Miracles

This past Monday, my wife, Katie, and I found out that God is blessing us with a baby boy. His name is going to be Levi Joseph (God has joined together in harmony and will increase). As I sat watching the ultrasound I thought about the miracle of birth. How so many things have to go right at every stage. How the female body adapts to having a whole other person inside of it. How the baby's body grows and matures as the weeks go by.

 

There are some that say miracles no longer occur. I say they are fools. There are 6 billion people on earth right now because of 6 billion miracles.

 

Not only is our first birth a miracle, but our rebirth as well. That the Holy Spirit can change my heart and mold my life according to the purpose of the Lord is nothing short of miraculous.

 

How many miracles have you seen this week, this month, this year?

Psalm 23

So...we arrive at the most well known psalm of all. This was a hard one to write in a way though God was good in gifting me with the idea. I wanted to use the whole psalm (I normally use a a few verses that I find key or that speak personally to me), and I wanted to write something that was in my own style (so many people have written songs to this psalm that I wanted to make sure I did my own). I went back to my roots with just me and my piano on this one. Happy Easter to all!

Click here to listen

Lyrics:

You are my shepherd, I shall not want
You make me lie down in green pastures
You lead me beside still waters
You restore my soul.
You guide me in paths of righteousness
You guide me in paths for Your Name's sake
Even though I walk through shadows of death
Through shadows of death
You are with me.
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me
You prepare me a table before mine enemies
You anoint my head with oil
My cup runneth o'er, my cup runneth o'er
Surely goodness, love and mercy
Follow me through all my life and I
Will dwell with You forever, forever
Forevermore.

Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Easter Song

So here's a really quick version of Easter Song. Just putting this up on the site so those on our Modern Team can listen to it. I'll eventually be redoing this with the full band sound. I'm not one for remaking songs but back about three years ago, there was a request of me to have this song played during Easter. I wasn't a big fan of this song to begin with but there are great versions (look up Keith Green) and super cheesy/campy versions (look up Glad). I am not a big fan of remakes unless you make it your own so I completely redid the chorus to modernize it a little bit. Please note I do not take credit for writing this song. That honor belongs to Anne Herring.

Click here to listen

Lyrics:

Verse 1: Hear the bells ringing
They're singing that we can be born again
Hear the bells ringing
They're singing Christ is risen from the dead

Bridge: The angel upon the tombstone said
He is risen just as He said
Quickly now go tell His disciples
That Jesus Christ is no longer dead

Chorus: Joy to the world
He's the risen Lord, we sing alleluia
Joy to the world
He's the risen Lord, we sing alleluia

You Are God

So I realized I haven't posted anything in almost a month. Tsk, tsk. I'm going to spend some time recording this weekend I think, so keep an eye out for at least one new song. Well, here's another older recording of a piano song I wrote called "You Are God". I don't usually have an intent when I begin writing a song; it usually kind of writes itself. However, with this one I wanted to write something so simple and easy to remember that people wouldn't have a hard time with the melody and/or lyrics. Two of my models for this song were "Isn't He Beauitful?" and "I Love You Lord"...simple songs that everyone knows and loves. Anyway, many thanks to Deb Acker for doing the lead vocal.

Click here to listen

Lyrics:

Verse 1: You are God
You and only You
Praise be to You, O God

Verse 2: You saved me
You and only You
Praise be to You, O God

Chorus: For You alone are He
That makes my life complete
And I long to be with You, God

Verse 3: I will follow You
You and only You
Praise be to You, O God

Psalm 4

So it's been a while since I've been able to post any music. Who know that preparing for a baby would take so much work. Anyway, I found some old recordings I did about two years ago. I'll eventually re-record all of them but thought I'd upload them for some fun. This is one that we've played a lot in our Modern Service. A good full band song with lots of energy. Thanks to Rob McCreight for drumming.

Click here to listen

Lyrics:

Verse: Answer me when I call to You, O God
Give the peace I need to carry on
I offer a sacrifice of praise that's true
I put my trust, my faith, my hope in You

Pre-Chorus: You have filled my heart with greater joy
More than earthly things can do
I lay down and sleep in peace, O Lord
In a peace that comes from You.

Chorus: Let the light of Your face shine upon us
Let Your mercy and grace reign down
Let the light of Your face shine upon us
Let Your mercy and grace surround me

Psalm 4:1, 5, 7 & 8: "Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer. Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

God Knows Our Deepest Desires

Just a word of encouragement to anyone out there that might be experiencing some struggles.

 

I've been discovering lately that God has given me exactly what I have asked for. It has not been in the way that I expected, the way that I planned or the way that I desired. But He has been faithful to me and He will continue to bless me with what I need. It may not come in the neat little package that I've asked Him for, but it WILL come. Thank You Lord.

Integrity

Some of you might know that I am a huge sports fan, especially when it comes to college basketball. On Sunday, Pastor Ron taught about maintaining integrity. He used several sporting examples of a lack of integrity (Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl, Auburn quarterback Cam Newton, NBA ref Tim Donaghy). I wanted to share a story about the BYU basketball program. Now I know that the people involved believe some very different things than I do, but I still think we can learn a lesson.

 

For those that don't follow college basketball, BYU has a very good team this year. They whooped up on the U of A when they played early in the season, they have a national player of the year candidate in Jimmer Fredette and recently reached #3 in the rankings. But a couple of days ago, they dismissed their leading rebounder for violation of the school's honor code. It was just announced today that it was because the player had premarital sex with his girlfriend. You see, BYU makes every student, athlete or not, sign a covenant stating they will be abstinent (students are also not allowed to do drugs, drink alcohol or caffeine among other things). The student owned up to it, apologized to his teammates and is not appealing any action by the school at this point.

 

The thing that struck me was the school's response to this whole ordeal. They immediately removed the player from the team...a player that could be argued was their second most important...no questions asked...in the middle of a national championship caliber season. The landscape of college basketball and sports in general currently is to kowtow to the athletes. DUIs, drug charges and domestic abuse occur frequently and teams continue to let their players play so their team's record is not affected. A college baseball player was recently allowed to continue his run at the consecutive game hit streak record even though he has rape charges currently in the Bahamas (I'm happy to say, he fell 2 games short).

 

What set BYU apart from all of this? It was Pastor Ron's second point in his conclusion. True integrity is not influenced by circumstances. Many other schools would have kept it internal and withheld disciplinary action or at least waited until season's end. But they didn't. They did the right thing even when it truly hurt. How do we apply that? Psalm 15:4b says that one of the criteria for those worthy to live in God's sanctuary is to keep his oath even when it hurts. It's easy to have integrity on a sunny day, but it means so much more when we maintain it through the storm.

 

Hoss