John the Beloved comes out holding the scroll that Isaiah handed to him.
"I am John the Beloved. For the past three years, I have had the wonderful privilege of being a close friend of Jesus Christ. I followed Him everywhere, watching Him heal the sick and comfort the broken-hearted. I heard Him fearlessly confront the Pharisees and other religious leaders. I soaked His teachings deep into my spirit. I loved Him very, very much.
Unfortunately, not everyone felt as I did. The Jewish leaders found His teachings and miracles very upsetting. But nothing Jesus said and nothing Jesus did, upset them as much as when He raised Lazarus from the dead. It all began when Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus to inform them that their brother Lazarus was very sick and needed Him desperately. But when Jesus finally arrived in Bethany, He was too late. Lazarus was dead."
Song-"Lazarus Resurrection"
(Martha)-
"Lord, if You had been here,
Lazarus would not have died.
But even now I know God will
Give You whatever You ask."
(Jesus)-
"If you believe in Me,
You shall see the salvation of the Lord,
You shall see.
If you believe in Me,
You shall see the salvation of the Lord,
You shall see.
For I am the Resurrection and the Life.
He who believes in Me shall never die.
I am the Resurrection and the Life.
He who believes shall never die."
(Martha)-
"Lord, I believe that You are the Messiah,
The Son of God who's come into the world.
And we will live with You eternally in heaven.
No more sickness, sorrow, or pain."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Mary)-
"Lord, if you had been here
Our hearts would not be bowed in sorrow.
Why did you wait so long to come
and heal the one You love?"
(Jesus)-
"Where have you laid Him?
Where is my friend?"
(Mary)-
"Lord, come with me and I will show You."
(Crowd A)-
"See how He loved him
See how He cares.
He understands our grief and our pain."
(Crowd B)-
"But why couldn't this Man
Who made the blind to see
Have kept this man from dying?
Why couldn't this man
Who made the leper clean
Have kept this man from death?"
(Jesus-at the tomb)-
"Father I thank You that You always hear Me,
But for the sake of these gathered here I pray,
So they may believe that I am the Messiah,
The Son of God who's come into the world."
"LAZARUS, COME FORTH!"
(Jesus sings first, then joined by others)-
"Take off the grave clothes of sickness and death.
Loose him and let him go free.
Where, oh where is death now your sting?
Where, O grave, your victory?"
"I have come to give you life,
Give you life abundantly.
Don't you settle for any less.
I have come to set You free!"
Monday, March 16, 2009
You Were the Joy-Scene One
Isaiah the prophet reads and sings from Isaiah 53 to the accompaniment of live violin music. Isaiah reads the verses that are not included in the song. My father-in-law played this part.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Surely He is rejected of men,
A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
And we hid as it were our faces from Him.
He was despised, and we left Him alone.
Surely He has carried our pain,
Carried our sickness and sorrow and shame.
Stricken by God and afflicted by Him,
Suffering for sin that we thought was His own.
But He was wounded to pay for our sins,
Bruises upon Him to pay for our sins,
Stripes on His back to pay for our peace,
His blood flowing freely, our pardon is sealed.
All we like sheep have gone astray
We've turned everyone to his own way.
And the Lord has laid, has laid upon Him
The weight of our guilt and the darkness of sin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Surely He is rejected of men,
A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
And we hid as it were our faces from Him.
He was despised, and we left Him alone.
Surely He has carried our pain,
Carried our sickness and sorrow and shame.
Stricken by God and afflicted by Him,
Suffering for sin that we thought was His own.
But He was wounded to pay for our sins,
Bruises upon Him to pay for our sins,
Stripes on His back to pay for our peace,
His blood flowing freely, our pardon is sealed.
All we like sheep have gone astray
We've turned everyone to his own way.
And the Lord has laid, has laid upon Him
The weight of our guilt and the darkness of sin.
You Were the Joy
Soon after we were married, Phil and I left our secure church family at Hopewell, and helped start a church in Downingtown, Pa. It was called "New Life." We were going to give it a year but ended up staying for five. Freeman was born while we were there and still has some of his friends he made in his babyhood years. All in all, we had a great church experience.
Phil was on the worship team. One night a week, he would go off to worship practice. I would put Freeman to bed and head for the living room to watch my favorite show, undisturbed. I have no idea what it was now. There was a keyboard in our back room. As I would head to the living room to turn on the TV, I began to hear a still small voice saying, "Come back here. I have something to give you." I would begin to mess around on the keyboard and some songs began to take form. I started to realize that the songs could be part of an Easter musical. God kept giving me the words and the music and by summer's end, there were five songs. When my sister-in-law was killed by a drunk driver in September, I shut down. I asked three others from church to finish writing songs for the three remaining scenes, and they did so. We had a wonderful experience performing this musical as a church.
Ten years later, in '95, I began to sense that God wanted me to finish what I started. The songs began to come again. The three earlier writers graciously gave permission for me to put the new songs in the place of their original ones. One of my favorite new songs was "Lazarus' Resurrection"-the song I was working on when Naomi died ten years earlier. At this point we were back at Hopewell. Many generous and talented men and women worked together to make a sound track and put together a production. We performed the musical for five years and because of its simplicity, were able to take it to other outreach churches and to a delinquent facility. We used a live white horse for the finale, when appropriate, and a donkey and puppies, pigs, sheep, etc. for the triumphant entry scene.
We kept it simple, using homemade costumes for the cast and wooden boxes for on stage scenes. There were twelve scenes and the musical lasted one hour.
The first year, we video-taped it. A good friend of mine played John the Beloved. A few years later, he died while he was hunting. We were able to show the video in his funeral display. His syblings took videos home with them and it meant so much to see him alive again. His one sister said that she could handle watching it for five minutes a day.
Easter is coming around again and I am hearing the words and the music to "You Were the Joy." I want to record the words in this blog book that I am writing for my children and share them with you if you'd like to read them.
The scenes are written and the story is told from the perspective of John the Beloved, my favorite human in the Bible. I will write it out one scene and one song at a time. Eventually, I hope to have the audios available with each song on the blog. "You Were the Joy" was copyrighted with the Library of Congress in 1996.
Phil was on the worship team. One night a week, he would go off to worship practice. I would put Freeman to bed and head for the living room to watch my favorite show, undisturbed. I have no idea what it was now. There was a keyboard in our back room. As I would head to the living room to turn on the TV, I began to hear a still small voice saying, "Come back here. I have something to give you." I would begin to mess around on the keyboard and some songs began to take form. I started to realize that the songs could be part of an Easter musical. God kept giving me the words and the music and by summer's end, there were five songs. When my sister-in-law was killed by a drunk driver in September, I shut down. I asked three others from church to finish writing songs for the three remaining scenes, and they did so. We had a wonderful experience performing this musical as a church.
Ten years later, in '95, I began to sense that God wanted me to finish what I started. The songs began to come again. The three earlier writers graciously gave permission for me to put the new songs in the place of their original ones. One of my favorite new songs was "Lazarus' Resurrection"-the song I was working on when Naomi died ten years earlier. At this point we were back at Hopewell. Many generous and talented men and women worked together to make a sound track and put together a production. We performed the musical for five years and because of its simplicity, were able to take it to other outreach churches and to a delinquent facility. We used a live white horse for the finale, when appropriate, and a donkey and puppies, pigs, sheep, etc. for the triumphant entry scene.
We kept it simple, using homemade costumes for the cast and wooden boxes for on stage scenes. There were twelve scenes and the musical lasted one hour.
The first year, we video-taped it. A good friend of mine played John the Beloved. A few years later, he died while he was hunting. We were able to show the video in his funeral display. His syblings took videos home with them and it meant so much to see him alive again. His one sister said that she could handle watching it for five minutes a day.
Easter is coming around again and I am hearing the words and the music to "You Were the Joy." I want to record the words in this blog book that I am writing for my children and share them with you if you'd like to read them.
The scenes are written and the story is told from the perspective of John the Beloved, my favorite human in the Bible. I will write it out one scene and one song at a time. Eventually, I hope to have the audios available with each song on the blog. "You Were the Joy" was copyrighted with the Library of Congress in 1996.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)