I've moved my blog to wordpress! I've loved blogger, but wordpress offers many more options especially for computer-illiterate people as myself. I've moved all of my old posts there, so you won't have to switch back and forth between sites or anything. So, you can go ahead and check out the new blog, roam around abit, add it to your favorites if you'd like. I won't mind.
http://derekhughes.wordpress.com
I love the complete abandonment that's displayed in this hymn. I pray that someday this can be the true theme of my life, but, let's be honeset- it's hard to give everything to God. As much as we can sing it and pray it, it's a completely different thing to let go of absolutely everything in our lives, and give it to God. Sure, some days are easier than others, and then some days come along where I selfishly horde every last thing in my life that I can get my hands on and proclaim greedily, "Mine! All mine! Look at my treasures! Look at my... my precious!" (sorry for the Lord of the Rings reference, I get a little carried away sometimes). I digress, I invite all of you to make this a prayer as you read this and I encourage you to read it outloud (not that God can hear you better if you say it louder, but it gives the mind a lot less room to wander if you speak these words). Pray this hymn and invite God to take everything in our lives, both good and bad, and make them His.
Take My Life And Let It Be
-Frances R. Havergal (Feb. 1874)
Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.
I think when it was originally penned, there were some additional lyrics, but this is how it appears in most hymnals today. My third verse is my personal favorite, reminding us all that we can't possibly save ourselves because we owe such a great debt. Our only hope is for God, with His amazing grace, to bind and seal our wandering hearts.
Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing
-Robert Robinson (1758)
Come Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
Mount of God's unchanging love.
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I'm come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let that grace now like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
I haven't posted in a few days, I haven't spent much time online at all really. Other than typing out chord sheets for an upcoming DNow and church, I've been trying to spend as little time on my computer as possible. I've been doing a lot more reading (see list below, and The Bible) and it's been a nice change. For my next few posts, I am going to post some of my favorite hymns. Sounds lazy?- maybe a little bit. But, with the past few decades of the praise and worship movement, good, solid, biblically-sound lyrics are sometimes hard to find. I'm sure most of you know a lot of these by heart, and I'm sure I'll post some that hardly any of you have ever seen. I pray that God will use these hymns to reveal Himself.
My professor for Aural theory isn't here this week (I'm not sure why, I'm sure the sub told us but I showed up a little late so I didn't hear... maybe she's sick) so we got out of class early this week, all sight singing lessons are cancelled, and we may not have class thursday. This gives me a little surprise free time that I will happily use to read a little and to write a short post. I realized that after my new year's resolutions I had not given you guys an update on some reading that I had promised. So here it is, some stuff I've been reading this year.
1) God Is The Gospel (John Piper)- I didn't start it this year, but I did finish it this year. I took a little break in between my start and stop point so I should really go back and read it again but it was still a great book. It deals with the fact that God himself is the greatest gift of the gospel. "None of Christ's gospel deeds and non of our gospel blessings are good news except as means of seeing and savoring the glory of Christ."
2) The Cross Centered Life (C.J. Mahaney)- This short book (83 pages) can be read in a day if you have a little bit of time to devote to it. I reccomend that everyone check this one out- it talks about centering your life around the cross and "how to escape the pitfalls of legalism, condemnation, and feelings-driven faith." I plan on reading this a few times a year to help keep things in perspective.
3) Praise Habit: Finding God in Sunsets and Sushi (David Crowder)- Yes, David Crowder of the David Crowder Band has written a few books. He is really a great author and his odd personality and quirkiness ring loud and clear throughout this books about praise. The goes through 21 of the psalms and dedicates a few pages to each one. I loved reading this book because his narrative style was captivating, but I didn't particularly enjoy his translation choice- The Message. Although it is extremely easy to read, The Message puts an interesting spin on scripture and, sadly, changes the meaning of many passages.
4) Praying: Finding Our Way Through Duty to Delight (J.I. Packer and Carolyn Nystrom)- I'm in the middle of this book right now, and yes, you guessed it, it's about praying. I have had a terrible prayer life and God has really convicted me of that so I'm striving to learn more about prayer.
5) The Pilgrims Progress (John Bunyan)- I haven't gotten very far in this classic allegory of the Christian life, but I will definitely finish it. The old english just takes a little longer.
6) Times of Refreshing: A Worship Ministry Devional (Tom Kreuter)- This is actually a devotional with many leading worship leaders in the country as contributors. I haven't finished it but I'm trying to read a few chapters a day- this is another one that I will probably read over and over.
Alright, I know we're only a few days into Feburary but I'm going to go ahead and declare my latest purchase the best deal o' the month. Heck, after you hear about it you'll probably think that it's the greatest deal o' the year and you'll rush out and pick up your own. I was in Wal-Mart the other day and I saw the usual display of Garth Brooks box sets, The Limited Series. Now, these have been out since Christmas two years ago. Garth Brooks signed some new deal with Wal-Mart and they are the exclusive carriers of this 6 disc set which was originally on sale (for pre-order and the day after Thanksgiving special) for $25. I'm not sure what happened, but no one really bought them and they've been stacked on the shelves for a few years now as they continually have marked down the price. Here's where it gets good. The other night I saw that this box set, this 5 cd, 1 promotional dvd box set had been marked down to $9.92. And right above that on the shelf was Garth Brooks, The Entertainer, a 5 DVD set containing 4 different concerts and one disc of music videos- also $9.92. So I walked out of walmart Sevens, Scarecrow, The Lost Sessions, Double Live (a personal favorite), and hours of live footage for about $20. I highly recommend that you go check it out- especially if you're a Garth Brooks fan, a country music fan, or even simply a music fan- either way, you won't be disappointed.
What does it take to get a snow day at UK? Does anyone know if there are certain requirements that must be met before class is cancelled? Let me tell you, it's no fun walking to class in the snow- the ground is covered with about an inch of snow, the sidewalks are covered with about an inch of pure slush, and it's still coming down like crazy. And although it's only 10 o clock, there is a large gathering of sledders at a nice hill on campus- does no one have class? And even if they were going to skip class, why would they go out so early... sleep in, people!
Ok, rant over. It's not really that bad out there in all honesty. It feels warmer today than its felt all week and the snow is actually a nice change from the dry, biting cold.
And, if anyone is interested I just posted my top five JMB songs on the JMB blog. Go check it out.
My Honors class is going through a large part of the New Testament for the next few weeks. The professor has told us to read Acts, most of Romans, I Corinthians 6-7, Ephesians, I Timothy, and Philemon as we study the early church and it's role in the history of Rome. For our text we are using The Unvarnished New Testament translated by Andy Gaus. The description on the back reads: "This new, innovative translation of the New Testament opens the closed doors of preconception and allows the reader to view these important Greek writings in an entirely different light... Most translations of the New Testment are made by committees; they interpret the original text through theological doctrines and dogmas which arose centuries after the books were written... Andy Gaus presents the New Testament as it would have appeared to someone reading the original, unvarnished Greek- as though 2,000 years of Christian history had not occured." So, pretty much, Mr. Gaus taken the original Greek and translated it, just like someone would take the Iliad and translate it into English. He has done this so that years and years of religous thought won't get in the way and persuade the text one way or another. But, even as he has tried to take the religious history away from the bible, God's word still rings loud and clear. It's not the "2,000 years of religious history" that makes the bible true and infallible, it's the author. Although we aren't going to get into any theological debates (yeah, right) and we are reading the text to learn about the history of the early church, I know that God will still use His living word to work in the hearts of those who read it. I'm so thankful that we've been given this assignment... now, if I could only convince my geology teacher to teach us the history of the earth straight from Genesis...
I completely forgot to tell you guys about this week's service! We had something like 33 wednesday night (not counting women and children... that's for you Andrew). No, actually we had about 33 youth, not including adults- the largest youth service I've seen at Master's. I know that numbers don't mean squat if God isn't moving, but numbers do show that these youth are excited about coming to church, so excited that they want their friends to be there with them. And on top of that, God is moving! The girls really made a great showing wednesday night and outnumbed the guys 2:1 and it's really awesome that God brought so many girls to the service- the message was on Deborah and Jael. Marc is doing a series on Judges called "Judge This"... I think that's what it's called... anyway, wednesday we talked about how God used Deborah to bring victory over Jabin's army and Jael to kill Sisera, the general of said army. (Jael drove a tent peg through Sisera's head and into the ground, remember?) Marc did a great job of conveying the message of "God can use you, no matter who you are" and even tied it seemlessly into the gospel at the end. That's one of my favorite things about these services- you will always hear the gospel. No matter what the rest of the message is about, it all boils down to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The simple yet profound truth that "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
God is really moving through these wednesday night services and I'm ecstatic and very humbled to be a part ot it.
As you may know, I've gone back and forth with different titles ever since the creation of this blog. It started out as musings of a reformed bassist, transformed into chronic congnitions of my consciousness, then I had a few random titles for a few days before settling on Derek's blog... which morphed into derekhughes. After I grew tired of that I added (musings of a reformed bassist) to derekhughes and that's where I've been the past few days. Now, notice the top of the page and you'll see I've changed it once again to read derekhughes (student). When trying to choose a blog title, I wanted something that would accurately describe me and the nature of this blog.
First off, I've decided to change it from musings of a reformed bassist because many, many people use the word musing in blog titles and using it in mine makes me feel like a big ol' copycat. Second, although I do hold to the five solas of reformed theology and the five points of Calvinism, I don't want that to define my blog, or me for that matter. There are many blogs out there devoted to these doctrines of grace, and that isn't the kind of blog that I want to claim as my own. I have absolutley nothing against any of these blogs, in fact, most blogs that I visit deal with reformed theology, I just want to maintain a different kind of blog. Thirdly, sometimes I feel restricted whenever I think of myself as a bassist. I do play bass and it is probably the instrument that I enjoy playing the most, but sometimes I feel as if I shut myself off from the rest of the musical world and try to focus too much on the bass. I forget that I still need to keep up my piano chops and that if I don't practice singing, Dr. Lugo will shoot me. I'm not exaggerating. Ok, maybe slightly, but she would still be very angry. But the point is, I need to stop thinking of myself as purely a bass player, because it has started to hinder my growth as a musician... wow, I'm a huge geek.
So my new title, derekhughes (student) describes my current state. I am a student of theology, not formally (at the moment) but, in my spare time, I try to soak up the word as much as possible. I'm a student of music, currently notating my way through UK's theory department and trying to keep up in my intense voice lessons. And, I'm also a student of whatever else they force me to take at UK, right now it's Psychology and this class called Dinosaurs and Disasters (all about prehistoric times and the extinction of Dinosaurs... Bert, I'm sure I'll have a lot of questions about this one).
So, there you have it- my blog's new title. I hope that I haven't lost any readers in the process, but if so that's quite alright. I don't blog to gain popularity- this is more or less my online journal. If you want to read it, feel free. My mother says it makes it possible for her to keep up with my everyday life. Thanks for all of your dedication and continued faithfulness. Until next time...
I've been tagged. Now we come to the part of the conversation where you ask, "What the heck does that mean, Derek?" Did you say it outloud or did you just read my dictation? You just read along in your head but didn't really ask me, didn't you? You don't really care that I was tagged and you don't ever care to find out what that means. But, since you're still reading this post that means that you're obviously still remotely interested so I'm going to go on and explain my current situation. Apparently there is some kind of game going on right now in the blogging world where someone gets tagged. That person has to write a post telling... wait, I'm just going to post what someone else wrote about the subject. I had to go back a couple of layers into this game to find this, the author doesn't know me at all.
“People who get tagged need to write a blog post of 6 weird things about them as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”
I was tagged by Adam Bishop, new music minister at Buck Run. Now normally, I wouldn't respond to anything like this because I hate chain letters of any kind, they annoy the crap out of me. So, why am I playing along? I'm bored and I have nothing better to write about. So here it goes- a few weird things about Derek Hughes.
1) I am an avid air-drummer. Although I've only played drums on a few occasions and definitely don't mention them in my list of instruments, I love to air-drum. (Is that a verb?) It's weird, I hardly ever play air-bass, air-guitar, or air-piano. No no, my area of expertise is restricted to the air-drums, usually in the car. And yes, I get odd looks often.
2) I've never seen the Sound of music. This may not sound too odd, perhaps you've never seen it either. But, I love musicals more than any man should and to have not seen this classic is inconceivable.
3) Oh, I hate the feel/sound of cotton balls. I'm getting goosebumps and chills as I type these words, no lie. When you rub them between your fingers and they produce that small, squeeky noise accompanied by a tiny amount of friction, just enough to grate on my spine. I'm not sure if this one made much sense, but if you feel the same way about cotton balls as I do, you understood oh too well.
4) I'm a teribble speller. Whenever typing anything on this blog, I always have dictionary.com pulled up and check many words- even in this particular post. I've looked up 3 words so far. (Try and guess which ones).
5) Here's another movie one- I've never seen The Goonies. For older readers out there, this may not sound too odd, but apparently this was a movie that defined my generation and my friends never cease to sing it praises. But, I have no desire to see it... so there.
6) I hate the fact that I own greatest hits cds but at the same time I can't get rid of them. I love the concept of the album so much and have a hard time listening to songs out of their original context. So it's odd that I would own so many greatest hits, that are a collection of pupular songs put together by the record company. I feel cheap whenever I listen to them, but I can't stop. Someone help me!
So there you have it. I've been tagged, I've listed 6 weird things about myself, and now I think it's my turn to tag someone else, actually 6 other people. But, I think I'm just going to tag Andrew. So now I've fulfilled my duties and passed off the torch. Andrew, if you're reading this, know that I don't want you to feel obligated to reply. In fact, feel free to ignore this game and end this small branch that I've created- my feelings won't be hurt at all. But, if you're like me, and always looking for stuff to post, go ahead and share your weirdness with the rest of the world.
Due to a small amount of confusion in my recent change of churches, I feel the need to explain myself a little better. I made the move to Master's Church (by the way, Mary Beth and I joined yesterday) not in order to pursure a job, but because it's where I felt God was calling me. I am not the youth minister or music minister, but I felt God calling me to serve in those ministries at Master's Church. God has called Mary Beth and I to be there so that we can work closer with the youth and develop closer relationships with them by simply being around more. And no, I am not getting paid.
I'm sorry for any confusion that my leaving caused. I guess I didn't make it clear enough whenever I explained the situation.
On another note, I'm starting to play piano a lot more... I really missed it.
What bible are they reading? If God gave us freedom, we would NEVER choose Him. "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God." Romans 3:10-11. This literally turns my stomach, especially the preacher at the end.
Youtube has been acting really funny recently whenever I try to post videos on my blog. A few days ago I blogged about Coldplay's "Fix You" and tried to post the music video so you all could see what I was talking about and experience the great moment with me (complete with fist pumping). When one video didn't work, I went and tried to post another. I tried this for a couple of days and then finally gave up. Much to my surprise, I signed into my blog a few minutes ago and discovered that youtube had finally posted all of the videos- I think 6 in all! I took care of them and left only one for you to enjoy. I guess I'll have to start planning my video posts ahead of time so they show up when I want them too.
Oh, I picked up a few new cds yesterday- Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" and "The Dance" and The Beach Boys "Pet Sounds". I haven't gotten a chance to listen to any Fleetwood Mac yet because I'm so blown away by Pet Sounds. I highly suggest that you give it a shot. It just may be the most perfect album I've ever heard, no exaggeration.
Alright, here it is. Listen carefully at around 2:26- that's when the moment begins.
I've got to say that the song "Fix You" by Coldplay has got one of the (if not the) most inspiring musical moments that I've ever heard. About 2:10 into the song, after the 2nd chorus, he sings "I will try to fix you" and on the next downbeat the guitarist comes in with the eighth notes rocking with this 8 bar phrase that repeats over all of the chord changes as the band builds intensity until they comes in with 4 part harmony ("Tears stream..."). Ahh, this gives me goosebumps every single time I listen to the song. I've got to see it live. If you haven't heard the song, I suggest you do yourself a favor and listen to it. If you pump your fist in the air as the band builds at the end it adds to the intensity, I swear it does. I'm working on posting the music video on my blog but, for some reason, youtube isn't cooperating right now. I'll keep trying, though.
So tonight was my first time speaking in front of a youth group. Marc asked me a few weeks ago if I wanted to preach one night so I took him up on the offer and spoke on the gospel tonight. I was quite nervous since it was my first time. I mean, I spoke in front of FCA pretty much every week my last two years of high school and led some short devotions, but this was my first time with an entire message. Having such an important message to share, I didn't want to be destracting with my own ill-preparation and I definitely didn't want to say anything false. I really just wanted God to completely take over tonight and that's exactly what happened. As soon as I started talking I knew that the Holy Spirit was definitely working in the room and that God was doing some very big things in the hearts of the youth. Although no public decisions were made tonight, it was obvious that they were turning everything over in their heads as they listened. I pray that the message shared tonight will act as another seed that God uses to bring His people to Him.
