To celebrate Good Friday and Easter this year, Crossroads Music announces the release of their EP, “Conquered Grave.” This EP will feature four songs: “Conquered Grave,” “We Say Yes,” “God of the Breakthrough” and “That Name.”
The Crossroads Music team strategically released this EP on Good Friday as a timely reminder that Jesus conquered the grave and reigns victorious over death! In 2020, only a few weeks into quarantine, Austin Livingood, Dustin Smith (from Here Be Lions) and Robbie Reider penned the lyric, “Death has died, crushed by nail-pierced hands,” as a reminder that our ultimate struggle has already been laid to rest by what Jesus did on the Cross.
Little did they know that those lyrics would become the anthem for Crossroads Church this Easter. They are eagerly looking forward to having their community sing out, “Every day we wake to a conquered grave,” to celebrate Easter this weekend!
Co-writer, Austin Livingood, said “This album is a constant reminder of the reason I have new mercies every morning. I have a reason to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Sometimes I tend to focus so much on Jesus dying on the cross, that I forget about the conquered grave and the freedom and joy that comes with it. The cross is important, but the cross without the grave means nothing.”
One of the featured songs on the EP, “God of the Breakthrough,” is an anthem written out of desperation to have God intervene in impossible situations. The Crossroads Music team had seen people in their community go through maddening life circumstances: cancer treatments, heart attacks, surgeries and friends passing away.
Regarding “God of the Breakthrough,” Livingood said, “When we wrote this song, our church was going through a difficult season. We started chasing down an idea, and in the middle of the session, we got an email that one of our Executive Pastors had a heart attack. It completely changed everything. We immediately prayed, and I was reminded of these lines I had just written a few days ago:
“God of the breakthrough
Your promises stand true
You haven’t failed us yet.”
That was all I had, and from there, we built a song of petition for God to show up. Time and time again since writing this song, it has served as a reminder that when I have nowhere else to go, I go to a place of surrender.”
Director of Crossroads Music, Robbie Reider, said, “When we have nowhere else to go, we want God near; His presence can change everything. Though it may not be specific results, it can change the posture of our heart, mind and spirit towards Him. This song is a reminder to us that though we don’t have all the answers in life, we can always depend on his presence being near to us in broken times, to hold onto his faithfulness. This song is as much an invitation to the miraculous as it is miraculous that we can have God to lean on in times of hardship.”
The Crossroads Music team wants this album to be something that doesn’t just produce self-reflection and somberness…but is a cause for celebration! Their hope is that this Easter weekend, the church will celebrate and have confidence in the fact that Jesus paved a way to life.
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