Category Archives: 5 Songs I am Singing

Song is my love language.

You Never Let Go, My Song of the Year

July 16, 20075 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually ThinkJeanie

The song of the year for me has been Matt Redman's "Never Let Go." I was in the middle of a free-fall emotional, physical and spiritual crash last summer the first time I heard Rocky lead it the Sunday Whitewater kicked off at Northern Hills Christian Church last July. I couldn't even sing it. Though many around me were singing with strong conviction, pain-pregnant tears streamed down my face and I could only listen and try to grasp on to the hope of the Psalm 23-based lyrics.

By the time the song reached and boldly declared this refrain, "I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on – There will be an end to these troubles, but until that day comes – still I will praise You, still I will praise You!", I wasn't sure if I could actually see that light, but I knew that nothing – not one circumstance, not the loss and pain I was feeling – would stop me from praising God and giving Him my worship.

I thought, "If this is all I can do, worship Him through these less than ideal days, then that is what I will do."

Many times in the ensuing year, I have joined those aforementioned voices, belting out the great hope: "I will fear no evil for my God is with me, and if my God is with me, whom then shall I fear?" Yes, that Matt Redman definitely wrote the song for that time, for my life.

I didn't realize it until last week when Rocky led that song again at church (it has been awhile), but I was really needing that reminder and the words washed over me and made me amazed, once again, at the goodness of the Lord who just absolutely, never – He just refuses – to let go of me.

"Even when I'm caught in the middle of the storms of this life

I won't look back, I know You are near…

Oh, no, You never let go through the calm and through the storm

Oh, no, You never let go in every high and every low

Oh no, You never let go – You never let of me…"

Still I will praise Him!…Jeanie

NOTE: Hear the song here. This youtube video is a collage of slides some one put together to Matt Redman's recording. They're OK. Personally, I'm just closing my eyes to listen to the words of hope, healing, assurance and promise. By the end I may have my hands raised to heaven and be laughing with joy, who knows? "I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on…"

NOTE TO SELF: Hold on.

John’s Revelation: The Bible Ends with a Flourish!

July 5, 20071 Christ is All, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually ThinkJeanie

In 2004, I did my daily Bible reading from The Message Remix (The Bible in Contemporary Language) by Eugene H. Peterson. I read through the whole Bible once and the New Testament twice that year and got a few sneers that I was in a paraphrase rather than a "true translation," but I'll tell you this: no one I know enjoyed their time in the Bible every single day as much as I did that year! Mr. Eugene Peterson has a great way with words, phrases, and insights!

One thing I really enjoyed was reading the book of The Revelation of Jesus in a whole new light. I have read it for years focusing on the beast and the number of the beast and the White Horse and Rider – trying to figure out what it all means and being a little afraid that I was gonna be the one stupid Christian who didn't discern something right and got "left behind!"

The following is the introductory essay to Revelation from The Message and it inspired me to read this book with a fresh focus on worship. I haven't thrown away the prophetic significance, but I see a whole new kaleidoscope of meaning when I realize that what John was seeing was worship that was out of this world! Consider this explanation of Revelation:

"The Bible ends with a flourish: vision and song, doom and deliverance, terror and triumph. The rush of color and sound, image and energy, leaves us reeling. But if we persist through the initial confusion and read on, we begin to pick up the rhythms, realize the connections, and find ourselves enlisted as participants in a multi-dimensional act of Christian worship.

John of Patmos, a pastor of the late first century, has worship on his mind, is preeminently concerned with worship. The vision, which is The Revelation, comes to him while he is at worship on a certain Sunday on the Mediterranean Island of Patmos. He is responsible for a circuit of churches on the mainland whose primary task is worship. Worship shapes the human community in response to the living God. If worship is neglected or perverted, our communities fall into chaos or under tyranny.

Our times are not propitious for worship. The times never are. The world is hostile to worship. The Devil hates worship. As The Revelation makes clear, worship must be carried out under conditions decidedly uncongenial to it. Some Christians even get killed because they worship.

John's Revelation is not easy reading. Besides being a pastor, John is a poet, fond of metaphor and symbol, image and allusion, passionate in his desire to bring us into the presence of Jesus believing and adoring. But the demands he makes on our intelligence and imagination are well rewarded, for in keeping company with John, our worship of God will almost certainly deepen in urgency and joy."

Eugene H. Peterson, The Message//Re-mix, emphasis, mine

Read The Revelation again (a little light, summer reading,), but read it like a worshiper and let it shape your response to our living and loving God!

He is so worthy of our praise – Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: You, LORD, are worthy of my worship, but may my worship be pleasing to You. You are my Light and my Salvation, You who have blood-washed the sin from my life and called me out of darkness into Your glorious light. You and You alone are holy, righteous and true. Take all the honor, LORD, all the blessing, all the glory – they are Yours. Today, I want to sing along with the mass voices of heaven, salvation and glory and honor and power, Yours forever. "The reason I live is to worship You…"

Now to Live the Life

June 29, 20071 Christ is All, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Thinkmatt redman, prayerJeanie

The song I am singing today by one of my favorite psalmists, Matt Redman.

Many are the words we speak

Many are the songs we sing

Many kinds of offerings

But now to live the life

Help us live the life

All we want to do is bring you something real

Bring You something true

We hope that – Precious are the words we speak

We pray that – Precious are the songs we sing

Precious all these offerings

But now to live the life

Help us live the life

All we want to do is bring you something real

Bring You something true

Blessings today…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: I read this today: “The conviction of the truth of Scripture will lead us to live in a manner consistent with this truth.” Make it so in me, Lord.

YES!

June 23, 20071 Christ is All, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually ThinkJeanie

Last summer I attended the very first partners and prayer support team meeting for the fledgling Worship and the Word Movement ministry in which my son-in-law, Dave, and daughter, Tara, were embarking. God has opened all sorts of doors for them in the ensuing year. In 2 days, they leave for Orlando, where they will lead worship and teach at Life 2007 to 10,000 students. Good things are happening.

And I reflect on it because at the gathering last summer, Dave and Tara led a song Dave had written called, "Yes" (CD by the same title to be released in September) I had never heard it and I was in a really, really difficult time of my life and to tell you the truth, I couldn't sing it. It seemed at the time I had nothing to say "yes" to (I've written about this previously here and here). I looked around the barn on this beautiful summer evening and saw all these sincere faces with pure hearts, steadfast in their commitment to follow Jesus no matter what and they sang, "Yes!" And I couldn't. I felt like God had taken everything from me there was to say "yes" to and that I alone had nothing to throw myself into.

With bittersweet tears shooting out, I said to a couple of my kids, "What? I am suppose to say 'yes' to rest? What is that?"

I'm telling you this by way of confession because I hope you know that it wasn't true that I had nothing to say "yes" to. I hope you know that I was placing myself in a pity-puddle of the refusal to accept pause and rest as gift. And I am confessing this in case you are reading and feeling the same. Make your list and come out of the fog. Wait until the house is empty and start yelling, "YES!" into the air and refuse to believe the enemy lie that there is nothing more.

Here's my list: yes to being Dave's wife, friend, lover, bride; yes to grandparenting Gavin and Guini and Hunter and now Gemma; yes to the friendship and "being there" and mothering, still, the grown kids God blessed me with; yes to blessing the parents who raised me; yes to hanging in there with friends and pursuing life-giving relationships; yes to loving my neighbors and figuring out how that really works; yes to consuming His Words, like honey to my lips; yes to pressing in to really know God; and yes to laying down my desires, wants amd wishes – He must increase, I must decrease. Yes!

The days are coming: "Things are going to happen so fast your head will swim, one thing fast on the heels of the other. You won't be able to keep up. Everything will be happening at once – and everywhere you look, blessings! Blessings like wine pouring off the mountains and hills….God, your God says so." Amos 9.13-15 The Message

YES! What promise! Somewhere along the way, hope re-ignited. I came across this in my early 2007 journaling:

Yes to You, Lord

Yes to Your will

Yes to Your plan

Yes to the process, regardless of how long it will take (a lifetime, Lord?)

Yes to the pain of this purification

Yes to the price (because it costs everything)

Yes.

I love that "Yes" song now and sing my head off whenever Dave and Tara lead it. "Yes, yes, yes, yes…"

Yes is better. Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: This quote by Dag Hammarskjold seems appropriate here: "For all that has been, Thanks! To all that shall be, Yes!"

The cross

April 8, 20071 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Thinkchildlike faith, easter, grandbebes, jesus, the crossJeanie

I already knew that for Easter, I wanted to talk a little about the cross because of this beautiful photograph my great friend, Amy Jo Becker, recently took. One foggy morning in late March on her way to work, she spied this display near 120th & Sheridan in Westminister, CO (Victory Church) and thought to capture it for us all to ponder.

Even now, 2000 years after Jesus’ death on the cross, this representation evokes such such gratefulness and awe in my heart.

Childlike faith…

Imagine my delight when, this past Thursday, Gavin, my 3-year-old grandson, ran into the kitchen, suddenly dropped to his knees on the tile floor and began to exclaim, “Look, Nonna, it’s God…it’s Jesus!”

I thought for a split second we were going to have to open our house for tours because it seemed he had discovered an Easter miracle on my floor. I just hoped it wasn’t the form of Jesus in a sticky dirt spot or something for all the world to see. But then I watched him as he took his finger and traced between the ceramic tiles, first up and down, then side to side: he drew a cross.

How excited, I can tell you, a nonna becomes when she realizes her toddler grandson has become aware of the cross of Jesus Christ, something one writer called “the dividing symbol of all history.”

Then Gavin and I went around the house and looked for the cross anywhere we could find it: between the panels on doors, on my old school-house window coffee table. He excitedly “discovered” my cross collection and became especially excited by my very small replica of the “Christ the Redeemer” statue which stands high on the Corcovado Mountain in Rio de Janeiro. “It’s God! It’s Jesus! It’s the cross!” Gavin would squeal with every new discovery, exhibiting more understanding than many full-grown Christians, I thought.

A little later, Gavin came out of the bathroom having found on a shelf the beautiful tiled cross my friend Marilyn had given me and reverently showed me his “find.” He carried that cross around with him for the rest of his visit while he played.

Max says it so well…The Cross by Max Lucado

It rests on the timeline of history like a compelling diamond.

It’s tragedy summons all sufferers. Its absurdity attracts all cynics.

It’s hope lures all searchers. History has idolized and despised it,

gold-plated and burned it, worn it and trashed it. History has done

everything but ignore it. How could you? How could you ignore such

a piece of lumber? Suspended on its beams is the greatest claim

in history. A crucified carpenter claiming to be GOD on earth.

Divine. Eternal. The Death-Slayer. Never has timber been regarded

so sacred. No wonder the Apostle Paul called The Cross event the

core of The Gospel (1 Cor. 15.3-5). Its bottom line is

sobering: if the account is true, it’s history’s hinge. Period.

If not, The Cross is history’s hoax.

As you ponder Christ on the Cross, what are your thoughts?…

The cross stands against the skyline of all time as the greatest symbol of the central fact of Christianity – the death of Jesus Christ in our place. Yes, He died. Yes, He was buried. But that is only a part of the good news. He didn’t stay on that cross, He rose from death, and oh – what was won in that victory for me – for me!

It’s God! It’s Jesus! It’s the cross! Yaaaay!!!

Joyous blessings to you today as we celebrate a risen Savior, Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: See the cross. Ponder it. Understand it. Thank God for it. Sing some Matt Redman: You led me to the cross and I saw the face of mercy in that place of love…Now that I’m living in Your all-forgiving love, my every road leads to the cross..

To My Valentine

February 14, 20072 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Thinkdave, love and marriage, valentines dayJeanie

Happy Valentine’s Day, David Allen Rhoades, the love of my life!

You have been a wonderful friend and lover and husband and now an incredible grandfather, too. I sang you a song for Valentine’s Day ~~(click the link below)~~. In retrospect, I should’ve picked something a little easier, perhaps with more like a 3-note range?… I am definately not “up to” a Broadway tune, but it is done now – for all to know:

I will never leave you. I know you too well (through all of life’s stages) to let you go. My head and heart are full of our memories, our life – things no one else can ever share. I love you, Dave.

Be mine forever! Jeanie

SONG FOR DAVE: ~~valentine-for-dave.mp3 link broken~~

“It’s hard to love a CD…it’s easy to love an LP”

January 17, 20075 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually ThinkBob George, collections, LPs, music, records, vinylsJeanie

Of COURSE I own this album!

Bob George, album collector extraordinaire – I think I love you! I finally found some one as tech-savvy (NOT) – as me!

All you ipodders – here is your chance to learn a little about the past. I have a stack of about five and half feet of vinyls. The guy on this 3-minute video has a few more. But he got me to thinking: I wonder what my copy of Faith Bible Chapel’s Youth Choir 1974 would go for? Hmmmm…. Check it out:

~~http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=ae4482b5b3c41e1e8663af3630ff4020.1511812&cache=1~~ [update: link no longer valid]

UPDATED INFO: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/nyregion/08records.html?_r=0

“It’s hard to love a CD…it’s easy to love an LP” -Bob George, smart man and record collector

Blessings! Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Pull out Carole King’s “Tapestry” album this week. Turn up the Hi-Fi and sing like the kid I was when I first heard it. “I feel the earth move under my feet….”

…and some mistletoe

December 12, 20063 Celebrations & Festive Events, 5 Songs I am Singing, 7 Keep Christmas, Stuff I Actually Thinkchristmas, christmas music, coffee, starbucksJeanie

In my last post I blathered about the sacred songs of Christmas (which I L O V E !). I thought of another I love singing. It isn’t sacred, but it is classic (hey, I am spirit and soul!). This one says:

“Everybody knows a turkey…”

Sure, I know a turkey. I know several. I bet you do, too. But it’s Christmas, so let’s just let them be. Let’s let them be who they are and just try to have some peace on earth and goodwill towards men (and turkeys).

AND – guess what!?? Just as I was preparing to post my last entry (“Let heavan and Nature Sing), my daughter, Stephanie, brought me a nice, hot Starbuck’s coffee. And can you believe what I read on the cup? It seems Starbucks and I are on the same page about this Christmas singing. Really the only difference between me and Starbucks is a few billion dollars, but, you know, other than that…

Here is what the cup actually said:

“Singing solo on busy streets attracts a few strange looks. Join a group and suddenly harmonies tour the neighborhood, playing to packed houses nightly.”

How can you beat coffee house wisdom?

Blessings, Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: Perhaps gathering a few friends and my very talented family and singing in a group for Christmas would be fun. We could call it “Christmas caroling!” Novel, eh? ;)

Let heaven and nature sing

December 12, 20063 Celebrations & Festive Events, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, 7 Keep Christmas, Stuff I Actually Thinkchristmas, christmas carols, christmas music, christmas songsJeanie

One of my favorite things about the Christmas season when I was a child was sitting in a dim room with only the lights of the tree twinkling and I’d sing all the Christmas carols I knew. I had no idea at the time that I wasn’t just singing songs about the Christmas season, but I was actually being impacted with spiritual truth about God’s great gift to us.

While my own kids were growing up, even though it could be challenging to get a spare moment, I would still find an evening or two to myself to do the same. It was good to find peace during the season’s rush, in a light-quiet room, to sing truth, to just sing myself into joy.

These days you could do brain surgery from the glow of our 12-foot tree, due to the 6000 lights Dave loves to add. But stealing time to sit there and sing is a priority for my Christmas joy-quest. I love Christmas carols!

This past weekend as I waited in line for some hot chocolate and caramel corn in a tiny and extremely crowded establishment full of holiday shoppers, an older gentleman behind the counter was singing his head off. No piped music for him. He just reared back and proclaimed, “Silent night, holy night…,” and then, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come...”

How unusual, how risky and politically incorrect in these days, and yet, not one person there seemed offended or got out of the very long line to leave the store. Because it was “Christmas music,” it was OK. How cool is that? Even if they have never heard those songs before (and I bet they have), seeds were sown that afternoon into shopper’s hearts. And as year follows year and season follows season and they hear them again and again, that beautiful truth will continue to be declared as an inescapable testimony (no matter how far they may be from Christ) – those seeds remain, ready to spring up!

I love Christmas carols!

In the Old Testament God told Moses, “Now write down this song and teach it.” So Moses recorded a very lengthy song God gave to him and he taught it to the Israelite people. They sang it. Moses instructed the people to take all the words of the song to heart saying,

“These are not just idle words, these are your life.”

God knew and Moses knew that a song can impact your heart and memory like nothing else can. When you consider some of the rich, spiritual truths found in Christmas carols (and I sing them a lot, so I have!), you can see that the joyous messages contained in them are life-giving. Consider these incredible truths. Better yet- sing them:

“Son of God, love’s pure light” Jesus is the light of the world.

“Let every heart, prepare Him room”

“God is not dead, nor does He sleep” Bing Crosby does a great job of declaring this important message.

“Born that men no more may die”

“O, come let us adore Him” What an invitation to personal worship.

“God rest ye…let nothing you dismay” Because Jesus was born, we get rest, rest! “…to save us all from Satan’s power.” Sin’s terrible grip is broken, rest. “O, tidings of comfort and joy…,” rest.

And who hasn’t heard Mariah Carey on KOSI 101 belting out, “And in His Name, all oppression shall cease!” ?

Right now, for these brief few days, we don’t have to feel sheepish or guilty about what Christmas has become, but we can be the most joyous celebrants around.

I think we should all stand in shopping lines and sing Christmas carols and make people smile…or think we’re weird, but at least plant the seeds of truth in a song that will stay in their heads.

Do it. Sing a carol in a music-less place. I will if you will! Let me know how it goes!!!