Song Review: Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

The story of Peter walking on water toward Jesus has always been a favorite of mine. As a worship leader, I've been looking for a song that did this story justice for so long. I want to recap that a bit if you don't mind. Here is one account of the story from Matthew.

Matthew 14:22-33 (NLT)

Jesus Walks on Water

²² Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, while he sent the people home. ²³ After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone.

²⁴ Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. ²⁵ About three o’clock in the morning^[a] Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, “It’s a ghost!”
²⁷ But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here!^[b]”
²⁸ Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.”
²⁹ “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the strong^[c] wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted.
³¹ Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”
³² When they climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped. ³³ Then the disciples worshiped him. “You really are the Son of God!” they exclaimed.

If we put ourselves in this story, and realize how doubtful we are in our everyday lives, it is no wonder that not many worship songs had been written about it.  In verse 28 we see that Peter's initial emotion was trust yet within minutes he gets reprimanded for having such little faith in verse 31. How and when did this change, or did it? 

I notice three things in this passage that happened. First, he sees the strong wind and the waves. I think this is where most people go wrong when they are stepping out in faith. It isn't often calm seas when Christians step out to follow God in big ways. Notice that Peter no longer was looking to Jesus but to the waves. I can't imagine what was going through his mind during those moments. He gets out of the boat and started walking on the water. That would trip me out, and on top of that there was plenty of distractions around! Wind and waves splashing in his face and he took his eyes off Jesus... wouldn't you?!?!

The next thing we see is that he was terrified! No kidding. Wouldn't you be scared? You just got out of a boat in a storm at three o'clock in the morning and notice that everything around is in utter tumult. You aren't on solid ground, let alone a boat, you are on water... everything you know about water as an experienced boatman comes to mind and you realize that you've never seen anything as heavy as you not sink!

The third thing we see is that he "began" to sink. I think the choice of words is interesting, it doesn't say he sank, it just says that he started. I don't know about you but if you have ever been in a pool you know that it takes longer to say a few words than it does to sink. So, we see him shout "Save me, Lord!" and Jesus grabs him. I wonder how long that took to happen?? Was it a split second or was it more like the torture of quick sand, where anticipation and anxiety can take over.  

Either way, it isn't from the comfortable church pew that he battles this out. Then Jesus' response is hilarious. "You have so little faith, why did you doubt me?" This got me thinking - what is it about our faith now. It seems that we need rationalization for everything, it seems faith is only a word and doubt is a constant reality.  Another thing I noticed is that Jesus recognized Peter's lack of faith and didn't reject him, but extended His hand and grabbed him. This leads me to one of the most simple and honest lines of the song "Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)" by Hillsong United.  In a place of uncertainty and failing,  Jesus has not failed and He won't stop now (end of verse 2).

This song is challenging. It recognizes the drive that Peter had to trust Jesus, but it calls on the Holy Spirit to be our strength in our most certain doubt and failures. My favorite part is the bridge (like just about everyone else that hears it). Maybe I needed the repetition of these words in my heart to speak truth regarding me stepping out in faith, or maybe I'm just not as smart as most people, but it took almost all 6 times through the bridge before it hit me. My trust has pretty small borders if I am honest with myself. I need Him to help me, I can't do it on my own.

Enjoy this song and it's powerful lyrics. If you read it through quickly you won't be doing yourself any favors. Allow God to speak to you through these words and step out on to the water in trust and faith.

Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) by Hillsong United

Verse 1
You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep, my faith will stand

CHORUS
And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise, my soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

Verse 2
Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You've never failed and You won't start now

Bridge
Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters, wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my Savior

Here is the video... remember to let God be God in your heart and as you step out in faith. Put your trust in the most capable hands of Jesus and continually seek the Holy Spirit to bring us to a deeper faith in Him.


Original video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy9nwe9_xzw 

This made my day - Easter Recap from the OC

I love to see Jesus glorified through art! It is great to see people who's lives are radically transformed by His love and experience true joy in the hope that He gives them. God has been working in Orange County and we see renewed passion for God.

This video really got me stoked once again on artistic expressions of our lives in Him. This is from Easter this year. It includes a bunch of local churches and is coordinated by Rockharbor. A church that I have come to love and respect.



To view this on the original site: http://costamesa.rockharbor.org/wp-content/themes/rockharbor/embed.php?post=2353&blog=9

What is your expression of Christ's change in your life? What ways do you allow yourself to show those around you? Through words, through relationships, through a smiling face, through art???

Remember where you came from and live like the changed person you are.

Learning to Sing - Tim Hughes

How economics and justice turn noise into music
By Tim Hughes

It was the American author and humorist Mark Twain who wrote, "It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."

When I read the Bible, one thing seems abundantly clear: God is passionate about the poor. Jesus made that pretty apparent when he said, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor" (Luke 4:18). In Amos 5, God's heart burns with anger as He rebukes a people who offer up songs of worship and other sacrifices, but trample and deprive the poor for their own selfish gain.

However, the simple reality is that we have a tendency to become blind to the truth. We somehow miss the fact that issues of poverty, justice and money are all over the Bible. We forget that while idolatry is the most common theme in the Old Testament, poverty is the second. We look blankly at the fact that one out of every 16 verses in the New Testament tackles the subject. In the first three Gospels poverty crops up every 10 verses, while in the book of Luke it's there every seven. We read the Bible and somehow all this just passes us by. We're left singing our songs in state-of-the-art auditoriums, while the world outside aches.

And in the spirit of Mark Twain's little quip, it's little wonder we skip over these major themes. They scare us because they are all-too-easy to understand; they scare us because of what they might require of us. We can't escape the truth that God's heart breaks for the last, the least, and the lost, and if we want to glorify God in all that we do, issues of justice and the poor need to be at the core of who we are. This will transform our economics-how we work, what we do with our money and how we spend our time. And it will transform the way we understand worship.

If You Want to Kiss the Sky
Speaking at the US National Prayer Breakfast in 2006, Bono remarked on God's heart for the poor:
"God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house . . . God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives . . . God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war . . . God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them [the poor]."

Part of what I do involves traveling to different parts of the world training other worship leaders and leading worship at different churches and conferences. I get to work with some amazing people, to hear inspiring speakers and to see God move in remarkable ways. Recently I went on a ministry trip to South Africa with some friends from Soul Survivor. Compared to most trips, this one was fairly low-key. We led at a couple of relatively small evening meetings, but for the rest of our trip we spent time visiting different townships and projects throughout Durban. We spent one afternoon playing football (soccer) with some children who had been orphaned through AIDS. We spent a morning serving breakfast to a group of men who were homeless. We spent time with some children we met begging on the street who were merely surviving the realities of life with no home or family. We visited people's homes, we chatted, and at times we laughed and cried together. During the week, my heart was so stirred. I felt devastated at the injustice, and (strangely) fell more in love with Jesus. In the lives of the people I met, I encountered Christ. I can honestly say it was one of the best trips I have ever made. There were no big meetings. We didn't see hundreds of lives changed. On the contrary-it was our lives that were radically changed.

Money, Justice, and Worship
I feel constantly challenged to consider my own personal response to the Bible's mandate to love the poor. Economics at a certain level is a system of choices. We live in a global village; our lives our interconnected. Our personal actions and choices have an impact on others. From the clothes we buy, to the coffee we drink, to our carbon footprint-all of this has an impact. So are we making choices to bless, honor, and serve those who need our help? All of this also affects our finances. In many ways our checkbooks are journals of our personal choices. So, how am I giving sacrificially to bless others? Am I a cheerful giver? Does money have a hold on me? But this is about more than money. We can give away huge sums of money but our hearts can still be far from God. I believe God is calling us in the Church today to give all that we are, to live generous lives, loving our neighbors as ourselves.

The prophet Micah implores us to "love mercy." I sometimes wish the call were to "do mercy." That would be much easier. "Loving mercy" involves so much more. It involves the giving of the heart. It involves relationship. It's the difference between charity and justice. Charity doesn't need to involve the heart; it doesn't need to be about love. It's far too easy for charity to be about how it makes me feel, how it makes me look. There's something much more selfless about justice. Justice is about the needs of other people. Justice comes from love and love comes from relationship. Loving mercy means friendship with the poor.

Loving Mercy
In his fantastic book, The Irresistible Revolution, Shane Clayborne writes, "Writing a check makes us feel good and can fool us into thinking that we have loved the poor. But seeing the squat houses and tent cities and hungry children will transform our lives. Then we will be stirred to imagine the economics of rebirth and to hunger for the end of poverty."

So how do we move from doing mercy to loving mercy? Well, it involves seeking God's heart, praying for mercy, praying that our hearts would be softened and changed. It is loving our neighbors as ourselves, looking in the face of someone who has nothing and realizing with disturbing clarity that that could be me-or my children, or in fact my friend. In order to love mercy we need love our neighbors; those we share our street, our city, our planet with. It involves opening our eyes, our diaries, and sometimes our checkbooks and getting out there.

As a worship leader and pastor, I've been challenged to get out of my comfort zone-to see, feel and experience the hard realities of life for many others. To put myself in places where my heart and my complacency can be broken. One place that I've found that I keep being drawn back to is prison. It's never been high up on my places-to-visit list, but last June I had the privilege of visiting a maximum-security prison in Texas with a team to lead worship for about 500 inmates.

As we walked into the prison I thought my heart would be hardened against the inmates, I thought I'd despise them. But on the contrary I found that my heart went out to them. They were warm, friendly, kind and encouraging. It blew our minds. In the midst of such evil we saw a light; we sensed something of God. The guy operating the sound desk was serving a 99-year sentence. (On this occasion we chose not to question any of the sound levels he'd set in our monitors!) Watching a number of these men passionately worship was one of the most incredible sights of my life. I will never forget one man weeping with his hands held high in worship as he sang, "Amazing Grace."

Deeper Worship
These encounters have changed me. They've challenged me to the core; they've unsettled and shocked me. They've highlighted my sin and selfishness and humbled me. More than anything they've led me into a deeper communion with God. It's in these places I've discovered Jesus. And it is in these places that I finally make sense of the God's words in Amos 5:

"I can't stand your religious meetings. I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religious projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I've had enough of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice-oceans of it. I want fairness-rivers of it. That's what I want. That's all I want" (Amos 5:21-24 The Message).

To God, our singing and our lives are seen as one. There is no separation, and if there is no justice in our lives-no ability to love mercy-then there is no music, only noise. This is a sobering truth, and something that worship leaders need to get their minds around if they hope to truly lead music in their churches. This expands our role in some profound ways.

Another Step
We are loved by God with a purpose to love others. Giving with our wallets and our hearts to the poor is one way to do this, but there are other options. The songs we sing, the songs we write can make an impact. Recently I've been involved in a project called CompassionArt, which brought together twelve songwriters from around the world. We met for a week in Scotland to worship together and to write songs to bless the Church and remind ourselves as God's people that we have a responsibility to love those on the margins of society. From the outset we decided that all royalties would go to help breathe life into the poorest communities, restoring hope and igniting justice. It was a significant and profound time for all of us. There was huge joy in seeing that our passion for songwriting could combine with our passion for the poor to make a difference.

Following Him
As followers of Jesus we are called to play our part in building God's kingdom; a kingdom that is ruled by justice, where people are loved and cared for. Part of our musical expression as worship leaders is to usher in God's kingdom, to declare His name and to set our hopes on all that is to come. We live in the now and not yet. Our musicality and artistry can all play a part in painting this glorious tapestry of God's extravagant love and promise of a better day, where every tear will be wiped away-there will be no more death or sorrow. But the truly wonderful songs and inspiration will only come out of a heart that is set on serving the poor around us 24-7. Worship is the total alignment of our heart, soul, mind and strength with the will of God. When we worship, we will find we are led to the poor, and if we love Jesus we will gladly follow.


Tim Hughes is the writer "Here I Am to Worship," "Beautiful One," "God of Justice (We Must Go)" among many other songs. Hughes is also the leader of the school of worship called Worship Central.