This Sunday Crossroads will be singing "Everywhere that I Go" by Israel Houghton
This stirring worship song was written by Israel Houghton:
Nearly Disposed - Israels' Testimony
My mother became pregnant at the age of 17 in Waterloo, Iowa. You can imagine how this is shaping up. She was given the choice of a back-alley abortion or being disowned by her family. Thank God she chose the latter. Ultimately, she was disowned, abandoned by my biological father, and ended up in San Diego, California. Picture this. It was 1971 and my mother was 8 months pregnant, all alone, thousands of miles from home, and forced to enter reality unprepared. Pretty bleak. One day while walking down the street, a lady pulled up in her Volkswagen Bug, got out, and respectfully yet boldly, began to share the Gospel with her. Words of life and hope began to overtake the words of rejection and abandonment she had grown accustomed to. There on a street corner, she ended up on her knees and cried out to God-committing her life to Jesus Christ. The lady gave her a bible and that's how I got my name. My mother started reading at page one and well, you know-you have a bible, my name's on every page!
I'm often asked by skeptics or the stoic, why I'm as passionate about worshiping God as I am. The answer is simple for me. In this age of disposable relationships, I could have easily become a statistic and at best, a distant memory of a youthful mistake. Instead, a Sovereign God rescued my mother and me and gave us hope, a future, and a testimony of the providence of God. The very least I can do is enter into His gates with fresh thanksgiving, His courts with a passionate praise, and eventually bow before His throne in intimate worship. As far as leading worship goes (which is my passion and calling), I now realize that there have been demands put on me from every part of my experience since day one - culturally, emotionally, musically, and more. So things tend to sound cross-cultural, cross- denominational, and cross-generational. I like to call it, "The Sound of New Breed Worship." I tend to lead from an internal platform founded in Psalm 124:2, "If it had not been for the Lord who was on my side"....where in the world would I be? In an age of disposable relationships, maybe we should be asking ourselves that question a lot more often. I am confident that we would worship with far more conviction, intensity, and overwhelmed gratitude if we did. It is my delight to encourage you today.
Click here to hear about the story behind the song:
www.youtube.com/watchv=5TI9yRDbdZE Click here to learn more about Israel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_HoughtonClick here to worship along with the Lakewood Church:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0W0oCGcu8k&feature=relatedClick here to listen online:
www.imeem.com/pickurnose/music/fEmluTVP/everywhere_that_i_go/Tetelestai will be singing "Forever Always" by Martha Munizzi.
In an interview about the album "Change the World" that produced this song, she writes:
"This record has songs that we wrote and songs that were brought to me. We went back to the beginning. Songs talk about how we’re created for a purpose, to be loved by God, to love and be loved. When we walk in that understanding, it releases us to love other people. When we’re working so hard, thinking we have to earn His love, then it’s hard to love others.
When we receive His love for ourselves, then we can open our hearts and see people the way God see’s them, on another level and another plateau. That’s how the world is transformed by God’s love and not by our religion or our ideas but by our kinship with God, and that’s how we change the world."
For the full interview, click here:
http://blackgospel.com/martha-munizzi-interview-2008/To listen to this song on Youtube, click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzdZT3LRinQ&feature=PlayList&p=05093B054F498DC8&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=61
