"you talk of finding God as if He could get lost"

4 months ago  Notes (4)

penny & sparrow

image

Creature, We’ve Got Something, Slaves from Penny & Sparrow. (http://www.pennyandsparrow.bandcamp.com) These have been on repeat the whole week.

At first it was simply the whole album that captured me, but eventually I looked for lyrics. Since I couldn’t find any, I wrote them out myself. (posted here: http://kalelandthewhale.tumblr.com/post/18805425487)

Until I read these words, I had no idea the local Austinites Andy Baxter and Kyle Jahnke were a Christian duo. The thing is that they’re not blatantly proclaiming faith and love and hope and all things Christian, but act as more of a backdrop. The beauty is in the quiet subtlety and intrigue that makes you wonder just what exactly the lyrics are directed to. And of course they point towards Him.

Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.

From an interview with Penny and Sparrow: “He still kinda dreams about being on broadway some days, but mostly, he just dreams about recording music that serves as a blind-date soundtrack for people meeting God. Like gorgeous movie soundtrack songs playing in the background as they realize Jesus is crazy about them.”

Recently, they released a single entitled “Heroes and Monsters” for a writer friend, Josh Riebock…911 campaign, Breakthrough retreat. Remember him? Yep.  

From Josh’s page: “Heroes and Monsters is an unforgettable memoir of passion and redemption, a ragged look into a world at once wildly twisted and profoundly beautiful, an exposé of both the hero and the monster within all of us.”

Being so excited over this album and these connections right now makes me sound like a fool, but that’s totally fine. It’s wonderful. This makes me so happy. (:

http://www.pennyandsparrow.tumblr.com, http://www.facebook.com/pennyandsparrow

1 year ago  Notes (4)

creature

Creature- Single (http://pennyandsparrow.bandcamp.com/): $2.97

Creature 

“All I know is in sleep, I can taste and feel need. Life alone makes me shake, if I die before I wake. Every drop that I bleed, it’s a gift You give me. Let me spend my skin on you. Kiss me, whisper, make me new. I’m a creature for your love.

On the day I come home and look at You and Your throne, every joy I’ve seen is a waste when I touch Your face.I’m a creature for your love.”

We’ve Got Something 

“And if it just so happens I don’t wake up again, I think I’ll be content to go. It does my heart good to know the last time that I spend is in a place that feels like home. We’ve got something, something’s not so wrong. So let’s be foolish, let’s now, let’s belong.

I’ve got nothing to offer, no security, but there’s this I give to You. I know my days are numbered, nothing’s promised to me- I want to spend the rest with You. We’ve got something, something’s not so wrong. So let’s be foolish, let’s now, let’s belong.”

Slaves 

“Come out tonight, come out tonight, He’s the only one who’s bleeding so come see the light. We are set free, we are set free, they’re the only chains that hold us bind us to thee. 

Because I’m a new slave, yes my name has been changed, I am Yours. I’m a new slave, yes my name has been changed. I am Yours.

We’re not alone, we’re not alone, there’s a crowd of cloud of family calling us home. We are the bride, we are the bride, He will return to claim us, run down the aisle.”

1 year ago  Notes (1)

know who you are and know Whose you are.

an identity found in Christ alone.

1 year ago  Notes (10)

keepers

1 Corinthians 4:1 So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.

These secret and hidden things have been placed under our care. It’s our business to dispense and make known the divine mystery, the gospel entrusted to us- we’re no more than servants yet we’ve been placed in the highest regard.

And I am so honored, chosen to be a steward in the house of God.

1 year ago  Notes (3)

"if at times you can no longer work for God, pray for those who may
if at times you cannot move earth by your speech, you may move Heaven"

1 year ago  Notes (4)

ye of little faith

Look at the elderly in Christian communities and wonder how it’s possible, how they are still so filled with life, passion, and Christ’s love after decades of living by sheer faith. Watch them only grow stronger as the flesh weakens.

He is just such an inexhaustible question.

Without reliance on our fleeting feelings and emotions, what could press us forward day after day? What other human interest or endeavor could possibly hold such attention for more than a couple years, at most? Besides God, what universal subject could possess so much depth and such an infinite combination of central meaning and application to each of us? None come to mind.

Only He is alive and at work and real and ever-changing…and we as His people just can’t get enough of it all. 

1 year ago  Notes (2)

"they gave our Master a crown of thorns – why do we hope for a crown of roses?"

1 year ago  Notes (3)
Sufjan Stevens – O Come O Come Emmanuel (19 plays)

emmanuel, god with us

Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel, 
And ransom captive Israel, 
That mourns in lonely exile here 
Until the Son of God appear. 
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel 
Shall come to you, O Israel.

Oh, come, oh, come, our Lord of might, 
Who to thine tribes on Sinai’s height 
In ancient times gave holy law, 
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel 
Shall come to you, O Israel.

Oh, come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here,
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And pierce the clouds to bring us light,
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel 
Shall come to you, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel 
Shall come to you, O Israel.

Oh, come, O Key of David, come, 
And open wide our heav’nly home; 
Make safe the way that leads on high, 
And close the path to misery. 
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel 
Shall come to you, O Israel.

Oh, come, Desire of nations, bind 
In one the hearts of all mankind; 
Oh, bid our sad divisions cease, 
And be yourself our King of Peace. 
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel 
Shall come to you, O Israel.

A month after the holiday season and it’s still playing in my head. This desire, this grasping and aching and longing is overwhelming. I can’t help but read these words and wish I could echo and sing with the same heart, but most of the time, His presence frightens me.

Psalm 91:1 He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Yet I’m unwilling to be alone with Him in that secret place, the room that only has enough space for two. I push the focus elsewhere, to evangelism, telling us both that the nations’ need is more pressing than my own. 

Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. 

Rejoice, Rejoice. God with us.

I’m scared to rejoice in the reality of His intimacy, and the decision to come to me despite how undeserving I am. It crosses my mind that there may be a mistake, but of course that’s impossible. His work is perfect down to the last detail, and I can’t even begin to fathom the depths of his love. I can only rejoice in the fact that He has come to me. 

Emmanuel.

1 year ago  Notes (4)

"It isn’t Narnia, you know,” sobbed Lucy. “It’s you. We shan’t meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?”
“But you shall meet me, dear one,” said Aslan.
“Are -are you there too, Sir?” said Edmund.
“I am,” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there."

C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

1 year ago  Notes (2)

birds of the air

Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

good morning!

thank you, Father, for having declared me of ultimate value by sending Christ the redeemer. consequently, please direct me in committing myself to pursue what is of ultimate value — Father, You and Your Kingdom. 

1 year ago  Notes (68)

pierced

Exodus 21:6 “then his master shall bring him to God…and his master shall pierce [him]…with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.”

people may or may not have significant views on body modifications. I’m not even entirely sure of my own reasons in getting them.

vanity? apathy? acceptance?

at any rate, I have 9 piercings. 9 marks. and the Biblical significance of this number? completion and finality. guess I’ve unknowingly committed myself 9 times over, now fully His bondservant. 

1 year ago  Notes (8)

"no God, no love.
know God, know love."

1 year ago  Notes (3)

beautiful things

Actually, I don’t. But God You do. Yes, You. 

Anything I make can never truly be beautiful without the Creator, the ultimate form of loveliness and of perfection. And what He makes is good. 

Lord, make me something beautiful.

Give me a gentle and quiet spirit as you look past all the outward adornments and straight into my heart, God. My soul and my character. Take away my crippling shame and fear of what You will see. 

Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in his time

Lord, in Your appointed time. 

You make beautiful things out of us. 
You make beautiful things out of the dust.

You are making me new. 
1 year ago  Notes (2)

utmost fear

Matthew 7:23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

after going through life as a self-proclaimed Christian, to finally stand stripped and alone and face-to-face with the Father and His judgement and you are a stranger and you see after all this time that there never was a relationship and it is too late, ohGoditstoolate

1 year ago  Notes (18)