Sponge of Torah

The Sons Of Korah is an excellent band from Melbourne that simply writes music to the Psalms. They take a Psalm in the NIV translation, happy or sad, and sing it to their own tune. It's been a great way for Lizzy & I to memorise some Psalms, and it's a bonus we love their music - have a listen, go on!

Sponge of Torah is Lincoln's take on the Sons of Korah. I loved being at their first live performance at Synergy youth church service last month. This photo shows Tom as lead guitarist and backing singer. I loved working with Tom on TSCF Minty last year, and often heard him practicising these tunes for these Psalms. He got better and better all year, not only with Sons of Korah tunes but in leading musical worship in general. So it was great to see the full band of Tom, Ian, Jonny, Pete and Craig singing these Psalms out. Close my eyes and it sounded like the original. It would make Matt Jacoby and the rest of Sons of Korah proud, I'm sure.



Sadly, Sponge of Torah will split up soon, as Tom's moving to Tanzania soon to work with VSA. That's great for the agriculturalists and the church in Tanzania, but we lose out here in Canterbury.

As an excellent double bill, Tom was giving the Bible talk that night too. And it was great - one of the best talks I've heard in a while. He was talking about identity in Christ, and was building on a Rob Bell Nooma DVD that the youth group had watched the fortnight previously. Bell did very well in highlighting the issue of society labelling us, and it seemed he'd done everything leading up to say 'and therefore, to have an identity in Jesus is amazing' - but he didn't do that; he missed the opportunity. Not so Tom. Every few minutes during his talk Tom took off another layer of clothes to reveal another outfit - mexican; school uniform; cricket whites; rugby uniform - to show that we often label ourselves and each other. This took Bell's idea and contexualised it for Lincoln way better than Bell had been able to do. Then Tom completed it by taking us to a couple of Bible passages that tell that, amazingly, in his grace, Jesus gives us his identity at the cross. For the Christian that's where we return day after day. For the non-Christian, it's where we need to be to gain the identity of Christ and not the labels we, or society, give ourselves.

So, Tom - thanks for encouraging me to listen to, memorise, and live the Psalms. We trust the rest of the days of Sponge of Torah are filled with much laughter and much marvelling at the grace of God so evident in the Psalms. And thank you for once again pointing me to Jesus and the cross and handling the Bible so well.

P.S. Walking home that night Lizzy saw her first possums. Normally we hear them, but she'd never seen one that wasn't road kill before! And here's two!