“Today is Memorial Day. We have set aside this day to remember the fallen men and women in our armed forces. Historically, in 1868, Memorial Day was first called Decorations Day. It was a day to honor the fallen soldiers of the Civil War. In the Arlington National Cemetery, at least 5,000 people gathered at the gravesite of over 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers. They respectfully decorated each grave. Later, the name was changed and called Memorial Day. It became a day to honor all of our men and women who died in war.

Memorial Day became an official holiday in 1971. It was traditionally observed on May 30, but now it is on the last Monday in May, making the observance a three-day weekend. Most people appreciate an extra day off work and cherish the quality time with family. This day is also seen to mark the beginning of summer. Many families congregate together to barbeque, picnic and enjoy the parades or watch sports.

However, we should never forget the freedoms we enjoy are a direct result of the unselfish sacrifices of those men and women who willingly died while serving their country. Many husbands, wives and close relatives will mourn as they visit the cemeteries or memorials to lay flowers at their loved ones’ gravesites. Customarily, but often forgotten, is the pause for silence at 3:00pm in the afternoon to remember the fallen.

As a nation, we should stop in silence, not only remember these fallen heroes, but to pray for their families. Our children should be taught the value of honoring those who have died. In gratitude, our homes should proudly show the American flag.” – Raul Ries

“Our debt to the heroic men and women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices.”
~President Harry S. Truman~

Words do not express properly the amount of gratitude that I have for the men and women who have served our country. Their sacrifices are often forgotten in the busyness of our day to day lives as we reap the blessings of their service. Please stop and say thank you to a veteran today.

When the trumpeters and singers were as one, . . . the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.
2 Chronicles 5:13-14

Music plays a big part in the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, God enlists musicians to work on His behalf. He uses music to call people to worship and to send them to war, to soothe ragged emotions and to ignite spiritual passion, to celebrate victories and to mourn losses. Music is an all-occasion, all-inclusive art form. There are followers and leaders, simple songs and complex songs, easy instruments and difficult instruments, melodies and harmonies, fast rhythms and slow rhythms, high notes and low notes.

Music is a wonderful metaphor for the church because everyone participates by doing what he or she does best. We all sing or play different notes at different times, but we all perform the same song. The better we know our parts, and the better we follow the conductor, the more beautiful the music.

One of the best uses for music is praise. When Solomon’s temple was completed, the musicians praised and thanked God. As they did, “the glory of the Lord filled the house of God” (2 Chron. 5:14).

We thank God for beautiful music, for it’s like a preview of heaven, where the glory of God will dwell forever and where praise for Him will never cease. — Julie Ackerman Link

Bless the Lord and sing His praises,
Bless the Lord now, O my soul;
Join the song all heaven raises,
Let the anthem loudly roll!
—Peterson

~Taken from Our Daily Bread~

This weekend, I have the opportunity to go back to Nashville. It has been almost two years since the first time I ever visited Music City. What is the occasion? The Getty’s are having a Worship Conference there with some incredible guest speakers including Alistair Begg, D.A. Carson, David Platt, Paul Tripp, Joni Eareckson Tada, Bob Kauflin, Laura Story, and more. I am hoping to come away from the conference with more ideas and inspiration for the remaining songs I want to include on my completed album. The Getty’s have been a musical team that I have admired since being introduced to their music years ago. Their mission to write music that is doctrinally and theologically sound and encouraging to believers has been a mission that I have also adopted when writing music compositions. Music is such a powerful form of the spoken and written word and I am convinced that, at the heart of it, it must be transcendent in its message, edifying both old and young alike. I am excited to hear such incredible speakers who have blessed me with their music and writing talents. I pray that this conference will kick off the second half of the finalized album, “Gabrielle Ariana: This is My Story.” There are so many ideas swirling inside my mind for the production of this album but I am giving the Lord the reins and am trusting to receive some more specific direction after being musically and spiritually saturated this upcoming weekend in Nashville, TN…the place where my music journey began and where it will continue.

“What is looked for in us, as men, is another kind of glorifying, which depends on intention. How easy or how hard it may be for a whole choir to preserve that intention through all the discussions and decisions, all the corrections and disappointments, all the temptations to pride, rivalry and ambition, which precede the performance of a great work, I (naturally) do not know. But it is on the intention that all depends.

When it succeeds, I think the performers are the most enviable of men; privileged while mortals to honour God like angels and, for a few golden moments, to see spirit and flesh, delight and labour, skill and worship, the natural and the supernatural, all fused into that unity they would have had before the Fall. But I must insist that no degree of excellence in the music, simply as music, can assure us that this paradisal state has been achieved. The excellence proves ‘keenness’; but men can be ‘keen’ for natural, or even wicked, motives. The absence of keenness would prove that they lacked the right spirit; its presence does not prove that they have it.

We must beware of the naïve idea that our music can ‘please’ God as it would please a cultivated human hearer. That is like thinking, under the old Law, that He really needed the blood of bulls and goats. To which an answer came, ‘mine are the cattle upon a thousand hills,’ and ‘if I am hungry, I will not tell thee.’ If God (in that sense) wanted music, He would not tell us. For all our offerings, whether of music or martyrdom, are like the intrinsically worthless present of a child, which a father values indeed, but values only for the intention.”

–C.S. Lewis, “On Church Music,” in Christian Reflections (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1967), 98-99.

“Music is God’s gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to Heaven.” – Walter Savage
Growing up, my mom would paraphrase this exact sentiment. She always reminded us kids that there would be music in heaven and would say “it is the only skill set we can take to heaven with us and know it will be put to good use.” She would often use this as a motivator whenever any of us kids would want to quit the various instruments we played. I can honestly say I am grateful she pushed us and kept our eyes on the much bigger picture. It wasn’t about a song being mastered, it was about character being cultivated. She knew the value and importance the role of music has upon each of our lives. It can bring back floods of memories, conjured deep, unspoken emotion, set the mood for a special occasions, and accompanies us through the journey of life. However, it does not stop there, but continues on with us into eternity. If such marvelous and majestic music is performed and sung in the throne room of the Almighty, it definitely should inspire us to strive for the most pure, the most lovely, and the most edifying music to be the staple in our musical diet.

“The Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him” – Genesis 13:14

“Abram’s life was one of an ever-perfecting separation. But out of these experiences sprang his rarest joys. The separate and obedient soul may reckon on fresh revelation. Whenever Abram dared to step out in obedience, the Lord spoke freshly to him. But in Egypt we find no trace of the Divine voice. If God spoke there, it would be in warning and rebuke. Has the voice of God long been silent to you – no fresh command, no deeper insight into truth? See to it that you are not in Egypt. Separate yourself, not only from Haran, but from Lot; not only from what is clearly wrong, but from all that is questionable; and the Lord will speak to thee things it is not possible for men to utter.

Further Vision. – Lot lifted up his eyes to espy what would make for his advantage and well-being, and beheld only the plain of Sodom, which indeed was well-watered, but the seat of exceeding sin. But when Abram lifted up his eyes, not to search out ought for himself, but to see what God had prepared, he looked northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward-words which remind us of the length, and breadth, and depth, and height of the love of Christ. The single eye is full of light; the far climber gets the widest horizon; if thou wilt do His will, thou shalt know. Whatever Abram renounced, when he left his home, or gave Lot the right to choose, he received back in the usual measure of God, with an overflowing overpass. God gave him the entire land, including Lot’s portion. We can never give up for God, without receiving in this life more than we gave.” – F.B. Meyer

Friend, as the moments tick away, we can see the end of another day,
And as time continues marching on, soon we see another year is gone.
Friend, time for no one will stand still, but it continues on by God’s will.
And time each day does not change, for every man it stays the same.
All time by God has one set pace, for every man in this human race.
 
The only thing that varies friend, is your own beginning and your end,
That single day of your own birth, the very day you arrived on earth.
And the day that you shall depart, from this place you had your start.
At that point again time will be, the same for all throughout eternity.
The length of time you will endure, is the time will call forevermore.
 
Once in eternity you have a start, you will find that you won’t depart.
Throughout eternity there is no end, this truth is fact for all my friend.
The length of the coming eternity, is the end of any and all similarity.
There is one of two places friend, where in eternity you shall spend.
For when all men from earth depart, they leave with a different heart.
 
Your time on the earth can not be, compared at all with your eternity.
For when your time on earth is done, you’ll see darkness or The Son.
Friend, Hell is that special place, so men don’t have to see God’s face.
Since the darkness was their delight, God made for them eternal night.
If Christ has saved you from the night, you will enter His Eternal Light.
 
For those who do believe in Christ, for them, God offers Eternal Life.
All other men upon their last breath, shall descend into eternal death.
For unbelievers there is no return, from the fire that will eternally burn.
In the time you have left on earth, you need to experience a new birth.
For when your time does pass away, where you go you will go to stay.

To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances; to seek him, the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.
— St. Augustine

“To each one fortunate enough to live out [this year], God will have given 365
days broken into 8,760 hours. Of these hours, 2,920 will have been spent in
sleep, and about the same number at work. An equal number has been given us to
spend in reverent preparation for the moment when days and years shall cease
and time shall be no more. What prayer could be more spiritually appropriate
than that of Moses, the man of God: “Teach us to number our days aright, that
we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). The Warfare of the Spirit, pp.
145-147

“A New Year opens with great expectancy as if a new chapter has begun in your life. However, what about getting on your knees to prayerfully ask the Lord what He wants to do with your life this year?
Imagine, what God could do if –individual believers, would seek Him diligently. God has given us gifts and talents to be used for His glory in the body of Christ. Christians must obediently make themselves available to the Lord and willingly take on the tasks He desires for them to do. God is always looking for men and women He can use. What has the Lord called you to do this New Year? Will you prayerfully seek Him for the wisdom on how you can accomplish the ministry He has given to you?”
“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.” ~2 Chronicles 16:9.

Goodbye 2016, hello 2017. A new year is beginning; new mercies, new goals, new opportunities, and so much more. As many do, I like to take time to reflect on what the past year has taught me, using that as fuel to energize and strengthen me for the coming year. The Lord did many amazing works in my life this past year and I am excited to see how He will work out His will in 2017. He gave grace when it was undeserved, strength when it was not asked for, faith when there was faltering, and hope in the midst of despondency. He is a faithful God. He is a loving Savior. He is an ever present Comfort.

In accordance with His will, and in spite of a very busy schedule, the Lord continued to give me lyrics and melodies which will be copyrighted and hopefully recorded by the end of 2017. Prayers would be appreciated for:

1. Time. I cannot stress enough how much time is needed in order to hear direction from the Lord and to move according to His time table. Work has been especially busy this past semester but in spite of that, I was able to make time and will strive to continue to do so.

2. Direction. Putting together an album, as I am coming to find out, is very involved and there are a plethora of decisions that I will be and am already starting to come across. Wisdom is needed!

3. Resources. God always provides whenever it is His will we are seeking and pursuing. I am trusting that along this journey, whether it be the copyrighting, the recording, the labeling, or the distribution, that we will see our faithful Father’s hand at work.

I look forward to sharing more songs in 2017.

Love,
Gabrielle Ariana