Nelson Word this month, release an album of many of America's top CCM stars. But behind this project is the inspiration of a book, which has become a devotional classic. Kathy Bubel reports, Matthew Barnes took the pictures.



Continued from page 1

How do you incorporate the "sacrament" of nature into your worship?

"In nature we experience the uninterrupted glory of God. All of us can grasp it. A good long walk in the woods - away from the incessant noise of our lives - puts life quickly back into its true perspective. The perspective that quietly says there is an awesome plan at work in the creation and I am a part of it. The shade trees we walk beneath were growing here long before we were born and will be even more magnificent long after we are gone. The familiar sun that we greet each day rises and sets on new life, new flowers, new beginnings, (Lamentations 3:23). The breeze we feel across our face brings endless pleasure in the smell of wild onions, sweet grass, honeysuckle and wet earth. What do these simple observations tell me? God is thorough in his creation. His pleasure in beauty and sensory experience is obvious. He finishes what he starts. He pays great attention to small details. I can trust him with my life.

4HIM
"You Are Holy"
"Here before your throne, I've come to worship you...When your love breaks through/Then I am swept away/By just a glimpse of you/Then you make me new/Til I am nothing less/Than what I find in you/You are holy."

10 September: "The private relationship of worshipping God is the great essential of fitness. The time comes when...it is out into the open, out into the glare and into the work and you will find yourself of no value there if you have not been worshipping as occasion serves you in your home."

How does worshipping God and acknowledging his holiness affect your life?

"Worship is the highest form of praise and as we worship God with our whole heart and honour him for who he is, then we truly come to realise just how small we are and how great he is. At this point I find that I can't help but be humbled by the fact that he would choose to love me."

GARY CHAPMAN
"A Man After Your Own Heart"
"I am driven by rivers of pride/You are my rescue/The maker and keep of my life/Lead me by the still waters again/Use me in spite of the prodigal child/That you know I am."

2 December: "Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection...I am called to live in perfect relation to God so that my life produces a longing after God in other lives, not admiration for myself...God is not after perfecting me to be a specimen in his show-room; he is getting me to the place where he can use me. Let him do what he likes."

How do you reach spiritual "still waters" in the midst of the struggle against your fallen nature?

"The path to 'still waters' seldom looks the same to me as it did the last time I travelled it. I think God must know that if I could figure it out and develop a formula I would follow the formula instead of relying on him.

"Sometimes it's as simple as getting to a quiet place where nothing can affect me except him. Other times the 'still water' is found in giving. In finding someone else's need I many times find my peace. There are times when the path ahead becomes clearer by looking to where I've been.

"My struggles are mine and yours are yours and most likely your path to peace may not even resemble mine, but the prize at the end has been and will always remain the same, the sweet embrace of a loving Father."

BRYAN DUNCAN
"A Heart Like Mine"
"A heart like mine/How could it be worthy that you'd find/A way to redeem this hardened clay/Twisted and broken/O Father God above/The wonder that you love/A heart like mine."

6 October: "...when a man is struck by a sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit and his personal spirit will be energised by the Spirit of the Son of God, 'until Christ be formed in you.' The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put into me a new disposition whereby I can live a totally new life. When I reach the frontier of need and know my limitations, Jesus says - 'Blessed are you.'"