Waiting is asking the question, “What are you waiting for?” Father-God is willing and desirous to provide us with whatever we need, and His provision is according to His riches in glory. (Philippians 4:19) His Spirit lives inside every Christian, the very essence and power of His personality. Don’t wait to call on His name for whatever you need. When you have a need, ask Him. When we don’t ask on Him for help we receive nothing from Him. He tells us in His Word that we should ask when we lack, or else we demonstrate our lack of faith in Him. (James 1:5-7) He is good and longs for you to rely on His glorious provision!

 

Starry is the musical expression of the effect God’s Starry heaven has on me. I live on a ranch in a rural area of California, and for all of you living in the city or suburbs, there really are billions and billions of stars still in the sky, and they are so incredibly beautiful. I wrote another song about Venus rising, which will be listed on a future album. Venus is a little diamond in the western sky that appears from middle winter through spring. God’s creation will undo you if you let it!

 

My Little Prodigal is a twist on the Prodigal Son story in that it is written for the prodigal daughter. We all like sheep sometimes go astray, and when the enemy is attacking us through life’s negative circumstances, we can wrestle our wills away from Father-God and His best for us. The feminine heart reacts to hurts and fears by taking control of situations. Our sisters have been prone to this reaction ever since we fell east of Eden. (Genesis 3:16) Man did not come through for her in the garden, so she comes through for herself and goes on the run. Father is waiting expectantly with love for her return. For any of you who have a little prodigal in your life, wait for her; look for her—she is coming home!

 

John the Just  “…is angry, he’s mad, he’s fuming, raging, livid at religion, power, and evil politicking…” If you have someone in your life who is constantly grinding at the grist mill of anger, and often expresses their frustration with negativity, this tune is for you! I, too, used to be this man. Men are particularly given to anger as an expression of their un-Fathered places of the heart. I ought to know: I was this man before I allowed Him to father me, which is candidly a work in progress, yet my will has been turned intentionally toward Him for His leadership. God’s number one attribute is His goodness, and that will draw any man to Himself, end his striving and begin the journey with Father at his side. (Romans 2:4b.) 

 

Free calls the hearer to take a chance on God: to risk trusting Him enough to step into the waters of life at flood-stage. This is what God asked Joshua and twelve men of Israel to do in order to enter the Promised Land. (Joshua 4:1-10) The Promised Land was on the other side of the waters, at its most dangerous season. At points, the Jordan is over one mile wide and many feet deep. It required trust in God’s promises in order to even consider entering those roiling waters. This is a metaphor for every dangerous situation or seemingly impossible task that stares us down. If God has called you to cross the difficulty to your “promised land,” you can trust in Him to find a way safely through the waters; God will protect you if He has called you through, but their faith was required first before He would stop the river from flowing. 

 

Parade is a metaphor for living the simple life with family and friends, in the country, where we take time to celebrate our relationships with each other, and where folks are able to say, “Life is good!” The simple life is a life that is slower than the rat race most of us live day to day. It is much easier to find God and each other when we slow life down, and the country is the best place to do life this way. The parade is life ambling by as we enjoy it, and if we have a spot saved for us on the hill, we can enjoy it with our loved ones all around us. (Psalm 128:3)

 

Rhema is a Hebrew Word meaning, word or utterance. It is sometimes spelled Hrema, but it sounds more like the spelling I used with the “R” at the front. In the Bible there are two words used in the New Testament to describe the Word of God, and Bible teachers often do not differentiate between them, which is a travesty! Rhema is an utterance of the Lord, and logos is the written Word of God. Our God wants to have conversation with us as we pray, but we more often pray as a monologue. How sad that we don’t lean our ear in His direction to hear His special whisperings for us. Mr. Poetry Man is analogous to the humanist, the man of pride who thinks himself pretty clever with whatever words he has strung together. While this poser presumes himself to be all that, the song asks him “…what will you write down when you’re dead?” God’s Words of creative power formed the universe. The Bible speaks of the ‘Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.’ The Word in this case is rhema: when God utters something quite personal in our ear. God still speaks today, yet always in agreement with His written Word or logos. (Ephesians 6:17)

 

Daddy’s Song is a tune I wrote when my first child was born. I felt a great weight of responsibility at the time to live up to a standard for her watchful eyes. “Daddy’s gonna write the forward [to her life] like it or not…Daddy better look to Jesus to get it right.” I have learned through the years (my eldest is 24 at this writing) that we don’t just need Jesus to help us with parenting and its inherent difficulty; we need Him to carry the load for us. While the job of being a Daddy is a father’s, the weight of it is not his to carry. Jesus says to every Daddy that He will carry our load, whatever it may be, and His burden is a light one. (Matthew 11:28-30) This Scripture speaks of being yoked with Jesus, like two oxen. In ancient farming the older ox is yoked to a younger one, so that the elder teaches the younger ox how to work. The elder carries most of the load and it’s the close proximity of walking with the elder ox that shows the younger one how to do the work. This is our Savior’s heart toward all fathers. He will shoulder the load!

 

When The Stone Was Rolled Away is actually an Easter song at it's core and answers the question, “If you could go back anywhere in time, where would you go?” For me, I would love to go back to the tomb where Jesus was laid, and be there three days after His death. Like the lyric says, I would love to see the funny look on their faces when they see that He is not there; He is risen! This song is written in a traditional blues style and speaks of 1.) people’s general unbelief toward the resurrection of Christ, 2.) the second verse speaks of the unbelieving man raising his middle finger to God in some kind of self-proclaimed religion, and 3.) the third verse declares the great blessings of the resurrection to all who believe. There is love, and freedom, now that Jesus Christ is raised. He’s conquered sin and death and the grave. The grave could not hold Jesus and it will not hold us either; we all who believe. Christ is risen! (Acts 10:40)

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Higher Up, Further On was written for close loved-ones, at a time of great difficulty and attack on their faith. I did my best to vision-cast for those without the eyes to see. God is always calling us beyond where we are, and into a better future, higher up toward Him, and further on away from our past. We should hold on to that which is good, and leave behind all regret and reproach. I have observed that very few people actually live this way, but instead live within the confines of resignation. This ought not to be. Father-God always has the last Word. (Philippians 3:13)

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Little Bit is a simple yet profound lyric about what we all need to thrive in this life: faith, hope, love, grace, peace, joy and J-E-S-U-S! If all we ever had were the above, we would have all we need. The song speaks of the little bit we need to do life, but so often we lack even that little bit because of the cares of this life. To be honest, the song is mostly about the music and I challenge you to keep from tapping your toes or even dancing unreservedly to its joyous beat. Hopefully it will produce more than a little bit of all these in the hearer: faith, hope, love, grace, peace, and joy.

 

All Is Well was written at midnight in early 2014. The melody came to me quickly and I wrote it down on sheet music as fast as I could do, in order not to lose the remembrance of its tune. This does not happen for every song; most songs take some work, arranging and rework. But every once in a while I am blessed with lighting in a bottle. All Is Well is one of those times, as was I Will Follow, coming on a future album. I want to be able to live my life in such a way that I can truly state that all is well. I believe this is what Father-God wants for us all. Wellness in body, mind and soul, are all components of grace. Grace is everything we receive from Him that cannot be earned. Only when we realize that this Christian life is not of our making, can we truly experience the wellness that grace produces. Mercy is not getting what we deserve, and grace is receiving what we don’t deserve! I hope this instrumental declares what it sounds like when all is well.

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