Daniel,my Praise and Worship partner

Oh how my sweet baby blesses  my life!! When I hear my other children singing praise songs during the day, it always makes me smile, I get a  deep rich blessing as I hear them and watch their faces, but Daniel, of whom the neurosurgeon said "has minimal brain stem, minimal brain activity and capability,no memory, no genuine sensory awareness,"   LOVES  to sing praises to his Lord ! He sings with absolute  reckless abandon and from the very deepest and fullest  depths of what is obviously a deeper being than his brain is given credit for.  Thank you to my dear friend Jenny who gently remidned me that  a sould and spirit do not require a brain! If all of us who have all the normal parts of our brains would or could worship God like my hydranencephalic baby does, there would never be any threat of any stones or rocks crying out  ( Luke 19:39-40And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.
And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. ")
 Yesterday morning  in church, Daniel was having a totally uninhibited  and thoroughly good time singing . I can not always watch him when he is singing because I can  not lead and be so over come by  my own emotions at the same time. I tried two weeks ago and I just plain lost  it several times. This morning  I just let myself enjoy his joyful noise as we sang. There was just a small group of us this morning so he was even more easily heard. God  is ministering  to hearts through Daniel and particularly through his worship. (  I will tell you that he likes the bowling alley sounds and to help me cheer for a football team, but his facial expression is different when he is singing rather than responding to loud sounds)  He  mostly listened to "Desert Song"  but when we sang "It is Well With My Soul " and  "and Can it Be That I Should Gain", "How He Loves"  and "More Love, More Power" he exhibited all the passion of  a  much  older person who had lived a  life of  rebellious choices and evil  outcomes, experienced   messed up circumstances, broken heart and dreams,  sharing how he  came to meet  Jesus and ask Him to be his Savior, ask Him to forgive his sins, cleanse him from all unrighteousness and began to fall deeply in love with Jesus,in all His fullness in Father , Son and Holy Spirit. YES ! All that from the heart of a "missing -brained" baby boy!  It isn't the notes we sing, it isn't even the words we sing, or the quality with which we sing them that ministers to us, or to our Heavenly Father, It is our heart-attitude. I will always remember at a church we once attended, there was a man  who loved to sing an occasional solo in the morning worship service. He did not have a particularly pleasing voice, by any standards, honestly. But this man LOVED THE LORD SO MUCH that when he sang, the scratchy notes, missed notes, strained notes and fumbled words got lost in sharing his love for God, and the "amens" and words of gratitude and praise at the conclusion of his singing were  TRULY  what a person singing a solo in  a worship service should be focused upon: PRAISING  GOD for the spirit of worship in song!  The glory  should all be going to God ALONE. There  was another  man who came and sang  there sometimes too. He was the son of someone in the church. He was gifted musically, had studied music in college, was hoping for a recording career. Technically, he would get "all A's "  if graded on his singing. Know what? There were lots of words of praise heaped up...on the head of that man. There was always much applause, as if we'd been at a concert, but not listening to a person who was being used of God as part of a worship service. I found  myself wishing the other man had been singing because he helped keep my mind on God and His Word.  
Daniel  by all "standards" can NOT  sing and yet  God is using his song to remind people of  a very basic truth : that we need to worship in spirit and in truth ( John 4:24) not to be heard of men or praised by them  but that we worship purely and freely with no thought for how we may be viewed except BY GOD ALONE   and,  that we DO worship God because we love Him, because we want to and because we simply CAN NOT HELP IT!
The words to the songs God gave me for our worship this week all attest to God's incredible love for His people. Several of our songs were written in the 1800's. The message is the SAME as the one in the songs written in the last few years:  GOD'S  LOVE. Amazing love...how can it be??? He  loves like a hurricane...I am  a tree.......... Daniel has no idea what a hurricane is, much less a tree.maybe he knows what a sloppy wet kiss is, if he remembers,  but the love of God alive in him? Oh I have no doubt that he knows THAT! Please read the words, sing along if you  know the tunes, let God's love pour all over you like it poured all over us  through Daniel's singing of these songs?    OH  How He Loves !
Desert Song
This is my prayer in the desert

When all that's within me feels dry

This is my prayer in my hunger and need

My God is the God who provides
                  *
This is my prayer in the fire

In weakness or trial or pain

There is a faith proved of more worth than gold

So refine me Lord through the flame
                 *

I will bring praise

I will bring praise

No weapon formed against me shall remain

I will rejoice

I will declare

God is my victory and He is here
                *
This is my prayer in the battle

When triumph is still on its way

I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ

So firm on His promise I'll stand
God is my victory and He is here
                   *
All of my life in every season

You are still God

I have a reason to sing

I have a reason to worship
                  *
This is my prayer in the harvest

When favour and providence flow

I know I'm filled to be emptied again

The seed I've received I will sow


It is Well With My Soul


When peace like a river

Attendeth my way

When sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot

Thou has taught me to say

It is well it is well with my soul


It is well it is well


With my soul with my soul


It is well it is well with my soul


Though Satan should buffet

Though trials should come

Let this blest assurance control

That Christ has regarded

My helpless estate

And hath shed His own blood for my soul
            *

My sin O the bliss

Of this glorious thought

My sin not in part    but the whole  ( bold type and italics  my own)

Is nailed to the cross

And I bear it no more

Praise the Lord praise the Lord O my soul

It is well it is well


With my soul with my soul


It is well it is well with my soul
                  *

And Lord haste the day

When my faith shall be sight

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll

The trump shall resound

And the Lord shall descend

Even so it is well with my soul
             *
It is well it is well

With my soul with my soul

It is well it is well with my soul


And Can It Be



And can it be that I should gain

An interest in the Savior's blood

Died He for me who caused His pain

For me who Him to death pursued

Amazing love How can it be

That Thou my God shouldst die for me

Amazing love How can it be

That Thou my God shouldst die for me
               *

He left His Father's throne above

So free so infinite His grace

Emptied Himself of all but love

And bled for Adam's helpless race

'Tis mercy all immense and free

For O my God it found out me

Amazing love How can it be

That Thou my God shouldst die for me
                             *

Long my imprisoned spirit lay

Fast bound in sin and nature's night

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray


I woke the dungeon flamed with light


My chains fell off my heart was free


I rose went forth and followed Thee

Amazing love How can it be

That Thou my God shouldst die for me
                         *

No condemnation now I dread

Jesus and all in Him is mine

Alive in Him my living head

And clothed in righteousness divine

Bold I approach th'eternal throne

And claim the crown through Christ my own

Amazing love How can it be

That Thou my God shouldst die for me


 Daniel practically shouted  AMAZING  LOVE  HOW CAN IT BE THAT THOU  MY GOD  SHOULD  DIE FOR ME!!!!

How He Loves 

He is jealous for me loves like a hurricane

I am a tree bending beneath

The weight of His wind and mercy

When all of a sudden I am unaware of

These afflictions eclipsed by glory

I realize just how beautiful You are

And how great Your affections are for me
                   *
Oh how He loves us so

Oh how He loves us

How He loves us so

(Yeah) He loves us

Oh how He loves us

Oh how He loves us

Oh how He loves
             *
We are His portion and He is our prize

Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes

If grace is an ocean we're all sinking

So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss

And my heart turns violently inside of my chest

I don't have time to maintain these regrets

When I think about the way that
He loves us


       Daniel will have two surgical procedures done concerning his stomach  on Friday. One will give him a feeding tube port ( a "Mickey button" and the other will tighten the sphincter between his stomach and his esophagus so that he isn't so trauamtized by reflux. His teeth are already nearly corroded away from the acid reflux, no telling what his poor esophagus may look like as well. this will be a three day hopitalization. The shunt surgery was only one over night  but this is more complicated than the brain surgery. There is more to get restored and in working order before we will be allowed to come home. Will you please pray for my little musician that God will guide every second of the surgery in safety and expertise, and that the recovery period will be eventful ONLY in the areas where events are the desired outcome, with no complications or infections or side issues? I will have my computer and lots of music for him to be in the presence of  start to finish. and of course I will be singing over him too. We'll miss one Sunday of worshipping together in church  but I suspect that God has other people for Daniel to sing for, and they may need to hear his song far more than anyone inside of a church!!