Tag: worship

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

To Kneel or Not to Kneel

Growing up in the Church of the Epiphany in Washington, D.C., serving as an acolyte may be part of the reason for my bad knees. Even when the Book of Common Prayer indicated congregants could either stand or kneel, Rector Kane opted for kneeling. In fairness, I must admit that soccer, tennis, and football deserve most of the blame for my bad knees.

As a young adult, I found kneeling uncomfortable and spent part of the time on my knees, allegedly in prayer, praying that the prayers would soon end. Why would he put us through such torture? I wondered. As I look back on those days, I realize that I was trending toward the less spiritual side on the pendulum of spirituality,

Recently, I was reintroduced to Psalm 95, and the words—Come let us worship and fall down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker—caught my attention.  I wondered how many times the words kneel or bow down (related to the worship of God) appear in the Bible.  I discovered a score or more verses about bowing down to God and scores of verses that refer to God’s prohibition on bowing down to worship anyone or anything else.

Bow down – a verb meaning to bend at the neck, waist, or knees as a display of respect, honor, or obedience. It is an expression of humility.

It is noteworthy that the only verses in the New Testament that use the words bow down are found in Matthew 2:11 where the Maji bowed down to the baby Jesus, and the words Satan spoke to Jesus,
recorded in Matthew 4:9: “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

In Ephesians 3:14, the apostle Paul wrote about kneeling to the Father, but that was more of a comment on his personal practice, not a general prescription for prayer. Does that mean that bowing down (kneeling) became old school, something that was not required of followers of Jesus?   

I believe that New Testament writers used another word found approximately 70 times in the Bible: humble. Over the years, countless pastors have reminded their congregations, “If something appears three times in Scripture, God wants you to pay special attention to it.” What about verbs (action words) that appear repeatedly, like bow down and humble?

Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his
care. Psalm 95:6-7 (NIV)

The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. Psalm 145:14

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
1 Peter 5:6

So, what do we do about this? It is unlikely (and not something I would encourage) that our churches will suddenly start to include kneeling during prayer as part of their ritual. It would be uncomfortable for many and seem legalistic to others. There is, however, something every believer can choose to do on their own. In your quiet time, bow down in worship, kneel before the Lord our maker.

Recently I found myself in a dry period when it came to my prayers. I was saying the words, but my mind and heart were elsewhere. Then one morning, I don’t know if it was part of a devotional, remembrance of a sermon, or something I heard on the radio, but Psalm 95 came to me as a powerful
instruction. I got out of bed and went to my knees in prayer.

Instead of just praying because praying is expected, I felt I was in a genuine conversation with our Lord. Let me correct that; I was in a meaningful soliloquy with the Lord. I am listening more attentively, but the lines of communication have been inactive for a while. Psalm 95:8(a) continues, Today, if only you would hear his voice…

Lord, help us to hear Your voice and worship You in a posture that is
pleasing to You.  AMEN