The Reward-A Song Story

I was riding in the back of an old astro van cruising westward on I-40 to Nashville in the spring of 2005. Faster than the cars passing our old van, a story of revival was racing through my heart.  It was the story of the first two Moravian missionaries.  In 1732 a Dutch ship left the Copenhagen harbor bound for the Danish West Indies. On board were these two young missionaries ready to sell their lives into slavery to reach the slaves of the West Indies with the gospel.  As the ship slipped away from the harbor they stood on the bow of the boat and cried out "May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering."  Their voices rang in the ears of their families and loved ones gathered at the harbor to say good bye.  Soon this cry become the rallying call for all Moravian missionaries. 

As this story ripped through me and this cry rang in my heart,  a melody begin to grow wings inside me. I grabbed my guitar and before the van reached Nashville this song was written.

In a garden we fell, but in a garden he prayed,
Not my will but yours be done.
My sins he became so I could be like him
To go beyond the veil and see his face

The cross has made a way so we can enter in
To go back to the garden once again
The cross has made a way, forever I will say
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain

Worthy,  Worthy,
Worthy is Lamb that was slain
To receive the reward of his suffering
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain

Receive the reward, Oh Lamb of God

You can find this song on itunes by clicking here

God Time

The two most important things that I want to teach my children are to: To know God's love and to know God's voice.  I am grateful beyond words to have had a mother and father who have taught me how to know God's love and hear God's voice.  I am so excited to announce that my father Ken Helser will be teaching a workshop at the "Cageless Birds Worship Gathering" called "God Time." This workshop will be a time to know more of God's love and hear more of God's voice. He describes the workshop like this-

"Do you ever secretly struggle with HOW to spend time with the Lord?  As Disciples of Christ, we know we are called to draw close to Him, but at times we don’t know “HOW”....so our times with Him can feel dry and even burdensome.  At times this leaves us approaching Him out of guilt and obligation. But HE came to give us ABUNDANT LIFE in every way, and wants a satisfying relationship with YOU!  But the question remains:  “How do you have GOD Time?  And how do you have a GOD Time that you enjoy?"

You can find out more info about the God Time workshop with Ken Helser at www.aplacefortheheart.org

Cageless Birds

In Acts 16 Paul and Silas were chained to prison walls, but they lifted their voices and sang. The freedom they sang about was more real then the chains that held them. The walls of the prison had to bow to the reality of the freedom in their song. Not only did their song set them free, but it set all the prisoners free. Like birds released from their cage Paul and Silas flew out of their prison on the melodies they sang. On June 17-18 we will be hosting a two day worship gathering to inspire a generation to fly out of the cages of fear into the heart of God. Go to www.aplacefortheheart.org for more info. 

Long Story Short

In the fall of 2007 Melissa and I went into the studio with the plan of tracking a new worship album, but the Lord hijacked our plans with his dream.  When we thought the songs were coming to an end, Jesus walked through the walls of the studio and we realized the songs were just beginning.  The songs that we thought would only last a few minutes turned into ten and fifteen minute experiences.  At the end of those days in the studio we had collected two albums full of spontaneous and unplanned moments where heaven collided with our hearts. We released the albums later that year as "The Reward" and "Walk through the Walls." Within those two albums of extended worship are eleven songs that were forged and crafted in the eight years leading up to the moment the record light clicked on. The songs were fashioned in a wilderness and found in the middle

of storms. They are the songs of a journey. This year we decided to go back and collect the eleven songs from the extended moments of worship. We remixed and remastered them into beautiful and simple song length versions.  I love the way a song can squeeze the beauty of eternity into a few minutes. This collection of songs tells the story of our journey. This is our long story short.

You can pre-order this album at our online store at www.jonathanhelser.com 

-Jonathan David 2011

Abba is on itunes.....

Abba is on itunes waiting for you......Click here to download Abba on itunes

South Africa....

 Next month my band and I are flying over the Atlantic Ocean to the beautiful nation of South Africa. We are meeting up with two of my favorite people in whole world, Suzy and Kamran Yaraei,  to host a school of worship in the city of Johannesburg.  Suzy and I have been dreaming about going to the nations together for years. This trip is the fulfillment of lots of prayers and prophetic words. I can hardly wait to see what PaPa is going to do. You can find out more info about the school at the link below.

www.centralparks.co.za

The evenings of April 14-15th are nights where we will waste the evenings worshiping the Lord and anyone is welcome.  If you live in South Africa you need to be there, if you don't live in South Africa book some tickets.....

Order the "Abba" Single

Abba |ˈäbä; ˈabä|

noun

(in the New Testament) an intimate term for God as father.

ORIGIN via Greek from Aramaic ‛abbā ‘daddy.’

I wrote this song from a prayer of Brennan Manning in his book  "The Furious Longing of God." The prayer is just five simple words:  Abba, I belong to you. He tells you to take this prayer into a quiet place and with the rhythm of the your breathing inhale Abba and exhale I belong to you.  As I began to pray this prayer the love of God began to wreck my heart. I realized that Jesus began a revolution with one word. When he said the word Father he changed everything. Now he has invited us into this reality, into this place of belonging. To call God our Daddy, our Papa, our Abba.

This limited edition single is a eleven and half minute version of "Abba" The album opens with a beautiful piano intro and flows into an extended experience of worship. This album also includes a message on worship called "Worship Echo's"

To Order this album click here