I Stand Amazed

So tonight I watched "Betrayal" and "Passion" from the "Bible" miniseries, the episodes in which (you may have guessed) Christ is betrayed, tortured, and crucified. First let me digress and say that I am kind of annoyed whenever I see an adaptation of any bible story, because when studying the passage afterwards one tends to think of the previously viewed image and it can taint/skew/prevent future insight. That being said, this adaptation was quite well done, and it got me meditating on Christ's death, and thinking...

Observe that Jesus wasn't weeping and sweating drops of blood over the crucifixion- that is, the actual, physical, horrendously painful death. We know this because numerous disciples of his would later go to equally gruesome deaths joyfully, sometimes with songs on their lips. Jesus wasn't any weaker-willed than these mortals; he had more to dread than the cross itself. He pleaded in Gethsemane for God to take away his Wrath, whatever huge and unknowable punishment was necessary to pay for the sins of the world. Christ went through SOMETHING during and/or after his death that we will never have to experience. This "something" involves unimaginably infinite pain that we will never be able to wrap our minds around, let alone relate with.

It's pretty crazy to think about because it seems that, in a lot of ways, the cross itself would be enough. What I mean is, if some guy went through that horribly tortuous experience (have you ever read about exactly how you die when crucified? It's not for the faint of stomach) and he said he did it FOR YOU, it would be pretty clear that he loved you a lot, wouldn't it? If he said, "go into all the world and tell them what I did for you," it would make SENSE to do so. Even if he was just a human being.

However, God's love is even more insane than that. He didn't just endure the cross, but he took some unimaginable punishment that we will never have to even taste. He didn't do it for one person, but for everyone! (Read that again: everyone!) Not only that, but after the fact, he rose again, having conquered death itself. THEN the Savior of the World says, "go into all the world and tell them what I did for you!" That's weighty!

When surveying the figurative cross (and the punishment, beyond the cross itself, which it represents), all of my troubles appear immensely unimportant. Complaining or suffering through this and that seems so ridiculous when I follow a God who personally endured immeasurably more for my own sake! His perfectly selfless act also makes all of my "good deeds" into rubbish... When the Bible says our good deeds look like rags to God, this is what it means! How DARE I claim to be a "good enough" person, good enough to enter Heaven, comparing my petty acts of kindness to Jesus' sacrifice. That's just silly!

Gazing at the cross long enough also throws the resurrection into sharp relief. Jesus came back from the dead in power and in might, changing the timid cowards the disciples had become into the bold life-risking proclaimers that we know them as today. It was Christ's resurrection that changed that! Just when they thought they had all been wrong, in the "All Is Lost" moment of all of history, Jesus bursts into the scene, back from the dead. This is glorious! We can live our lives within that victory- nothing, not even death, can stop us!

In light of all the above musing, as I was driving home listening to the radio, numerous songs that said "life is hard but trust in God and it'll be okay" didn't seem to have much weight to them... [Not to say that they don't serve a purpose, I like to think that any given one of those songs has been heard by many people who needed that message spoken into their life. God is the the God of Comfort, working all things for our good, don't forget all of that.] But when it comes to worship, we are doing something wrong if we don't worship in view of the cross. Our worship should always have less "Lord, please help me with this problem/pain/issue" and more "Jesus, I am in awe of your sacrifice." As always, when I speak of worship I don't mean songs alone (I'll make a blog post on this soon), but I refer to how we can use everything we do to glorify God. If we go about our lives trying to glorify him without being constantly aware of his great sacrifice and equally great victory, we miss something beautiful.

The cross and its magnitude show us God's love for us: unfathomable, indescribable, infinite, and infinitely wonderful.


You may have noticed that this blog post has stolen the title of a well-known hymn. God laid it upon my heart as I mused at the foot of the cross:


I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene
And wonder how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean
How marvelous, how wonderful!
My song shall ever be:
How marvelous, how wonderful
Is my Savior's love for me!


Let's take some time to stand amazed.

Why I Love Rend Collective Experiment

I have the best friends ever. On Sunday, for my birthday, they gave me tickets to see my favorite band in the world, Rend Collective Experiment this Friday. Since that is all I am probably going to think about this week, I thought I would blog about it! I'll tell all you lucky folks why I love Rend Collective Experiment...

BUT FIRST, the story of how I discovered them! This takes place during the summer of 2013. Having spent a large amount of time in the car previously, driving to and fro all over the place, I spent a long time listening to the radio. Now, I generally try to avoid listening to the radio at all costs, but when my car only plays cassettes and I'm still too lazy to get one of those adapter things, I gotta do what I gotta do. 

So, I had listened to the radio, and I had heard Rend Collective's radio single "Build Your Kingdom Here" multiple times. Eventually, I was listening to this song, and I was like, "Hey! This is actually a good song!" (unlike most of what's played on the radio). I decided I would look up this mysterious new band, as I had come to the realization that "Build Your Kingdom Here" was profound, super singable, and really really fun.

Long story short, I looked up the band, fell in love with them, and bought every song they had ever produced all within a space about three hours. (Just so you know, "every song they had ever produced" is a total of 3 albums: "Organic Family Hymnal", "Homemade Worship by Handmade People",  and "Campfire".) I started playing their songs ASAP, and to this day I play Rend Collective all. the. time. All the time. So, back to my original question: why do I love Rend Collective Experiment? Let me count the ways...

Who are they? They are called a "Collective" because, on any given song, they have approximately seven hundred people playing at the same time. There are five core members, the ones who tour in the USA and elsewhere, but they have a number of other friends and members back home in Ireland. Apparently, any time they jam out, they cram as many people as possible into the smallest space they can find. They are called an "Experiment" because, they also cram as many weird instruments as possible into any given song. The overall effect is a rather Irish-folky, we-found-this-instrument-in-Turkey-and-thought-it-was-cool sound.

Why do I love them? Firstly, they are FUN! Unlike the large majority of worship artists that don't sound musically interesting, Rend Collective is endlessly fascinating, musically speaking. They would be worth listening to if their songs were in another language, which I can't say about many worship bands (another notable exception is the late David Crowder*Band). Not only do they sound great, their songs are very unique, profound, and well-written. They write songs to which I respond, "wow, I haven't heard a song say this before". Later on this blog, I'll be sure to talk about specific songs and what I love about them... stay tuned for that.

Rend Collective very clearly has fun doing what they do. Worship is celebration! They'll tell you, "we're a celebration band!" Just watch one of their music videos to see what I mean- in other related news, they make the BEST music videos ever! I've got some links on the Videos page, don't miss those.

Rend Collective Experiment is my favorite band of all time. They are musically fascinating and talented, they write unique and inspiring songs, and they are SO FUN to play, listen to, and watch. Go check them out! They have a new album releasing on Saint Patrick's Day (they're Irish.... what can I say) called "The Art of Celebration." Get pumped!

P.S: Shameless Commercial: If you want to buy one and only one of their albums, get Campfire. It is a "best-of," recorded live and acoustic around a literal campfire. Also, it's only eight bucks. What's not to love? Go get it!

All that I am is dry bones without You, Lord: a desert soul

I am broken but running towards You, God: you make me whole

Read This First

He must become greater, I must become less.

John 3:30

Hi everyone! Welcome to my very first blog post! In my experience, I have found that enterprises that begin with a specific purpose tend to be more fulfilling and successful... So, I am setting out to answer the question: why am I writing a blog?

Now I certainly don’t claim to have any particular aptitude for writing. I do not portend in any way to be particularly skilled in this area; I have no evidence to suggest that I am gifted at blogging. The idea of starting a blog only popped into my head for one simple reason: I thought it would be fun. I still think so! Since then, I have gone on to think about the purpose such a blog could serve for myself and the people who read it.

You should know that I am a Christian. You should know because it’s my defining characteristic- I’m a Christian before I’m anything else. I believe every word of the Bible is true, and I love the Lord with all my heart and seek to serve him every day. This blog is a tool with which I wish to live out 1 Corinthians 10:31: “so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” These posts are meant to tell the story of one guy trying to do everything he does for the glory of God. Do I succeed? Do I do everything for His glory? By all means, no! I don’t think I’ll ever reach the point on this earth where I can perfectly live out verses like 1 Corinthians 10:31. Is that going to stop me from trying to live it out a little bit more each day? NO!

Interestingly, this blog itself is an exercise in living 1 Corinthians 10:31. This blog is for God’s glory. It does not exist solely to journal my experiences, to be interesting, amusing, or funny, or (Heaven forbid) to bring me glory. It’s all about Him! There’s nothing special about me. Don’t read this blog just to hear about Roscoe Rea; read it to hear Christ magnified.

A disclaimer: There is a large flaw in the way in which I am communicating with all of you readers (typing blog posts); written communication is never quite as effective as a real conversation. I say this in order to tell you that I don’t ever want anything I write on this blog to come off as pretentious or prideful. I’m not somehow better than you, I don’t think I have it all figured out, I don’t think I should have the final word on anything… I could go on for a while- I’m not starting a blog to look cool. But even when typing this paragraph, I don’t want to come off as pretentious! Do you appreciate the difficulty of my situation?

That being said, all I need you to do is to give me some space, and hope I mean the best if I ever write something that could be interpreted negatively. If there’s ever humor you don’t “get,” remember that I write this blog with a smile on my face! Hopefully it can put a smile on yours.

Soon I’ll write a post about myself to give this blog more context.That should give you an idea of the kind of posts you’re likely to see. More on the blog (like, what the title means..) later. Until then, hang tight!

To God be the glory!