What a Jam!

I couldn't call today's jamming session at Van's place a "jamming session" per se. First up I was early at Van's place and we did some sharing and then later Liang arrived and we had dinner with her family.

During the jam proper, things didn't go well for Van. It's probably because she is not too familiar with the songs yet. But the breakthrough came when we did "In You". Instead of doing the "In You" that CFS normally do, I asked Van to sing the TOSOG version. There was an funny feeling of peace when we did the chorus that went "You gave me a chance to believe in you..." I guess the "Don't change your opinion of me" plea in the lyrics and it's content also was the heart's prayer of Liang, Van and mine to the Lord. I am reminded thru Spurgeon that that when God created the first day and night, he called them "day". The bible didn't say he created it in 6 nights. But 6 days. In the same way, Christians that has been saved by grace are not known by their original condition ("sinners") but by what Christ is to us. Therefore we are known as Christians. Therefore when we sang "Don't change your opinion of me" we know that although we are sinners saved by grace, we are not known to God as sinners, but as a Christian, faithful and grateful bearers of His name!

The chorus led to the climatic chorus of "In You I find my peace, in You I find my place to be... It doesn't matter where we've been. You're always there to share my pain..." which we all sang as our final heart's cry to the Lord. It didn't end there, I told Liang to keep playing and we did the CFS version with the 3 part harmony, which musically I feel is the best I've written (ok, shameless plug here!) with a little help from my friends. Those verses is also about dispair, but the chorus of "In You" always bring whatever hopeless verses before it to a fitting climax.

After that we did "My creator" For the first time I concentrated on what I have written and what I really wanted to convey to my listeners, esp "little missy". I think it's because Liang and I played it really slow this time and didn't try to sing it over-poweringly (is there such word?!!). It's the song that was originallybased on a simple poem from Van's blog, I took it and gave it an extreme make-over. hahaha...

We ended the jam with some sharing where I sang Keith Green's Romans VII to them. I am glad I did, coz I know it touched their lives and they needed to know that they are not alone in feeling what Paul wrote about in Romans 7. And that song is a great encouragement even to me, 12 years after I listened to it. I bought that with my first pay check!

I feel that such times jamming at each other's house is so precious and different from doing it in church or a jamming studio. There is so much laughter, sharing and fellowship (tuning our focus on God with each other). I can't wait when Joel and Jon join us. The music seems secondary when we all hang out as a band, but it cannot be overlooked. At the end of it we must accomplish our purpose as a band; a healthy fellowship and excellent musicianship. Above all, Chirst must be the centre of all we do!