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Text: Revelation 5. Hymn: LSB 940, “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name”.

Vocals recorded in my biggest studio yet: the hotel ball room. With permission from the staff, of course.

If you follow the hymn through the LSB pew edition you’ll notice two additional verses between what’s listed in the hymnal as verses four and five. These extra verses are in the Hymn Accompaniment edition. The seven verses comprise a versification of one of the ancient hymns of the church, the Te Deum Laudemus.

In case you haven’t noticed, over on the right side is a link to this podcast through the iTunes Store. This makes it a little easier for iTunes users to subscribe: just click on the link.  Enjoy!

Text: Titus 3:1-11. Hymn: LSB 399 “The Star Proclaims the King Is Here”

Someone remind me, when I write the hotel report in a couple of weeks, to put in a good word for the friendly staff. When I came down to Norton, I had a piano track, but no vocal recording. I spoke with the hotel’s banquet manager, who merely asked what I needed and showed me a room where I could record in peace and not disturb anyone else. She even offered to bring down a wireless router, all free of charge.

This podcast is the shortest so far, partly because I chopped off about 20 seconds of introduction.

Text: I Corinthians 15:1-26. Hymn: LSB 394 “Songs of Thankfulness and Praise”.
I got asked last week whether one should be a Lutheran in order to listen to Time Out. Friends, I don’t discriminate: you don’t even need to be a Christian to listen to Time Out.

The fact is, there are many Christians, much less non-Christians, who have a different sense of God than what God has revealed to us about him through the Bible. God is not just a mere deliverer of law, as is the case with many religions around the world. Christianity is the only religion where the god redeems his people from the sin his people are mired in. He identifies what sin is, and then he forgives it and removes it from his view through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have the assurance of salvation not through our imperfect works but through his deliverance.

What we believe about God matters. We have an eternal consequence. The God of Genesis, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy is also the God of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. He reveals himself through his Word, and we don’t know who he is apart from the Word.

This is what Time Out is about. The hymn is just to bring the right hemisphere of our brain up to speed with our left.

Text: Ephesians 4:1-16. Hymn: LSB 409, “Hail O Source of Every Blessing”.

Epiphany is here, and so is the revamped podcast.

I’ve been getting useful feedback from friends and others who are involved in Christian internet broadcasting and podcasting. “Time Out” doesn’t need to be played at bedtime. There is also no commentary, other than what can be implied from the readings I choose.

“Time Out” will be a reading from Scripture, the Book of Concord, or church fathers. Following that will be one or two hymns, as “live” and as fresh as I can make it.  One might think of it as melodic sushi — perhaps some cutting, but no cooking. I am open to submissions from other musicians, provided that hymns are in the public domain and don’t contain any doctrinal errata. I would love to have performances with and from people I meet on the road.

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