The story begins....
"Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"
We see Jesus on his way to Jerusalem, he is taking a very specific route and heads into a village. There is purpose in every step Jesus takes.
The lepers must have heard about Jesus and knowing that they could only see him from a distance because of their contagious disease ALL ten of them yelled out in a LOUD voice that he would have pity on them. They most likely had heard that Jesus was a miracle man.
"When he saw them, he said "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And AS THEY WENT, THEY WERE CLEANSED. "
Here we see the power of the WORDS of Jesus. Something miraculous happened to every single one of them in response to their obedience to Jesus' command to "Go, show yourselves to the priests."
Can you imagine living with a body ravaged by a skin disease that alienated you from all society, including your family, and then in ONE moment being completely free of disease?
ONE OF THEM, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He THREW himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him - and he was a Samaritan.
Would my response to this miracle be loud words of praise to God, throwing myself at the feet of Jesus, telling him how thankful I was? I so hope so.
Jesus asked "Were not ALL ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? Then he said to him "Rise and go; your faith has made you well."
ALL ten lepers were healed in their bodies but only one came to a saving relationship with God through his faith in Jesus.
Last night our pastor made the statement that our salvation is a miraculous work of God.
I have learned alot from the Thankful Worshiping Leper on the appropriate response to the miracle of salvation - shouting loud praises to God, throwing myself at the feet of Jesus and pouring out thanksgiving for the mercy and provision of God.
Not that I ever doubted the role of music in the church but for those seeking salvation what a testimony it is to see the body of Christ singing loud praises to God at the feet of Jesus and giving thanks for his great mercy.
I imagine there have been hundreds of sermons based on this story but this morning it was like I was reading this for the first time.
Bible Reference: Luke 17:11-19
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Moses The Songwriter
The One Year Bible has been a great tool for keeping my spiritual life focused. I am in the last chapters of Deuteronomy and was blown away to read that Moses had a songwriting champion - God!
One of the last commands God gave Moses before he died was to write a song!
Yesterday I had a conversation with a songwriter about assignment writing and here in Deuteronomy God gives Moses a songwriting assignment:
"Now write down for yourselves this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them...So Moses wrote down this song that day and taught it to the Israelites." Deuteronomy 31:19,22
How many times have we heard people say "God gave me this song"? One of my favorite responses to this statement was by Regie Hamm who said "I've heard God write better"!
But here Moses is transcribing a song directly from the lips of God so he could legitimately say God gave him the song!
The primary purpose of the song was to serve as reminder to the descendants of Israel of God's faithfulness and his deliverance.
A side note: one of the elements of a great song is the use of drama or conflict and this song of Moses' is plum full of it! Check out the song Deuteronomy 32:1-43.
"Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, he said to them "Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you - they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess." Deuteronomy 32:44-47
I know that this is an understatement but I am continually amazed at the power of a song to impact lives!
My husband has been in Haiti on a missions trip and went to church in Port-au-Prince on Easter Sunday and they sang "God Of This City" written by Aaron Boyd of Bluetree. The lyric of that song certainly takes on a whole new significance in the context of the devastation of the earthquake on the city of Port-au-Prince!
While my husband was worshiping in Haiti on Easter I was at the Tennessee Prison for Women leading worship for their Easter sunrise service and my four nieces Kayitesi, Marlo, Ukyeye and Christine brought special music to the 500 plus inmates. They sang an a capella version of the 2nd Chapter of Acts classic "Easter Song" written by Annie Herring. Seeing the words of that song penetrate the hearts of the prisoners was another reminder of the POWER of a song.
What a privilege it is to participate in the creative work of God! It is one of my life's greatest joys to encourage songwriters in their passion for writing songs and to help them be stewards of their gifts!
One of the last commands God gave Moses before he died was to write a song!
Yesterday I had a conversation with a songwriter about assignment writing and here in Deuteronomy God gives Moses a songwriting assignment:
"Now write down for yourselves this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them...So Moses wrote down this song that day and taught it to the Israelites." Deuteronomy 31:19,22
How many times have we heard people say "God gave me this song"? One of my favorite responses to this statement was by Regie Hamm who said "I've heard God write better"!
But here Moses is transcribing a song directly from the lips of God so he could legitimately say God gave him the song!
The primary purpose of the song was to serve as reminder to the descendants of Israel of God's faithfulness and his deliverance.
A side note: one of the elements of a great song is the use of drama or conflict and this song of Moses' is plum full of it! Check out the song Deuteronomy 32:1-43.
"Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, he said to them "Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you - they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess." Deuteronomy 32:44-47
I know that this is an understatement but I am continually amazed at the power of a song to impact lives!
My husband has been in Haiti on a missions trip and went to church in Port-au-Prince on Easter Sunday and they sang "God Of This City" written by Aaron Boyd of Bluetree. The lyric of that song certainly takes on a whole new significance in the context of the devastation of the earthquake on the city of Port-au-Prince!
While my husband was worshiping in Haiti on Easter I was at the Tennessee Prison for Women leading worship for their Easter sunrise service and my four nieces Kayitesi, Marlo, Ukyeye and Christine brought special music to the 500 plus inmates. They sang an a capella version of the 2nd Chapter of Acts classic "Easter Song" written by Annie Herring. Seeing the words of that song penetrate the hearts of the prisoners was another reminder of the POWER of a song.
What a privilege it is to participate in the creative work of God! It is one of my life's greatest joys to encourage songwriters in their passion for writing songs and to help them be stewards of their gifts!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
A Songwriter's Champion - The Beginning
This morning I was sitting out on our screened in porch with my cup of coffee, journal, One Year Bible and Jesus Calling and my heart was getting fuller and fuller with thanksgiving to God for the opportunity of living another day doing what I love to do. One of my greatest passions for the past 18 years has been songwriters.
It was in 1979, while living in New York City, that I wrote my first song knowing absolutely nothing about the craft of songwriting or any chords on the guitar. I was a huge Joni Mitchell fan so open tuning worked for me! I'd write songs about the street people that I met like Mr. Edmund, sweet John O'Shannessey who would bring me danishes every morning (I have no idea where he got them from), I wrote worship songs, I cowrote a song with my boyfriend at the time for a friend's wedding and then my most famous song of all "Swing The Sickle" (someday I'd love to play it for you!). While living in New York City at the Lamb's Manhattan Church of the Nazarene - the Lamb's Club - I had the opportunity to play my songs for Bob Benson (of the Benson Company) and he was very, very kind to me - I mean very, very kind! He didn't dash my dreams of being a singer songwriter but encouraged me to just keep on writing!
Well as the story goes, my friends encouraged me to give Nashville a try so I packed up my baby blue Maverick and headed south to Music City USA. I played my songs for Bob MacKenzie, who was an alumni of Houghton College from where I had graduated and he was very, very kind as well but I never heard the words, wow you have something special, a gift, etc. I was a flute major in college and thought that I could always do session work in Nashville until... I observed a recording session with Sam Levine who not only played several wind instruments but he was playing all of the music by ear! I had absolutely no inclination or gifting to play by ear - I needed all the notes written out. I also had the opportunity to sit in the audience of the music variety television show called "You Can Be A Star" hosted by Jerry House at the time. I was selected out of the audience (they called it the stairway of the stars) to sing with the house band "The Rose" - my cousin Roger living in Texas actually saw the show - but alas no record contracts were issued and I figured I better just find a real job.
My first job in the music business was as a receptionist for Lorenz Creative Services, a boutique publishing, production and management company. I met record producer Greg Nelson who hired me within a few months to work as his production manager which I did for 6 years. What a privilege it was to work for not only one of the most successful producers in the late 80's but a very successful songwriter as well - People Need The Lord one of many of his songs that are still being sung around the world. One of my roles as production manager was to "screen" songs from the publishers so I got to know many of the songwriters and publishers. Regie Hamm remembers pitching songs to me and that I told him to just keep working on his craft - little did I know the fire that lit under him! And I might add he certainly did work on his craft and has had great success! Dave Clark was one of those songwriters that I got to know really well.
I left Nashville and moved back to New York City for a couple years to get a much needed break from the music business. I got a call from Dave asking if I'd be interested in a publishing position at the company where he was a staff writer. My first response was no as I knew how competitive it was to get songs cut even back then and didn't know if I could handle the rejection! BUT after some great conversations Dave convinced me to at least interview. I flew to Nashville for the interview and was hired to run Benson Music Publishing with absolutely no publishing experience! What a huge learning curve that was as I didn't even know what a mechanical rate was. But I never looked back and have been in creative music publishing ever since. So back to "Swing The Sickle"...I do believe that that song led to the demise of my songwriting career- people just couldn't see the magic!
So here I am in 2010...doing what I know God has been forming in me over the years, and that is the privilege of serving as a Songwriter's Champion, Coach and Connector. I look forward to sharing my journey in future blogs!
It was in 1979, while living in New York City, that I wrote my first song knowing absolutely nothing about the craft of songwriting or any chords on the guitar. I was a huge Joni Mitchell fan so open tuning worked for me! I'd write songs about the street people that I met like Mr. Edmund, sweet John O'Shannessey who would bring me danishes every morning (I have no idea where he got them from), I wrote worship songs, I cowrote a song with my boyfriend at the time for a friend's wedding and then my most famous song of all "Swing The Sickle" (someday I'd love to play it for you!). While living in New York City at the Lamb's Manhattan Church of the Nazarene - the Lamb's Club - I had the opportunity to play my songs for Bob Benson (of the Benson Company) and he was very, very kind to me - I mean very, very kind! He didn't dash my dreams of being a singer songwriter but encouraged me to just keep on writing!
Well as the story goes, my friends encouraged me to give Nashville a try so I packed up my baby blue Maverick and headed south to Music City USA. I played my songs for Bob MacKenzie, who was an alumni of Houghton College from where I had graduated and he was very, very kind as well but I never heard the words, wow you have something special, a gift, etc. I was a flute major in college and thought that I could always do session work in Nashville until... I observed a recording session with Sam Levine who not only played several wind instruments but he was playing all of the music by ear! I had absolutely no inclination or gifting to play by ear - I needed all the notes written out. I also had the opportunity to sit in the audience of the music variety television show called "You Can Be A Star" hosted by Jerry House at the time. I was selected out of the audience (they called it the stairway of the stars) to sing with the house band "The Rose" - my cousin Roger living in Texas actually saw the show - but alas no record contracts were issued and I figured I better just find a real job.
My first job in the music business was as a receptionist for Lorenz Creative Services, a boutique publishing, production and management company. I met record producer Greg Nelson who hired me within a few months to work as his production manager which I did for 6 years. What a privilege it was to work for not only one of the most successful producers in the late 80's but a very successful songwriter as well - People Need The Lord one of many of his songs that are still being sung around the world. One of my roles as production manager was to "screen" songs from the publishers so I got to know many of the songwriters and publishers. Regie Hamm remembers pitching songs to me and that I told him to just keep working on his craft - little did I know the fire that lit under him! And I might add he certainly did work on his craft and has had great success! Dave Clark was one of those songwriters that I got to know really well.
I left Nashville and moved back to New York City for a couple years to get a much needed break from the music business. I got a call from Dave asking if I'd be interested in a publishing position at the company where he was a staff writer. My first response was no as I knew how competitive it was to get songs cut even back then and didn't know if I could handle the rejection! BUT after some great conversations Dave convinced me to at least interview. I flew to Nashville for the interview and was hired to run Benson Music Publishing with absolutely no publishing experience! What a huge learning curve that was as I didn't even know what a mechanical rate was. But I never looked back and have been in creative music publishing ever since. So back to "Swing The Sickle"...I do believe that that song led to the demise of my songwriting career- people just couldn't see the magic!
So here I am in 2010...doing what I know God has been forming in me over the years, and that is the privilege of serving as a Songwriter's Champion, Coach and Connector. I look forward to sharing my journey in future blogs!
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