Baroni Bloggin’

I woke up at home in Franklin, TN very early yesterday morning with the old Toto song playing loudly in my mind: “I bless the rains down in Africa.”

Then Rita and I drove to the airport where we kissed goodbye and I got on a flight to New York’s Kennedy Airport, then on to Dakkar, Senegal to refuel; and finally to Abuja, the capitol of Nigeria.

Comfortably ensconced at the Hilton here, I look out at the Nigerian cityscape. I see modern homes and apartment buildings, some vacant dusty lots, an ornate golden mosque, new roads, cell phone towers and a haze that brings a promise of rain later in the day. The view is a microcosm of the successes and struggles of this nation.

I think about the helpful, diligent and strong “protocol” men that whisked me through the airport and into the 3 car caravan including a uniformed man with a machine gun in the front car. (It sounds more dramatic than it actually was.) I reflect on the terrible violence in the nearby city of Jos- where just 5 days ago hundreds were killed. I think of the potential in this country of the many committed followers of Jesus, the visionary pastors and business leaders, the musicians and artists that I will be blessed to work and worship with over the next few days- not only in Abuja but also in the sprawling city of Lagos.

Pray for Nigeria- this land of beautiful, hospitable, strong and hardy people who have endured much hardship and have so much to offer Africa and the world. These believers take the Word and Spirit, the promises of God seriously! They have blessing in their mouths and hearts. Almost nowhere else in the world would you be able to find, regularly, a gathering of one million believers in an all night worship, prayer and praise gathering at a campground outside of Lagos. Pray for the young people who are looking for the reality of the Kingdom of God. Pray for their elders- for wisdom to know how to guide and encourage those entrusted with the rapidly approaching future of this great nation.

The theme for House on the Rock’s JAM (Jesus and me) Mega Festival is: “Nigeria; Celebrating Jubilee.” I hear the sound of an abundance of the rain of God’s Spirit, the reign of God through King Jesus and His people in Nigeria!

Share on Facebook

In the darkness, in the cold and the silence, beneath the frozen ground of December; a promise waits.

As I walked my typical neighborhood route recently I noticed a barren tree. As I drew closer I saw that what had looked like bare limbs actually had tiny buds, almost imperceptible yet pregnant with the promise of new blossoms to burst forth at the right time… in the springtime.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.” Paul the apostle wrote about seeing the unseen, by faith looking beyond the circumstances and trusting in the God Who holds the seasons in His Hand.

One of my favorite songs, “Faithful God,” puts it this way:

Even when it’s hard to believe,
Even when our hope seems all gone
There has never been a night without a dawn!

And there has never been a winter without a spring. Our Father is the God of new life, of promises kept. He is a faithful God!

Share on Facebook

These are the lyrics to my new song, which is also available as a free mp3 download for the rest of October at www.davidbaroni.com

I particularly love the imagery in the second verse!

Godrest and Godspeed,
David Baroni

“Liquid Love”
David Baroni/ Kingdomsongs Inc. / BMI/ CCLI

Your love is an ocean
Your grace like the sea
Your faithfulness wave after wave to me
Your mercy’s a fountain
Your peace like a stream
Your joy is a river flowing within me
Flowing within me

You wash over me like liquid love
Through the tears and the rain with Your cleansing Blood
You pour out Your grace in a healing flood
And wash over me
You wash over me
You wash over me like liquid love

Sometimes I get thirsty
My spirit so dry
Surrounded by desert no clouds in the sky
The wind gently whispers
And I call Your Name
I’m suddenly laughing out loud in the rain
I dance in the rain

To the tired and thirsty soul
In a dry and weary land
There’s One Who will heal you
Save you and fill you
Come to the Water and drink
Come to the Water and drink
Then you will sing

Share on Facebook

As I was about to read in the Psalms today, a heading over Psalm 22 caught my attention: “A Cry of Anguish and a Song of Praise.”

That phrase, added by the Bible publisher, started me thinking. Isn’t that how life is a lot of the time?

It reminds me of the song my daughter Bethany and I wrote called “I Will Worship”:

In the good and the bad Lord I worship Your Name
No matter what happens You love me the same
I will worship You Jesus
Wherever You lead I will follow You
Knowing Your faithfulness God You are good
So I worship You Jesus

The second verse of the song says:

When sorrow becomes overwhelming
You come wrap your arms around me
And then like the wind Lord You whisper to me
Breathing hope into the depths of my soul

I wish life was just one great happy encounter after another…or do I?
Another song I wrote a long time ago:

If I never had sorrow I could never be comforted
I’d never know healing if I didn’t feel pain
Without the fire gold could not be freed from dross
Through the power of the cross, loss is gain

The truth is that our trials are lovingly used by our Father to conform us into the image of Christ. We get to know Christ, and ourselves better through suffering. Do we seek suffering? I don’t! But I do know that this life will have cries of anguish; sometimes right along with songs of praise, and I am glad that we have the assurance that “God is faithful Who will not allow us to be tempted above that which we are able to bear, but with the temptation will make a way of escape.”

He will complete what He has begun in us! And we will be glad.
Godrest and Godspeed,
David Baroni
7/14/2009

Share on Facebook

Even when it’s hard to believe
Even when our hope seems all gone
There has never been a night without a dawn…

“Faithful God” is one of my favorite songs. Co-written with my friend, Wayne Tate, this song is one that I sing regularly. It never gets old to me.

You can order it as a free MP3 and songsheet download at www.davidbaroni.com

Godrest and Godspeed!
David Baroni

Share on Facebook

Just watched an inspiring interview with Garrison Keillor and Robert Altman about the movie “A Prarie Home Companion.” (on Youtube)

In the interview with Peter Travers of “Rolling Stone”, Keillor commented on Robert Altman’s directing style. Altman’s approach is to get out of the way and let the actors bring what they have to the scene.

This started me thinking about the best music producers and authors and songwriters that I know. By far my favorite style of producer (and the way I try to produce as well) is the one who gives a skeletal outline, a flexible “wineskin”, then empowers the musician to let the music flow; to rely on Inspiration and the interplay between the musicians. To let go of creative control requires humility and trust in the creative process that causes one to rise above the paralyzing self consciousness and fear that so easily thwarts the free flow of creativity.

One of my favorite authors, Dean Koontz, imagines the characters in his novels, then lets them take on a life of their own. He merely writes from the flow of the moment. It is unselfconscious, and to me, the vulnerability and trust in the inspiration is what gives the novel it’s power and “out-of -the-blue” sense of creativity, freshness and imagination.

In a recent newsletter Koontz writes:

“When you accept your talent not as something to take pride in but as something for which to be grateful, you set the ego aside ad you are freed from the desire to impress, and you enter into play. When that happens, the consequent spontaneity enriches the work, and you experience moments that are spiritually exhilarating, an awareness of God within and without.”

I like my friend and Pastor, Steve Fry’s recent take on authority. My rough paraphrase: “Authority is not so much about power and control and submission to leadership, it is “author-ity”- creating, originating.”

The best songs that I have written were (with only a few exceptions) songs that seemed to have a life of their own. I merely yielded to the creative impulses that were bubbling in the Spirit-realm, and in my own heart.

Jesus is the Author… We are created in the image of the Creator! There is an authenticity and vitality that comes when we trust the Creator to create through us. Let it flow!

Godrest and Godspeed
David Baroni

Share on Facebook

David and Rita have been in full-time ministry for 25 years.

David has ministered in 49 states and 20 countries. Rita has been able to join David on many of those trips and contribute in her unique and powerful way.

We are very grateful to the Lord for Him allowing us to be in full time ministry. We appreciate your prayers and support financially. The ministry is dependent on the love offerings and sales at our live events, some songwriter royalties, and the generosity of the people who believe in us. Many times God has provided for us with unexpected donations through offerings through the website or checks in the mail.

Recently, the Holy Spirit has impressed us to offer many of the items on the website free of charge, in particular the teaching mp3s.

We at davidbaroni.com know that God is always faithful to provide for all of our needs whether they are financial, spiritual, or physical. Thank you for the part you have in our ministry.

Thank you for your prayers and love! If you feel led by the Holy Spirit to make a donation to our ministry you can do so by clicking on the donation button on the home page at www.davidbaroni.com to donate securely by Pay Pal, or mail a check to:

Kingdomsongs Inc.
209 Cambridge Place
Franklin TN 37067

You can also help by purchasing the ministry resources that are available on the website.
Thank you and God bless you!

Share on Facebook

I was having coffee at Starbuck’s with a friend and fellow musician today when the conversation turned to one of his favorite jazz recordings: Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea doing a lot of improvisation- free flowing spontaneity within a very loosely sketched, skeletal arrangement.

I told him that spontaneous flowing musically and spiritually is a metaphor to me of how our relationship with God should be. We flow with what we hear from the Lord, willing to lay down our preconceptions of how life is supposed to play out. In involves receiving the gift of faith and the grace to trust that God is faithful and really is working… “all things out for the good of those who love Him, who are the called according to His purposes.” I call it the “victory of vulnerability”, when we step out of the boat on a Word from God.

Jesus said “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” As Paul the Apostle wrote “Now the just shall live by faith.”

It takes a degree of trust to launch out with other musicians into the unknown waters of spontaneous composition. Our tendency, especially as Greek-mindset influenced westerners who rely on empiricism- that is, on what we perceive by our natural senses- is to lean too heavily on the sheet music. It seems safer that way, we like structure.

But does our structure make room for God? He dwells not in temples (structures) made with human hands. He came in the unlikely womb of a young virgin… to the natural minded a woman of reproach. A King? Yes, but born in a stall surrounded by smelly animals and lower class shepherds. The Word was made flesh… the Eternal/Invisible clothed, indeed bound Himself with Time and the Physical so that we who were blind could finally, by faith, see the Father.

The church is a wineskin for the Kingdom of God, not an inflexible piece of pottery that crumbles under the intoxicating pressure of the
flowing wine of God’s grace and Presence. I am not advocating that we have no structure, no wineskin, only that the new wine of the Kingdom of God is poured into the accommodating wineskin that the church is meant to be.

“He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.” And as the Message translation of Psalms 40:3 goes on to say:

He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
they enter the mystery,
abandoning themselves to God.

Godrest and Godspeed
David Baroni

P.S. My book “The Jazz Preacher” has more on this topic. You can order your copy at www.davidbaroni.com

Share on Facebook

To introduce our new affiliation with Itunes, we are announcing this promotional event!

The first 25 people to log into Itunes from our site (you can click the icon below or go to the home page at www.davidbaroni.com) and order at least $9.99 from Itunes will receive 3 free MP3s of your choice from the list below.
You can order anything, it doesn’t have to be David Baroni music. Of course, if it is, that would be great too!
Then email us at david@davidbaroni.com and tell us your order total and what 3 free MP3s you would like. It’s that simple!

The one who places the largest Itunes order will receive the following CDs free!
“FingerPaintings: Dream” David’s new instrumental
“Real Life”
“Captured By Your Presence”

After you place your order, choose 3 MP3’s from the following songs:

Ain’t Gonna Let No Rock
Faithful God
Bow Down
A New Anointing
O Draw Me Lord
He’s Been Good
Within the Heart of God
I Rest In You
Hear My Cry
Daddy Daughter Dance (FingerPaintings)
Serenity (FingerPaintings)
Blessed Be The Lord God Almighty
You Are
Sweet Songs

Event ends April 16th so order now!

Share on Facebook

When you download anything from Itunes… music, movies, games- using the link below, a percentage of the order is given to our ministry! It’s no extra cost to you. Thanks for considering ordering through the link below… tell your friends!
Godrest and Godspeed,
David Baroni

Share on Facebook