Tag: Steve & Annie Chapman

Categories
Life

Turn Around

For my wife and I, it has been our great joy to have the opportunity to have two children and see them grow from tiny newborns to college age. We have experienced the pleasure, the pain, and the responsibilty of protecting them, nurturing them, and helping them to become adults who may, in turn, take the love we’ve shown them and someday raise the next generation.

In the past couple of years I’ve enjoyed taking out old photos and scanning them, to make them more available to view than it has ever been possible in the past. And as I do this, and relive my own life growing up in a loving family, I look at my own family, and hope we communicated to these two wonderful kids the deep love that we felt for them.

Kodak aired this commercial back in the 1960s:

 

Ever since I saw them, I’ve been a sucker for a story that talks about life and the inevitible changes that it brings. And one of the best of those types of songs in the era of Jesus music is Goodnight Kiss from Steve & Annie Chapmnan’s 1984 album Circle Of Two.

I count it as a privilege
I count it cause for praise
To kiss my children goodnight
At the close of every day

For I know too soon
They’re up and gone
And walking out the door
And I’ll never have a child to kiss
Goodnight anymore

It’s very strange how times have changed
From the present to the past
When did they grow so quickly
The time has flown so fast

For it seems that only yesterday
I helped him with his shirt
Or pat my baby on the back
Kissed away a hurt

Tell a story, read a book
Wipe a nose, or tie a shoe
They never ask me to rub their back
The way they used to do

Once it was a bother
Just a troublesome kind of chore
But now I would give anything
To do it just once more

Mommy, bounce me on your knee
Daddy, flip me in the air
Throw a rubber ball to me
And help me comb my hair

Mommy, tickle my tummy
Daddy, hold me tight
Let’s go outside for a while
Or make a kite to fly

I count it as a privilege
I count it cause for praise
To kiss my children goodnight
At the close of every day

For I know too soon
They’re up and gone
And walking out the door
And I’ll never have a child to kiss
Goodnight anymore

And I’ll never have a child to kiss
Goodnight
Anymore

Circle Of Two, Steve & Annie Chapman, 1984 Although I cannot find a link to the song
to download, here is a link to their website,
where you can purchase the CD An Evening Together, which contains this song.
Categories
Jesus Life

Friends

In my church this past Sunday, the message delivered included the story from Mark 2:1-12. This passage deals with a man paralyzed, who wanted to be healed by Jesus. The problem was in getting access to Jesus. He was in a house, teaching, surrounded by a standing-room only crowd that spilled out the door. So the paralyzed man, who had been brought there by his friends, ended up coming face to face with Jesus by being lowered down to him through a hole they cut into the roof. And Jesus healed him!

Now, the purpose of this post is not to get into the details about healing and prayer and how God works. Suffice it to say that faith is a necessary component for God’s work in the world. And this passage does not indicate that the paralyzed man had any faith. Instead, it reads in verse 5, “When Jesus saw their faith [that of the men who lowered the paralytic to him], he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.'”, and then in verse 11, “‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.'”

Jesus didn’t heal the man based on that man’s faith; he did it after he saw the faith of his friends, that they stopped at nothing in bringing their friend to Jesus. This paralyzed man’s need was greater than theirs; indeed, his only hope was to come to Jesus. And his friends made it possible.

As I listened to that message in church, I was reminded of Steve and Annie Chapman’s song from their 1986 album, Times & Seasons. The song, Faith Of A Few Close Friends tells the very story I’ve just related above. But it is more than just scripture put to song. Both the message I heard in church, and the remainder of the Chapman’s song takes this a step further. The extra step was pointing out that I can bring someone to Jesus, whether it be through my words, or my actions, or my prayers. And when brought to Jesus, it is not necessary for the faith (or lack thereof) of that person to result in God’s intervention in his or her life. My faith can be the key to unlocking a touch of Jesus for that person, the touch that could change a life!

There was a man laying paralyzed
He had no power, no hope in his eyes
He lay there waiting for his turn to die
But a miracle was about to begin 

Cause all a sudden, his bed began to move
They were lifting him up, and he didn’t know who
He could hardly say it, but he whispered “Who are you?”
And they said, “We’re just a few close friends”

They took that man to Jesus
He had no faith of his own
But when Jesus saw the faith of a few close friends
He said, “Take up your bed, man
Take up your bed and go home.”

Now there are homes filled with husbands and children and wives
Who feel like the man who was paralyzed
They have no hope they will ever survive
But let the miracles begin

Let those who are strong, and those who care
Lift him up to Jesus through the power of prayer
Take him to the Healer and on your way there
Don’t forget about the man and his friends

They took that man to Jesus
He had no faith of his own
But when Jesus saw the faith of a few close friends
He said, “Take up your bed, man
Take up your bed and go home.”

But when Jesus saw the faith of a few close friends
He said, “Take up your bed, man
Take up your bed and go home.”

Faith of a few close friends