Two Works In Progress

Two songs with which I'm kinda fiddling. Any thoughts?

Untitled

I had my hope, I had my dreams
But life isn't always what it seems
Sometimes I wonder what it's all about

The things I get, not always what I want
Things don't always go the way I thought
But I know there has to be a reason

Chorus
No acorn falls to the earth in vain
From it the mighty oak grows
And oh, the waters of the world are replinished
As hard the darkest storm blows
From pain comes life, a baby's first cry

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No Better Place

Bowing low against the howling wind
The storms of life, they blow
Heavy the load I bear
No peace to be found here

Desperately I searched in vain
For a shelter from the storm
Crying to be free
That's where You found me

Chorus
No better place
There is no better place
Then in the arms of my loving Savior
All my worries, all my fears
In His presence they disppear
And from them He returns
My strength, peace, and joy
With all my days, in all my ways
Always will I say
There is no better place

The sun it slices through the clouds
The storm now a distant memory
Walking tall I move on
My burden now gone

The path ahead it beckons to my feet
To run and dance upon its turf
At the end I see You
All I know to be true

Chorus

Bridge

The storms I know they will return
Bearing upon me to weigh me down
But I know what I need
And they shall not succeed

And I call You
And I run to You
Into Your arms for I know

Chorus

With all my days, in all my ways
Always I will say
There is no better place

I've been reading through Hosea lately. I had read a few chapters, then was going to stop. But I kept reading. It's funny how Scriptures can just jump out at you sometime. This one hurt my heart.

"'Though Ephraim built many alters for sin offerings, they have become alters for sinning." Hosea 8:11 NIV

Painfully, my mind jumped from this verse to the modern day church. What started out so great, so honest, so worshipful of God, is now these buildings that we go to to make ourselves feel better, to make us feel like we're doing such a good job in the Lord just by putting a few bucks in a plate and smiling at a few people. Maybe even shaking the hand of someone new, if we really want to step out of the box a little! As our churches were, at the beginning, the modern (in relation to the Old Testament) alters for the sin offerings of confession and forgiveness, they have become a place of sinning. Maybe not blatant sin, although that certainly is present in some. No, I think the worse sin of Christianity today is complacency. Being happy with the way our lives are now and wanting nothing more to challenge our comfort! Go ahead and show me a picture of a starving child in Africa! I'll throw a dollar in the bucket for a collection for this child, but I really need the ten dollars to go to Cracker Barrel after church today, because I don't feel like cooking! Wow, look at that revival in China! I wish something like that will happen here! Oh, Lord, send us revival!! Oh, but I'm too tired to go to this ministry tonight. Maybe next time. Next time. Next time.

Next time. The axiom of a complacent church.

Oh, Lord, forgive us for the death, destruction, and ignorance in the world for the sake of our comfort!


Father, Blessed Father - Newsboys

Will You take what we have
A sacrifice unto You
Then create clean hearts
And, Lord, make our spirits new

Father, blessed Father
Lead and guide us for Your name’s sake
And keep us in the shelter of Your presence
‘Til we see Your face

Let us hear what You say
Let us know Your voice and all of Your ways
Take our hands, lead us home
To the refuge that we find in You alone

All adoration
To our Lord Redeemer
To our Shepherd
Who carries us forevermore

Breathe on me
Breathe, oh, Breath of God
(Breathe, oh, Breath of Life)
Breathe on me
‘Til my heart is new
Oh Lord, oh Lord
‘Til my heart is new

Here We Are, Lord! Send Us Today!

"Whom shall I send? And who will go for Us?"
Cries the Lord of Heaven and Earth
Echoing over the world as a crashing wave
Awaiting an answer from a trembling turf

A turf full of His children whom, in their youth,
Begged to be sent out in might
Hear now the call in their comfortable lives, and
Run off to hide their wills in fright

Why ask to be sent if you wish not to go?
As if ministry is just a whim or vice
Do you forget that your lives are not really your own
But subject to Him who paid the ultimate price?

Dear friends, do not think I write this as if it only
Applies to you and never to me
Because I am just as guilty as any who trod this dirt
Of forgetting who I was created to be

But right now I stand and I renounce my claim
Laying aside my will for all to see
So that, unhindered, I can rent the veil of Satan's night
With my cry, "Here I am, Lord! Send me!"

My friends, will you join me in this call of the Lord's
No longer content to sit idle in life
Fully knowing the way is not as easy as what you're leaving
But eternally worth the joy and the strife?

May it be that as the Lord cries His call for service
Echoing over this world as a crashing wave
He will not wait long for the trembling turf to answer
"Here we are, Lord! Send us today!"

-Tammy Craig <>< 8/15/09