Gloria!

After a wonderful week of remembering Jesus and the true meaning behind Easter through the inspiring music of Lamb of God and through the beautiful visual depictions of these sacred events, Easter morning has finally arrived. 

Yesterday, I shared some thoughts about the haze, twilight, and storm clouds of Saturday. And today, those clouds have fled, and the sun is shining brightly as our hope that carried us through the long and difficult Saturday has been confirmed by the light and truth of Jesus Christ's glorious Resurrection.

This wonderful week for me began with joy and exultation with a shout of Hosanna at the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Now, on Easter Sunday, my week ends with similar feelings of joy and exultation with my shout of Gloria at the triumphal return of Jesus to life and His glorious victory over death and sin.

I thank my God for the gift of His Son and for the opportunity for second chances. I thank my God for the opportunity to see my little sister, and all those who have gone before me, again. I thank my God for the opportunity I have to live through the Saturdays of my life so that I may glory in the brilliant light and joy of the Sunday mornings that follow.

Knowing that there is little that I could add that wouldn't detract from what I've already shared of my joy this Easter morning, I will simply join my voice with Mary's and sing Gloria!

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Sing O my heart, Sing thy rejoicing,

Morning has dawned and will stretch forth her wing.

No more the night holds thee his captive,

Jesus is risen, my Savior and king.

I'll sing Gloria, Glory to the Lord!

Gloria, glory for the life he doth bring.

Gloria, gloria gloria!

Gloria for my Savior lives!

Why dost thou weep? What is thy longing?

Why art thou cast down and turned from the light?

Lift up your eyes, look for the morning.

Wait for the darkness is only the night. 

And sing Gloria, Glory to the Lord!

Gloria, glory for the life he doth bring.

Gloria, gloria gloria!

Gloria for my Savior lives!

Israel rejoice, Sing all creation,

Jesus is risen with life in His wings.

Raise up your voice, Sing our salvation,

Now more than conquerers through Him our king.

Sing we Gloria!

Gloria, glory for the life he doth bring.

O Sing Gloria, gloria!

Gloria for my Savior lives!

Greater Love

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

How beautiful and profound are these moving words of Paul! Why is it that there is no force that has power to separate us from the love of our Savior and, by extension, our Eternal Father in Heaven who so loved the world that He gave His Son to us?

I am not sure that I will ever fully understand the answer to this question. However, in my simple, imperfect understanding, I know that the divine love granted unto us from these members of our Heavenly family is eternal and everlasting. We can try to separate ourselves from that love through the choices that we make in our lives; but, whether our choices and acts are acceptable to our Savior and our Father or not, that love will remain. It is unconditional. It is incomprehensible to us. As earthly parents, we might have the briefest glimpse of what it means to have divine or Christlike love for our own offspring. But that purest of charities that is encompassed in the infinite love of our Heavenly Father is something that we will never fully feel ourselves in this life. And it gives me hope in the darkest and most turbulent moments of my life that I am never beyond saving. That there is always an open door and an eternal family that is waiting for me to come home.

This eternal and infinite love was made so powerfully manifest through the Atonement of our brother. Jesus knelt in Gethsemane for me. He prayed for me. He shed many drops of blood for me. And while those who knew Him not nailed him to a tree and so callously mocked Him and casually cast aside His perfect life, my brother once again suffered for me and for my frailties and weaknesses. He took upon Himself my sins and my infirmities. With those stripes, Jesus my brother made me whole.

I say that I am grateful for this outpouring of love. I bear witness that I accept my brother as my Savior and my Messiah. I do my best each day to try to repay Him for his loving gift to me. But in the end, how truly grateful am I? How pure and heartfelt is my witness? How much effort do I truly make? It surely isn't enough. As Pontius Pilate, John the Beloved, and Mother Mary intone in the stirring song from Rob Gardner's Lamb of God:

"Enough! Enough! Behold, Is this not enough? Behold, the Man, the punishment He's bourne, the cruel whip, the mocking scorn..."

"O Lord, How long 'til Thou wilt cry 'It is enough?'"

"Enough! Is this not enough? O Lord, my God, Show mercy on my Son! Has not thy will in this been done?"

In the end, it was Christ Himself who decided when it had been enough when He voluntarily bowed His head and gave up His life. No matter how much effort I make, how much service to others I undertake, how much time I spend on my knees in gratitude to my Father for His Son, or how many times I raise my voice in bearing witness of my faith in Christ, I may join those voices with my own in crying out to Heaven, "Is this not enough?"

And even as I know that the answer is most assuredly No, the answer I will receive through the comforting promptings of the Holy Spirit will most assuredly be "It doesn't matter..." For it is not by my own effort or because of my own acts that I have been invited back to our Heavenly home. Nothing I could say or do in this life would earn that Heavenly reward. It is through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that I shall be saved. And it is because of this wonderful gift of love that I choose each day those words and those acts that would express my gratitude to Him who loved me.

"Greater love hath no man than this," the love expressed to me by my brother and my friend. And in response to His invitation, "As I have loved you, love one another," I will continue to strive each day to show that love unto others, first and foremost to my Father and my Savior above. "We love Him [and therefore each other], because He first loved us."

This Easter, I ask you to join me in recognizing that love that has never and will never be eclipsed by any earthly soul and in answering the Savior's call to love one another as He loved us.

God Bless!

Make Me Whole

Although I'm posting this next video on the Monday of Easter week, the events in this video technically took place before Palm Sunday. However, I thought it would be fitting to share this video on Monday because of the strong foreshadowing of what was to take place at the end of the week.

The story in this video is that of Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. We know precious little about these three individuals other than that they were close friends of the Savior. Particularly, we are told of one time when Jesus is invited to dinner and Martha is caught up being a typical "Martha Stewart" while Mary is less interested in hosting the perfect dinner party and more interested in spending time with her guest. Although Jesus' gentle words might be taken as a rebuke when he tells Martha that Mary had chosen the good part, I tend to believe that He might have in fact been saying that Mary had chosen the better part for her.

Personally, I feel that Martha had the best of intentions when deciding to make her very best effort to serve her master. Did not the woman who anointed Jesus' feet with very costly oils and perfumes in her alabaster box receive the Savior's praise when His disciples otherwise thought the anointment a waste that could have better served the poor? I'm pretty sure that our perfect exemplar was not showing any hypocrisy here and was not making any general statement about the merits of expensive oils, party planning, or listening and attentive ears. I think that each of these three acts was an attempt to serve and connect with Christ in a personal way, and I think that Jesus recognized and was grateful for each gesture and act of love. I think that there are most definitely good and better ways to show forth our love. Personally, I would contend that there isn't a single best way to show forth our love to our Master. But each of us should strive to find some way that is a personal best way for each of us when we are evaluating gifts that we might offer our King. Martha was reminded gently that, ultimately, there were more important things than making sure that the dinner place settings were aligned just so. But I don't believe that the Savior was telling her that her service and gifts to Him were unacceptable or warranting criticism.

Looking forward in time, we are again introduced in the scriptures to Mary and Martha at the unexpected death of their brother Lazarus. When Christ comes to meet these sisters, we are again reminded of their close friendship when Jesus is moved to tears upon sharing their grief. As a child, this was the verse of scripture that my friends and I joked about sharing in Sunday School when it was our turn to recite a favorite scripture. Why? Because it was only two words, Jesus wept. Having put aside childish things, I now can appreciate the beauty and significance these two words and of this glimpse into our elder brother's raw emotions in this moment. We are asked as disciples and saints of God to mourn with those that mourn and to bear one another's burdens that they may be light. Without a doubt, our Savior has borne our burdens making our yoke light. Without a doubt, we can be assured that He stands close by mourning along with us when our griefs are near the surface. And He knows how to succor us because of what He experienced for us in the Garden as He, in some way that I will never fully understand, took upon Himself and experienced every burden, every sorrow, every joy, every emotion that we will ever experience. Without a doubt, He understands.

One more thought about the story behind today's video. We read in the scriptures that by the time Jesus answered the call of Mary and Martha and came to Judea, Lazarus had lain in the grave four days. Jesus had previously told his disciples that Lazarus' sickness was not unto death, but for the glory of God. And we read that Jesus purposely delayed his journey to heal Lazarus by two days. With what we know about the love Jesus felt toward Mary, Martha, and Lazrus as evidenced by his tearful weeping upon meeting the mourning sisters, this two day delay might seem out of place. But is it? Some quick mathematical reasoning would suggest that, had Christ not delayed for the two days, He would have still been too late to save Lazarus by two days. So one might argue that the Savior knew there was no cause to rush and that He might have chosen to complete some business before making His journey. I tend to believe that the two day delay had other significance and purposeful intent.

Lazarus' raising from the dead was far from the first miraculous raising in the scriptures. Jesus raised both Jairus' daughter and the son of the widow of Nain from the dead. Both Elijah and Elisha raised souls from the dead. Another miraculous raising was the result of a body simply coming in contact with Elisha's bones upon temporarily being cast into Elisha's sepulcher at the signs of an approaching enemy. So the raising of Lazarus from the dead was not a new, unprecedented miracle. But, to those who witnessed the miracle, it was unprecedented and exemplified the glory of God as Jesus prophesied. Why? According to Jewish custom, the spirit would linger with the body for three days after death and, upon the fourth day, resurrection would no longer be possible. When Jesus commanded that the stone be taken away from the tomb, Martha was horrified at the prospect, suggesting that her brother stinketh. I would guess that Jesus' disciples knew that He had raised others from the dead. I am pretty sure that they had faith that He could do so again. However, as evidenced by Martha's reaction, I believe that most of them didn't even consider such a miracle at this moment given their tradition of the spirit and the body. In delaying two days and waiting for the fourth day after Lazarus' death, Jesus was demonstrating His complete and total power over death, something He would be demonstrating again in the coming weeks on the Sunday following Passover.

Thinking about the miracle of Lazarus, I am reminded of my own sister, Amy. My sister died at the age of three in a tragic accident, and I still vividly remember the grief and pain I felt in the days that followed. I generally keep these memories close to my heart and don't often share them with others. When I hear the glorious chorus, I am the Resurrection, I think about Amy and other loved ones who have gone before me. I think about the joy and majesty that accompanies my faith that I will be able to see them again. I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live! What a wonderful hope! What a miraculous prospect! O Death, where is thy sting? Where is thy victory? Paul answered his question to the people of Corinth in his epistle to the people of Rome, We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us!

I am so grateful for the Savior's healing power. Not only will He make me whole when I will, along with each and every one of you, be resurrected from the grave; but He has the power to make me whole each and every day as I seek for spiritual, emotional, mental, or physical healing from my Savior. I am happy to say that I have selected Jesus Christ as my primary care physician. Without a doubt, He is the Healer of Healers and the King of Kings. And though the rising costs of healthcare are a heated topic of debate in today's world, my personal co-pay costs to cover the valuable care I receive at His hand seem so insignificant to me. I will happily pay my mite for such healthcare. However, I know that, even though the monetary value of my co-pays and premiums seems little, my personal contribution can and should be as valuable and precious as the Widow's mite. I love the words of Christina Rossetti who ponders the gifts of the shepherds and the wise men to the Christ child, "What can I give Him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part; Yet what I can give Him: give my heart." Like the Aramean commander Naaman, who was prepared to give any sum of money to seek miraculous healing from a Heavenly source, I will discover that silver and gold, of which I have none, cannot buy the miracle I seek. But such as I have, I can pay the true cost to have the Savior make me whole. Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.

God Bless!

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Touch my eyes and bid them see that my gaze might pierce the veil,

And behold the wondrous scene that, in dreams, I've long beheld.

Oh, touch my heart and bid it know that ev'ry sorrow here is but a moment's tear,

And Thou wilt make me whole again.

Touch my ears and bid them hear all the glory of ?Thy truth,

That my hope might come of faith and no more require proof.

Oh, touch my heart and bid it know that, while in darkness here, the Light is ever near,

And Thou wilt make me whole again.

Then touch my lips and bid them sing songs of everlasting praise,

That my soul might then believe and give thanks through all my days!

Oh touch my heart and bid it know that ev'ry breath I take is by Thy tender grace,

And Thou wilt make me whole again.

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I am the Resurrection and the Life.

He that believeth in me, though he were dead, Yet shall he live.

And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die!

I am the Resurrection.

Hosanna!

Today, I finished editing my 8th and final Lamb of God video. What a joy it has been to create these videos. Rob Gardner's Lamb of God has been an Easter tradition for many years and has become a very important part of my life. I know that this work has the power to change lives. I know this because it has changed at least one life, that being my own.

When Lamb of God was first released on album, I purposefully held off purchasing the CD. I did this because I had a ticket to go and see Rob premiere this work live. I had seen most of Rob's other works--including Joseph Smith the Prophet, Saints and Pioneers, and The Price of Freedom--performed live but only after I had already grown to love the music from those works through CD albums. I thought it would be extra special to experience Lamb of God the first time live. Unfortunately, I discovered just days before the performance that I had a conflict and would be unable to use my ticket. Devastated, I ran to the store the very night I realized the conflict and bought the album. I lay in my bed with headphones in and soaked in the majesty of Lamb of God. And though I'm sure I shed a tear or two in disappointment at not being able to go, I shed many more tears from the Spirit in the music itself. 

When I heard that a group was performing this the very next year, I offered to hand out programs at the door if they were full staffed with violinists more talented than myself. I didn't care in what way I might contribute. I just knew that I needed to try to share this music with others. For six years now, I've had the privilege of participating with this group's annual performance of Lamb of God. And thankfully, they did in fact decide to let me play my instrument rather than serve as greeter. I still feel such a drive to share this music with others. 

As something of an experiment, I took some time last year to create my first Lamb of God video, one about Peter, Peter's story especially resonated with me last year, and I kept thinking about a scene from one of the LDS Bible Videos that depicted Peter's betrayal of Christ. The scene showed Peter ashamedly looking on as Christ was shoved past him. There was a brief glimpse between the two that struck me. In that glimpse, I saw Peter's shame. And I saw Christ's forgiveness. I felt a strong need to connect that visual with the moment in the song where Peter mournfully cries, "And when thou lookest for a friend, thou findest none for I have fled, Oh God! What have I done?"

The music and the video footage from the wonderful LDS Bible Videos lined up so beautifully. I simply had to click a few buttons as the video creation seemed to happen on its own. This year, when Thomas' story cried out to me, I couldn't sleep until I sat down to create a video for Thomas. And in the weeks since then, one song after another has nagged me until I have finally created a video for almost every song in Lamb of God. 

My video series now complete, I have decided to release each video here on my blog on each day of this Easter week that corresponds to the historical events each video is related to. I will likely re-post my old blog entries on the corresponding days this week for those videos I've previously shared on this blog.

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With today being Palm Sunday, I wish to share Hosanna (Thy Savior Hath Come). When I decided to make this video, I faced a dilemma. For my other videos, I had decided to almost exclusively use footage from the LDS Bible Video collection. I do not believe that this church's physical portrayal was either more historically accurate or more prone to inspire or direct people spiritually to the Savior. It is truly inspirational, that is true. And I do feel close to my Savior when I view these. But this was not the motivation behind my choice. Rather, I decided to use this source material because there was a great deal of footage available and because I wanted to portray a generally uniform depiction of Christ across the videos I was making.

The dilemma I mentioned that I faced in making this video is that there was only about one and a half minutes of footage from the LDS Bible videos that depicted the Triumphal Entry, but I had about four and a half minutes of music that I wanted to fill. And this song makes me feel so much joy and happiness when I think about joining my voice with the many, many who have sung Gloria!, Hosanna!, and Praise to God! in honor of our Redeemer and Savior. So, instead of showing a montage of Christ, I wanted to focus on that joy and happiness and on those brothers and sisters of mine who share this joy.

So I turned to any and all random video clips I could find that depicted this Biblical event. And the result was something that surprised me. I was at first critical of the lower resolution footage I found and the contrasting imagery over the course of the video. And I made a point to not include close-ups of the various actors portraying Jesus in this event with the exception of those clips from the LDS Bible Videos for continuity purposes. I think what surprised me most was that here were multitudes of people who, though they were not from different races and ethnicities for the most part, were costumed and portrayed in different flavors as directed by the various film producers or as guided by the particular impressions and views of their religious denominations. And the result was what seemed to me to be people from all over the world (or at least from diverse denominations and Christian persuasions and their respective stylistic depictions of Christ and this one event) uniting in joy and exultation and singing Hosanna and praise of our common Hope, our Deliv'rer, and our All.

This unified shout of Hosanna makes me wonder how many of these brothers and sisters of mine from all different walks of life and all different religious persuasions joined with me in that Heavenly choir that heralded the birth of the Savior and how many of us may have been singing from the Heavens at this joyous moment as well. Whether that Heavenly choir was open invitation or audition only, we have the opportunity now this Easter and every day to sing together in praise, regardless of our differences. I invite you to join with me in my song. And I hope you'll invite me to join with you in yours.

God Bless! 

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The Promise of Ages whom prophets foretold, 

For whom we have waited e'er long, 

Hath come to redeem us from slavery's yoke 

And deliver His people back home. 

Come, Israel, come and see He who shall reign, 

In whom we will ever rejoice, 

We hear the sound of the glorious refrain 

And it echoeth back in our voice: 

Hosanna! Hosanna! Thy Savior hath come, O Israel, 

And blessed He'll ever be called! 

Hosanna! Hosanna! Sing praises to God, 

For our Hope, our Deliv'rer, our All! 

Oh, why should we wander as strangers from Thee 

And turn from Thy bounteous hand? 

Restore and defend us, oh, set us free, 

That beside Thee we ever may stand! 

He looks, and ten thousands of angels rejoice, 

And myriads wait for His word; 

He speaks, and eternity, filled with His voice, 

Re-echoes the praise of her Lord: 

Hosanna! Hosanna! Thy Savior hath come, O Israel, 

And blessed He'll ever be called! 

Hosanna! Hosanna! Sing praises to God, 

For our Hope, our Deliv'rer, our All! 

Hosanna! Hosanna! Thy Savior hath come, 

Our Hope, our Salvation, our All!