Palm Sunday Week 2018 - Song Story: "Right There"

About 20 years ago, there happened to be some moments of great pain and difficulty for some of the closest people to my wife Rhonda and I.  There were no easy answers to the situation and really no words that could be said that would make things better.  The wounds and the sorrow of the moment could only be healed by the One who is "the light and life of every soul and my only source of hope." (A Guide To Prayer, Page 136).  But even those words could be considered empty if we don't understand the lengths that the Giver of Light went through to heal the relationship between God and humanity.  Palm Sunday begins what we know as Holy Week.  In this week Jesus would feel and suffer every possible human emotion.  

Palm Sunday, Jesus enters Jerusalem as the loved, conquering hero.  He is cheered and celebrated greater than any Super Bowl winning quarterback or rock star.  Shouts of "Hosanna" (glory, save us, hallelujah, praise the Lord) ring out!  But as tends to happen in this world, people who are bringing great systemic change to the world (what what greater change could there ever be) are torn down by those that want to keep power, keep things the way they are, or simply just don't understand what they are doing.  And so in the next seven days, Jesus goes from the highest of highs, to quiet time with his closest friends (eating a meal with expressions of love and betrayal), to cries and prayers of anguish and loneliness in the garden.  Next would come arrest, false accusations, public scorn and rejection, and death on the cross.  We know what happens on the third day but we will leave that for next week.  

The point of it all is that this is the plan that God put into place from the beginning of time.  The Father, Son and Holy Spirit reintroduces humanity to the love of the creator in a way that says, "I understand, I am with you, I am not distant, I will never leave you, I am right there."  


For our friends, in a moment of prayer and playing along with my guitar, this song "Right There" came out of a "thin place" with God.  There was this great sense that I was to give this song to them as a reminder that, in the midst of ups and downs, moments of feeling major swings from a rock of stability to unstable shaking ground, God is right there.  It's been used in many different ways through many different seasons of our church.  It has been sung much better by different people throughout the years, but for now it is a mix down of live tracks that we recorded years ago, and a demo lead vocal that I have recently recorded.  I hope that in seasons of wounds and healing, sorrows and joys that you are reminded God is Right There!


Click on the link below to get to the song "Right There" on SoundCloud

Free download: Right There

March 1, 2018: Songs for Lent 2018 - New Mercies

So here we are, approaching the third Sunday of Lent, and in the Guide to Prayer book that we use here at CCM, and for churches throughout the world, the theme is “Thirsting For God.”  One of the readings this week is from Henri Nouwen.  In it he says, “Listen to my desire to be with you, to dwell in Your house and to let my whole being be filled with Your presence.”  The season of Lent can inspire us to truly thirst after and have excitement for knowing more about the risen Christ and allowing transformation to happen within us.  To seek out and to realize the new mercies that were made evident for us on the cross and that show up every morning.

I’ve got a new version of my main blog picture on this post here today.  It shows my thisting and zeal as a little kid.  I wanted to chase after and be like my uncles and aunts and in particular when it came to playing guitar, like my uncles Jim and John (I’ve cut off the head of the particular uncle in the picture to protect the bell bottom wearer.)  To me at that young age they had a certain joy and excitement for life, and were just a blast to be around (until the “stop hitting yourself” game went too far).  I just knew, in whatever limited view I really had of their lives, that there was something that felt connected, good, and well... like pure family.

In the season of Lent, God shows the lengths to which he is willing to go to bring His family back together.  The Trinity (Father, Son and Spirit) working together to draw all people, to show new mercies, to help quench the thirst of those longing for relationship, restoration and transformation within the family of God.

I thought I would share a song demo tthat I recorded several years ago called “New Mercies” today.  One of the lines in the bridge says; “Hope springs up this precious morning.  All creation’s been made new.”

I hope you enjoy this free song today!!! 

New Mercies - Free Song