July 29, 2016 Show with Jason Truby, Christian Guitarist Extraordinaire

Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown

Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio

platform on which pastors, Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues

facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one

man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed whom we

converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another

wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour, and we hope to hear

from you, the listener, with your own questions.

Now here's.

Our host, Chris Arntzen.

Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and the rest of humanity living on

the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming.

This is Chris Arntzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron, wishing you all a happy Friday,

and this is an absolutely broiling hot day today, a

hot July day here in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 29th day of July,

and we are thanking God that we're in an air -conditioned studio right now

to conduct an interview with somebody that I have been urged to interview, and

when I listened to his music, I couldn't agree with that recommendation more.

His name is Jason Truby.

He is former lead guitarist for Living Sacrifice, a former member of POD, and

a performer with Phil Keggy.

He's got a new CD out that we're going to be talking about, and he actually is the guitar

instructor to the son of a very close friend of mine.

For those of you who listen to Iron Sharpens Iron regularly, you know that one of my dearest friends on the planet Earth is

Dr. James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries.

His son Joshua is being trained in the guitar by our guest, Jason Truby,

and Joshua is quite a remarkable young man in his own right, having a high -level

belt, perhaps even a black belt by now, in the Israeli martial arts,

but it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time to Iron Sharpens Iron,.

Jason Truby.

Hey, Chris, thanks for having me, man.

I love the intro to the show and.

Really look forward to talking with you.

And let me right off the bat let our listeners know of our email address here if they'd like to listen

to the program.

I mean, if they'd like to participate in the program with a question of their own for Jason,

the email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at

gmail .com.

Those of you who tuned in at four o 'clock, you recognized that there was something else playing for about

11 or 12 minutes.

That's because we had once again experienced overseas technical

difficulties with our server, and I'm not even sure what that means.

I don't know if a waiter in Bangladesh was having a problem at a foreign server.

I'm not really sure what that's all about, but I'm just glad that the Lord has us

working again, has the technical problems resolved, at least for now.

And I am just delighted to have you on, brother.

I've been listening to your music and been very blessed by it.

In fact, this proves the fact that James White loves

your music.

It proves that he has far more sophisticated taste in music than he does in food.

I don't know if you know James, but he basically doesn't get much

far beyond Taco Time and McDonald's as far as his taste buds go.

But maybe

it'll kind of shockwave into the food world a little bit.

Well, before I even start with our interview, I want

our listeners to have their appetites whetted

by hearing at least one of your songs to start with.

And this is acoustic guitar that Jason is

basically a master in.

I know he may be embarrassed by me saying that, but I just want to give our

listeners a little taste of what Jason is doing,

and hopefully that will even get you

more sales in regard to your songs.

Thank you.

But here we go, and

Be

Thou My Vision performed by Jason Truby.

If you've just tuned us in,.

Jason Truby is former lead guitarist for Living Sacrifice, former member of POD, and

performer with Phil Keggy, and he has a new CD out called Hymns.

And before we play more of his music, I would like to have Jason give us your

testimony, the upbringing you had, the religious background you were raised in, and that kind of thing.

Yeah, I'd love to.

Real quick, I don't know if you knew this, but that song...

No, I did not, but I always thought that it had a minstrel flavor to it.

Yeah, it was written in the 8th century, and I'm not sure of the author, and then it was translated by

Eleanor

Hall.

In the

transition

time, you

know,

you

kind of go

as a

kid, and you go through what you're taught, and your way of life

is your way of life.

Oh yeah, I remember Dallas Holmes in the 80s when I became a born -again believer in Christ.

He was one of the brethren that I used to listen to, and I think I may have even seen him

perform live at the Smithtown Tabernacle.

Yeah, well, we happened to, like,.

And here we are at this

show, and all Jesus,

and many, many, many years ago.

And then he had an invitation at the end of this, which was a little

bit foreign to me, but, you know,

then as a kid, it was like, hey, this is, he did this so you can know him, you can

come and invite him into your life.

I understand the magnitude of it, but I know that going down at that moment,

and I truly

believe that.

Now, there was music for me.

Getting into a public Sunday

leave,

you know, my

journey at that

point

was real,

and it

just brought me to a lot

of, like, I'm on

the negative side of it.

And I

think just knowing that, like, I knew the truth, and I believed the truth

before we walked through the door, or

that I was

missing a very dear friend

from Daniel, and

look

where he threw

that

prophecy

to, but he did continue to

unfilter.

Amen.

Let me backtrack a little bit about when you first picked up an instrument, and how

quickly did you discover that you really had some kind of an innate talent

for the instrument, and perhaps it wasn't even the guitar that you first picked up, I don't know, but tell us about.

That.

Well, it was the guitar.

I mean, I always had an affinity for music, because I thought,

excuse

me, you

know, I wasn't able

to get any

training,

and I

would

detune it

incorrectly

to do the things I wanted to do,

because I didn't have

a teacher, and then

as a teenager, I still had to play.

And he's missing at

least one finger, isn't he?

Yeah, he's missing a finger on his right

hand.

But I still,

being a little bit

of a,

and I knew

that, okay, no, I

wasn't

going

to play

live,

but I still think I'm doing it right.

And so, but just dealing with that whole thing.

And how did Living Sacrifice come about, and your participation in it?

Well, it's kind

of, you know, a funny

story.

They came, I

was surprised,

but

they

showed,

we did our little show, and they came up

afterwards.

We just kind

of hit it off, and I said, well,

we're

just kind of going

serious here.

So we tuned

together and scraped up, and the

singer in the band at that time was really good with PR, like sent

it out.

Well, praise God.

And where were you, again, mentally and spiritually in regard to the Lord at that point?

Were you mainly a nominal believer, would you say, that was interested, but not

yet, perhaps, born again?

Or where were you in your life, do you think?

I think we were really, like, I think initially when we got together, we were

all very, and

we got together

and played because we didn't want to go to the rest of the parties that everybody else was

doing.

So like, well, maybe if we get together and like jam, and it wasn't like we were hiding, but you remember, we were

teenagers.

And so, and we did like what you play.

And so even at that point, I think we were not

being what we had seen Christian music be, and all due respect

to, we didn't fit that template.

And so we just kind of threw all that out and said, you know what, maybe if it's

not in a church, then okay.

So I think we were, you know, studying, we probably did read

more than most 16 or 17 year olds would do.

So yeah,

it's a

tough

one to pin down,

Chris.

I know

that, and I think

the fact now.

Well, one of the reasons I even asked the question was years ago, I had an interesting phone conversation

with Pete Orta.

I don't know if you know Pete, but he is a guitarist and singer and was

with Petra, one of the premier Christian rock bands.

And Pete told me years later, obviously

after not being with Petra anymore, he told me that he is certain that he was not a

born again Christian during those years.

And he said that he even was not a Christian personally.

I'm not talking about the rest of the band.

He doesn't even believe he was a Christian or a born again Christian when he came out with a solo

album called Born Again.

Oh, wow.

But he had some interesting things to say about his disappointments in the

Christian music industry and the things he witnessed and so on.

And perhaps one day, God willing, we'll have Pete on as well.

But I want to go to another one of your songs from the CD.

This is All Creatures of Our God and King.

Oh, another good one.

And we hope that you enjoy this, ladies and gentlemen.

That was the shortest version of.

That.

Let's see if we get, let's see if it works right this time, because I'm not sure.

Why

it

started.

All Creatures of Our God and King performed by Jason Truby on his new CD,.

Hymns.

And we're going to be going to a station break right now.

And we do have several people already anxiously waiting to have their questions answered by

our guests.

So we thank you for your patience.

We'll get to your questions as soon as we can after the station break.

But if you'd like to join them as well on the air with a question,

our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

That's chrisarnson at gmail .com.

And please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of

residence if you live outside of the USA.

And we look forward to hearing from you, whether you're a Christian, whether you

are Jewish, whether you are Muslim, whether you are agnostic, whether you're atheist, whether you're Swedenborgianist.

We hope that anybody listening with a question for Jason sends us an email.

And I have a quiz.

I'm going to give Jason a quiz, and he can answer my question

possibly when we come back from the break.

But my question is, what famous, he's not really

that famous, but he's a very well, highly respected rock

guitar player from the 70s, 80s, perhaps even spilling

into the 90s, who is no longer with us.

But he, when I was a teenager, was one of my favorite rock and roll guitarists.

And his guitar is actually in the background of this ad that I'm about to play

from one of our sponsors, World Magazine.

So I want to see if Jason can pick up who this is.

I'm just dying to find out.

Perhaps Jason has never even heard of this guitarist, but I think that he probably has, but we'll find out in a

little bit after we return.

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Tired of box store Christianity?

Of doing church in a warehouse.

With all the trappings of a rock concert?

Do you long for a more traditional and reverent style of worship?

And how about the preaching?

Perhaps you've begun to think that in -depth biblical exposition has vanished from Long Island.

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That's wrbc .us.

Welcome back.

This is Chris Zarnes.

And if you just tuned in to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, our guest today is Jason Truby, former lead guitarist

for Living Sacrifice, former member of POD, and performer with Phil Kege.

And if you'd like to join us on the air, we are accepting questions via email at chrisarnsen at

gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

And we do have several of you waiting, whom I will get to momentarily.

But do you have an answer to my question?

I don't know if how clearly you heard the background guitar.

It was hard to, yeah, Chris, it was hard to hear.

Can you give me a band name?

Well, that would give it away.

Okay.

Yeah, I couldn't hear.

It was because of the phone.

It was staticky.

Okay.

If I have, I don't, yeah, you're going to have to tell me, man.

And I'll have to send you a CD if you haven't heard this.

But that was Ronnie Montrose.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

The late Monty Montrose.

He passed in 2012.

Well, he was a good one, man.

Yeah.

He was one of my favorites as a teenager, that's for sure.

But anyway, let me go to a couple of our listeners who have been waiting patiently.

Or as my frequent co -host Reverend Buzz Taylor says, how do you know they're waiting patiently?

You can't see them.

But we have a listener from Kinross,

Scotland.

And perhaps Dr. James White can let me know if I'm mispronouncing that city.

Kinross, it's just spelt phonetically, K -I -N -R -O -S -S.

But he says, with regard to use of musical instruments, is there

ever a dividing line between worship and entertainment?

And if so, where would we find it?

That's a poignant question.

And I'll do my best to attempt to answer my opinion of that.

I do have a connection with Scotland.

My brother was a missionary in Stirling for about eight years.

You know, a quick answer for that, personally, I believe the truest form of

is obedience.

And if we're obedient,

had it come up before,

what we use

just wouldn't

be.

If you're in

obedience in your heart,

and everything I'm going to do for you, even if I'm writing a song,

and the music is letting my wife know how much I love her.

And so I think it comes down to,

in the moment, to do something or am I doing something to be noticed?

That being said, and I didn't get this young man's name.

Murray.

His name is Murray.

That's a first name from...

Murray?

Yes.

Kinross.

And we don't know if he's young.

He could be 90.

Yeah, we go assuming again.

What's wrong with it?

Well, Murray, I think it's really difficult to judge anyone else's.

There are times when people pay me to entertain

them musically, and I might be slapping harmonics and running arpeggio scales.

The Lord still made that format.

And even though it might razzle.

And, you know, other than that,

and I will say this, you learn the language so

well, so that in the moment, you can speak freely.

And that's why we study the music.

I used to study it

freely through it.

And it might be in a jazz moment with a friend, but in the

moment, it's the holy phrase, something.

I'm not sure any of it's true.

And we do have Tyler in Mastic Beach, Long Island, and he is using some pretty

strong language here.

I'm not sure.

I don't mean by that vulgarity or profanity, but he is he's asking,

what do you why do you think so many Christians use heretical worship music, such as Jesus culture,

which is rooted in the damnable New Apostolic Reformation theology?

I've heard that phrase, but I don't know much about New Apostolic Reformation theology, but I have heard of heard about it and

from some people who I respect who are very, very concerned about it.

But anyway, do you have any comments on that?

Ah,

yeah.

Wow, that is that's.

I think the lean on

what I need to be responsible for and what I've been compelled to do by the Holy Spirit and then

what what other.

You know, in my case, in front of me and and do

my best to be obedient in the moment or any

dogma.

And you moved on from

living sacrifice eventually to become a member of P .O .D.

What does P .O .D. stand for?

Payable on death, which is actually a banking term.

But the guys

picked that for that name because

that was.

Well, it's a heavy name.

And tell us about your experiencing experiences there.

And I understand from our conversation earlier, that's when

you became acquainted with the son of my dear friend, Dr. James R. White of Alpha and Omega

Ministries, his son, Joshua, who is a

deadly instrument now, deadly weapon, a living, a living deadly weapon, having

become a martial arts expert.

I don't know what the Krav Maga equivalent to a black belt is, or perhaps that is the same thing.

Maybe it's.

A black belt.

Do you know the the Krav Maga?

I do not.

I know that it's.

It's like a lethal.

That's what I'll go with lethal.

And I know that I think the CIA and the some of our American military are trained in

this Israeli form of the martial arts.

Yeah.

But he but I know that that's where Joshua became familiar with who you were.

But if you could tell us about POD and.

You're meeting Joshua.

Yeah, well, you know, we were touring in the early days with the first band.

And when we were out in the West, when you miss

meals with

people, you know, and anyway, I made

a kind of a musical impact on them.

And then after I had came back to Little Rock, started

teaching music and really wasn't sure if I was going to be doing band or live music

anymore three year.

And they had the

opportunity as a band to write the title track to the Matrix Reloaded movie.

And their primary thought and

they

asked if I were

it got accepted and

made the

challenging and rewarding

but very

prepared for but, you know, kind of went in with

high hopes and you kind of

figure things out.

But anyway, we first album, I cannot remember the

in one of the meet

and greets.

Please

teach

me and I do some

stuff to

me and he said his martial arts

teach.

I'm like the same concept,

but he's doing really good.

I'm proud of him.

Well, praise God for that.

Let's play another one of your songs from the hymns album.

This is certainly no stranger to the vast majority of

people I think living on the planet Earth,.

Even those that are not Christian.

Here is Amazing Grace.

That is beautiful.

Thank you.

That's a sweet little tune.

Oh yeah.

Amazing Grace as performed by our guest today, Jason Truby.

And that's from his new CD hymns.

How many CDs do you actually have?

Because I saw that you had some things that you actually cooperated with Phil Keggion and other things.

Yeah, the album is

of my own.

Probably, let's

see, one, two,

three, and

I

think

some

of them are just

interest.

Seven or eight albums.

Oh, great.

And one thing I want

to

make as a part of.

My regular prayer life is I want, God willing, for you

to meet and do a little jam with my older brother Andy.

My brother Andy, who is 69, is sitting right now in a nursing home in

Carlisle, Pennsylvania, nearby where I live.

He had a stroke a number of months ago which left him paralyzed on his

left side completely.

And unfortunately, there's no noticeable improvement in that regard.

But Andy was the most phenomenal and gifted guitar player that I had ever

heard.

He was in a band for probably most of the first

half of his life and left that scene

when he realized that drugs and other things were consuming his life and the music

itself performing in all parts of the country was taking him away from his wife and children and

destroying his marriage.

So he gave it up professionally but had the gift until

he had the stroke.

And I just hope that one day that he has the opportunity to pick up a guitar and sit down next to you

and just do a little playing in his living room or

wherever he may be at the time.

Yeah, Chris, we should talk about figuring out a way to make that happen.

I would love that.

Yeah, maybe some listener

wants, I hate to hear,

it's all you need

for a good jam.

He also tragically had to, when he fell into serious financial hardships,

sold every single one of his guitars even before he had a stroke.

And he had a really beautiful collection of guitars.

Oh, that's too bad.

And I'm sure they were guitars.

See, I don't know anything about musical instruments because I'm not a musician at all, but

they were definitely guitars I think that you would have recognized and.

Probably would have drooled over if you saw them.

Well, I'm sure he used them well while he had the opportunity to and maybe even

if it just went up.

But yeah, man, be praying about that.

Now, I don't know if you're feeling better to stick around for the second hour because you were

claiming earlier.

When I say claiming, I don't mean you were making it up.

You were saying that you weren't feeling well before.

That's a strategy, Chris.

You informed me before the show that you didn't feel well enough to do two hours because of the sickness you're going

through.

I don't know if that's...

No, I've got a little chest cold, but I've got...

I think I can try to stick around a little bit longer if you would like.

If you're okay with me hanging around, even

if I had to sneak out a little early, let

me see if I can do the whole thing.

Oh, that's great.

That's fine with me.

And let me now...

Well, first of all, let me also repeat our email address if anybody would like to join us on the

air.

That is ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

ChrisArnzen at gmail .com.

And please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country

of residence if you live outside of the USA.

And we would love to hear from you, even if you are not a Christian,

whatever your walk in life happens to be right now, whether you're a musician or not.

But I want to play another excerpt from your CD, Oh God, Our

Help in Ages Past.

Yeah.

And we hope that you sit back, those of you listening, and enjoy the

music.

If you're driving, please don't close your eyes and drift off into another realm.

But here we go with Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past.

At the end as well, bud.

Yeah, I can kind of tell that.

That's interesting, brother.

Well, I don't know why that happened again.

James White is laughing right now if he's listening, because he knows how atechnical I am.

So hopefully this is going to play from the beginning, and now I have it at zero, so...

There you go.

Uh, here we go.

Well, for some reason, let's see if we can get it to start again.

For some.

Reason it stopped, brother.

But what we heard...

Oh, there we go.

Well, I don't know what's the matter with the MP3.

I'm not sure what's happening with the MP3, but what we heard was absolutely gorgeous.

And we assure you, those of you listening, that on the CD, that's not going to.

Happen.

It won't stop.

And I am going to give a shout out now that I

dedicated that song to Jeremy Volo.

Jeremy Volo, who used to be a professional soccer player with the San Antonio

Scorpions, who's been a guest on my program, is now a pastor in Laredo, Texas,

and he had me record recently the opening announcements for a new radio

program that he hosts, and his favorite hymn

is, Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past, and that was the theme music

that we played.

Not yours, because I wasn't even aware of your existence at the time, but we did use an instrumental version

of that hymn, because that is Jeremy's favorite hymn.

It's a beautiful hymn by...

Now, have you done a lot of study on the lives of the hymn

writers of the songs that you play, of the hymns that you play?

Well, for this, I was aware of some of the details, but

the original idea,

you know, I'll do some of these finger styles

and use a looper, and my wife

kind of mentioned one day that, what if you did

a full album of nothing but hymns but did it more as a therapy for

people that are

sick, healing,

and then one of the

secondary reasons for

being instrumental

is people that aren't believers.

Wow.

Yeah, it's really cool.

Yeah, praise God for that.

So anyway, in that process, I thought, well, I'm going to pick, I'm going to narrow it down to 10

hymns,

because there's a lot,

and in that research format,

he's fully poignant.

I come back, found that,

man, these people, reminders that,

and then even St. Francis, you

know, he wrote All Creatures, but yeah, looking

at the stories,

a lot of it came through.

Grief.

They find out that they all, I mean, it's phenomenal.

Yeah.

So the stories, and then

it helps me,

not that there's, I

mean, there's

great, I don't mean anything negative.

It just seemed to be a clear marriage of melody

and lyric, very much that

they're dealing with, and

that's kind of why I picked them.

Praise God.

We do have a listener, Harrison in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania,

which providentially, that is actually a town where James White spent a lot of his

childhood and was baptized.

Oh, wow.

In Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, but Harrison asks,

do you think that anyone can learn an instrument, or do you think that it is

a God -given gift that you have especially?

Well, I guess anybody could learn it, but could you learn it very, very well?

I mean, just like, you know, people can learn the basics of a sport or something.

Yeah.

Well, you just hit my analogy right on the head.

As a teacher, and I've got quite a few students, I think helping people

understand their capacity for music and to be able to reach their potential in it,

and that's relatively easy.

I do think

that it is given, but

at the same time,

I don't

think we ever

arrive.

As far as instruments, pick it up, and you're passionate about language of the soul.

Everybody would have the passion.

If I wanted to be a linebacker in the NFL, I

could have the passion for it all day long and work and work and work,

but if somebody, you know, coached me into my potential, then I could be really good

for whatever the feeling of my potential is.

Right.

So, yeah.

So, I think Harrison, I think you go for it, man, and you pick up

if you just feel like it.

Well, perhaps Harrison was trying to persuade his ungifted child not

to be playing so he wouldn't have to waste money on the instrument.

You're like, yeah, I'm thinking, Jason, give me a better answer.

Well, I'm going to play.

I hope it plays all the way through, and I'm not sure why we were having difficulty

before, but a song that has become my

favorite hymn that I'm not sure when it was written if it had this

melody, but I love the melody as well, but a number of years ago in New York City, I was

at a Bible conference, and they sang Before the Throne of God Above, and I

had never before heard it.

For some reason, it's not in the Trinity hymnal that many Reformed churches have,

and I had never seen it in any of the hymnals of my previous

churches before we had the Trinity, and I have just fallen in love with this hymn.

When I first heard it, I began uncontrollably weeping.

Oh, it's great.

Well, you know it was written by a woman.

Yes.

Charity Lees Bancroft, yeah, and it is an absolute...

I'm with you on this one.

The original title was...

Okay.

No, I didn't know that.

Yeah, it was written in 1863.

Yeah, I really, really like this tune.

It's a good one.

Well, let's hope that this plays all the way through.

Yeah, me too.

That was a beautiful version of that hymn, which is my favorite hymn, Before the Throne of God

Above, by our guest Jason Truby on his CD,

Hymns.

Just out of curiosity, Jason, was that last part intentionally sounding Asian?

Because it did have an A.

Okay.

Very good, actually.

Good ear.

I actually, like over my travels and touring, and I

told you earlier that I find instruments that I like

along the way, and two instruments I used on that.

One is a koto, which is a Japanese plucked stringed instrument.

I had it for lunch, actually.

Oh, nice.

It goes good with teriyaki sauce.

And then it's a hard one.

It's a shakuhachi, is how you say it, but it's a wood flute, and I used that wood flute at the end of that song because I just

thought it's neat from time to time to incorporate culture.

Well, if you don't mind, I just want to, as quickly as I can, read the lyrics to that hymn

so that our listeners know why this was such a profound hymn to me.

In fact, I discovered it providentially after leaving alcohol

rehab.

I went to a Christian alcohol rehab in Boone, North Carolina.

I had been sober for 18 years after becoming a born -again Christian, and

after that 18 -year period, I tragically slotted back into alcohol abuse and

signed into that ministry and have not touched a drop of alcohol since

leaving there.

And I understand that many of my brethren have the liberty to

moderately partake in wine and so forth, but I know I can't.

But anyway, when I left that place, and providentially was at a Bible conference in Manhattan when I

heard that hymn, God uncorked a river that just started flowing down my

face and onto my chest, and the lyrics go like this.

Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea.

A great high priest whose name is love, who ever lives and pleads for me.

My name is graven on his hands.

My name is written on his heart.

I know that while in heaven he stands, no tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I

look and see him there who made an end to all my sin.

Because the sinless savior died, my sinful soul is counted

free.

For God the just is satisfied to look on him and

pardon me.

Behold him there, the risen lamb, my perfect spotless righteousness, the

great unchangeable I am, the king of glory and of grace.

One with himself I cannot die.

My soul is purchased by his blood.

My life is hid with Christ on high, with Christ my savior and my God.

If you can hear that hymn sung by

gifted singers, even if it's a crowd of folks in a church that have never been

trained, and you are not moved by that hymn, I don't know, there must be something really, really wrong with you.

No, hey man, you hit it.

It is powerful, poignant, and I know the first time I heard that song, and just for the record,

in similar circumstances as you, and just those of us, that's poison for us.

And it's not poison, but

I know that through that prophet and

Anglican church, it

just gets back to

where we're seeking something that is not here,

and good as it

gets.

And then, you know, it's great, Chris, and all of a sudden it sounds a little preachy, but we can live a life of gratitude.

That changed the way, and it's liberating.

That's one of my favorites on there.

And then, you know, having connections to Southeast Asia, I just felt like putting a little twist on it.

Well, that was wonderful.

In fact, in the remaining half hour after the break, I would like you to talk about adoption, which is a

subject that's very near and dear to your heart.

And before we take the final break of the show, I just want to go

into a hymn, Come Thy Fount of Every Blessing, that will

go right into our break, and then we will return with Jason to discuss why

adoption is such a powerful thing on his heart and mine today.

Don't go away.

It was Come Thy Fount of Every Blessing by Jason Truby, another one of the beautiful

hymns on his new CD, simply titled Hymns.

We'll be right back with our final station break, so don't go away and email us if you'd like with

a question for Jason Truby.

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Welcome back.

This is Chris Arnzen.

If you just tuned us in, our guest today for the full two hours, thanks be to God since we were

only planning on one due to our guests feeling under the weather.

But thankfully we are able to press forward till the end, God willing, with Jason Truby

who is a Christian guitarist extraordinaire.

And we are discussing his new CD Hymns.

We've been playing some excerpts of it and we've been hearing more about him, his testimony of Christian faith.

And we're going to be moving on in a minute to a discussion on why adoption is such an

important part of his life right now.

But before we do that, I have a question to ask about the last hymn, Come Thou Fount of

Every Blessing, towards the end.

I was reminded of one of the most beautiful versions of Amazing Grace,

second only to Jason Truby's version.

But have you ever heard, I'm not even sure Hubert Laws was a Christian

or is a Christian because he may still be alive.

But Hubert Laws came out, he's a flautist, and he came out with an album in

the 1970s, I believe, called Morning Star.

And he has a version of Amazing Grace on that.

If you have not heard it, you've got to hear Hubert Laws' Amazing Grace

played with the flute and perhaps some other wind instruments in there.

And it's from the album Morning Star.

My very strong recommendation, which, by the way, I discovered through my older brother Andrew Arnzen

that I mentioned earlier.

He, many years ago, introduced that version of Amazing Grace to me.

So I just thought I'd ask you if you could.

I just wrote that down, Chris.

That's actually a Native American wood flute that I used on the end of it.

I haven't heard his, but there's something about woodwinds and single melodies like.

That.

You definitely, when you hear Hubert Laws doing it, you definitely get

the aura, the sound as if a Native American Christian is out in the woods playing it.

Yeah.

Well, there's something peaceful, and it's like deeply peaceful about that.

And, you know, so it's one -dimensional, even though the central,

you know.

Praise God.

Well, we had already announced that we were going to discuss why adoption is such

an important part of your life right now.

Why don't you tell us about that?

Well, you know, it came through necessity at first.

And, you know, sometimes that's how, you know, the Lord

can come.

Anyway, me and my wife got married really young.

She was 19.

I was 21.

And we're going on tour with the first band together.

And then as time to start our family, you know, we had some pretty bad complications.

We were getting pregnant and having kids.

And so really trying time for us, and especially for her,

this desire

to have surgery and just

kind of a double whammy.

And, you know, in

those moments, you don't know what...

And, you know, I don't know what...

Three days after that grieving

moment,

she met

me

for lunch.

And he said, you know, I don't know why I'm telling you this, but two, and there's a little girl

we've come in contact with.

And are you all interested in adoption?

And I just, you know, didn't need...

It hadn't even crossed my mind, Chris.

And so I called my wife.

And literally a week later, that child was placed with us.

And we went through this crash course home study, had no idea what we were doing.

And we were thrust...

And at that time, every...

And so, and I had already left the other...

But when we got through that process and went through the court stuff, and we went through all the home studies, and then here's this

child.

And now this was my daughter.

Me and my wife just prayed at the time that this is what you want us to do, then really.

See...

So, you know, we were able to be there at birth for Elijah, which was wonderful for.

Us.

My wife,

a very tedious process.

And

then along

the way, there

was some agencies

that came

along that

we got

connected to them.

And they really help

out in helping,

you know, it may not

be the only unreached people group, but I think one of

the last unreached...

Or they're scooped up into, you

know, the enemy hates them because he reminds like...

And so I know, like, I can't adopt them all.

But that's how the Lord had us build our...

And then the last

one, things at once

that are way beyond

me.

I'm just trying to be a dad.

Might have never even left.

I hear my boys saying, you know, maybe I need to go back to Chiang Mai or...

I mean, that's...

It's got a ripple effect far beyond me.

And so a need got met because, Chris, I'm sorry I'm being long -winded, but a need got met for our family structure and

all the things that the Lord had for us.

And so now there's sons and daughters that I didn't think I would have.

And

then a

little grief.

And it wasn't necessarily the answer to the prayer that I

was asking or

wanting to...

Not for everyone, as

far as the

literal action of it, being

connected to it,

rally around.

Praise God.

Well, if the Lord opens up that door for you to come out to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and

jam with my brother, Andy, the stroke patient that I was telling you about.

Well, there's going to be somebody else who joins in the jam.

That's my friend, Brian Richardson, and he may be listening.

Brian and his wife, Robin, adopted two children from Haiti.

How wonderful.

And during Brian's trips to Haiti with his wife, his wife was

already a Christian.

Brian was not.

In fact, he was very hostile against Christianity, but loved his wife.

And he would go on these trips, missions -related trips to Haiti, involving doing

work at orphanages and so on.

And they fell in love with a biological brother and sister who they adopted.

And those are two beautiful, precious kids.

And Brian is also a guitar player.

So it would be nice for you and Brian and my brother to jam together, if God opens up.

That would be great.

That would be wonderful.

And you know what's so cool?

I'm from Little Rock, Arkansas.

And then having a completely biracial family where I

live, and with all of the things happening in our culture, it has an

effect.

And then sometimes we have to deal with things.

It's just part of it.

But the Lord's vision for what he wants to do with his church and what he wants to do on

Earth as it is in heaven, and we don't have it perfect at all.

And so I don't mean it like that.

But it's really great to see that the Lord would take some, and believe it or not,

very innate

biracial, and then I

still get to it.

You know, I couldn't have planned it.

There's no way I could have scripted any of this.

And then the same thing with Brian.

And here's these two that he has grafted into his

family.

And they're his.

And I just think that brings around change when people watch.

Because it's not an act.

You can't love on kids.

And you can't pretend that.

And they see that it's not the same.

And they know.

And they just have to wonder, well, why in the world would you do this?

You know, why wouldn't you just get a lake house?

I have a lake

house.

Great.

Love to meet Brian.

We do have a listener in Augusta, Maine, John, who says, have you

ever studied the therapeutic effects of music

on those who have learning disabilities and other types of challenges in life?

I have been amazed by documentaries I've seen about them.

You know, I had someone recently ask me about healing frequencies.

And I think it's called the Foligio tune, something like that.

I may be pronouncing it wrong.

But I do believe that there is some validity to that.

You know, there might be some placebo effect.

Well, even the mechanics of singing and so on, for instance,

I know that through, like, documentaries and things that I've seen, that

the part of the brain that controls singing is different than the part that controls speaking.

That's why you have people who are stutterers when they speak who do not stutter when they sing.

And I've heard that children with autism and other things have learned

how to speak more properly and understandably by singing

phrases and things like that.

And it strengthens a certain ability in the brain to communicate and so on.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's one facet of it.

That is the other side.

I think I was thinking a little more ethereal.

But there is calming qualities to particular tones.

And it gets back to the thing we talked about earlier.

One of the things that haunted me in trying to figure out God was

answered because a minor chord put together that made every human

feel sad, no matter how old, no matter what.

And that if you moved one note in it, it made everybody feel high.

It lifted the atmosphere.

It was magical.

And then something had to create that.

And that led me.

But that's true.

So, you know, it doesn't mean that, like, rock and roll is really bad.

But it does create some anxiety or, you know, anger or frustration or rally or

zest.

Then there's like the flute and long, drawn -out, beautiful melodies.

And you play

this, but

we need to go for long, drawn -out, like, things that are going to soothe the brain.

And then, yes, getting the other stuff.

You know why, though, Chris, is God made this.

All we're doing is harnessing what he originally designed it to do.

Well, I guess that 18th century English poet who said,

music hath charms to soothe the savage breast.

I guess that's actually true.

I think it is.

And all they were doing was taking note of something that they saw happen.

They harnessed something.

A music theory is difficult to teach.

It's not because music theory is vague.

It's because human language is vague in capturing.

I think in some cases it's fate.

And by the way, John in Augusta, Maine, since you're a first -time

questioner, we're going to send you out a free New American Standard Bible, compliments of the publishers

of the New American Standard Bible.

So you need to give us your full mailing address, and we'll get that out to you as soon as possible.

Thanks to our friends at Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, cvbbs .com.

That's cvbbs .com, who ship out all of our winner's books at no

expense to Iron Sharpens Iron.

And we thank Todd and Patty Jennings for being faithful supporters of Iron Sharpens Iron.

And we also, as I said, thank the publishers of the New American Standard Bible for sponsoring this program.

Ever since 2006 when we first went on the air, their website is nasbible

.com.

Nasbible .com.

In fact, providentially, you heard earlier on a mutual friend of my guest and

mine, Dr. James Earl White of Alpha and Omega Ministries did the voice for their ad.

But John, you might also want to know that the Fellowship Conference New England

in Portland, Maine is coming up.

They sponsor our program as well, Fellowship Conference New England.

That's August 4th through the 6th at the Deering Center Community Church in Portland, Maine.

And my friend, Pastor Mac Tomlinson, who is the pastor of Providence Chapel in

Denton, Texas, is one of the speakers.

There's at least four speakers there.

And I promise you that you will have a wonderful time of worshiping and hearing the Word

preached and taught and fellowshipping with some dear brethren in Christ if you're able to go to that.

That's August 4th through the 6th at the Deering Center Community Church in Portland, Maine.

I don't know how close that is to Augusta.

But the website is fellowshipconferencenewengland .com,

fellowshipconferencenewengland .com.

I want to play one more of your songs from the CD, Jason, Holy, Holy, Holy,

another one of my favorites.

And I hope that those of you listening just sit back and worship the Lord as you

hear our very gifted brother in Christ, Jason Truby, perform this

beautiful, cherished hymn on the acoustic guitar.

Yeah,

that

is

absolutely

beautiful.

That was Holy, Holy, Holy by our guest, Jason Truby, from his new

CD, Hymns.

And we have been interviewing Jason Truby for the last, nearly the last two hours.

We're drawing quickly to the conclusion of those two hours.

And we just are so delighted that the Lord enabled him to stick in there with the

extra hour that we weren't anticipating because of his health today.

But I love that hymn.

Sounds so nice.

They sang it thrice, Holy, Holy, Holy.

And that sounded like to me, unless I'm just completely off base

with my genius switch today, that sounded like there was a lot of influence

from the African continent.

Yes, I'm actually using a rosewood percussive.

It's really deep, warm tone.

And yeah, you got that one right.

And there's little hints of culture in each tune.

I'll just kind of throw that out there.

Sure.

Sometimes I don't even really mention that.

But if you have ears to hear it, yeah, this one just has some

neat things happen to it.

Oh, yeah.

Well, I loved every single thing that I've heard by you, brother.

And I just want to before we run out of time, I want to make sure our listeners have your website URL.

It's Jasontruby .com.

And Truby is spelled T -R -U -B as in boy.

Why?

That's Jasontruby .com.

That's T as in Thomas, R -U -B as in boy.

Why?

And that's an interesting name.

What ethnic origin is that?

Well, we are, you know, a cornucopia of basically a mutt.

But that originated probably French and English

primarily.

But then we have, there's not a

lot of us, but I will

say this.

The ones that I have come across were in Pennsylvania.

Really?

Yeah.

And two or three contact me over the last couple of years.

Just wondering if we had any family connection that maybe

we came back.

Well, I'm going to adopt your last name into my own use of slang.

I'm going to adopt a new usage for it.

Instead of being a wannabe Christian, be a Truby.

Truby or not Truby, right?

It's always better to be a Truby than a wannabe.

There you go.

A true B and just put like a B flat or something on it.

That's wonderful.

Well, I would like you in the three minutes we have left to really leave our

listeners with what you most want etched in their hearts and minds before they leave the program today.

Well, besides the hymns album and all the things that the Lord has us do,

experiential hurts for

everybody and it doesn't segregate.

And the encounter that we speak through everything else in this life, that

door, human

language, for me, Holy

Spirit.

And then everything else that I've and every time I get off track, it reminds

me and gently loves me through grace into who I am.

I do believe that my image is

hidden apologetically or otherwise, but I do know that I've

experienced and I

would

encourage

everyone to

be honest

about that and honest with other

people allows for that encounter to happen.

And when the Holy Spirit does show up and give you the, hey, take it or leave it, then the

ball's in your court.

But I do know that he loves us.

He's summoning us.

He's pursuing us.

I know in my case, he haunted and romanced me at the same time,

reformed or not reformed, pursuing us.

And to render to

that, and the music

is for everybody, this album is.

And I hope you enjoy just the music.

Well, praise God, brother.

We are out of time.

And I know that your website again is jasontruby .com, jasontruby .com.

I hope to have you come back soon.

And I want everybody to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater savior

than you are a sinner.

I hope you have a safe and Christ -centered weekend.

God bless.