ADVENT THOUGHTS, CHRISTMAS SONG DEVOTIONALS, AND A RELATED HIGHLIGHT OF MY LIFE.

 

Felix Mendelssohn and Charles Wesley, co-writers of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing."

 Merry Christmas! 

In my previous blog, I mentioned the devotional "The Christmas We Didn't Expect" by David Mathis. I'd like to share thoughts that were either inspired by that book, confirmed previous thoughts, or made me think of something else.

1. Between the above mentioned book and an episode of CBN's cartoon Superbook I saw Saturday (Dec. 20), I was hit that the first Christmas was just an ordinary day. An ordinary man and an ordinary woman (both godly but still ordinary) came to town and had to find room in the stable to have what probably appeared to be a normal baby. To me, there is no Biblcal evidence nor a necessity of the Salvation story for the teachings of Mary's perpetual virginity or her immaculate (sinless) conception, nor is there any reason to think that God expcted Mary and Joseph to live different than any other married couple. The focus of the Bible is that in a world where man wants to be a god, God the Son (Jesus) became fully man without ceasing to be fully God in the process.
2. Back to Mathis' devotional. Chapter 9 was titled "Hark, the Long Lost Verses Sing." It happens to be my favorite with words by Charles Wesley (my favorite hymn lyrist) set to the music of Felix  Mendelssohn (my favorite classical composer). Most hymnals only have three of the original five verses; there's one we have which contains a fourth - technically, the first half of the fourth and fifth verses. I learned in this devotional that another of my church history heroes George Whitfield had influence on this song as well, revising the first couplet from Wesley's original to what we sing today, and making it a four verse hymn. 
3. Chapter 10 also has musical allusions, titled "We Three Kings From Orient Aren't." His focus is that this trio (actually, many say three is not the number of the Magi but rather the number of the gifts) weren't kings or political leaders, but pagan sorcerors who normally wouldn't be looking for a Jewish Savior.
4. I'm probably the only person reading Mathis' 11th devotional who would think of a connection to a third song. His focus was on the priests who knew where the Messiah was to be born but no interest in joining the Magi to see him. The song which was probably heard by less than 100 people was part of a musical called Viewpoints, where I asked several of my musician friends to write songs giving viewpoints of people in the Christmas story. One I had in mind were the above mentioned priests, and I wrote the lyrics and the music for the chorus - titled "Do I Really Care?" - while my friend Tod Moses wrote music for the verses. That experience in '93 was one of my highpoints. One of the participants - Barry Kay - included one of the two songs he wrote for that project on what I believe was his first album. If I made a list of my fovorite songs that I wrote, "Do I Really Care?" would be one of the top three. 

Hope this was a blessing, and I'm wishing you a Merry Christmas, or if you guys prefer, a Joseph Christmas.

REVIEW OF "TOD" BY TOD MOSES

 

I'm going to take a slight detour. Most of my reviews and interviews have been focused on explicitly Christian music/fiction/non-fiction. But allow me the opportunity to promote the latest project by my friend Tod Moses.

 

I've known Tod and his music for over three decades. Several of his songs have blessed me over the years, such as "Master In Disguise," "Learn The Lingo," "Chasing After The Wind," "Stand and Deliver," "Salt Shaker," "Higher Ground," and "Standing Behind Me." He's commented that I remember songs of his he's forgotten.

 

One other memory I want to mention involving Tod before getting to his latest project. I decided to put together a Christmas musical titled "Viewpoints," looking at Christ's birth from the views of different people involved like Mary, the Innkeeper, and the Shepherds. I asked several of my songwriter friends to help out., including Tod, who did a great song from the view of Herod. Afterwards, he said he'd like to help with another song. I had one composer back out, so Tod and I co-wrote a song from the view of the Priests who knew where Christ was born but made no move to join the Wise Men in seeing the Messiah titled "Do I Really Care?" That song is one of my favorites of the songs I've written.

 

 But enough about what happened in '93. Let's move to 2020, when Tod released his latest project, "Tod." Stylistically it's different from his other projects I listened to, including fronting the band Fujita 5 - this is a little more blues influenced. And while I'm not a blues fan, and while this and some of his more recent releases are more mainstream than Christian, I completely enjoyed this collection.

He has a pair of strong singles from the project: "Time In The Country" and "Can't Stand Another Day." Other songs that stood out were "Gone Missing" (also released as a single a few years back by Fujita 5) and "Sing On."

 

I've had several great conversations with him on music, Christianity, and other things over the years, and I have appreciated his friendship since we've met in '88.

 

Do you have any friends who are musicians? How have they blessed you?