“The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man’s history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits….This story is supreme and it is true.”
–JRRT, On Fairy Stories
Merry Christmas!!!
Zion’s Pilgrim
“A captive here, and far from home,
For Zion’s sacred courts I sigh:
“There the ransomed nations come,
And see the Savior ‘eye to eye.’“While here, I walk on hostile ground;
The few that I can call my friends
Are, like myself, with fetters bound,
And weariness my path attends.“But we shall soon behold the day
When Zion’s children shall return;
Our sorrows then shall flee away,
And we shall never, never mourn.“The hope that such a day will come
Makes e’en the captive’s portion sweet;
Though now we’re distant far from home
In Zion soon we all shall meet.”Help Heavenward, by Octavius Winslow
“Already But Not Yet” Chord Sheets
Christ Is Coming, Let Creation
Come, Lord Jesus, to Redeem Us
“Already But Not Yet” is available on iTunes and Amazon.
Connect on Facebook and Purevolume.
“Already But Not Yet” Giveaway
Josh Cousineau recently reviewed my CD and is giving away two copies over at his blog. Check it out, maybe you’ll win a copy!
And yes… “Already but Not Yet” is finally available on iTunes!!!!
Discovery of Fire and the Gospel
This is why I love Jared Wilson:
Isn’t the good news like fire? Isn’t hearing it and believing in it a precious, wondrous, life-changing event? It’s startling, confusing, exhilarating in the joy of first sight of something we’ve ever longed for. It gives heat never had, warmth never felt, makes everything taste better. Don’t we dance to discover it, hoot and holler over its newness, its blazing, dangerous beauty?
Don’t we want to light many more fires with it, touching torches and lanterns and taking them everywhere cold and dark? Don’t we want to take this fire and immolate those frozen memorials to flameless promisers of fire? Don’t we want to light up the world with this wonderful elemental stuff?
Don’t we?
I know I sure do!
Lord, cause many in New England and beyond to discover the fire of the gospel of Jesus the Messiah!
Pray for Dr. Gary Parrett
Please pray for my good friend, Dr. Gary Parrett (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary). Dr. Parrett was seriously injured on July 3 in a tragic bus accident in South Korea where 12 passengers died. Since then, he has been fighting for his life and has yet to regain consciousness. His wife and daughter have been by his side in the hospital in South Korea, and they have been relaying updates on his condition and prayer requests nearly every day, here.
The most recent update is that he was successfully transferred halfway around the world to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston just yesterday! His wife and daughter arrived today and shared this news:
Hi everyone!
My mom and I arrived in Massachusetts this morning and spent most of the day with my dad at the hospital. He is doing very well, although he’s still a little bit groggy from the medicine he’s been given the past few days to help him sleep.
The doctors here at MGH have mentioned their plan of moving him either to a regular ward or a nearby rehab hospital very soon–maybe even tomorrow. His body is stable, so they think that it would best to start rehab as soon as possible. Please pray that the doctors would make the best decision for my dad’s care and that my dad’s brain would continue to recover!
Thank you so much for your prayers, especially as all of us traveled. We have been so blessed by God’s unfailing love and grace!
Please pray for God’s healing of Dr. Parrett and Spirit’s comfort for his family. May you also be encouraged by the words of Gary’s hymn “Come, Lord Jesus to Redeem Us”.
Come, Lord Jesus, to redeem us
from our foes and from our fears.
We await the hand of mercy
that will wipe away our tears.
We have labored long in darkness,
even now our hearts grow weak.
How we long for your appearing
and your great salvation seek.
(Rev. 21:4; Rom. 8:23; 2Tim. 4:8)
“Already But Not Yet” CD Release
I am overjoyed to announce that my CD “Already But Not Yet” is now available! Overjoyed by the hope that God will use these songs to encourage many people and churches. Overjoyed to contribute to the hymn-renewal movement that the Spirit is using to revive the Church. Overjoyed to exalt the true Redeemer!
“Already But Not Yet” tells a story–God’s story of Redemption through King Jesus. And each song moves the story forward from Christ’s Cross, Resurrection, and Exaltation to our life of Exile and Prayer, and finally to the celebration in the New Creation. Already redemption has been accomplished. But not yet completed. We await the Return of the King!
Song Titles
1. He is Risen (Resurrection)
2. Look! Ye Saints (Exaltation)
3. Christ is Coming (Exile)
4. Come, Lord Jesus, to Redeem Us (Prayer)
5. Upon this Mount–Isaiah 25:6-9 (New Creation)
6. There is a Fountain (Our Theme)
CDs are now available to purchase at BullMoose Music (Windham and Portland) and will soon be available for download at ITunes.
For mail orders please mail a check to Joshua Otte |973 River Rd |Windham, ME 04062. $7ea or 2 for $10. Just add $3 shipping (up to 4 CDs). Add $0.50 for additional CDs. If you have any questions email me (eucatastrophe101 at yahoo dot com) until the website is launched! Thanks!
UPDATE. Please check out my Facebook Music Page. Listen to the tracks, leave a note, tell your friends!
UPDATE. Please check out my Facebook Music Page. Listen to the tracks, leave a note, tell your friends!
Numbness will be the Exception, not the Norm
Some rich, gospel encouragement from an excerpt of Jared Wilson’s upcoming book.
But! Oh man. If we are regularly and excitedly engaging people in the good news of the finished saving work of the sacrificing, dying, rising, exalted, sovereign Jesus Christ who is the death-proof, fail-proof King of kings before all things and in all things and holding all things together as he sustains the world by the mere word of his power, the ones whose hearts are opened by the Spirit to be won to Christ will be irrevocably changed. Numbness will be the exception, rather than the norm. We will not have to lead them through hoops of creative entertainment, constantly hamstrung by the limits of our artistic brainstorming sessions, seeking to keep their attentions stirred by a well-composed aesthetic this or that.
Is “Missional” a Movement?
After offering sharing some great quotes overheard at the VERGE conference, Jonathan Dodson concludes…
Something is happening. Maybe it will result in a movement, maybe not. It depends on us…depending on the Spirit. It will require an absolute shift from mission at leisure to mission as lifestyle. But this missional movement will die out, burn out, and go nowhere if we aren’t continually brought to repentance and faith in Christ ourselves, over and over again, for our idolatry of mission and indifference to mission. May Christ be more precious than mission, but may mission be more precious than our very own lives.
Amen!
Santa Christ?
From a post by Sinclair Ferguson.
“The Western world gives itself over annually to its Claus-mass or commerce-mass. We celebrate a reworked pagan Saturnalia of epic proportions, one in which the only connection with the incarnation is semantic. Santa is worshiped, not the Savior; pilgrims go to the stores with credit cards, not to the manger with gifts. It is the feast of indulgence, not of the incarnation.
It is always easier to lament and critique the new paganism of secularism’s blatant idolatry than to see how easily the church — and we ourselves — twist or dilute the message of the incarnation in order to suit our own tastes. But, sadly, we have various ways of turning the Savior into a kind of Santa Claus.”
