One thing we’ve been asked to do a lot over the past two weeks is to rewrite Pslams. I’m going to share two I rewrote:

Psalm 23: 1-6

(1)God watches, feeds, guides and protects me. I don’t need anything more than that. (2)He gives me peace, He gives me rest. (3) He fills me and makes me new. He shows me how to live well in His sight & in the sight of others, so I can make His name look good. (4) Even through pain, loss or devastation, I will keep going. Unafraid and confident that He is holding my hand, walking with me through it all. His word and His power are my defenders. He eases my heart and mind. (5) He makes sure I win. He makes it His business to make me victorious. He honors me and gives me himself abundantly. (6) All things good and lovely are always with me because He is always with me. He’ll be with me for the rest of my life and I’ll be with Him after my life is over. Forever I’ll be able to live in His home, sit at His feet and lose track of time loving Him.

Psalm 42: 1-5

(1)If, suddenly, oxygen ceased to exist, my desperate need for it would still be outweighed by my need for You, O God. (2) I want you, Lord. You give me new life. I anticipate every time I get to meet with You. (3) I’ve fed my fears and hurts. I’ve lost track of how many tears I’ve cried. People who study my life have asked where You’ve been, they don’t see You in my tears. (4) But I see You, I remember You as I cry. I can recall walking right alongside Your worshipers, on our way to Your house. We would raise our voices as one! We couldn’t contain our praise, our hope, our endless gratitude! (5) I wonder why I allow myself to focus on sorrow when I KNOW You. I hope in you! Nations hope in You! And so, even through my tears, I will push myself to turn my eyes upon You. I will love You more, I will acknowledge You more. You rescued me and You continue to rescue me from my enemies and from myself. You are my God, I’ll never be able to praise You enough.

This week, through the study of worship and prayer, continued to confirm and stress the UNENDING IMPORTANCE of reading, using and knowing The word of God.

The Word of God in my worship music will always be able to do what my poetic lyrics cannot. That fact doesn’t take away from my gift or musical expression, it only supports what God says about Himself.

Psalm 107:20

He sent His word forth & healed them; He rescued them from the grave.

That verse stayed with me all week. It hit me in a deep place. That God’s word is powerful and if I want to create music that changes atmospheres, cities, and nations… I need The word of God. Not only in my music, but in my heart, in my memory.

Then one really cool moment I had during class was this: My teacher asked us to close our eyes and ask God to show us Jesus’ countenance toward us… What did I see?

Jesus’ face was so close to mine that I couldn’t make out His whole face. Jesus was cradling my face and planting kisses on my cheeks.
He was so close to me. That’s His position with me right now. That’s so beautiful to me.

It’s so tough to sum up the weeks here. This really does it no justice. But I hope it gives you some idea of what God’s doing in me.

I planned on posting every Saturday to talk about what happened to me that week. But, clearly, I’ve failed. I missed week 2 and 3…

Week 2: Biblical Foundations of Worship

Such an amazing week! My teacher was a Biblical genius and the overall message was the importance of knowing the Word of God WELL. Especially when wanting to be a worship leader. Our responsibility is to know the Word just as well as the Pastor we’re under. AGREED.In light of that, we did a lot of Old Testament study and scripture memorization.

Not only that but she has such a genuine heart for God. That meant a lot to me, I trusted her because of that. Seeing her heart for Him caused me to draw closer to The Holy Spirit and… *sigh* there’s just nothing sweeter than being near His presence. Nothing more rich or fulfilling. Truly.

Week 3: Songwriting

Karla Adolphe came to teach. If you don’t know who she is… STOP… and go look up some of her music…

YOU’RE WELCOME!

Ok, so last week was super practical. We got some formulas to songwriting and then, of course, we had to write a song based on a topic given. We had 2 days to write and then perform our song. It was tough and very stretching (that’s what I signed up for).

Karla + words = magic! And I hope some of that was imparted into me last week. She has an amazing understanding of God’s calling over her life and she’s confident in it. She helped us discover some of that for ourselves and left me feeling more creative and with having more of a grasp on the songwriting process.

Two VERY different weeks. But both were SO great! And what I wrote does no justice for all that happened. If I wrote it all, there’s no way you’d actually read it.

I’m just so glad to be doing this. What an adventure…