August 8, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Thursday, August 8.
This coming Sunday morning, here at First Baptist Center, Texas, we'll begin our service with a worship song called "Lord, I Lift Your Name on High." You're probably familiar with it, it's been around for 35 years now, and that's a long time for a contemporary Christian song. It was written by a man named Rick Founds - a man who was ahead of his time.
Rick Founds was born in 1954 and always had an interest in science and in music. In 1989 he was a college professor who taught about computers, and also led worship at his church. Each morning, he would have his quiet time with God, reading scripture. But Rick wouldn't read it from the Bible on his lap - he would read it from the computer screen on his desk. In 2024, most people read the Word from electronic devices. But this was 35 years ago. I didn't even have a home computer in 1989.
Being a guy with a scientific mind, one day Rick was contemplating the "cycle of water." Science guys think about stuff like that. Water falls to the earth - precipitation, is heated by the sun and turns into vapor - evaporation, turns from vapor back into liquid - condensation, and once again falls to the earth. A series of steps, a process, a cycle. Being a worship guy, Rick began to see that the story of Christ was a cycle, as well. Jesus came to earth, he died on a cross, he rose from the dead, and he returned to glory. A series of divine steps, a process of God, a cycle of salvation. And as he thought about this cycle, Rick was overcome with feelings of thankfulness and was inspired to write this little song, a song that, since the 1990's, has been one of the most popular worship songs in the world.
Here's the chorus - the part that Rick wrote first.
You came from heaven to earth to show the way
From the earth to the cross, my debt to pay
From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky
Lord, I lift Your name on high!
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
