Happy Bear!
Some people might think that bears wouldn't be much interested in learning to play harmonica. Not true! In fact, if you ever find yourself out in the woods, with the sweet smell of forest mulch and flowers floating on a gentle breeze in early spring, and hear the piping of haunting, soulful music ... it's likely coming from a nearby bear's den. Likely from one of Bear's friends.
Lots of bears play harmonica. It's a handy, portable instrument to take on hunting trips. Yet it's capable of playing everything from Country Gospel to deep Worship music. Bear has even taken a shot at learning the Hallelujah Chorus on it.
She started learning it about 6 months ago, but got so excited by how wonderful it all was, that she overdid it and spent too much time playing it -- hours a day -- she was having so much fun. And she hurt her rib. Bad hurt.
You wouldn't think you could get hurt playing harmonica. But you can. And Bear did. In fact, it hurt even to breathe for quite some time.
So, she had to lay it down completely for about 6 weeks, to give her rib time to heal. Which made her one sad bear.
But today Bear is no longer sad. Bear is happy Bear again. YES!
She's been cautiously playing for ten minutes at a time, a few times each day, these past few days, making sure there's no more pain. And so far ... it's a go!
And it's so wonderful to be able to pick it up again and worship the Lord with music, taking breaks from the day's routine or any pressures that might be coming down.
Unfortunately though, this Bear's playing is not yet best described by the words "haunting" or "soulful". Truth be told, if you happened to be out in the forest near Bear's Writing Den on an early spring evening, you might even want to plug your ears, just to be on the safe side.
It turns out that the harmonica is not a super easy instrument to master, to say the least. And Bear still has to put a lot of imagination into the sounds she hears emanating from her own harmonica, to mentally recreate the beauty she's heard from some of the better players.
But maybe, in His Time. Someday ...
Meanwhile, Bear celebrated being off the injured list and back playing again, by posting Harmonica videos of a couple of OUTSTANDING harmonica virtuosos: Buddy Greene, playing the William Tell Overture in Carnegie Hall, and Terry McMillian, playing a super fast gospel harmonica "train" type song -- "This Train is Bound for Glory." And then another video by McMillian, playing "Amazing Grace." The two videos by McMillian are especially moving, because he died shortly thereafter, but these videos remain as evidence of his faith and love of the Lord, expressed so beautifully through his harmonica playing.
(For those who get the Den's posts by feeds or by reading in the Den itself, you'll need to visit the Den's "Recreation Room" to watch the videos. The Daily Bible Quiz is still there -- just moved down below the new videos. For those on Facebook, the harmonica videos are displayed in the "Extended Info" Tab on my profile, and can be played there.)
_______________
Bear's news and free multi-media Christian resources: Bear's Writing Den
Showing posts with label Videos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Videos. Show all posts
Friday, April 9, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Faith and Purpose
Dare to be a Daniel?
Bear spent a lot of time yesterday, relaxing and surfing the Net for hymn videos. While hunting for the hymn, "Dare to be a Daniel", she stumbled onto the following 3 minute video. Bear bookmarked it for future reference, but didn't expect to watch it again for quite some time. It talks about a young boy named Daniel, persecuted for his faith in a Buddhist country, with video footage (but doesn't state what country it is). The website that originally produced it is: Closed Door Ministries.
Today, images from the video kept coming back to mind vividly, seeming to call Bear to work to stand stronger in her own walk with the Lord.
So Bear put it together with Brian Free's video version of the song "Dare to Be A Daniel", (which still isn't the hymn Bear was originally looking for ... But sometimes God leads us to things in this life better than what we were originally looking for, Bear thinks.)
(For those reading this by feeds or on Facebook, you'll need to drop by the Den's living room to see these two short videos.)
This week's assignment from the FaithWriter's Blog for the Tuesday 50 word story practice, along with Bear's response is as follows ...
"In 50 words or less, write a story from the perspective of a raindrop. If you’re not used to writing from the viewpoint of an inanimate object, this will be a great challenge for you."
Bear wrote . . .
Formed by God's Hand,
For what purpose am I?
Millions just like me
Fall from the sky.
I feel unneeded,
Redundant at best,
As I journey downwards,
Looking for rest.
I land in the hand
Of one dying of thirst.
My life had a purpose,
Right from the first.
_______________
Bear's news and free multi-media Christian resources: Bear's Writing Den
Bear spent a lot of time yesterday, relaxing and surfing the Net for hymn videos. While hunting for the hymn, "Dare to be a Daniel", she stumbled onto the following 3 minute video. Bear bookmarked it for future reference, but didn't expect to watch it again for quite some time. It talks about a young boy named Daniel, persecuted for his faith in a Buddhist country, with video footage (but doesn't state what country it is). The website that originally produced it is: Closed Door Ministries.
Today, images from the video kept coming back to mind vividly, seeming to call Bear to work to stand stronger in her own walk with the Lord.
So Bear put it together with Brian Free's video version of the song "Dare to Be A Daniel", (which still isn't the hymn Bear was originally looking for ... But sometimes God leads us to things in this life better than what we were originally looking for, Bear thinks.)
(For those reading this by feeds or on Facebook, you'll need to drop by the Den's living room to see these two short videos.)
This week's assignment from the FaithWriter's Blog for the Tuesday 50 word story practice, along with Bear's response is as follows ...
"In 50 words or less, write a story from the perspective of a raindrop. If you’re not used to writing from the viewpoint of an inanimate object, this will be a great challenge for you."
Bear wrote . . .
Formed by God's Hand,
For what purpose am I?
Millions just like me
Fall from the sky.
I feel unneeded,
Redundant at best,
As I journey downwards,
Looking for rest.
I land in the hand
Of one dying of thirst.
My life had a purpose,
Right from the first.
_______________
Bear's news and free multi-media Christian resources: Bear's Writing Den
Monday, April 5, 2010
Is Easter over?
Easter lingers this year
Bear had a good day yesterday, celebrating the Lord's resurrection with friends, and it's likely time to settle back down into the swing of normal life. But her mind still lingers at the cross.
She was resting and recuperating from yesterday's activities, browsing around the Web, listening and watching some hymn videos, when she stumbled across a song she had never heard before about the Lord's time at the cross.
And it touched her deeply, so she decided to share it here.
Then, while getting ready to post that one, she stumbled onto another one about his resurrection that she also hadn't heard before . . .
(For those receiving this by feeds, or on Facebook, the two songs are running in the Den's living room, on the TV set here, so you'll need to drop by to see it.)
_______________
Bear's news and free multi-media Christian resources: Bear's Writing Den
Bear had a good day yesterday, celebrating the Lord's resurrection with friends, and it's likely time to settle back down into the swing of normal life. But her mind still lingers at the cross.
She was resting and recuperating from yesterday's activities, browsing around the Web, listening and watching some hymn videos, when she stumbled across a song she had never heard before about the Lord's time at the cross.
And it touched her deeply, so she decided to share it here.
Then, while getting ready to post that one, she stumbled onto another one about his resurrection that she also hadn't heard before . . .
(For those receiving this by feeds, or on Facebook, the two songs are running in the Den's living room, on the TV set here, so you'll need to drop by to see it.)
_______________
Bear's news and free multi-media Christian resources: Bear's Writing Den
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Billy Graham visits + Website Backup + Learning about Facebook
Early Evening
Billy Graham Visits the Den
Bear spent a while last night going through old Billy Graham videos, looking for just the right one to put in The Balcony. She found videos clear back to 1949 -- he sure looked young back then! But he already spoke incredibly well, and was very on-target right from the start. The one Bear chose was from 1957, because in it, Billy Graham answers a lot of questions that non-Christians have about Christianity. And Bear wished she had heard something like it before she became a Christian -- it might have saved her some grief.
Technology is so incredible nowadays. Bear never thought she would have Billy Graham visiting her Den! Wonders never cease. :-)
Website Backup
Today, was mainly spent backing up the Den's files. Bear got kind of nervous, after pouring a whole week of almost non-stop work into it, thinking that if something catastrophic happened to the site and she lost all the writing she had done, (plus all the formatting, room setups, etc), that she would be one unhappy Bear.
So she cranked up the Den's Worship Favorites player, and spent a couple hours doing a lot of monotonous backup work, copying every post, and every Page, and all the code for all the individual gadgets and widgets into backup files, using notepad. Glad to have that done!
Now, she just has to remember to update the backup files everytime she makes changes. Which shouldn't be too bad, using Notepad files -- basically just a quick cut and paste operation, now that all the files are set up.
Learning about Facebook
Learning about Facebook was not so clear-cut and straightforward. Bear did get signed up for membership without any problem. But figuring out how "walls" work, and what a newsfeed is, and how to share content and privacy settings, and, and, and . . . Big Bear sigh. It seems kind of like landing on an alien planet, suddenly being in the midst of all those walls and profiles and friends links and friend of friends links. Do they have friends of friends of friends of friends, she wonders?
Bear is going to pray on this much, not sure what to set her privacy settings for. She's thinking about just going fully public, but also thinking about going fully private, with all sorts of options in between to contemplate. But for now is mainly just "lurking", keeping all her privacy settings on "only me" viewing, and wandering around the site, kind of trying to start to feel less alien.
Part of the problem is that it's a whole new language on Facebook planet. Bear knows what a "story" means in real life, but how a "news feed" connects to a "story" and what a "story" means on Facebook could be anything. And where Bear comes from, walls are made out of mud or rock or branches.
However, she did have lots of fun roaming about Facebook planet, and found a few Christian Teen groups. Even found one fantastic teen video that'll likely be appearing in the Teen Worship section of the Worship Room on the first day it opens. The group is not professional yet, so are posting their videos available to all, but their singing and faith are surprisingly strong. And when Bear clicked on their friends, it led to other teens testifying about the Lord in interesting ways, on their "walls".
So Bear's beginning to have some fun at Planet Facebook. Who knows? Maybe a Facebook Share button will even appear on the Den wall someday soon. It's kind of amazing the way you just click a button on someone's wall in Facebook, and make something appear on your own wall -- Bear stumbled onto how that part works already, making the teen worship video appear on her wall, before she even understood what button she had just clicked.
But it's Saturday evening, and time to catch up on some basic life chores that have been "on hold" this week while Bear played in the Den. Bear wants to have them out of the way, so she can kick back and enjoy Sunday.
Billy Graham Visits the Den
Bear spent a while last night going through old Billy Graham videos, looking for just the right one to put in The Balcony. She found videos clear back to 1949 -- he sure looked young back then! But he already spoke incredibly well, and was very on-target right from the start. The one Bear chose was from 1957, because in it, Billy Graham answers a lot of questions that non-Christians have about Christianity. And Bear wished she had heard something like it before she became a Christian -- it might have saved her some grief.
Technology is so incredible nowadays. Bear never thought she would have Billy Graham visiting her Den! Wonders never cease. :-)
Website Backup
Today, was mainly spent backing up the Den's files. Bear got kind of nervous, after pouring a whole week of almost non-stop work into it, thinking that if something catastrophic happened to the site and she lost all the writing she had done, (plus all the formatting, room setups, etc), that she would be one unhappy Bear.
So she cranked up the Den's Worship Favorites player, and spent a couple hours doing a lot of monotonous backup work, copying every post, and every Page, and all the code for all the individual gadgets and widgets into backup files, using notepad. Glad to have that done!
Now, she just has to remember to update the backup files everytime she makes changes. Which shouldn't be too bad, using Notepad files -- basically just a quick cut and paste operation, now that all the files are set up.
Learning about Facebook
Learning about Facebook was not so clear-cut and straightforward. Bear did get signed up for membership without any problem. But figuring out how "walls" work, and what a newsfeed is, and how to share content and privacy settings, and, and, and . . . Big Bear sigh. It seems kind of like landing on an alien planet, suddenly being in the midst of all those walls and profiles and friends links and friend of friends links. Do they have friends of friends of friends of friends, she wonders?
Bear is going to pray on this much, not sure what to set her privacy settings for. She's thinking about just going fully public, but also thinking about going fully private, with all sorts of options in between to contemplate. But for now is mainly just "lurking", keeping all her privacy settings on "only me" viewing, and wandering around the site, kind of trying to start to feel less alien.
Part of the problem is that it's a whole new language on Facebook planet. Bear knows what a "story" means in real life, but how a "news feed" connects to a "story" and what a "story" means on Facebook could be anything. And where Bear comes from, walls are made out of mud or rock or branches.
However, she did have lots of fun roaming about Facebook planet, and found a few Christian Teen groups. Even found one fantastic teen video that'll likely be appearing in the Teen Worship section of the Worship Room on the first day it opens. The group is not professional yet, so are posting their videos available to all, but their singing and faith are surprisingly strong. And when Bear clicked on their friends, it led to other teens testifying about the Lord in interesting ways, on their "walls".
So Bear's beginning to have some fun at Planet Facebook. Who knows? Maybe a Facebook Share button will even appear on the Den wall someday soon. It's kind of amazing the way you just click a button on someone's wall in Facebook, and make something appear on your own wall -- Bear stumbled onto how that part works already, making the teen worship video appear on her wall, before she even understood what button she had just clicked.
But it's Saturday evening, and time to catch up on some basic life chores that have been "on hold" this week while Bear played in the Den. Bear wants to have them out of the way, so she can kick back and enjoy Sunday.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
The Video Player goes up + Why Bear chose the videos she did for her Favorites
Afternoon
Bear loves the Video Player
And is happy and excited to have the music videos up!
Why Bear chose the videos she did for her Favorites
Some people visiting the "Bear's Favorite Worship Song Videos" section of the Writing Den, may wonder why Bear chose some of these particular music videos to add to her "Favorites" list. Because there is an unusually wide variety of music styles included, to say the least ...
Some of the videos are deep worship-type song videos, sung with an element of deep prayer and praise. Others are speedier, and more on the exultant side of Praise. Some take place in churches where jeans wouldn't be frowned upon. Some in "cathedrals", with stained glass windows. One even takes place out in an empty football field. And a few are even Christian "rap" music -- almost loud rock -- and are some teen and kid music that normally I wouldn't personally enjoy whatsoever. (Although I do like listening to some of the music kids do -- some of the more blaring and jump-around stuff with loud guitars and loud drums seems more like noise to these older ears.)
For example, the songs selected that are by Hillsong Kids seem a bit rough and kind of noisy, more than purely melodic to me; and aerobic jumping-around while praising the Lord is not my personal worship style, to say the least. In fact, Bear would probably drop from exhaustion, just trying to keep up with them for 30 seconds. :-)
However, I love to listen to the WORDS those kids are singing, some of them not even 9 years old yet, and love to watch them express their love and faith in the Lord in their own way. And, when I listen to them, and study their faces, I see many of them with a deep love for the Lord. And I am touched by their witness -- sometimes at the same level as by some of those more my age and style, who do my style of worship songs more.
I enjoy watching the teen Korean Christian rap dancers, as another example, because I know the particular song they are singing and its English words, and love to watch the pure joy on their faces, as they dance and praise His Name, and proclaim how much they love Jesus, and that EVERY move they make, and every breath they take is through HIS Grace.
So people visiting the Den will find quite a variety of expression posted in Bear's song section.
They'll find Michael W. Smith bowing in reverent prayer at his piano bench in front of a piano painted in rainbow colors, when getting ready to sing "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus"; find a line of robed Presbyterians heading for the altar in a cathedral, singing "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee", where sunlight filters down from above, through stain glassed windows; and will find 6 year olds leaping around wildly in songs by the Hillsong Kids, waving hands in the air, as they sing how "God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son ...", and then in another song will see some of those same 6 year olds, eyes half-closed in prayer, and then in another (Tell the World) singing with even wilder energy about witnessing that Love to the world, and proclaiming that God is their only hope for standing in that Witness.
But there's one thread that runs steadily throughout all the various types of music styles and types of expression in Bear's Den ...
In each music video, the love and worship of the Lord and desire to give the whole life to Him -- no matter what -- shine through bright and clear and clean. And move me deeply as I listen and watch.
His Spirit shines through; the Light bright. Especially when Bear jumps from one worship video to another, and sees the wide variety of ways people lift their hearts to Him.
Bear doesn't know if other people will be interested in seeing any song videos or not (but thinks they're missing a blessing if they don't explore Christian Music Videos, because it's a new worship genre that has a very unique way of juxtaposing visual imagery of various sorts with music and words, that ends up putting together some very deep and thought-provoking messages about the Lord and His Truth.)
But even if no one else were to listen and watch, Bear's happy to have her music area in the Writing Den anyway, all the links handy. That way, when she's writing here, she can just hit a music link, while working; and listen to people praising the Lord in another "window" on her computer in the background, as she writes.
From 5 year olds to 90+ year olds, our voices are raised together in one accord . . . singing in awe of the One Who has given us Life and Grace and Hope.
And the witness and joy in that, expressed in these videos, in all the colors of the rainbow, strengthen my faith and personal walk in the Lord.
Bear loves the Video Player
And is happy and excited to have the music videos up!
Why Bear chose the videos she did for her Favorites
Some people visiting the "Bear's Favorite Worship Song Videos" section of the Writing Den, may wonder why Bear chose some of these particular music videos to add to her "Favorites" list. Because there is an unusually wide variety of music styles included, to say the least ...
Some of the videos are deep worship-type song videos, sung with an element of deep prayer and praise. Others are speedier, and more on the exultant side of Praise. Some take place in churches where jeans wouldn't be frowned upon. Some in "cathedrals", with stained glass windows. One even takes place out in an empty football field. And a few are even Christian "rap" music -- almost loud rock -- and are some teen and kid music that normally I wouldn't personally enjoy whatsoever. (Although I do like listening to some of the music kids do -- some of the more blaring and jump-around stuff with loud guitars and loud drums seems more like noise to these older ears.)
For example, the songs selected that are by Hillsong Kids seem a bit rough and kind of noisy, more than purely melodic to me; and aerobic jumping-around while praising the Lord is not my personal worship style, to say the least. In fact, Bear would probably drop from exhaustion, just trying to keep up with them for 30 seconds. :-)
However, I love to listen to the WORDS those kids are singing, some of them not even 9 years old yet, and love to watch them express their love and faith in the Lord in their own way. And, when I listen to them, and study their faces, I see many of them with a deep love for the Lord. And I am touched by their witness -- sometimes at the same level as by some of those more my age and style, who do my style of worship songs more.
I enjoy watching the teen Korean Christian rap dancers, as another example, because I know the particular song they are singing and its English words, and love to watch the pure joy on their faces, as they dance and praise His Name, and proclaim how much they love Jesus, and that EVERY move they make, and every breath they take is through HIS Grace.
So people visiting the Den will find quite a variety of expression posted in Bear's song section.
They'll find Michael W. Smith bowing in reverent prayer at his piano bench in front of a piano painted in rainbow colors, when getting ready to sing "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus"; find a line of robed Presbyterians heading for the altar in a cathedral, singing "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee", where sunlight filters down from above, through stain glassed windows; and will find 6 year olds leaping around wildly in songs by the Hillsong Kids, waving hands in the air, as they sing how "God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son ...", and then in another song will see some of those same 6 year olds, eyes half-closed in prayer, and then in another (Tell the World) singing with even wilder energy about witnessing that Love to the world, and proclaiming that God is their only hope for standing in that Witness.
But there's one thread that runs steadily throughout all the various types of music styles and types of expression in Bear's Den ...
In each music video, the love and worship of the Lord and desire to give the whole life to Him -- no matter what -- shine through bright and clear and clean. And move me deeply as I listen and watch.
His Spirit shines through; the Light bright. Especially when Bear jumps from one worship video to another, and sees the wide variety of ways people lift their hearts to Him.
Bear doesn't know if other people will be interested in seeing any song videos or not (but thinks they're missing a blessing if they don't explore Christian Music Videos, because it's a new worship genre that has a very unique way of juxtaposing visual imagery of various sorts with music and words, that ends up putting together some very deep and thought-provoking messages about the Lord and His Truth.)
But even if no one else were to listen and watch, Bear's happy to have her music area in the Writing Den anyway, all the links handy. That way, when she's writing here, she can just hit a music link, while working; and listen to people praising the Lord in another "window" on her computer in the background, as she writes.
From 5 year olds to 90+ year olds, our voices are raised together in one accord . . . singing in awe of the One Who has given us Life and Grace and Hope.
And the witness and joy in that, expressed in these videos, in all the colors of the rainbow, strengthen my faith and personal walk in the Lord.
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