LET EARTH RECEIVE HER KING

AN ADVENT COLLECTION

Welcome to my ADVENT COLLECTION:

a Musical Journey Through the Scriptures Leading to the First Coming of Christ.

I should preface your listening by letting you know that this collection is definitely a work in progress. What is presented here is the VERY rough draft version of what I hope to later make into more polished recordings. But, I didn’t want to wait a whole year before making the music available to friends whom I trust will be able to hear the potential these songs hold and who would be able to use them even now to deepen their walk through the season of Advent. Perhaps my often off-key singing, missed notes and varying tempos will even serve to make this music more real to you (I hope!) and inspire you to share your own imperfect offerings with others - we don’t have to be perfect to share our gifts!

I am deeply moved by the season of Advent (for a more complete personal reflection on the season, click here). Our family uses the book, “God With Us: A Family Advent Celebration” by Katie Pawlak, to guide our Advent readings. It is a Jesse Tree devotional. The scriptures I’ve put to song (so far) match the scripture passages that this book utilizes in its daily readings. If you’re using the book, I’ve marked the scriptures below to show how they correlate to the reading for a specific date, but you can certainly enjoy the Advent journey on your own without the book, too! The scripture quotations are from the NIV translation, not necessarily by preference, but so that they would correlate better with the book.

Throughout the month, I’ll be adding reflections below each song that will serve to explain why the songs sound as they do. For example, can you hear “church bells” making an announcement in “The Root of Jesse?” Or, do you hear the presence of the angel causing wind chimes to stir in “The Visitation?” Maybe you’ll notice some familiar carol tunes embedded in some of my songs - those aren’t by mistake or just for fun. The song reflections will explain why those musical elements are present and what they are meant to lead you to consider.

I would love to turn these songs (and many others!) into professional recordings that can be freely shared. I don’t personally have the budget to make this happen. The cost for this particular project will run between $6000-8000, which would include studio costs and the purchase of a keyboard so that I can record directly from “piano” to computer.

Making music is the way I desire to share God’s Word with the world. If you appreciate my music and would like to help me to offer these songs to others, please join me by clicking on the button below.

Thank you!

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December 1

"Root of Jesse" Reflection

Isaiah 11:1-2

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him - the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord…

December 2 & 3

"In The Beginning" Reflection

Usually when I write a new song, I set the text in front of me at the piano, put my hands on the keys and just start reading / playing / singing and wait to see what takes form. This time, when I sat down with these two scriptures, "O Holy Night" kept coming to mind. I've never borrowed a tune to write a new song, so this felt a bit like cheating. But, as I played and meditated on the familiar words of that Christmas hymn alongside these scriptures, it did seem somehow fitting to join the two. Consider this:

"Oh Holy night, the stars are brightly shinging..."

Do you hear a connection to the text in my song where we meet God in the beginning creating the heavens?

"It is the night of our dear Savior's birth..."

... and the beginning of makind.

"Long lay the world in sin and error pining,"

What a contrast to the parallel creation text that states how we were created in God's own image: in the image of God he made them!"

"'Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth."

But at his appearing, we realize our true worth - that we were created in His image and we were called "very good." Do you see how our worth only comes by His design and pronouncement? How his birth reminds us of our own created value? The parallel line in my song depicts God's grief in knowing how we'll turn away from our inherent value: the music becomes minor again as we hear "In the image of God He made them." Do you hear in the music how this line turns it's head away, or hangs its head low, in sorrow? The sound of the music tells how we grieve His design.

"A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn;"

Yet, even knowing how we'd grieve Him, "God saw all that He had made,..." it must have been thrilling! This new and glorious world that He had created - He called it very good!

But the music take a minor turn again: what God knew just lines before comes to pass now. And we have but one response: "Fall on your knees!" Like sheep, we've wandered far from that God-pronounced design and plan: each of us has turned to our own way. What can be done to return to that new and glorious creation of which we were the crowning glory?

The answer: "but the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all?" When you reach this point in the music, can you hear the resolution and mourning all wrapped up in one? Can you imagine God in heaven gently releasing his own infant son into the manger as you hear those notes step down? He is so innocent and vulnerable as he's let down into his earthly bed.

In this grand gesture, God Himself takes our sin and error and turns us into a new creation. We are made like Him again! The whole purpose of His birth is his death... and life! There's a pattern here: He gave us life, we make it death. He takes our death and makes it life.

There can be but one response to this incredible truth:

"Oh hear the angel voices! O night divine! O night when Christ was born. O night, O holy night, O night divine."

This is Christmas! Christ came, putting into motion that plan of redemption that would allow us to fully bear and reflect His image. His coming signals the hope for completion of our own design and purpose. O night divine, indeed!.

Genesis 1:1,27,31*

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… God created mankind in his own image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them… God saw all that he had made, and it was very good…

Isaiah 53:6

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

* For another song about these Genesis verses (but not part of this album), check out my song called “The Beginning” here. Scroll down and you’ll find it listed a part of “The Storybook Soundtrack Demo.” Listening to this will also give you a taste of what a finished draft song can sound like! :)

December 5

"Abraham's Stars" Reflection

“Look up!”

Perhaps the Advent message could stop right there: “Look up!” On a wall above my desk at home, I chalked this quote from A.W. Tozer, “As God is exalted to the right place in our lives, a thousand problems are solved all at once.”

“Look up!" Have we exalted Him to this right place? Do we look up at the stars, which indeed we cannot count, and remember whose we are? Whose world this is? Who is in control of our lives and circumstances? Do we trust that He will do the work of making of us what He has ordained, providing for our needs, even making our name great? I am not speaking of earthly gains of greatness. What I mean is this: do we trust that exalting God to His proper place actually, in the end, exalts us to ours? “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, and at the proper time, He will himself exalt you.” (1 Peter 5:6) What does it mean here to be "exalted" except to be raised with Him out of our death and into His life? So, the question really becomes: do we trust that exalting God is the way that we will gain life? Remember the reflection from Day 2: there is a pattern here and throughout scripture: He takes our death and makes it life. Our exalted place is found when we trust Him to truly bear His image through us to the world.

Tonight, as a family we considered the second scripture listed here, Genesis 12:2. Look at the pattern of the scripture: God will do three things (notice, it’s not Abraham who will do these things, it’s God):

I will make you into a great nation,

I will bless you,

I will make your name great, and…

…and then, what happens to Abraham? He becomes a blessing! God works, His chosen human coworker gets to bless. This is the perfect pattern of God putting His life in us. (It is also, incidentally, the same pattern we see in God’s creation of the world: He creates three things and then blesses with an extra creation on the third day, He creates three things and then blesses with a extra creation on the second third (or sixth) day). This is God’s design: He blesses, He blesses, He blesses, and then we become a blessing. Is there a better way to live than this?

Next, we asked each other: Who has blessed you? We shared our ideas and then summarized our reflections by saying, “________ has blessed me by ___________.” This led us to realize that our experiences, not just people, have blessed us. That led us to realize that even difficult experiences have blessed us! This is rich to consider. Mine out these questions for yourselves.

Next, we pondered, “How do we bless?” Do you know that your very personality is meant to bless? Your size and your shape are meant to bless? Your skills and your talents are meant to bless? Your ideas are meant to bless? You are an image bearer of the life-giving Christ! How can you bless with who you are? How can you bless with what you say? By what you do? With your resources? Might I challenge you to save that last question for last? Reach into who God has made you to realize how He intends for you to bless. Physical resources bless, too, of course, but largely we control those blessings and determine them. Because we are accustomed to control, we tend to consider those blessings first, overlooking the blessing of His very design placed in our being. Ask God: “How have you designed me to bless?” Ask yourself: “If I had access to zero physical resources, how would I bless?”

And then, look up at the sky. If it is a clear night, listen to this song outdoors while looking up and marveling at the stars. Hear the twinkling in the music - the constancy of the singing stars. Then listen as the music changes to depict GOD’S power doing the work through Abraham. Hear all that HE promised to do. Listen to the music change again, this time from power to gentleness, as you remember that Abraham becomes a blessing. This was the promise to Abraham, yes. But, I believe, it is the covenantal pattern God intends for our lives as well.

Tonight, let the scripture, the stars and the music draw your eyes ever upward, and “as God is exalted to the right place in your life, a thousand problems will be solved at once,”... and “you will be a blessing.”

Genesis 15 5-6

And He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars - if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abraham believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Genesis 12:2

I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

December 7

Genesis 22:8-13

He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

December 8

Genesis 45:4-7

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.”

December 19

Jeremiah 23:5-6

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.”

December 20

Habakkuk 2:1,3

I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me… For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.

December 21

There are two songs for this day

John 1:6-8

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

Matthew 3:1-3,11

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah; “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straigh paths for him’”…”I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

December 22

Luke 1:26-33

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most high. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jaco’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

December 23

Matthew 1:18-25

… an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 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.”

December 24

There are two songs for this day.

Luke 2:1-7

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.

Luke 2:8-14

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

December 25