hymns

Songs to Help Us See

When I (Soren) was in first grade, I failed a vision test. Which is sad. But not nearly as sad as the fact that I failed it on purpose. The doctor pulled my mom out of the room and said, "He failed the test on purpose. He was describing letters and signs that look like one another- but that isn't how your vision goes bad."

Pre-order Inheritance today http://smarturl.it/AA_Inheritance When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul. It is well (it is well) with my soul (with my soul) It is well, it is well with my soul.

Do you know how your vision goes bad? Do you know what defective eyesight is? There are signs of the kingdom everywhere- but what if we don't know how to look? What if we don't want to look?

from INHERITANCE http://smarturl.it/AA_Inheritance Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart; Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art. Thou my best Thought, by day or by night, Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

The songs we sing this week are attempts to help correct our vision. But they don't just correct our vision- they help us want to see. 

Songs For When Things Don't Change

God promises that, though we have abandoned him, he will not abandon us. That he will not leave us. That he will be faithful to us, and that through his presence among us, his kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven. And even though in Jesus Christ this kingdom has already come, it is at the same time not yet here. The darkness is (still) passing away. The songs we will sing this week reflect the tension of life as humans in a time when Jesus' kingdom is both already and not yet here.

Provided to YouTube by TuneCore How Long? · BiFrost Arts Lamentations: Simple Songs of Lament and Hope, Vol. 1 ℗ 2016 Gospel Song Records Released on: 2016-11-04 Auto-generated by YouTube.

Matthew Smith's acoustic rendition of this classic hymn. Listen to All I Owe: http://matthewsmith.bandcamp.com/album/all-i-owe

Bifrost Arts' "How Long" is a meditation on Psalm 13. The Psalmist uses the absence of the kingdom not as a reason to doubt the existence of God, but instead to throw himself deeper into relationship with God. So he repeats the title phrase as a longing question to God: How long will you turn your face away?

As Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing suggests, Jesus is already the source of every blessing, and we put up monuments ("Ebenezer") to that goodness.

Because sometimes, in this life, it is hard to remember.