It's A Jesus Thing!
The Story Behind the Album
[August 2007, "The Place"] I wake up in the middle of the night with a melody line running through my mind. I have never heard the melody before and it repeats over and over again. I had woke up many times in the past with a new song in my head and I kept a pen and paper by my bedside to write them down, but this was different because I had no words, just the melody. I fell asleep with the melody line playing repeatedly in my head. For the next several months, this same melody would pop into my head and I would find myself humming it in the car or while working. The problem was I had no words to go with the music. I prayed that the words would come to me and one evening I sat down to read. I opened my Bible to the book of John and found myself reading John 14:2 and read the verse, "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you". It was clear to me at that moment that I would write about "the Place". The words came to me quickly and I put them to the melody that had been in my head for the past several months. When I was done, I had written the song, "The Place".
["Flash Back"] Consider that before I found Jesus and accepted Him as my Savior in March of 2001, I had never written a single christian song nor would I have considered writing a christian song. Since then, I have received more than 32 songs of praise and worship from the Lord with twenty of these written after January of 2004. As in the past, all of these songs came to me suddenly and without warning. I would be working at my computer and words would start pouring into my head and I would open up the word processor and begin typing. When a song came to me, I felt very much compelled to stop whatever I was doing and write the song. I did not want to do anything else, just finish the song that was coming to me at that moment. 32 songs may not seem like a lot when spread over seven years, but considering that they all came to me rather then me trying to go to them, I feel very blessed.
[December 2007, "Direction"] After writing "The Place", I wondered why this song had come to me in such a different way. The music and then the words. I wondered what the Lord wanted me to do with these songs He had given me. I had only shared them with my family and congregation and I never felt compelled to publish them. I prayed that He would give me direction and if I were to share these songs with more people, I prayed He would show me the way. Less than two weeks later Doug Buckendorf called me to let me know that it was on his heart to record an album of the songs I had written and it was then that I told him about my prayer a few weeks prior and we were both amazed. On December 17, 2007 we walked into the studio and started recording the songs for the album.
[January 2008, "It's A Jesus Thing!"] Doug and I were initially going to call the album "Walking With The Lamb" but after hearing the early recordings of the songs, my wife said, "You should name the album "It's A Jesus Thing". She reasoned that every song on the album pointed to and spoke of Jesus. I called Doug and we agreed that the album would be named, "It's A Jesus Thing!"
[February 2008, "Confirmation"] We decided to create an album cover that would be a scene from the song "A Jesus Thing" where the guy and the waitress were seated at a booth (Table 5) raising their hands in celebration of the waitress accepting Christ as Savior. We decided to go to a little diner near our church on Super bowl Sunday (February 3, 2008) and take the photo for the front of the album. When we arrived at the Diner, we found it quite full and we had a group of about 10 people. I stepped inside the Diner and a waitress asked if I would like a table or a booth and I requested a booth. She looked around and gave me the look that it might be a while, when suddenly another waitress called out that a booth was open. We were escorted to the booth and as we sat down I asked the waitress which table we were sitting in (I was just curious). She looked down the row of booths and counted, "This is Table 5" she said. We all looked at each other and laughed in amazement. The only available booth in the restuarant is Table 5. This was confirmation that we were on the right path and we believe the Lord has blessed this project and we pray that His will be done.
By Kevin Sackett