Please take time and read the following two verses carefully.  John 10:4 says, “When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.”  John 8:47 says, “He who belongs to God hears what God says.  The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”  Knowing the voice of God is to be fundamental for Christians.  The entire Christian life should be summed up by: 1. Christians listen to God’s voice.  2. Christians obey what God says.  I have found that God will lead me even through the mundane parts of my day.  When I go to work, I am not working for my employer, God desires to use me as a missionary at my work place.  My boss is God Himself.  God is an expert at taking the mundane parts of our days and making them into eternally significant moments.  As we walk through our day listening to our Good Shepherd’s voice, we will find ourselves participating in what God is doing!  I praise Him for inviting us into this deep relationship.  This song was written while trying to walk moment by moment in step with my Lord.  When I woke, I wrote verse 1.  After lunch, I wrote verse 2.  The Bridge was written as I was preparing for bed.  My heart’s cry is, “Lord, I want to be where You are.  I don’t care where You are going.  I am where You are today.”

Where You Are

For free chord charts of this song go to freelygivenmusic.com.

One day, I was praying in my basement after hearing God’s calling to move my family to the foreign mission field.  The journey ahead seemed impossible and dangerous.  I was full of fear and feeling radically unqualified.  I knew that I was being called to a place where safety for my family could be found only in God.  I also knew that following God would not guarantee our safety.  Both Scripture and history are full of people who suffered while following God.  This song is my song of surrender to my Lord.  

Welcome Home

For free chord charts of this song go to freelygivenmusic.com.

To understand this song you must put yourself in John the Beloved’s shoes.  John was a disciple of Jesus.  Many scholars say that John was the closest person to Jesus during Jesus’ earthly ministry.  This is why John became known as John the Beloved.  John the Beloved is the same John that wrote the Gospel of John in your Bible.  The inspiration for this song came from John 13:1, “Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father.  He now showed the disciples the full extent of his love.”  This song begins with those words and tells the rest of the story of John’s Gospel.  Now, put yourself in John’s shoes and imagine yourself sitting down and writing the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  What thoughts would be going through your mind?  As John penned his Gospel, he remembered every detail about the events that took place.  As you listen to this song, imagine John singing it to Jesus.  For further study, begin in John 13:1 and read the rest of the book of John.  As you read it, stand in awe of what God has done for you.

Holy is the Lord

The story of this song is fun!  One morning while preparing to record, I picked up my guitar and began to play.  Soon, I became distracted and began to write a song.  I had one problem, the song sounded beautiful but it had no lyrics.  Later that day, I met with two vocalists to record.  One of them asked if I would be willing to help them write a song for her friend.  Of course I was interested.  This vocalist had received a poem from a friend.  In the poem, her friend described the depth of God’s love and forgiveness toward her.  The vocalist had put a melody line to the poem and began to sing the song.  Here is the fun part, the melody line matched perfectly with the chords I had written that morning.  I believe this song came from God and was written for the specific purpose of encouraging a lady I have never met.  To this lady I say, this song is “For You.”  No one else.  It is God’s song for you!  I pray that God will use it throughout your life to remind you of His great love for you.  I am a father.  One thing I am very careful of is not “labeling” my children anything other than how God labels them.  I believe in many ways we become the label we put on ourselves.  I don’t know where you are or what you are going through but know for certain, God desires you to walk under this label, “DAUGHTER OF THE KING OF KINGS!”  He is proud of His daughter and He loves you deeply.  I praise God for what He is doing in your life! Thank you for giving me the privilege of recording this song!  I pray that it blesses you!


For You

For free chord charts of this song go to freelygivenmusic.com.

The Bible describes Christians as the light of the world (Mt 5:14-16).  Here is a picture I want you to think about.  Picture the church as a light house.  The world around the light house is pitch black.  Can you see the beam of light as it spins around and around.  This is what God desires His church to look like.  Our righteousness, which is caused by the Holy Spirit, becomes a beam of light which causes others to glorify God.  Now, imagine a different picture.  Again the church is a lighthouse.  In this picture however, imagine the world being dimly lit.  Picture a beam of darkness instead of a beam of light radiating out of the lighthouse as it spins.  As the darkness spins it makes the world a darker place.  Truth: a church that is not being transformed by God is a dark house not a light house.  Matthew 6:22-23 says, “The eye is the lamp of the body.  If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness.”  This verse tells us that it is possible for us to think that we are being light while actually being darkness.  This song was written from a heart that is longing for the Church to yield to the Holy Spirit so that the Holy Spirit can make us a bright light.  The Bible tells us that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is LIGHT!! Read Gal 5:16-26 carefully and notice what the Holy Spirit does when we yield to Him!  Truth: the byproduct of a Spirit filled life is the fruit of righteousness.  Have you ever seen an apple tree straining to produce an apple?  No!  Fruit grows naturally because it is an apple tree.  Transformation in our lives happens naturally in us as we abide in the Spirit.  If the Holy Spirit is in my life, I will naturally begin to produce the fruit of the Spirit.  He will change my desires so that I begin to desire the things of God rather than the things of this world.  I pray God will use this song to remind us of our need to yield to the Holy Spirit as He refines us so that our light may shine bright.  Further Study:  Mt 5:14-16; Jn 8:12


Light of the World

For free chord charts of this song go to freelygivenmusic.com.

I heard a couple of questions once that made a great impact on me.  Here are the questions: “If the Holy Spirit was removed from your church’s ministry, how much would your church change?  Would your worship gatherings continue as normal?”  Is it possible to so program our church’s ministry that it no longer is dependent upon the Holy Spirit?  Could it be that we desire a more polished sounding and looking church than God desires? In our worship gatherings we don’t like awkward moments of silence.  What would happen in our gatherings if moments of silence were no longer awkward but normal as each member of the church waited and yielded to the Holy Spirit?  This song was written to be a musical moment of stillness so that the church could recognizes its need for the Holy Spirit and then in turn yield to the Holy Spirit.

Lord Please Move

For free chord charts of this song go to freelygivenmusic.com.

I praise God for godly parents and for godly in-laws.  This song was inspired by the life of my father-in-law.  He is one of the most generous, God loving men I know.  This song was written during a time in my life when I was facing trials.  It just so happened that my father-in-law was also facing trials.  Each time I visited his house I heard him say (countless times), “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).  His words and faith encouraged me.  One morning I was spending time alone with my Lord.  I was praying about the challenges of my day and all I could hear was my father-in-law saying, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  I picked up my guitar and out flowed the words of this song.  Thank you Dad for living a life of faith.  

Scripture behind the lyrics:

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, I can do anything.
Phil 4:13
I can say to this mountain, “You must go away.” 
Mt 17:20; 21:21-22; Mk 4:30-32; Lk 17:6
I can say to this sickness, “Be healed in Jesus’ name.”
Lk 9:1-2; Js 5:13-20
I can go through persecution with a smile on my face.
Mt 5:3-10
I can hold my faith and look death in the face.
Phil 1:19-30; 2 Tim 3:6-8
I can walk through the valley and say, “Come what may.”
Ps 23
I will praise You in the good times and in the bad the same.
Job 1:1-2:13; 13:15; Ac 16:22-28
In sickness and health, though rich or poor, I can do all things through Jesus Christ my Lord.
Phil 4:12-13


I Can Do All Things

For free chord charts of this song go to freelygivenmusic.com.  The Bible describes the Church as the body of Christ (1 Cor 12).  Question: what would you do if you walked into a crowed room and saw a person sitting in a pool of blood because they were trying to cut off their foot?  Would you think that person was in the right state of mind?  Truth:  When God’s Church is not unified, the world witnesses the Body of Christ sitting in a pool of blood while it dismembers itself.  Listen closely to Jesus’ prayer before He went to the cross.  In this prayer, He was praying for you and me.  “My prayer is not for them alone.  I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.  May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you have given me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me.  May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (Jn 17:20-23).  When God describes His Church, He says it is like a body.  Each person in His Church is like an individual part of the body (1 Corinthians 12).  Christ Jesus is the Head (Col 1:18).  Each person has their own unique function and purpose in the Body.  For us to accomplish anything for the Kingdom of God, we must realize our complete dependence on the Body of Christ.  For example, lets say that God has gifted me to be a hand in the Body.  If I am off doing my own thing or if I decide I don’t like the person who is gifted to be my arm, it is like being cut off from the body.  When I am cut off from the body, do I receive blood from the heart?  No!  Do I receive instruction from the head?  No!  What will happen to me?  I will die!  If I am cut off from the body how much work can I do for the Kingdom of God?  NONE!  When I am intimately connected to the Body of Christ, I have life.  I also can accomplish great things for the Kingdom of God.  

Father,
Please make Your prayer for the church the cry of our hearts.  Please make us one.  Please help us realize our role in Your body and help us to practice all the “one another’s” of Scripture.  Please lead each of us to deep fellowship with You and the Body of Christ!


I Need You

For free chord charts of this song go to freelygivenmusic.com.  All around the world, at this moment in time, there are thousands upon thousands of children with no mommies and no daddies.  They are dreaming of a love that will come and steal them away.  In Scripture, God is known as the Father to the fatherless.  One thing is certain, widows and orphans are close to God’s heart.  They should be close to our hearts as well!  James 1:27 says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”  This song was written while my wife and I were in the process of adopting one of our children.  During our adoption process we saw a disconnect between God’s Church and orphans.  This should not be.  We pray that God will use this song to bring many children home to their Christian families.  Does your home have room for one more child?  Perhaps the greatest impact you will make on this world will be found in the child / children you adopt.  Let us spend away our lives on behalf of those who cannot help themselves.  


Are We Alright

For free chord charts of this song go to freelygivenmusic.com.  

This song was written while I was learning to hear the Lord’s voice more clearly.  All of my life I have told people, “Christianity is not about a religion,  it is about an intimate relationship with God.”  Here is a question that changed my relationship with God.  “If Christianity is about an intimate relationship with God, how intimate is my relationship with God?”  I began studying Scripture to see how close man could get with God.  I told God that I wanted to experience whatever level of intimacy with Him that was humanly possible.  Here is what I learned.  The Bible described an intimacy with God that was far beyond what I was experiencing or had ever imagined.  Truth: GOD DESIRES INTIMACY WITH ME!  I wrote this song while learning to be still before the Lord and allowing Him to speak.  Hearing God’s voice has radically changed my life!  

Further Study:
Mt 6:5-15; 25:1-13; Lk 5:34-35; Jn 3:29; 10:1-21; 15:1-17; 17:20-26; Rom 8:16-17; Gal 3:26


Be Still

For free chord charts of this song go to freelygivenmusic.com.  

This song was written while I was worshiping God in my basement.  God has been very good to me.  His love makes me shout His praises. 


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