Kick back, grab a cup of coffee (or tea, if that's your thing instead), put your headphones on, and let's enjoy some music! Here you can find access to Bloom Baptist's Spotify account, where you can listen to our full rotation of songs for Sunday mornings, listen to this upcoming Sunday's setlist, or listen to the music from Pastor Jules' blog posts. Got a song from Sunday stuck in your head? Looking for new music to praise God with during the week? Find it all right here in the Song Corner!
Bloom Baptist Church on Spotify
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This playlist is comprised of all the songs that make up our Sunday morning repertoire. If we've sung it congregationally, you can find it here--from old favorites to new songs.
Want to know what we're going to be singing this upcoming Sunday? Listen to them here! Prepare yourself for Sunday morning by worshiping during the week! Updated every Wednesday by 5 pm (excluding holidays and special services).
Our songs that we've done as specials or congregationally through the years during the Christmas season. Use it to think of colder times on a hot July day!
A curated Resurrection Sunday playlist by Pastor Jules and author/Bloom Baptist member Rebecca Berry. Perfect to listen to while reading Rebecca Berry's book of the same name (available onAmazon)!
If Pastor Jules has covered a song in one of his blog posts, it'll be added to this playlist. These songs can also be found in the blog post section below.
The Song Corner Blog Posts
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Welcome back to the Song Corner! This week we're going to be taking a look at a song we'll be doing this upcoming Sunday. It is by Sovereign Grace Music, and it is called "The Glories of Calvary."
Just let the title of this song rest in your mind for a moment. Dwell upon the juxtaposition of Calvary, the event of the Crucifixion, the humiliation and mutilation, being called "glorious." It is a paradox, like many great theological truths. And that paradox is beautiful--though Christ was humiliated and murdered in the horrible fashion that is the crucifixion, it is only through Christ's death that we can, as the song states, "explore the depths of grace/that came to me at such a cost."
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” The whole of the song explores this beauty of paradox. It is only through boundless love, displayed on the cross, was our boundless sin put to death. But through death, we have been given new life, "Holy wrath has been removed/and Your saints below/join with your saints above/rejoicing in the Risen Lamb." It is only through Christ's death, and through Christ Himself, that we can rejoice, that we have freedom from the bondage of sin, and we now have fellowship with God Himself! All of this was accomplished by Christ through the cross, and that is truly glorious. Paul writes as much in Romans 5, "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."
Christ’s death on the cross was not a defeat, but the greatest victory. His wounds were not a weakness, but a triumph. The wounds of Christ are monuments to His victory over sin and death, and the great price paid to defeat them. This is truly a glorious truth, and therefore, it is one we should declare, it is one we should boast of, “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14).
There is deep beauty in paradox, and paradox is how our salvation was assured. The greatest, mightiest being, God Himself, made into a man, then beaten, and mocked, and crucified as if He was a member of the lowest, most undesirable of society. Through that pain, through that suffering, and through that death, we have now been given freedom, joy, and life.
We’ll end today’s song corner with an excerpt of a prayer from the Valley of Vision:
Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision… Let me find thy light in my darkness, thy life in my death, thy joy in my sorrow, thy grace in my sin, thy riches in my poverty thy glory in my valley.”
Welcome back to Pastor Jules' Song Corner! Sorry for the break we had in July, it was quite the busy month! Well, without further ado, let's look at a new song this week. This song is one that is near and dear to me, and has been a companion and a comfort through a lot of tumult throughout my life. This song is called "Known & Loved," by Joel Ansett.
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
Loving and being loved is terrifying. To allow yourself to be loved, you have to allow yourself to be known. And even more horrifying, to be truly loved, you must be truly known--the wonderful parts of you, your greatest triumphs and achievements, or the darkest sins that you'd wish no one would ever know. And always, to reveal yourself so openly to someone, is to run the risk that they will reject what they see, to run the risk that instead of loving you by the knowing of you, they will put you at arm's length, they will drop you, or they will leave you. But to be known, and accepted, and loved, is to be at home. It is a refuge, it is a safety, it is the greatest comfort. It is a home.
But we cannot be fully known by any person, for we do not even fully know ourselves. John Piper shared once, "Why do you think the psalmist in Psalm 19:12 prays, “Declare me innocent from hidden faults”? It’s because his brain is just so convoluted and so layered, that there are things tucked down in there. No matter how he claws with introspection at himself, he never knows himself completely. But we long to know ourselves." We are mysteries to ourselves, and even deeper mysteries to one another.
For all these reasons, and more, God's omniscience, combined with His infinite love for us, His children, is one of the most comforting aspects of His character we can hold on to. The Lord has searched us and known us, as Psalm 139 reminds us. "You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me."
God Himself knows everything there is to know about you, "You’ve never had a feeling, you’ve never had a thought, you’ve never done a deed, there’s not been a twitch in your brain or in your heart or in your body, that he hasn’t known fully and completely — vastly more fully than you know." And despite knowing so much about you, God loves you more fully than anyone else is even capable of loving you.
This is why no matter where our lives may take us: new jobs, losing loved ones, broken friendships, moving from state-to-state, no matter what changes take place, no matter how alone we actually or feel we are, we forever have a refuge. We have a home, a home that is secure beyond our circumstances, provided through a love that will not and cannot ever let us go. A love that knows exactly who we are, but will not forsake us. "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
With and through Christ, we are fully known and fully loved--we can lay ourselves bare, we can approach Him with every hurt, with every fear, with every triumph, with every desire, and He will never reject us. Through Christ, we are valued by our heavenly Father as much as His own Son, and through Christ, we will be safely led home.
"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
My God, in whom I trust!”
For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper
And from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with His pinions,
And under His wings you may seek refuge;
His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark."
Welcome back to Pastor Jules' Song Corner, where I, Pastor Jules, take a look at one song that's been stuck in my head, an old favorite, or a song we'll be doing on Sunday (and on some lucky weeks, maybe the song will be all three).
This week, we're looking at a song that is both a favorite of mine, and one that we'll be doing this very Sunday! It is called "Grace Alone," and is by Dustin Kensrue/The Modern Post, which was Kensrue's band while he was Worship Pastor at Mars Hill Church. It can be found on The Modern Post's album "The Water & The Blood," and The Modern Post's EP, also called "Grace Alone." King's Kaleidescope also has a fantastic cover of the song on their album, "Becoming Who We Are."
This song's primary focus, as you may have been able to tell from its title, is the sufficiency of grace, and our deficiency in being able to save ourselves. More brilliantly however, the three verses and choruses of the song are not-so subtly focused on a different member of the Trinity, and their individual roles in salvation. The whole song is deeply soaked in Scripture (so much so that this post will only scratch the surface as to the Scripture references contained within) and has some incredibly well thought out soteriology and trinitarian theology baked into it.
The first verse focuses on God the Father. The song speaks to how God the Father predestined our salvation at the same time as he laid the world's foundation. It speaks to our newfound identity in Christ--we are now called children of God, as we now share in the inheritance of the Son. This first verse is heavily influenced by Ephesians 1, just read these excerpts from that chapter while listening to the first verse of the song: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory."
Of course, at the heart of this new identity, of this inheritance we will/have received, is the grace that the Father has richly lavished upon us. Grace provided to us in love, and through the sacrifice of the Son, atoning for our sins with His blood. And that is what the second verse is about.
The second verse begin by saying "You left Your home to seek out the lost/You knew the great and terrible cost." These lines are allusions to Paul's great Christ Hymn of Philippians 2, "Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Our salvation came through Christ having the humility to take on the form of a man, with all of our weaknesses, and eventually, dying upon a cross. But more hopefully, the second chorus declares "And You rose that I might be a new creation!" The inheritance that the song spoke of earlier is revealed in this verse, that we are, as Romans 6 says, dead to sin, and alive in Christ, "For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus."
Finally, the last verse and chorus speaks of the Holy Spirit's transforming work in our lives today. The song describes our inability to fight back against sin, and our hopeless state before the Spirit moves within us, sealing us with Christ. The song states that we had "A head full of rocks, a heart made of stone," which alludes to the promise of YHWH to the prophet Ezekiel, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." Our idol factory hearts of stone are replaced with new hearts of flesh, He has called to us and said "Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead."
Our hopeless and helpless state is now brought into glorious new life, not by anything that we have done or accomplished, because that will never be enough. There is nothing we can do to raise ourselves from the death of sin: only the grace provided to us from our Father, through the sacrifice of the Son, and the influence of the Spirit. Thanks to His grace, we can run the race with endurance, and we can put our sin to death, and be raised to new life.
Welcome back to Pastor Jules' Song Corner, where I, Pastor Jules, take a look at one song that's been stuck in my head, an old favorite, or a song we'll be doing on Sunday (and on some lucky weeks, maybe the song will be all three).
This week we're going to look at an old favorite: Joy in the Journey by Michael Card. You can find this on several of Michael Card's albums, including "Joy in the Journey," "The Life," "The Ultimate Collection," and "Scribbling in the Sand." Do not let the less than modern musical sensibilities of this song turn you away from it, because there is a great well of encouragement and, fittingly, joy, contained within.
This song, more than any other I have ever listened to, puts the Christian life into incredible perspective. We are on a slow walk, not having yet obtained the goal, and that hope we hold onto feels insurmountably far-off some days. We are filled with an aching for home, but a work to complete first. We grow weary, tired, and exhausted, by hardships, toil, and loss.
Yet there is joy, and this joy is a present reality. Though we may grow "weary of struggling with sin," as the song reminds us, though we "belong to eternity, stranded in time," we are not a people without hope, we have a hope--more than that, we have a joy to hold onto. We have been given Christ Himself, the Son of God, the author of salvation, the firstborn from the dead, the gentle healer, the forgiver of sins; what more could we ask for?
This song carries many shades of the Apostle Paul's writings from the third chapter of Philippians. In verses 7-14, he writes: "But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
May this song serve as a reminder to press on toward the prize-- the prize that is knowing God, being sanctified from sin, and being united with Christ.
"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11).
Welcome to a new biweekly feature for Bloom Baptist Church's Facebook page! This is what we're calling "Pastor Jules' Song Corner," where every two weeks, I will pick a song that I've been listening to a lot lately, an old favorite of mine, something that we'll be singing together as a congregation on an upcoming Sunday, or anything in between. It's an opportunity to dig into some of the songs we sing, or listen to, and think more about their message, and to share new, edifying music to support talented, God-honoring musicians.
I will only be sharing song links that are direct, legal sources of the music, many artists have made their music available to listen to on YouTube, but not all, and when a valid, legal track cannot be found on YouTube, I will default to Spotify. So if you don't have an account there, you may want to make one so you can listen to some of the music we'll be appreciating over the coming months. These musicians and artists work hard at their craft, and it is only right and proper that we do our best to support them. Okay, so, let's get to the music!
For our first Song Corner, I wanted to share a favorite song of mine by a remarkably talented husband/wife duo known as "The Gray Havens." If you're a Lord of the Rings fan, you'll appreciate their name. The song we'll be taking a look at today is called "Gone Are the Days" and you can find it on their newest album, She Waits.
The main theme of this song is stated with the opening lyric, "Hope." This song, like much of the album it comes from, is written with hopeful expectation. This song has gotten me through some hard times, personally--it is hard to feel discouraged after listening to this song. It doesn't ignore that we're going to suffer, as even the opening lines make reference to the furnace and a refiner's fire, and a later verse acknowledges that sorrow is something that chases us down.
But the chorus of the song is one that is brimming to the edge with hope. It is a triumphant declaration that the suffering we experience today, the sorrow, the fear, all that causes us to weep and lament, will be taken away. Our hope to see Christ face-to-face will no longer be that, but instead be a glorious reality. The song invokes the great hymn, "It Is Well," when it states that one day "All our hopes will turn to sight." I cannot help but imagine that 1 Corinthians 13:12 was on the mind of The Gray Havens as they penned this song, where the Apostle Paul writes, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known."
The song also acknowledges that these experiences of hope and trial in the faith are not experienced in isolation, but that much of the sweetness of this future, and a window that we have to it now, comes from the body of Christ that we are currently surrounded with.
"But it's so hard, you know/To believe on your own/That you'll be okay/When sorrow keeps chasing me down/I run till my feet hit the ground/When we gather to pray."
This short verse of the song packs a great deal of spiritual truth within it: the song acknowledges that community, the coming together of the body, encourages us, and pushes us forward, until that day when we are all united in perfection. We are to bear one another's burdens (Galatians 6:2), to weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15), confess our sins to one another, and pray for one another (James 5:16). We are to run with endurance, before a great cloud of witnesses, throwing off the sin that entangles us, and fix our eyes on Jesus, until that daywhen sorrow and trial are gone, and we are finally free (Hebrews 12:1-2).
