Set Apart

Hey everybody. Happy Monday morning!  Wanted to post a song today called “Set Apart.”  Below is sheet music, teaching recording, lyrics, chord charts, and the recording from my latest album “Higher Ground.”   But first, a little more to set up the song.

We’ve been doing a midweek series on holiness for the singles ministry in my church.  Along with the teaching we’ve been reading a book written almost 140 years ago by J. C. Ryle called Holiness:Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots.  It’s amazing that it was written in 1877 but is so applicable to today’s world!  He has some great stuff on the difference between justification and sanctification.  Both are fully dependent on grace.  Both are a work of God.  Justification is Jesus paying the penalty for our sins and all about his redeeming work.  Sanctification is really about his grace displayed in us –how we respond to his sacrificial love, the choices we make, what our life reflects.  The word translated “sanctified” in our Bibles could be literally translated as “holy-ized.”  Made holy.  Set apart.  It happens at the point of salvation, but then is also a continuing process of becoming more of Christ and less of ourselves.  It’s not about perfection, but about commitment, living in repentance, and continual renewal.  And somehow the further on we get as followers of Christ, the more far-off from perfection we realize we are, and more in need of grace.  I love this quote from the book:

…As to an absolute literal perfection, the most eminent saints of God in every age have always been the very last to lay claim to it! On the contrary, they have always had the deepest sense of their own utter unworthiness and imperfection. The more spiritual light they have enjoyed the more they have seen their own countless defects and shortcomings. The more grace they have had the more they have been “clothed with humility”  — J. C. Ryle

 That’s why we need Jesus!  That’s why we need to cling to his grace and daily devotion to him.  He has rescued me, ransomed me, and he’s making me holy.  He is set apart as Lord in my heart.

Set Apart – sheet music

Set Apart – Teaching Recording

Set Apart – studio recording – from my album, Higher Ground

(This video was posted on YouTube by the site that sells my CDs.  Cool, I didn’t even realize they were doing that.  Subscribe to that channel if you want to get all the tunes.)

SET APART

Set apart
Born of promise
Given life
A new name
Stars of light
Shine within us
Treasure in
Jars of clay

We’re set apart
Jesus as Lord
Is reigning in our hearts
We’re bathed in blood
Redeemed in mercy
We’ve been set apart

Poisoned lives
We were dying
Ruined fields
Souls decayed
You reached out
From the heavens
You stooped down
Made us great

Darkened sky
Over hilltop
One man hangs
Torn in pain
Set apart
For this hour
Ransomed us
From the grave

Trumpets sound
We are gathered
All those born
Of his grace
Set apart
Called by his voice
We’ll see him
Face to face

SET APART
Verse
D   /   D   /   G   /   A
D   /   D   /   G   /   A

Chorus
D   /   A   /   G   /   A
D   /   A   /   G  A  /   D

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