Have you been called by God for a purpose?

Philippines 3: 14 tells us to keep pressing forward. If you're calling is songwriting verse 13 tells us to stretch ourselves. How do we do this?  Keep learning, building upon the techniques used by other people that makes songs work. The Internet is a vast resource for us as songwriters. Ask what am I pressing towards this week or today.  Are you distracted by your own callings or the callings of the world. Maybe we can slow down enough to ask ourselves how much time can I commit To God. Devoted to my higher calling. Find your goal and press towards it.

Happy 35th Anniversary TO Minnesota Association of Christian Songwriters!!

A LOOK BACK AT  M.A.C.S. [35 YEARS AND COUNTING]

In 1989 John Bennett attended a local songwriter meeting bringing his Christian songs to be critiqued.  Here is the account of what happened next: “At that meeting I heard a bunch of hopeless heartbreak songs, but I was surprised to hear someone with a soulful voice sing a Christian song, the only other one that evening. That person turned out to be Christine Fox. After attending a couple more of these secular meetings Christine and I realized that this was not a good place to get support for our Christian songs. So she invited a few of us to the first Christian songwriters meeting at her home. That first meeting was a blessing for me and I continued to go every month with a few others.  We began to meet in a Church and there we’re only four of us that regularly attended, then there were six, then there were eight. We met there for about a year and a half and things kind of fizzled out. At that time I wanted it to continue and I began having the meetings at The Church of the Open Door and called the group the Minnesota Association of Christian Songwriters. That first meeting was in a small room crowded with about 20 people. Then more and more people came, we had guest speakers come talk, we held concerts, and we listened to each other’s songs. When I asked for help to run the group many people came to my aid, and began taking over the duties of diligently sending out the newsletters, being responsible for the MACS library, leading the meetings, writing the Bylaws, helping with the concerts. I saw God’s blessings in many forms in many ways all along the way. When we needed a new place to meet, our current meeting place was provided. When we needed a volunteer lawyer to make us a nonprofit organization one was provided. When we needed a graphic artist for our brochures God provided. When we needed a website you brought us people who came forward to make one.  When we needed new places to have concerts God provided. When we asked for a compilation CD God bought us a leader. When we needed other volunteers they came forward. Everything fit into place, every need was met.  Since then, we have experienced much growth, with a mailing list of over 400 Christian artists.  In 1999, we became a non-profit organization, governed by an elected board of directors, dedicated to serving local Christian songwriters. MACS met on a monthly basis to network with members and sharpen our songwriting skills.  Some exciting events have taken place at MACS throughout the years. We’ve hosted many songwriters showcases over the years at coffee houses, Famous Dave’s BBQ and Blues, the Crossroads Chapel, and various churches.

“I wasn’t educated or experienced in becoming a non-profit arts organizer,” John explained, “but I and others made ourselves available and God did the rest. Who knows how much it has helped to bring others into God's Kingdom.”  Over the years MACS has helped countless songwriters, listened and evaluated over 2,000 songs written by Minnesota Christians, hosted numerous songwriter concerts, brought many people together in recording studios to record their music,  published quarterly newsletters, released 3 compilation albums, and has begun a thriving Christian networking community.  MACS hopes to continue to help and nurture Christian songwriters, as they seek God's will for their individual ministry.

MYSTERIOUS GOD?

                                                                                             by John Bennett

        A while ago someone described God as a mystery which has given me much thought to ponder.  So, after researching the matter and talking with friends I have come to the conclusion that God has mysteries that we cannot know for now, but there are many many attributes we CAN know about God. After all how can we say we know Jesus if he is a mystery? Of course, we know that God's wisdom and knowledge is unfathomable and it's impossible to reveal everything that God knows in our miniscule minds. Our brains would disintegrate with that amount of knowledge. God never gives us more than we can handle. So in a way God is trying to protect us from the huge amount of information He stores up.  After all He knows and counts each hair on your head.  He knows all, see’s all, holds all together.  David tells us that God's greatness is unsearchable and infinite. There is no boundary in which God's greatness can be confined.

A mystery in the Christian sense is not something that we do not happen to know; instead, it is something that we cannot know by the very nature of our finite minds .  We cannot fathom what eternity is: that there is no beginning or end, or even how did God begin.  Was God always here?  These things can leave our minds boggled and it’s much better not to lean on our own understanding.  

        

            Here is the point I'd like to make; that God wants us to personally know and understand Him: what He wants us to do, who He is and what He’s going to do. So, let’s look at what the Bible says about what we do know about God that is NOT a mystery. Daniel 2:22 says: “He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.”  How does God reveal himself to us?  God has revealed himself to us in the glory of creation, in the perfection of the written word, and in the personal experience of all who seek Him.  Verse 23 Goes on to say:  “God…hast made known unto me.”  

God wants us to know, up to a point what He knows.  The whole point of prophecies given to His chosen Prophets is that He wants us to know about future events.  The book of Revelation actually means God is revealing or making known to us.  Some prophecies were so unknowable at the time that God wanted them to be sealed.  Daniel 12:4 says; But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end.  Until now we did not know how the whole world could see something happening at the same time.  We now know they can by cell phones and TV.  God revealed to Daniel the succession of all the great Kingdoms of the Earth in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.  Everyday as we mature in the faith and read the Bible new insights are being revealed or unsealed.

God has shown us the future, now let’s ask can we know who God is?  The entire Bible reveals the nature, character, and work of God.  I can’t describe here the multitude of the ways in which He describes himself.  It would take volumes of books in which all the libraries of the world could not contain.

Even though God is Spirit he also has form and substance, a being that can be discerned by the five senses. God hears, sees, touches, smells and tastes like we do.  “Let us make man in our image” The Bible describes God as having emotional feelings, not sinful like ours, but Holy and Righteous feelings like anger, frustration, jealousy, love, compassion, who listens to us, communes with us, comforts us and has personal relationship with us.  He walked and talked with Adam and Eve and they could even hear His footsteps. Jesus said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father” After His resurrection Jesus showed people that he as spirit has both form and substance: They could touch and feel him. He even walked with them and sat down and enjoyed a meal with them.  God loves beauty when He said, “It is good”.  God is vastly creative by creating a million and a half different species in the world. God is strong by parting the waters and calming storms.  God is caring by feeding the people in the wilderness and He made a way for all living things to thrive.

What does God want us to do?  My Bible has 1377 pages and I read it as my guidebook of what God wants me to do.  It’s all in black and white with some red printed words.  There are no grey areas in my Bible.  In other words it is completely truthful and says exactly what it means.  Anyone with a strong belief in God is given special insight into God’s word.  They study it and try to follow how God wants them to live out their lives.  2 Timothy 3:16 say: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”   God gave us these scriptures so we don’t go down the same wrong path but to understand what is the best path to walk.  Solomon asked God for wisdom and it was given to him to write Proverbs.  Just in that book alone is more wisdom than all the self  help books in the world put together.  Solomon was wise but one who was wiser than anyone who ever lived was sent by God so that we would know God better.  His name is Jesus and He showed us more of who God is than words ever could.

So is God a mystery?  Yes and no.  There are still questions that we’ll never know in this lifetime, but there in Heaven all our questions will be answered.  Until then we can get to know God and have a personal everyday relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ.  So in conclusion I leave you with this verse to dwell on. 

Colossians 1:26-29

…the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.