So the World Will Know
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My daughter, Kristen, decided to get baptized after going through a traumatic event, and then being healed at a prophetic worship service with a good friend, worship artist Troy Bourne, and Pastor Brian Weeks. Although she had been a believer for many years, she never felt moved to get involved in the church, or to get baptized. After this event, she was convinced that she needed to witness her love and thank God for what He had done for her. I had written a song for my son, Cory, many years ago, when he had been baptized: “Wash Me Clean,” so Kristen, not too subtly reminded me of the fact. Being the Music Director/Worship Leader at our church, it was up to me to select a song for the occasion. When I asked her what song she might like for the service, she said, “You know, Dad, you did write one for Cory….” Gotcha.
It just so happened that I was working on a song at the time. I had most of the melody but was struggling with the lyrics, until then. Focusing on the rite of baptism and what it means to give your life to Christ was all the direction I needed, and the lyrics came easily after that, especially with the joyful occasion of my daughter’s baptism and inspiration from the Holy Spirit.
When Troy and I began talking about working together on this recording project, this was my most recently written song, and close to my heart, so we decided to start the project with this one.
It took over a year to complete, getting together at his studio once a week, with breaks for his ministry trips – and his wedding to his wonderful wife –whom he met at one of his worship events. I was blessed to be one of the first people he shared his joy with, and honored to be invited to their wedding. God has truly blessed me in all of it.
It Wasn't Nails
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Many years ago, in a church far, far away, a long-time friend, Dave Trima, approached me with a poem he had written, “It Wasn’t Nails.” It wasn’t really structured for music, but the sentiment spoke to me. The image of Jesus, who is the living God, voluntarily enduring the agony of the cross out of His love for me! I somehow knew that this would be a good song, but when? I didn’t get any immediate inspiration for a song, but I held onto the poem, sure that someday I would get back to it and write the song Dave had started when God decided the time was right...
Fast forward at least 10 years. I pulled the faded, wrinkled sheet of paper out of my piano bench where it had been lying and sat down at the piano. Suddenly ideas flooded my mind; lyrics that seemed to be waiting for me to find them. In a couple of days, the rough draft was done. I brought it to the Praise Team, and we arranged it for the following service.
Another friend, Skip Faulkner, who is deeply involved with the Children’s Ministry, said he liked the song from the first time he heard us rehearsing it. He wanted to know if I would mind if he used it for the summer Bible Camp that the church sponsors every year. Since we recorded every service (at that time, on cassette and CD), it was easy to have a duplicate ready to take to camp. He wanted to sit the kids down and listen to it. Skip came back from camp, excited that several kids had accepted Jesus during camp, and that “It Wasn’t Nails” was a contributing factor.
Magnify The Lord
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I live a block away from my church, so when the weather’s nice, I love to walk over before a service, soaking in the sunshine, the singing birds, and all of God’s creation, praying in preparation for worship.
On this particular day, what was going through my mind was that the enthusiasm for worship in the church had been sorely lacking. I felt as if I had been failing as a worship leader, failing to inspire my church family with the joy of worship, and the reasons for it. A passage from Revelation haunted me: “I know of your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:15-16
The thought terrified me and convicted me. How could I get my church family to understand what we were doing? Who we were worshiping? Why we were worshiping? Suddenly, a bit of the chorus came to me, “Magnify the Lord in all the earth! Magnify His name with all you’re worth! Just lift your voices higher with souls that are on fire and magnify, magnify the Lord!”
This seems to have become my theme song and led to me writing and giving a music-laden sermon on worship.
Take Me Back
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You never know when inspiration is going to hit. Sometimes, you wait forever for an idea to come to you or try to force it. This is almost always a recipe for disaster, at least for me. One day, as I was mowing the lawn, I was reflecting on the different reasons people feel unworthy of approaching Jesus, and thus, put off going to church, or making the decision to accept Jesus. It’s all the enemy’s lies, of course, but we can be fragile and insecure folk, in the face of the Holy Almighty. So I started listing excuses and things that I struggle with, knowing that I will never be worthy on my own and that I still have trouble living up to God’s ideal (I like to say that I’m a work in process). The last verse of the song ends up in supplication, “I’m not worthy, God save me!”
And then God replies, “No, you’re not good enough. All sinners, sure enough, but if you call upon my Name, I’ll forgive your sin, and my arms will take you in. Still, child, I love you just the same.”
And that’s it in a nutshell. God’s grace is greater than our sin. No matter what.
Give Him Praise
. Another extension of Magnify the Lord is acoustic guitar driven with an upbeat tempo, and complex clapping pattern, which emphasizes, “This is no time for being lukewarm.” Sometimes I’ve felt that trying to lead people into worship is like trying to break through some barrier. Some seem to be just putting in the time, and going through the motions. I wanted to emphasize that God is all-knowing, ever-present, and not fooled by anything or anyone. We need to be present and give Him our whole heart and full worship. Sort of a wake-up call.
If Thats Not Love
Many times, I will start on a song with a melody and some lyrics. For this one, the music came first, and I had no idea what the lyrics would be. It seemed to have a soothing, reassuring tone, but I was at a loss for a while. I brought the music to the team and asked what came to mind when they listened to the piano part. The replies were various and not what I was looking for. I wanted it to be a song of hope and reassurance, so I looked to God’s promises. I asked myself, how can I be sure of God’s love? What evidence is there in the bible? Well, there’s Jesus’ life, ministry and crucifixion. There’s also His promise to “wipe every tear from every eye,” on His return. What else could prompt an all-powerful God to make Himself as vulnerable as a little child, and teach and serve people, obviously far below Him? To be obedient to death, even death on a cross? To rise again, proving once and for all the power and love of God, to convict and encourage us into a loving relationship with Him? If it’s not love, what could it be?
Tenderness And Love
I had a friend’s upcoming baptism in mind while I was writing “Tenderness and Love.” It celebrates God’s love and grace, and I couldn’t shake the image of God holding me tenderly in His loving arms, as I bemoaned my failures and weaknesses. I felt He was telling me I’m forgiven by the Father, ransomed by the Son and guided by the Spirit. I imagined the smile on His face as my friend took that step of faith, as he was lowered into the water, to emerge a new creation in Christ. As the parable of the Prodigal Son demonstrates, no matter our sins and failures, God is waiting with open arms to welcome us home.
I was working on this while I was at my job as a bench jeweler (don’t tell my boss!), scribbling down lyrics as they came to me. I thought of how hard it is for me to accept that Jesus loves me in all my weakness and failures, my rebellion and sin. What can you do in such times, when you have to go before the Father and confess your sins? Asking for forgiveness, we should respond in humility and gratitude for His love and mercy, and be reminded that, because of our faith in Jesus, He has wiped the slate clean and we are indeed forgiven by the Father, Who has removed us from our sins as “far as east is from the west.”
Wonder Of Your Love
This was written as a call to worship, to prepare hearts to enter into God’s presence at the beginning of a service. I remember this one running the continual loop, mostly at work, taking a few minutes here and there to scribble down lyrics as they came to me.
When it came time to introduce it to the team, it fell together, almost organically, each of us intuitively adding to the whole. Call and response lyrics, tight harmonies. Putting this together was an exercise in worship, asking the Lord to fill our hearts, and lift us up in His presence. I still get excited, thinking about how God can put His hand onto something in powerful and unexpected ways.
Song For Love
I wrote this song in 1983 for my wife’s and my wedding. It was becoming clearer to me that being in a rock band wasn’t the kind of life God had in mind for me. This song should have given the boys some clue as to where I was headed.
My wife, Cindy & I have always felt that God led us together, right from the first weekend we started the relationship at my parents’ campground in New Hampshire. We were sitting around a bonfire out in the safari field with a bunch of friends one night, and we were all amazed to see the Northern Lights shimmering above us. It was nowhere near as bright as you might expect up north, say, in the Arctic Circle, but they were there, and discernible. It set a magical tone for the night, the weekend, and our budding relationship. I’m not going to claim that God put the Northern Lights there on that night just for us, but it was the only time we ever saw them there, before or since.
The original last verse referred to it:
“Ever since that night when the Northern Lights sparked a magical air,
I still remember the firelight, and how it played on your hair.
A feeling such as we’d never had has always been there.”
I’ve been honored to play this song for many other weddings, the first being my aunt’s. I was surprised to be asked, but then I realized I’d have to change the last verse, unless, that is, they had also gotten together by a campfire, under the Northern Lights!
Still, I’ve sat with quite a few couples, planning out their wedding music, and when they can’t think of anything that suits them, I’ll say, “What about this one?” I’ll play it, without telling them it’s mine. It’s very rewarding when they’ve said, Yes! I love that one! It says just what I wanted to say.” It occurred to me that there’s a lack of Christian wedding songs to choose from, Stephen Curtis Chapman’s “I Will Be Here,” and Matthew West’s “When I Say I Do” notwithstanding.
I Will Worship You
This song grew from my desire to help people understand what worship is, including singing praises to Him in Spirit and truth but also extending to our everyday lives, our worldview, and the way we treat people or our jobs, etc., doing everything as unto the Lord. I meant to help show people that God’s presence is everywhere, in all of creation, and His love is abundantly shown in what He’s created for us.
Incarnation
In this song, I must give partial credit to our troubled Pit Bull, Bailey. We got him from a rescue organization. He and his whole litter had been abandoned on the side of the road in Alabama in a cardboard box and left to die. He had been crated for 6 months when we got him, and he was extremely fearful and skittish when we met him. We fell in love with him immediately, figuring that we would just love him past the fear. We didn’t understand, at the time, how difficult that would be. He became very loving and close with my wife, daughter, and myself, whom he saw the most, and trusted, but with anyone else, he was afraid of and went into fight or flight mode and became aggressive. In working with a dog trainer, we were told that among many other things, we could do, daily walks would be good to stimulate his mind and calm him, gradually letting him learn that he didn’t need to be so fearful. But because he had started showing aggression, I didn’t want to take the chance of an incident if we came across anyone, especially with another dog, so I started walking him at night when there was less chance of an uncomfortable encounter. As we were walking in the dark, under the street lights, this song started taking shape in my mind. I was reflecting on how the story of Christmas was now taken for granted, believed or not. Everyone knew the story, but did anyone stop to think about it in immediate terms as if they were there? What must it have been like? What must they both have been thinking? How would it affect their lives in that culture and time?
The melody and lyrics began to form in my mind, humming them and singing as we walked, taking advantage of the solitude and quiet to commune with God and His worship, and to bond with Bailey. I remember as the song was taking shape, that I started getting excited about how it was coming out, and how God was giving it to me. I distinctly remember feeling (hearing?) that this could be the song that changed everything for me. I don’t know about that, but I’m very pleased with the way it came out.
In discussing the approach to the song with Sean, I told him I was very influenced by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and felt the song should be produced with that in mind. It seemed to be a song they might have done. I’d always felt it should be sung by a woman, with the excellence and expressiveness typical to TSO songs and Sean had just the singer in mind. He had a friend, he said. Michelle Nicolo Prentice. She was the perfect fit and got the intent and expression perfectly. I’m so grateful for her excellent rendition. Austin Addams fit the bill just as well on guitar, tracking it in an afternoon in his studio. I was completely blown away when Sean first sent me a rough draft. Of course, Sean is no slouch on drums, either.
God Spoke To ME Today
In the last few years of her life, my mom’s health began failing gradually. She ended up in hospice eventually, and we would go to see her every day until she passed. There were quite a few of us. My wife and I, our son, daughter-in-law and daughter, my brother and sister-in-law, my sister and brother-in-law, as well as friends and extended family. Because Covid restrictions were still in place, we could only have 4 people in the room with her at a time, so we set up a schedule where each of us could go and spend time with her, but we were never all there together.
There was a TV screen mounted to the wall, and comforting pictures accompanied by famous inspirational quotes, citing the authors, scrolled by. We turned off the sound and played worship music on K-Love instead. The caretakers often commented on how peaceful the atmosphere was in her room. We were trusting in God and His promises to take her home, where she would be made whole. She had always had a strong faith and told us many times that she felt Jesus with her.
On the night before she passed, there was one picture that appeared on the screen that caught our attention. It was a picture of Mesa Verde, cliff dwellings in Colorado that we had visited on a trip many years ago, while on a family vacation. We had taken a tour of the cliff dwellings, which included climbing up a hand-lashed ladder of rough branches to the next level of dwellings.
Mom was deathly afraid of heights, but the only way through to the end of the tour was to go up the ladder. She conquered her fears that day, and it was a significant moment in her life. How strange that a picture of that place should come up on the screen! We had become familiar with the rotation of pictures by this time, and that one had never come up before. Stranger still was the text accompanying it. It read: “Peace for Pat.” My mom’s name was Pat. There was no famous name attributed to the quote. There was no result when Googling the quote. It was more than a little strange and out of place. Was it God speaking to us?
The next day, the staff could see that the time was getting close for her to go home and they called us in to be with her. They relented on the 4 person restriction and we were all there with her. Maybe that was what she had been waiting for because that was when she let go and went to be with Jesus. At that exact moment, we looked at the screen. Instead of a famous quote, the screen read: “Home at last.” The song playing on the radio was “Hold on to Me”, by Lauren Daigle, followed by “Then Christ Came” by Mercy Me. God was telling us that He had her, and she was in Good Hands. Finally free.
In the days and weeks that followed, there were the arrangements to occupy our time, but when they were done, reality set in, and the realization that life would never be the same without her.
One Sunday, Dad came into the church, excited to share something with me. He said that God had woken him up an hour earlier than usual, with a burning desire to write down thoughts that flooded his mind. It was a list of ways that God had been speaking to him in his mourning, written as a lyric. He asked if I could write a song for them.
Usually, I’m daunted by the thought, but when God wants something to happen, it’s going to happen! This time, it wasn’t over 10 years, as it had been with Nails. I sat down with the words and started to craft them into a song. The music came. Nothing particularly complex, but I just followed what I was hearing. As I was working, it built upon the original lyrics to a celebration of God’s love and faithfulness, and a challenge to agnostics to take that step. What are you waiting for? God is so good!
The Greatest Of All Time
I had not written a song in two years. I had gotten no inspiration through COVID-19 and hadn’t thought about writing much. My barber and friend, who just happens to be a pastor, and who knew about the project, asked if I had any new songs lately. “No,” I said. Nothing’s coming. Kind of frustrating. He asked, “Why don’t you pray for inspiration?” I told him I had been.
He thought for a moment. “Then, why don’t you pray for the song the church needs?” I hadn’t thought about it that way. I took his advice and in a couple of days, the hook to this song came to me, and wouldn’t leave, running in a continuous loop in my head. I knew I was on to something. God was answering my prayer. I had no theme or direction yet, but gradually, it started building upon itself. Lyrics came, and I wrote them down, but I still didn’t know where it was going. I just trusted that it would get there. I remember working on it as I was shoveling snow, or at work, or just about anywhere. Once a song grabs me, it won’t let go until it’s finished. 2 themes gradually came to me. Romans 10:9 “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Why not sing that? I could picture hundreds (thousands?) of people declaring the saving gospel in this song. What an awesome thought! What an awesome God!
Which brings me to the second theme. Much has been made of certain athletes being the greatest of all time – the G.O.A.T. Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretsky, Simone Biles. Granted, these were amazing athletes who could do impressive things and have achieved some amazing accomplishments. But the greatest of all time? All time? That honorific can only go to One person (or Three). Jesus Christ is the only One who lived a perfect life, yet died for our sins so that we might have eternal life with Him. He was raised from the dead to prove Who He was is and will be.