Series - 7 - "Jerusalem"

16 August 2012 at 00:55

I first heard this song on the Gaithers' Toronto Homecoming video. I saw the video in 2006.

The idea of "going home", which the Homecoming videos capture, came very vividly to me in this particular song. It was significant for a number of reasons.

In 2005, my mother took a trip to Jerusalem. I thought she was overdoing it a bit - I thought, like many of us Christians still think today, what could really be left to see in the rubble of that ancient city? Besides, is God really tied to a piece of land on earth?

The song got me thinking, though. I guess it had been building for a while - this deep, aching longing to find out what exactly God was doing in choosing Jerusalem. The words of the song also brought a very deep, soothing balm to my soul, to be honest - Jerusalem... I want to walk your streets that are golden....and I want to run where the angels have trod.....Jerusalem....I want to rest on the banks of your river...in that city...City of God!  I remember, a bit later, looking at the panoramic photo that Wikipedia has of Jerusalem, and being deeply attracted. Why is this city such a flashpoint in our world today? God chose Jerusalem; but today the Muslims and the Jews are holding the world to ransom about this very piece of land......what gives?? There's got to be something there...simply CANNOT be mere coincidences !!!

I read through its post-70 AD history, eagerly finding out how many hands it had changed after that, this City of God. Its history is nothing short of unique. I began to ask, does God still care what happens to this city He chose for Himself?

I found out He does care very deeply; after all, it still is His City; and His choice is irrevocable. In 2009 (or thereabouts) I read Derek Prince's book Promised Land and became a fervent Zionist. I then madly went through the Bible, seeking out all the restoration promises and was nothing short of amazed to discover how specifically they were worded and how ardently the prophets (including Jesus Himself) spoke about it; and how the Jews wait for this more eagerly than "for the watching of the dawn."

Promised Land is a unique book; Derek Prince writes firsthand because he was in Jerusalem at the time it was divided by the British and he and his family had to face the horrors of partition. I eagerly learned about the emergence of the state of Israel in 1948, and the wars that followed, especially the Six-Day War in 1967. I was absolutely thrilled to discover that in 1967, the Jews got hold of the most important part of Jerusalem - the Temple Mount, for the first time since 70 AD when the city had been sacked by Roman general Titus' army. It had taken 1997 years!!! I was amazed. Was God fulfilling the restoration prophecies?

Today I am not a Zionist; I no longer believe that the present nation of Israel that is on the map even begins to fulfill any of the restoration prophecies; I believe this nation is no better (or worse) than any other nation that is on the map today - they certainly are no different from any other nation. They are just about as violent, self-seeking, bloodthirsty as any other nation. The restoration of the TRUE nation of ISRAEL has not yet begun.

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No matter. I also pleasantly (and very significantly) found out that though the true NATION may not exist yet, God still cares about the place Zion. It is still His chosen land, and He will redeem it when He sees fit:

1 For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

3 And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

 - Joel 3:1-3

So my mother was RIGHT to go to see this place God had chosen for Himself!!! How dare I think He would revoke His choice!!!!

Since then, I have been anxious to find out every bit I can about the status of ownership of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It is now, of course, owned by a Muslim Waqf board and the Dome of the Rock still stands. But God knows how to redeem the place He chose!!!!

The Hoppers' song also looks ahead to the heavenly Jerusalem that John saw in Revelation 21 - 22. I was amazed it was still called JERUSALEM - the name given to the earthly city. This showed me without doubt that the earthly city is by no means given over by God - it is VITALLY important to Him in His plans. We must keep our eyes peeled to the earthly city and keep abreast of what goes on there!

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Coming to the music of the Hoppers' pivotal song, it is anthemic and the portion where it includes the legendary "Jerusalem" song is masterly.

I don't know about the Biblical basis for the line where the song says "John saw the lion lay down by the lamb" - this I have not seen in Revelation, though it is in Isaiah 11 and 65. Isaiah 11 is one of the grandest Messianic passages and does allude to apocalyptic, so I guess it's okay.

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We live in a world where "holy" and religious sites are fought for tenaciously and cause a lot of bloodshed; Jerusalem has been no different. What is really unique about it? To someone unfamiliar with the Bible, nothing. But to those of us who believe the Bible, it is the one place God chose for Himself. This alone makes it unique and raises it above all other earthly religious sites. It is a flash point in our world today precisely because the stakes are not merely human; they are primarily DIVINE.

What do we Christians feel when we see the Dome of the Rock? Or the Al Aqsa mosque? It is a question worth asking. What do we feel about this piece of land God chose for Himself?

Even more importantly, are we looking ahead and forward to the NEW JERUSALEM where God Himself will be our light and there will be no temple in the City? It's not about merely believing in "going to heaven" and "pie in the sky". The book of Revelation devotes its last two entire chapters to a minute description of the New Jerusalem after this earth and heaven have passed away. What does this evoke in me?

Speaking from my personal walk with God, it fills me with a strange and soothing balm; I echo the words of the Hoppers' song. I feel peace when I think of that City. I think it's because God Himself will live with us. That brings comfort; it makes every bit of suffering I go through while on earth, mortal, worth it all. If THAT (the New Jerusalem) is what God has achieved for us who believe, it is all WORTH IT. Praise God for that!!!

I think often and hard about God wiping our tears away, that sorrow, grief and death will pass away. I look ahead confidently to see this happen.....do you?

Series - 6 - "Sing Your Praise to the Lord"

22 August 2010 at 20:43



THE INTRO AND THE SONG

Apparently, the intro to this famous song was a long time in the making - Rich was four years old when he started composing it. There are other legends, true or false, that it is taken from JS Bach's 'Fugue No. 2 in C Minor', that Rich was asked to play the Bach piece at a college piano course, and that he just went on from there to adapt it.

The legends hardly matter because what has emerged is a beautifully woven thing, of one substance throughout, relentless and driving all the time. Where Bach ends and Rich Mullins begins is noticeable but comfortably smooth. There is a lot of very decent, even superior songwriting quality.

In its heyday it was a relentlessly sought-after song, of course because of that now-legendary intro. It was thought to be the 'Holy Grail' of gospel piano rock songs, whatever such things meant.

For example, here is a very talented little boy's rendition of it:



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ME AND THE SONG

I never paid much attention to it till about 2-3 years ago. I was introduced to Rich Mullins in 1998, through his songs 'If I Stand', 'Sometimes by Step', 'Hold Me Jesus' and 'Awesome God'. But I didn't know he had also done 'Sing Your Praise to the Lord'.

Nowadays, whenever I hear this song there is a strange, wonderful, warming, uplifting feeling that I get and I feel like with The Lord, nothing is really impossible; that there is always hope. There is also a feeling of being caught up in praise and its musical textures - plenty of places in the song where chords crash in stormy waters or gently ripple and shimmer along on sunlit seas. Listening to this song is an enveloping balm of praise - you come away knowing how SO MUCH IS POSSIBLE WITH THE LORD, so many endless possibilities, and how He is always waiting to make things happen!!

I just pray that you feel the same - that you will know how unfathomable and inexhaustible God's resources are, and how past searching out His love, grace and mercy are for us :)

Get yourself a cup of coffee, clear your mind, sit down on your favourite chair, and listen....... God always has a BUT GOD to change everything!!!!



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RICH MULLINS

In 1998, I was asked to play Rich's 'If I Stand' and 'Sometimes by Step', for someone who wanted to sing them, and who gifted me a music book copy of Rich's Songs album. As a matter of fact, Rich's songs were, at that time, in the forefront of contemporary Christian music because this gifted Gospel singer-songwriter had died in an accident in 1997 or 1998 (don't know the year).

I have learned to cherish Rich very much, because some of his songs have been used of God to minister much to me in times of distress - these will be featured in this series in due course, as they come up before me and as God continues to remind me of His precious, precious words to me in my sorely-tested, much harried moments. I thank Rich for being responsive to God to write these precious words of hope down and put them to music reasonably well.

He doesn't seem to have been an easy or fluent performer, though the videos of 'Sing Your Praise' look easy, it's because it's still his most spacious and expansive, even untypical song. His other songs display a man who knew His God in the difficult times (just like me) and just crumpled in His God's arms (again, just like me). 'Sing Your Praise', however, reveals a triumphantly talented, expansive Rich........

Series - 5 - "Faithful One"

10 March 2010 at 23:22


How shall I speak of Your Faithfulness, O LORD???
It isn't in words alone; or even the experiences of life;
It transcends both!!!!!!
You are the hand that steadies me when I buckle;
The drug that courses through my blood to heal my sickness;
The one clear thought that jolts my delirious mind out of its deadly stupor;
The nudge that puts the bone back in the socket;
The love that seeks me while I wallow sickly in the gutter;
The ever-dawning day that always ends my night.
In death Your face will I see.
How shall this faithless derelict speak of Your eternal faithfulness???
Forever and forever, O Lord....
Forever!!!! 

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I thank Mr. Thomas Paul for teaching me this song in 2005.

It worked its way slowly into me; in the beginning, it was just one of those new-fangled songs I laboured to learn. I always regard new songs with disdain.

Brian Doerksen wasn't even someone I'd heard about; I knew "Come, Now is the Time", but I didn't know he'd written it. Later on I would learn that he wrote all these songs, including "Refiner's Fire".

As the years rolled by, the sense of God being the ONLY unchanging one in a universe of kaleidoscopic change gripped my heart. God's faithfulness....takes time and experience to take root in our hearts. Just like, if something has to be immovable for eternity, it needs good strong foundations that will stand any gale force. This song has never ever stopped speaking God's constancy, His immovableness, His permanence, His bulwark...to my battered heart. I do think, many times, of William Cowper; but when I listen to "Faithful One", I wonder how Cowper could ever have been.

It amazes me and grips me that this is basically a song of relationship - of deep, deep relationship where the trust is so amazingly solid that the results are indelible, everlasting, calming peace, and more and more trust!!!! Trust breeds yet more trust, it seems. The relationship breeds love too.....a love that is so tough and yet so tender, so unfailing, so inexhaustible......

The line that just says it all is "All through the storm, Your love is the anchor, my hope is in You alone". I really don't know how many times I have crumpled into hopelessness and collapsed in a corner, completely undone and shattered; God has always picked me up, many, many times - through this song that Brian Doerksen wrote. I stand today as living proof, and I don't mind if I say this as proudly as I can.

"Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf."
- Hebrews 6:17-20

It is always our souls that need the anchor. How I love that word "anchor"..... I don't know where you stand today, but in the storm, in the tempest, drop anchor.....in our God. Let Him be the anchor that holds you.

Series - 4 - "If That Isn't Love"

4 November 2009 at 21:50


I want to exhort us all to turn our hearts to the love of Jesus, which knows no bounds, which no one in this world is proof against. His love can touch the hardest heart, the proudest heart, and the most contrite heart too. As Paul says, so truly:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
- Romans 8:38-39 

And again, in Ephesians:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 
- Ephesians 3:14-19 

One of my friends recently told me about his experience when he came face to face with the immensity of the reservoir at Krishnarajasagar, in Mysore. He said he felt, that, looking at that expanse of water, it made him think of the bottomless love of God.

I pray that, if never before, we may now know and feel the depth of love that our Saviour has lavished on us, signed in his own blood, unconditional, not based on our merits or demerits. I want us to know that God's love is not just enough; there is so much love left over to fill a million lifetimes and more. There's not going to be any LESS of it just because we were unfaithful....it does not depend on us and we cannot and need not MAKE HIM LOVE US. He just does!

My aunt had this song written away somewhere in her old song book. This song book had the famous picture of Jesus standing outside "the fast-closed door" and knocking on it. Years later, in a fit of nostalgia, I sought this song with all my heart because I wanted to know how anyone could write a song like this. I'd heard of Dottie Rambo, but I didn't know she'd written it. Finally, when I did locate the song, I read these (now immortal) words (from the chorus):

If that isn't love, 
The ocean is dry, 
There's no star in the sky, 
And the sparrow can't fly. 

If that isn't love, 
Then heaven's a myth, 
There's no feeling like this, 
If that isn't love. 

Pretty much like my friend's experience at the reservoir.....

It's a love that seeks us unfailingly as we run down the corridors of time, hurtling towards our end; never forsaking us, always surrounding us; almost like the invisible hands that protect us; it is the anchor that keeps us in an ocean of storms and tumult; our rest.

It's a love that is the song of saints and angels; the echo and heartbeat of history; the preponderance of all created things; the THEME of the universe. And here we stand, the OBJECTS of this divine love.......

Here you are, come today to this moment - and the years have rolled past...the future always unknown.....God loves you forever.

Are you still unmoved?

Series - 3 - "You Deserve The Glory"

5 October 2009 at 00:17

From the mists of lovely worship times during 2007 or 2008, this wonderful song burned itself into my being. 

There's probably very, very few things that are more liberating than giving God the glory due Him. Nothing frees the heart more.....nothing sets our feet in more spacious places. No soul is set free more than that soul that moves itself out of the spotlight and puts the spotlight back where it belongs - our LORD. 

Terry MacAlmon wrote this simple, powerful song. His live recordings of it are very informal, very much just informal worship gatherings, precisely the kind of beginnings for a song like this. The soul seems to soar, soar high, in worship, with this song. Reminds me of these: 

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, 

out of the mud and mire; 

he set my feet on a rock 

and gave me a firm place to stand. 

- Psalm 40:2 

And again: 

You have not handed me over to the enemy 

but have set my feet in a spacious place. 

- Psalm 31:8 

Lots of "evolution" in the chord structures - on the "Lord we lift our hands in worship" line, whether it's a D minor chord or B flat is worth wondering.....you might want to let the Spirit lead, as at all other times. Either way, it doesn't take anything from the music:):) I am personally attached to the B flat, complicated nutcase that I am...but of late I just wonder whether the D minor will keep my mind from wandering too much and taking the glory from God. Again, there's the "you do miracles so great" chord - is it just a simple bass progression from C to B to A minor or is there a more complicated E seventh there with a B bass note? Again, purely academic. Terry himself does just a simple bass note progression from C to B to A minor; and predictably, the complicated nutcase yours truly is attached, right on cue, to not just an E chord, but an E seventh with B bass note, WITH intricate timing for the change!!!!! These complications were visited upon me, I might add, by the first (and still very superlative) version of this song I heard from some band called New Life or something like that - it had all those complicated chord structures. 

This is what I'd say......let God have all the glory. No one deserves it more, or gets it less. I can tell you from the countless number of times I've played this song during communion - give God all the glory. Let your soul go without restraint or reservation and sing: 

For You are great, 

You do miracles so great, 

There is no one else like you 

There is no one else like you 

For You are great, 

You do miracles so great, 

There is no one else like you 

There is no one else like you 

See if your soul still remains caged.........after this. He is still the one that sets us free. 

Series - 2 - "There's Something About That Name"

28 August 2009 at 12:56

First of all, Gloria's speech on the video - it's not an add-on to the song that they decided to do in the later years; it's an integral part of the original song. It was always written that way. Here's what she says: 

Jesus. 

The mere mention of His name can calm the storm, heal the broken, raise the dead. 

At the name of Jesus I've seen sin-hardened men melted, derelicts transformed, the lights of hope put into the eyes of a hopeless child. 
At the name of Jesus hatred and bitterness turn to love and forgiveness. Arguments cease.

I've heard a mother softly breathe His name at the bedside of a child delirious from fever and I've watched that little body grow quiet, the fevered brow cool. 

I've sat at the bedside of a dying saint, her body wracked with pain, who in those final fleeting seconds summoned her last ounce of ebbing strength to whisper her sweetest name, Jesus. Jesus. 

Emperors have tried to destroy it, philosophies have tried to stamp it out, tyrants have tried to wash it from the face of the earth with the very blood of those who claimed it; oh yet it still stands. 

And there shall be that final day when every voice that has ever uttered a sound, every voice of Adam's race, shall raise in one mighty chorus to proclaim the name of Jesus, for in that day, 

every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. 

So you see it was not mere chance that caused an angel one night long ago to say to a virgin maiden, "His name shall be called Jesus" 

Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. 

Oh there IS something, something about that name. 

In the space of eight lines of lyric, the Gaithers have placed some immortal expressions which brought me so much of comfort with their imagery:

"like the fragrance after the rain" 

"there's something about that name"

(notice, no hyperboles here but just the hint that there's something deeper than they'd dare say) 

The song seems to leave the thought that, when all is said and done with this world, this name remains and lingers.......and is indelibly and unshakeably associated with our human story - Jesus. 

Gloria Gaither has voiced things that I'd only dared dream about - I always suspected that the name of Jesus was everything she came right out and said in that speech - she was picking my mind :):) 

I don't know if there's any other song that puts this simpler or more powerfully. 

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." 

- Matthew 1:21 

Danny Gaither, the one who sings the song on the original recording. Bill's right!!!! No one sings it like Danny.

Series - 1- "Rushing Wind"

23 August 2009 at 18:40

What I'd like to do with this series is to bring a few songs to the foreground - songs that God has used to reach me and show me His unfailing love and the fact that He's still working on me. Some of these songs did not make a dent on the 'Christian music scene' (whatever we understand that to mean), but some of them turned Christian music on its head and were used by God powerfully to raise the spirit of revival among His people. Hopefully, God will use this series to bring His powerful presence into our lives once again!!!!!! 

For some of us, some of these beautiful, life-changing songs might bring back memories - let the memories roll and let God use them. 

I open with Keith Green's breathtakingly grand piano and soaring vocal on his song "Rushing Wind".

Every day You're drawing closer, 

Trials come to test my faith, 

But when all is said and done Lord, 

You know, it's been worth the wait.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. 

- Romans 5:3-5 

"Rushing Wind" opens up a world of driving passion for purity in personal life and constant growth in the LORD; also the refreshing breeze of absolute surrender. 

The lyric that touched me, however, is the "every day" verse I've quoted above (the third verse, probably) - it might seem absolutely too tall an ask to remind ourselves in our dark hours and trial pits, that our faith is merely being refined in the fire. But when we hang on, trusting in our Lord's grace, and "all is said and done", we find fertility within our hearts and burnished gold, having come through the fire. 

It is worth the wait. It is worth the wait. With God it is always worth the wait. 

I found in "Rushing Wind" a powerful wind of encouragement, leading me to say this back to God!!!!!!! I hope that you will too.