Tag: Chris Rice

Categories
Heaven Life

Trouble and Overcoming

Featured song: Breakfast Table, by Chris Rice, from his 2005 album, Amusing.

I attended a funeral yesterday for a uncle that I’ve not had much opportunity to see in the past few years. He had lived a long life, but as with everyone, the body finally wore out and he had to leave us. In the service held for him, I was again reminded that living in this world was never promised to be problem free. Jesus specifically told us about this, in John 16:33. I like the way the Message Bible has put it:

I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.

The word “difficulties” here is translated as “tribulation” or “trouble” in other versions. In the Amplified Bible, it is clarified to mean “tribulation and trials and distress and frustration”. That pretty much covers all of the things that might come my way!

This might refer to the problems I had getting through my day at work today, or dealing with conflicts within my family, or the test I have to take in that class that I am struggling with. Or it might be dealing with the loss of a family member to death. In all of those situations, Jesus says that He’s been there already, and He has already won. Referring again to the Amplified Bible, Jesus says, “I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.”

Not only has Jesus gone ahead of me and taken captive all of these problems and losses I will face, but He has given me comfort in the situation. 

I have posted a number of songs in the past that dealt with heaven, and the joy I anticipate with being there someday. Here is another one, which gives me comfort as I await my time to join my friends and family in heaven, when God sees fit to end my time here. It is sung as by a husband to the wife he has lost, but can apply to anyone we love who has gone one before us.

Was it a million miles to heaven
Too far to hear my lonely song
Or is it just my imagination
I hear you humming along
I only hold you in my dreams now
I wake up with cold and empty arms
Lord help me get through
This long night without you
And soon as the morning comes
Soon as the morning comes

Save me a seat at the breakfast table
Save me a dance around the Milky Way
And save me a thousand years
To whisper in your ears
All I’ve wanted to say
Save me a smile and an angel’s feather
Save me a walk down the streets of gold
And baby, we’ll change our minds just like old times
And maybe we’ll just fly away
Or maybe we’ll stay

My lucky doll, you’re in heaven before me
You were my taste of heaven here
Remember we loved to talk about it,
We couldn’t wait to get there
So you go on and find your way around now
But remember I’m here missing you
Do me a favor and say hey to Jesus
And tell Him I’m missing Him too
Tell Him I’m missing Him too

Then save me a seat at the breakfast table
Save me a dance around the Milky Way
And save me a thousand years
To whisper in your ears
All I’ve wanted to say
Save me a smile and an angel’s feather
Save me a walk down the streets of gold
And baby, we’ll change our minds just like old times
And maybe we’ll just fly away…

Save me a seat at the breakfast table
Save me a dance around the Milky Way
And save me a thousand years
To whisper in your ears
All I’ve wanted to say
Save me a smile and an angel’s feather
Save me a walk down the streets of gold
And baby, we’ll change our minds just like old times
And maybe we’ll just fly away…

Oh, maybe we’ll fly away, we’ll fly away

‘Cause I miss you, I miss you, I miss you, I miss you
Baby let’s fly away
We’ll fly, we’ll fly, we’ll fly,
And we’ll have forever
We’ll have forever and ever

I can’t wait to see you
I can’t wait to hold you
I can’t wait to see you
I can’t wait to hold you again

You were my taste of heaven
We’ll have forever
I can’t wait to see you
I can’t wait to hold you

Amusing, 1985, Chris Rice
Categories
Heaven

Dreaming

A dream can be such a strange thing. Somehow, my brain makes up (I presume) this bizzare story out of my memories and thoughts and what I’ve been pondering before I went to sleep. I find myself taking a tour through a building where I have to slide under the door to get from one room to another, or have to jump into a pool to get to work. And oddly enough, the absurd rules in this dream world don’t seem peculiar to me while I’m in the dream!

So what if you had a dream that was not weird, but was real and intense? What if in the dream you were not doing crazy things like I described above, but were experiencing a vivid reality that was very different from the dull reality of day-to-day life? Perhaps it could be an extension of your five senses: You can see colors that go beyond the normal visual spectrum the human eye can see. Maybe you can taste sound, hear color, see music, smell virtue, feel a fragrance. That would be an amazing experience!

In my last post, I talked about that longing for home, for that place I’ve been missing for so much of my life. I also discussed it in this post about heaven. That longing is still the desire for the peace of heaven. I know from 1 Corinthian 2:9 that “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” So I tap Chris Rice yet again for his outstanding song, Deep Enough To Dream, from his 1997 album of the same name, and hear his story of a deep, intensely real dream that is not silly and not strange, and is so wonderful that you don’t want to leave the dream; you want it to be the new reality.

Lazy summer afternoon
Screened in porch and nothin’ to do
I just kicked off my tennis shoes
Slouchin’ in a plastic chair
Rakin’ my fingers through my hair
I close my eyes and I leave them there
And I yawn and sigh and slowly fade away 

Deep enough to dream in brilliant colors I have never seen
Deep enough to join a billion people for a wedding feast
Deep enough to reach out and touch the face of the One who made me
And oh the love I feel and oh the peace
Do I ever have to wake up?

Awakened by a familiar sound
A clumsy fly is buzzin’ around
He bumps the screen and he tumbles down
He gathers about his wits and pride
And tries again for the hundredth time
‘Cause freedom calls from the other side
And I smile and nod and slowly drift away

Deep enough to dream in brilliant colors I have never seen
Deep enough to join a billion people for a wedding feast
Deep enough to reach out and touch the face of the One who made me
And oh the love I feel and oh the peace
Do I ever have to wake up?

‘Cause peace is pouring over my soul
See the lambs and the lions playin’
I join in and I drink the music
Holiness is the air I’m breathin’
My faithful heroes break the bread
And answer all of my questions
Not to mention what the streets are made of
My heart’s held hostage by this love

And these brilliant colors I have never seen
I join a billion people for a wedding feast
I reach out and touch the face of the One who made me
I’m deep enough to dream in brilliant colors I have never seen
Deep enough to join a billion people for a wedding feast
Deep enough to reach out and touch the face of the One who made me
And oh the love I feel and oh the peace
Do I ever have to wake up?
Do I ever have to wake up?
Do I really have to wake up now?
Categories
Heaven

Home

When I left home to go to attend my freshman year of college, I was pumped. I was leaving my smaller world and moving into a wider reality of independance. It was the great adventure of my life!

… and after a month at college, five hundred miles away from my parents, my brother, and my sister, I was so homesick that I almost couldn’t stand it. The adventure hadn’t soured or gone bad. School wasn’t a terrible experience; in fact, I was rather enjoying it. I had made a few friends, could sleep and eat on my own schedule (for the most part), and the classes were actually interesting. But I really missed my own home, my own bed, and my own family.

By Thanksgiving I had found someone at my college who lived in the Chicago area and who was going home for the holiday. I begged a ride, and appeared on the doorstep of my home on the day before Turkey Day.

It was so wonderful. I got out of my friend’s car, walked up to the front door of my home, opened the door, and there was my mother and father, my sister and brother, and a great welcome from them all. And the Thanksgiving dinner was, I’m sure, the best I’d had for a long time, because it was at home.

As the years passed, there were other Thanksgiving dinners at home, but I think none were as important to me as that first one after I had been away from home for a while. And yet, there is still that desire for “coming home”. It’s been 35 years since I begged that ride home as a college freshman, but to remember the feeling of coming home then still brings tears to my eyes. I have a longing for home – but I can’t get there anymore by hitching a ride. How do I achieve this goal?

I have learned that what I am truly longing for is that real home, that home I will have with my Father in heaven. The love and togetherness I remember from those visits back to home was just a reflection of that reunion I will have in heaven. It comes back to that desire for Joy that I discussed here.

Chris Rice again gets a chance to shine here, with another song from the Run The Earth, Watch The Sky album. Circle Up is the first of three songs I want to use to illustrate this reunion coming in heaven, for those who have accepted the salvation that Jesus offers.

Revelation 21:14 says, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Hear the hum of angel curiosity
The children of the Lord are gathering
Finally the day we’ve all been dreaming of
Called up forever in His love 

Circle up, circle up around the throne
Old and young saints of every history
Great and small angels all and seraphim
Grab a hand, twirl a dance,
Circle up and worship Him
Grab a hand, twirl a dance
Circle up and worship Him

Hear the thunder of unfolding wings
Feel the mighty wind their beating brings
Bring your grateful tears and flood the floor
Rise up and worship like a storm

Circle up, circle up around the throne
Old and young saints of every history
Great and small angels all and seraphim
Grab a hand, twirl a dance
Circle up and worship Him
Grab a hand, twirl a dance
Circle up and worship Him

Now hear His golden voice above it all
He’s saying, “This tear is the last to fall”
A few simple words and another storm He calms
Invites us all into his arms!

Circle up, circle up around the throne
Old and young saints of every history
Great and small, angels all and seraphim
Grab a hand, twirl a dance
Circle up, and worship Him

Run The Earth, Watch The Sky, Chris Rice 2003
Categories
Heaven

Further up and further in

While in the fifth grade, I discovered in my school library a series of books that would have a significant influence on my life. They were the stories of children taken out of this world, and dropped into another world. There, they had exciting adventures and had a very real encounter with Good and Evil, before their return to their normal lives. The books were the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis, which started with The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and ended with The Last Battle. They captivated my imagination with Lewis’ depiction of the lion, Aslan, and his repeated redemption of Narnia from attacks by evil. 

Especially influential to me were the events in the final chapters of The Last Battle, in which the Pevensie children and their friends, now grown older, find themselves back in a Narnia that is all made new, and is actually part of Aslan’s Country. There, they were told that they were now there to stay, that this Narnia would never see evil again, and that all of their lives to this point were just an introduction to the story that was yet ahead. This idea of what heaven might be like fascinated me, and made the whole concept a bit more real. 

A few years later, I came across the Space Trilogy that C.S. Lewis also wrote. In this series, Elwin Ransom from earth has adventures on Mars (Malacandra) and Venus (Perelandra), and learns the true nature of our solar system, and the fallen status of our own Earth (Thulcandra, the “silent planet”). The future restoration of Earth was discussed in the last chapters of Perelandra. Similar to what was mentioned at the end of the Narnia series, Lewis again stated that the whole of our history was just a mis-step at the start of a long journey that would be more wonderful than could be even imagined. 

Despite my young age, these glimpses of heaven motivated me to learn more about the real story of God in our world, and drove me to learn what the Bible said about it. And as my enjoyment of music expanded to include Jesus Music, I was always attentive for songs that talked about heaven.

Chris Rice has written serveral songs about heaven; he has a vision of what it might be like, and communicates it beautifully in his music. One that I had listened to before, but did not really hear all the lyrics until just recently, hearkens back to the Narnia stories I read in my childhood. The oddly named song, Nonny Nonny from his 2003 album Run The Earth, Watch The Sky, contains these words:


… My adolescent 70’s
Reads just like the Pevensies adventures
‘Cause every perfect now and then
I cought a glimpse of Aslan’s mane
And I longed for His treasure

Something in His mystery was drawing me
To love the Author of my own biography

CHORUS

Nonny Nonny Odle’ee
River washes over me
Up for air and carry me away
Nonny Nonny Odle’igh
Run the earth and watch the sky
Playing hard and waiting for the day
Nonny Nonny Odle’ay

All grown up and living fine
Biographies all intertwined with billions
And soon He turns the final page
We’ll look the Author in the face
Then the book really begins

‘Cause something tells me all these years of memories
Are only the first sentence of eternity …

CHORUS