Draw from the Well

Non-Traditional Christmas Songs

Sometimes I go for the non-traditional. Last year I shared my first list of favorite non-traditional Christmas songs here.

Here are the songs I've added to the list this year:

Future of Forestry – The Earth Stood Still
Phil Wickham – Evermore
Laura Stockton – Alleluia
Chris Tomlin – Emmanuel (Hallowed Manger Ground)
Brandon Heath – The Night Before Christmas
Francesca Battistelli – You're Here

What's your favorite non-traditional Christmas song?

Friday Links 8/5/2011

• Have you heard of Grouptune? One weekly deal of Christian tunes. I like it!
• New music I'm digging these days: The Civil Wars, Hillsong's Aftermath, and Jeremy Riddle!
• Learn to love the Taste of Water. Hmmm. But Diet Coke is so tasty!
• This is cool: Matchbox Car City - Metropolis II
• Holy cow - this will knock your socks off:  Visualization of the US Debt!

My Favorite Non-Traditional Christmas Songs

I'm not much for Christmas songs (though I've really been into them this year for some reason!)Several of my favorite songs are very non-traditional.  I thought I'd share and get your thoughts too!

In no particular order:

• Casting Crowns - While You Were Sleeping [Christmas Version]
• Bebo Norman - Come and Worship
• Faith Hill - A Baby Changes Everything
• Amy Grant - Christmas Lullaby
• Anna Gilbert - Rest in the Light
• Jars of Clay - Love Came Down at Christmas
• Bebo Norman - Born to Die
• Sara Groves - Child of Love
• Third Day - Manger Throne
• Landon Smith & The Real Matt Jones - Christmas Anthem

What are some of your favorite non-traditional Christmas songs?  Let me know!

25 Days of Free Music

I love free.  Especially free music. 

If you are not following Amazon's 25 Days of Free - a free Holiday song every day until Christmas - you need to check it out.  Not every song may be your cup of tea, but it's free.  Go here to get the goodies.

You will also want to check out their free holiday samplers.  I been enjoying the Very Merry Christmas Sugo Holiday Sampler.  (I admit that I regret downloading the Veggie Tales Christmas album.)  There are several more you will want to check out, and more on the way like this one!)

Every month Amazon has a bunch of albums for $5.  In December they have 100 regular CDs for $5 (you can find them here) and 100 Holiday CDs for $5 a piece (you can find these here.)

Here's what I've scored in the last two months:

Christmas:

Josh Groban - Noel ($5 December)

Martina McBride - White Christmas (no longer a $5 - she was last month!)

Non-Christmas:

Chris Sligh - The Anatomy of Broken ($5 December)

Tenth Avenue North - The Light Meets the Dark ($5 December)

Sugarland - The Incredible Machine (was a special in November)

Rascal Flatts - Nothing Like This ($4.99 right now!)

The Afters - Light Up the Sky (Was a special in November)

 

Basically, if you like music, you should be checking in out regularly!

Did Katy Perry Write A Worship Song?

It's never easy to be chosen, never easy to be called
Standing on the front line when the bombs start to fall
I can see the heavens but I still hear the flames
Calling out my name

I can see the writing on the wall
I can't ignore this war
At the end of it all
Who am I living for?

These are some of the lyrics from Katy Perry's song "Who Am I Living For?"  A bit startling for a gal made famous spouting her preferences of whom she kisses. 

Skeptical that she's getting religious?  Check out these lyrics:

I can feel this light that's inside of me
Growing fast into a bolt of lightning
I know one spark will shock the world, yeah yeah

So I pray for a favor like Esther
I need your strength to handle the pressure
I know there will be sacrifice
But that's the price

Good question Katy, just who are you living for? 

You might not know that before Katy was Katy Perry, she was Katheryn "Katy" Hudson, daughter of two Christian pastors.  In 2001 she released a gospel album featuring songs like "Faith Won't Fail" and "Search Me" and "When There's Nothing Left", all blatantly evangelical Christian songs.

Some where between then and now Katy chose a different road. 

I admit that I haven't listened to the full Teenage Dream CD.  Apparently there is some racy stuff.

Yet when I heard these lyrics I wondered about the war that's going on inside, when someone has known the truth...it's difficult to walk away. 

Who am I living for?  It's a good question for us all to consider.

New Music Junkie

I'm a new music junkie.  I have eclectic tastes (no rap or hard metal though.) So I'm always trolling for something new.  Recently I've found some stuff too good not to share.  Check out the following:

One Sonic Society- I loved almost every song on this EP of worship rock.  Looking forward to what comes next from this band.  "Burn" crushed me!

 

 

 

Sidewalk Prophets | These Simple Truths - If  you only have money for one CD - GET THIS ONE ($5 from Amazon!) I star all my songs - seriously only used 4 & 5 stars! I can't pick a favorite, but "Change This Heart" or "Lay Down My Life" if I have to. Get it!

 

 

Sleeperstar | To Speak, to Love, to Listen -  Christians who don't sing overtly Christian music.  I love their honest lyrics. Again a band I'm excited to watch.  "Just So You Know" is my favorite so far.

 

 

Josh Wilson | Life Is Not A Snaptshot - Josh isn't new, but if you are not familiar with him, you need to be.  This is just an EP and I really liked his Trying to Fit the Ocean In a Cup CD, but this one is okay.  Love the Amazing Grace guitar peace!

 

 

I've also stumbled upon: Audrey Assad (smooth sounds and sweet lyrics), Andrew Belle (love the folk sound I've heard so far!), Rosi Golan (Resisting more CD purchases!), and Five Times August (On my Christmas list!)

 

1000 Albums for $5 Each

Amazon always has 100 or so albums on sale for $5 - but this month they have 1000!

Thought you might want to cash in on some good deals.

Here's what I downloaded:

Country (Lady Antebellum), folk (Peter Bradley Adams), rock (Alpha Rev), and Christian (John Mark McMilliam & Misty Edwards.)  I have eclectic tastes in music. 

 

BTW, I was very tempted by Mumford & Sons, Boston,Gilman & Asbury, and Blue Giant.  But 5 was my limit.  Paper Tongues was also listed, but they are too rough for me!

Music that Cuts to the Core

I can't gush enough about Vicky Beeching.  Not only does she have a MAT from Oxford, but she also loves guitars.  The songs she writes have a depth to them that is a bit uncommon in today's CCM market.

If you haven't checked out her new CD Eternity Invades, you need to give it a listen. 

"The Wonder of the Cross" is a great song, "Emmanuel" will bring tears of gratitude to your eyes, "Listening" and "Breath of God"  will inspire you to new depths of intimacy with Jesus, and "Refuge" and "Deliverer" will bring comfort and peace to weary souls.

But the song which captured me today was "Undivided Heart".  I had it set on the repeat, just listening to it over and over again.  It's the praise and the prayer that I found myself repeating.

The message of the Gospel, the "good news" of Jesus Christ, isn't a set of rules and regulations which leave us condemned and reminded that we will never measure up, but an enabling and empowering grace which lifts us from the ash heap and allows us to live for God.

Undivided heart.  That's what I want more completely than anything else. 

Thanks Jesus for making that possible.

Undivided Heart

Brokenness has brought me to my knees
Face to face with all that's dark in me
I can barely see You through my shame
Jesus come and wash me white again

Flood me with Your healing light
Help me choose what's true and right

Give me an undivided heart
I want to love You with every part
Give me an undivided soul
I want to be Yours alone Yours alone

At the cross I find Your open arms
Reminding me there's grace for all I've done
With Your blood You wipe away my past
Taking on Yourself my sin and scars

By Your power help me change
Break off every single chain

You make all things new
So take my ashes and make them something beautiful
Do what only You can do
Take my ashes and make them something beautiful

Make Me a Captive, Lord

This weekend, Pastor Jon read a stanza from a hymn by George Matheson.  I was curious to find out some of the back story.  Here's what I found.

George Matheson was a Scottish minister who lived in the late 1800s.  He became blind in his 20s.  He never married and died in 1906.

Matheson is best known for his hymn "O Love Which Will Not Let Me Go".

The hymn that was quoted this weekend is called "Make Me a Captive, Lord"

Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free.
Force me to render up my sword, and I shall conqueror be.
I sink in life’s alarms when by myself I stand;
Imprison me within Thine arms, and strong shall be my hand.

My heart is weak and poor until it's master find;
It has no spring of action sure, it varies with the wind.
It cannot freely move till Thou has wrought its chain;
Enslave it with Thy matchless love, and deathless it shall reign.

My will is not my own till Thou hast made it Thine;
If it would reach a monarch’s throne, it must its crown resign.
It only stands unbent amid the clashing strife,
When on Thy bosom it has leaned, and found in Thee its life.

"Make Me a Captive, Lord" lists a series of paradoxes. George Matheson wrote it as an interpretation of Ephesians 3:1, where Paul speaks of being the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Originally titled "Christian Freedom," the hymn lists a series of paradoxes. The first phrase, "Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free" is related to the beginning of a historic Church of England prayer, "O God . . . whose service is perfect freedom . . . ." This thought is common throughout Christianity, it is also reflected in John Donne’s Holy Sonnet XIV: "Take me to you, imprison me, for I, except you enthrall me, never shall be free . . . ."  from Songsandhymns.org

Though his life was difficult, Matheson had an impact on those around him, including Queen Victoria and Oswald Chambers.

I also love John Donn's Holy Sonnet XIV; for many years I carried a copy on a note card in my Bible.  If you've never read it, you can find it here.

Hungry for Heaven

Isn't it weird how things collide in your brain sometimes?  Today I've been thinking about heaven. 

Ponder what Francis Bacon says: "Philosophy is based on reason and is, therefore, rational. Faith is based on revelation and is, therefore, irrational. Consequently, the greater the impossibility of the thing you believe, the greater the honor to God."

Faith is based on "revelation"...it seems that there is a divine imparting that happens in transactions of faith.  Faith defies the balance sheet or the linear logic of A+B=C.  Faith is extra-me...beyond me.  And perhaps the more beyond me, the more I allow the Divine to define my reality, the more God is honored.

This quote collided with a song I've been listening to this morning from Sara Groves called Going Home:

I’ve been feeling kind of restless
I’ve been feeling out of place
I can hear a distant singing
A song that I can’t write
And it echoes of what I’m always trying to say

There’s a feeling I can’t capture
It’s always just a prayer away
I want to know the ending
Things hoped for but not seen
But I guess that’s the point of hoping anyway

Of going home, I’ll meet you at the table
Going home, I’ll meet you in the air
And you are never too young to think about it
Oh, I cannot wait to be home

I’m confined by my senses
To really know what you are like
You are more than I can fathom
And more than I can guess
And more than I can see with you in sight

But I have felt you with my spirit
I have felt you fill this room
And this is just an invitation
Just a sample of the whole
And I cannot wait to be going home

Going home, I’ll meet you at the table
Going home, I’ll meet you in the air
And you are never too young to think about it
Oh, I cannot wait to be going, to be going home

Face to face, how can it be
Face to face, how can it be
Face to face, how can it be

Cuz this is just an invitation
Just a sample of the whole
And I cannot wait to be going home

------------------------

I added emphasis to two parts that perfectly described the intangible, incomprehensible, even illogical longing I have today in my heart for heaven.  This morning I woke up hungry for heaven.  Some days I just can't wait to go home.