Madly in Love with You

Looking forward to hearing results this way Mike

 

First of all, both Redman and Hall (primary writer for Casting Crowns) write and sing their own stuff almost if not completely exclusively. (CC has re-recorded some other worship songs, but not alot of that.) Both have different approaches to worship music. Redman's stuff tends to be more British of course, since he's from England, but also very scriptural. He sometimes gets a little repetitive for me, but on the whole his music and lyrics are pretty solid.

"Blessed be Your name when I'm found in the desert place, when I walk through the wilderness, blessed be Your name!"

"Better is one day in Your courts, better is one day in Your house, better is one day in Your courts than thousands elsewhere!"

"I'll bring You more than a song, for a song in itself is not what You have required. You search much deeper within through the way things appear, You're looking into my heart."

"We will give ourselves no rest 'til Your kingdom comes on earth, we've positioned watchmen on the walls. Now our prayers will flow like tears for You've shared Your heart with us. God of heaven, on our knees we fall!"

"If we could see how much You're worth: Your power, Your might, Your endless love; then surely we would never cease to praise!"

These are some examples from songs I've led personally, written by Matt.

Casting Crowns started as a worship band in a church in Georgia, the youth pastor is Mark Hall, who is also the lead worshipper in the group. Their stuff tends to lend itself to the concert stage as well as in worship, but that's a preference thing. CC's songs can be pure worship, but one of the reasons for their rocket to the top of current Christian music is their resolve to call a spade a spade in the Church.

"If we are the Body, why aren't His arms reaching, hands healing, words teaching?"

"What if the Church, for heaven's sake, finally stepped up to plate; took a stand upon God's promise and stormed hell's rusty gates?"

"Out of all the voices calling out to me, I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth."

"Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea would call out through the rain and calm the storm in me?... You've told me who I am, I am Yours."

"Here I go again, talking about the rain, and mulling over things that won't live past today. And as I dance the truth, time is not his friend! This might be my last chance to tell him that you love him! But here I go again."

Those are all examples from their first CD. Good stuff, at least I think so. As for what they would think about the Barry White "remix"... I would hesitate to speak for them, but based on their output, I don't think they would care for it.

 

I didn't mean the song, itself, but the fact that their names immediately sprang to mind when readers saw the words.

 

Well, the thread was closed because of the words of a couple of other posters, but the two responses I got, neither could tell that it wasn't a real worship song.

The first one loved it and you saw how the second one gushed over it.

The whole thing was kind of based on a game that Rolleye James played on her radio show, back when she was on WCAU in Philly.

Back during the 2000 presidential campaign, she had a contest, in which she would read portions of Al Gore's "Earth in the Balance" and the Unibomber's Manifesto back to back and ask listeners to guess which was which. What made it so funny is that they were virtually identical. That's more or less what I had in mind and I think the point was pretty well taken.

 

hmmmmmmmm.....Things get a _tad_ heated? Better or worse than BB? Or safer not to say?

Yeah mate, I think you beat the classic worship song "I Love My Cat" with this one

Sadly though despite all this brilliance being thrown around in making points, songs like Madly are still being written and used

 

I don't know, but the mods were all over it like Oprah on a donut.

I'm honored. Truly.

I was at the pool the other day (I very rarely go to the pool since the entire Chesapeake Bay is just a few feet from my back door) and there were two children there.

The one was doing what every child does, what we all did when we were that age: "mom, mom! Look at me..Look at what I can do. Look...Look...are you looking at me?"

That's sort of the impression I get when I hear these songs.

 

I've read everything in this thread, and I have to say that I'm very sadly disappointed in some of the remarks made by my "Christian" brothers/sisters. I would expect such overtly sarcastic remarks as "Come on people, be nice, the song's writer probably has a very nice cat..." from any worldly person, but not somebody claiming to follow Jesus and the example he set.

"...the mods were all over it like Oprah on a donut."
Honestly, though. Did you think that this would honor or dishonor Christ?

"I'll have to find a Church that plays this one so I can walk out while they do it"
When Jesus saw something wasn't right, he didn't make a show by sticking his nose in the air and walking away; he fixed the problem.

"For me, God was calling me to leave a church that used that sort of music in it's worshi-tainment."
I won't forget what a young man wise beyond his years once told me. After seeing our college ministry and the other one on campus, he came up to me and said he'd decided he was going to be a part of the other group. I was not at all offended (after all, it's not a competition and he should be where God wants him), but I asked him why he felt he should be with the other group. His response was, "I came here and saw that [you guys] are on top of things and it's going quite well and [the other group] is basically falling apart, so I'm going to go where I can do the most for God." It sounds to me like you aren't trying to get away from the "worshi-tainment." You expect church to be good for you and see what you can get out of it instead of being a part of the church. To coin a phrase, "If we are the body," why are we not a part of the church instead of just visitors at a show every week?

"Is God omnipresent? Yes. Do we always feel the presence of God? No."
You could, you know.

"..the "in love with Jesus" style songs really disturb me because it feels like the songs are getting progressively more sexual. Let's be honest. Not many people talk about being "in love with" their best friend, their mother, their father, or their children. Most usages of the phrase refer to romantic (i.e. at least potentially sexual) relationships."
It sounds like this statement is being made partially in ignorance (not at all intended as an insult) of the fact that English has one "Love" and in the original Greek, there are four (philia, eros, agape, and storge), five if you include xenia (hospitality). You're thinking of eros, and I completely agree with you. I most certainly do not eros Christ. However, I do agape him. I am in agape love with Jesus. After all, when we say that "God so loved the world..." we're not saying he wanted to have a romantic relationship with everybody.

I love Jesus, yes, but not in THAT way. The only person I love THAT way is my wife. The love I have for Jesus is not romantic at all--it's a love of commitment to him--the kind of commitment that involves taking up your cross, not being starry-eyed.
Again, I agree completely. I don't see anything in "Madly" about romantic love, though.


I don't want this post to be a total derail of the thread, and since it's about "Madly," I would like to comment on it as well, as I was recently thinking about songs for a music worship night for my college group and this was one of the songs I chose to give a short blurb about before singing it. Here are the lyrics again:

And I'm madly in love with You
And I'm madly in love with You
And I'm madly in love with You
And I'm madly in love with You

Let what we do in here
Fill the streets out there
Let us dance for You
Let us dance for You

All of my life and nothing less
I offer to You, my Righteousness

=====

The first time I heard this song, I thought it was kind of strange or weird, and I didn't really take it seriously, but I did like the sound of the music itself, so the next time I saw the song title come up on the overhead, I was pretty happy we'd be singing that song that sounded cool to me.
I thought the song kind of droned on saying the same thing over and over, not really adding much... but I began to think more about the words to the song, and there's really not a whole lot you need to add; I'm madly in love with You. I think that most songs sung in worship to God are basically trying to express the same basic ideas of "We love our God with everything we can," and "God loves us by blessing us and sending his son and the holy sprit." I think that's really driven home in the words of this song's verse.
I also like the chorus; Let what we do in here fill the streets out there. I've also heard it "What we do in here, we will do out there." I think that should really be our response to us "madly loving God." I don't think this means taking your group's musical worship time and standing out on the sidewalk so bypassers think you're strange; I think when we sing this, we're saying that we won't just be a Sunday-morning Christian (or whenever you get with your church group). We ARE going to be different from our worldly neighbors; we will be in the world, but not of it. We will dance for our Father; we will be radically different -- our love for one another and the love we show to those who do not return it will distinguish us as His.
All of my life and nothing less I offer to you, my Righteousness. As imperfect, sinful beings there is no way we can repay God for what he's done for us through sending his son to die in our stead. This is why we do everything we can to hand over our lives to Christ, to allow him to guide us as his disciples.

 

AMEN!!!!! AMEN!

While God does use the marriage metaphor, I DO NOT BELIEVE that He is choosing to be anyone's lover . . .

creepy new theology!

 

OK - now that I said how I feel (creepy), the music director should be kindly asked as to why the church should continue using this song. What is the direction that this song is leading the church and the church's theology?

Does the church want to become more charismatic?

 

He did walk out after he whipped everyone . . . and He did use a nice cat . . . a cat of nine tails . . . (metaphorically speaking that is)

 

G'day & welcome MisterAlex. I dunno if you're talking to me here or just about, but either way I'll jump in....and I'll try to watch where I land....maybe

The line "the song's writer probably has a very nice cat" was referring to the fact that the writer could have written Madly about their cat. I wrote "I Love My Cat" a couple of years ago as a response to all the Madly-style songs in the Church today that are so vague the writer could have been thinking about almost anyone or anything when he/she wrote them....Possibly their cat for all anyone knows. From memory it went something like:

In the middle of the darkest nights
I hear you call my name
I open the door
And your soft warm presence
Draws nigh to dwell with me

Of course we know this song is for you
But this time I thought I should mention you too

So

(All together now) Here kitty kitty kitty, Here kitty kitty kitty
​

Madly fits right in to that CATegory.

WOW, quoted twice in a first post, new record for me I think

I could probably fix the problem....I'm sure I'm big enough to take out an infestation of cat-song crazy characters....but nah, I try to play fair. They have the numbers, so I just have to let them have it.....instead of letting them have it.

 

That somebody is a Christian doesn't excuse their music from criticism.

One of the reasons I quit reading CCM Magazine is that they refused to give a negative review of any album. They simply could not honestly critique any album that crossed their desk.

Neither.

How far do you take that logic? Do you stay in a church that's teaching heresy? Do you stay in a church that's abusive?

That's awfully presumptuous of you, not to mention untrue.

I was very active in the church, as were the thirty or so people who walked out with me.

I did use my gifts for the edification of the body, so it's dishonest of you to try to paint me as some pew sitting spectator who left because I didn't get what I wanted.

God's calling aside, it was precisely because of my involvement in that church and because of my committment to it that the new direction of the church offended me so.

Frankly, you need to keep your mouth shut about things you know nothing about, lest your foolishness be exposed.

Now Playing: Sunny Jim - "Sandbar Serenade"

 

Surfed across this one last night: Top 5 Worst Worship Songs (blog discussion)

No mention of Madly yet on that page....Until I do it in a few minutes