A Little Night Music in October - Belovedness

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.

Isaiah 53:11

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

1 John 3:1-8

Photo by Nico Frey on Unsplash

When news of the world is too painful to read, when family members pass away, when broken lives rage and wickedness is rampant, I find comfort in worshipping the Lord. “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace…” (by Helen Lemmel, inspired by missionary Lilas Trotter.)

I’m reminded of my 12th grade year, full of much sadness and confusion as a mental illness had slowly taken over my life. I continued to attend school as best I could manage and keep my grades up so I could graduate. I think it was during this year that the Lord gave me an image in my mind of a great white wing, His pinions of protection, and I was curled up peacefully and safely in His care. When confusion and fear swirled around me, I would go there in my mind to this place of safety.

The image comes from Psalm 91, which I had printed out and taped on the inside of my school locker years before. I carry this image with me in my heart and it comforts me even today.

He will cover you with his pinions,
 and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. Psalm 91:4

Its in the refuge of His love that we can sing and praise and worship. Its under his wings where we can turn our eyes upon him and look full in His wonderful face.

The song I want to share this month is one that speaks of God’s great love which I believe with my whole heart. Whatever pain you have gone through in life, healing comes through worshipping Christ. You are beloved and you need to believe that.

I pray this song is a powerful testimony of God’s love for you, His beautiful creation of you in His image, and His fierce love to rescue you, to lay down his life for you, to stoop down, take your hand, and raise you up. It doesn’t matter if you are seen by the world when the eyes of Love are fixed on you, His beloved one.

“Its time to own your belovedness…”

Belovedness by Sarah Kroger, The London Sessions (Live)

I captured this photo in British Columbia recently, beauty in fall leaves, light, color, and shadows

A Little Night Music in September - Your Labor is Not in Vain

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) - Apple Harvest, Éragny, 1888, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art

I have a rare morning to myself. The weather is cooler today, the flies are not invading my home at the moment, and I’m sipping earl grey tea with oat milk and honey. I am beginning to think of sweaters, slippers and crafting, a few of my favorite Fall things. A friend gave me a couple of her acorn squash which are going to beautify our family table for now. Eventually we will roast them along with other contributions we have pulled from our church gleaner’s basket. The gleaner’s tradition started in our second year as a church plant. Gardens tend to grow very well in this fertile soil, and many have an abundance of produce. Sharing it with each other is a fun tradition and keeps us mindful in providing for others. At the beginning of each potato harvest, one of our church families brings bags of russet and yellow potatoes from their farm for everyone in our church. When there is a harvest, there is rejoicing.

When we moved into our house a few years ago, we were pleased to find a small, old apple tree. However, it looked tired, and we assumed it must be a leftover fruit tree that had run its course in some long-forgotten era of an orchard on this property. Perhaps we would keep it just for looks, for a little needed shade, and a climbing space. In that first summer, we found a bird’s nest in the tree. With many kittens being born the following spring, the birds must have found a new home to build a nest, perhaps higher up in our blue spruce.

I didn’t know how to take care of an apple tree. There were a few apples here and there, but they had holes and we threw them to the chickens. That year, I naively pruned the tree right back, in fact, right to the stubs. There were only about a dozen apples that year. "It must be old,” we assumed. But it gave a place of respite from the sun and was a good starting point for our garden. We would keep it, even if just for its beauty.

I didn’t prune it at all this past Spring. We were busy and tired, and besides, it was a tired, old tree. “It’s probably stopped producing,” we would say, accepting its fate based on our presumptions. As the spring and summer months continued their course through the calendar year, we saw little green apples growing on our poor old tree, a lot of them! I was thankful that we could at least use them for the chickens. It would save us money on buying chicken feed. The apples grew larger and more plenteous, and whenever I stopped to observe them, I was struck by how many were growing on the tree! “What is happening here?” I’d muse. In mid-summer, the middle to lower branches started to bend over from the abundance. And then, the apples started to drop! But, low and behold, they were actually delicious. Again, I was pleasantly and curiously surprised. But should I be? Someone at some time had planted a seed. We were pruning it as seemed good enough to us. We were cultivating a living thing. Why was I so surprised that something good had been produced?

Our apple tree, 2023

My first plan was to give all the apples to the chickens. We had not sprayed the tree with bug-defying chemicals, so most had at least some effects of other creatures trying to partake. But some of them were quite perfect. Soon after, I decided to do something with these apples, something for us humans. All in all, we gathered an estimate of probably one thousand apples from our vibrant and life-giving tree! One Saturday morning, we all contributed to the gathering, collecting, picking and pruning. My youngest was up in the branches, pulling at hard to reach apples, and reciting lines from the classic audiobook of Winnie the Pooh. Where there is a harvest, there is rejoicing.

As we worked, the line from the song A Thousand Shores by Leslie Jordan played through my mind:“You give and You give, and still there is more…” It struck my heart with the love and generous provision of our Maker, our King Jesus. It was a living picture of His abundant love, overflowing grace, and joyful willingness to provide.

A couple of ladies from church came and helped me process this abundance of apples. In four hours of work, we made 3 pots of apple sauce. On a different day, I made 2 other pots of apple sauce. Later, I made an apple pie at the request of my pie-loving son, and apple chips in my dehydrator. I was able to give away a few bags of apples as well. When I think of all the people these apples have blessed, I smile knowing God grew those apples for us, for them, for their families and little ones. This apple tree brought beauty, a small patch of shade, a respite from the scorching summer sun, a place to hang a hammock, a playground to climb, as well as nourishing us and our friends, providing conversation, laughter, and time to build relationship around good and hearty work.

The song I share with you this September is Your Labor is Not in Vain, a song for workers, a song for the planters and harvesters, the arborists, the gatherers, and the gleaners. Our God is with us, and even apple-picking is not in vain in His fruitful Kingdom!

“The vineyards you plant will bear fruit

the fields will sing out and rejoice with the truth,

for all that is old will at last be made new:

the vineyards you plant will bear fruit.”

Your Labor is Not in Vain, written by Wendell Kimbrough, Paul Zach, and Isaac Wardell

A Little Night Music in August

As our spring season barreled down the tracks and came to a screeching summer halt, we found ourselves in need of quiet and solace. We borrowed an RV and headed for the mountains of Cascadia. Completely off the grid, we set up camp at a site on the side of a cliff that overlooked the Ohanapecosh river. A humble creek flowed unassumingly behind us in a trickling waterfall over a moss-covered log, glory in every drop of water. We reached our hands into streams of hot springs that trickled over rocks from within the living volcano. The well traveled trail to Silver Falls was quiet and still as perpetual sunlight followed our footsteps. We buried ourselves in books around the campfire, stared up at the stars as dusk descended, swam in the frigid snow-melt, and slept with the sound of the river lulling us into peaceful slumber. With a few other adventures along the way, we feel restored and refreshed, and with so many hours on the road across Washington state, into Idaho, and all the way up home to Beautiful British Columbia, we listened to satisfying music which I want to share with you. Here comes the mother-load!

This month’s “eine kleine nachtmusik” might take a few evenings to enjoy. I think if I ever lost my ability to hear (or more of my ability to hear as some in my family might say), it would be okay, I would hear music in my head and heart all the same, and bounce to the beat the Lord ingrained in my heart. Music is a gift from the Lord to carry us through soaring heights, comfort us in dark valleys, and lift us on eagle’s wings out of canyons of confusion and despair where we can see clearly again. Music is an intimate way to experience life. I think that is why it is so subjective. What touches one person’s soul will be like nails on a chalkboard to someone else. When one person needs the soothing calm of J.S. Bach’s Air on the G String, another might need a bit of pep in the step with the Dave Brubeck Quartet or the volcanic velocity of Eva Cassidy’s vocals in Oh, Had I a Golden Thread. We come from such varying backgrounds and life experiences. There is no end to the creation of new songs, and for those who trust in Jesus, we have the sure and steady hope that we will enjoy an eternal song.

The following is a list of songs that have accompanied me on many miles of travel this summer in Cascadia, a Land of Falling Waters. May this music fall on open ears, soft hearts, and may it bring you to the stream of Living Water, Jesus Himself.

Trust in the Lord - Jon Guerra

A Thousand Shores - Leslie Jordan

Have Mercy - Paper Horses

John 3:16-17 The Words of Jesus Vol. 1 - The Corner Room

Oh The Mighty Hand - City Alight

All Glory Be To Christ - Emily Weiss

Oh sing to the Lord a new song;

sing to the Lord, all the earth!

Sing to the Lord, bless his name;

tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations,

his marvelous works among all the peoples!

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;

he is to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,

but the Lord made the heavens.

Splendor and majesty are before him;

strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

Psalm 96:1-6 ESV Bible

A Little Night Music in July

Photo by LAUREN GRAY on Unsplash

My Mom set apart Sunday mornings as very special in every way she managed our home on the Lord’s Day. Worship filled our home from the moment my sisters and I awoke as music from the record player downstairs beckoned us to begin anew. Dad was already at church rehearsing his sermon, praying, quietly setting up, and making sure everything was ready for the service. It was the 80’s, so with puffy sleeves, feathered hair, jean purses, and jelly shoes, we made our way to church. My mom would give us each a quarter to put into the offering.

It was those first moments of waking to music that I’ve been thinking about this month. I recall songs from Connie Scott, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Hosanna! Music Praise series such as one of my favorites… 1989’s Victory Chant! Turn up the music!

I wanted to carry on this tradition with my family of setting apart Sunday mornings as a special time for the kids and I, while my husband went to work to prepare the music for church as a worship pastor, and now in our church plant as pastor. I put on the music on our streaming device and light a candle, bake dutch baby pancakes with powder sugar on top. We quietly get ready for the morning. Sometimes we leave early, depending on how we’re helping serve that week. But the morning is set apart with worship and a delicious breakfast.

A whole slew of music has accompanied our Lord’s Day mornings over the years, but lately I’ve been playing Josh Garrels’ album, Peace to All Who Enter Here, to lead us into worship of our God as we prepare our hearts to worship with our church family.

If you haven’t heard this album yet, I hope you enjoy each one of these songs as eine kleine nachtmusik in July, and may it accompany your Lord’s Day mornings as well. Prepare well, for it is the Lord we worship. Exalt the Lord our God!

Dutch Baby Pancakes:

1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs - lightly beaten
4 Tb butter (I love salted!)
Directions… Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Put it all in a bowl and mix together! While the oven is preheating, put your cast iron skillet in the oven to heat up. When ready to pour the batter, melt 2 Tb butter in skillet. Pour in the batter and bake for 15 mins until pancake is golden brown and climbing up the sides. Pull out of the oven and sprinkle with powder sugar. You can also sprinkle with lemon juice and serve with jam, fresh fruit, or chocolate chips. Enjoy with your people around the table!

Grace upon grace,

Jen

A Little Night Music in June: A Song for a Sacred Moment

Photo by Ozgu Ozden on Unsplash

A few weeks ago, I received the news that a beloved pastor in our denomination was in hospice care. Whenever I’ve received news that someone is in the final moments of life, God quiets my soul. I retreat inward into a focused hush. As grief swells around the wound of loss, my focus turns to prayer for that person as they approach the separation of body and soul. This is a sacred space, and an opportunity for God’s redeemed family to serve their brother or sister in Christ one last time, to get down on their knees and wash their feet through prayer as they prepare to run to their Savior.

Even though I didn’t know Rev. Timothy Keller personally, his gospel legacy reached even me, and I can trace his influence on my life ever since 2007 in the majestic alps of Switzerland where I first heard his recorded, gentle, pastoral voice on a cassette tape.

In a little chalet, with books stacked on shelves from floor to ceiling, I was in search of something to study as a newlywed wife. My husband and I had just gotten married and flown to Paris for his college semester abroad as he was studying for his Worship Arts degree. L’Abri, in Huemoz, Switzerland, was one of our stops on our three month journey through Europe, visiting various Christian places of worship and study. The typical visitor to L’Abri comes to study about their specific interests or questions of faith and Christianity. I didn’t arrive with questions (yet), but I wanted to learn about marriage. So I went in search of books and lectures recorded on cassette tape.

As I was browsing one day, I came across a series of tapes on marriage by a visiting teacher named, Timothy Keller. I popped it into the tape player and put on the headphones and settled in for an afternoon of learning. He sounded knowledgeable and wise, Biblical and methodical, and genuinely earnest. You could tell that he desired his students, from different countries and cultures, to clearly understand what he was presenting to them from the Scripture.

This was a pivotal time in my life. At that time I was 29 years old and my faith was solid. My faith that I had held so strongly before coming to L’Abri was about to go through an unexplainable and unexpected spiritual crisis. Additionally, I believe it was all planned by my loving God to guide and prepare me, through many experiences, and His loving sovereign hand, things that I would need later in life to help others also walk through difficult seasons like mine.

A couple years later, I learned of Tim Keller’s best-selling book, The Reason for God. I picked it up, because I was silently and desperately hanging on to my rock solid faith that was seemingly crumbling in the contours of the valley of all my questions. I was afraid of having questions. I was afraid to tell anyone that I was going through this experience. After all, I was a pastor’s daughter, had served in church ministry since I was in 7th grade, had gone to two different Bible schools, worked in various churches, served on missions trips, traveled all over to share the gospel of grace with anyone who would listen at home and abroad. And now, I was overwhelmed with questions and doubts that assailed me and threatened to overwhelm me. What would people think of me? I was simply ashamed to have questions.

The Reason for God helped me, as did various other books on apologetics, a branch of theology that works to defend Christian doctrine. I dove into it like nobody’s business. It became my daily passion, my evening study after I got home from my job, my constant obsession. Even more than my years at Bible college, I studied church history, sought out the writings and arguments of the leading Christian apologists of the day. My husband and I even went to a debate on Christianity held at the very secular University of British Columbia in Vancouver to hear a visiting Christian apologist explain the validity of Christianity. I pondered these things in my heart and wrestled with them in all my waking hours.

Eventually, over time, the faithful hand of God brought me through that spiritual crisis, and because of it, Christ gave me a more compassionate, gentle, and understanding heart for those who struggle with doubt. He took what seemed to be crumbling apart and strengthened it through the fiery trial.

I was working on my computer in our cozy family room the morning I learned that Tim Keller had died. My music streaming device had pulled up a new song that I had never heard before. This song and this grief collided in God’s perfect timing as the reality hit me that an era was over, that my brother in Christ was now with Jesus. I am so thankful for Tim Keller’s faithfulness to Jesus. I share this song here, because that moment was a sacred moment for me. A faithful pastor was home. God is making all things new.

All Things New - Ethan Nathaniel

A Little Night Music in May

Unexpected beauty startled me with joy one spring morning at our church.

Well, hello in May! I am just loving writing these monthly music posts this year. It makes me so happy to share songs that bless and comfort me. Thank you for joining me this year on this musical journey. It breathes life into me to find music that I enjoy, that strengthens me, that feeds and nourishes my soul and mind. In God’s Word, we are told to think on…

“whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” - Philippians 4:8

“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” - Eph 5:18-21

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” - Col. 3:16

“Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants.” - Isaiah 42:10

So let us sing to the Lord, shall we?

This month, I want to invite you to discover some music you may not have heard before. Several years ago, while at seminary, a few talented friends collaborated with my husband and I in recording some original songs. It was a creative delight to do something so organic and worshipful while my husband was in the throws of earning his Master of Divinity. In the midst of learning Hebrew, Greek, how to shepherd souls, how to counsel, how to preach the Word of God, how to administer the sacraments, and how to teach from every book in God’s wonderful Word, God allowed these needed outlets of creativity, self-expression, and worship to our Creator and Lord. It was a joy-filled side gig and one that built community and friendship.

There are three albums attributed to Gateway Hymns, this collaborative effort of creating music for the church. Each album is unique in its theme:

Songs for the Journey

Good Friday

The Songs of Fanny Crosby (This album was recorded after our seminary years, but during a two year church planting internship with the Northwest Church Planting Network before church planting in the Pacific Northwest.)

May these songs be a balm to your soul, at the end of a tired day, with a cup of Sleepytime Tea and a place of quiet for your soul to be restored. Be reminded of the God who is there, who loves you, and who paid with His life to purchase you for Himself.

Grace upon grace,

Jen

A Little Night Music in April

Photo by Kenrick Mills on Unsplash

The candle is lit, Mozart’s strings and flutes play in the background and I sit down for a moment of rest and reflection. Its been a full month, and it seems I am only able to write once a month here on my blog. We have seasons that are fruitful and seasons where our fields lay fallow. Each season has purpose and our labor is to ask the Lord what shall we do in each of those seasons. What shall we do with the time we are given? Should we harvest, or is it time to plant? Should we till the soil and add the nutrients and minerals that will produce a better harvest next year. Should we let the field rest and restore as is God’s wisdom in caring for the land He has entrusted to us. Writing is a place of rest and creativity for me. So the field of this writing space is where I come to recharge and pour out of that rest, but, at least for this season, it is perhaps more sparse, but still there is work being done in feast or fallow.

Today, I want to share some music that has blessed me this month, and may, in turn, bless you the reader. I had never heard of Tenielle Neda before this month, and I am captivated by her music. Her songs are scripture based and come from a Reformed theology background. She is a wife, mom of two, and driver of iron ore trains in Australia - which I think is incredibly cool.

This is the music I play as I have become the chauffeur of my tweens and teens, to transport them and their friends, to drop off at track & field, music lessons, driving to and from school. I am in that season where I spend a large portion of time in my vehicle. So I must be prepared to use my time wisely, to be nurtured in my soul and mind, to learn and grow, to relax to music, and to pray. Driving time can be used for so many kingdom-minded moments. Tic Tacs, hand sanitizer, a bottle of water, a good pair of sunglasses, and a hat for bad hair days are also along for the journey!

What is My Hope? - Tenielle Neda

“And if we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord…”

The Heidelberg Catechism was published in 1563 and can be summarized as “an ageless summary of an everlasting comfort.” Question 1 asks, “What is your only comfort in life and death?” The New City Catechism also asks this first question, “What is our only hope in life and death?” The answer is the basis of this song, and Scripture is the basis of this timeless answer.

Romans 14:7–8

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.

The Heidelberg Catechism answers it this way:


That I am not my own,

but belong with body and soul,

both in life and in death,

to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins

with his precious blood,

and has set me free

from all the power of the devil.

He also preserves me in such a way

that without the will of my heavenly Father

not a hair can fall from my head;

indeed, all things must work together

for my salvation.

Therefore, by his Holy Spirit

he also assures me

of eternal life

and makes me heartily willing and ready

from now on to live for him.

This composition is full of emotion as it takes the listener from a minor key, asking the question of what is my hope? Even this simple question is evidence that we live in a broken and sinful world in need of restoration. The fact that we have to ask what our hope is, shows that we need hope to live in this world. It is a sacred question and one that confronts the darkness all around us, the emptiness of worldly pursuits, and the desperate need to be filled with the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in our souls. There is a sadness that accompanies this question. It is not stated, but it is there in the backdrop of our need to define what is the most important thing about our existence.

The song moves victoriously into the chorus with a triumphant major key resolution, almost a sense of rest as it guides one into the truths of Scripture, the food for our souls to be nourished by. There is an answer to the longing of our souls and it is found in the Bible, the Word of God. As a youth, I remember this verse standing out to me as I searched the Scriptures to know Yeshua more intimately. “If we live, we live to the Lord” was such a radical truth that imbedded into my soul. God was calling me to live for Him.

The words and music of this song become perfect companions for the meaning of these truths and the rest that all Scripture gives in answer to the questions we ask in this dark world, a world that is being and will be renewed and restored by King Jesus.

I pray that you are blessed by this song as much as I have been, and that it will be eine kleine nachtmusik to reflect on in a moment of quiet.