Tag: Joy

Categories
Jesus Praise

Alive!

Featured song: Alive Forever Amen by Travis Cottrell from the 2005 album Alive Forever.

We learn by living through an experience or being told a fact, and then build additional learning on top of that experience. Further experiences or facts are added on top of the original one, supplementing or reinforcing them, and adding to a wall of knowledge that makes us who we are.

Have you ever noticed how much non-factual memories cement the factual ones in place? Consider the sense of smell. It has a strong connection to memories. An experience in the past can be brought immediately to the forefront of the memory by smelling something connected with that memory. I can think of several situations in my own life where I have experienced this. If I were to smell the odors that were around the rubber processing plant where I worked for a summer while in college, it would immediately bring that memory to mind. When my parents moved to Tustin, California and I visited there for Christmas, the fresh smell of the air in the morning was very striking, and when I smell that again, I am brought back to that Christmas.

Just as the sense of smell is connected to memories, so also is music. I have many tapes of music I recorded from the radio as I was moving from high school to college and beyond, and as I listen to those tapes, I am reminded about places and events in my own life, things that were going on when I made the recordings. Sometimes there is not even a clear specific memory, just a feeling associated with the music – sadness or satisfaction or joy or exhuberance.

Today’s song hit me this way. It brought me back to an Easter service several years ago, and the thrill of celebrating once again the triumph of the resurrection of Jesus. Not just the story of it – the fact of it. And this is one that you can’t enjoy properly by just reading the words – you have to listen to the song itself!

Celebrate! He’s alive!

Let the children sing
A song of liberation
The God of our salvation
Set us free
Death, where is thy sting?
The curse of sin is broken
The empty tomb stands open
Come and see!

He’s alive, alive, alive, hallelujah!
Alive! Praise and glory to the Lamb.
Alive, alive, alive, hallelujah!
Alive forever, Amen!

Let my heart sing out,
For Christ, the One and only
So powerful and holy
Rescued me
Death won’t hurt me now
Because He has redeemed me
No grave will ever keep me
From my King

I’m alive, alive, alive, hallelujah!
Alive! praise and glory to the Lamb.
I’m alive, alive, alive, hallelujah!
Alive forever, Amen!

I’m alive, alive, alive, hallelujah!
Alive! Praise and glory to the Lamb
I’m alive, alive, alive, hallelujah!
Alive forever, Amen!

Worthy is the Lamb
Worthy of our praise
Worthy is the One
Who has overcome the grave
Let the people dance
Let the people sing
Worthy is the mighty King!
(repeat many times)

He’s alive, alive, alive, hallelujah!
Alive! Praise and glory to the Lamb
He’s alive, alive, alive, hallelujah!
Alive forever, Amen!
(repeat many times)

He’s alive forever, Amen!
He’s alive forever, Amen!

He’s alive, He’s alive, He’s alive
He’s alive, He’s alive, He’s alive

Worthy is the Lamb
Worthy of our praise
Worthy is the One
Who has overcome the grave
Let the people dance
Let the people sing
Worthy is the mighty King!

He’s alive, alive, alive, hallelujah!
Alive! Praise and glory to the Lamb
He’s alive, alive, alive, hallelujah!
Alive forever, Amen!
(repeat forever, amen!)
Categories
Jesus

Traveling

Back in this post, I made mention that for some reason, Jesus was best recognized by his disciples not by the shape of His face, or even by His voice, but rather that he was known by his scars, those on His hands and feet. It was very important to God the Father that the marks of Jesus’ suffering and sacrifice would be the means by which He would be best identified.

Picture credit--William Hole

However, this little detail was not known to the disciples of Jesus in those first few days after his death on the cross. When Jesus began to make known that He was indeed alive, He did not chose to announce His resurrection from the dead to the world at large. Instead, He focused on those friends of His. And He did not use His credentials of the scars as His calling card each time. On Easter morning, Mary the mother of James and Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, and had an angel tell them that Jesus was risen. Mary Magdalene stayed behind, and did not recognize Him until He spoke her name to her. In a later appearance to Peter, Jesus was recognized in the large catch of fish they had at His command, a reminder of how He had first met them.

And in today’s story, from Luke 24:13-40, it tells how Jesus encountered two of His followers who had to travel to a nearby town. While they were walking there, they talked about what had happened to Jesus, and during the conversation, Jesus came and joined them in their walk, and yet they somehow did not recognize Him. It was not until he broke bread with them that His identity was revealed to them.

Today’s song by Don Francisco, the last in the series of stories of Jesus, tells of that meeting on the road. It is the title song from the 1981 album The Traveler. Be ready yourself for Jesus to appear to you in the meetings that you have each day with people that you come across, and when you do, serve them as you would serve Jesus Himself!

The day dawned in confusion, like a nightmare with no end
Tired and dreary colors, ragged hopes that wouldn’t mend
The grief and fear of death just seemed to hang across the sky
And the pain just kept on burning, though the tears had all been cried

We were talking, as we journeyed toward a quiet country town
When another traveler asked us why we seemed so sad and down
It was like a dam had burst inside as I spoke my grief and woe
Amazed that someone leaving there could somehow still not know

But the Traveler called us foolish men, and dull and slow of heart
Then He showed us from the Scriptures, God had planned it from the start
But it wasn’t till the evening, that our eyes were opened there
And we knew that it was Jesus, but He vanished in the air!

We rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the others there
They said, “Peter’s seen Him too!” There was excitement everywhere
Nearly shouting to each other, as the realization grew
When all at once He spoke to us, “Peace be unto you.”

We started back in terror, for His radiance filled the place
The light was all around him, and was shining from His face
Then He smiled a smile of love that left no cause for doubt
And then because He knew our hearts He spoke our feelings out

“Why are you so troubled? Why are you in fear?
See my hands and see my feet; I myself am here
Reach out now and handle me, until you’ve all been shown
My life is more than spirit, for I’m here in flesh and bone.”

Some lifted hands toward heaven and then knelt without a sound
Some just stood and stared at Him as if rooted to the ground
But I could not contain the joy that flooded heart and soul
It came rushing out in praises I had no wish to control!

Joy! Joy! Joy! Joy!
Joy! Joy! Joy! Joy!

Jesus is the Lord of all!
Jesus is the Lord of all!
Jesus is the Lord of all!
We have been redeemed!

(repeat)

The Traveler, Don Francisco, 1981 You can purchase this music  from the artist’s web site here.
Categories
Life

Living Water

Have you ever felt so excited about something that you couldn’t contain yourself? You just had to tell your friend, your neighbor, the person you met while walking down the street? This news you had was just too good to keep inside. It was like something that was bursting out of you that you couldn’t control!

The Joy that Jesus brings to my life is like that sometimes. Almost like a geyser, the Spirit bursts forth from me, usually in songs that I know, and that Joy comes out with it. It is literally energizing to have this happen, and spend the next several hours with music coming out in hums and whistles and fragments of song.

Jesus talks about this in the Gospel of John, chapter 7, verses 37 to 39: “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.”

This “living water” that Jesus spoke of, the Holy Spirit, is obviously so much more than just a song. But His work in your spirit could be through tears and repentance, or through joy and song. And I know that one way in which He works (at least in me) is to bring back to my remembrance Scripture that I’ve learned in the past — or possibly a song. And regardless of how He chooses to work in me today, it gives me something I can use to water the thirsty land around me, if I choose to let it flow!

Denny Correll released an album in 1979, Standin’ In The Light. One of the tracks on that album, Living Water is a joyful song that explains what I’ve said above in different words. Enjoy!

I grew up in a shack by the railroad tracks
In the funky part of New Orleans
All the people would come from miles around
Just to hear my grandpa preach
They would line up in the streets

He would shout, “Hallelujah!”, as he’d lift his hands
And tell them ’bout the glory train
With a tear in his eyes a Scripture he’d read
From the the Gospel in his hand
He had to make them understand

He’d say, Come ye, who are thirsty, come
Drink Living Water from the fountain of life
Come ye, who are thirsty, come
Drink Living Water from the fountain of life

He would say, “I was a sinner, just like you
Before the Lord set me free
By the Spirit of Truth my chains were loosed
From the Fountain of Truth you see
Now Living Water flows through me!”

He’d say, Come ye, who are thirsty, come
Drink Living Water from the fountain of life
Come ye, who are thirsty, come
Drink Living Water from the fountain of life

He’d say, Come ye, who are thirsty, come
Drink Living Water from the fountain of life
Come ye, who are thirsty, come
Drink Living Water from the fountain of life
Categories
Heaven

Surprise!

One of Bob Ayala‘s songs was the subject of my last post, which brought to mind another of his songs that I enjoy. To see the full significance of what he writes in this song, it helps to know some of his history. Ayala lost his vision as a youth, but he did not let it him embitter him. Instead, he turned his energies to singing about Jesus in many different ways.

He was also apparently a fan of the works of C.S. Lewis. On his first album, Joy By Surprise, released in 1976, Ayala made his title song a variation of Lewis’ autobiography “Surprised By Joy“. In that book, Lewis described his journey from atheism to Christianity, in his life-long search for Joy. Both Lewis and Ayala find this Joy they were seeking to be fulfilled in none other than Jesus himself. Jesus was discovered to be the embodiment and expression of Joy.

These comparisons to Lewis’ works extend further with the artwork that he had placed on the cover of his Joy By Surprise album. As best as I can tell, there appears to have been one cover for the vinyl LP version of the album (which I do not own), and a different cover for the cassette version (which I do own).

(LP version)
(cassette cover) (LP cover)

In both of these views, it recreates the scene from Lewis’ The Last Battle, in which a door in a stable in Narnia is actually a doorway to the true Narnia, an extension of Aslan’s country. Like the characters who represent the Narnia that has remained true to Aslan, these album covers depict Bob Ayala himself walking through that door from our world to the next world, and meeting Aslan face to face. And Bob actually sees his Savior! The song lyrics reflect this: “Like scales, my illusions are falling from my eyes“. Enjoy this classic!


You know it’s so good to be alive
For the first time in my life
Good to know, to be sure who I am
And all of my illusions
Are falling from my eyes
Since the day I met Joy by surprise

In my search for the truth
All I ever found were lies
Must have turned every stone along the way
And following the path they made
It caught me by surprise
When I looked up into the Carpenter’s eyes

Like scales my illusions are falling from my eyes…

It’s so good to be alive
Now that I’ve been born again
Good to know, to be sure who I am
And all of the confusion
Is passing me by
Since the day Jesus came into my life

Since the day
Since the day
Since the day
Since the day I met Joy by surprise…