You Rescued Me
Another new version of a Geoff Bullock worship song
Original Version - You Rescued Me
Words & Music: Geoff Bullock
You rescued me and picked me up
A living hope of grace revealed
A life transformed, in righteousness
Oh Lord You have rescued me
Verse 2:
Forgiving me,
You healed my heart
And set me free,
From sin and death
You brought me life,
You’ve made me whole
Oh Lord You have rescued me
Chorus:
And You have loved me before I knew you
And You knew me for all the time
I’ve been created in Your image, Oh Lord
And You bought me
And you sought me
Your blood poured out for me
A new creation in Your Image, Oh Lord
You rescued me
You rescued me
New version - You rescued me
Geoff Bullock Music ©: 1992 Word Music Words ©: 2004 Geoff Bullock
Verse One:
You rescued me, and picked me up
A living hope, of grace revealed
A life transformed, in righteousness
Oh Lord you have rescued me.
Forgiving me, you healed my heart
And set me free from sin and death,
You bought me life, you made me whole
Oh Lord you have rescued me.
Chorus:
And you loved me, before I knew you
And you knew me for all time
I’ve been created in your image, Oh Lord
And you bought me and you sought me,
Your blood poured out for me
A new creation, in your image, Oh Lord,
You rescued me, you rescued me.
Verse Two:
You came for me, you sought me out,
You soothed my soul, you found my heart,
You picked me up, you covered me,
Oh Lord you have rescued me.
You calmed the storm, you stilled the seas,
You spoke a word, my fears relieved,
You filled my life, you saved my soul,
Oh Lord you have rescued me.
August 27th, 2005 at 1:26 pm
Make me cry - oh so true
Janet
August 27th, 2005 at 3:48 pm
Thanks Janet. It has been a really healing project to rewrite the lyrics from my “noe” perspective. It also aloows me to contact the songs without having to cringe!
August 27th, 2005 at 9:58 pm
Great Lyrics…
phil and dan, can I please be included on the distribution list for any mp3’s that are distributed from Geoff.
August 28th, 2005 at 8:04 am
Geoff
It has been a delight to catch up on these changes in your songs. I went to the 1996 Hillsongs conference, and can remember being massively disappointed you were not there. I have read the links from here to your story, and understand.
I am a ‘non-professional’ church musician - ie some musical gifting from the Lord, have an opportunity to play piano at church (I hesitate to use the words “in worship” because our whole lives are worship - music expression is just one part of it), struggled to come to grips with the syncopation of much of your early music!!!!
Our church has gone through phases of having some very good musicians, and beginning to present a “polished” performance, and then the music team would be decimated with people leaving, sickness etc. We struggled seinging between “we don’t have to do it like Hillsong” and the expectation to perform with the same type of excellence.
It is interesting where God has brought us to now - just the keyboard/piano and occassional acoustic guitar - but the presence of God can be so incredibly real in the services, using a few simple, and often older, songs, and hearts tuned into Him.
In the past couple of years, God has worked wonders of grace in my life. I have seen my brokenness, and known the totally undeserved grace of God which sought me out, and rescued me.
Verse 2 of this song just resonated with my spirit. For years it was - what I can do for God - now I am overwhelmed with what God has done for me.
Bless you - and thank you for allowing us a glimpse of the grace of God in your life.
Janet McKinney
August 28th, 2005 at 10:52 am
I’m not usually courageous enough to contribute to discussions, but have been following this topic for a while. First, I bring you greetings from the beautiful north of Australia. God has given us another pleasant dry season day…!
I’d just like to thank you Geoff, for your openness and humility as you have taken this journey and allowed us to learn from your experience.
My experience of ‘music in church’ sounds very similar to Janet’s in the way she described the struggle to reconcile the seeming ‘gold standard’. Having attended the Hillsong conference (1995), visited the church on occasions in the following couple of years and known people who attended the church I was enlightened in ways I did not expect. As a lover of music, the music was impressive, even intoxicating, but along with the ‘service formula’ (which many churches use) only made me feel uneasy. I still wonder how God honouring the approach and values portrayed are? Unfortunately, this perceived ‘gold standard’ set by churches who record their music seems to have resulted in much division and discouragement among musicians and congregations. Whilst dissemination of music can be positive, one needs to take care how they respond. I’d be interested to know how others have treated and reconciled this issue in their congregation….
Musically, I find my most intimate times of worship with God are when I’m alone at home, singing and playing on the piano. I am considering a self-imposed withdrawal from the music team at my church while I think and pray through why I am involved and to take some “time out” with Him (they don’t know this yet!). It is a ministry very dear to my heart but I have many unanswered questions and feel too much like I’m working in my own strength to continue at this stage. I trust that as I seek God, He will graciously speak the words He wants me to hear. Though I’ve been a Christian for most of my life, it’s taken me a long time to really appreciate the sinner I am and that I readily bring Him dishonour and grief with my mortal ambitions and motivations. I am grateful that His hand is always outstretched to rescue me, though I can’t understand why He would want to, I can only accept the privilege it is to be a child of God.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
August 28th, 2005 at 12:04 pm
Yes I understand Janelle. In my experience, taking time out can be a renewing time - not the least because it gives you time to receive from the Lord in the music times at church, not giving all the time.
I have done this a number of times - taken 6 months to a year off because of what God is doing in my life. I trust that you have leadership and fellowship that can understand your needs for a reflective time, and not pressure you into beliveing you are “backsliding”.
It is easy to slip into the ministry “in your own strength”. - not that you want to, but it happens. I encourage you to search God for who He is, and not be ‘forced’ to continue in the ministry just because there is a need. Be there because you know that is where God has you ministering at this particular time. This of course is particularly hard if you are in a smaller church, and there are not a lot of musicians to call upon. Our church now uses backing CDs 2 services a month (night services) to free up musicians.
Blessings
August 28th, 2005 at 7:16 pm
Thank you for your encouragement and suggestions Janet. I’m curious to know more….!
You’ve spoken right in to my situation …. thanks. Until now I’ve felt the burden of the ministry (as the sole pianist) and Sunday comes around too soon each week. Having said that there have been times I’ve enjoyed it. But lately I feel stirred and restless and question what it is we’re meant to be aiming for, individually and as a team. Turning up each week isn’t enough to me. It feels selfish that I experience something more genuine and deep in my personal time, and seemingly cannot edify others in their own relationship with God. I also don’t want to seem selfish for stepping back, but I do feel the leadership and my team members will understand. Besides it will be a good time of preparation for the others as I am expecting early next year!
Thanks once again, Janet
August 28th, 2005 at 9:54 pm
Dear Janelle and Janet, I hated Sundays, i was so scared, scarred, and hopelessly barren. Church should NEVER be this. Something is very wrong with the methodology and expectations of Sunday. You can be selfish. Jesus came for YOU, not your ministry. He came to give YOU life, and not to simply suck you dry to give others life. If the church needs us to add to all that Jesus offers each individual, then there is a terrible cancer in the church that all the songs and all the sacrificed worship can ever mend. Worship.. how I loath that silly word. Worship is all about seeing Jesus coming to kneel at bour feet, our guilty dirty feet. It all about his love for us, not our love for him. Jesus kneels before us and confronts us with our inadequacy.. and we try to sing our way out of it. How on earth can any musician take this responsibility. Please let go and let Jesus simply love you.. your ministry is just not important. it is Jesus ministry to you that is paramount. Don’t allow anything, anyone to rob you of this.
August 29th, 2005 at 4:41 pm
Geoff,
Thanks for the reassurance. I can see a lot of what church shouldn’t be, but what should it be? What should it be????
I’ve always considered musical gifts as given by God, and therefore to be used for His glory. Am I glorifying Him if I only sing and play when I’m alone? In our church band I am considerably relied upon and feel terribly guilty when I am standing in the congregation (or racing home with morning sickness - which is easing up, thankfully)… Last year when my husband and I moved to the church (we now attend), I said to him that I would only rejoin the music ministry if I was needed. And, for the first time in about 10 years, I went to church as a ‘pew warmer’ for a few months! (please excuse the terrible term…!). I enjoyed it - I met a lot of people and was more free to be involved in their lives and care for them. But then I also enjoyed getting back in to music again… as I came to know them and journey through their struggles and joys. Without self-praising, others tell me they appreciate my contribution and miss it when it’s not there (adding to my sense of guilt).
Now, both Carl and I struggle to make it through the ‘music time’ of services - for some reason its significance has changed and we don’t understand its purpose anymore. What is it meant to look like when God’s people come together …? Are we committed to traditions that aren’t fundamental?
I’d appreciate knowing what you have discovered…
From Janelle (in Darwin) Sound familiar?
August 29th, 2005 at 5:14 pm
Interesting reflections, Janelle. I used to be fairly involved in the “music worship” at my old church in various ways. And sometimes there is a real disconnect between trying to worship and trying to serve at the same time.
Since we have moved to NCCC, I lead a congregation which does not use congregational singing as worship, but expresses its worship as a faith community through dialogue, argument and community building.
Ironically I have become a leader in singing for the first time in my life at a church where I don’t express my worship that way. I occasionally sing at our Sunday morning congregation and get something totally different out of the experience than I used to get being involved in the worship team at my former church. It is a congregation that worships in a way that doesn’t really connect with me, but I know that it is not my primary congregation, so I don’t feel the pressure to “find God” or have an incredible spiritual experience.
Instead, singing at that congregation is a ministry to the members of that congregation who do get a lot out of that model of worship. I enjoy the homage to my heritage as I sing the hymns I remember from my childhood. But it is freeing because I don’t have the pressure at the same time about my own experience of that event.
Though I must say that it is very strange now to go to a church which does use the latest “contemporary” worship music. I have been out of the loop now long enough that I don’t know any of the tunes or lyrics and because I love the way that I participate in my own congregation, I end up watching people waving hands and closing eyes and singing questionable theology in the extended dance mix version of whatever song they are singing and it all just seems pretty strange behaviour.
August 29th, 2005 at 5:42 pm
Very interesting Dan,
What do you mean by worship being expressed through ‘dialogue, argument and community building’ - sounds intriguing!
It has surprised me how music (in church), once something so profoundly uplifting for me, has become so strange. Perhaps that’s what our journey is about - a process of refinement as God moves us through different experiences and phases of our life.
But singing in church now feels so awkward. I become frustrated by the practical issues like sound, the choice of songs and how songs are played - maybe that’s half of my problem. Perhaps I’ve become distracted by pragmatics and technicalities. Some Sundays Carl takes home a wife absoultely reeling over things that happened to the music during the service. And he says he honestly can’t see what’s upset me. It upsets me because it means so much to me and I’m struggling to understand what we should be aiming for, individually and as a team, when we play music in church.
Perhaps it’s just where I’m at - but there are some songs (especially hymns and some of the older choruses) where I choke on the words and actually can’t continue singing. It’s as though they give me a glimpse of God (and a glimpse of me) that leaves me trembling… Or it brings memories of times in my life where I experienced a particular quality of God. It’s so real - not just singing about someone else’s experience. It makes me wonder how many of the congregation are just ’singing along’ - and if they’re just singing along, what benefit is it? Perhaps one service we should just read the words (without the music)…
Anyway, thanks for your thoughts … I really am so interested to hear and learn from the experience of others.
Cheers, Janelle
August 29th, 2005 at 8:56 pm
Janelle!!!!!!!!! Oh, what can I say, and there is so much to say. How’s Naomi.. I have thought of you often. You stumbled into a totally unexpected disaster in my life, how weird! What can I say about your gifts. You are musical. What is the purpose of this? That’s the question we never get to. The “Church” simply assumes that your gifts are theirs for the using. What if you were an accountant, or an athelite? Would you be expected to do the books every Sunday, or chase the little kiddies around the car park? Would every other “gifting” have to endure the spiritual nit picking and over committment that musicians and singers have had to endure and all the while being told that this was the will of God. The artist temperament is eager to please. We are by nature,performers. There is nothing wrong with this. It is part of the gifting. The trouble is we simply accept that it is our role to “lead the worship”. Please think about this for a second. If you and I were writers of love songs, would we be exspected to lead, and be responsible, for the lovemaking? What should church look like for me? Well, I just cannot understand the connection between music and worship. My music may be about my walk with God and even more important, his walk with me, but that does not make my music “worship”. The only way I can descibe worship these days is in a simple mantra..
“Having received grace I become gracious
Having the unconditional love of God, I
become unconditionally loving,
Having recieved the mercy of God, I become merciful,
being forgiven by God , i must be forgiving,
being accepted by God makes me accepting.
Seeing God kneeling at my feet helps me to kneel at the feet of my enemies.
Knowing all this, and knowing that I will always fail
these standards I must live in a constant act of forgiving myself and applying grace, and therefore I mmust do the same to anyone else who falls short of my expectations.
Finally I must be responsible for my actions and reactions. I must free myself and others from any false sense of responsibilty that let’s us blame others or expect to be rescued by others.. and.. I must never work out another’s salvation.”
Can you see how every Sunday the congregation make the musicians responsible to make “worship” happen. This is absurd. How would our marriages be if we made the writers of love songs responsible for our emotional and physical intimacy.
In the end, I just wish that we could stop our “doing” on Sunday. Couldn’t we simply provide a venue where people could come and talk without being interrupted by the “order of service”? Couldn’t we just let go and let God speak through relationships that could proceed into community? Why must we have our emotional fix? Think about it for a second? Why do we have to sing at all? These questions are worth asking, and they should not be answered immediately. I think that this blog is a far better “church” than most of what I experienced on any Sunday. All we now need is a place to meet. A bottle of red wine and a loaf of bread and all our stories that show failure and grace.
Janelle. If you contact the webmaster of this site, they can give you my email. I would love be able to email you.
August 30th, 2005 at 8:51 am
Janelle, there is some more information about our congregations on the resource page of this site if you want to check it out.
August 30th, 2005 at 11:24 am
I didn’t discern any shift in the theology with the addition of the extra verse. It feels like it always belonged in the song. They are beautifully writing lines especially:
“You calmed the storm, you stilled the seas,
You spoke a word, my fears relieved,”
Geoff where you trying to add to or correct anything here, or celebrate the same saving action of God through your particular storms?
August 31st, 2005 at 5:36 pm
Hi Nigel, There are`always storms, always reefs to be shipwrecked, calm seas are an illusion. Yes, my life continues through very painful times, many issues that simply have to be accepted and endured. I often marvel at how people ask; “God, why did you allow this to happen to me?” Do we think that, as Christians, we have some sort of advantage over the rest of the world? Do we? I think we do? How bloody narrow minded and self centred is that! We have been priviledged in seeing grace as the only antidote to lives slavishly serving the “gods of conditional approval”. Grace shows us our true worth to God while we are still clutching a hot hammer and bloody nails. This grace shows mankind at our gut wrenching worst, and in that light, or should I say, darkness, we are shown God at his gracious best. We are now equipped to grace this world because we have nothing to prove. We don’t escape pain and suffering, we endure it, showing our hurting brothers and sisters that there is hope beyond our tears and fears.
September 19th, 2005 at 8:58 am
I first heard this song in an Evangel Church in Winnipeg and i immediately fell in love with it. The lyrics are simple, inspirational and powerful. I hope this song could be spread to the rest of the world and touched the hearts of the people. =P
September 26th, 2005 at 9:44 pm
[…] .signposts.org.au/index.php/archives/2005/08/26/have-faith-in-god/”> Have faith in God You rescued me The power of your love The heavens shall declare Just le […]