About The Song A' The Broadsworde Ministries Logo

Back in the mid-80s, during his first year at Messiah Biblical Institute in Maryland, Dr. Michael L. Brown taught an open class on spiritual warfare in which he had us all memorizing:

Praise be to The LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

Psalm 141:1 [NIV]

One evening during that period I was praying with the Beth Messiah Worship Group about our ministry. As we focused on the aspect of spiritual warfare in worship, I was meditating on this verse. Abruptly I saw in my mind's eye I was playing my bass during worship, then it quickly morphed into a two-fisted broadsword right in my hands. I realized The LORD was showing me how He had been training my hands and fingers for war and battle as I endeavored to master the instrument, and that in a very real sense, my instrument is my weapon. The following Scriptures support this:

After consulting with the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to The LORD and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness, as they went out at the head of the army, saying: "Give thanks to The LORD, for his love endures forever." As they began to sing and praise, The LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. The men of Ammon and Moab rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another. When the men of Judah came to the place that overlooks the desert and looked toward the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground; no one had escaped.

II Chronicles 20:21-24 [NIV]

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Messiah.

II Corinthians 10:3-5 [NIV]

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. [...] Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Ephesians 6:12,17 [NIV]

So my bass has a double identity and purpose. I had shelved this revelation for over ten years until The LORD brought it to mind again in connection with my call to more seriously pursue my music ministry, even to the extent of preparing for the possibility of making it my vocation to some degree at some time in the hazy future. He instructed me to dig into the meanings of this bass-is-a-broadsword concept. In conjunction with that I was trying to define the ministry that I could name it. My research into swords led me to the Scottish claymore (a contraction of the Gaelic words meaning "great sword"). As I have Scottish ancestry and a claymore is roughly equivalent to a bass in size and weight, it seemed the right variety to appropriate.

The bass in the logo is the custom 5-string fretless that The LORD directed me to commission and then learn to play. As it would be used for worship music, I wanted it to glorify God just setting in its stand. Thus it seemed desirable to have it appear to be an ancient acoustic instrument, even Biblical. That research led to the headless design that is reminiscent of an oud (lute) and a kinora (lyre) all at once.

The cross is, of course, representative of the Savior who died for us and is Commander-In-Chief of His army that includes this ministry. The Mogen Daveed (Star of David) represents the Jewish people, of whom the Savior is one, and whose gifts and calling of God are irrevocable, according to Romans 9-11. This ministry serves the Messiah, the only Messiah, Messiah to the Gentiles and the Jews, who are still God's chosen people. The cross and star are wonderfully integrated just as the Bride of the Messiah is the one new man Ephesians 2:11-22 describes.

My wife and four children are of Jewish ancestry. Though I am not Jewish, I had been a member of the same Messianic Jewish congregation for over thirty years because that is where The LORD called me. Then I reaffiliated with Ahavat Yeshua Congregation in Washington, DC in 2012 where I have been since.

The Broadsworde sings the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb, and my voice rises as well, that all souls would taste and see that The LORD is good, and that His praise and worship would be made glorious.