ZIMRATH al-SHEMINITH
Recorded Monday 12/23/19 later evening.
This (first) recurring theme appears throughout all three Ebenezer Stone albums. It popped into my head one day in the summer of 2019 while I was wandering around Wegmans on James Street “helping” my wife with the shopping. I hummed it out loud over and over until she finally asked me to stop… I kept humming it to myself until we got home when I could plunk it out on the piano and write down the notes.
It was previously called “Sheminith” on the first two versions of the Ebenezer Stone CDs.
PROVERBS 16:20 (NKJV)
Recorded Saturday 12/14/19 evening.
From one of my memory verses. Written on 12/14/19 using a chord progression I had thought of a year or two before and had jotted down on the back of another song sheet. I kept playing the progression from time to time until I finally matched it up with the memory verse that day.
WHAT I WANT AND WHAT I NEED
Recorded Tuesday 9/10/19 early evening.
Written by * 5/10/07. Towards the end of his life, my friend Gary Storms would reply to the standard greeting “How you doing Gary?” with the answer “The battle rages…” Gary went to be with the Lord on 11/3/05. I included his words in the chorus of this song because they are so very true to me.
BLESSED TO BE BLESSED
Recorded Friday 11/8/19 early evening.
The original version of this appears on What Then? – Alive In the Chapel – Disc 1 and on The First & The Last – Disc 2. This revised version was written 11/2/19.
RUN WITH ENDURANCE
Recorded Tuesday 9/10/19 late evening.
This song is based on two memory verses. Just a couple weeks or so before Gary Storms died I was asked by Jim Livi to perform two songs at the Rescue Mission annual awards ceremony, honoring the recent achievements of many of the clients there (we called them “clients” back then…). Jim wanted us to sing “Choose Life” by Big Tent Revival, and he asked me to pick a second song for the evening. So I showed up for our rehearsal with this song that I had just written specifically for the event and Jim agreed to play it. He came up with a keyboard part and we sang this song together at the awards ceremony the night after I officiated Gary’s funeral (11/7/05). That was the only live performance of it ever.
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE
Recorded Sunday 11/3/19 late evening.
Written 10/24/19. I ran the keyboard drum sounds through my old Phase Shifter guitar pedal for something different. This is probably my favorite song on these three CDs.
CARRYING THE BONES TO MACHPELAH
Recorded Monday 12/23/19 later evening.
The first repeat of the first recurring Ebenezer Stone theme. The words were written 9/2/19. Please see Narrative – Part 1 for more.
THE BIBLE TELLS ME ALL ABOUT…
Recorded Friday 11/29/19 later afternoon.
Written by * 12/21/03. I met a trumpet player named Bill Brown at one of the churches we used to attend. One day we were talking and he used the phrase “they’re just perfecting their mistakes…” I told him I thought the phrase was really cool, and that I’d like to write a song using it. He said that was fine with him.
I think a lot of people read the Bible for the wrong reason. I believe it was given to us mainly to tell us who God is and what His plan for us is, and secondarily to give us insight into how to live our own lives. It’s not so that we can just identify the flawed traits in others.
BEHIND ME IN THE SHADOW
Recorded Sunday 8/25/19 later afternoon.
One day it occurred to me that if God is Light (according to the Bible) and we Christians are heading toward that Light, then our own shadow must be directly behind us. I combined that with the idea of telling satan to “get behind me,” which then means that satan must be lurking in our very own shadow. This seems very fitting for a being like him, and would explain why he tries to “masquerade as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14).
WELCOME TO THE MASQUERADE
Recorded Tuesday 10/22/19 evening.
Written 9/16/19. We know a young lady who comes from a Christian household and has admittedly wrestled with her faith throughout her early adulthood. One morning she posted something on Facebook that my wife showed me. It was a drawing of a young lady dancing with a devil. The caption said something to the effect of “She only wanted to have a little dance” in a way that implied such action should be harmless and innocent. My heart sank and I wrote this song that day in response. There are several memory verses at work here.
And please… If you’re thinking that hell will be a good place for you to spend eternity, consider this:
Hell is really the complete absence of God.
And since God is light, that means hell is utter and complete darkness.
You are not going to want to be bumping around in utter darkness with all of the demented rapists, murderers, torturers, etc. who have also rejected God forever and ever without any hope of reprieve or relief, and with no hope of anyone ever intervening to save you from it. Please don’t choose to spend forever like that.
God lets you choose your eternity – either with Him or without Him.
He forces hell on no one.
We each choose Him or hell for ourselves.
Please choose life. Eternal life with God.
NOTHING IN RETURN
Recorded Saturday 9/14/19 evening.
Written by * 5/03. I can still recall the first time I shared with someone else about the love of Jesus. I came away from the conversation filled with an inexplicable joy, but also with another unbelievable feeling… You see, this was the first time in my life that I had shared something with someone else where I had received nothing in return and it hadn’t bothered me or left me feeling unsatisfied! I realized that up to that time, every conversation I’d ever had was rooted in “what am I getting out of this…?” “What’s in this for me?” What a strange and wondrous new feeling I suddenly had.
This song is based on several memory verses, and is a prayer that God would continue to teach me how to always live in light of sharing love and expecting absolutely nothing in return for it.
THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE
Recorded Sunday 10/20/19 late afternoon.
Written 10/16/19. More memory verses. However, since the famous Fruit of the Spirit Bible verses are so familiar, I thought I’d try singing them in reverse order, so that the ending point is love (just as the starting point is). I combined this with Jesus’ words about abiding in Him, since we will bear no spiritual fruit without abiding in Christ.
PARAT ZEKER
Recorded Saturday 12/28/19 early evening.
This is the second of the two recurring themes for the Ebenezer Stone Albums.
I’LL BE YOUR LOVE
Recorded Sunday 10/20/19 afternoon.
Written 9/7/19. More memory verses. It’s really just a prayer. The third in a trilogy of love songs here… Amen.
LOOK THROUGH THE HOLES IN HIS HANDS
Recorded Saturday 8/10/19 early evening.
Written with help from J. Mark Oda on 9/23/04. This also appears on “What Then? – Alive in the Chapel.
THINGS WHICH ARE NOT SEEN
Recorded Tuesday 10/22/19 evening.
Written by * 5/6/06. A rewrite of one of my old BC songs, and it is again based on memory verses. During a later rewrite, J. Mark Oda helped me with the intro progression.
A reminder that whatever we see or think about this world is probably the opposite of how – and what – God thinks about it. Jesus’ kingdom is an upside down kingdom. In our flesh, we humans don’t see anything the way God does.
SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN
Recorded Friday 11/1/19 evening.
A traditional folk metal lullaby…
A song about not being afraid of death.
A song about recognizing our place in the grand scheme of things.
I heard someone once say that on your tombstone there will be two dates (your birthday and the date of your death) with a little line between them. …And that little line represents your entire life…
THE ONCOMING HUMBLE REVIVAL
Recorded Wednesday 11/11/20 late afternoon.
This is the only song I wrote during the COVID-19 lockdown era… The first version late April to early May 2020, and then rewritten late June to early July 2020. Therefore, this was not on the first version of the Ebenezer Stone Albums, but was added for the “restacked” version.
I was taking our dogs for rather long walks (one early in the morning and the other fairly late at night) during those strange months, giving me plenty of time to work on the lyrics and the melody. I must admit that I was thinking about our son a lot too, wondering where he was and if he was okay.
So, maybe this is for you, Michael. I hope you’re okay – and please remember that Jesus is the only way to true peace.
HIGGAION ZAMAR
Recorded Monday 12/23/19 later evening, and using the first recurring theme again.
IN TO YOUR REST
Recorded Sunday 10/20/19 afternoon.
This was a very, very different song for many, many years. I never felt that it was completed, but it would pop into my mind often. After going to an amazing Rend Collective concert one night with my daughter Jenni, I rewrote this into this final version. Simple thoughts about a complex God.
* Note: Wherever it says “Written by…” that indicates the oldest recording or live performance date that I know of (so it must have been written by that date obviously).