The Power of Your Name -- Lincoln Brewster and Mia Fieldes

 

What they wanted to see was a heartbeat. Lincoln Brewster tells in his remembrance of the development of “The Power of Your Name” that he and Mia Fieldes wanted there to be something of heart in the song in 2008. So, Lincoln actually recorded his son’s heartbeat before he was born, so that it could be inserted as a rhythmic reminder in the song’s recording. What he saw that day in the doctor’s office was probably what you’ve probably seen if you’ve ever had your heart monitored, or have seen a TV show about doctors and hospitals: what’s known as an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) (see the diagram here of one). Lincoln and Mia really wanted to inject Jesus’ ‘kingdom come’ prayer into their musical effort, to make plain from the lyrics’ first few lines that life as God values it is something we cannot ignore when we see how He approached people with compassion. He made us all to reflect Him, so how does it feel for us to see some people in desperate straits, those people to whom social injustice is a daily reality? Lincoln and Mia offer something that is a prayer that we could say every morning, as we contemplate how our days should unfold.   

 

The purpose of the Lincoln-Mia composition was to spur its hearers to deal with social injustice, to see people in the church ‘take a stand’ and make social injustice something that is resisted and reversed. The in-the-womb heartbeat was Lincoln’s way of inserting some special and intimate feeling from himself and his family into the song, and to say in an audible way that every person is a life that is unique and valuable, particularly to God, even before any of us were born. God has conceived what the life of each human will mean on this earth, so Christians who believe and live life at His direction will try to make certain others’ lives are not demeaned, but rather counted as precious and meaningful. To have the opportunity to live and experience life as God intended is what Lincoln and Mia felt was the message of the song they co-wrote. That means especially, as Lincoln shared in a video message, that God-followers should make sure they pursue life-affirming actions outside of the church buildings where they mouth belief in His way of life every Sunday. That means ‘comfort zone’ is excised from the people’s vocabulary, because so many people live in circumstances that are difficult, and which cannot be repaired easily. It’s hard work, and challenges will undoubtedly threaten the commitment of God’s people to endure in His work to make social justice a reality, and not just an aspiration. I should take the words and phrases that Lincoln and Mia have put to music – like ‘compassion’ that is expressed explicitly (in the chorus) and otherwise in many other words -- and internalize them. That would be the way to make ‘the power of (His) name’ consequential.

 

It really needs to be ‘in my heart’, as the words of Lincoln and Mia say at the end of verse two. If I really intellectually accept that Jesus’ Matthew 6/Luke 11 prayer is an action plan, then I will seek out ways to make His kingdom more real to the hurting. You don’t have to look very far to find opportunities to make social justice yours and my way of life, and there are literally hundreds of ways to do this. The first few words of the Lincoln-Mia song use the phrase ‘made for the streets’ to admit that some children are actually in that condition -- a place where far too many homeless find themselves, including in very prosperous nations and poorer ones too. I cannot help every child in the streets, but there is a group that does help give kids like this a brighter future in Nairobi, Kenya. It’s called Made in the Streets (see a link to it below), and is just one that you can join. Just listen, see, and have a heart.     

 

See the song story told here: the power of your name brewster fields lyrics - Search

 

Read about one way to change the lives of children in one social justice effort in Kenya here: MADE IN THE STREETS | Serving street-connected youth in Kenya

 

See information on the heartbeat image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SinusRhythmLabels.svg ... Re: the copyright the following statement is associated with the image: I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

The Lord's Prayer (It's Yours) -- Jesus, Matt Maher, Bryan Fowler, Jacob Sooter

Another way of saying what they thought about in this song was the oft-used acronym KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid (but make sure you say this especially to yourself if you use that ‘Stupid’ word, and not to others). Don’t make something too complicated, and particularly when you look at “The Lord’s Prayer”, as Matt Maher, Bryan Fowler, and Jacob Sooter did when they repeated and updated it with a few reminders for themselves (See here the late 19^th Century artwork The Lord’s Prayer, by James Tissot.)  The words Jesus used to teach His hearers in His great sermon (Matthew 6/Luke 11) were also those by which He lived and taught every day, so when Matt, Bryan, and Jacob put in a few extra words, they must have been looking at Him and His life’s consistency, and how they thought they should respond to Him daily, too. With any familiar words used repeatedly, day after day, there is a risk that the words become a rote exercise, but one of these three 21^st Century composers says his regular use of the prayer has had the opposite effect. Should we expect that the prayer basics that Jesus taught would remain any less stimulating for us as the day He first spoke them?

 

Jesus readily responded to the people who asked Him how to pray, something that really indicated how the people already trusted Him. And yet, He didn’t offer them promises about Roman comeuppance, about redemption of the Jewish nation to its former autonomous status, or about prosperity for themselves. It was instead all about each individual’s one-to-one connection with God and with each other. In short, each of us needs to find ourselves in His corner and trust that He provides, prompting us to treat each other as He has treated us. Matt said in 2022 (perhaps a year after the 21^st Century version of the prayer-song was written) that he thought it was all about reminding himself about spiritual basics, when he and his family would echo Jesus’ words each day. Making things too complicated had been one of the spiritual traps into which he’d often fallen, Matt admits, so making this prayer a daily habit was intentional from a foundation-building perspective. Moreover, he found that he would discover something anew each time he mimicked Jesus in this way. Do you suppose Jesus intended this phenomenon when he taught the people? Certainly, Jesus wanted you and me to personalize the prayer, and because each day is new, how I live out that prayer just might change ever so slightly, or perhaps more radically on occasion, as my life unfolds from day to day. One might gather that that is what Matt and his two friends were also thinking when they added some words to the prayer, particularly the phrase ‘right here in my heart’, which is sung seven times to emphasize how today’s disciple responds to what Jesus said. Matt, Bryan, and Jacob added some other words to underscore that the world He created, and the kingdom Jesus came to initiate, are His…’it’s yours, all yours’. That is so very crucial to accept, not just as a believer, but as a human being created by Him. If I don’t acknowledge His ownership, I can spend my life as an empty exercise in accumulating stuff for myself, none of which I can take with me to the other side of mortality’s conclusion. On the other hand…   

 

…when I discover and accept that He’s the LORD, as in landlord and people-Lord too, then I can aim at the only target that makes sense: His kingdom. That’s the one that is enduring, because He brought it with Him when He was here on earth, and its expansion to millions and even billions of people since then just cannot be rolled back. Read Revelation, and remind yourself who wins in the end. Why would you not want to be connected to what He – the Resurrected One – has begun and which will overpower death, because He has already done so as the First-Born? I have no better option and no other plan that offers what He’s begun in His kingdom. Do you? See if Jesus’ simple, but still-potent words work for you.  

 

Read the story from the principal author-composer of this 21^st Century version of the prayer here: Matt Maher Goes Personal with "The Lord's Prayer (It's Yours)" : News : JubileeCast

 

See information on the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_The_Lord%27s_Prayer_(Le_Pater_Noster)_-_James_Tissot.jpg (found at this link -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Prayer ) …The author died in 1902, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1930.

 

The Lion and the Lamb -- Brenton Brown, Brian Johnson, Leeland Mooring

 

They might have felt like they were in the same room with Isaiah, or maybe John. It began with Leeland Mooring’s experience at a church in California, and then his reflection later on that moment at a retreat with Brenton Brown and Brian Johnson, as the three of them were trying to capture and hold some mental imagery deep inside themselves. It was a scene that none of us today have certainly ever observed, when “The Lion and the Lamb” have occupied the same space in a peaceful way. (See the reproduction of the artwork A Little Child Shall Lead Them, an 1896 work by William Strutt, which includes the peaceful association of two animals, a lion and a lamb, in the resurrected world of other peaceful animals envisioned by the prophet Isaiah [11:6; 65:25].) That’s the kind of thing that can happen when people try to put themselves in the shoes of characters who’ve had stunning visions of what our Creator plans to do one day. The lion and the lamb will also play a powerful role in eternity. Who but the one at God’s right hand is capable of occupying two seemingly opposite positions, of both peace and power?

 

Leeland recalled how the worship with a California church was focused on finding God in His space during a three-day stay there around 2015. The crowd was really seeking Him, through songs with lots of words like ‘holy’ and ‘worthy’ in them, both characteristics of Him. And so, that made the chorus emerge from inside Leeland, at the same time that his brother was praying with people during that time. What Leeland expressed was that God, the Lion of Judah cannot be stopped in His power as the Almighty; and yet, He’s also the Lamb who allowed Himself to be sacrificed. Was the imagery of Isaiah (chapters 11 and 65) and also what John saw in his Revelation – especially about the Lamb, who played such a crucial role in John’s vision -- part of what ultimately inspired the three songwriters? Leeland remembers discussing the duality of Jesus with his brother, and also recalling that the beloved Apostle John was reassured by this same God to not be afraid  (Revelation 1:17). A lamb and a lion who has the gentleness and also the power and authority, and one who will be coming on the clouds (v.1 of song) – so does it seem like it will be difficult, if not impossible to not be awed by Him! That’s what Leeland, Brenton, and Brian are inviting us to imagine, even as we go about the daily hum-drum of earthly life. We have ‘chain(s)’ and ‘broken hearts’ (v.1) and ‘battles’ (chorus), but these pale and fall away; they are immaterial when we acknowledge Him and ‘open the gates’ for the ‘King of kings’ who came to free we who would otherwise remain ‘captives’ (v.2).

 

It seems that when we make a conscious effort to get in the same mindset as Isaiah and John -- as Leeland, Brenton, and Brian have done – that there’s many more phrases and whole choruses that center on God and what He has done and will do. That comes through clearly in ‘The Lion and the Lamb’ – the scenes pictured lyrically show us Him repeatedly. ‘Who can stop the Lord Almighty?’ is the question that the three songwriters ask over and over. A God who can be slain, and yet reign with unchallenged power, is a Lord who can take care of anything in between those two extremes that threaten me. Death, for us humans at least, is the ultimate penalty, for nothing worse can befall the mortal. At the other end of the spectrum, a being who has been invested with all authority – or has attempted to attain that status -- in our human experience has been someone to dread, a tyrannical ruler. There have been many Caesars, and other emperors or dictators closer to our own century, like Napoleon, Stalin, and Hitler. We can rejoice that death and tyranny are overthrown by the one who redefines our existence and our outlook. The Lamb and Lion of Judah is one and the same God, who overthrows all of our dread.     

 

Read about/watch the story of the song shared here: 'Lion And The Lamb' Brenton Brown …also shared here: Lion and the Lamb by Leeland - Songfacts

 

See here for some brief information on the song: The Lion and the Lamb (song) - Wikipedia

 

See information on the image-graphic here: File:William Strutt - A little child shall lead them.jpg - Wikimedia Commons (found inside the link here: The lamb and lion - Wikipedia   ) This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1930.