There Is a Fountain
It sounds gory and archaic. But it sums up the message of the Bible.
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
And sinners plunged beneath its flood lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.
This old hymn says what many Christians don't like to say: It states the unglamourous truth that sacrifice had to be made to satisfy God's wrath against sin. In this day and age, the word "sin" is subject to all manner of redefinition. But it remains true that the human soul has an emptiness that aches for something beyond this life, and a sense of guilt that longs for a resolution to wrongs done.
It's up to us whether we place our trust in Christ's substitution for us.
Click to listen to There is a Fountain.Labels: Music, Podcasts
How Firm a Foundation
Many waters cannot quench love,
Nor will rivers overflow it....
~Song of Solomon 8:7
This week's podcast (yes, there finally is one!) is dedicated to my friend Tamara and her family. Tam's husband passed away of cancer this spring. I had started uploading and mixing these tracks already when I visited her blog. As I finished the sound engineering, I thought of their family. It's easy to think words like these turn out true when we watch others suffer loss and hardship; it's much harder in the midst of many waters. (2 Samuel 22:17-20)
Tam, here's a June song for you.
How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word.
What more can He say than to you He has said--
To you, who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
"Fear not, I am with you, oh, be not dismayed;
For I am your God, I will still give you aid.
I'll strengthen you, help you and cause you to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand."
"When through the deep waters I call you to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow
For I will be with you, your trials to bless,
And sanctify to you your deepest distress."
"The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose
I will not, I will not desert to her foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake."
Click to listen to How Firm a Foundation.Labels: Music, Podcasts
How Deep a Love
today's podcaster: Cat, Lazy Creek ZookeeperOkay, well, I haven't played guitar in at least 15 years. That is to say, I taught myself back in junior high. But there is a story to the guitar, if not much of one to its owner's track record.
This guitar was my grandfather's. It's a Takamine C-128 from the late 1970s or early 80s, back when I was too little to know the date it was built. My father has the identical one. A quick walk around the internet will tell you they sell for around $200 USD on eBay, but the musicians who buy them say they play like a $1000 instrument.
Not under my fingers. However, it's still a beautiful instrument. Whenever I pick it up, I have to smile a little, because my grandfather never took to it. He preferred his old beater, a warp-necked thing that couldn't be tuned to itself, but to which his hands had become fitted over the years.
Guitars are a staple in my family. We grew up with them, and all of us know how to pluck a few chords and tunes. When I think guitar, I think of my childhood, my home, and the unique love and harmony that exists across the varying beliefs and perspectives among my loved ones.
In love for each other, we've chosen to stick by each other. Making the other person more important than yourself is what holds people together. My family's not perfect (whose is?), but this is something they're good at.
On that note, I decided to arrange
Stuart Townend's How Deep the Father's Love For Us. I apologize for the beginnerish quality - maybe you'll be able to track my progress from this point on, if I get motivated to keep at it.
How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure,
That He should give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure.....
How deep the pain of searing loss - the Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One bring many sons to glory.
It was my sin that held Him there until it was accomplished;
His dying breath has brought me life - I know that it is finished.
I will not boast in anything - no gifts, no power, no wisdom,
But I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection.
Click to listen to How Deep The Father's Love For Us.Labels: Music, Podcasts
Nothing But The Blood
"What can take away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus."
Those well-worn words of a children's hymn sound almost trite, but they pose some major points to consider.
First, what is sin? The old archery term means to miss the mark. The Bible equates the word with the term "trespass" - to go without permission on someone else's property. In this case, the property is God's. Another term is "transgress" - to cross a boundary or break a law. Yet another is "iniquity," which is to say, being unequal in our judgement.
The word assumes there are ultimate spiritual laws, boundaries, goals and justice, things which people don't define by their own opinions. Not a popular idea these days.
Then there's the second half of the phrase - "nothing but the blood of Jesus." It seems straightforward, but most religious denominations tack subtext onto it.
It may be, "Nothing but the blood of Jesus, which causes my water baptism to be effective for the removal of sin."
It may be, "Nothing but the blood of Jesus, through which my good deeds have a chance of earning heaven, whereas a non-believer never could."
Or it may be, "Nothing but the blood of Jesus, which obligates me to follow certain rules."
Actually, none of those are in the song lyric, because they're not in the Bible.
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow,
No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Here, with his very own original solo arrangement for euphonium, is 11-year-old Spazzerific.
Click to listen to Nothing But the Blood.
Labels: Music, Podcasts
Blessed Assurance
It's late, but we do have a music podcast this week. This is an on-the-fly retake of the old Fanny Crosby standard
Blessed Assurance. Enjoy, and happy weekend!
Click here to listen to Improv on Blessed Assurance.Labels: Music, Podcasts
Getting Unlost
Today's podcaster: Cat, Lazy Creek ZookeeperAfter attending a large gathering to sing religious songs, I came away discouraged and distressed. It seemed strange to be in a room full of people I knew, watching them sing songs about teachings I knew many of them didn't agree with or live by. I have no problem being in a room full of people with different concepts of God, as long as everyone feels free to be honest about it. But one major problem I have with the church culture is the enforcement of "nicey-pie" syndrome.
This simply means that people are expected to pretend they agree for the sake of looking like they get along. Not getting along is being a bad Christian. It doesn't matter whether we really get along, as long as we try to make the rest of the world think we do.
It feels like a form of fraud. It is pure public relations, intended to deflect criticism of the Christian religion rather than honestly deal with the obvious conflicts and problems. The world is not fooled, either.
I think we can do better than that. I believe in a God who is a person, not just a force or a part of the universe's fabric. I think this God is required by simple logic to be infinitely everything - infinite love, infinite justice, infinite reasonableness. Infinite relationship.
I think this God gives us answers to our problems, answers that are infinitely smarter than what we come up with. We're free to choose His thoughts or our thoughts. But we usually choose our ways, because the cost of fixing things is to give up pride in our religious accomplishments, our comfort, our self-assurance. The cost is to give up our cherished ideas and beliefs, and to believe instead in God and in His ideas. His definition of Himself.
I get in trouble whenever I bring up this matter. Not from the rest of the world, which often expresses the same sentiments about the state of Christianity. No, I get shushed by Christians.
But I'm not a "Christian." I don't come from a church background. All I am is a believer in God as revealed in the Bible. And I must say, I don't like being judged on the assumption that I'm "judging others" out of some kind of arrogance or lack of love.
So, on Sunday evening after that religious concert, I sat down and talked out my feelings. I wanted to make my actual tone heard, not just my words. Here's a little bit of the story of how I came to believe the things I now believe.
Click to listen to How To Get Unlost.Labels: Podcasts, Talk
Podcast En Espanol
The kids learned this song from their Auntie several years ago, and they've been singing it ever since. They love singing in different languages.
Happy Saturday, everybody!
Click here to listen to "I Have a Friend/Yo Tengo Un Amigo"Labels: Music, Podcasts
My God Has But One Heart
Since we were very busy this past week with the kids' dance exams, we didn't have time to pull together a recorded song. Instead, we're sharing some sheet music with you. (We hope to have a recorded podcast later in the week.)
The ideas in this song were inspired by an A.W. Tozer book,
The Attributes of God. Tozer writes:
We educated Americans can create gods just the same as the heathen can. You can make a god out of silver or wood or stone - or you can make it out of your own imagination. And the god that's being worshiped in many places is simply a god of imagination.
....God is not only good; God is severe. Romans 11:22 tells us about the severity of God: "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God." ... He has said, "I'll allow you, within a little framework, to be your own boss and to choose to go to heaven or to hell."
Those words can sound so harsh, misguided and irrelevant! But perhaps there's more to the idea than the first impression.
We've all encountered stories of human atrocity that offend our limited sense of justice so deeply that we wish death (or even eternal torment) on the offender. Crimes against children come to mind - and atrocities of war, and deliberate, willful abuses of great amounts of power.
And yet to depose one fallible person in favour of another, however much the new authority is set on righting wrongs, only seems to create another cycle of failure and injustice.
One could argue that humanity is not inherently capable of perfect goodness. But if every act of good is also an act of evil, either by omission or commission, where does that leave us?
We see the same pattern playing out on a smaller scale in our own daily lives. What does this mean for each of us as individuals?
Tozer also writes:
Justice is not something that God has. Justice is something that God is.... Nothing ever requires God to do anything. If you have a god who is required to do anything, then you have a weak god who has to bow his neck to some yoke and yield himself to pressure from the outside. Then justice is bigger than God. But that is to think wrongly.
External justice stands there as a law and says, "That man shall die," but mercy says, "Please, please spare him!"
But to think thus of God is to think wrongly of God. Everything that God is and does harmonizes with everything else that God is and does....
....God's justice and God's mercy do not quarrel with each other.
There is a deeper morality than human morality, one which recognizes a personal inability to be fully moral - not just that this is a fact of being human, but that it goes against God's character to be that way, and that God is in no way required to sympathize with us in the face of our failure.
Yet He does. He chooses to. And He chooses His own way of doing it, not subject to our demands, desires or flawed attempts to re-imagine His nature.
Hebrews 4:14-16
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.
God is free to create His own solution to the problems of the universe and to work it out in His own way. Nothing external to Him requires Him to act in a certain way - certainly not the preconceptions of we who are so out of tune with His character. God is God, infinite.
This, however, is only the first part of the story. For the rest, we'll leave you with the song.
Click here to get the PDF sheet music for My God Has But One Heart.
Labels: Music, Podcasts
EasterCast
Happy Easter! We're giving the new, improved Faith Roots site a semi-official kick-off with a family Easter concert. We have nine songs for you today.
The Program Notes are available here.And now, on with the festivities! This weekend, we have original piano music, a jazz hymn or two, more of the kids and their parts singing, and a couple of brave solos from their hapless parents. We have everything from bluegrass to classical to a cappella. We are very enthusiastic, if not very polished!
We apologize if we don't sound like professionals; it's because we're not. We just do this stuff for fun, and to be honest, we're a little out of practice lately. Hope you enjoy it anyway!
To listen to the whole podcast as one file, click here.I haven't been able to verify the full file, due to problems with my slow connection. If it doesn't work, we also have each of the songs individually linked, below.
Here's the song that inspired the PodcastFest here at Lazy Creek:
Click to listen to the kids sing Hiding From the StormAnd the rest of our family concert:
Click to hear Jesus, Lover of My Soul (instrumental)Click to hear Peace Like a River (bluegrass)Click to hear Piano Meditation (instrumental)Click to hear What a Friend We Have in Jesus (jazz)Click to hear In the Shadow of Your Wings (gospel hymn)Click to hear Schroeder's Amazing Grace (instrumental)Click to hear Rock of Ages (bluegrass instrumental)Click to hear Jesus Loves Me (gospel hymn)
Labels: Music, Podcasts
