Monday Morning Music Ministry

1-27-25

A guest message this week. I have just returned from the Inauguration, and will resume with some interesting thoughts on it, next week.

“What are your expectations for your life?” our pastor asked the congregation this past Sunday as he preached on the Book of James.

My husband and I began jotting down some of our personal and family goals and dreams. The pastor then asked, “Do you feel disappointed with God over dreams that haven’t turned out the way you wanted them?” Our answer: Yes.

We’ve had a rough few years involving having to sell our house at a loss; our son born prematurely; moving; a job layoff; and a job for my husband that is not where his ultimate passion lies, and which requires a long commute. We are strongly committed to our faith and try to please God in all we do. We are driven people who have, in the past, been able to dream something and make it happen. We have alternated between feeling peaceful and trusting God, and feeling restless and angrily questioning Him. We have prayed “Your will be done”… and we have prayed “Are you there? Are you listening?”

James 1:2-4 says, Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. This is a hard one. It is hard to be thankful for the trials in the midst of them. It might be easier to look back, when things are (you hope) in a better place. But when the storm is raging and you feel like you’ve lost your footing, it can be hard to stay joyful.

Farther in James it says, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do (1:22-25).

We always thought about “doing” the Word as assignments: God says to care for others; God says to be generous, loving; etc. But Jesus calls us to something deeper instead of merely a task-oriented faith. When we look into God’s Word, just like looking into a mirror, we discover who we are.

The picture isn’t always pretty. We are sinful creatures who fall short of God’s holy standard, incurring His punishment. But the Good News is that Jesus loves us so much that He rescued us and took our punishment for us by dying on the cross. When we “look intently” into that truth, then nothing else will matter and no trial will shake us because we will have the joy of knowing we have such a loving God who saw our real need. Sure, we feel we have other needs – for example, for a job, or food, or security. But our ultimate need was for a Savior… and Jesus already met that need. This is true love and what Jesus offers us. Not just a list of tasks to do.

The Bible can teach, pastors can preach, but sometimes this lesson can speak to us the loudest and clearest from unexpected places. In 1971 a homeless man understood this truth… and shared it in his own way.

English Filmmaker Gavin Bryars was working on a documentary about the homeless around London. One man of the many captured on film sang a quiet chorus to himself over and over:

Jesus’ blood never failed me yet, never failed me yet.
Jesus’ blood never failed me yet.
This one thing I know, For He loves me so.

This actually was not used in the film, but it haunted Bryars, who eventually added an accompaniment to the man’s simple song, extended it, and turned it into a recording. Many people have since heard it – Tom Waits and Jars of Clay have made recordings too – and it has touched millions.

This is powerful! This man had nothing that we might consider worth singing about. Contemporary Christians often spend more time focused on “worldly” desires than spiritual needs. That’s not to say we shouldn’t be concerned about our life’s details or to pray about them, but what would happen to our daily lives if we were to come back to a focus on what really matters: our salvation?

Whatever other trials this anonymous, forgotten man faced, he looked in the “mirror,” recognized his true need for a Savior, and proclaimed that to others, where he was, in the way that he could.

I haven’t been able to get this song out of my head all week! This simple, quiet, musical prayer reminds us that absolutely nothing is more important than Jesus’ gift of salvation that he gave us when He died on the cross. That’s all. The economy might fail us, but His blood hasn’t. Employers might fail us, but His blood hasn’t. Health might fail us, but His blood hasn’t. Our own plans might fail us, but His blood hasn’t. He loves us so.

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My daughter Heather shared these thoughts some years ago when I first started these messages. It is impossible, I think, not to hear the song once and not want to listen again, and again. Its truth becomes stronger. “Poor homeless man”? No, he was rich in the knowledge and understanding that he was a son of Jesus our King. Knowing the Truth, and rejoicing in it: a simple task, after all. Life grows complicated; we lose sight of things; but the profound truths are simplest, and should not be left behind.

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Click: Jesus´ Blood Never Failed Me Yet

1-20-25

“Oh, you know what I mean.” How often people say that these days. Casual texts, sloppy language, limited-character messages… btw, I’m talking about “initialisms” too, lol. We chat more, but talk less. Our contacts are less personal, more sterile, and, surely, a symptom of social isolation. We hide behind substitutes for communication. Words lose their meanings, but we hope “you know what I mean.”

We tend to talk without telling these days. Words tend to have new meanings or weakened importance. For instance, Christians are to share the Gospel, to “witness” to other people. A verb, an action word, something we should do and not only be. The Great Commission of Jesus was to “go into all the world.” To a lot of people, being a witness – let’s say in a trial – is a lot easier than witnessing to people.

It is a distinction with a difference.

Do you mention Jesus in conversations? Do you ask people about their faith? If you might say “God bless you” (and not after someone sneezes) do you explore that a little more? In another message I mentioned that my son-in-law’s late father used to say, “Can I just take a moment and tell you that Jesus loves you?” – is that a habit of yours? If you might even say to someone after hearing their burdens, “I’ll pray for you”… how often do you take that opportunity, and pray then and there?

Yes, words can be tough to get out, sometimes. But very often we know what to say, easily enough, but we find it hard to say them. The “tell” versus “Oh, you know what I mean…” But as the Bible says, How then will they know about Jesus if they do not believe? And how can they believe if they have not heard? And how can they hear if no one tells them?

Jesus did not die on the cross in order for you to plead shyness or being uncomfortable when you have the opportunity to “witness.” My friend Gordon Pennington has led almost 200 people to faith in Christ in just the past couple of years. It is remarkable: he chats with a waiter, or speaks to someone at the next table in the coffee shop, and engages in small talk that naturally leads to Big Talk, so to speak; but chatty, not confrontational, being curious, being open, sharing stories. I am not aware that one person was offended, but many were challenged, became aware of their need of a Savior, grateful to hear what the Gospel has meant to others… and with tears or smiles or both, many walked away with their lives changed.

There is another side to that coin. There always is. If you know the Truth… if Jesus has touched and changed your life… if you have experienced blessings of any sort… and you don’t acknowledge Him, your willful decision is a sin against Him.

You might plead shyness, or hope that someone else will share God’s love, or avoid mentioning your faith for “business reasons.” If so, you should remember the words of Jesus Himself that whoever denies Him before other people, He will deny that person before God. Chilling.

OK, maybe you are shy, and this is new to you. Yes, even uncomfortable at first. But… if you had a cure for cancer, wouldn’t you want to share that with an ailing friend? If you had the key to the most precious thing in the world (which you do, as a Christian), how could you hide it under a bushel? If you feel foolish at first… remember another Bible assurance, that if you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “as a fool” so that you may become wise; for the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the sights of God.

Do you risk losing a friend? Not likely. You can’t lose a friend you never had.

But if you are afraid to witness – whatever the cause of your reluctance – God has a Witness Protection Program. Here it is:

• He will protect you by creating the opportunities to witness. That is, He makes the appointments.
• Jesus has given you the words and the inspiration of wonderful things to share!
• The Holy Spirit will give you wisdom and boldness; and work on the person you talk to… ultimately to make them aware of their ways, their emptiness, their hope.

Go. Know what you mean. And Tell.

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Click: Tell Me the Story of Jesus / I Love To Tell the Story

1-13-25

What will bring this country together or, at least as symbols, bring our ex-presidents together? The easiest answer to that is funerals, whether of world leaders or late members of their own “club.”

So it was a rare sight and maybe a hopeful hopeful sign when five Chief Executives gathered in the National Cathedral for the funeral of Jimmy Carter. Even the “shade” of Gerald Ford was there as his son read a eulogy that Carter asked him to write in the eventuality that Ford would cross the Finish Line first.

Carter had become something of a non-person in his long retirement. From the first day of his “ex” status, he seldom was interviewed about events of the day; seldom visited the White House or Congressional offices; seldom, if ever, consulted on policy even by Democrats once on his team. This was partly due to his generally disastrous record over four eyes, and the enormity of his electoral shellacking. Despite the best intentions and limited effects of the Carter Center and his endless books, Carter’s frank assessments of Israel – as an Apartheid nation engaging in human rights crimes – turned him into a type of political leper in Big Media and in politics. “Unclean!!!”

Those matters were predictably glossed over in the state funeral. Eulogists spoke of his background as a peanut farmer (he actually managed a peanut warehouse) and as a “nuclear physicist” (he actually was a sailor on a nuclear – or as he pronounced it, “nucular” – submarine). But he was also lauded as a humanitarian, someone who toiled against poverty and disease, and who created many federal agencies and programs, appointing women and racial minorities to staff them and court vacancies.

Also, people remember Habitat For Humanity. Although the organization scarcely was named by eulogists at the funeral, the public saw, through the decades, Jimmy Carter hammering boards and carrying wood. It has been said because of these good works that Jimmy might have been the Best Ex-President America ever had.

Carter’s famous Sunday School classes were mentioned too. Indeed he frequently quoted the Bible in his public life, and cited Scripture as having informed his principles.

At the funeral there were hymns, an organ accompanied by an orchestral ensemble, and a choir. The National Cathedral arranges such services along High Episcopal lines, far from the Southern Baptist church he attended most of his life; and even more distant from the liberal Baptist church he moved to in his last years. But the eulogies, testimonies, remembrances, and anecdotes frequently referred to Carter’s faith.

However, the ultimate display of his character, and the impression he wished to make on the American public and on posterity was different; a betrayal of the manufactured persona. We are left with the evidence that his famous positions might have been, instead, pandering. Was his faith a faux faith? Was his ultimate commitment to Christ, or to Contemporary Culture?

The very last song that was performed at the funeral – and, remember, he choreographed and scripted the entire event, from members of his clan speaking, to former political rivals, to, yes, the music – was not a hymn of faith. Neither was it an emotional Gospel song. Nothing from the rural evangelical church or a Black spiritual that might have spoken to the masses; perhaps touched peoples’ souls; maybe even led someone to Christ.

Rather strangely, it was arranged that country-music singers Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood would sing a duet. Their presence was not out of place in itself, but they were asked to sing John Lennon’s “Imagine” –

Imagine there’s no heaven. It’s easy if you try. No hell below us; Above us, only sky.

Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for; And no religion, too….

Imagine no possessions. I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger; A brotherhood of man….

You may say I’m a dreamer, But I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, And the world will live as one.

These are the words that were the last to echo through the National Cathedral, and on millions of screens and radios. It was, in a very real sense, his last words to his countrymen, to people around the world, to history. Not any of his quotations that could have been read during the service. But… Imagine no heaven; imagine no religion; no countries (or borders?); nothing worth dying for? This Hymn to Hypocrisy was, in the end, Jimmy Carter’s anthem, his life’s theme song?

The church of Jesus Christ has suffered, and survived, uncountable attacks for 2000 years. Heresies, false doctrines, error, corruption, errancies, biased interpretations, secularism, liberal philosophies, relativism… Very little is new after 2000 years – least of all the bedrock Truth of the Gospel. Likewise the attempts, sincere or otherwise, to make Christian Doctrine conform to the World’s views. Among dozens of other positions that were contrary to Scripture, Carter denied the “exclusivity” of Christ — that Jesus Himself said that no one would enter Heaven except through belief in Him. Carter’s “Christian faith” seems to have been nothing more than that of a friendly volunteer worker who wanted to pick and choose his own definitions, and reject the Bible’s clear standards.

God did not establish His commandments and covenants according to what might be popular or convenient with His children. Jesus did not share His messages and then test their acceptance according to the latest opinions, positive or negative, among His people. Christ has followers, not focus groups. And, surely, Jesus did not respect Scripture but then sing for His people to “imagine” that there was no religion, or Heaven. Imagine… that Jesus did not think anything was worth dying for. He died for us, Jimmy; you too.

… but not so you could tell the world that you had a better Way than Jesus Christ preached.

In many news stories and TV clips ex-President Jimmy was seen in overalls, “workin’ on a building.” That is the title of a rural Gospel song by the Carter Family (no relation), but I just wish, after four years of his presidency and after watching his good works (and I love H4H), then sitting through the whole funeral service, that he had committed himself to all the lyrics:

I’m a working on building; I’m a working on building; I’m a working on building For my Lord, for my Lord.

It’s a Holy Ghost building; It’s a Holy Ghost building; It’s a Holy Ghost building For my Lord, for my Lord.

If I was a liar I tell you what I would do: I’d quit my lying and work on a building too.

If I was a preacher I tell you what I’d do: I’d keep on preaching and work on a building too.

Imagine that.

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This is a Sister Rosetta Tharpe song sung by my friend Linda Gail Lewis (Jerry Lee’s little sister):

Click: Strange Things Happening Every Day

1-6-25

Around 20 years ago I lost my daughter Emily. Language gets a little funny here, so I must quickly explain that we lost her to the people of Ireland. Specifically, Northern Ireland. More specifically, to the city of Londonderry. To be even more specific, she was lost – language is indeed funny: I mean found – to the divided city of Londonderry / Derry, a city split down the middle, half in Ulster (the United Kingdom) and half in the Republic of Ireland. Micro-focus: to the neighborhoods and streets of that troubled city where for generations people had hated and fought and killed each other.

“Troubled” city: the so-called sectarian violence that divided neighborhoods and divided families and whose trademark was a “Bloody Sunday.” That day was merely the most populous and extreme example of decades of thousands of deaths and many more thousands of people, including children, inoculated with hatred. Catholics and Protestants did not debate theology; “religion-inspired resentments” is non-funny language; after centuries of national rivalries and cultural strife, hate can become a habit.

It was to that city of Londonderry / Derry, and that crying need for healing and reconciliation, that Emily traveled. She had felt the call of missions work as a little girl, and served on trips to Central America, Russia, and eventually to Northern Ireland through the help of our friend Paula Hays. Emily went on one trip; followed later on another, and after deciding to locate in Derry, invited other believers from America including my other daughter Heather, who took her church youth group on a missions trip.

Emily’s ministry often involved seeking out street kids or youths when the pubs closed, offering coffee, friendship, and Jesus… not denominational pitches. In this work she met Norman McCorkell. They fell in love, attended the Irish Bible Institute in Dublin together, and married, gracing me with two wonderful grandchildren.

Emily did not know it, but she was to duplicate a path traveled by Norman’s father, ironically but in a similar way.

Norman McCorkell Sr., had been a fireman in the Fire Brigades in Derry. Prosaic work, you might think, naturally somewhat physical. But during the “Troubles,” there were fires everywhere, many set by arsonists and terrorists. Car bombs. Stores set afire. Not infrequently, police and firemen were targets of snipers. I have met friends and relatives of the McCorkells who lost family members, even saw relatives killed, during these times. It was, perhaps, a blessing in disguise when Norman Sr was diagnosed with a heart problem and forced to retire.

Did I say that language can be funny? Norman, ex-fireman, did not go from the frying pan into the fire, but vice-versa. He became a worker, eventually a leader, with Prison Fellowship, the missions organization founded by Chuck Colson in America. For 29 years he visited prisons in his area, preaching from the pulpit, conducting Bible studies, holding meetings. Several new health problems overtook him, and he retired from active ministry; and he died last week.

(photo by Elsie McCorkell)

Since COVID, I have not made a trip to Derry to see the generations of McCorkells. I will surely miss Norman Sr., who was fun to talk to, ready with smiles and winks, could be earnest about his faith – he gifted me with local Prison Fellowship materials – and his love, common in Ireland, of American Country Music. Sadly, I never was able to manage a trip to Nashville for (and with!) him…

I watched a video feed of Norman’s memorial service in the Kilfennan Church. It was a beautiful and traditional service with hymns and Psalm readings and a moving sermon. One of Norman’s associates, introduced only as Jerry, shared some personal aspects of witnessing to prisoners, sharing God’s love and Christ’s compassion, and offering hope.

He spoke of Norman’s lack of hesitation to enter cells alone, to meet difficult inmates, to pray with hardened men.

He spoke of Norman’s “grand manner” of putting people at ease; of soft words, for instance instead of good-byes, asking “Would you mind if we just said a little prayer?” and “Can I just tell you today that God loves you?”

He spoke of what seemed to be Norman’s favorite word. To me, it sounded like “we.” But this is Ireland; the word was “wee” – as in “Can we have a wee word…?” or to a friend like Jerry in the beginning, “Can I ask a wee favor of you…” that led to his own decades-long volunteer work.

He spoke of Norman’s habitual mode of pursuit: pursuing God to grant blessings; pursuing friends to join the ministry; pursuing prisoners so to share the love of God.

He spoke of the prison ministry that expanded beyond Norman’s appointed hours and confines of prison walls. Follow-ups… mentoring… prayer times… contacts after prisoners’ releases.

In the congregation were quiet witnesses – the man who led Norman to faith years earlier; released prisoners who are leading productive lives; and converted followers of Christ, all because of Norman’s work.

Jerry mentioned one of Norman’s favorite Bible verses. Matthew 12:20 expanded on Isaiah’s words, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench,” until He brings justice to victory.… It is a verse that inspired the title of a recent book by my friend Becky Spencer, and is a comfort to the downtrodden. In the words of a country song, victims of life’s circumstances.

Mentioning country music, this humble servant’s funeral service ended, after several ancient and reverent hymns, with loudspeakers playing out Sonya Isaac’s country hit “Only Jesus Loves You More Than I Do.”

Amid the memories and verses and music was the over-arching sense of the verse from Matthew 25, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” What a blessing if such can be said of any of us when we pass! What a challenge for the work we who remain must do.

Little is much – even, and specifically, those wee efforts – when God is in it.

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