Music
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Now I Can See
by Andy Rupert 1 – The disciples and Jesus were passing a manWho had never been able to seeWas this the result of the parents or manWho had sinned so egregiously? Je-sus responded and had to explainThat the fault was from neither of thoseIn God’s perfect mind this misfortune was plannedTo showcase the good works that He chose With hope for the man Jesus spat on the groundand mixed it with dirt to make clayWhen applied to the eyes of the suffering manTo the pool he was soon sent away When the clay was removed the man’s eyes had been healedHis reaction was filled with such blissAs he smiled with…
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The Soldier in Armor
by Andy Rupert The soldier who fought in battles galoreAnd was known for his valiant standWas constantly looking for dangers abroadAs he finally returned to the land But having returned with his life now at easeAnd his family and friends all around himThey slowly convinced him that what he had fearedWas now just a memory behind him But when he relaxed and forgot ‘bout the dangerThe enemy quickly assembledThe soldier who’d always protected the peopleNo longer a hero resembled The lesson to learn from this soldier in armorWho forgot that the danger was thereIs to always be ready and watch like a sentryDon’t sit back but always prepare
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What God Will Do
As the Word was proclaimed and the Spirit ledWere their eyes full of hope as their spirit was fedIn the end will their soul be brought back from the deadNow we wait for what God will do When they came to the church how we hoped they’d stayWould they hear what God said or walk quickly awayHow we’d prayed for each soul who had come here that dayNow we wait for what God will do Some will leave some will stay we may not know whySo we preach so we pray and we always must tryFor eternity looms on the day that they dieNow we wait for what God will…
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I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
The above rendition of “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” was recorded by the gold medal winning barbershop quartet, Instant Classic. They do a nice job with the harmonies. However, there is something missing. The verses used in the recording almost give you the idea that some church bells changed his mind and now the world will be at peace. Is that what Longfellow intended to convey with the original words? Take a look at the longer version of the poem and you will see that the author was very clear where this peace would come from. I heard the bells on Christmas dayTheir old familiar carols play;In music…
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Music and Separation from the World
“Greatly facilitating the secularization of church music has been the general erasing or at least the blurring of the lines of separation from the world among Christians in general. A Christian who sees nothing wrong with ‘acting’ like the world is not likely to see anything wrong with ‘sounding’ like the world.” –Danny M. Sweatt in Church Music: Sense and Nonsense
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Memory of a Special Guitar Player
It will not come as a surprise that my favorite guitar player is Per-Olov Kindgren. His music is beautiful and often sooths my soul. However, this evening, I am thinking of another guitar player whose music has made an impact on my life. I learned recently that Ron Hamilton (affectionately known as Patch the Pirate) is on his death bed. Some of you might not know him. But he has been a prolific song writer of conservative Christian music for about 50 years. His wife shared that he wrote just short of 1000 songs in his lifetime. Many of them were written to be accompanied by his guitar. One of…
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Is this what we want for our Christian college students?
Someone told me that Cedarville University had removed some professors because of their bad theology. Others have praised the school for its good teaching and professors. I have to admit that I was skeptical about the university due to what I had experienced in the past. When my wife and I visited the school in the early 2000’s to see a Christian college student compete in a national Cross Country meet, the dinner afterward was accompanied by rock music over the speaker system. I also heard from a previous Cedarville student who bragged about blasting secular rock music in the dormitory about that same time period. You may have noticed…
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Have you ever wondered?
Have you ever wondered what your pastor does when nobody is in the church building? Besides removing bugs from the carpet in the entryway or cleaning the bathrooms, he may be praying for you, thinking through his sermon notes, or just meditating on some Scripture passage. But there are other times when the quietness of the sanctuary might be broken by him singing or playing music. When I have unlocked the church doors and gotten everything ready, I usually take out my guitar and play through the sheet music in my guitar case. If you were to look through the mess of papers in there, you would find a hand…
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Hymn: On Zion’s Glorious Summit
I grew up in a church that had a good music program. On Sunday evenings, Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell played the piano and organ to accompany our hymn singing. I learned to sing bass by listening to the organ’s low notes and to this day can pick out the bass part with little trouble. (Sadly, what I can sing and what can be heard are two separate entities.) This beautiful hymn was written many years ago by an English shipwright by the name of John Kent (1766-1843). Hymnary.org says that, “as a working shipwright his opportunities for acquiring the education and polish necessary for the production of refined verse were…
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Valentine’s Day 2019 – You Make Me Smile
Classical guitarist Per-Olov Kindgren‘s music inspired me to write these words. His beautiful composition, Xièxiè, is a melancholy tune which made me think of the emotions felt between a man and a woman. You can watch Kindgren’s original performance of the piece in the video below:
