet...that glare on top of Dodson's head is getting dangerous...

Last night was truly a great time of worship in song. I'm definitely all systems go for another Living Room CD...it might give me a chance to try out some new technology if I have it by then.

[smiles]

You all blessed us with us copy of The Living Room, when we visit a couple years ago. I'm excited to listen to it again in a few minutes as I get even more excited for round two. I pray for much fun and for much holiness to saturate your time of worship... that you would lower yourselves before Him, and raise His name as high as the throne that He's sitting on, that He would lift you up in the presence of His great glory!

Oh yeah, Sovereign God is a must, if your friend, smiles, has any voice in the matter! That is my youngest son's (Simon) favorite song! If he ever wants me to play a song on my guitar to sing with him, it's Soveriegn God. It has also become a staple song at Sunny Brae Church, where I lead in the musical worship.

I love and miss you folks. Be blessed.

smiles

[Chris]

One I've been listening to these past few weeks that may need to be introduced to Oasis is "God of this City" by Bluetree. There's a really nice version with Chris Tomlin leading it live on the Passion 08 CD.

"Greater things are yet to come... greater things are still to be done in this city..."

[Jacynda Lynch]

I am all for it! This past week was awesome, it has been a very long time since I've been in an environment like that. Thanks to Chris and Chad for leading us in such a moving night! I vote for Glorious Day as well as Never Let Go!

[Des]

Ahh... The Living Room 2... SIGN ME UP. I definitely want to join in the worship when you guys do this...

[Travis]

Also "How Can I Keep from Singing Your Praise"

Everytime we hear that song we think of Oasis.

[Kenny McKnight]

I would have to request "The Glory Of It All" and "Heart of Worship" also there is a song that Chad, David, and I wrote that chad partially debuted last sunday (psalm something..cant remember the name right now) that I think could be a very powerful song.

[Kenny McKnight]

also..I lift my hands is a MUST as well as "God of this city" those songs have really stuck with me since last night. Thank you for bringing them to us this past sudnay Chris. I am thinking of working on a specific lead part for I lift my hands if I get time. I'll try to run it over with chad as well. maybe we can play these at house church?