Mighty River Music: News

We had a great time with old friends and new friends at Warm Hearts on Friday night. One of the newest songs, Your Way, turned out great. The band really outdid themselves. It is really a special honor to be supported by Andrea, George, Tom, Andrew and Joe. Mark E. stopped by for a tune too! At the end of the night, we all chose to snack on some of Pete and Tess's awesome chili. In January, we'll be back at Warm Hearts. Our next date is Sunday night, November 9th, at Mt. Laurel Church of God, just north of Harrisburg.

Sometime soon, check out my blog at www.mightyrivermusic.blogspot.com . This past week I've been pondering 2 Cor 3:18 a bit. Hope to understand enough to share soon.

Blessings to you all...

I put up the latest recording of My Loving God. I redid the acoustic guitar track, making into two tracks. After some web research, I used two mic's instead of going direct. One was a big diameter diaphram condenser aimed at the soundhole and neck meeting place. The second mike was a pencil condenser aimed at the 12th fret area. Both were 5 - 7 inches away from the guitar. The guitar I used was the 615CE Taylor. I redid the vocal track as well. It is a hard song for me to sing perfectly. It took many takes and I'm still not satisfied. I also slowed the song down from 82bpm to 80bpm. I think it feels better there.

Much more to add and clean up. This is just the beginning of the process!

In the past couple of weeks, we ended up with some refreshing rains for our parched lawns and gardens. It seems as though new songs and ideas for songs are coming at a faster than normal pace. At first glance, the latest song, yet to be recorded, seems silly.

When in Jerusalem, I purchased a prayer shawl and I had the interesting experience of God telling me to pray and seek Him with it over my head. I had this little tent of a prayer shawl that has become my favorite place of meeting with Him.

So on Thursday, at lunchtime, I needed time with God and withdrew from the world with guitar in hand an prayer shawl over my head. I started to play and the words came, along with lots of tears, in almost an instant. The song is really about that instant.... Saturday morning, God gave me words for describing the instant of falling into God's presence. It is a "moment unfolding".

====================
Holy Spirit, Your Way

I am under my tent.
Your holy fire draws near.
The veil of heaven's opened,
With Your blood I am made pure.

I am under Your wings,
Your holy fire is near
The veil of heaven's opened,
With Your blood I am made pure.

Holy Spirit, Your way
Holy Spirit, Your way
Holy Spirit, have Your way
==========================

So at the moment of being overshadowed by the wings of the Lord, is there much anything else to say but what Mary said? Be it unto me, Lord....

I just put up the latest version of My Loving God. It was recorded on the TASCAM and then exported onto the Mac. We'll be adding parts and bettering the scratch tracks in the near future. I will keep updating the song so you all can watch it become.

I am still working on Illumine Us a bit and the Lord is showing me Scripture from Ephesians 4 and how it applies to being lit from the inside by Him. I found the phrase "shield of love" in a Scripture and it seemed a great word picture to use in the song so I added it in the last verse. The lyrics as of now are:


Illumine Us
c2008 Mark Grosz

Lord Jesus,
Come and make Your home with us.
King of Glory be enthroned,
In our love.
Adoration, light Your blaze in us,
Consume us!

Illumine us,
Illumine us,
Illumine us,
King of Glory shine.

Holy Spirit, oh, we welcome You inside.
Fill our lamps with Your fragrant, golden oil.
Adoration, light your blaze in us,
Consume us!

Father God,
Take delight in Your children.
Your shield of love, your embrace,
is our joy.
Adoration, light your blaze in us,
Consume us!


Hope to get it recorded this next week!

Blessings...

If you stop by at Warm Hearts this Friday night, please love on Pete and Tess a bit (they own and run Warm Hearts, among other ministries). Through words or whatever, take a moment to bless them personally this Friday. Warm their hearts this weekend!
Hmmm, those two things go together. John Wesley's heart was strangely warmed by holy illumination.

We're planning on doing some new music, some not even sketch recorded yet, on Friday. Come join us at Warm Hearts and listen in on what the Lord is speaking to us about.

A just finished song is about being illuminated from the inside, like one of the pretty paper lanterns. I get really warmed on the inside when I sing this to the Lord. Come hear it at Warm Hearts on Friday or look for it on the website soon!


Illumine Us
c2008 Mark Grosz

Lord Jesus,
Come and make Your home with us.
King of Glory be enthroned,
In our love.
Adoration, light Your blaze in us,
Consume us!

Illumine us,
Illumine us,
Illumine us,
King of Glory shine.

Holy Spirit, oh, we welcome You inside.
Fill our lamps with Your fragrant, golden oil.
Adoration, light your blaze in us,
Consume us!

Father God,
Take delight in Your kids.
Precious Father,
Oh Your love is our joy.
Adoration, light your blaze in us,
Consume us!

First, I wanted to say thanks so much to the folks who come out to listen to us and partake in the worship, in a very different from normal place. Thanks also to the folks who are not local and hit the website! Thank you, thank you, thank you, my good friends! Your support for our nights at the coffeehouses and the spreading of the online content is very, very much appreciated!

The new song needing the 2 lines is pretty much completed! One of my writing partners, Heidi, came up with some great lyrics along with some beautiful words and melody for a bridge and counter melody. We'll be working on a recording of the song very soon.


You are my strength,
You are my fortress.
You are my strength,
Lord, you're my fortress
I wait for You,
My loving God.

Jesus, Your Name's
My tower of safety.
Your Name alone,
A stronghold of peace.
So good, so good,
Loving, You're loving
All praise to You,
My loving God.

In front of me,
Behind me,
All around me....

There is a fresh song from this past Monday. The words, story and recording are up on my Music page. The song is called Voice of God. I spent some time with some new recording hardware and software and it a quantum leap for me, recording-wise. I don't quite have it all figured out yet but there is a huge capability gain from my little 4 track. I hope you enjoy it!

- Blessings to all!

Have two new songs to put up. They are pretty bare bones but it'll be good to see what people think of them. The one song is still missing two lyric lines and we are working on that!

Look in the music section shortly for My Loving God and Resting in your Hands. Let me know what you think!

Happy 4th of July Independence Day!

Oh a song almost there... I'm still awaiting two lyric lines. So in two lines, how can you contain even a small revelation about the love of the Lord? Could even an ocean of lyrics contain the smallest insight about the love of our Lord? Yet that is the position of the psalmist... searching for and trying to express a revelation about the Lord in words. For me sometimes the Lord makes me pursue that revelation. He gives me the foundation, either from the Word, dreams, prophetic vision or just from thinking about Him and pondering about the Lord. Then He makes me work for those last two lyric lines. He makes me experience what is often too large to fit into the constraints of words and music. The Lord is a good teacher and He makes me think through what He is teaching me and helps me get down to the basic truth He wants me to internalize. It is then I can share it properly in the words to a song that others can sing and we can ponder the Lord's truths together.

Consider this:

Psalms 48:12-14 (NIV)
Ps 48:12 Walk about Zion, go around her,
count her towers,

Ps 48:13 consider well her ramparts,
view her citadels,
that you may tell of them to the next generation.

Ps 48:14 For this God is our God for ever and ever;
he will be our guide even to the end.

My son, Tom, and I hiked and backpacked an 18 mile section of the Appalachian Trail on Thursday and Friday. It was quite an adventure! I always wanted to backpack and do an overnight hike on the AT. You can see some pictures along with GPS data at the everytrails website -
Appalachian Trail Adventure in PA - In Sections 12/13 - Widget powered by: EveryTrail
What fun! (Yes I am still a little bit stiff and sore but improving!)

Last night started a 3 week series by Zory Klinger on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are on Wednesday nights at 7pm, at Christ Community Church. I've heard no better teacher on the Holy Spirit than Zory. If you are in the Harrisburg area, I'd recommend the sessions.

Please consider coming out on May 30th to Warm Hearts Cafe in Mechanicsburg. It is on my heart to not only worship, entertain and fellowship but to also make space for healing prayer to happen. Please come join in...

This song was in process for a couple weeks. There is a good teaching behind it and I will post that soon. The song is called Shake. One of the teachings is, the Lord loves all the unique worship expressed to Him, from all peoples, tongues, and tribes. I believe the Holy Spirit is setting people free to uniquely worship Him out of the expression He placed in them. Diverse worship from all cultures is beautiful to the Lord. The second teaching is, the Lord always moves first, then we move. So what might it sound like when the Lord, enjoying all the worship He impulsed, arises from His great throne? I think everything in heaven and earth starts to shake and vibrate. Beautiful sounds then come forth from His peoples and all of creation! Enjoy the new song! Blessings!

Last night, at Warm Hearts, we had a wonderful evening with many good friend and we enjoyed the Lord's presence. One direction of the night was to, in words and music, bring to light the preciousness of multi-cultural worship. In reality, our small group of musicians really exhibited the worship of different cultures coming together. Glenn, playing his fiddle and mandolin brings to mind the Scots-Irish people who immigrated to this area. My son is the 6th generation of German farmers who came to this area in 1830. We used a Native American Cedar Flute in some of the music. Andrew had a drum from Africa. Steve has Irish ancestry too. Many nations were represented by the people who came to the coffee house. When we worshipped together, it was truly the worship of peoples from many nations - not quite all tongues and tribes like in Revelations but I think it was pleasing to the Lord. We do long for that day but for now we really enjoy this heaven now but not yet - the Kingdom here and now...and all that means.

Hope to see you next Friday night, 7PM at the Daily Grind in Mechanicsburg.

Bless!

One of my very favorite worship leaders, Rita Springer, will be leading worship March 1st and 2nd at Christ Community Church, Camp Hill, PA. See www.christcc.org for more information. Rita's current CD, "Beautiful You - Live" is very nice. Rita's website is www.ritaspringer.com

It's over halfway through the month of February already. The February 29th date @ Ruhl's Church is not too far off. Hopefully, Spring is not too far off, either. I disagree completely with the groundhog from western PA. Early Spring, early Spring...just say after me...early Spring!
I do have some songs in the works. One is a redo of one of the first choruses I wrote and is based on Psalm 92. We'll see what comes together from all the fragments.

Is there any goecachers out there? Hope it warms up some so we can get outside and go GPSing soon.

Blessings to you all!
Mark

For my latest missions trip, I had the priviledge of being a member of a worship team serving at Succat Hallel for a week. We had an incredible week of worship with good friends and making many new friends. We did get to tour around Jerusalem a bit between worship sets. You can see some of the pictures in the Photo Gallery Section!

Also, if you inclined to seek something hot to drink in the midst of our cold weather, please come out to The Warm Hearts Cafe , in Mechanicsburg, this Friday night. Some good friends and I will be sharing some worship music that evening. Blessings... or Shalom, as they say in Jerusalem.

I am releasing a home recording of a brand new song. It is about trust and faith in God, walking through the storms and difficult situations of life. I pray, for those in hard situations that this song would bring the deliverance and the help of the Lord to you. Trust in the Lord, my friends. Only He is our salvation and deliverance.

You will find "Walk Upon the Waters" on the music page, along with the lyrics and song story. Blessings for a beautiful Christmas season, full of the Love of the Lord.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. In spite of what the stores tell us, Thanksgiving is still a holiday! Give Thanks to the Lord! For He is good! His love endures forever!

Now to new music!

First, I have a guest in the music section! My son, Tom, wrote a wonderful song with beautiful lyrics. Check out Blue Jay and catch a little preview of the winter season almost upon us. Great poets have a knack for opening our eyes to details we would normally miss - and they help us to appreciate the before unseen beauty in our midst. So it is with Blue Jay.

From Psalm 86:11, I have a short Scripture song that will have an impact in your life. Brian MacLaren writes about the Kingdom of God, in the Secret Message of Jesus. I think the words in this scripture song are a key to having the Kingdom of God within us - and spilling out of us. If you ask, the Lord will do this... I wrote this for the kids at church but I have felt the impact in myself. Let it be so, Lord....

Enjoy!

I was looking around at some capo information tonight. I use the Kyser shortcut capo a good bit. The Kyser capo site has put together some very informative videos that guitar players can definitely benefit from. The site is at: http://www.kysermusical.com/shortcut/video.htm
Enjoy and learn lots!

Will have some new playing out dates soon! Please check back! And I will get the Worthy Praise song recorded soon!

This past Saturday, I was searching through a Mennonite Hymns and Tunes songbook. One of the hymns was entitled, "Worthy Praise to Immanuel". The words were so beautiful. I have no idea on the age of the hymn as there are no dates or authors credited. I suspect the song has a few years on it though and many singings to it's credit. Saturday night, I wrote a chorus to go with the beautiful verses and we used it on Sunday morning for our worship time. I hope to record it at home later this week and will post it up on the site soon. The lyrics make me search for what is "worthy praise" in my offering to the Lord. Look for the song soon!

I put up a new 'old' song. Even though The Wedding Song was a first attempt at computer based recording, the song is really pretty. My friend, Latonya, sang a beautiful part, which was recorded one afternoon in the sanctuary at Christ Community. The song is about the Wedding of the Lamb and His Bride, the church. The Lamb and His Bride are singing back a forth in The Wedding Song. It is truly a love song - A duet -The Lamb to us, and from us to the Lamb. It was the first time I played a whistle in a song too! (Though I am not sure that is a good thing!) I was trying to capture the sound of two doves calling to each other. The drum used is a 18" TOCA Dejembe, with a very Latin and clear, ringy head. It was the first time I played hand drum on a song too! The drum part is a very odd rythmn. The guitar part is interesting and a somewhat odd chordline. I hope you all enjoy it! I would love to put this one on a CD someday! I wonder what the video might look like?

I put up a free MP3 of a song written from Psalm 57:9. It is where worship, missions, and evangelism combine. Enjoy!

I love to sing and listen to music in Spanish and Portuguese. My first experience of doing so was worshipping under the leading of a wonderful worship band from Brazil - Casa de Davi and Davi Silva. From the simple, small bits of Portuguese I've learned, I wrote a song of my own that combines both Portuguese and English. If there are some folks who are from Brazil, please correct my errors if you would. Please enjoy the song. It is on the music page and you can download the full MP3. Oh, please overlook the dogs in the background. Shetland Sheepdogs make it hard at our house to record. They like to chime in. Especially when the tamborine and shakers come out!

I'd love to learn the verse in Portuguese if someone out there could teach me. The Lord stirs my heart when I sing to Him in Portuguese. Maybe some day I will be able to take a trip to Brazil. There is a special link, for me, to the Lord, through Brazil and her people. Someday...

Blessings-

This Easter, the Lord is pointing me to something about relationship. It is TRUST. Trust is the foundation of any relationship. We can trust Jesus. Like no one else, not even our families or especially ourselves - we can trust Him. He stepped away from the perfect relationships in heaven with the Father and the Holy Spirit and came to earth.

Christ's good news is the hope for all of us... by this Gospel we are saved. The Gospel is this:

That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures. ( 1 Corinthians 15:2-4 )
By the cross, Jesus took away our sin. Jesus credited His perfect righteousness to us. Jesus bore the punishment for our sin. Jesus satisfied God's wrath against sin. Jesus ransomed us. Jesus reconciled us to God and each other.

Only Jesus alone could do all of this. If there is anyone you can trust, it is someone who would give themselves, sacrifice themselves for you. Will you trust Him?