Click here for digital sheet music.
(MusicXML™ is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music. Check
the help files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML™
files.)
What if the seals of Revelation are end-time events that take a lifetime or more to
unfold?
What if Jesus opened the
first seal, a rider on a white horse, seventy years ago?
Formation of the State of Israel, the first seal. As a horse
carries a rider on its back, God graciously carried Jews to the land he
promised their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, where, on May 14, 1948, they
established the first Jewish state in two thousand years. Israel has military
strength (a bow), has won sovereignty (given a victor’s crown), and has fought
several wars with neighboring Muslim nations, extending its borders (a conqueror
bent on conquest).
Terrorism, the second seal. A rider on a red horse takes
peace from the earth, making men slay each other. Violence and murder not only
headline the news but touch us personally. GlobalIncidentMap.com monitors terrorism,
gang activity, etc. in real time. The Global Terrorism Index ranks the nations
of the world according to terrorist activity.
Hunger, the third seal. A rider on a black horse weighs grain for bread against a
manual worker’s daily wage. The laborer will only be able to buy one loaf of wheat
bread with what he earned that day. Yet there will be enough wine for people to
party and become drunk. In developing countries one in eight people is at risk
for hunger, nearly one in ten in my community. According to WikiAnswers the
average daily wage in the world is $1.65. In many places that’s not enough to
buy a loaf of bread!
Hate crime, the fourth seal. Death comes riding on a pale
horse followed by a rider named Hell. The riders are given authority over one
fourth of the earth, either earth’s geography or its population, to kill those
they hate. Their crimes against humanity include mass killings, forced deportation,
genocidal rape, etc. The UN secretary-general noted that the frequent occurrence
of ethnic cleansing in the 1990s was not the by-product of war. Rather, civilians
were deliberately targeted in an attempt to expel or eliminate segments of the
population.
Christian Martyrs. When the fifth seal is opened, those who are
slain for being faithful to the Word of God and for proclaiming Jesus, cry out
to God for justice. The World Watch List ranks the top fifty countries where
Christians face the greatest persecution. A world map at Persecution.org shows the
thirty most recent persecution reports, including the deaths of Christians
killed for their faith.
What if …? Then the first five seals of Revelation read like my
lifetime!
And … Hate crime and violence against Christians will spread and intensify until
the sixth seal is opened. The apostle Peter encouraged Christians to stand firm
in the face of persecution. From the album “Apologia – Answers for Troubled Minds” this video is music
overlaid on slides.
Click here for digital sheet music.
(MusicXML™ is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music.
Check
the help files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML™
files.)
The present influences
what we believe about the past.
Who was Jesus?
A myth? A good man? A teacher? A prophet? Much hinges on the answer to that
question.
The Apostle John
answered that question in the prologue to his Gospel. Jesus, the Word, was in
the beginning. He was with God. He was God. He created all there is. He became
a man. He was rejected. He gives life to all who believe in him.
Did the early
disciples actually believe this? Or was this a later construct?
The present
influences what we believe about the past.
The John
Rylands Library at Manchester, England houses fragments of ancient writings. In
1934 a fellow at St. John’s College at Oxford was sorting through some papyri
from Egypt. He found a small fragment of the Gospel of John. Since penmanship
constantly changes over time, papyri can be dated by its writing style. Originally
dated by paleography to 117 – 138 AD, most scholars currently it date to 125 –
150 AD.
Earliest fragment of the Gospel of John
John was an
eye witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Although it is
traditionally believed that John wrote his Gospel while in Ephesus around 90 AD,
he most likely wrote it before the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem was destroyed in
A.D. 70.[1]
His eyewitness account was copied and a copy made its way to Egypt. Within 100
years of Jesus’ death, Christians in Egypt had written eye witness testimony
that Jesus lived, died, was buried and came back to life, and that he is God!
The present
influences what we believe about the past.
The John
Rylands Papyrus P52 shows that there was no time for myth and legend
to develop between Jesus’ death and the Gospel of John showing up in Egypt. The
early disciples believed Jesus was God. This was not a later construct.
I set John’s
prologue to music and incorporated it in a musical. This video is scrolling
playback of the song.
Kathy
Print (PDF) and
digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for The
Word are available at the MusicStories shop on Etsy.com.
How do you
celebrate your eighth birthday when you have a touch of Irish in your blood and
were born on St. Patrick’s Day? Have a sleepover with four girlfriends and do
as many mythical things as you can think of!
Wear fairy
wings.
Make dragon
snot slime.
Store slime in dragon
eggs.
Make mermaid
brew from instant.
Toast with edible Jolly Rancher shot glasses.
Serve unicorn
poop ice cream with birthday cake.
And, of
course, your friends howl “Happy Birthday
to You” like they were werewolves.
From the album
“Silly of Celebratory – Songs for Sara Lily” this video is scrolling playback
of the song.
Kathy
You can get
print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for Magic Eight.
Click here for digital sheet music for pop/rock band.
(MusicXML™ is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music. Check
the help files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML™
files.)
A society governed
by lists is easily corrupted. The words can be twisted. Even a list written on
stone can be attacked with chisel and hammer.
His nation had
deteriorated into a checklist society because their worship had deteriorated
into a checklist religion. The law was intended to direct the passions of the
heart toward its Maker. But they twisted it to justify unrestrained passion.
Trickery and bribery were passion’s chisel and hammer; injustice, quarrels,
fighting, and violence its outcome. The nation had become thoroughly corrupt. As
a result God was sending a brutal people to conquer and deport them.
Twice Habakkuk
asked God “why.” Both times God answered with “who,” inviting trust.
How can God be
trusted when injustice rules the day and tomorrow is terrifying? Habakkuk considered
the defining moment in his nation’s history. They had been slaves. God was
angered by their circumstances. In God’s wrath he was merciful. He miraculously
rescued them from slavery. As Habakkuk focused on God’s character and power, he
trembled in awe. God had not changed. Even when angered, God was merciful. He
was still Savior! He could be trusted!
Habakkuk was a
singer-songwriter. He set his thoughts to music. He composed a worship song
that would be his prayer then and when tomorrow became terrifying.
From the album
“Apologia – Answers for Troubled Minds” this video is scrolling playback of
music from the third chapter of Habakkuk. (Click here for music from the first
two chapters.)
You can get
print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for The Song of Habakkuk – Part V.
Click
here for print sheet music (lead sheet format).
Click here
for digital sheet music for trombone & strings.
(MusicXML™ is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music.
Check
the help files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML™
files.)
Everywhere he
looked he saw violence and injustice. He was powerless to change it.
He was a
singer-songwriter, a musician, a prophet, a student of his culture. He was
deeply disturbed by the pervasive moral decay all around him. No one was able
to stem the tide of violence and corruption. The wicked outnumbered the
innocent. They intimidated the blameless, twisting the law, perverting justice.
Ironically, these were God’s people who so flagrantly violated God’s laws.
He cried out
to God, “How can you tolerate this? Why aren’t you doing something about this?”
God replied, “Watch
and see what I am about to do.” God would send a brutal, godless nation to
conquer and deport them. These warriors were a proud people who worshipped the
works of their own hands. They were a law to themselves, believing that their
cruelty was justified; their might made brutality right.
Confused, he
complained to God. “Why do you let the wicked destroy people who are better
than they? How can you condone this?”
God answered
him, assuring him that these brutal people, too, would be punished. The wicked,
never satisfied with what they gained, would bring about their own downfall and
death, their gains turning to ashes in their hands. But the righteous person
trusts God and lives! God’s justice would prevail and his glory would cover the
earth as the waters cover the sea.
Twice Habakkuk
asked God “why” and both times God answered with “who.” Habakkuk wrote down his
questions and God’s answers in the first two chapters of the book by his name. Then,
in the third chapter, Habakkuk modeled what trust in God looks like in a
morally corrupt society, one ripe for punishment.
From the album
“Apologia - Answers for Troubled Minds” this video is scrolling playback of music from the first two
chapters of Habakkuk. (Music from the third chapter here.)
Click here and here to read the first two chapters of Habakkuk.
Kathy
You can get
print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for The Song of Habakkuk I-IV.
Click here for digital sheet music for orchestra.
(MusicXML™ is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music. Check
the help files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML™
files.)
Everyone –
naughty and nice – longs for a place that meets the deepest longings of the
human heart, a place where it’s like Christmas every day of the year.
A place where
there is
·Community
instead of privilege
·Forgiveness
instead of payback
·Harmony
instead of conflict
·Intimacy
instead of walls
·Transparency
instead of hidden motives
A place where bullying,
violence, and sexual harassment are unknown. Thievery can’t be found. Jealousy
and envy have no quarter.
A place where
there are no good-byes. A place of permanent prosperity, where no one lives in
squalor or want. A place of generosity. Where random acts of kindness are
common place. Where there is thrill in discovery and creativity. And joy over what
others have and accomplish.
This is a
place where there is no evil. Where justice and mercy are perfectly balanced.
It’s God’s place. His city. It’s out of
this world, but coming soon. He promises, “Everyone who conquers will inherit
all these blessings, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”
Those who
enter, enter by his rule. “See, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me, to
repay everyone according to the deeds he has done. I am the A and the Z, the
Beginning and the End, the First and Last. Blessed forever are all who are
washing their robes, to have the right to enter in through the gates of the
city and to eat the fruit from the Tree of Life.”
May you enter
that city. Merry Christmas to all!
From the musical
The Majesty of the Maker! this video
is scrolling playback of the song.
Click here for digital sheet music.
(MusicXML™ is the standard open format for sharing digital sheet music.
Check
the help files in your music notation app for directions on importing MusicXML™
files.)
