Music

We finally got to unpacking our music. The box of CDs was in the room with my boxes of books, and finally got moved to the living room this weekend and unpacked Sunday night. At the same time, I found my headphones. I had missed being able to workout with music going in the background. Since I workout in the early hours of the morning before coming in to work and I don't want to wake up Debbie, I use headphones. Well, no headphones—and no CDs—equals no music.

<rabbit trail alert>
I am a fan of many different kinds of music, from Classical to contemporary stuff. About the only things I don't enjoy are opera and gangsta rap—the latter more because of the content than anything else. Opera just has never grabbed me, which is strange since my favorite piece of music of all time is Handel's Messiah which is oratorio, a close cousin of opera.

Anyway, I have always enjoyed what is now called "Jesus Music," the music of the early 1970's Jesus Movement, and one of my favorite groups was the Messianic group Lamb. The group was just 2 people, Rick "Levi" Coghill and Joel Chernoff. They put out several records and then kind of disappeared in the late 1980's. Last year I was looking for a CD of the early Lamb stuff and ran across a CD that was done by Joel Chernoff in the late 90's entitled The Restoration of Israel and purchased it. It has become one of my favorite CDs.
<end rabbit trail>

So, Monday morning I grabbed the Chernoff CD and put it in the CD player and the second song grabbed my heart: Lay your hands on me. The song is a cry from Joel's heart for a closer walk with Jesus. I wish I could find the words on the Internet, so I wouldn't have to excerpt it...

Abba, Father, lay your hands on me.
Holy Spirit, set this captive free
From the chains that are holding me.
Lay your hands on me.
Precious Father, how my spirit prays,
More to yield to your love and grace
More to bow down before your face
Lay your hands on me

All that I need is to touch
The hem of your garment, I pray.
All that I need is your touch
To raise up my life from the dead.
Lay your hands on me...

It goes on for another 3 minutes, but I don't have the patience to transcribe it all.

I wish I could give you an idea of how this song ministered to me Monday morning. Of late I have been so concentrated on getting stuff done on the house and at work that the intimacy of God has been slipping away. It's not like I have lost touch with God, but it is more that I needed a fresh touch, a fresh awareness of how near he is. This song distilled the essence of what I was feeling and became my prayer.

Hopefully it was answered in a way that is evident to others...