My Christian Top Ten

I posted my top ten albums on Facebook and my wife challenged me that I posted no Christian albums. Well she wasn’t following close enough because I did in fact post two of the ten, to be truthful there were many others I could have listed but those two were my absolute favorites. I am posting my ten favorites here, along with a video from each. Again it’s really hard to do this, but this is an overview of some of my favorites.
1. DC Talk-Jesus Freak


2. Newsboys-Take Me to Your Leader


So many great songs on this one so I went with the title track.
3. Chris Tomlin-How Great Is Our God


Chris Tomlin is one of the great songwriters of the church. but in this case he outdid himself. He was commissioned to reimagine Amazing Grace. It might already be the greatest song of all time. Chris made it better.
4. Audio Adrenaline-Underdog


5. Skillet-Awake


6. Third Day-Offerings A Worship Album


7. David Crowder Band-Church Music


I love Crowder. As it was with Chris Tomlin, there are so many great songs to choose from. I ended up going with this one because it has one of the coolest videos ever made.
8. Stryper-To Hell With the Devil


9. Mercy Me-I Can Only Imagine


One of the best songs of all time, period.
10. Casting Crowns-Casting Crowns


When I first heard this song, I actually wept, a lot. This song is prophetic and a wake up call to the entire body of Christ.

Okay I know I said ten but there is one more I need to add (okay there’s a lot to add but I need to get other things done. Mark Schultz is among the best musical storytellers of our time. See if you don’t agree.
11. Mark Schultz-Mark Schultz

Even If…

I’m guessing someone needs this today. Thanks Bart, This’ll preach.

Painting Heaven

Sketches from The New Earth and the New Jerusalem

Yesterday I had the privilege of speaking and painting at the Ephrata Church of the Brethren on the topic of heaven. Above are the sketches of the images I did at the two services. The one on the left depicts the New Jerusalem and the other the throne room of God with the river and the tree of life as described in Revelation 21 and 22. The message I preached will be posted next week.

I wanted to share a thought from the message with you this morning because I believe many are like I was. We want to go to heaven when we leave this world, but we’re not as excited about the prospect as we know we should be. I think it may be because we have an incorrect image of heaven. The good news is this: it’s a lot better than you think. Many of us have this image of an eternal church service of floating around as a disembodied Spirit but the Bible teaches that our bodies will be resurrected and that God will redeem creation with a new heaven and a new earth (for more details see Romans chapter 8). This opens a new realm of possibilities.”

Artists we have a golden opportunity in all of this. We can paint a better picture of heaven. We can paint it as described in Scripture and we can use it to point people to the One who made it possible.

Here’s the conclusion I came to:

“I have to tell you, deciding what to paint was the hardest part of getting this whole thing together. First because my whole image of heaven was reworked. I began to see that the best thing I could do was a few images from the scriptures, because other than that it would be to somehow create images of the most beautiful things you’ve ever seen only better and the most joyful moments you’ve ever experienced, only more joyful. That’s when it hit me, the most beautiful things we see on earth now are just a taste of what God has in store in the new heaven and the new earth and your best, most joyful moments here on earth are just a taste of what God has planned. If you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, your worst day on earth is as close to hell as you will ever get and from there things will only get better and better and better.”

Bible Reading Guide
An important part of following God is knowing what He wants and a great way to know what He wants is to read His Word. Follow this plan and you will finish reading the Bible in a year.
Joshua 22; Mark 16; Psalm 41
You can also download your own chart here.