The Silence of the World - Music Story

What if the Arabic letter N (for Nasara, an early Islamic term for Christians) were spray painted on the front door of homes and businesses of Christians in my town? What if terrorists gave me the choice to convert to Islam, leave town, or die? What would I do? Would I be as courageous as the thousands of Christians in Iraq who refused to deny Jesus and fled with little more than the clothes on their backs?

Iraq has a rich Christian heritage. Jesus and his disciples spoke Aramaic. Shortly after Jesus resurrection his disciples took the gospel to the Aramaic speaking people of Iraq. Now they are being annihilated. In just one decade the Christian population in Iraq dropped by 80%! According to the March 22, 2015 broadcast of 60 Minutes, “More than 125,000 of Iraq’s Christians have been forced to flee the homeland they have lived in for nearly 2,000 years because of ISIS violence and threats.”

One hundred million Christians worldwide will suffer persecution, imprisonment, or death this year because they are Christians. The numbers are startling! Don’t let the shock value wear off. Don’t become numb to the plight of Christians who are facing terrorism.

Jesus sent his disciples out into the world where they would face hardship and death. He prayed for them. Not that they would be insulated from danger. He prayed that their faith would be protected in the face of danger. We have the privilege of echoing that prayer, of praying with and for Christians worldwide on November 6, the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

I wrote this song as an expression of solidarity with persecuted believers. From the album “Main Street – Songs for Today” this video is scrolling playback of the song.

Kathy

You can get print (PDF) and/or digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for The Silence of the World.

Click here for print sheet music.

Click here for digital sheet music for SATB choir and piano.

(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 the 60 Minutes segment on Iraqi Christians.

Click here to learn how to pray for the persecuted church.

Jesus Loves Me - Music Story

Chord progressions evoke emotions and even suggest lyrics! Play this chord progression slowly on your guitar, keyboard, or music app:

What do you feel? What ideas go through your mind? As I was playing this progression, I felt a yearning to be loved perfectly. This reminded me that Jesus loves me. Perfectly, completely! So I wrote song lyrics describing his love for me and set them to a simple melody accompanied by the chords. However, the song was incomplete. I left out why I hunger for perfect love.

A month later a friend invited me to hear a Christian leader speak at the Union League Club downtown Chicago. Every other month Moody Business Network hosts a luncheon for the business community. According to their website, “Each MBN event features a guest speaker from the top ranks of business, athletics or academia who shares their life story.”

As Greg Koukl, Founder and President of Stand to Reason, shared his story, he explained my longing for perfect love. God judges my behavior and attitudes perfectly for he knows my motives and intentions and the depth of harm I have caused others. God cannot overlook that harm. His justice is perfect, crushing, condemning. Jesus loves me, a condemned person! He loves me so much that he bore the weight of God’s perfect justice so I don’t have to. He loves me completely, perfectly! His love for me makes it possible for God to offer me perfect mercy.

I incorporated those thoughts into the song. It was almost complete. After weaving a few notes from the children’s hymn, “Jesus Loves Me,” in the music, the song was finished.

From the album “This & That – A Little Bit of Everything” this video is music scrolling playback of a song based on John 15:12-14.

Kathy

Print (PDF) and digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for Jesus Loves Me are available.

   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.) 

Click here to watch Greg talk about God’s justice and mercy.

Flutterby Farm - Music Story

Hi. I’m Sara Lily. I’m helping Grandma with this blog. Grandma waited until this summer to write my six-year-old song. It’s not a birthday song. It’s a song about my butterflies. Daddy thinks it’s a rap.

God gave us milkweed plants and Grandma and I prayed for butterflies. Then Mommy and I found Monarch butterfly eggs! Grandma went to the Dollar Store and bought containers big enough for milkweed leaves. Grandpa found netting and rubber bands and we made a Flutterby Farm.

Mommy turned my old fish tank into a big Flutterby Farm and I decorated it with stickers.

Now Mommy and I look for butterfly eggs on the bottom of milkweed leaves. We pick the leaves and put them on wet paper towels and put them in my Flutterby Farm.

A few days later the eggs hatch. You need a magnifying glass to see baby caterpillars. They eat and eat and grow.

Milkweed leaves get dry, so we pick new ones for them to eat. Mommy wraps the stem of each leaf in a wet paper towel. The caterpillars eat and eat and get too big for their skin. They wiggle out of it five times. They grow pretty big. And they make an awful mess!

Finally the caterpillars crawl to the top of the Flutterby Farm and make a silk button. Sometimes they attach it to the wall, sometimes to the netting. They hang from the button and wiggle out of their skin again. Now they are a green blob.

A couple weeks later a butterfly pops out! We take butterflies outside and carefully put them on a milkweed plant. We carry them on a stick so they can hang upside down. We don’t want to hurt their wings.

After their wings dry out and they fix their tongue, they fly away. But they love the milkweed plants God gave us and come back and lay eggs. Last summer we raised 23 Monarch butterflies.

Sara Lily

From the album “Silly or Celebratory – Songs for Sara Lily” this video is scrolling playback of the song.

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

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 the DVD, Metamorphosis, about the beauty and design of butterflies.

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.

Loon Lake - Music Story

The February, 2012 SmartMusic® blog announced, “Create new music to win your dream vacation from Garritan!” Should I? Could I?

The contest rules were very specific. The composition had to use Garritan virtual instruments and incorporate an exact series of notes (G A Eb G A Eb Bb) and last no more than ninety seconds. It must evoke the atmosphere of a vacation destination. Composers would upload an audio of their composition to the Facebook contest page. Facebook users would click on the audio files, listen to them, and vote for their favorite. A panel of judges would pick the winner from the ten entries having the most votes.

I grew up vacationing in one of National Geographic‘s fifty destinations of a lifetime. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota is a million-acre paradise, a wilderness of a thousand lakes with fifteen hundred miles of canoe routes. You leave behind the clamor of civilization and become immersed and enthralled by the sights and sounds of nature.

My most memorable vacation in the BWCA was with Bob. We honeymooned there, portaging from lake to lake, followed by a pack of boy scouts for a mile or so! The most memorable sounds in the BWCA are loons calling to each other around sunset.

I wrote lyrics, marrying memories of our honeymoon and the calls of the loons. I set the lyrics to a melody, incorporating the required series of notes. Then, using virtual instruments, tried to imitate loon vocalizations. Garritan virtual instruments performed the composition. I uploaded the audio to the contest page and people voted. Did I win? No, my song didn’t get many votes. But I wrote it for the man I love. He voted for it. It was his heart that I had won. Happy forty-sixth anniversary, Bob!

From the album “Paper Book Colors - Songs from Nature” this video is scrolling playback of the song.

Kathy

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

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 the list of National Geographic's 50 destinations of a lifetime.

Guano - Music Story

Greed brings out the worst in … (you think I’m going to say “people,” don’t you?)

Robins!

Especially the ones that raise their young under our neighbor’s eaves.

When the serviceberry tree by our deck is in bloom, the robins lay their eggs.

The chicks are voracious eaters and soon fledge.

Not long after they fledge our serviceberry tree is covered with bright red berries. And robin greed kicks in!

This sordid music story is a robin tale about greed. From the album “Paper Book Colors - Songs from Nature” this video is scrolling playback of the song.

Kathy

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

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.)

This Is Our Prayer - Music Story

While he was in prison the Apostle Paul wrote to his friends at Philippi. He was in chains simply because he was a Christian. Now his friends at Philippi were facing chains. Paul prayed for them, that their love would overflow more and more. That they would grow spiritually, discerning and doing what is right, leading blameless lives to the glory of God.

At the same time that our life group was studying this, our pastor was preaching a sermon series on the meme “coexist.”

According to coexist.org, “There is a crisis of understanding that tears at the social fabric of societies around the world. Globalization has outpaced our understanding of one another, creating divisions that plague communities with prejudice, hate and violence.”

I wonder. Does understanding each other break the cycle of prejudice, hate, and violence? Was it a “crisis of understanding” that put Paul in chains? Or was Paul in chains because his enemies wanted to suppress Christianity?

You could understand the people you live and work with and still hate them. But when you love with the love of Jesus, you are patient and kind, not arrogant or rude, not irritable or resentful, not selfish, not glad about injustice done to anyone. Paul prayed that his friends would love those who want to suppress Christianity, be irreproachable in their treatment of them, and continue to share Jesus.

Christians face persecution in over 60 countries in the world. It is a crisis of love that tears at the fabric of society! Our pastor said that because the love of Jesus can break the cycle of prejudice, hate, and violence, the world needs more of the Gospel, not less.

I want Paul’s prayer to be my prayer. So I put the first chapter of Philippians to song. From the album “Main Street – Songs for Today” this video is scrolling playback of the song.

Kathy

Print (PDF) and digital (MusicXML™) sheet music for This Is Our Prayer is available at the MusicStories shop on Etsy.com.

Click here for "This Is Our Prayer" at MusicStories.

Click here to learn why Christians worldwide face persecution.