THIS IS (PARTIALLY) A TEST
This is the latter part of one of our signature songs, This is a Test. The original mix that I was given fades in part way through the song. I’m not sure what happened there. Richard’s drum fills at the end of the song were always great. This was so much fun to play live! This (full) song also appears on Awake & Sing, You Who Dwell in Dust – TFM #2.
Recorded 10/11/2007
HOPE THE CARRY ON (Rich Mullins)
This song was written by Rich Mullins. For some reason the keyboards drop out of the original mix that I was given – just as the singing starts. I have no idea why. The Rich Mullins album that this song comes from is called Never Picture Perfect. Very fitting.
Rich Mullins had a great impact on me as a new believer. He still does today. I find myself saddened when I mention him to other Christians and they respond with, “Who’s that?” Please don’t be one of those people.
Recorded 10/11/2007
SHOWERS OF BLESSING
This is another one that we played quite often. This song also appears on The Earnest Expectation – TFM #1.
Mark was such a joy to play with. He’d never let me play a new song all the way through for him to hear how it went though. He’d just start playing along like he already knew the song that I had just written… He would always watch my hands to follow the chord changes and the stops. I can’t tell how many shows we did where he would be watching me intently, and I’d realize he couldn’t hear himself through the monitors. The song would end, and I’d call over to him, “you can’t hear yourself can you…” He would cooly shake his head, and I’d have to yell to the sound guy (if there was one) to turn the keyboard up in the monitors (as at the end of Track 1 on Disc 1). HOWEVER…. Not only did Mark NEVER complain (he really didn’t even seem to be bothered by it at all, in fact), but NO ONE would have ever known that the man was playing the songs perfectly without even being able to hear a single note that he was playing! I was so blessed to spend so much time during this season making music and leading worship with him on so very many occasions.
Recorded 1/10/2008
THE BREAD OF ADVERSITY
This song also appears on Awake & Sing, You Who Dwell in Dust – TFM #2.
People want God to answer their prayers. And God most certainly does. But what do we do when the answer is not what we wanted…? It takes a lot of humility and faith to trust that God knows better than we do…. about everything.
Recorded 3/20/2010
JESUS SAID YOU MUST
I made Laura perform this campy revised version of the song against her will (I do believe). It turned out OK, though maybe just a little bit silly. Things don’t always turn out the way we imagine them…
This song also appears on Ebenezer Stone – Part 3 – TFM #7.
Recorded 10/11/2007
SO UNREASONABLE
People want to figure out God. People want God to meet whatever they believe “reasonable” should be. In doing so, they desire to replace God with themselves – whether they realize that’s what they’re doing or not. When the serpent deceived Eve in Genesis 3, he tells her that God doesn’t want her and Adam to be like Him. Funny though…. God made them in His image (likeness), didn’t He? What a liar satan is…
Anyway, it makes no sense that God loves us in our sinful fallen state (which separates us from Him), and that He sent a part of Himself – His only Son Jesus – to die a horrific death on our behalf to pay the price for sin that we can’t pay for ourselves in order to restore our relationship with Him. It makes no sense. It is beyond reason. It is so unreasonable!
When I first showed the song to Richard, I wasn’t sure he’d know what I meant with the two different beats. But he did. He and I were always on the exact same page, man. Playing with him was effortless!
This song has been completely rewritten. New vibe. All new lyrics. See Ebenezer Stone – Part 2 – TFM #6 / “The One of Whom the Prophets Wrote.”
Recorded 10/11/2007
LOOK THROUGH THE HOLES IN HIS HANDS (ALTERNATIVE VERSION)
This song has shifted speeds and such many times. This is a more laid back version featuring Ram Stewart on guitar leads and backing vocals. This song also appears on Disc One of What Then? and also on Ebenezer Stone – Part One – TFM #5.
Recorded 3/20/2010
BETTER THAN THIS
This song also appears on Awake & Sing, You Who Dwell in Dust – TFM #2 under the title of “Gonna Get Better.” If you listen really carefully at the very beginning of this you can hear Laura sort of sigh-in-the-Spirit into the microphone just before I start playing. I always listen really, really closely so that I can hear it. Ahhhhh…. God is so good! Amen.
Recorded 5/8/2008
A MORE EXCELLENT WAY
Here’s a song I wrote on a quick jaunt to Wegman’s one evening. (Pretty sure it was New Year’s Eve 2004.) We played this one quite a lot over the years. I’ve since re-worked it, and a revised version appears on …And Let the Hills Hear Your Voice – TFM #3 under the title of “Show Us a More Excellent Way.”
Recorded 1/10/2008
TRACK 10
On the original CD version of Alive in the Chapel I had a whole bunch of excerpts to go between the songs. As I was “remastering” the songs and such (all I could do was fiddle with the EQ) for that CD (latter part of 2008), I spliced together parts of two different prayers (one from Laura and one from me), and included them here because of the tie-in to the prior song.
Recorded at the Rescue Mission – I don’t know which show(s), and it really doesn’t matter does it…?
TWO PENNIES
Towards the end of our run at the Rescue Mission, I was also leading worship for the Thursday night Men’s Group with a pianist named Bruce. One Monday evening at his apartment after rehearsing the songs for that week, we ended up expanding this song considerably. When we were finished, I told Bruce how excited I was, and he said, in his normal deadpan, low-key manner, “Yeah, I never liked that song; I thought it was boring…” The expanded version with the instrumental sections is called “Tell You the Truth” and is found on Ebenezer Stone – Part 3 – TFM #7.
Recorded 2/29/2004
LORD YOU HAVE A WAY (EXPANDED VERSION)
This is the “interim” (evolving) version between the version that appears on Disc One of What Then? and the latest version found on Awake & Sing, You Who Dwell in Dust – TFM #2 titled “In the Way.”
Recorded 3/20/2010
TRACK 13
This is the last verse of my expanded version of the traditional Doxology. I have about six new verses for it that take the listener (and singer) through the gospel (as according to 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 & Revelation 19:11). The song in its entirety is the next-to-last track on To One Another – TFM #4.
Recorded 2/29/2004