Tony Cummings reports on passionate singer/songwriter JORDAN ELIAS

Jordan Elias

The release through Integrity Media of the album 'Desert Cry' by Jordan Elias may be Jordan's debut but the singer/songwriter with the Messianic worship vibe is steeped in music industry history. Jordan's grandfather was renowned producer Jerry Marcellino, who helmed projects for such superstars as Frankie Valli, Diana Ross, Al Jarreau, Smokey Robinson and Michael Jackson. Jordan's father, Yochanan Marcellino, cut his teeth in the music industry and went on to found several successful record labels, including Kerygma Records, Galilee Of The Nations Music and City Of Peace Media.

Jordan spoke to Cross Rhythms broadcaster Mike Rimmer about his album debut. "I've worked with my grandfather in the studio throughout my life, whenever I showed up, just kind of on the spot, mainly just hanging out. Of late we worked on 'Desert Cry' together with Jerry Marcellino, with Yochanan Marcellino, with myself so there were three generations on one record which was really an awesome time. Honestly, they are the greatest people in the world to work with. They shoot straight; tell you exactly what they need to hear and I'm really a guy who digs the black and white thing, I'm all about being straight up."

Born in Panorama City, California and raised in an idyllic Colorado setting, nine year old Jordan's life took a dramatic turn when his dad took a marketing job in Israel. Jordan went to school in Israel and became fluent in the Hebrew language. Several years later, the family relocated to Nashville, Tennessee and Jordan decided he was ready to go on another journey. He recalled, "I was 14 years old. I decided that my parent's faith was their faith and that I needed to find truth for myself. I decided to go on a quest for truth."

Jordan's quest took him to college campuses where he discussed eternal questions with philosophy majors and creation scientists alike. His quest also led him into drug use. The one night he was confronted by his father. Remembered Jordan, "My dad asked me, point blank, 'Are you on drugs?' I was 17 at the time. I decided to push the envelope. I wanted to prove that my dad was just another man with no access to any supernatural power. So I said, 'Yes.' He balled up his fist and I thought, 'Okay, here it comes.' But then this look of peace came over his face. He opened his hand and pointed at me. He told me to go to my room and seek God, because He was the only one who could help me."

That was a watershed moment for Jordan Elias. He recounted, "I felt like all the light in the world had turned away from me. I felt like I had lost the love of my father."

Brushing off a year's worth of dust from a Bible his parents had presented to him on his birthday, Jordan prayed for revelation to a God he wasn't even sure existed. "God if you're there, you can reveal yourself to me; but if you're not, you can't, and I don't expect you to," Jordan prayed. He opened the book, Russian Roulette style, and it fell to Proverbs, chapter one. "Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. But because I have called and you refused, and I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because you disdained all my counsel, and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity."

Jordan remarked, "It was the first time I ever read a book that read me. I felt like the Lord himself was rebuking me. I prayed, 'Jesus, I don't want a plastic Christian-ese version of you. I want the real you. I want to know you from the depths of my heart. I want you to know me.'"

Jordan experienced the typical Christian life of fits and starts, stumbles and falls, restorations and recommitments before another trip to the Holy Land would establish his calling to a radical faith and fill him with the power to proclaim, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" He continued, "Our family flew to Israel to celebrate my parent's silver wedding anniversary. While I was there I had this kind of encounter at the base of Mount Carmel where, out of nowhere, this Japanese guy says, 'Jordan'. I found out later it was Peter Tsukahira. He said, 'I want to invite you up to Mount Carmel to spend some time there.' So I went up there and that night I took a guitar, borrowed one from someone I'd just met. I spent some time in the cave and while I was there the Lord met me in a profound way. I was repenting, I was stumbling through some things. I was in there playing a song and all of a sudden it felt like a presence I can only describe as the kavod - that's the Hebrew word for glory, it means heavy. It's the heavy weight of the glory of God and it just burst into the cave. I was so startled I threw my guitar down - if you're a musician out there, don't do that - and this weight got heavier and heavier until I finally got down on my knees, got down on my face and when my head hit the floor I began crying out, 'God I'm your servant, I want your fire.' When the kavod lifted I saw this notebook lying on the ground."

The notebook wasn't Jordan's and he had no idea how it had come to be in the cave. But he opened it and read the words, "Do you really want my fire?" Recounted Jordan, "It went on for the next couple of pages describing the vessel that the Lord required and it was what he's always said - holiness unto the Lord. Holiness, holiness, holiness, be holy as I am holy. Obviously I realised that's not me. But it was as if the Lord was saying maybe not yet but I'm going to make you this. I don't know who wrote it but obviously someone felt they needed to write that down. I know it was from the Lord because it changed my life. The crazy part is I was crying out, the only things I could utter was Lord, I'm your servant, please give me your fire. And people ask me what is the fire? The word of God is like a fire in my bones, says Jeremiah. The word of God is the fire and I want the word of God. Jeshua, Jesus is the fire - the Lord our God is a consuming fire. So in other words I think the word of God is a fire in my bones, it's the same thing Jeremiah was saying to the house of Israel when he was saying repent and return to the Lord. It's the same message we hear over and over again from the prophets. They go out into the desert and the Lord gives them the same message for their generation - repent."

Jordan went back to the USA for a couple of months and made some money working in a restaurant. Then he returned to Israel. Said the singer/songwriter, "The Scripture that confirmed my way was if you are not willing to leave father, mother, brother, house, land, country then you have no part with me. And that was it. I signed off and headed to Israel."

Jordan spent the following year interning with a ministry in Israel before returning home to serve his father. "I needed to get to know my father, not only as a man of integrity in his business, but as a man of God. And I needed to pursue music with all my heart."

It would be three years before Yochanan Marcellino would turn to his son and say, "Son, you're ready." Armed with a notebook full of songs that had passed the exacting muster of both his father and grandfather, Jordan entered the studio with a full band, recording the songs old school, no meticulous tracking on Jordan's album. All musicians playing music at the same time made a sound that was richly organic and perfectly suited Jordan's songs. The Cross Rhythms reviewer wrote, "Jordan has a unique vocal tone and his raw, untamed style sits well with his message of uncompromising faith." One of the most powerful songs on 'Desert Cry' is "Tickle My Ears Gospel". Jordan spoke about the song. "One night I was in my bed, it was three o'clock in the morning but I couldn't sleep and I felt like there was a tremendous burden crushing my chest. I ended up jumping out of bed basically onto my desk and I wrote the whole song in about 10 minutes. It was something that the Lord put on my heart and it just came right out. I had the privilege of working with my father on that record. It's a call to awaken the sleeping Church; it's a call to awaken the sleepers. It's a rebuke, it's also a challenge to arise as a spiritual man, as a spiritual woman and answer that crystal clear message. The message of the Gospel is repent and turn to the Lord. The good news is that you can do that, that Jesus, Jeshua, made a way for that to happen, by his blood. So it was really answering that and walking in a manner worthy of the calling. So it was laying the axe to the root, if you will, to the spirit of compromise that has pervaded the Western Church."

Amongst those who have praised "Tickle My Ears Gospel" is Melody Green, widow of the late Jesus music legend Keith Green, who offered the ultimate accolade when she observed that it was a song Keith could have written. Why did Jordan think there were so few musicians prepared to declare an unflinching, uncompromised message that epitomised Keith Green's music? "I think it has to do a lot with what people want to hear. The song 'Tickle My Ears Gospel' comes from Scripture where Timothy says they will no longer endure sound doctrine but heap up for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires - teachers that will tickle their ears. I think it's because people don't want to hear the truth. The song 'Tickle My Ears Gospel' is an indictment of the prosperity gospel, of the feel good, self-help gospel. Instead of saying 'go to the self-help section' we need to be saying 'God help me'."

Another equally impacting song on Jordan's album is "Emily". Jordan was asked about the lady who inspired the song. "Emily died in a car wreck a couple of years back and her life impacted me as well as thousands of other young people. I had the privilege of meeting her just a couple of times so she was an acquaintance, like it says in the song. She was an acquaintance but in those brief moments I was able to see something really profound and it was the light, the light of Messiah coming out. But at that time I was confused. It impacted me. When I heard the news of her death I was working under the house doing some wiring - it felt like a dungeon down there. I heard the news and I just sat down there and I thought for a while. I thought this is life: people come, people go. You're here for a time then your time's done and then you're gone, so what's the point? And the point is to make the most of your life for the Lord, to burn out for God, to burn out for Jesus. It's to absolutely give your all at your one shot - there ain't no reincarnation here. You have one shot at this thing. Burn out for the glory of God, don't fade away."