This Is Amazing Grace -- Phil Wickham, Jeremy Riddle, Josh Farro

 

The short answer is that these three love God and love making music with each other. It started with Phil Wickham and Josh Farro (probably in 2012/2013), two friends who just had some ideas they wanted to bat around for a song in which they somehow wanted to say “This Is Amazing Grace”. Honestly, they thought it was a finished work, until a series of events transpired to take the song across an ocean and back again to the U.S., finally arriving at a church in northern California (Redding, see its seal here), where Jeremy Riddle repackaged and enlarged the song’s form several months (or even years) later. What was it that Phil, Josh, and Jeremy thought would be so refreshing about the subject of amazing grace, which John Newton had already made so well-known in his classic hymn, centuries ago (see the Song Scoop from 1/12/2010)? Perhaps it was the questions they posed, which made what they wanted to say seem more potent.

 

Whether it was one or a combination of the three composers (Phil, or Josh, or ultimately Jeremy) who had been mulling over many questions, their probe into the depth of God’s amazing act is magnified by inviting worshippers to marvel at the only answer to each of the questions. Who? That’s the abbreviated version of the query they keep asking you and me to contemplate. This Who is God, the One who does so much to rescue mortals made in His image. Phil says that he and Josh both had ideas for the verses, after they had crafted the song’s chorus, so perhaps it was a two-way joint effort, which Phil says ended with them high-fiving each other after just 20 minutes. The questions have God being the holy ‘power (over) sin and darkness’; One with a ‘love…mighty and so much stronger’; a Creator who can ‘shake…earth with holy thunder’; and make us speechless in ‘awe and wonder’; One who’s capable of making ‘order…(out of) chaos’; making lost people His ‘son(s) and daughter(s)’; dispensing ‘truth and justice’; and One who ‘shines’ with a sun-like ‘brilliance’ that we’ll all behold someday. It was Jeremy, in California, who apparently contributed thoughts about God’s supremacy and life-giving act. This God ‘take(s) my place’, ‘bear(s) my cross’, so that I can be ‘set free’. That’s what these fellas felt in the moment, as they worshipped and created together. To say something poignant in a poetic way, perhaps that’s the incalculable method these three might say the Spirit inspired to enable them to say ‘amazing grace…unending love’, and especially that He’s ‘worthy’, even though a ‘slain…Lamb’, because He ‘conquered the grave’. That the song’s final version came together after crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the United Kingdom, and then to a conference (via someone’s phone) on America’s West Coast, really just underscores how far-reaching He is when He wants to say something musically. It’s just another amazing echo of what He already did over 2,000 years ago.      

 

Will this version of Amazing Grace be the last one? It depends…on when He plans on returning to culminate our history! Will it be tomorrow, or hundreds of years from now? In either case, He’s not less or more amazing, because He’s unchanging (Hebrews 13:8 and 6:17). All that will be different is that many more voices will be added to the multitudes already in the cosmic chorus, if time goes on past today, for however long God decides it shall go. So, there could be more John Newtons; and Chris Tomlins and Louie Giglios (see 9/2/2022 Song Scoop for their version of Newton’s original hymn); and Phil Wickhams, Jerermy Riddles, and Josh Farros somewhere out in the future, which God may decide He wants to hear before He is satisfied. Just imagine hearing these voices, with a new angle or angles on ‘amazing grace’. Do you plan on being in the chorus when those songs premiere?  

 

Here are some details about the genesis of the song: This is Amazing Grace by Phil Wickham - Songfacts

See here for more information on the song: This Is Amazing Grace - Wikipedia

 

See here for information on the seal of Redding: File:Seal of Redding, California.png - Wikimedia Commons. This work was created by a government unit (including state, county, city, and municipal government agencies) that derives its powers from the laws of the State of California and is subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act (Government Code § 6250 et seq.). It is a public record that was not created by an agency which state law has allowed to claim copyright, and is therefore in the public domain in the United States.

Good Good Father -- Pat Barrett and Anthony Brown

 

It’s an appreciation that had been ongoing for about four years before these two songwriters decided this “Good Good Father” should be shared more broadly in 2014. The spontaneity of what had first sprung up in Atlanta churches where Anthony Brown worshipped struck others like his friend Pat Barrett, as circumstances in their lives spoke more intently to them through the song’s lyrics. Is He ‘dad’, or ‘daddy’, or ‘father’, and does the adjective ‘holy’ get inserted somewhere for you and me? All of the above, these guys might say, but the point of what they wanted to say was that He’s so very good, along with many other words they used to express their devotion to Him. Their underlying idea is that He’s not distant, though there’s a lot that tries to interfere with that before a believer draws near to this Father.

 

One can imagine that the first time, or one of the first times, that Anthony coaxed a church in Atlanta to sing some lines in the spur of the moment about this ‘good good father’, perhaps he was thinking about a notable gap in his mortal life – he’d had no dad growing up. And, others like Pat shared that becoming dads, with little children any Christian parent wants to nurture correctly, motivated their worship to Him in the song. Pat says he was a recent dad (2-year and 4-year-olds), so the song’s words resonated with him for that reason. Chris Tomlin, in conversation with Pat, also shared that he likewise had little children whom he wanted to be able to show God. How does one do that? Pat echoed that desire; how does one explain the Almighty to a child, introduce to a child the eternal Father who can change lives? Pat further shares that reading about Jesus addressing ‘his Father’ was really challenging in the 1^st Century culture in Israel and Judea, because you just didn’t talk to God that personally. He admits he had to unlearn so much about the cultural inclination to pray impersonally to a distant God, and instead think and talk to Him as Father. You can almost hear the many conversations that Anthony and Pat had about this Father, as they came at Him from different perspectives. Maybe it was Anthony who wrote the words about Him being a ‘tender whisper…in the dead of night’, a reassurance he would have missed as a child from an earthly father. And, Anthony felt His Father’s pleasure that ‘I’m never alone’. That’s really powerful stuff for someone without a human dad in the picture. For Pat, he’d ‘…heard a thousand stories…’ about God, conveying some feelings he says he had to unlearn about God being far away, too distant to address intimately. For both Pat and Anthony, this Father-God provided all the answers for those ‘searching…far and wide’.

 

Pat and Anthony repeat so many words to Him, notably saying he’s good twice – Anthony says once just didn’t seem like it was enough. He’s also ‘perfect’ for sure, with an ‘undeniable love’ that makes me ‘who I am’. Get that – my identity is wrapped up in Him, as it should be, since He made me in His image. All these are written to drive home this point: God is who He is (‘it’s who You are’), and I can revel in being His son, the son of a good good Father. I’m loved, He’s perfect and holy, and Pat and Anthony concede at one point that this ushers in a ‘peace so unexplainable’. It’s a situation that cannot be fathomed, and it’s beyond our human ‘think(ing)’. Their message is just to accept what’s being sung. You and I will be face-to-face with this Father, and then maybe we’ll understand it more. Or, just love Him more.

 

See the original song story here: The Story Behind "Good, Good Father" - Prophetic Crossroads

 

See more details on the song story told here: Chris Tomlin - "Good Good Father" (Story Behind The Song) | 95.5 The Fish - Cleveland, OH (955thefish.com)  (see story from Patt Barrett beginning at 0:50 to 2:22 and 3:34 to 3:50 of the video)

 

See very short explanation of the song’s purpose here: Good Good Father - Lyrics, Hymn Meaning and Story (godtube.com)

 

See some information on song here: Good Good Father - Wikipedia

 

See here for image of Atlanta seal and its public domain status -- File:Seal of Atlanta.svg - Wikimedia Commons 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 50 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, 1928.

Way Maker -- Osinachi Kalu Okoro Egbu

 

She knew she was entering a new time in her life, but wasn’t so sure she wanted to go to a new circumstance as she walked into this different time. Sinach (as she’s more commonly known, versus her full Nigerian name Osinachi Kalu Okoro Egbu) admits she felt comfortable where she was in 2015, perhaps not too unlike what someone else likewise felt centuries ago, though that part of Abram’s response to God (Genesis 12:1-5) is not shared for us to appreciate. He just obeyed. Sinach didn’t have to leave her native country (see Nigeria’s flag here), but she still felt uneasy, even as she decided to trust that God was her “Way Maker”. After reading about how Abram responded, Sinach held on tight and let God do the driving. Which direction will He take you? Can you trust His promise? Those are two questions that Sinach, and you and me, can expect to encounter.

 

Sinach admits that she knew God was drawing her to a new level in her music ministry, but that knowing that didn’t bring relief. Instead, she had to draw on someone else’s story (Abram’s) to find her own place in a new story that God wanted to write on the pages of human history. She says she was struck, that God told Abram that He was going to make him famous – ‘into a great nation…your name great…earth will be blessed through you.’ To say that that must have been a breathtaking revelation for Abram would undoubtedly be an understatement. That’s kinda where Sinach says she felt she was. She says she had already experienced a lot of success in the music she’d been writing for over 20 years, but felt God was telling her that there was another level where He wanted to take the music she would write. And so, she came to a place of trust, because He had said that her music would be able to ‘bring light to every dark situation’, that He’s still the miracle-worker. Could Sinach have understood that the song she wrote and sang in the middle of the decade would become a source of encouragement later that same decade, as the coronavirus pandemic took hold? The song would spread globally, perhaps as wide as the virus, and that was something that Sinach could not possibly hold back. So, when she said musically that He’s ‘moving in our midst’, that He’s a ‘way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper’, these were personal words she felt she’d been given. He’s the ‘light in the darkness’, the One who’s ‘touching every life’, who is capable of ‘mend(ing)/healing the… heart’, and ‘turning lives around’. If one meets a God who’s like that, what should one do? Sinach didn’t have to be coaxed into these words – they flowed naturally. ‘I worship You…I worship You.’ ‘This is who You are…I worship You.’

 

He tells musical history in His own way and for His own purposes. What does a person do when she realizes that she’s in the position that God has engineered? Stand with your feet in concrete, with arms folded, saying ‘No, I won’t!’ Another fellow – Moses (Exodus 4:1-14) -- tried spinning that obstinacy at God, stirring His anger. He wants to bring His presence to all people, but isn’t it amazing, and really just incomprehensible when we’re honest, that we can’t see why He chooses to use you and me to accomplish this? It’s just a real head-scratcher. Why, God? Sinach says she realized, as the song took on its own life – ‘you cannot outdo God’. She talks about being His tool, to touch the world musically from Africa – ‘it’s rare to see’. This is a rare God. He’s the only real One. Sinach is just telling us to let that sink in. Then, let it out for others to see. That’s Him using you, too.  

 

See an interview with the songwriter here, as she tells the song’s story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVENBMg7XVE (1:00 thru 4:05 of video)

 

See it here also: https://godtv.com/sinach-story-behind-waymaker-encounter-with-god/

 

Also see the song’s story here: https://freshsheetmusic.com/blog/the-story-behind-sinachs-song-way-maker/

 

See some information about the song here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_Maker

 

See information about the songwriter-author here: Sinach - Wikipedia

 

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