Tag: evangelism

An Amazing Opportunity

An Amazing Opportunity

The first week of April 2026, Shaun Mills, a guitarist with the praise group at church, introduced himself to me and said he had heard that I was a songwriter. I explained that I am more of a poet than a songwriter, but that I had come up with melodies for a couple of my poems and that “Fill Me with Thy Fruit” had been used at Nancy’s and my wedding, and the choir had sung it one Sunday.

          “Would you be interested in meeting a couple of times a week to work on praise songs?” He asked.

          I liked the idea, and we started meeting weekly. We agreed that anything we published would be royalty-free to churches and non-profits. We both want to produce music that glorifies God. Besides, I have to work to keep my ego in check when people appreciate what we do. I get kicks out of making people smile.

          In the meantime, Nancy went through five months of pain. First, in February, her knee replacement surgery somewhat curtailed her horseback riding and gardening. Then, the night after her surgeon cleared her to resume normal activities, she experienced extreme back pain that persisted until the first of July. Lots of prayer, two visits to Pain management, and a wondrous chiropractor brought her back to “giddy-up, go” status. As her caregiver, I was more inclined to stay home with her than play golf, and when I’m at home, I write.

          The first song Shaun and I wrote together was inspired by notes Melanie Cuddy, my friend from Saddleback Church, shared with me. One phrase caught our attention, and the song “Lord, Lead Me On” was the result. “ Joyfully” and “I Know Where I am Going” followed in quick order. Then Shaun left for a three-week visit with his son in Florida.

          When he returned, he was barely able to contain his enthusiasm. His son introduced him to Suno, an A.I. website. With Suno, we feed a song with our original lyrics and melody into the app. Then the app will add the harmonies, instrumentation, and filter our voices or substitute voices we specify. The result is radio-quality songs.

          The first time I played one of the songs for our Joy Group, one lady expressed concern that A.I. has potential for evil. Her concern is reasonable. Recent data indicates that as many as 120,000 new songs are introduced on the World Wide Web each day. A very small percentage of them are wholesome Christian pieces. Shaun and I want to offer to small churches, life groups, and missionaries as many royalty-free praise and worship songs as we can.

          Caveat: I am an imperfect Christian, so some of the songs I write are just for fun. Want to hear some Bible-based songs that land somewhere between traditional hymns and the feel-good nonsense that you hear on some Christian radio? Shaun’s link is: https://suno.com/@mysticlakemusic. My link is https://suno.com/@don_sennott

If you click on the “follow” tab, you will be notified when new songs are released. We have been publishing two or three a week. Between us, we have published over 70 songs.

To God be the glory.

Blessings,
Don

Christmas in a Nutshell

Dear Friends,

If someone asked you to give them the true meaning of Christmas in a nutshell, what would you say? Usually, people think about Mary and Joseph, the baby in a manger, the shepherds, and the wise men, the story of the nativity, as found in the gospels of Mathew and Luke. To get to a deeper understanding of the meaning of Christmas, turn to John 1:5.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  John 1:1-5 (NIV)

In John 1, we learn much more about that baby born in Bethlehem. Jesus is the Word: the second member of the trinity who existed with God before anything came into being. He was the architect of creation who, with God, hung the stars in the sky and created a world where life was miraculously possible.

Existing outside of time and space, God is separate from His creation, yet when we read “In Him was life,” we are reminded that God is a person, not some impersonal force or prime mover. When Jesus prayed, “Abba, Father,” in the Garden of Gethsemane, he used a word that can be translated, “daddy.”  In a world filled with so much darkness, it is comforting to know that “Our daddy,” who art in Heaven, loved us so much that he sent his Son as a light to shine into the darkness of the world. 

Life may seem dark for you right now. The good news is that help is on the way. Christmas reminds us that we have a life-giving, all-powerful, and personal God who sent the Word as a light in our darkness.When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  John 8:12 (NIV)

Blessings,
Your Friends in Christ

Who is God to You?

This was an unusual weekend. I decided to drive by Tanyard Creek to see if anyone from Village Bible Church was handing out Bible tracts. I had joined two other church members in this evangelical effort last weekend—something way out of my comfort zone—but something I found to be unusually rewarding. If the team needed reinforcements, I was willing to help.

Arriving at Tanyard Creek, I was disappointed that no one was there. It was earlier than they normally start, so I headed home to knock out a few items on my to-do list. Time got away from me, and it was mid-afternoon before I gave the evangelical effort further thought.

The next morning, I was eager to go to church. I attend the 9 AM service. We also have a 10:30 service. As I turned the corner to enter the parking lot, there wasn’t a single car. I drove around the church, not a single person. Maybe there had been a power failure and I had missed the announcement, but there wasn’t even a note on the door. Momentarily, there was that sickening thought: The rapture happened, and I missed it. That’s the second time in the last few months that that thought came to me. Is God trying to tell me something?

Anyway, it finally dawned on me that I had been one day off starting with Friday; It was not Sunday, but Saturday. OK! I admit it, I’m getting old, but this turned out to be a fortuitous chronological hiccup. Tanyard Creek was on the way home. Entering the parking lot, I saw Mark Underwood. It turned out he was alone, so he welcomed my help.

Being a scientist and well-versed in the Bible, Mark is well-equipped to present the Gospel. He also has a wonderful approach to evangelism that can be used by anyone who loves the Lord. He starts with a friendly greeting in which he first gives his name and then says he is there to talk with people about their ideas about God. “Who is God to you?”

As I listened, his question elicited interesting responses: “My Father in Heaven,” “The Creator,” “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost combined,” and other straight-from-the-Bible responses. One woman offered a simple “I like Him.” A young man said, “He is my mentor.” One woman said she is a Christian and returned to let us listen to a lovely song she had found on TicToc: “Flowers” by Samantha Ebert.

Two Sisters from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints stopped by and shared their ideas about Jesus with us, as did three men with Rugged Faith Ministries, a group that offers “Adventure with a Purpose.”

One of the most interesting visitors was a young man who called himself “a low-watt atheist” Mark took that comment to mean that “the young man felt he was stumbling in the dark without enough light to see clearly (thus “low-watt”) to believe in God.”  Mark said he was especially glad when he returned from his hike—”He came up to us intentionally—to thank us again for the conversation and to say that he would be thinking more about what we talked about.  It’s great when the people come up to us instead of the other way around.” 

Mark added, “I will certainly pray for God to continue to work in that young man’s life to draw him back to faith in Him.”

The young man didn’t recommit his life to Christ, but he left with quite a bit to think about, as did I.

When was the last time you pondered the question, “Who is God to me?” We go to church. We pray. We tithe and try to love others as Jesus commanded, but how well do we know our God? As I stood listening to Mark, I found it difficult to put together in my mind a clear-cut answer to the question, Who is God to me?

For me, it is not a problem of too little faith, it is a problem of too much faith. It’s easy for me to believe the biblical descriptions of God because words like Father, shepherd, healer, guardian, comforter, master, teacher—even Lord are things I can see, feel, or touch, but God is so much more than all these combined. He’s hard to wrap our minds around.

Who is God to me? I am still working on that one. I’m sure it’s been said before, “A god small enough to define is simply too small to be God.”