Baroni Bloggin’

THIS IS THE MISSION, SHOULD YOU DECIDE TO ACCEPT IT!

THIS IS THE MISSION CD is officially released and available at our online store. I am so excited about this CD. The songs are fresh… I started this blog page a few months ago writing about working on this project in the studio and now- the baby is born!

Here is a review/press release: 

        This is the Mission/ David Baroni/ Kingdomsongs Inc.

This long-awaited release is David Baroni’s first all new vocal release in 3 years.
Every song is a winner- from the infectious title track to the
heartfelt anthem “The Glory of Your Name“, from the techno-pop
enthusiasm of “Earth As It Is In Heaven” to the haunting “At The
Cross”, (written and sung by Bethany Baroni Nicholson), this CD is sure to be a welcome addition to your collection.
 
Produced by David Baroni and Nick Coetzee, the fresh rythms, creative melodies and arrangements showcase the powerfully anointed, timely lyrics. Go to the order page and get a copy for you and for a friend, you will be glad you did. Some of the proceeds from this CD go to support EME ministries based in Athens, Greece. www.emeministries.org     

Life is an adventure, God is bigger than we knew. Your destiny is to live in His Love! 

                                THIS IS THE MISSION!

Imagination is one of the most precious and powerful gifts we have received from our Creator. It is, tragically, also one of the most neglected. We have an abundance of it in childhood- I have played for hours as a Sarge to my plastic platoon of G.I. Joe Soldiers. Little girls invite all sorts of imaginary guests to their tea parties. Many of us guys have thrown the winning touchdown pass in a stadium filled with thousands of admirers, when in reality we were all by ourselves throwing a rolled-up sock into a trash can in our bedroom!

So how did our imaginations get so rusty, so overlooked? Did we outgrow our need for them? What is the deal?

First, let’s examine the difference between the western (Greek) mindset and the eastern (Hebrew).

In the eastern mindset, spirituality co-existed with the material realm. To the Hebrew, heaven, for example, was not a far-away, up-in-the-sky, unattainable place- it was as near as the nose on the face, yet invisible. When the writer of the gospel said that someone heard a voice from heaven, it was not from the sky, but from a nearby place, the immediate surroundings- as the spiritual realm became known in the physical.

To the Greeks, (however valuable their contributions to art, science, philosophy, language, etc.) the spiritual was seperate from the physical and empiricism (that which can known by the natural senses) reigned over the metaphysical.

We in the western church claim to be living according to the spirit of the scriptures but we are so influenced by the Greek method of learning that we have become very empirical, indeed, we are suspicious of those who purport to be in touch with a reality that transcends the natural. That some who claim to be “Holy Spirit-led” stray from a commitment to what God has revealed of Himself in His Word doesn’t negate the clear privilege we have to be a supernatural people. Just because a gift is abused doesn’t rule out the value of the original intent of the gift.

To be prophetic means to speak as God speaks, hear and see as God does. Of course, we cannot be prophetic without His divine enablement; and we cannot be prophetic without using our imaginations!

Why do we limit the way God speaks to us? I have found that if my spiritual eyes and ears are open, I can hear and see the things of the spirit in all kinds of ways- if I use my imagination! I can “see” the myriads standing on the sea of glass before the throne of God as songs of praise and holy fire resound from a billion lips and voices. In the natural, though, there may only be 50 or 60 of us in a store front church building. Spiritual reality transcends the natural. The Word of God teaches us that we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus!

The days of Radio (though before my time) were indeed a golden age. Families would finish their supper and chores and gather around the radio to hear the stories of “The Shadow” and “The Lone Ranger”. With imagination employed, the whole family could also “see” Silver (the Lone Ranger’s horse) as he rose up on his hind legs and whinnied triumphantly, through the music they could “see” the crook sneaking up on the hero and “see” the hero stop the train just in time. (or untie the damsel in distress!)

“Oh John”! 

“Just doin’ mah job, little lady”!

Nowadays, music videos inject their own meaning and depiction into the song. We watch movies (and I love them!) and don’t read. We have preachers who use power point and multimedia to “save” us from having to use our imaginations.

No wonder we are anemic in the imagination department!

We have also demonized imagination in the name of protecting ourselves from humanistic new-agers that insist that man is his own god. Again, just because some abuse a gift doesn’t negate the intrinsic value of that gift. Just because we can create images with our minds don’t mean that we worship those images.

Jesus said,”Except you be converted and become as a little child you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” I think, among other things, the Lord was reminding us to not outgrow the gift of imagination.

That’s one reason I love the “FingerPaintings” piano series. It is music that feeds and strengthens our imaginations.  I’ve had children (of all ages) tell me of wonderful pictures the music has inspired in their imaginations.

Childlike and Maturing,

David Baroni

P.S. “This is the Mission” new CD is coming sooooon!!!

What a day to be alive! These are the days of awakening.

There is a sleeping giant in the earth, but I hear the stirrings, the yawnings, I feel the restlessness, the movement, the shaking as this giant awakens.

The giant is the Body of Christ. The One who awakens us is the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:19  “For the entire creation groans and travails together in pain until now waiting…”. what is creation waiting for? The return of Jesus?  No. “… for the manifestation (unveiling, revealing, displaying) of the sons of God.”

Creation is waiting for the church to realize and be who we are!

So. who are we?

We, through the grace of God and through faith, are the sons and the daughters of the Living God! We are a new creation, a new species. We are not earthbound, limited by geography and time- through the Word of God that lives in and through us we can affect change in the natural and spiritual realms! The Kingdom of God is here and Jesus is here… in and through us by the Holy Spirit!

In the book of Acts, Philip preached the gospel (the real gospel is still very good news!) to the Ethiopian eunuch, baptized him in water and sent this important government offical on his way rejoicing. The scripture then says- “but Philip was found at Azotus.” In other words, Philip was bodily transported (beam me up, Scotty) supernaturally to another location.

One Pastor I know (and can vouch for his integrity), tells the story of a man in his congregation who actually arrived at work 15 minutes before he left his home. Another young man heard my song “Took Me Out Of Egypt” on a radio station that doesn’t exist one month before the song was written! My worship interactive series has the full story of this amazing occurence.

One preacher, John Paul Jackson, told a group of us about this supernatural encounter he had in Europe: (I will paraphrase his words).

I was preaching a series of meetings in Europe and the schedule was quite rigorous. I felt a bit ill, but kept fighting it off, as God was doing some wonderful things in the meetings. One night, about 3 AM, I became so sick that I thought I might die. I had a meeting set for the next day, and told the Lord that if He didn’t heal me, I couldn’t go on. (As if that made God nervous!)

Just then, the door to my hotel room opened and an old man I didn’t know came in and stood before me as I lay in a fever on the bed. He said that God had sent him to pray for my healing. As he laid his hands on my head, the healing power of God surged through my body and I rejoiced as I was made completely well. I had closed my eyes in prayer and when I opened them, the man was gone. No door closing, no noise, just gone! I said to the Lord: “Thank you for sending an angel to heal me!” the Lord reponded, “That wasn’t an angel.” Confused temporarily, I blurted out: “O no, the devil healed me!”

I heard the Lord chuckle, then He revealed to me who the man was. He told me that at the time I was groaning and praying for my healing, there was an 80 year old man in a village in South America. This man was also praying, saying: “God, I live alone on the edge of this village, I have served and loved You all my life but I feel forgotten, even by You. I can’t move very well, I get very few visitors and I feel that my usefulness in life has come to an end. Can you minister through an old man like me?”

At that, the Holy Spirit transported (”beamed”) this old friend of God to the sick preacher’s bedside, healed through the man, and brought him back to his village- probably thinking that no one would ever know what happened, but he was content to be remembered by the Lord.

What a story! And just a foretaste of what God is doing in His people as we believe and live His Word: “If any one is in Christ, he or she is a new creation… a new species!” 

As Mufasa told Simba in The Lion King, so our Father tells us: “You are more than you have become.”

In Christ, we:

See the invisible

Hear the inaudible

Hold the intangible  

Declare the unspeakable

Explore the unsearchable

Believe the unbelieveable

Do the impossible!!!

It is who we are. It is Whose we are. Let’s be ourselves and let God be Himself in us!!

Hi there… life is good even though a brand new computer died (o.k., it was a year old.)

Want to draw your attention to some new things on the web-site.

1.  Hear My Cry (O Most High)  July’s FREE DOWNLOAD OF THE MONTH

This song was begun in Kiev, Ukraine in a songwriting class. I sat at the piano and the passionate worshippers of Ukraine just started singing as the Holy Spirit inspired the chords. Later, a new friend, Meg Everhart (you will hear much more from this young lady!) and I got together in Ukraine and via email in the States and the Lord helped us finish the song. I am so pumped about it, I decided to offer it in demo form on the site.

You can download the MP3 and songsheet by going to the online store at www.davidbaroni.com clicking on Free Song of the Month, entering your details and downloading it for free at the end of that brief process. I think you will find it a wonderful and passionate song of “prayer turned into praise, then worship”.

2. We are starting a “hot special” every month. Something far beyond the normal great prices we have already on the site. This month is the Worship Interactive CDRom set. To preview, go to the Worship Interactive tab and check it out.

 3. Watch for the new podcast… recorded at the recent International Worship Institute in Dallas, TX.  This podcast also features my friend and fellow Songpainter Nick Coetzee.  www.songpainters.com

4. Watch for 2 new teaching Cd’s and check out the ones you don’t have yet on our Teaching Series Page. 

5. It’s Coming…. This is the Mission… get ready, this CD is the best I have done in a long time, if not ever. Stay Tuned!