A Sure Bet - Music Story

The Psalmist said the moon is God’s faithful witness in the sky and the heavens declare the glory of God. According to the Apostle John that glory is full of grace and truth.

The heavens declare the glory of God!

A universe declaring the glory of God will radiate truth. The assumption that the universe can be accurately measured flows out of a biblical worldview, then, not a secular one. Scientists are fallible, but the universe they measure cannot lie.

What does this mean for radiometric and other scientific dating methods? The count of layers in tree rings, ice cores, and varves truthfully gives their ages. Tree rings take us back 11,000 years, ice layers in Antarctica 740,000 years, the Green River Shales (varves) 6 million years. Tree ring chronology correlates with carbon 14 dating. Known volcanic eruptions left dust layers in the ice core layer matching the year of their eruption. The 100,000 year pattern in the ice cores and varves closely matches the 100,000 year cycle in the earth’s orbit around the sun.

God’s Word made astonishing claims about his World that were amazingly confirmed thousands of years later: the universe had a beginning, has undergone constant expansion, and is exquisitely fine-tuned for life. Scientists have been able to confirm these claims because both God’s Word and his World radiate truth.

Since God’s Word got it right about Creation, it is worth considering what it says about the Creator. He loves us so much that he became a man, died in our place, was buried and raised from the dead, and has the power to create his life is us. The Creator claims his promises are just as reliable as his laws governing Creation. What the Creator promises is guaranteed because his Creation radiates truth.

God’s promises are A Sure Bet. 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 A Sure Bet.

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

Click here for digital sheet music for country 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.)

This applet lets you compare the 100,000 year eccentricity of earth’s orbit with the 100,000 year pattern in the Vostok Ice Core.

Click here to read about the Green River Shales Formation.

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.)

Shout Praise - Music Story

Sunday, March 29, A.D. 33*

A large crowd from Jerusalem found out that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They went out to meet him and to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.

The disciples brought Jesus a donkey and a colt and he sat on them.

Daughter of Zion,

Your king comes to you,

Riding on a donkey.

The crowd spread their cloaks on the road. Others cut branches and spread them on the road.

At the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives the crowd began to praise God for the miracles they had seen. They went on before him and followed behind, shouting,

"Hosanna!"

"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"

"Hosanna in the highest!"

Some of the Pharisees said to Jesus, "Rebuke your disciples!” He replied, "If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

Jesus entered the temple, looked around, and left. 

Monday, March 30, A.D. 33

Jesus returned to the temple. The blind and lame came to him and he healed them. Seeing this, children shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David.”

The priests and teachers were indignant and said, “Do you hear what these children are saying?" Jesus replied, “From the lips of children God has ordained praise.”

From the album “Hope Giver” this video is scrolling playback of the song.

Kathy

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

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.)

*Based on this date for the crucifixion.

Portions of this event are recorded in each of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.

Watermark - Music Story

What would convince a skeptic that the claims of Christianity are true: that the Creator became a man, died for our sins, was buried, and rose from the dead? And that he offers eternal life to all who believe in him.

Joe believed that the Gospels were legends fabricated long after Jesus died. He bought into the radical beliefs of the Jesus Seminar. “They’re eye witness accounts,” I countered, “written within sixty years of Jesus’ death. Do the research.”

Gary Habermas did the research and found that most critical scholars (skeptical, liberal, and conservative) regard twelve facts about Jesus as historical, including these four facts:

Jesus died by crucifixion.

His tomb was empty.

His disciples believed they saw the risen Christ.

His Church exploded on the scene.

While Joe was doing research, church exploded on his scene. Once a month on a Saturday morning Bob would join a group of men for breakfast at church. Joe asked if he could tag along. The men celebrated the miracle of new life in Christ. There was no pretense or façade. They acknowledged chaotic histories, relationships gone wrong, dark cravings, unrealized dreams. They shared how Jesus changed them, restoring relationships, rebuilding families, filling their lives with hope, meaning, and purpose. “Why do you drag me to these things?” Joe would ask Bob on the way home. Bob's expression told Joe that he loved him.

Joe’s story was messy. Unlike people from his past, when the men learned of his story, they were not accusatory, or judgmental, or vindictive. They saw him as God sees him, a person of infinite value and worth. They also didn’t justify his past. All need the forgiveness of a Savior! The Creator died for him, too, offered him forgiveness and new life.

Christianity began to ring true to Joe. And then … (From the album “This & That - A Little Bit of Everything” this video is scrolling playback of the song.)

Kathy

Amazing Grace by John Newton

Yes! God changes people. Click here to read about a life radically changed by Jesus – John Newton, writer of the beloved hymn Amazing Grace.

Click here and here to read the facts of Jesus’ life that critical scholars consider historical.

You can get print (PDF – lead sheet format) and/or digital (MusicXML™ for praise band) sheet music for Watermark.

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.)

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.

Garden of Decision - Music Story

The Garden of Eden was beautiful, filling the senses, nourishing the appetite. Yet this paradise was a very dangerous place. In the center of the Garden was a deadly tree. And one of its occupants was a liar and a murderer. That’s where God placed Adam. That’s where he created Eve. In a garden of decision.

But wait! Jesus was also in a garden of decision, contemplating a deadly tree, facing a mob led by the same liar and murderer. That’s where the Father placed his Son. In the Garden of Gethsemane.

Eden and Gethsemane – Gardens of Decision. Which decision came first? The ruinous one in Eden? The saving one in Gethsemane?

We read that grace, God’s gift of eternal life to sinners, was promised and given before the beginning of time. We read that Jesus, the lamb, was slain for sin from the creation of the world. It’s clear. God’s decision came first. The cross precedes creation, the cross and death being the warp and weft of the Garden of Eden, death becoming personal when Adam sinned.

We are shocked that this is so. Shocked that death sustains life, physical and spiritual. Shocked that nature red in tooth and claw depicts the necessity of the cross. Shocked that a very good creation had death woven into its fabric and a murderer at its epicenter, shaking humanity with his lie. Shocked that Adam and Eve believed the lie, thinking they could disobey God with impunity.

But wait! We too live in a garden of decision. That’s where God has placed us. Creation is beautiful, filling our senses, nourishing our appetite. Yet it is a dangerous place. The murderer still spreads his lie, that disobeying God is no big deal. Do we, too, believe the lie? Do we believe that we can escape the consequences of sin apart from God’s grace and Christ’s redemptive act on the cross?

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 Garden of Decision.

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

Click here for digital sheet music for horn and 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.)

Would a loving God have made a better home for us, one without trouble and tragedy? Click here for Why the Universe Is the Way It Is.

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.