Music for your encouragement

When I was a brand new Christian, my youth pastor was a personal friend of a singer called Ken Medema, a blind man with a terrific talent to play and sing. He is able to hear a sermon and extemporaneously compose a ballad to captures the essence of the sermon. I bought his four 8-track albums. I had a 8-track in my orange and yellow van.

Tonight I found this on you-tube and it brought back many memories!

The Gospel in a Song

By Shane and Shane - Oliver showed me this very powerful song - be sure to watch the whole thing!

Free Advent Songs - and they are really good!

I just downloaded Advent songs!  You can get them for free or pay what you want. 

Here’s a description of the album from Sojourn’s website:
“The emphasis here is on the already/ not-yet tension of Advent, the season of waiting and anticipation before Christmas. Advent comes to us in the darkest season of the year — a season when the nights are long, the days are cold, and we look with anticipation for the return of the warmth in the spring. The songs have both a dark sense of anticipation and glimpses of light dawning in the face of the Christ child.
“As we celebrate this season, we celebrate that our Messiah has come, and we look with longing to the day when he comes again. As St. John says, ‘Amen! Come Lord Jesus.’”

All I really want for Christmas

I have gotten e-mails from my kids at college with links to what they want for Christmas. Ugghs, Garmin running watch, some kind of purse, North Face coats ... even tonight I announced that I wanted a satellite radio & a new trolling motor. So we all have our wants.

While researching Advent music (See previous post), I found a song I had never heard before about Christmas - that I think links us to what Christians became known for - being families to the unwanted.

Steven Curtis Chapman sings this - he, as many of you know has adopted children in the last 6 or so years. This last May his youngest, Maria, was killed in their driveway.

This makes be rethink my materialistic tendencies. Enjoy the song - as I said I had never heard it before today! And those of you with only 2 kids really listen to it! (Fruitful and multiply means at least 4! With 2 kids you only replace yourselves - been saying that for years!)

Thought to Ponder

 C. J. Mahaney has edited a book called Worldliness with a team of writers. Bob Kauflin talks about music. Bob warns that a sign that music has become an idol is when our passion for Christ has waned but our passion for music has not. Ponder that for a while.