Category Archives: Music
Here I flex my extremely limited expertise in the field of music, particularly songwriting.
How to be massively encouraged in under 12 minutes
- Click here.
- Download all three free songs (tracks 17-19).
- Set aside 12 minutes of your time to listen to them.
- Turn up the volume to the highest level possible without blowing out your speakers/headphones/earbuds/ears.
- Listen, and sing along if you know these hymns.
- Repeat step #1, but this time, buy the rest of the album.
It’s a little slice of Revelation 7:9. And it was even more awesome in person.
American Civil Religion
Just in time for the election…the only protest song I’ve written.
I’m tired of American civil religion
Where God is a word in the inauguration
A phrase in the pledge, and a charm on our coinsOur lips honor him, but our hearts are far from him
We curry his favor, and vainly we join
Our freedom, our God and our spite
We’ll do what we want because it’s our rightAnd that’s the American Dream
Where things just aren’t what they seem
Life enslaved by a pursuit of happiness
Liberty dies in a pursuit of happiness
This is the tyranny of hell
My country, ’tis of theeI’m tired of the way this is blurring my vision
Convenience being the theme of our nation
We’re sunshine patriots for the kingdom of GodFrom temples in Texas comes the lucrative witness
The syncretist lessons that bind in a fraud
Our Deity, money, and health
Where God is a tool to bring us more wealthAnd that’s the American Dream
Where things just aren’t what they seem
Life enslaved by a pursuit of happiness
Liberty dies in a pursuit of happiness
This is the tyranny of hell
My country, ’tis of theeChief among our exports
Chief among our sins
Chief among idolatries
Are idols made from himHow narrow the gates that lead to our manifest destiny
For no one within this land was conceived in liberty
And no one within the world is conceived in liberty
No, no one within the world is conceived in libertyAnd we are the tired, we are the poor
We are the huddled masses
We are the tired, we are the poor
We are the huddled masses
Yearning to breathe free
The wretched refuse of the teeming shore
Homeless, tempest-tossed, we come to you
Homeless, tempest-tossed, we come to you
When I Rise Up
When I rise up, when I lie down each day
Still, O Lord, you search me, and you know all my ways
Hemming me in, laying your hand on me
When you surround me, you set my spirit free
You set my spirit free
Were I to run, were I to hide away
Dwell in deepest oceans, or fly to break of day
Still you are there, seeing in darkest lands
Lead by your Spirit and hold me in your hand
And hold me in your hand
When I was formed, you had prepared for me
Days you had written before I came to be
Fearfully made, knit by a skillful hand
How vast your wisdom—your thoughts like grains of sand
Your thoughts like grains of sand
Lord, when I see enemies scorn your name
How I hate the wicked—but, Lord, am I the same?
Search all my heart, see where I go astray
Try me and lead me in your eternal way
In your eternal way
What Is Crooked
Based on Ecclesiastes 1. To this tune.
Sun, rise
Rise and waneAnd the earth remains
As generations are born and die in vain
Rivers return from where they flowed
The winds blow around, around againIn a weary world of nothing new
And unremembered gain
“What is crooked cannot straightened be”
Is the Cursed refrain
End of a World
Here’s a song I’ve been working on. It’s based on Ecclesiastes 12:1-8, which details in poetic fashion how your body falls apart and then you die. Quite the pick-me-up. Great for Christian radio.
End of a world
Evil days
Sun, moon, and every star go out
Heavens hid behind the shroud
The skies have worn away
There at the endOf a world
Years of pain
Through windows fading, dimly see
Clouds assemble solemnly
Where youth had spent their rain
There at the endSo the silver cord
Is severed by the hand that weaved it whole
Broken by Him
Who breaks the golden bowl
And shattered lies
The pitcher by the weary well run dry
Vain are the words
The mourners wail and cryEnd of a world
Fleeting breath
And dust returns to earth and grave
Spirit goes to God who gave
All life dispelled in death
There at the end
If you want an idea of the tune, it’s based on the one here, beginning at 0:27.
