Kudos to Lexar Media and to Horizon Music, Inc.

Usually I just post the same article I write for my rehearsal handouts on Wednesday evenings and leave it at that. I had an experience this morning that needs to be made known.

Christmas 2004 I received a Lexar Media 128MB USB Jump Drive Secure from my family. It was on sale for about $35 at Rat Shack (an aside here ... I bought a 1GB USB drive last week for right at $25 ... technology comes down in cost over time, doesn't it?). About 9 months ago it started acting up, then finally refused to be recognized at all by any computer I tried to hook it to. I almost threw it away in the big Clean Sweep of the Music Suite, but decided not to.

On a whim this morning I went to the Lexar web site, clicked on support, then on live chat. After about 10 to 15 minutes online with Jey the tech support guy during which we jumped through all the diagnostic hoops to confirm that the drive was indeed dead, he asked if I wanted to replace the drive. My immediate response was "At what cost?" since I had just bought a new drive with 8 times the capacity for $10 less. The bottom line is that all ll I have to do is to send the drive back to them at my cost (and how much could that be? It only weighs a couple of ounces) and they'll send me a new one. Period. End of story ... well, not exactly.

My new 1GB drive is not a Lexar product, but you can be sure I'll look at Lexar products first when considering a similar purchase. They've earned tons of customer good-will from me.

The same goes for Horizon Music. Last month I bought a 20ft instrument cable for my guitar from a local music store that didn't pass any signal to the mixing board the first time I plugged it into my Ovation acoustic. Though the package said "limited lifetime warranty" and "Any cables returned for warranty should be sent freight prepaid to our factory at the address below," I couldn't find an address on the package. A quick Google search got me to their web site. I e-mailed them and heard back in a couple of days that they would send a new cable to me pronto. They didn't even say anything about sending the old one back (which I've done because it's the right thing to do), or providing them with proof of purchase, or anything. They just sent me a new cable on good faith. On a curious note, I checked the "bad" cable with my cable tester (also a Horizon product, oddly enough) and it tested good.

Bottom line for this blog is this: "kudos" and "thank you" to two stand-up companies that stand behind their products. Well done, y'all. You've got my business for quite some time yet to come.

O That I Had a Thousand Voices

I credit my friend Charles Roberts, Minister of Music at FBC in Hartsville, SC for pointing me to this song. The old hymn text has been slightly modified (but only slightly) by Tim Sean Youmans to make it easier to sing in a more modern style. The result is a quite pleasant and effective expression of praise in the same historic tradition as Isaac Watts and the Wesleys in a modern acoustic folk music style. I love it when people do this!

Here’s the lesson: We don’t throw something out just because it’s old … and we don’t disregard something just because it’s new. We look at it. We study it. We listen for the voice of God.

A link to an mp3 of the song is here:
http://timothyyoumans.typepad.com/timsean/2006/02/oh_that_i_had_a.html

Oh, that I Had a Thousand Voices
by Johann Mentzer, 1658-1734

Oh that I had a thousand voices
praise my God with thousand tongues!
My heart, which in the Lord rejoices,
Would proclaim in grateful songs
To all, wherever I might be,
Great things God has done for me
Oh, that I had a thousand voices ...

All the powers that God implanted,
Keep the silence now no more;
Put forth the strength that God has granted,
Noble work is to adore.
Soul and body, join to raise
Heartfelt joy our Maker’s praise!
Oh, that I had a thousand voices ...

Forest leaves so green and tender,
Dance for joy in summer air;
Meadow grasses, bright and slender;
Flowers so fragrant and fair;
Live to show God’s praise alone,
Join to make His glory known.
Oh, that I had a thousand voices ...

Creatures that have breath and motion,
Throng the earth, the sea, the sky,
Share with me my heart's devotion,
Help me to sing praises high,
My utmost powers can never quite
Declare the wonders of His love
Oh, that I had a thousand voices ...

Creator God, humbly I ask you
Listen to my earthly song;
Till that day when I adore you
When I have joined the angels throng
And have learned with the choirs in heaven
To sing anthems to my God
Then I shall have a thousand voices ...

That's enough to think about for now.

Hold Me, Jesus (Rich Mullins)

Nine or ten summers ago I had one of the worst weeks of my entire life. Exactly what was going on is not as important as the message that God brought into my life through the pen of Rich Mullins. It helped me get through that week; and it comes up in my mind from time to time … usually in times of turmoil and need. It came to mind this afternoon … perhaps because someone else may need the same message I got. The grammar’s not great, but the message is spot on. I put the punctuation in the verse myself.

Sometimes my life just don’t make sense at all
When the mountains look so big
And my faith just seems so small

So hold me Jesus ‘cause I’m shaking like a leaf.
You have been King of my glory,
Won’t You be my Prince of peace?

And I wake up in the night and feel the dark
It’s so hot inside my soul I swear
There must be blisters on my heart

So hold me Jesus ‘cause I’m shaking like a leaf.
You have been King of my glory,
Won’t You be my Prince of peace?

Surrender don’t come natural to me.
I’d rather fight You for something I don’t really want
Than to take what You give that I need.
And I’ve beat my head against so many walls
I’m falling on my knees.
And this Salvation Army band is playing this hymn
And Your grace rings out so deep
It makes my resistance seem so thin

So hold me Jesus ‘cause I’m shaking like a leaf.
You have been King of my glory,
Won’t You be my Prince of peace?

That’s enough to think about for now.

Who names these things?

I've been having kidney stone symptoms off and on for the past few weeks. The pain has been fairly quiet over the past few days, but I did have hematuria on Sunday afternoon, so I finally called the doc late Monday and went to see him yesterday. There was not a whole lot going on as far as the symptoms go but an IVP is still indicated. That means I'm spending today in preparation ... clear liquids all day and colon prep (they don't want anything in there so they can see kidneys, ureters, and bladder well on the films) this afternoon. That's borderline TMI, so I'll not go much further there except to say this:

When I saw the name on the prep kit I picked up from the radiology department at the hospital -- "Evac-Q-Kwik" -- my immediate thought was, "Who in the world thinks up names for these things? Yeesh!" Sure, it's descriptive, but cutesy spellings and trite-phrasy names belong somewhere else. All the name did was to increase my dread of what I have to do this afternoon.

Chris Tomlin's ~ "Whispers of Worship"

I've read somewhere that it's supposed to be bad form to quote an entire blog entry from someone else on one's own blog. Perhaps I'm violating a principle of internettiquette with this, but I'm going ahead with it anyway.

I found the following article (from the internet ... vintage 2003, so it's really old) in some of my stuff while I was continuing the "Clean Sweep" treatment of the Music Suite (all we have left to do is my office (yea! ... and verily)). When I found the article, I couldn't remember where I had found it (I just save them to my hard drive in a folder labeled "articles" with sub-folders for several different subjects), so I did a Google search and found the same article on multiple sites ... so I don't feel quite so gauche at posting it verbatim here.

At any rate, if you want to see the article in its original form where I found it the first time, go to: http://www.songs4worship.com/article.asp?ai=397. If you just want to read the article (as I would), here it is:

Whispers of Worship - Chris Tomlin

Date Posted 6/30/2003

I’ve been struck to the core by Paul’s confession of worship as he begins Romans 12: “Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship.” It would be so much easier, if Paul had used “songs” instead of “bodies.” Or maybe “events” or “Sunday mornings” or .... “Bodies” is such an encompassing word. This definition requires our mind, heart, soul and strength-our entire lives! And that’s just what worship calls for, all of who we are. Any less would not be worship.

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet a modern-day Paul. I received a special invitation to sit in a small group conversation with a Jesus fugitive. He told me his name, or at least his alias, and out of respect he must remain nameless here. He is the founding father of an underground movement in China that some estimate to be around 100 million strong. He has been in the states for a little over a year and appears to be in permanent exile here. His resume‚ reads similar to Paul’s. Among several trials, he watched as his parents were murdered for their unrelenting faith in Jesus. He has been thrown in prison for Jesus four times and led to the execution chamber twice-realities our western minds find hard to grasp in 2003.

As our conversations continued, he began to speak of the continual miracles of God he had witnessed. Not big miracles, he said, just people being healed of illness instantly and an illiterate women suddenly being able to read when the bible was placed in her hands. One account, he recalled, was of two pastors trekking through the outer edges of China in a snowstorm. There was no place for shelter, so they decided to sleep in the snow, knowing they would die and be with their Lord. But, he said, they woke up the next morning to sunshine and animal tracks all around. In the night, animals had come and lay on top of them to keep them warm. No big miracles, he said.

But what got my attention most was when he said the music wasn’t very good in his church gatherings. Through his translator, he stated, “If we sing loud, they’ll hear us and arrest us. So we just gather up close and whisper the songs to God. We have to be quiet.” It was an awakening moment for me. Again, I saw another picture of true worship living itself out. I thought of all my efforts to sing and play loud for God, and never had I been a part of a chorus as loud as their whispers. In our culture today, if our music is a bit lacking, then so goes our “worship.” But I was awakened again that worship has little to do with style or volume. It is about spirit. It is about being on a mission to live and die for the name and renown of Jesus. My humble friend from China was a representation of what it looks like to present your body as a living sacrifice to God.

So where does this leave us in our current worship culture? We have been so blessed with resources and freedoms to worship the Lord. And too many times, our biggest concerns and quarrels are over loud guitars, drums, or the color of carpet.

When I think that there are those who might be arrested and even die for singing out the name of Jesus, I recognize our frustrations and so-called hardships are small. Small in dreams and small in passion. But I see new generations rising up with a burning flame inside to live out lives of surrender, of sacrifice, of worship to God. The Passion movement is a passage of scripture that best defines this abandon lifestyle. Isaiah 26:8 says, “Yes, Lord walking in the ways of your truth, we wait eagerly for you; your name and renown are the desire of our souls.” This is not a one-stop deal, but a never-ending life theme, a life that stands in view of the mercy of God and echoes the psalm, “better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”

Having just been through a complete sanctuary renovation and the relocation of our contemporary service into that renovated facility, it pains me to remember the "discussions" that took place during the process and some that continue as we try to get used to doing things in our shared worship space. "Small in dreams and small in passion" ... apt descriptions. O God, enlarge our dreams and passions that they may reflect our devotion to You rather than to the things we use to try to express our worship of You.

That's enough to think about for now.