House Concerts

HOUSE CONCERTS:

Our generation seems to understand bigger and more flashy is not always better. I'd love a great U2 or Coldplay concert but I also really really love the intimacy and comfort of a house concert. If you haven't heard of it before, house concerts are a great way to hear great music and the stories behind the music with friends and family in your homes. I started hearing about this 2 years ago while I was on tour and we did a few of these and last year I began hosting them once a month. I get about 10 songwriters to play 2 songs each and take time to tell the story behind the songs and a little about themselves. I don't have to worry about renting a space or setting up something elaborate- people sit on the floor- eat snacks- it's really relaxed and fun. Usually it's packed and afterward we have a jam that most of the time breaks out in to dancing, worship and a drum circle! (sorry neighbors) A lot of friendships and creative connections have been made. Try it at your place!

MAKING MUSIC

PERSPECTIVE ON MAKING MUSIC:

I'm a channel, a vessel. This is my illustration of what's going on when I'm making music:

It comes from my muse, God, flows through me (imperfectly) to others and hopefully back up to God. The more it gets back to God the more I've done my job. I can tell a personal story of heartache and still be in the use of the Holy Spirit and the Muse. The Bible is all "God Breathed and useful..." and most of it is telling stories. Stories that don't always sound "Christian" or clean. The cross doesn't look clean and "safe for the whole family", yet it was the story God needed to tell. 

When you are making art- be sensitive to the muses around you and what they are trying to push through you- it could be God and His spirit and could be something else. Either you see everything spiritually or nothing, so decide now and make that the base of your art.

MUSIC IS...

Be careful little ears what you hear...

Music is everything.

Everything is Music.

Music: It is ultimately derived from mousa, the Greek word for muse. In ancient Greece, the word mousike was used to mean any of the arts or sciences governed by the Muses...

To me the muses are God, the Holy Spirit and his angels and also Lucifer and his demons.

Music is the weapon of warfare for both sides.

It pierces deeper than any arrow and always hits its mark; the heart.

When someones bob their head to the beat, they are saying "yes" with their head, they are agreeing.

They are signing a contract, committing it to memory, the deal is done, the mood is set

Music can make you or break you and maybe relieve you, maybe redeem you, maybe lift your thoughts to new heights and you're feelings to new depths and widths

But never say "it's just a song", no it becomes part of you

part of the deepest part of you- your heart

Song Story: OVERCOME

OVERCOME

To be completely honest, the months before I wrote this had been extremely hard. I had gone through some big disappointments with music, with a failed relationship, and I was getting very wrapped up in a self pitying and "poor me" mentality. My confidence in everything was badly shaken. My goals, dreams, and desires were in question- I wasn't even sure if it was good to set goals or have dreams because mine were such apparent failures. Sometimes we don't realize that our thought patterns are not what they could or should be, that our routines need a change, that we need a shift or a change of heart and mind. I know I can slip into feeling helpless to my circumstances and give in to a defeated attitude. 

It was during this time I came across Revelation 12:11:

 "And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb 

and the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives until death".... 

I think it was the first time in a long time I had the courage to sit at a piano and try to write something and this verse with a simple melody is what came out. I began to get outside of myself and my circumstances and see the circumstance of us- the human race, through the ages. We, as humans, have all individually and collectively faced dark times, defeat, and hopelessness. Yet, I know how the story ends- that's my divine privilege as a child of God. No, I'm not a collection of random cells, I didn't get here by some big bang. I was created, I was put here. We all were put here on purpose. My life had purpose. The story of this race of humans has a beginning, middle and end- and it's a victorious end. I love the quote "everything will be ok in the end, if it's not ok, it's not the end!"

I'm not going to say a light switched on and stayed on. The light did come on but at times it's been stronger and I've been able to see more clearly than at other times. But by declaring those words from the Bible in song "We will overcome, by the blood of the Lamb, we will overcome every darkness, with our testimony we'll give Him glory until our dying breath and we will overcome" I think something broke loose that day.

A few weeks later I got together with a friend who is extremely beautiful and humble and of course a talented songwriter, her name is Krissy Nordhoff, and she and I wrote the rest of the song. 

Words make worlds. Do you believe it? That's how the Bible says God created the earth. That is how we create our world. I've always loved Bob Dylan and Joan Baez- they were literally reshaping the world with their words from bigotry and hate to understand and acceptance. How did African Americans encourage themselves and unify themselves to stand up and overcome their circumstances in the 50's and 60's? By singing together, speaking it out, declaring, prophesying things like "We shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome some day. Deep in my heart. I do believe. We shall overcome someday".

You may have just been through hell, but the good news is you're bound for heaven. You will overcome, because I do believe Jesus went through hell too- to be able to bring us back from it when He died for us on the cross. When he rose, we rose. Now by this testimony and by the testimony of what He's done in our lives- we can shake of our defeatist mentality, shake things up and declare that we as a people will overcome the darkness in the end and we each individually will overcome the darkness in our own souls and in our own circumstances.

"Deep in my heart I do believe we shall overcome someday"

Song Story: LOOK EAST

LOOK EAST

This song is a promise song- it talks about how just as surely as the sun rises everyday in the east, so too will Yeshua (Jesus) come back for us. And what's more, the Bible says He will return through the East gate in Jerusalem... (this is a great article I found with more details about that) He is literally the SON rising in the east! A tangible picture to give us proof of an unseen truth.

This song had been simmering somewhere in the depths of me somewhere and came out in a flash. I didn't know what I was going to say before I starting singing, but as I started to play my "go to" chords (Am, F, Dm7- ahhh so nice), this melody and lyrics came out:

"my peace I give to you, not as the world giveth, give I to you"

and the chorus with it's strange C to Cminor came out without really thinking about it (think I learned that trick a long time ago from Joni Mitchell's song "Rainy Night House"- must listen to it).

I wanted to take some creative liberty and imagine that Jesus was speaking this promise to me- reassuring me that He was coming back for me.

In the bridge I respond to this promise by saying Psalm 24:7:

"Open up ye gates! Let the King Come in!!!"

and:

"Baruch Haba B'shem Adonai"

(Blessed is He who comes in the name of The Lord)

I had learned this phrase months before I wrote the song- I read somewhere in Jewish culture, at weddings, they say "Bacuch Haba B'shem" Blessed is he who comes! as the groom is coming down to meet his bride. What a cool symbol of Yeshua coming to meet His Bride- all of us who believe!

After I wrote the song I was really excited, but then because it was so different, I feared no one would like it. I wanted to record it, but thought people might think I was crazy. But I pressed on and produced it with a very middle eastern vibe to match the way I was singing and the picture being set in Jerusalem. 

From the responses so far I guess my fears that people wouldn't understand it were unfounded. It seems to be one of the favorites on "Overcome" (the album that it is on). 

I hope it's message is a promise to you- that He is returning for you, just as sure as the sun rose this morning. Baruch Haba B'shem Adonai!

Song Story: THE RIVER

THE RIVER

I was thinking about a telling the story of a husband and wife who can't relate to each other anymore. The images that came to mind where the frustration between the couple in the movie Revolutionary Road. They both feel like their lives are not what they wanted, he's changed, she's changed, they've both become worse versions of themselves.


Where the phrase "there is a river- fire, water" came from I found out later. But when I first said it I had no idea what it meant- only that I really loved it. That's what people talked about when they say the song wrote itself or it came from somewhere else. I say it came from the Holy spirit. 


The song wasn't finished until just before I recorded it about 8 months after I began it. The story changed from a fictional couple to my own life. I combined the story of this married couple with a real life relationship in my life. My relationship with my long time best friend. The short of it is, we grew apart after many years of hurts and disappointments. We both always wanted to be the closest of friends but couldn't find a way to pick up the pieces after one mistake after another, combined with moving away from each other, combined with growing up and becoming "adults" with careers and boyfriends.


The River became a picture of a healing place for all relationships in my mind- that of married couples, friends, and every other relationships we have. The River is not just any river or a symbol- it's literally the water of life. The River that flows from the throne of God (Revelation 22:1) Jesus called himself the living water and offered this water to the Samaritan woman at the well who had failed relationships. 


The fire in this river is God purging us and our relationships by exposing and revealing, burning away what's unhealthy, the sin that's separating us from Him and hindering our relationships. In Daniel 7 it says ..."and a river of fire was pouring out, flowing from his presence. Millions of angels ministered to him; many millions stood to attend him. Then the court began its session, and the books were opened". This is the wonderful relief of being exposed and able to be healed by God's fiery, loving correction. Wounds can only heal when they are opened and cleaned, this is what God's river of fire can do for our relationships and our hearts if we open them to Him.


Getting swept away in the river is letting go, trusting, surrendering and not needing to know what's coming next . It's being vulnerable. I know in relationships, especially close ones it's the hardest to be vulnerable and honest because we feel the other person sees us in a certain way and we don't know how to change that. I think getting in the river of God is saying I'm going to trust you God to somehow makes things new if I just open my heart and try again. 


I don't know how God does it, but He does. He makes all things new again- that's His business- He restores, reclaims, reuses- he doesn't waste anything. He's the great recycler. Nothing is beyond repair. Salvation and salvage sound pretty similar don't they?


I feel right now as I'm writing this I need to tell you- nothing is beyond being made new. I'm not telling you to stay in an abusive relationship but I am telling you to get vulnerable and swept away in the river of living water flowing from the throne of God. If the relationship is not meant to be made whole again, than at least you can be made whole again. Step into the river of living water, the fiery correction and renewal of His compassionate love and trust that although you don't see how this can end right- it will! 

 “Then He showed me the river whose water give life, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”
 -Rev. 22:1