Uncategorized | Kelly B. Wiens

He who remembers the poor, lends to the Lord

I hope you had a great time zooming, and teaming, and video chatting with all your friends and family in internet land this Christmas! And for the few that get to be with you I hope your Christmas was filled with joy and peace and lots of hugs even though as there is in my house there will be pain because loved ones are not allowed to be home at this time. This is so sad, and take time to grieve those losses to allow Jesus to comfort you with his words and His love by His Spirit at this time. I titled this post thinking about my friend Nicholas in Jinja Uganda. There are many all around us who are suffering this Christmas without a job, wondering how everything is going to work out right here in Canada. So let’s be attentive to cries going up to God silently and not so silently at this time asking for help.

Nicholas has put this verse on his website for Bright Light Children’s Ministry. Proverbs 19:17 – Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD and he will reward them for what they have done! I remember the first time I heard someone talk about financial renewal and God’s principles for finance and he talked about God rewarding those who give to the poor. God doesn’t say what those rewards are, but there is a always a payback because God is faithful and just. Jesus says when we give to others who are in need, we store up treasure in heaven where nothing can steal it. Jesus also says when you give don’t let right hand know what left is doing. Sometimes these verses make it difficult for me to know how to ask for help giving to a cause that I believe in. I don’t think it’s wrong to mention when a part the family I am connected to is suffering lack to ask another part of my family and friends to help. Nicholas is active caring for orphan children through the ministry God has raised up through him. Over 60 children are cared for through the ministry via foster families and the home which houses over 20 children. Nicholas and his team of faithful brothers and sisters make sure the children have what they need as best they can but it is difficult. The rent needs to be paid, food needs to be bought, firewood purchased for cooking, soap, medicine, and school is not free in Uganda and so there are many financial challenges. Would you consider giving so that orphan children in Uganda have what they need to begin the new year. Your giving is tax-deductible and so if the Lord has blessed you a little or a lot would you consider this in your year end giving plans.

Our goal is $3500.00 and it would mean a lot to Nicholas and each child in Bright Light’s care! This works out to only $52.00/child.

You can give on-line to our ministry here. FireRunner Music & Ministries. Our ministry operates as part of Bridges of Hope International Development Agency which actually does a lot of amazing work all over the world but especially in Africa. Just put in the comments Bright Light if you want it to go completely to Bright Light. Otherwise a portion of everything given to FireRunner will go to Bright Light to keep the lights on, the children fed, the school fees paid, the landlord happy and ensure the the good news of Jesus and His love for kids will keep going out through this ministry. We have dreams of sustainability through their own piece of land, with home, farming/gardening and school as part of the picture but for now they could really just use a hand to make it into this next year.

Today’s song is It’s time to sing, a song I wrote years ago in 2004 to celebrate Jesus birth and to prepare us for the soon return of Jesus! Find a child or a bunch if you are extra blessed and dance with them to the song. And let me know whether you want me to do a great recording of this song for next Christmas! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It’s time to sing!

I always love mail, comments, new subscribers etc. but even more than that I would love it that we could lighten the load as Bright Light enters 2021.

We are in a war!

It has been a long time since you have seen or heard anything from this minstrel who used to take time to share his thoughts and hopeful not just mine but thoughts that come from God’s heart and mind to you as a ministering musician. I have felt for a week now I need to begin blogging again. Listening to John Ramirez ex-satanist now evangelist testimony of Jesus intervention in his life this last hour, hearing a testimony today of a young woman who Satan deceived into meditation, astral projection, and subsequent demonization and Jesus rescue of her, and finally looking at media reports following President Trumps successful order to kill a top Iranian General through a U.S. military drone has me thinking about war a lot today.

The apostle Paul says clearly in his letter to the Ephesian church starting with chapter 6:10 the Message version – “That about wraps it up. God is strong and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out. And don’t forget to pray for me. Pray that I’ll know what to say and have the courage to say it at the right time, telling the mystery to one and all, the Message that I, jailbird preacher that I am responsible for getting out.

This year I have felt the Lord urging me to move forward in develop the music minstrel umbrella organization to act as a covering for a ministry that focuses on preparing the church for God’s coming Kingdom and our coming Bridegroom King and equally so I have felt the need to proclaim the love of Jesus Christ for all people that they would know and understand and feel the love of Jesus for them personally as they listen to the testimony of Jesus in Spirit-filled music. Music has a way of carrying both thought and emotion that goes with it whether it be our thoughts or the Holy Spirit’s thoughts through us as God’s servants. It is an important medium through which God the Father and the Son express themselves to us and we to the Father and the Son and to our fellow human beings through the Spirit. I struggle to move forward knowing that moving forward means potential misunderstandings, challenges, the possibility of physical, and emotional pain, financial cost, physical energy drain, time spent investing outside of what I currently am committed to doing which is running a farm business, and being involved in local and some ministry beyond Beechy. However, the Lord continues to ask me and tell me that it is the time to move forward so move forward I have and move forward I will by His help. If you are interested in praying for this ministry I will share vision for the ministry via a private facebook group, please comment and I will connect you. My most urgent need as Paul lists here is prayer, I ask that you would pray for grace to overcome all obstacles to get through the planning process for this ministry as well as conviction and follow through to do the ministry assignments the Lord gives me as I work on building the organization this year. I will need a 3 member board to begin with and I am praying for 3 kinds of people one who is administrative, one who is a mature prophetic-intercessor and an accountant. I will be setting up a private facebook group to communicate with those of you who feel called to pray for this ministry as it goes through it’s designing and building process. This is not going to be easy but I know the one who calls me is faithful and so I will trust and obey knowing everything I need will be provided.

There have been some major things the Lord has been doing in my life these last 2 years while I’ve been away from the blog. I have gone through a healing discipleship ministry called Freedom Sessions which the Lord has used to do a lot of healing in my heart and others in the Beechy area. I’m going through it again and I felt the Lord wanted me to focus this time on the hurts which happened which resulted in me aborting the plan to launch this ministry in 1999-2000 when I first tried to do this. The armour of God that is listed in Ephesians 6 is what we need to successfully fight the devil and overcome him and do the work which Christ has called us to do on earth before His coming. We need to believe God’s word and confess it out loud after hearing it. We need to obey God’s word taking action on it. We need to trust in the righteousness of Christ to cover our sins and our heart from being wounded by the accuser. We need to rest in the knowledge that we are saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved from all that the enemy will bring against us and the sins that so easily beset us, because Christ is victor and He is our Lord. We also need to move in the Spirit’s ways of peace in our relationships with those who know Jesus and those who don’t yet. Why, because people are not our enemy even though the enemy uses people to cause us pain and those we love. The last thing I want to say is praise is a weapon. Remember that brothers and sisters when you feel under attack. Fix your thoughts on Jesus the author and perfecter of your faith by praising Him with all your soul, mind and strength. Give Him thanks, exalt His name the name that is above every other name. For at the name of Jesus demons flee and at the name of Jesus all heaven and earth will bow because He is King and rightful ruler of earth no matter what is going on right now. He will work for good the painful things going on in your life because He has promised to do that for those who love Him even though now it’s painful. Paul and Silas praised and worshipped our Lord and Saviour in jail after being beaten. There is something powerful that happens when God hears suffering saints worship and praise Him, somehow He is moved and He does things on earth as it is in heaven when we worship and praise Him in the midst of our trials and struggles. God is delighted to bring deliverance from our enemies because He delights in us and he actually has an entire angel army that is quite capable of getting done what needs to be done without our help. Because that is their job to serve and minister to those who will inherit God’s salvation. Isn’t our King Jesus amazing. So whatever you are going through right now I pray that God will give you strength to obey and persevere and bring Jesus glory wherever you live.

Today’s song is a song I sang last Sunday when I was teaching on the resurrection of Jesus and our death and resurrection with Him that places us in a place of victory over all our enemies. May you experience the victory of Christ over all your enemies as you follow your Father in heaven’s leadership and walk in His joy over you in 2020.

As the New Year Dawns

Planning for Spring and Summer, the season of planting, fertilizing and weeding and growth unto a much larger harvest than what is sown is what farmers do in winter. They network with other farmers, they go to shows and meetings to learn from others before making their final plans for the year. What about you? Are you seeking the Lord and dialoguing with your brothers and sisters about the new year and what the Lord is putting on your heart? What kind of seeds are you planning to sow in the new year? As a worship leader, as a husband or wife, mother or father, what are you planning to sow into your family this year? What are the weeds that you tend to fight every year, what might consulting with the Lord and others in the Lord yield in terms of fruit so that you don’t simply repeat the failings and sins of yesteryear! And fertilizer, what kind of fertilizer and how much fertilizer are you willing to invest in this year to ensure the seeds you sow have the very best environment to grow in, making the hearts of those around you very fertile? I’m believing God for a very healthy and large harvest this year and want to do my very best in this season of bitter cold to search out the very best from the Lord and those the Lord has placed around me to do my part in working with the Lord to produce a large healthy harvest. Wouldn’t it be great if 2018 was a year that produced a healthy abundant harvest in the natural world as well as the world of human hearts seeded with good news of God’s love in Christ His Son?

As worship leaders our task is to seek the Lord about songs which help carry the body of Christ into God’s throne room and speak the truth we need to here to walk in freedom and obedience to God’s commands! May the Lord help you in this task that the body might be very fruitful and healthy this year!

P.S. – This was written earlier but I think it is still applicable cause it’s winter still:). I forgot to hit publish

Breakforth One

I have returned from Breakforth One conference in Edmonton and I want to tell you a little bit about my experience there this year. As always I enjoy being on the prayer team. and the joy of ministering to the Lord Jesus in worship together as a team and in the large gathering of the body of Christ. We were reminded again we are a part of the Isaiah 61 mandate that Jesus began to us in His 3 year earthly ministry and continues through us to bring beauty for ashes, forgiveness, restoration, healing, in His name. Before I began praying for people this year I had the privilege of going to a one day intensive learning workshop called Healing Discipleship the next move of God by Pastor Ken Dyck from Vancouver. I was very impacted by his presentation and the great need there is for the church to receive healing on the inside and be a conduit of healing to others. But first it must begin with us. And so the long and the short of it is Kelly wants to go through a discipleship journey called Freedom Sessions soon and invite others into it with him:). If anyone has experienced this already I would appreciate hearing about your experience good or bad. Private message me on messenger or email me at kellyb.wiens@gmail.com. Thanks!

As I mentioned last year we continued to pray for people in the prayer room, pray in main assemblies for the ministers and the worshipping community there to receive from the Lord through His servants, and we continued doing treasure hunts aka roving prayer ministers throughout the Shaw Conference Centre. It never ceases to amaze me the intimate knowledge our Father has of each one of us and His love for us and desire to encourage, comfort and strengthen us. This year seemed to be a year of further growth in learning to listen to the Holy Spirit and learning to deliver what He is saying to others for their encouragement. I saw the Lord Jesus time and time again work so beautifully through members of the prayer team to see healing come to broken hearts and hurting bodies, burdens lifted, and believers exchanging lies for truth about our Father and His great love for us.

I also receive from the Lord often from members of the team and this year without fail the Lord was encouraging me to move forward to share deeply from my heart what He has put there and be unafraid to share it. So in keeping with that invitation from the Lord that has not only come through my siblings in Christ but from Christ to me directly many times I am going to share some things with you my readers that I hope will also bring freedom, courage, comfort and strength to you in your ministries. One is I want to begin to share my journey with Jesus with you one piece at a time, secondly I’m going to share some raw videos and recordings with you so you don’t just see polished finished songs and things but you get to see raw and unprocessed Holy Spirit moments. In doing this I am hoping to encourage you to be more authentic, and vulnerable in your ministry for the sake of encouraging and building up others and I want to encourage creativity. Thirdly, I am going to be developing some training materials in the coming weeks in February to begin sharing the training with you in the coming months starting in March God willing. One of those I hope to be is a slightly modified prayer training called Hands On Prayer Ministry by Mary Kassian of which I received her book as a thank you gift from my prayer team leads Art and Lorraine this year which seemed to confirm to me it is time to start giving away this training and multiplying the number of confident Spirit filled prayer ministers. The second training I want to do is in the area of training worship leaders to cultivate the prophetic gift of the Holy Spirit within them and their teams so that we have more bold and courageous worship leaders who sing the song of the Lord over His people, and the release of greater creativity in the church related to music in particular but also in all the expressions of art in making His praise Glorious and also communicating His heart of love to His people and those who have not yet tasted His love nor heard to good news!

On that note I want to share a little bit about a little chorus I started singing and recorded on my iPhone at Breakforth. This morning I listened to the 30 seconds I recorded at Breakforth and thought I would sing it again and see if more came. The perfectionist side of me would normally prevent me from sharing any such recording especially since I’m practicing a lot of chest to head voice flips in the song some of which are quite bad but for the sake of encouraging the creative Spirit led process in you I will let you the hear the raw heart and expression before the refinement comes. Have an enjoyable rest of your day! Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbour like Jesus has loved you!

Kelly

Here’s the song I started working on from a little melody at Breakforth. You are Mine

And here is a private video of spontaneous worship in key of G from this morning! Worship in G

Until next Monday, have a great week.

Kelly

My Story Part 1

I was born in Lucky Lake, July 7, 1970 because my mother wasn’t comfortable with the doctor at the time in my home town of Beechy. I came home to a farm 8 miles northwest of Beechy that my Father and Mother had been renting since 1965 I believe. I had an older sister Tammy (Tamara) who was 3 and 3 years later to the day I would receive another sister named Sonya on July 7, 1973. I have a few memories from those days on the farm, one that came back to me many years later when I gutted my first chicken at my sister in laws after I married my wife which was of my mom gutting a chicken on the kitchen table at this farm. The other memory I have is being stomach flu sick in my bedroom there which was shared with my sister Tamara at that time. My favourite memory by far was when my dad got me my first bike from Canadian Tire, it was bright yellow. I rode down the hill with training wheels at that farm and loved it.

A little less than a year after my younger sister Sonya was born, Dad and Mom got a chance to buy a farm in 1974 only 3 miles from town. So we moved there in 1974. I remember puddles everywhere in the yard as the previous owners the Driedgers had their auction sale in spring before we moved there. 1974 was a winter of much snow which took a long time to melt. It is this farm that I live on to this day with my wife and 3 youngest kids.

My parents were both believers and very active in our Mennonite Brethren Church on railway street in Beechy across from the Pioneer elevator where my dad hauled most of his grain. Dad was moderator of the church council often, led the church choir and taught adult Sunday school. My mom was the church pianist and played a lot for church services and the choir and she led the children’s choir. We did a lot of musical stuff growing up. We had a little family band where I played Tenor recorder in together with my sister Sonya who played alto recorder and my older sister Tamara who played flute together with my dad and my mom who accompanied us on the piano. All of us kids sang in the kids choir and did musicals a lot. Later I would start playing trombone in the band in Grade 5. My sisters and I all were started on piano before school started it seemed the the Kelly Kirby method of learning piano. In grade 8 we would join Dad’s choir at church when we became of age. I learned guitar for a year in school in Grade 9 but that was as far as it went for me in guitar as I found my wrist got sore holding guitar from the fallout of a broken arm in Grade 9.

My faith journey with Christ started when my mother shared a Good News booklet with me about what God had done for me through His Son in dying for my sins and being raised from the dead so I could be forgiven and have eternal life. I wanted to be forgiven as even at 5 years old , I recognized the lack of perfection in me at that time already and I wanted to go to heaven when I die and not be separated from God forever. I received Christ by faith into my heart at that time. I remember sharing my faith with a classmate from school underneath the sandbox in our kindergarten and grade 1 room. I was pretty pumped about Jesus at that time.

I was an academically inclined kid who found school easy and did very well in all my classes except Penmanship. My writing is very bad still. Be thankful I’m typing this. I actually was good at that, achieving 55 wpm on a manual typewriter while starting my training in Grade 10 with only 1 hand because of recovering from a broken arm at the time.

Although I had enthusiasm in my faith at school in the beginning I found that my desire to be accepted by peers generally trumped my willingness to step out and talk about what I believed with my classmates very often. And so I was quiet about my faith for the most part. I had a friend who shared my faith who I did a lot with whose name was Kevin. His presence was a great gift in my life helping to preserve my faith and to give me a friend I could do a lot of fun things with including fall prey to temptation with.

One of the things my parents taught me quite strongly was the dangerous influence of alcohol in ones life. Although I saw alcohol in my grandmothers fridge once I have to admit I was shocked because of how evil my perception was of drinking alcohol and the conviction that I had from my parents instruction that a Christian should never drink it. One day in grade 6 will forever be etched in my mind was a day a bunch of my classmates thought it would be a great idea to bring alcohol from home to school and drink it on the playground. I managed to avoid temptation number one when one of my cousins suggested I try drinking some of the “water” he had in a container. I wasn’t that easily deceived. However, later on that day when a certain female classmate came up to me with a 7up bottle in hand containing a mixture of vodka and 7up offered some for me to try, I had a much harder decision to make. Would I stay with what my parents taught me and within the school rules or would I try some to see what this evil substance tasted like and maybe not look so prudish in front of this pretty girl…

Tune in next week for part 2 – The Teenage Years

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time where we pause to reflect upon the goodness of God in our lives. We surround ourselves with good food and family and friends to say thank you Father in heaven for every good and perfect gift that You have given. As a farmer I say thank you for the harvest that God our Father so graciously gave us inspite of a very dry year. I am also grateful for the end of the drought as Our Father gave us so generously 3 inches of rain the day after I finished combining! Thankful for my kids and my wife and her family which have graced our table today! Thanks God for your faithfulness through a very challenging season which has resulted in our return to the farm and finishing a very comprehensive renovation on our city house! Praise the Lord!

What can this man do?

As I prepare for ministry opportunity with an event called Hopeful at our church on Saturday night, I am reminded of my weakness. I am sniveling and sneezing, and leaking out of my nasal cavities and sound and look terrible. 2 days from now I am to share a little story of hope and a song in an effort to share the hope the God put in my heart the night he gave me that song. There will be others sharing about how God intervened in their darkness, their despair, anxiety, depression, they will be sharing specifically how God spoke into the darkness of their souls and brought light and hope again in a desperate place. The words of the song I will be sharing start with, “What can I do? Nothing, without You Jesus”. We are utterly dependent on the Lord Jesus to move in and through us to touch other people’s lives. Without him, we can do nothing. Unless the Lord builds the house, the laborer’s labor in vain, the psalmist says. It is so true, He is the vine we are the branches, the life that we need to produce fruit comes from the sap of His Holy Spirit that flows through the vine to each branch which represents individual believers.

I am praying and trusting God for a breakthrough in people’s lives as stories are told, hearts listen and receive and people take advantage of prayer ministry in the prayer tent that night. I invite you to take a moment and pray for the 7 that will be sharing, and for the worship time and ministry time with the prayer team that happens, that Hope will rise in people’s hearts and that darkness of all kinds will be scattered! Finally pray that nothing will stop people from coming to the event and that for those who need to hear, they will be able to get a copy of the recording of the event! And , please pray I overcome these allergy symptoms. Thanks for praying!

P.S. I will try to get that worship and prayer time up for next time Cheryl and Keith, it’s on my phone, thanks for asking.

This is the year of the favor of the Lord?

Isaiah 61. Jesus read it in the synagogue and said this day this Scripture is fulfilled in Himself. He is the anointed one! I was singing Andy Park’s song Spirit of the Sovereign Lord and was declaring this is the year of the favor of the Lord and vengeance of our God. When I’ve been home I’ve been inviting people to my home to worship and pray on Saturday nights. Tonite as I was praying and declaring this Scriptural song, I also remembered something Luis Palau said at Breakforth that He believes that this is the year for Revival in Canada. He then proceeded to share why. At that point I was assigned to pray in the main assembly and I was walking and praying for the speaker and the people gathered. At that point after the declaration of immanent revival in Canada, I went into travailing prayer, I began to weep uncontrollably and I went onto the floor in the dark amidst the 5000 faithful who had gathered to hear the last speaker at Breakforth. I asked the Lord what is going on. He said to me “You’ve been carrying a burden to pray for Revival since 1988, almost 30 years!” The tears were a sign that the answer to those prayers are coming soon. I started praying for Revival in my first year of Bible School at Bethany Bible Institute. I had been shaken by a book written called 88 reasons why 1988 is the year and specifically Rosh Hashana Sept 18 is the time when Jesus will come to rapture His church. As you might know Jesus never came for His church and raptured us on Sept 18, 1988. The writer said we wouldn’t know the hour but that didn’t mean we couldn’t know the weekend was his justification. Now, the rapture before the antichrist is revealed might be bad theology when you read Mathew 24 and what Jesus taught there doesn’t seem to be any rapture at all, it looks like we are here through it all and severely persecuted. However, with an evangelist who has been through a great revival in Argentina and regular preaches to many and sees many enter the kingdom of God, and he says he believes 2017 is the year. Do we believe him? How do I test a word like that? What does revival mean? What would a Canadian wide revival look like? I’m not sure we can test the word without simply waiting for 2017 to pass, and see. However, the real question is what is Jesus asking of us His bride? To love God with all our heart soul mind and strength and to love each other as Christ has loved us. That is the real question. As long as we are loving Christ and loving one another which we can’t do one without the other, perhaps it doesn’t really matter. The point is we need to faithful to Christ and what He is asking of us. I know if we all did that the church of Christ would be radiant and extremely attractive to the lost. Even so, pour out Your Spirit God on your bride, wake us up, make us shine! Those are my thoughts today. Had a great worship time and prayer time that didn’t record well of Terry Alward and I worshipping and praying our hearts out! I have a 45 minute video which I’m hoping to fix the audio somehow. If you want to hear it anyways, comment please. Hope you all have a great day worshipping the King of Kings today!

Love in Christ,

Your friendly neighbourhood music minstrel!

A Minstrel’s Missionary Call

I hope you have had a good week. I have been a little consumed with mud and tape this last week as I am pursuing to get the renovation to the painting stage as quick as I can and sacrificing quality time with My King and my kids more than I’d like but it is the vision of the finished house prepared for the Lord to use for His purposes that moves me to push so hard. It has been a long journey of over 2 years. My mission is to see the house restored to it full potential by going through it from repairing it’s structural problems, it’s plumbing, it’s electrical system, it’s food preparation area, it’s indoor and outdoor lighting systems, it’s covering, and it’s heating and cooling system and finishing off with it’s inner appearance so that it’s future occupants can have a safe, comfortable environment to raise a family in and carry out the mission God has given them. As the people of God we are God’s house, we are the temple that He lives in by his Spirit. We are His bride that one day our Father in heaven will say, Son, go get your bride, it’s time, everything is prepared for the wedding feast of the Lamb. So what does a house reno, and the fact that God’s people are being prepared to be a dwelling place for the Father and Son and Holy Spirit and the topic a Minstrel’s Missionary Call have in common? Well let me try to put it together.

The great commandment is this that we would love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. The great commission is that we would go into all the world and preach the gospel, baptizing those who believe in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded. The big command being love each other as Jesus says in John 15. I believe these two things are encapsulated in the heart of every believer, but for the minstrel we have a leadership role where our job is to inspire, to paint a picture, to cause the people of God to remember and connect with both God’s character, and His actions that he has done for us to show His love for us. So our job is to lead people to love God above all, in response to His great love expressed to us through His Son who loved us and gave His life for us to bring us back into relationship with our Father in Heaven. The songs we sing both inspire and give expression to the love that God has put into our hearts for His Son and for Himself through the Holy Spirit. The songs that we sing can also be used to remind and remember the commands and teachings of Christ as the songs we sing act as a discipleship school reminding and teaching the bride of Christ of who He is and what we need to believe and practice. The songs we sing with the Bride of Christ give expression to her love for the one who first loved us. These songs give expression to our commitment and our love.

Now as we go into the world, I believe the minstrel is to go into the world proclaiming the gospel, preaching it through musical words and pictures of who He is and what He has done to show His love for every human being on the planet. We are evangelists who proclaim there is a God who made you and loves you like a bridegroom loves His bride, like a Father or Mother loves their child. Not just any Father or mother, not just any bridegroom, we are loved by a perfect Father and the perfect Bridegroom who is capable of meeting all our needs.

Our greatest need is for true love, that will cover over the multitude of our sins, and bridge the justice problem that is there because of our sin. God is a judge who must punish those who have rebelled against Him. God is also a loving Father who wants to save His wayward children who have rebelled and broken His commands showing contempt for Him and all He stands for. He brings His mercy and love and perfect justice in sending His one and only Son to become sin and be punished as a sinner and rebel on a Roman cross so that we might be covered over by an intercessor’s life who never sinned and therefore could pay the price for our rebellion once and for all. Punishment is dished out and at the same time a way to be merciful to every lawbreaking human being that has every lived because the sentence of death for sin has been served.

We have a love story to write about as singer songwriters like none other. The ministry of worship is part of our mission, and the ministry of reconciliation both between God’s children and God’s yet to be adopted children is the other half of our mission. The unity of God’s children is a huge strategy of our Father according to Jesus prayer in John 17 showing the reconciliation and love is His heart and that unity and love between us as believers in Christ will be a key to removing the blindness of unbelief in a world shrowded in the darkness of hate, indifference and selfishness.

I wrote this post over a week ago, but lost my zeal to finish it. So here it is as part of the series on what is a minstrel. As I have been writing these posts I realize that I am writing what I believe my call is from our Father and our Saviour Jesus as a minstrel. It is good to reflect on what I believe not only for my call but also for the many others God is calling and has raised up and have gone before me as minstrels.

Here are two songs that reflect both the evangelistic call and the hunger that is in every human heart for love.

Do you know that Jesus Loves You – written by Lani Wiens my wife

Known by You – written by Kelly Wiens

I hope you have a good week! Don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t!

The Song of the Lord is a Shame Buster!

Happy Family Day to my Canadian readers! One of the privileges of being a ministering musician or minstrel is having the opportunity to share Jesus heart or our Fathers heart for others through a song. In the context of the Scriptural command to to be filled with the Spirit and to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs this would come under spiritual songs. Spiritual songs can come us in our life ahead of a gathering of the saints or they can come from the Holy Spirit right in the moment in a gathering of the saints as we are worshiping the Lord. Some might say that is is a “Rhema” word rather than a Logos written word filled song. So it is something that the Holy Spirit impresses upon your heart as a singer that is specifically for you or for the congregation you are ministering in or for a specific person or group of people within your congregation. It is rooted in Scriptural truth and may in fact be the Holy Spirit reminding you of Scripture and He is asking you to sing this truth from His heart over His bride right now to help them overcome the enemy’s lies in their life.
One of the great schemes of the enemy is to bind us up in shame over the things we have done or coming out of the sins that were done to us especially when we are young as they have a huge impact on how we think about ourselves. Right now I’m in a conquers group led on video by a pastor named Ted Roberts, facilitated by my friends Stuart and Linda Kasdorf. In this group we are there to learn how to live as someone who conquers our enemy and as Paul says in Romans 8 to be more than conquerors through Christ who loves us as we help others conquer . This is our sweet revenge against our enemy who has done so much to hurt us. What are we dealing with in this group? Sexual bondage and addiction. Pastor Ted says if you ever want to clear a room full of Christians just say that you are struggling with sexual bondage, almost anything else will be easily accepted as a struggle except that.

The shame associated with sexual bondage and or addictions is huge! The fear of rejection, condemnation or judgment coming from other Christians or our parents or other authority figures often is massive so we hide what we are caught in because of fear and shame. One of the things I am learning in this group is that sexual bondage and addiction comes out of trying to deal with the pain of wounds inflicted because of the sins of others against us that we have not healed from. Inside these wounds our enemy inserts lies about us that holds us captive until the Holy Spirit opens our hearts up and cuts to the depth of the wounds and speaks His truth there instead. As we submit to and believe what our Father says about us instead of what our enemy said to us we gains strength to resist the enemy which is rooted in our new identity in Christ. We are now more than conquerors, we are overcomers Jesus tells us and shame is swallowed up and we are now strengthened to resist temptation in that area based on a new core belief.
Now how here is how this has worked itself out in my life as a believer and minstrel who has struggled and who has wounds. One time when I was in an English class in University I was required to read a novel which described a sexually immoral act. After reading it I experienced both repulsion in my mind but to my horror my body responded sexually to what I read and I acted out on that response inspite of my repulsion. So now that repulsion was not just against that act in my mind, now it was against myself now as I had allowed myself to sin sexually against myself and God and my wife. I was now filled with shame and self hatred. Surprisingly the Lord Jesus and our Father in heaven came to me in a Holy Spirit filled song later that day as I was repenting and asking for forgiveness and desperately wanting to be cleansed of the guilt and shame I felt. What I believe the Lord was doing is saying yes I not only forgive you for what you did but I a m making sure that you do not fall prey to the lies of the enemy that this somehow changes who you are. You are a child of God and you are an overcomer.

So here is a simple version of a song I hope will speak to your identity in Christ as an overcomer!

Overcoming One