Month of Music Day 11 Various Artists Immanuel Alternative Praise: This Body Oh Lord, we offer our praise Giving thanks for Your mercy and grace satisfy out hunger for You now Father, hold us close to You Lifting up our eyes towards Your Throne We stand amazed at the kindness You have shown Christ the King the true Redeemer Lord, you rein eternally [Chorus:] Immanuel Immanuel Immanuel Immanuel Some day the stars and their light Will fade away and fall from the sky One thing that will never change Is Your love for me [Chorus:] Immanuel Immanuel Immanuel Immanuel Immanuel (God is with us) Immanuel (God is with us) Immanuel (God is with us) Immanuel

My Take:

Well, I hope you're thankful. Not only did I have to scan in the cover, find links on the Internet, but I also had to type all the lyrics from scratch. And to tell you the truth, it was all worth it. A week before Passion '99, around December 26 of 1998, I was trying to figure out my life. I graduated from college, I got commissioned, and realized I'd thrown everything that would've helped me out away. But this was all getting me ready for something nobler. Since Passion '98 was chock full of Praise & Worship music, I thought I'd better get on board. I was in my local Christian bookstore, and I saw this in the then very small P&W section. "Alternative Praise. Well, it sounds like it can't be that bad." $17 later, it was mine. I was driving around like always, trying to clear my head. I was listening to the songs in order, and then this one came on. I don't have a clue where I was. I can't remember where I was when I first heard it, but it was clear to me what was going on. We have a winner. In fact, it was that feeling I get whenever I'm hearing one of those songs that will stay with me for the rest of my life. That feeling that I'm hearing something that I really like, and it will only grow. I can't explain that, either - it just happens. But...it is that difficulty in explaining my love for this song that makes it difficult to write about. As is the case in stream of consciousness writing, you don't really work from the standard Intro/Point 1/Point 2/Point 3/Conclusion format. So I was offered a challenge as to how I would write about this song. In fact, I took this song off the list and put it back on about 30 times. As late as 4 p,m. on Friday I wasn't sure I would put this song in here. But it stuck. The reason is when I listened to it, back in that week before Passion '99. That's when the song became special to me. After driving around a while, I knew I had a great CD. It seems that though I've always had the ability to have a lot of friends, and befriend just about anyone, I never can seem to find anyone else that likes Christian Music. So, I generally have to keep my great finds to myself. So we were supposed to go to Passion in a couple of vans, caraVANning (get it caraVAN? see how I got van in there?). In the van, I got schooled on the greats of old school Praise and Worship. Matthew Redman, them Hillsongs folks, Delirious?. And I knew I wanted to grow in my relationship with Christ, as we were cruising at about 90 MPH. I needed Jesus to hold me close. When we got there (in one piece, the praying sure helped), we were staying in a Church. It was nice. And cold. Like, oppressively cold. But that was half the charm. I should point out that I was invited to come on this trip by someone who was barely there. We called her The Elliot. I don't know why...I just make up nicknames for people. Also on the trip was a redhead, the one I was madly in love with. So, it was sort of odd that while I was in Texas, I sort of didn't spent the entire time hitting on the girl. Instead, there was some sort of changing in my outlook. During the conference, though I was still interested in the girl, I was seeing something else. God. There was the singing, praise music, devotions, alter calls, yadda yadda yadda. What I noticed was that there was a definite eagerness to learn. And I was getting fed. The night before we were going to leave, we had a devotional time. Something about it the night got to me, I played that song, talked about my life, about honesty. About being genuine. I revealed that I was not a good person. That I had evil in my life. That I was recovering from sins that God forgave. But my sin nature was still beating me down. That it is a struggle against sin, and I'm an excellently prepared sinner. Immanuel wasn't quite the crowd-pleaser I'd hoped for. Then again, not everybody's emo like me! But it was what I wanted to hear, so I played it. I played it again on the trip back home. When we got back to Mississippi, two things happened, I hugged the man she would marry, and I was informed Tennessee won the National Championship. I don't believe in karma, but I find it odd that the only time really good things happen to me is when something else equally bad happens as well. I didn't like loosing her, but to win the National Championship is so awesome! So I lost the girl, but got a commemorative Coke bottle. Looking back, I don't think I ever would've got the girl, so it was no great loss. I gave the first of many mini-preaching session things. It was a good weekend. It set up a lot of other things for the rest of my life after Passion '99. My move to Forest, my Church kids, my crappy/very valuable T-shirt making job, OBC. It was the start of a learning period that ended in 2002 when I went to Kuwait. I wait for the time when I go back on mission. I was trying to think of some sappy ending that would tie the words in with my life, but they just don't fit. Immanuel is a song of encouragement, for gentle reflection. It echoed a time in my life when I needed to rebuild. I guess that's a good way to end it, then, my stream of consciousness blorgging. But then again, am I not working, again, here? Is this now the start of another mission? God only knows. I've been battle-tested, I've seen the worst life can through at people. I've seen real poverty, death, and destruction. I've seen rebuilding. I've seen how God works and creates things out of nothing. I've seen that I want to join Him in His work. Note: Here's the songs and the artists 1. Let Your Kingdom Come - Dan Smith 2. I Want to Walk Beside You 3. Lord of All - Eli Thompson 4. Glorious Light - Carla White 5. Immanuel - Dan Smith 6. I Belong to You - Susan Andrews 7. Worship You Forever - Tim White 8. I Receive - Randall Buffam 9. This Body - Holland Davis 10. To No One - Carla White

status: published
lastmod: '2006-10-30T21:04:24.000Z'
author: John Stansbury
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