Category Archives: Podcast

Podcast

Make the Call

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-5yrfs-16c01a9

Let everyone call urgently on God ~ Jonah 3:8

 

When is a time where you have urgently called on God? Urgently meaning you required immediate action or attention. It certainly would’ve been a serious, and probably even a life threatening moment. I mean we’re not gonna urgently call on God to shine on tomorrow’s day at the beach.

 

In Jonah 3 we find the king of Nineveh, the most powerful man in the city, an arrogant villain, putting on sackcloth, and sitting in the dust because he’s heard a message from God (through Jonah).

 

He leaves his seat of authority and  power, and takes off his royal clothes of pride… and he sits down in the dust where we all came from, and will return someday.

 

The king who allowed and  commanded violence and oppression for so many years has humbled himself and commanded a fast, telling everyone to urgently call on God.

 

Why? Because this non-believer heard from God.

The heart of the answer lies right here…  change begins when a person believes God!

Not just believing in God, but believing God!

 

O’ Lord, that you hear our urgent prayer for the world…

That all nations!

That all peoples!

would know and embrace You!

 

Pray on…

Song: Where Heaven Touches Earth

Standard
Podcast

Fleeing, The Opposite of Following

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-hp2gy-16c01a0

But Jonah ran away… ~ Jonah 1:3

Have you ever run away from something? I’m sure you have …we all have, and hindsight usually reveals just how foolish and wasteful the behavior was.

 

But imagine running from God …as if that’s even a possibility. What foolishness to think that the omnipresent God would not be able to track us down, that he’d somehow lose us in the world’s mass of humanity. Silly, I know!

 

The book of Jonah reveals that Jonah’s not running from the danger of Nineveh, the city he’s been sent to preach in, but that’s he’s running from God. He knows God’s compassion,  and he doesn’t want to see God forgive the Ninevites.

 

What we’re asked to consider is this –

What if God’s word reveals something about God that we don’t like?

What if he calls us to people we don’t like?

 

We can talk about the fish at another time, but for today, let’s consider the idea that we can’t turn and run away from God’s work and expect not to be exposed.

Lord, help us to remember that following is our calling, and that fleeing is the opposite of following.

 

Pray on…

Song: Sittin’ in a Belly

Standard
Podcast

His Word is Good

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-s7agv-16c0192

A library is a house of  hope (we could stop there) …

It’s a place where we all, whatever our situation,

can feed our ideas and developed our dreams.

 

A cartoon showed (a father handing a child a book to his teen-age son):

“It’s a book you say, ..uh, what do I plug it into?” You mind!

 

Apart from the word of God, human life knows only chaos. It is the word that speaks order into creation and that sustains all the processes of nature. It is the word that motivates all history and brings it to fulfillment. It is the word alone that gives guidance, and forgiveness, and blessing, and fruitful life. It is in the word that God draws near to his chosen people and abides with them.

 

I share this because just as in (the Minor Prophet), Amos’ time…

(a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. ~ Amos 8:11)

There are many today who are tragically ignorant of their Bible.

…and some are weekly church goers!

They don’t’t know scripture, they don’t read it, or study it.

…I heard it said that those that do dabble with commentaries

are guilty of not creating their own.

The Biblical illiteracy among Christians is epidemic.

 

Father, our land is ripe for the hearing of your word

Let each and everyone of us begin a disciplined approach to your word

Reading it, studying it, digging deeper into it,

questioning what it means, praying on its application…

and then sharing with those around us the riches of doing so

sharing it in a way that excites others to join us

In your Son’s name we pray…

 

Pray on…

Song: His Word is Good

Standard
Podcast

Tilling For Love

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ggxdt-16c0172

…break up your unplowed ground ~ Hosea 10:12

One of my daughters was a stubborn child. She knew what she wanted, and wasn’t going to have it any other way. Her will was strong, her heart could turn hard during such an exercise, her upsetment occurred because she wasn’t getting what she wanted …much like many adults, like many unhappy souls in the world …dare I say much like our politicians …their stubbornness, their inability to see past their hard hearts, is the cause for much turmoil in their world and ours.

In Hosea 10:12, God uses metaphors from agriculture to set forth his requirements. Sandy Adams shares, We need to prepare the ground before we plant a garden. The strongest plants grow in the worked, and softened soil. The barren spots were the ones that were unworked.

Repentance does to our spirit, what a tiller does to the hard ground. A repentant heart sees its sin’s true ugliness. True repentance turns my life over and over breaking up my hardness. It allows the seeds of God to take root and create spiritual growth. But if the heart is not prepared the seed won’t take root. This why we need to turn up the soil of our heart. We need to work over that soil with a thorough repentance.

Tilling ground is laborious, hard, backbreaking, agonizing work …and so  is real repentance …the results though are worth the effort. The strongest stands of spiritual fruit, will grow where you have worked the ground.

Pray on…

Song: Once Again Lord

Standard
Podcast

In the Flow

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-pks4q-16c01b2

and peoples will flow to it ~ Micah 4:1

 

Have you ever been caught up in a moment when time didn’t exist? A moment when your mind was so occupied that the passing of time was oblivious to you. That’s to say at some point you stopped to realized a large portion of it had passed without your recognition. That’s being in the flow.

 

As a musician I get to experience (flow) it in those special improvisational instances, the ones that we can’t really explain, but that inspire us and make us want to return again and again.

 

Here in Micah 4 we read that the people will flow to it, it being Mt Zion; to the house of the Lord, to worship …and here let me share that I’ve also experience the flow in worship. What a glorious experience to get lost so in worship that time doesn’t exist; that seconds, minutes, and hours can pass without notice.

 

Both Isaiah and Micah echo this piece of scripture. I’d like to believe that the Holy Spirit thought it was that important, that it needed to be mentioned twice. As they use it, it means spontaneous movement; you’re not compelled to do it, but you want to do it.

 

Skip Heitzig shares that, “There’s coming a day when the nations of the world will want to go to flow to Jerusalem. Because the Messiah will reign and rule from there for a thousand years, and the world will be at peace.”

 

What a prayer for our world, that all nations would flow to the house of the Lord …to worship him.

 

Pray on…

Song: In the House of the Lord

Standard
Albums, Evensong, Mannerism, music, new album, new release, Podcast, prayer, worship

Rubberneckers: Repent or Rejoice?

This past week my wife and I traveled south to warm up before the holidays. While being on the road I found my mind wandering in and out of all sorts of thoughts and prayers. I don’t think I’m alone in discovering that my mind operates differently when I’m not being disrupted by the noise of the world. Open road driving seems to provide a time and space for me to ponder, and to plan, but like life in general there are always unexpected wrinkles along the way, and this trip was no different in that respect.

Our first day was littered with accidents, none prayerfully that were life ending, but none the less they were there in numbers that seemed greater than usual, and which made me very aware of the rubberneckers. It was in that state that I started to think about, and pray about, the need to be curious…

Continue reading…

Pray on,
Eddy

Standard
Evensong, music, Podcast, prayer, worship

Evensong – Ep120

So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you. ~ 1 Peter 4:19

‘Suffer Well’
1 Peter 4:12-19
Recorded: Thursday, October 12, 2023
STREAM / LISTEN!

Music: LISTEN!
1. You, You Make Me Feel (Dig Love)
2. Let Your Steadfast Love Be Upon Us (Worship)
3. Walk in Canaan (The Consequence)
4. Something beautiful & New (Something beautiful & New)
5. Doxology (Yes Indeed)

Links:
Visit my Website

Standard
Albums, Evensong, music, new release, New Single, Newsletter, Podcast, Poetry

How Well Do You Know Za?

I’m dropping another single from the Trio album this month and wanted to share a little background on it’s conception.

The song has a metaphorically smiling lyric that prayerfully will challenge the listener a bit. The title was actually from a magazine article that I had stumbled upon. When I first saw it, I immediately recognized a lyrical idea that could be light in a comical sense, but at the same time thoughtfully spiritual. History has demonstrated to me on more than a few occasions how wonderfully guard-dropping this approach can be.

I’m always looking for a way to stir up the listener’s imagination, and hopefully conjure up some emotional response from them. In this case, maybe even some abstract thinking.

Musically the composition was once again a reaction to the Blicher, Hemmer, Gadd album called Omara, which dominated my playlist throughout the early months of 2022.

Lyrics:
Early in the morning, any time of day
Any time’s a good time, any kind of way
I can take it cold, any time at all
It goes down easy, in the local church hall
So tell me?
Tell me, please?
Won’t you tell me?
How well do you know ‘Za?

If I had my way, I’d always have more
More than may be normal, a note of folklore
Some cry, ‘oh no!, you can’t do that!’
Preaching to the misfit, like some green-eyed cat
So tell me?
Tell me, please?
Oh won’t you tell me?
How well do you know ‘Za?

Don’t give me substitutes, don’t give me theories
No hypothetical miniseries
Just give me a slice, a verse or two
Yeah, I’m a greek guy, but any version will do

I go traditional, I go New York
I go with fold it, or a knife and fork
I don’t go judging, so don’t judge me
Just offer me a bite, and let my manna be
So tell me?
Tell me, please?
Won’t you tell me?
How well do you know ‘Za?

© 2022 Eddy Mann
Hissongs | ASCAP

Album: Trio
Video Credit: E.M. | Pizza by Alfredo (dafont.com)
Available on the platform of your choice.
YouTube Link

Standard