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A Song for the Awakening

This is one of my favorite new songs I have written. I was in Sturgeon Bay and had some time between concerts and so I stopped in at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church. They have this amazing foyer that they have opened up during the week as a coffee shop. They provide cookies and muffins and coffee and you donate what you’d like or want… if you can. They play Christian music and it is really quite nice! (Great idea for your church too!)

Anyways as I was driving there I sensed that I was going to write a song. It was meant to be and somehow I knew it. And then, wow, it turned out so well, I couldn’t be more pleased!

Enjoy!

LYRICS & Chords:

You Make All Things New

Ebsus2
You make all things new, You make all things new
Abadd9
Like the dawn breaking after the night
You make all things new, You make all things new
We are drawn to your beauty and light

We are made a new creation, as we receive your salvation
You’ve come down, and live now in us
Now One with our Creator, partakers of your Nature
You conform us to your Son
With your love, ohh, ohh…
In your love, ohh, ohh…

Chords: Bbadd11 Abadd9 Cm7 Eb/G Fm11
Just like the wildflowers springing from the desert
When the autumn (latter) rains fall to the earth
Your sons and your daughters will rise with love’s power
When your presence drenches your church
With your love, ohh, ohh…
With your love, ohh, ohh…

We are made a new creation…

You make all things new, You make all things new
Hopeless souls by your blood are reborn
You make all things new, You make all things new
Broken lives in your love are restored
In your love, ohh, ohh…
In your love, ohh, ohh…

Daniel Lovett 2016 © Reflect Worship Music

More About the Next Great Awakening!

What can I say? I can’t pretend to know anything more than you do about the mysterious ways of God. The Awakening (I suppose it’s something of a spiritual Enlightenment) and/or a lack thereof is, I suppose, the ebb and flow of God’s Holy Spirit. He knows the perfect time to release more of the awareness of His Presence and when to refrain and blind our minds (because we aren’t ready, and it’s usually for our own good). There is a “time for everything” as Ecclesiastes says.

Well I believe the time is Now! At least I hope it is.

An Awakening can be a messy and confusing time. Ever read church history books about the Awakenings of the past? Whenever there is a move of God’s Holy Spirit I guarantee there will also be the witch hunters, the skeptics, the antagonists. Manifestations of God’s Spirit and our egos (or demonic) reactions to God’s Spirit are often misunderstood and even condemned by the most “respected theologians” among us.

I have also become aware that there is a HUGE “Truth” movement in what you might call the New Age world that many are calling an “Awakening” as well, but my question is, can you have an Awakening without Yeshua – who is the Way the Truth and the Life? How can you have a truth movement without Mr. Truth Himself?

Well, there is so much about this subject that could bury our minds in confusion – which is exactly what the enemy wants. What the enemy doesn’t want is for any of us to get alone like I am about to do and seek God.

“Seek the Lord while you can find him.
Call on him now while he is near.
Let the wicked change their ways
and banish the very thought of doing wrong.
Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them.
Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously.”
~ Isaiah 55:6-7

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Ellie sings "her song", Keep You Safe, by JJ Heller

there is no fear in loveToday is Ellie’s birthday. Born on 5/5/10, dedicated to God on 10/10/10 (the same day she said her first words). Elisabeth means “dedicated to God”.

So, we decided to record “her song” today and share it with you. This was playing in the hospital room as she entered the world.

I love how this song, “Keep You Safe”, can also be heard as if our Father God were singing it to us. Well, that’s how I like to think of it.

He is Perfect Love and his love will remove all fear from our lives as we let it in. He is your Good Shepherd and will keep you safe and quiet your heart. I pray you experience His profound love for you today!

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love.” 1 John 4:18 (Berean Bible)

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Gift of Music for Hospice Care

Meet Lani Leary. She is in Hospice work. I came across her story today and felt compelled to share this because who wouldn’t her story relate to? Who of us won’t one day have to deal with the death of a loved one? One day almost all of us will be intimately acquainted with the process. Lani can bring some comfort and preparedness to our hearts for when that time comes. Give it a listen:

We are all going to die (unless we aren’t). This doesn’t have to be a scary or lonely thing to go through at all. One of the most moving things I have ever done is to supply our music to bring comfort to those who are in their final moments.

I remember once how I felt led to play “I’ll fly away” at the close of a concert and later learned how at that very moment someone was transitioning into glory down the hall. Or how the many times I have played “Amazing Grace” or “How Great Thou Art” at the bedside of the dying.

Once I walked into a room of a woman surrounded by family at the very moment the woman left her body and I was able to encourage the family with the above mentioned songs.

I remember playing our song “Come Lord Jesus” (among others) on the first day of Spring in 2015 for a man of God named Danny Betters a few hours before he passed on. I later played this song at his “celebration of life” gathering.

All amazing moments!

Note to Hospice Care Workers:

We want to take this opportunity to reach out once again to those angels who are faithfully serving in Hospice care. We want to make sure you know that our Hymn CD’s are a free gift that we trust you will find useful in your holy work.

Please visit this link to download our albums, “Reflect Hymn” and “Reflect Amazing Grace”!

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Top Ten Modern Wedding Songs

top ten wedding songsCatherine and I (Daniel) are publicly announcing that we are offering our services to Northeast Wisconsin to perform at Weddings and Wedding receptions. This has been one of the most enjoyable aspects of our musical career thus far and if you are planning a wedding, we would love to perform or entertain at yours.

As I was researching popular modern wedding songs as I was putting together our Wedding Singer Page at our website I realized that I already knew and have performed many of these songs already. Here is my list compiled from several other references with a strong dose of personal preference thrown in. (As a seasoned songwriter myself I thought you’d appreciate my insight).

I Will Be Here (Steven Curtis Chapman)

This is just a really great wedding song on so many levels. I can see why and how it has become so popular.

Love Never Fails (Brandon Heath)

Song based on 1 Corinthians 13 and the brilliant idea that God is Love.

Feeling Love for the First Time (Daniel Lovett)

Of course as the maker of this list I have to promote our own original love song you are sure to enjoy! This reflects our own budding romance and captures some of those feelings you have when you look into the eyes and are in the arms of the one you love. May your love never grow cold!

The Luckiest (Ben Folds)

This song sounded SO sweet when we sang it at a recent wedding. Of course, for time’s sake we only sing the first verse and chorus (which is the best part of the song anyway!)

I Won’t Give Up (Jason Mraz)

Such a talented songwriter and performer, this song by Jason Mraz is so much fun to play and has amazing lyrics and melody.

Thousand Years (Christina Perri)

This song often moves me to tears. Christina Perri is gifted by God on so many levels and I truly appreciate the gift this song is to the world.

Giving it all to You (Haley and Michaels)

Again, I suppose it goes without saying but Catherine and I are meticulous when it comes to capturing the nuances and beauty of these songs. This is a gem.

This I Promise You (Ronan Keating)

What a great wedding song

All of Me (John Legend)

And finally:

Come Away With Me (Norah Jones)

Do you agree with this list? Let me know in the contact form some of your favorite wedding songs! And don’t forget to download a few of our worship songs on the right hand side of this website!

 Notable mentions:

Way Back Into Love (from the movie Music and Lyrics)

Somebody Loved (the Weepies)

Such Great Heights (Iron and Wine)

Here We Stand

 

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Our Father (Holy is Your Name), New Worship Song from Reflect Worship

May your kingdom come

My favorite part of our song Holy is Your Name and the prayer Jesus taught us to pray is when we ask that heaven come invade this earth. It’s what we all desperately need. “May your kingdom come, may your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Our song translates that last line:

“Make this world below, like your heavenly home!”

May we invite heaven to rule and reign in our hearts and homes each and every day. We can tell you that as we sincerely pray this then we will begin to experience and feel the change. Heaven moves in and hell is pushed out. Life suddenly starts to make sense and we begin to have a “flow” that wasn’t there before. Our priorities change from self-centered materialistic pursuits to heavenly godly pursuits. We become more interested in loving our neighbors, seeing marriages restored, and inviting people to come to know and love Jesus in a personal relationship over having or doing the next… well, whatever it is this world foolishly pursues (1 Jn 2:16).

Heaven reigning in our hearts means we choose to “be holy as he is holy“. We do this by staying fully surrendered to God and by maintaining a clean conscience before God and others. We now live holy (wholly devoted) lives like Jesus so that our loving heavenly Papa can use us as his instruments to bring heaven to earth… just like Jesus did.

Jesus modeled the Christian life for us. He was the most “normal Christian” to ever walk the planet. He showed us how to daily manifest heaven on earth by “doing what he saw the Father doing” and by “speaking only what the Father gave him to say“. He told us that we, as his followers, will do what he did and that we will do even greater works because he is now with the Father. Do we believe him?

Having heaven reign in and through us means having LOVE reign, and who wouldn’t want that?

And so, to our loving heavenly Papa, we pray with all the saints and angels of heaven:

“Our Father in heaven,
may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation,
but rescue us from the evil one.” ~ Jesus (Matt 6:9-13 NLT)

Please enjoy and share this really fun version of the Lord’s Prayer.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdSNKyoRMiQ]

More About This Song:

It is wonderfully exciting to be able to share this song with you! It turned out better than we could have hoped. We wrote this in our car as we drove with our two little girls for a family outing to Bay Beach in Green Bay, WI.  We are honestly thrilled now to hear what it has become!

A huge THANK YOU goes out to some of the talented musicians who contributed to the song:

  • Esther who provided the creative backing vocal
  • Sam who laid down some really cool drums
  • Mike who played the fabulous bass
  • Catherine on piano and main vocal, and finally
  • Daniel on the ukulele and vocal

In case you missed the few other song previews we have released, here are a few links to videos and song stories to some of our new songs we are really excited about!

Come Lord Jesus

Forgive, new Reflect Worship Song

Captivated Worship Song

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Forgive, New Song from Reflect Worship

Forgive, new Reflect Worship Song

Forgiveness. Nothing can heal and even protect our heart from all wounds like forgiveness. In fact, nothing else ever will. And though forgiveness is vital to healthy spirituality (and our salvation) let’s not pretend that it is easy.

Forgiveness is probably one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. Where is the justice in just letting someone off the hook? To let them walk free after what they did to me? To forgive their debt? Where is the justice in that?

Well, one needs to look no further than the cross to find the answer. The justice for all wrongs and wounds was meted out and inflicted upon the LORD Jesus Christ as he was brutally tortured and nailed to a suspended wooden beam to suffocate in agony. His heart literally exploded from all the pressure and stress and strain of not only the physical torture he endured, but also of bearing the hellish torment of every sin ever committed. Because he loves us that much Jesus experienced the hell (the justice) that you deserved. He experienced the hell (the justice) that those who have wounded you deserve. He forgave us once for all at the cross and so, he asks us – No, he even requires – that we forgive those who have sinned against us.

Here is our latest song Forgive:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAhYZCptck0&w=560&h=315]
(adapted from a poem by Rosamond Herklots)

This song “Forgive” is about how forgiveness is such a vital element of the Lord’s Prayer:

“…forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” Luke 11:4 NLT

Do we think about the fact that we are asking God to be as forgiving to us as we are to others? Hmmm… that should make us stop and ask ourselves, ‘God, is there anyone I am not forgiving? Will you help me to learn to forgive everyone fully from my heart?’

Jesus was once asked by his disciples:

“Then who can be saved?” And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26 NASB

I think about that as it relates to forgiveness as well. I would suggest that apart from a move of God and a profound act of grace from God on our behalf, it would be impossible to forgive. But with God…

I think about my friend Jon Stoffel. As they were out for a family outing, Jon, his wife, and his daughter Olivia were shot in a random act of violence by a distraught man. Jon and his daughter were killed and his wife survived. His last words to his wife in his parting moments were, “Forgive the shooter.”

I think about the families of the nine victims who were shot and killed by Dylann Roof in the South Carolina hate crime shooting who, by the grace of God, extended forgiveness to him. “This is how we deal with hate crimes”, they said. What the devil intended for evil God turned into good as the healing message of forgiveness went out across the world.

I think about Jesus last words to those who crucified him:

“Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34 NLT

I think about Stephen, the first martyr, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit was able to say in his last moments:

“Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” Acts 7:60 NLT

I don’t pretend to suggest that forgiveness is ever easy. Our wounds may run very deep. But God’s love and grace can run deeper still and by His grace we can experience a “peace that passes all understanding” and extend that peace to others.

Who wouldn’t want that?

forgiveness kitten

I have written many other blogs on Forgiveness. Here are a few of them:

One of my favorite quotes about forgiveness:

‘Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.’ – Anne Lammot

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Free Music for Nursing Homes & Hospice!

reflect_amazing_grace_cover_220x200

It is our sincere desire to put smiles on the faces of people in nursing homes everywhere, and to bring comfort to those in their last moments. That is why we are offering both our Hymns albums as free downloads (SEE below)!

Even if you simply have a loved one or know someone in a nursing home, please download the music, put it on a CD, and send it to them!

Activity directors, please download these albums (Reflect, Amazing Grace & Reflect Hymn) for your use in activities. The album is already being used for the “iPod project” for music therapy in many facilities. Click here to learn more

Reflect Hymn-150x150The songs we have selected for these recordings include many of the most well loved Hymns of the faith, like Amazing Grace, In the Garden, and Old Rugged Cross. We trust you find it useful. Our Hymns albums has been used for worship before or during church services, as dinnertime music, and most especialy to bring comfort to those in their last moments. See below for Testimonies!

Thanks for listening and please pass on this info on to someone you know who is serving those in nursing home!

Daniel n Catherine

You can also go to www.reflect.bandcamp.com to begin downloading. Be sure to download both albums! Enjoy!

TESTIMONIES:

Since its release, I have been sending out the “Reflect Hymn” CD to various Nursing home facilities throughout Northeast Wisconsin and recently I received back this report about how the Reflect Hymn project is being used:

“Daniel, Having a chance encounter with an old friend who works the night shift at our local nursing facility, I wanted to share with you her comments about your music.

She told me that a copy of your music on CD; Reflect Hymn, appeared at their nurses station, and that they had been playing and enjoying the music.  However, she said the greatest benefit seemed to come when your music was played exclusively in the rooms of those patients who were experiencing their last days.  She told how the staff all remarked that such a great sense of peace seemed to envelop the room and the people in attendance, that they have a policy of always playing this music for such times as this as it provides such comfort.

I thought you might want to know this, since I know you send out these CD’s as a sample of your work when booking concerts at various Nursing Homes.  Even though this facility has never had you there in person, your music is being used and valued, which I just ‘happened’ to find out a few weeks ago during my ‘chance encounter’.

Blessings, Cindie”

I was so moved when I received this report. What an awesome blessing! I would love to see every nursing home throughout Northeast Wisconsin to receive a Reflect Hymn album for their use for the above mentioned purpose, or to use for a church service or bible study, or even just for music therapy. If this is something that you would also like to see happen please donate toward this ministry.

 

Here is another letter I received:

Hi Daniel…

Recently you came to Shady Lane Nursing Home here in Manitowoc to entertain the residents and I was in attendance with my mother who was a resident there at the time. She just passed away this past Thursday March 25th. I bought one of your CDs and played it for her every night when she was drifting off to sleep. This past week when she had slipped into a deep sleep on comfort care at Shady Lane I played it in her room….it was very soothing. I think the staff at Shady Lane enjoyed it as well. I plan to give these CDs away as a result. If it is alright with you I would like to play it next to her coffin at the funeral.

Thank you.

A Recent Encounter (2015):

Outside of a nursing home I was about to go in and entertain at a lady stopped me and asked, “You’re a musician right? I am a hospice nurse and have your Reflect Hymn CD. I use it so often that it doesn’t play anymore. Do you have another with you?”

I was able to provide her the Reflect Hymn and also our latest Hymn project Reflect, Amazing Grace. She was on her way to someone who was passing that very day.

Thank you for listening,

Daniel Lovett

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Reflect Amazing Grace, Album Release

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Our latest release, Reflect, Amazing Grace, is an acoustic collection of well loved hymns themed around the song Amazing Grace. What could be more vital and central to understanding God and the good news of Jesus than to have a firm grasp on his grace? The beauty part of it is when we come to recognize that his grace has a firm grasp on us!

Our primary motivation for making this album is that after nearly five years in full time ministry to residents in nursing homes we felt it was time to offer them some new material. On occasion Daniel has walked into nursing homes where ladies will be huddled around the CD player listening to our first Hymns record and humming or singing along. Their caregivers will mention how much the residents enjoy the music and how often it gets played and hint that it would be great to have something new.

Reflect Amazing Grace Album CoverHighlights of this project are, of course, Amazing Grace, featuring Catherine on her piano accompanied by strings and an all new Hallelujah chorus (watch the video). Other tracks that stand out are the opening track, a Sufjan Stevens inspired Fairest Lord Jesus. You might just find yourself humming the guitar solo of How Firm a foundation for awhile… as I did. Before the Throne of God Above opens with a lush open “C” tuned guitar and also features tasteful drums… I could mention something interesting about all the tracks and our hope is that you’ll take the time to listen to them all… which you can do Here!

Our version of I Surrender All was inspired by a song by the band The Civil Wars called Poison and Wine. It has been so freeing for me to see what a privilege it is that we get to surrender to love. That this is who God is! Discard all former misconceptions. He is a loving heavenly Papa who accepts you and loves you unconditionally just as you are. This grace is transforming. It is life changing to realize just how very loved you are. This love, this grace is the most amazing thing you could ever experience. This is who we “get to” give our all to… Jesus. Yeshua. God in the flesh who went to the cross for you and me because he loves us that much!

We pray you are blessed by this latest collection of songs. If you’d like to help fulfill our vision for sending a copy to every Nursing Home in Northeast Wisconsin, please donate here at our website, or purchase the album. All the proceeds go toward our ministry to nursing homes.

Visit our Bandcamp website to listen through the album!

RELATED POSTS:

  • Amazing Grace Song Story and History: http://reflectworship.com/2014/07/amazing-grace-song-story/ ‎
    My Own Journey Toward Grace: http://reflectworship.com/2014/07/my-own-experience-of-gods-amazing-grace/