Mighty Is Our God -- Eugene Greco, Gerrit Gustafson, Don Moen

 

It took a trip across at least four states, with three heads working on it, but “Mighty Is Our God” could not be held back – true to its name. It wasn’t something that Eugene Greco found difficult to compose, when he first jotted down the chorus section of the song in 1989, shortly after a morning worship time with his music students in New York. It just came into his head without much explanation, except that God must have placed it there, with evidences of the subject of this tune all around him – as they are for anyone who looks up and takes notice of Him. He’s the Almighty Creator, Eugene pondered, even as Michelangelo must have, when he created his masterpiece on a chapel ceiling to appreciate his Maker’s power (see a portion of it here). Then, as if with a momentum all its own, Eugene’s tune traveled south to Texas, and then to Alabama, and into Florida where Gerrit Gustafson and Don Moen added some words for another few lines to cap off what their New York musical brother had started. This compositional history speaks of a lengthy and sprawling journey that shows how big He really is -- can He really be stopped when He makes up His mind to do something?

 

Eugene’s chorus caught on immediately with his students, so it shouldn’t have surprised its author when it found its way to a sister campus of the New York school (Christ for the Nations) in Dallas. And then it caught on in so many other places – like concerts and churches – that music publishers in Alabama felt its impact, as if it was the gust of a windstorm, and made plans to include it on a record. That Gerrit Gustafson and Don Moen made a joint effort to produce some additional music and lyrics, first in an Alabama house basement and then during a car trip to Florida, further demonstrated how much potential they projected for ‘Mighty Is Our God’. It was a winner, in their minds. Gerrit and Don didn’t give the song a lot of extra frills, for it didn’t need much. Eugene’s words had already ascribed ‘mighty’ and ‘glory’ to this Creator he called out to with four names – ‘God’, ‘King’, ‘Lord’, and ‘Ruler of Everything’. All that Gerrit and Don did was build on Eugene’s words with an additional thought: this Being is supreme – with a ‘higher’ name and ‘greater’ power than anything or anyone else, proven by His creative initiative. Does anything else need to be said? Less is more, perhaps they reasoned.

 

Michelangelo’s work, even in its magnificence, will not compare to Him in person. The great artist does try to show Him in His space, surrounded by other beings that owe their existence to Him. Do I have enough, looking at my own existence, to appreciate all of His mighty creative nature? There is so much more, wonders that only a few humans have ever seen up closer than the rest of us, such as the astronauts who have been out into the heavens. And yet, those handful of men and women did not report back that they saw God out there. But, what they did see was pretty obvious – a universe testifying to a Creator; otherwise, saying it all emerged just on its own defies credulity. What might Moses say, if we could quiz him about the Almighty? And, what about Adam and Eve, who, after all, once were in the same garden where God walked (Genesis 3:8), and knew Him up close apparently? Eugene, and Gerrit, and Don don’t probe for answers to these questions. They’re not forthcoming, at least not yet. Are you curious enough to keep searching?   

 

The song story is found in the following book: I Could Sing of Your Love Forever, by Lindsay Terry, Thomas Nelson publishers, 2008

 

God Almighty photo’s Public Domain status: {{PD-US-expired}}

Photo found here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michelangelo,_Creation_of_Adam_06.jpg

Break My Heart -- Clint Rhodes

 

He was just a kid. Or was he? That’s two statements that someone might have said about Clint Rhodes in quick succession when discovering what he did as a teenager. He was perhaps as normal and well-adjusted as any other young person, and yet sensitive enough to say “Break My Heart” when he thought about himself and his peers in relation to the God he’d been raised to honor. Perhaps Clint was near Midlothian in northeast Texas (see map here), or perhaps at least somewhere in that state in 1997, but for sure one can say he was near the heart of the One to whom he prayed the day he penned his poem. You think he also might have been in touch with or reading about the king who authored Psalm 51 in the wake of a very great sin? Meet Clint Rhodes, and see what he has to say.

 

I’ll let Clint say it in his own words, regarding what was going on when he took up his pen as a youth:

I wrote it 24 years ago now when I was a Junior in High School. I was preparing to give a message to my youth group about having a soft and contrite heart in relation to our sin rather than a hard heart. I think sometimes God needs to love us with tough love to help us see our sin for what it is so asking him to break our hearts is asking for this love.

 

What teenager have you known who asked for what Clint did in 1997? I certainly didn’t when I was 17 years old! Instead, what often comes from the mouth of a teenager sounds more like ‘why are you so mean?’, ‘my friends get to do this!’, and ‘stop treating me like a baby!’. And, does it really stop when the teenager grows up, or does the rebel just mature physically? You could ask the now-40-something Clint about it if you contacted him today in his role as a minister at the Creekside Church in Midlothian. And, as a father, he could probably tell you about the responses his own children provide to the discipline he undoubtedly has to dispense on occasion. Do you think it would be unusual if Clint said that his kids or any of the church’s members asked, as a matter of course, for their hearts to be broken? So, agreed that it would be somewhat rare for any of us, young or old, to ask to be broken. But Clint knew that repentance is important, and that that begins with submission to a God who loves those He’s made.

 

That ‘tough love’ Clint mentions must have been something he saw was needed in his youth group. What was going on that spurred Clint is probably not that much different than what you might imagine goes on among youth almost anywhere. Perhaps seeing the consequences of bad choices made by those he knew was what helped Clint underscore his message to his friends. And, bible stories add a lot of punch too, particularly those about King David and perhaps the biggest mistake he ever made (2 Sam. 12), and the tough love God had to use on him to soften his heart. Clint’s method was not that different than David’s --write a song, and save it to remind yourself and others that humility is the posture we need before Him.     

 

 

 

 

The song story was acquired via electronic communication with the author on 10/7/2020, and is the only source for the story.

 

Read a few facts about the song’s author at the church where he ministers here: https://creekside-church.com/team/

I've Been Crucified with Christ – Paul, the Apostle

A dispute was threatening the foundation of the newborn church, and he was committed to reversing this. He was Paul, the once-accuser, now-fervent believer, who wrote the words of a letter to a group of straying Christians to express dismay and denunciation, and to underscore his allegiance to the One he defended by saying “I’ve Been Crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20). Though he was probably elsewhere, the Apostle who wrote no less than 13 messages contained in 21^st Century bibles was thinking of a place called Galatia (see the map) in a time when the 1^st Century was around 50 years old. Today, we would say it was in central Turkey (in Paul’s time, known as the Roman province of Asia Minor), where Paul had visited and first converted some to unadulterated faith. He was saying, for effect, ‘how dare you!’

This apostle usually didn’t hold back his thoughts, did he? As a persecutor, he was rabid in his methods to chase, capture, and condemn to death many Christians. And then, he had his own fanaticism stood on its head while on a road to Damascus, causing him to sacrifice a very promising Jewish status, perhaps even leadership of people. But, he gave it all up, putting himself in harm’s way multiple times, and walking a path that would eventually get himself killed. So, undoubtedly Paul was sincere in the purest sense as he stressed to these people in Asia Minor how much he believed – he knew his faith was a dangerous one, that he was ‘crucified with Christ’, in effect. If he put himself out on this spiritual limb, he wasn’t about to be dismissive of what he saw as gross error in their morphed beliefs. They were still pinning down people with outmoded Jewish practices – circumcision, chief among them. Particularly galling for Paul were the hypocritical actions of a brother – Peter. Paul’s words are vivid straight out of the box as the letter begins…’astonished’ (Gal. 1:6), ‘…pervert’ (1:7), ‘…eternally condemned’ (1:8). It’s therefore not likely a mis-print when he addresses with an exclamation mark this group as ‘You foolish Galatians!’ (3:1) Christ is supreme, and loyalty to Him requires nothing else to save the believer, period. Toss the old law aside, Paul emphasized, and focus on Christ’s gracious sacrifice. Paul’s own life was subsumed in the Divine One, according to the words of this one-verse song. Paul lived, even if crucified; he was still fleshly, but with a consecration to the spiritual One who had sacrificed for him, the still-fleshly.

So, stop counting on one’s own effort, because it will never get you within eyeshot of the Holy One. Only His own sacrifice has meaning in God’s throne room. Twenty centuries after Paul’s original words, an anonymous music-writer fused the notes with the words that he read in the King James Version of the bible, creating a memory tonic for Paul’s meaningful words first penned for a people committing grievous error. What does one do to underscore a commitment to another? Paul knew what to do. He lived it, and died for it. He crucified his old life for it.        

The only resource used for the above story is the KJV version of the bible for the original words used in the song verbatim; and the New International Version of the bible for background information on the letter to the Galatians.