Three Men Walking

Three Men Walking, the Christian Folk/Rock band, will be appearing in Hastings, Nebraska at the First Baptist Church service to be held at the city park. More details to follow.

Dale Beye, singer/songwriter for Three Men Walking, will be appearing in Aurora, Nebraska at Faith Community Church at 12th and J streets. The outdoor concert is to begin at 7:00 pm with a freewill offering taken. Bring a chair.

Event will move inside in case of rain.

Colossians 3:12 And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

I guess this is my answer for how I need to treat those who have deeply wronged me during the past 2 years. As they are followers of X., I need to forgive the and bear with them and their continued wrongs against me.

The Greek word used to forgiveness in many Bible passages is afihmi (ah-fee-ae-mee), which means “I am forgiving” or “I am sending away”. In English when we say we are going to forgive someone, we say, “I am letting it go.” In Greek when we forgive, we say, “I am sending it away.” The contrast is subtle but profound. When I am in need of forgiving someone, I need to choose to send it away. If I simply let the offense go, it comes back to me time and time again. What I need to do is choose to send it away when it comes back to me. That way I feel less of the victim of the offense.

This is how God forgives us. I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive (a form of afihmi) us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When God forgives us, He chooses to send away the remembrance of our sins against Him. Praise Him for that. If He did not choose to send away the remembrance of our sins, we would be lost.

I guess it’s time for Dale to grow up and let go, scratch that--send away, the remembrance of peoples’ sins against me. Certainly many of these people need to repent of their continued sins against me and my family. That’s between the Lord and them. I will choose to walk in obedience and send away my remembrance of their sins. I am in great need of God’s mercy to me. I do not need to hang on to unforgiveness, I need to live in mercy toward others.

I sang last night at the Nebraska Country Music Festival. It was a little different from most of the gigs I do.

Angela McLean got me involved in this. Angela is the one who wrote the rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner” that we play at the end of almost every gig. She has won the songwriters’ contest for the past 2 years and asked me to sing one of her songs on the program. She had originally planned that I would sing her Star Spangled Banner on the program as well. That part fell through for unrelated reasons. But I got to sing a couple of my tunes on the show as well as an original by Angela. My part of the program was accompanying Angela on one of the songs she sang. Then I got my time slot. Entered in the professional division, I got to sing three songs. So I did “Death Be Not Proud”, “Deep Calls To Deep”, and an original by Angela called “I Don’t Have To Worry”. All 3 songs speak of our hope in God and “I Don’t Have To Worry” really speaks the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We had an interesting difficulty as my time slot began. I followed Angela on the program. She generally accompanies herself on an electronic keyboard and she was going to play with me on “I Don’t Have To Worry”. Right after she got done with her slot the power failed in her keyboard and it was dead in the water (probably due to me dropping the adaptor twice while setting up). So the MC kept speaking to the audience while we fiddled around trying to get her keyboard to work. I finally asked Angela if she could play one of the other keyboards on the stage (they had a band to accompany singers if they desired). She got the okay from the owner of these keyboards and we went on with my set of songs.

We were well received. I also got to hear some great singers. There was a duet of ladies from Columbus who did a fantastic rendition of “He Grew The Tree”. All in all it was a great time and I look forward to possibly doing it again next year.

Colossians 3:1 If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

Lord, why is it that when I am afflicted with little afflictions I seem to set my mind and heart more on earthly things than ever? Is it because that is truly where my heart is and the affliction is simply revealing that to me? Is it because I resent Your allowing these small afflictions in my life? Do I long to float to heaven on flowery beds of ease? Do I desire to coast through the heavenly gates with no problems or issues? Oh yes. That is me and the desire of my heart. Nevertheless, Paul commands that since we have been raised up with X., set our minds on the things above and not on earthly things. Lord, how do I do this in the practical everyday of life? How do I think on You and the things above all of my days? How do I take this mind that is set on this clay and turn it to be set on the future gold?

When X., Who is my true life, is revealed, then I will be revealed with Him in glory. I guess my true life is not revealed yet. As real as this seems, my true life is yet to come. The day will come when I am shown in my true life. I like the image from C. S. Lewis that these days are mere shadows. They are just a dream. When we awaken we will be experiencing the true life we were made to have and enjoy. Somehow this momentary light affliction is producing in me an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comprehension.

I need to learn to set my mind on the things above.

Our approach to the creative process has been one of growth for me. When I write a song, the sound I have I my mind is (of course) the perfect song. Then I play it for Josh and Joel and they get their creativity involved in the drum and bass parts. Despite the absolute fact that they do not follow the perfect sound I have in my head, the final song we come up with together is better than anything I could have ever thought of. A great example of this is on “The Warrior’s Home”. I wrote the song as a tribute to a dear friend. I played it for Joel and Josh. Josh said he was going to try some rap beats for the drum parts. My reply was classic, “Josh, I cannot imagine a rap rhythm on this song and I do not think it will work.” In other words, try something else. He wisely did not listen to me and put a rap beat in anyway. The result is an amazing song. I can honestly say that what Josh and Joel come up with makes our songs much better than they are when I write the songs originally.

We naturally carried this idea over into our first CD. When I approached Jen about singing backup vocals I told her to start with the ideas I had sung for her and then use her own creativity to make them better. You should have seen her light up when she realized she got creative license on our CD. The end result is a much better sound then I could have come up with on my own. It’s like Michael Card’s comment on “Scribbling In The Sand”: these songs come out of community. As I’ve learned to trust this process with the folks I’ve worked with I’ve been able to relax my hold on the songs and let them become something bigger and better.

Cover of our new album.

The Band:
We are Josh, drummer extraordinaire; Joel, bass player with heart; and I am Dale, singer, songwriter. We take our name from the 3 heroes of the book of Daniel: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men trusted God and went into the fire for their faith. You can hear all about it in our song, “Three Men Walking (In The Midst Of The Fire)” or read about it in Daniel chapter 3.

We are eagerly awaiting the release of our first CD. The songs are originals about living the Christian life and accompanying struggles. In my own life, I struggle to trust God and walk faithfully with Him. Many Christians have this struggle and that struggle is what our songs are about. A great moment for me as a songwriter came when I realized that these songs are an encouragement to me in my own Christian life.

Three Men Walking formed as a group several years ago. Joel and I were playing in a worship band together every Sunday. I was the worship leader. I had been playing some of these original songs in church by myself. My wife said that my songs were not interesting enough to get peoples’ attention. Joel started playing with me and the difference was amazing. We played one song and a lady came up afterward and said, “I got goose bumps during your song.” That’s when we knew we had something pretty cool. After several months of playing this way we approached Josh, who had been attending the same church. He had “retired” from playing drums ro raise his family. (He had actually gone so far as to have sold his drums.) He liked the idea and bought some drums. We’ve been playing together ever since.

And by the way, this band is Joel’s fault. He gets the credit (or blame) in human terms. Early on, when I seriously questioned whether any one would ever want to listen to these songs I was writing, It was Joel who repeatedly said, “I like the songs and think we need to play them for people.” I have come to that same conclusion, but it took me longer to get there. Thanks dude.