Magnificent

Just got back from a great weekend with the San Diego church. Friday night we did some Bible teaching, mostly learning new songs (split into SATB for part of the night), Saturday had a workshop with the worship leaders, and Sunday an awesome worship service with lots of great music. Sunday especially was so moving–seeing people hungry for deep worship, at one point I was too chocked up to sing and had to just mouth the words as I lead the group. It is always so good for my soul to connect with groups that have a passion for God and a hunger to take their worship deeper. It is so fulfilling to feel like God is using me to help others.

When I was younger I had a dream of being a rock star. I wanted to be able to perform in front of huge audiences, to hear my songs on the radio, to feel like I made an impact with my music. It’s funny how God takes your dreams and gives them back in a new package that is actually more fulfilling. Being in Keiv, Ukraine last October, hearing thousands of people singing these songs I’ve written in another language, going places like San Diego and seeing how God uses these simple songs he gives me to help people, it gives me a sense of awe and purpose. I’m not and probably never will be a rock star (thank God –I probably couldn’t have handled the spiritual environment of the music industry). I don’t even consider myself a performer. I am a worship leader. I am not the point. God is. I help people see him. I help people praise him. I can’t take any credit for any of these songs. They are God’s. He has put them in my mouth and used me as a simple tool for his purpose.

I read this in my Bible this morning,
He has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ (Eph 4:7, NLT).

We each have some gift God has given us for the edification of his church. For me, it’s songs.

On the way down to San Diego and back we were listening to U2’s new album (No Light On the Horizon). There is a song on that album that I felt expressed exactly the way I was feeling. I love the lines “I was born to sing for you / I didn’t have a choice but to lift you up / and sing whatever song you wanted me to…” I love this song. Even though it’s not mine, I decided to share it for my “Monday Morning Music” entry this week. After all, it’s not Bono’s song either.

Magnificent (U2)

I was born
I was born to be with you
In this space and time
After that and ever after I haven’t had a clue
Only to break rhyme
This foolishness can leave a heart black and blue

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scar

I was born
I was born to sing for you
I didn’t have a choice but to lift you up
And sing whatever song you wanted me to
I give you back my voice
From the womb my first cry, it was a joyful noise…

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scar

Justified till we die, you and I will magnify
The Magnificent
Magnificent

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love unites our hearts

Justified till we die, you and I will magnify
The Magnificent
Magnificent
Magnificent

No Other Love

I wrote this song back in college. I was sitting in a keyboard studio room playing with different sound patches, noodling on the keyboard, and got locked into playing a repeating pattern of chords: G / D / emin / C. There is something about that chord pattern, I – V – VI – IV in any key, that makes for creating what I would call an “emotional space” sonically. I didn’t realize at the time how often it’s used in popular music (example, U2’s With Or Without You, or Alicia Keys’ No One, or Black Eyed Peas Where is the Love). And later as I got more familiar with contemporary Christian music I would find that same chord pattern there a lot.

I think it is interesting the way that different chord changes alone can produce a feeling in us. Music is literally built into the Creation (I’ll write more some other time about the overtone series and my music school experience). There is something in he way we were created and the way we sense the world around us that makes certain intervals, certain chords, certain shapes of melody sound beautiful to us, much the same as a gorgeous sunset is stunning to someone of any language or culture. As artists, sometimes we want to be original, want to find some unique chord, some never-been-done-before pattern of melody or chord structure. I got kind-of stuck like that at one point –looking for originality. Then I decided: who cares –use the same old chords! This has freed me up a lot as a song writer. Maybe I’ll never win a Grammy, but I’ll write a lot of songs.

See, I believe music is a part of God’s creation — a gift from him. [Amazing how we try to use it just for ourselves, isn't it? I guess we do that with a lot of what God gives us.] In fact, music is even pre-creation in some sense, as God asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation… while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7) I think God gave us music for the purposes of singing his praise, connecting with him, remembering what he has done (the way this song does) and sharing it with others. Let’s steal good music back from those that would use it for fleshly purposes and put it to proper use.

Anyway, I hope you can connect with something in the lyrics, melody, or I-V-VI-IV chords of this song!

No Other Love (studio recording, from my album “Be with Me Lord”

Click here for SHEET MUSIC

NO OTHER LOVE

I was cold and all alone
Lost in darkness and far from home
You’d loved me, but I walked away
Left your love and I cursed your name
Was weak and small, but you gave your life for me
You heard my call, and gave your all

There’s no other love that’s like your love
You’re there when I’m lonely
When I fall you lift me up
There’s no other love that’s like your love
I’m thirsty and only your love can fill my cup

Now here I am just a grain of sand
A spark of life in a loving hand
My sight is shallow, a narrow view
But you open my mind when I walk with you
You hold my hand, you stoop down and make me great
Just the grain of sand that I am

There’s no other love that’s like your love
You’re there when I’m lonely
When I fall you lift me up
There’s no other love that’s like your love
I’m thirsty and only your love can fill my cup

She Holds Up Half the World

Yesterday was my wife Dessa’s spiritual birthday (she was baptized 20 years ago in the Boulder, Colorado campus ministry). Her physical birthday was a week and 1/2 ago, and we celebrate 16 years of marriage this week –so I’m thinking a lot about her and decided to share this song. (I’m mostly sharing congregational church songs on this blog, but will make the occasional exception.)

Besides my salvation, my marriage is the greatest of God’s gifts to me. I feel humbled by the grace of God and guidance of his word that I’m able to have a great marriage… In my sinful nature I’m selfish, prideful, and self-destructive –but through God I can honestly say this partnership just gets better and better, deeper and more satisfying. There is an ancient Chinese proverb, “women hold up 1/2 the sky”, or “women hold up 1/2 the world.” I wrote this song for Dessa many years ago and stole that idea –very true of her in my life (although these days I think she holds up more than half).

My first independent CD release, “Nothing Else”, was a senior project in college, recorded in the campus studio, and this is the recording I made back then for that album. Since that CD is no longer available and you can’t get the recordings on iTunes, feel free to download and share this mp3. (By the way, my younger sister Holly is singing the background vocal.)

She Holds Up Half the World

I also made a new Youtube video this morning of the song, in honor of my awesome wife. Happy anniversary honey!

SHE HOLDS UP HALF THE WORLD

Look inside my mind and see
what in my mind she means,
what she means to me;
she’s a lighthouse in the night.
She is half of all I am and if I fall she can
always lift me;
I’m lost at sea without her light.

When I’m losing the war,
she picks up my sword and fights for me.
She’s my support.
She’s all I need.

She holds up half the world.
She’s no ordinary girl.
I’m half empty without her.
She holds up half the world.

I’d always dreamed of finding someone;
I had in mind the one
who would complete me.
But she is more than I could dream of.

There are no songs to play,
no way to say, words can’t explain
what she means to me.
I’m half a soul without her love.

She holds up half the world.
She’s no ordinary girl.
I’m half empty without her.
She holds up half the world.

The Spirit’s Fire

Tonight I have my monthly planning meeting for an annual singles conference we’re putting on this summer (this is our sixth year now, hosting this conference). Thinking about the conference reminds me of a song I would like to share with you. It is a song that is a collective prayer for help from God.

God brings each of us to those points where all we have is him, when we are spiritually desperate, in need of guidance and help from his Spirit. Sometimes we experience that all together.

Seven years ago, our church was at a point of spiritual desperation. We were going through a bit of an “identity crises” as a church, restructuring, rethinking the way we did things, and God had humbled us (pruning us for our benefit, I believe). As we were talking about what we could do to meet the needs of the church, to help people move forward, to be what God was calling the church to be, I brought up the idea of having a conference. It had been so long since we had done something like that, and I remembered seminars and conferences of old as being unforgettable times of spiritual renewal (these days we’ve got a lot of conferences going on around the country, but back then we didn’t). The way the planning worked out it ended up becoming a conference specifically for single adults. As we discussed the idea a theme that would reflect our desire for spiritual revival, one of the ministers, Tom Brown, suggested “The Spirit’s Fire” and that became our first singles conference theme.

I wrote this song for that first conference as a prayer for spiritual revival during a dark time. I was inspired by the last verse of an old hymn, “Revive us again – fill each heart with thy love – may each soul be rekindled with fire from above.” Now that things are going great in our church –we are learning, growing, feeling like God is really blessing us –I am reminded of the need to stay humble, moldable, dependent on God, glorying in his power, grace and mercy and not our own success.

Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the LORD. “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” - Isaiah 66:2

I am including below a video recording of the Spirit’s Fire, link to sheet music, and a chord chart.  [Also, lately I've been singing a contemporary of arrangement of "We Praise Thee O God", the hymn I reference above. I'll stick a demo recording of that on here as well.]

For the guitar players out there, I am using an alternate tuning for this video recording. The guitar strings (starting with the lowest) are tuned to D – A – D – G – A – D

Link to Spirit’s Fire Sheet Music

 The Spirit’s Fire

We need you now
We need your fire within
We need your love
We need you as our friend
We need your light
To guide through what’s ahead
We need you now
We need you now

The Spirit’s fire,
Almighty flame
Calling us higher,
Never the same
Burn in our hearts
Flow through our veins
The Spirit’s fire,
The Spirit’s fire.

Your power made
This universe we see
Your power saved
Our lives and set us free
Your power’s here
Among us as we sing
You’re everything
You’re everything

Give us your fire
To carry us along
Give us desire
To build the kingdom strong
Give us the dream
And when the dream is done
We’ll be with you
We’ll be with you

The Spirit’s Fire (chord chart)

Verse:
Gadd2 / Asus / D / D
Gadd2 / Asus / D / D
Gadd2 / Asus / bmin / bmin
Gadd2 / Gadd2 / Asus / A (break)

Chorus:
Gadd2 / Asus / D / D
Gadd2 / Asus / D / D
Gadd2 / Asus / bmin / bmin
Gadd2 / Asus / D / D

We Praise Thee O God – contemporary arrangement

White As Snow

For the last several years we have been doing sermon series in our congregation. It is a way to take a topic and really dig into it, and it’s also a great tool for outreach, as first-time guests want to come back to hear the upcoming sermons. Lately we’ve been in a series called CHANGE, and yesterday the theme was “How Your Life Can Change Forever”. Matt and Marlo, a couple who have been a part of the LA Church for a long time and now lead CR (Chemical Recovery) Ministry for the church, were with us and shared very vulnerably about the amazing transformation each has gone through by God’s amazing power –from drug use, abuse, and emotional detachment; to healing, freedom from addiction, helping others, leading this important ministry. I know I’ve seen God work miracles like that in my life; hopefully you have too.

Every Sunday we try to include music that somehow supports the main idea for that day. We had some great songs that reflected the change God is able to produce in us. One of the songs was one that my friend Tony Martin and I wrote together on one of his visits to LA, called “White As Snow.” Here is a link to some video from yesterday. Also a demo recording, lyrics, and sheet music with chord charts are below. [Tony, are you guys still singing this song? I'm sure your Baltimore version has got a much different feel --love to have you post a link to a recording some time to see the contrast.]

 

One note on the video –we meet in a movie theater. Every Sunday there is a worshipful portion of the service where we bring down the lights, just to help people be able to connect with God and think about what they are singing. So when Michael, the brother shooting the video, pans the audience and you see total darkness –don’t worry, the people ARE actually there.

A note on the demo recording –I got a Mac last summer and have been using “Garage Band” lately for quick recordings of songs for our worship teams.  They aren’t CD release quality, but they are great for something quick.  This recording was made in about 10 minutes with just the computer speaker mic and adding a few tracks with the harmony parts.  Pretty cool.

Download Recording (right click “save as”)  white-as-snow

Download PDF  Sheet music w/chord charts

WHITE AS SNOW

I was stumbling in the darkness
Lost without a home
You to sins that were as scarlet
Made them white as snow

Turned my dark into light
And you made me white as snow
Out of death into life
And you made me white as snow

Blood that flowed down from the cross, it
Stained the earth below
Red with love that paid the price to
Make me white as snow

Spirit gives me comfort and he
Shows which way to go
Now he lives inside me ‘cause you
Made me white as snow

You stoop down and make me great, my
Cup it overflows
Full of all you bless me with, you
Made me white as snow