Romans – Music Story

Something is wrong with the world.

We live in a violent world. War is raging on every continent. In fact, thirteen major wars are being fought right now, including the civil war in Myanmar that forcibly displaced over a million people. As the military was seizing power, my niece evacuated on one of the last planes out of the country.

We live in an asylum-seeking world. Thousands of Mexican migrants with their belongings stuffed into one bag are bussed to “sanctuary cities” in the U.S and simply dropped off. In a major city just a few hours from my home they fill a third of the already overwhelmed family homeless shelters.

We live in a world battling over orthodoxy. In a neighboring state, an education law resulted in the removal of hundreds of books from public schools, classic works of fiction, nonfiction history books, even Pulitzer Prize winning contemporary novels!

The apostle Paul explains the root of the problem in the New Testament book of Romans.

Three songs from Romans

1.      The Mind of God

We originated in the mind of God. We are created by, through, and for a triune God to reflect his unity and diversity.[1]

2.      Bad News! Good News!

The problem is personal. We don’t reflect God’s unity and diversity. We have fallen short of the glory of God. We are sinners. God’s solution to the problem was personal. God sent his Son, Jesus, to demonstrate that he loves us. We are forgiven and made right with God through Jesus’ death.[2]

3.      The Love of God

Surrounded by violence? Forcibly displaced? Seeking asylum? On the wrong side of orthodoxy? For those who have accepted God’s solution, nothing can separate them from the love of God.[3]

Kathy

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[1] Romans 11:33-36

[2] Romans 1:2-6, 3:10-18, 5:1-11, 10:5-13

[3] Romans 8:31-39

Son of God’s Love – Music Story

I’ve been rescued, freed, and forgiven by Jesus, God’s Son whom he dearly loves. Jesus, the exact image of the invisible God, is Creator and supreme over all creation. He is worth singing about.

Jesus is God
Jesus is Creator
Jesus is Supreme

From the musical “The Majesty of the Maker!” this video is scrolling playback of a song based on Colossians 1:15-17.

Kathy

Click here to download 50-page PDF of the musical: book, music in lead sheet format, lyrics.

Click here to read Colossians 1.

Print (PDF lead sheet) and/or digital (MusicXML) sheet music is available for Son of God’s Love.

Click here for PDF.

    Click here for MusicXML.
(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.)

Secret Lives – Music Story

Naked without their cloaks of verdant green, the twisted remains of once majestic trees lie wrecked on the ground, their roots too shallow to hold them upright in the violent wind, their grotesque shapes now laid bare.

Naked without the luxuriant cloak of cultural correctness, what shape would a violent wind uncover if my world view be so shallow that I lay uprooted, exposed, and wrecked on the ground? 

From the musical The Majesty of the Maker! this video is scrolling playback of the song.

Kathy

Click here to download 50-page PDF of the musical: book, music in lead sheet format, lyrics.

Click here to read about shallow world views.

The song asserts that children are hard-wired to believe in God. Click here and here to read why.

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for Secret Lives.

Click here for print sheet music.

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.)

Ten Years (Daddy Daughter Dance) – Music Story

According to the BB King classic, “Let the Good Times Roll,” good times happen when you get together, spend some cash, and have some fun. The coronavirus smeared King’s picture of a good time.

Sara turned ten on March 17, 2020. Just four days after her birthday her family began sheltering in place. She could no longer get together with friends, spend some cash, and have some fun. She missed important milestones. School functions, including her spring concert, were cancelled. School moved online with E-Learning assignments. Her daddy was worried how this would impact her life. 

She assumed responsibility for doing her own laundry. She learned how to make pancakes from scratch. How to identify animal bones she found near her home. She used the Internet and Legos to entertain her out-of-state nephew. She helped build a monarch butterfly nursery. She curled up with her parents after dinner to watch Star Trek Discovery. How will she remember 2020?

I had written a song for each of Sara’s birthdays, but not her tenth. I was not sure what to write. Then her daddy made a casual statement during dinner one evening. He said these are the best years of his life! I incorporated that phrase in her tenth birthday song. From the album “Silly or Celebratory – Songs for Sara Lily” this video is scrolling playback of the song.

Kathy

Click here for BB King’s “Let the Good Times Roll.”

Print lead sheet music is available for Ten Years (Daddy Daughter Dance).

Click here for PDF.

Do you teach or play the cello, keyboard, guitar, or bass? Ten Years (Daddy Daughter Dance) is on SmartMusic, the comprehensive music practice app!

Click here to practice the music. Click here for SmartMusic help.

You can change key and instrumentation with MusicXML – digital sheet music.

Click here for MusicXML.
(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.)

Sophisticated Lady – Music Story

Our granddaughter turned nine yesterday. Over the years Grandpa and I have taken lots of pictures and videos of her. Some grandparents carry around a brag book, a little photo album that fits in a purse or shirt pocket and holds a dozen or so snapshots of their grandchildren. Our brag books were on our smart phones. Now they’re in the cloud.

We delight in watching Sara grow up. We want to remember all of it. So smart phone in hand, we’ve snapped away happily. Last year her parents asked for copies of our brag books. So, I organized the photos by year, saved them to a thumb drive, gift wrapped the drive, and put it under the Christmas tree for my daughter and son-in-law to open on Christmas Eve. I was shocked to discover that in the last nine years Grandpa and I have taken 2,560 photos and videos of her! What a treasure trove of memories.

This birthday song came about because of those photos and videos. ­This music story is a brag book of sorts. So, if you grit your teeth when a grandmother opens her purse and pulls out her brag book, I’ll understand why you are skipping this music story. However, it has a surprise ending. You won’t want to miss that.

From the album “Silly or Celebratory” this video is scrolling playback of the song.

Kathy

PS. Sara approved of the photos in this song.

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for Sophisticated Lady.

Click here for print sheet music.

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.)

I Cry to God – Music Story

Job was caught in a storm of pain. He lost it all – his children, wealth, his health, reputation, his happiness. Job didn’t deserve this. He was a good man, blameless and upright, a man who worshiped God. So, Job vented angrily, why did God let this happen to him? Wasn’t God perverting justice by letting him suffer?

Now God was not put off by Job’s anger, bitterness, and complaints. God was there for him. He appeared to Job. He spoke to Job’s heart. God didn’t explain why. He asked Job to explain who and how. Who made it all, Job? You? Do you understand how God put it all together? Do you understand how God created the earth, the dry land, the water cycle? Do you understand how God carefully crafted each animal to thrive where he placed it? Job, are you wise enough to do this?

Job couldn’t answer God’s creation questions. They exposed his ignorance and God’s wisdom. He realized there must be hidden circumstances, information about the past or future that Job couldn't know. That God didn’t share it didn’t matter because God was there for him. Job saw and heard God and that was enough. Job now realized he had made wrong assumptions about God’s goodness, love, and justice. He let go of his anger and bitterness. He withdrew his complaints.

Good people suffer, crushed by their circumstances. And, like Job, blame God. Where is God when it hurts? God is not put off by anger, bitterness, and complaints. God is here. He is with us. We see God and know what Job couldn’t. God bears the scars of appalling injustice and horrific pain. We hear him say that he bore those scars so we might live. Instead of explaining why we suffer, God wraps his scars around our weeping hearts.

Can you imagine how raw Job felt? From the musical The Majesty of the Maker! this video is scrolling playback of the song.

Kathy

Click here to download 50-page PDF of the musical: book, music in lead sheet format, lyrics.

Click here and here and here to read God’s creation questions.

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for I Cry to God.

Click here for print sheet music (lead sheet format).

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.) 

Christmas Every Day – Music Story

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 will 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.

Kathy

Click here to download 50-page PDF of the musical: book, music in lead sheet format, lyrics.

Click here and here to read about the city.

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for Christmas Every Day.

Click here for print sheet music.

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.)

(Quotes are from The Living Bible.)

Connections - Music Story

Why is a biblical worldview so disturbing? Disturbing to those who adhere to the Bible. Disturbing to those who do not. Could it be because, in a biblical worldview, things that are true match what is real? And reality can be deeply disturbing. We want truth to be the stories we tell about the world and about ourselves. But what if our stories contradict what is real? And what if reality makes headlines?

God made headlines!

The paper is a little tattered, but you can clearly see the April 24, 1992 Chicago Tribune headline: NASA satellite discovery is ‘like looking at God’. Measurements made by COBE confirmed that the universe had a beginning, which kind of beginning, and that galaxies could form after the beginning.

However, the headline is disturbing because it contradicts two stories we tell about the world:

·         The story that we don’t need God to explain the universe.

·         The story that God created the universe six to ten thousand years ago.

Space and time itself had a beginning! And the space-time theorems show that all universes that expand on average (including the multiverse) must have a beginning. But, whatever has a beginning must have a cause. Whatever caused the universe to exist must be infinite, powerful, and lie outside of space and time, or, according to the headline, it’s ‘like looking at God’. This reads like the first verse in the Bible, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” 

COBE measurements also helped to determine that the universe is over 13 billion years old. Then the WMAP satellite, launched in 2001, gave even greater precision to the age of the universe, 13.77 ± 0.059 billion years!

The satellites measured reality. What do we do when reality contradicts our stories?

Kathy

Connections, from the album “Apologia,” was written in honor of Darwin’s Day 2009. This video is scrolling playback of the song.

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for Connections.

Click here for print sheet music (lead sheet format).

Click here for digital sheet music for jazz 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.)

Click here to learn about COBE.

Incidentally, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.”) has been criticized as a secular understanding of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Click here to read why.

The Gospel Creed - Music Story

November 22, 1963. I approached the check-out counter of a Ma and Pa grocery store. The cashier looked stunned and frightened. I could hear a voice in the background. When I looked around I was relieved to see that we were the only people in the store. In a trembling voice he said, “The radio. President Kennedy has just been shot.”

Five years later a different voice on the radio was singing this about Kennedy:

“Anybody here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed lotta people but it seems the good they die young
I just looked around and he's gone”

The song, “Abraham, Martin and John,” became a folk-pop standard worldwide. It was so significant that, forty years after it was written, historian Ace Collins included it in his book, Songs Sung Red, White, and Blue: The Stories Behind America’s Best-Loved Patriotic Songs.

Check out the book here.

 What were people saying about Jesus five years after he was crucified?

Critical scholars consider ancient documents as historical if they have a historical setting and the author is named. Based on those two criteria at least six of the Apostle Paul’s letters are considered authentic by skeptical, liberal, and conservative scholars. When you trace the timeline of events in these letters, you discover that four to six years after Jesus died, people were reciting this creedal statement about him:

“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures

He was buried

He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures

He appeared to Peter …”

The creed was so significant that twenty years later, Paul included it in his letter to the Corinthians, a letter skeptics consider as authentic.

Jonathan Morrow lays out the timeline of events in his book, Questioning the Bible: 11 Major Challenges to the Bible’s Authority.

Check out the book here.

Five years after the assassination the song said JFK was gone. Five years after the crucifixion the creed said Jesus is alive.

Happy Easter! He is risen! He is risen indeed! From the album “Main Street” this video is scrolling playback of the song.

Kathy

Click here to for “3 Startling Truths about the Early Church from the Pre-New Testament Texts.”

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for The Gospel Creed.

Click here for print sheet music (lead sheet format).

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 Odds - Music Story

Who? Where? What?

There was an accident near our house involving a pickup and a sedan. The drivers were OK, the sedan sustained scratches, but the pickup was badly damaged. Traffic patrol arrived. The driver of the pickup said the sedan ran a red light and hit him. The sedan driver angrily denied it and said the accident was the pickup driver’s fault.

Two eye witnesses came forward. Who were they, where were they, what did they see? The eye witnesses didn’t know each other or the drivers involved in the accident. They were driving the two cars stopped behind the pickup. Each saw the light turn green then each saw the pickup enter the intersection. The sedan driver was ticketed for running a red light.

The Genesis creation account seems like the scene of a traffic accident, with people giving different versions of what happened. According to some, plants were created before the sun. If that is so, others retort, then Genesis ran a red light, damaging the credibility of the rest of the Bible.

But, wait! Genesis 1 says there was an eye witness to the creation events. Who? The Spirit of God. Where? He was on the surface of the water that covered a formless and empty earth. What? He saw darkness. Can anything else confirm this? Yes! Psalms tells us that primordial earth was a water world. The book of Job tells us that clouds covered primordial earth like a garment, wrapping it in thick darkness.

"Let there be light"

The earth was wet. The sky was dark. Sunlight couldn’t penetrate the clouds. The first creation miracle transformed earth’s atmosphere so that a little bit of sunshine could reach the surface of the ocean where God’s Spirit was working. When we ask the eyewitness to creation where he was and what he saw, the order of the creation miracles in Genesis 1 reads like the history of planet earth. What are the odds of that happening?

From the musical The Majesty of the Maker! this video is scrolling playback of the song.

Kathy

Click here to download 50-page PDF of the musical: book, music in lead sheet format, lyrics.

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for The Odds.

Click here for print sheet music.

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.)

Click here to see a Creation Timeline Chart (Genesis 1 creation days superimposed on the natural history of planet earth).

Click here for the booklet, Genesis One: A Scientific Perspective.

Lament - Music Story

I’ve seen what being unwanted does to children. I am a nurse. I spent most of my nursing career caring for unwanted children.

I am a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, committed to valuing what he values. Above all he values people! It is God who created our inmost being and knit us together in the womb. All are made in his image. To value others as Jesus values them is to acknowledge that all – wanted and unwanted – bear the image of God from conception onward. To value what Jesus values is to be for the life of the fetus and against its abortion.

Those wishing to have an abortion are also created in the image of God. Jesus values them as much as he values their unwanted, unborn children. To value them as God values them is to demonstrate his grace and mercy. It’s to marshal community resources (housing, employment, education, health care, legal aid, etc.) so they can bring their unwanted, unborn children to term. It is to place unwanted children in homes where they are wanted, loved, and cared for (foster care, adoption, group homes, treatment centers, etc.).

Unwanted children may need intensive community support. Agencies helping them are often funded by state dollars. I am grieved and outraged by the values of the State of Illinois. Illinois “balanced the budget” on the backs of children by postponing Medicaid payments. Social service agencies dependent on Medicaid dollars for operating costs could not make payroll or pay their bills. They were forced to close their doors.

I echo The Declaration of Independence (all are created equal, endowed by their Creator with an unalienable Right to life) and President Reagan’s 1984 Proclamation on the Sanctity of Life.

From the album “This & That” this video is scrolling playback of the song. It’s a lament for all children – wanted and unwanted - who have died in the womb.

Kathy 

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for Lament.

Click here for print sheet music.

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.)

Click here to read The Declaration of Independence.

Click here to read Reagan’s Proclamation 5147 – National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 1984.

Ain't No Angel - Music Story

A knock on my front door. I open it to two well-groomed gentlemen wearing ties, holding some brochures and what could be a Bible. They tell me they are in my neighborhood to talk about faith. I love to talk about Jesus so I do not shut the door.

They ask some probing questions about life. I answer their questions. They are respectful and engaging. And impressively brave to knock on doors in my neighborhood. I listen for several minutes, agreeing with much of what they say. Then finally, almost as an aside, they mention Jesus.

“Who is Jesus?” I ask. “Is he Yahweh, the Creator God of the Old Testament?”

“No,” they answer.

“Then, who is he?”

That’s the pivotal faith question. If Jesus is not Yahweh, then who is he? A good man? A teacher? A prophet? “Who do people say that I am?” Jesus asked his disciples. “Who do you say that I am?” Much hinges on the answer to that question.

The gentlemen at my door tell me that Jesus is a created being, an angel, a small ‘g’ god. They say he is wisdom, the first of God’s creation.

“That’s confusing,” I reply. “Are you saying that wisdom didn’t exist until God created it? That the Creator of the universe somehow wasn’t wise or he lacked wisdom, but then he created it?”

When I evaluate their claims against the claims of historic, orthodox Christianity, I find them wanting. The early church fathers condemned the belief that Jesus was created, calling it heresy. Their reasons are still valid today. The writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus “ain’t no angel.” He is far greater than any angel. He is Yahweh the Son in human form come to save us.

From the album “Westminster” this video is scrolling playback of the song. Feel free to correct the vernacular of the lyrics, if you must.

Kathy

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for Ain't No Angel.

Click here for print sheet music.

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.)

Is Jesus really the Lord he claimed to be? Former skeptic, Josh McDowell and his son, Sean McDowell, take a fresh look at questions commonly raised today in this classic book, More than a Carpenter. Check it out here.

Great Are You Lord - Music Story

On the first page of his autobiography St. Augustine of Hippo wrote, “Lord, teach me to … praise Thee.” Then he wrote Confessions in praise of God. I wondered why, given the eloquence of his praise, he never set his prose to music.

Music played a pivotal role in his spiritual journey. Music moved him deeply; he was intensely stirred by singing the Psalms. He was musically literate. His six books on music influenced music in the West for centuries to come. A history of hymn writing preceded him. His contemporaries wrote hymns. If Augustine wished to praise God, why did he not set his praises to music?

I learned that for Augustine:

·         Music was an intellectual pursuit, not an artistic endeavor.

·         Studying the structure and components of music made sense of the world and man’s place in it.

·         Music could draw a person to God, but it gratified the senses.

·         Gratifying the senses took a back seat to intellectual pursuit.

·         Meaning was more important than emotions.

St. Augustine was critical of his emotional response to music!

God answered Augustine’s opening prayer in Confessions. His autobiography is filled with praise to God. I wondered, could I take Augustine’s written praises and turn them into praise music, something that Augustine’s view of music wouldn’t allow? Plainchant and responsorial singing were the genre of his day. But the exuberance of his praise suggests a music style that moves. Perhaps I owe St. Augustine an apology for setting his prose to swing.

From the album “The HymnBook – Thirty-Four Hundred Years of Praise” this video is scrolling playback of the song.

Kathy

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for Great Are You Lord.

Click here for print sheet music. 

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.)

Click here for a modern translation of Confessions.