I think the Holy Spirit is compelling me to give testimony and tell you a little(true) story about that music.
Several of my brothers and sisters(spiritual) were meeting on Thursday nights at a local hotel as sort of an outreach. This was about the time I was diagnosed with Alpha One Anti-trypsin Defiency Syndrome, which is actually a liver disease but shows itself in adults as advanced emphysema usually at around my age, which at the time I was 38.(More on this later as it ties the story together).
One night a brother(who still prays for me every day) came in with a tape of a group called Hallal. It was great I thought, all acapella music but different than what I was used to. It had a passion for God that I had not had. We started learning the music and found out that the group was going to be in Ruidoso soon at a three day weekend getaway, so of course a bunch of us planned to go. There I met Ken Young, who is the leader of Hallal(and writes much himself.) I loved every minute of it, what zeal this music had and the people singing it were not entertaining us but they were singing to God!!
Well here I will make a long story short. Not long after the Ruidoso weekend, we had already changed our membership to a congregation in Midland, Tx. (where we now live) and this congregation hired Ken to be their worship leader, and he moved out from Dallas, lock stock and barrel. Both my wife and myself were allowed to become members of the praise teams used by Ken at services and also special events.
Remember I said I would tie all this together?
1. My worship of praise to God was not good.
2. Emphysema (my type) makes it very hard to exhale air, so I cannot get a good intake cause my lungs stay full
3. Ken and the Hallal ministry is introduced to West Texas,and to me by way of a tape, and within months Ken has moved his whole deal from Dallas.... to Midland??
4.Ken invites us to sing with them.??
my answer to all this. God used Ken, moved him out here, to renew MY praise to Him, by using my bad lungs to sing His praises, THEREBY ridding my lungs of bad air and letting my intake of good air greatly increase!!!!!!! I have less actual lung capacity than many people I know with Alpha one, yet I have enjoyed much better health, IMO due to the GRACE OF GOD!!!.
Because of His grace, I have been able to sing with a group to a cancer patient whom God healed. To A little baby whom had gone blind from her illness yet "looked" right at us as we sang . God took her to be with Him. To a man with an inoperable brain tumor who wished to be "sang into heaven"... We did and He was. To a family who had lost a son/father/husband by a drunk driver but with the knowledge that God took home a son and the angels rejoiced. To so many I can't even count and I am not saying this to blow my horn but to GIVE GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST for allowing me this time. Praise His Name!!
Thank you for allowing me the space and time to do this.
dan |
