the dawn will break upon us
 by mike crawford Jan 1st, 2010

God raised up a horn
Our salvation born
Down from the line of kings
Who prophets spoke and angels sing

He came to save from certain death
To shine His light - His name our breath
To break the bonds that hold us back
So we might give where others lack

Unto us a child is born
To us a son is given

Dawn breaks on frozen hearts
Darkness fades the world restarts
From the warmth of that sun
Ice will melt – healing comes

And all the walls that we built
Dams torn down - the water spills
From our eyes and from our hearts
Overflows to every part

Unto us a child is born
To us a son is given
And He will be the hope of all
And He will reign forever

And of His peace will be no end
And of His grace will be no end
And of His love will be no end
And we will all be called His friends

Unto us a child is born
To us a son is given

it won't be too long now
  by Isaac Anderson (The Well Dressed Downs -- 2009)

It won’t be too long now
There’s a weight that’s pressing down
There’s a swelling in the belly of the world

It won’t be too long now
There’s a Son Who’s pressing down
There’s a swelling in the belly of the world

So welcome to the end of your sorrows
Welcome to the end of yourself
Welcome to tomorrow – where hope lives

"Keeping Me Alive"

It's like I never lived
Before my life with you
So much was missing here
I never even knew
I still picture the place we were
When I fell into your world

My heart is in you
Where you go you carry me
I bleed
If you bleed
Your heart beats
Inside of me
You're keeping me alive

I don't know why feel this way
But something's right
You're like the morning air
Before the light arrives
No more lonely and
No more night
No more secrets to hide

My heart is in you
Where you go you carry me
I bleed
If you bleed
Your heart beats
Inside of me
You're keeping me alive

I'll hold you near
Together, we'll never die
Your love is keeping me alive

My heart is in you
Where you go you carry me
I bleed
If you bleed
Your heart beats
Inside of me
You're keeping me alive

Beautiful Things

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR7VOKQ0xJY&feature=youtube_gdata

All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all

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

All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You

You make me new, You are making me new

Brighter Day

At the start there was love
And life began in Him
Creation falls, Creator gives
The promise of a better day

We are not there yet

Let it come, let it come in
Love is here, Love is coming
Heaven is breaking open
Heaven is breaking open

Love came down and hope was found
Life began again
A brand new start
Yeah a brand new start
The promise of a brighter day

Love came down and hope was found
Now we’re waking up to a brighter day
Oh brighter day brighter day
Oh brighter day brighter day

Oh brighter day
We’ll see a brighter day

Heaven
I don't know what you've been told but
heaven is comin' down to the world

Heaven Heaven
Heaven Heaven

is comin' down

Heaven Heaven

Heaven Heaven

is all around

PSALM 27: 13-14
I would have despaired
unless I had believed
that I would see the goodness of the LORD
In the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD ;
Be strong and let your heart take courage ;
Yes, wait for the LORD.



Shadows-David Crowder Band

Life is full of light and shadow
O the joy and O the sorrow
O the sorrow

And yet will He bring
Dark to light
And yet will He bring
Day from night

When shadows fall on us
We will not fear
We will remember

When darkness falls on us
We will not fear
We will remember

When all seems lost
When we're thrown and we're tossed
We remember the cost
We rest in Him
Shadow of the cross


...I wrote a lament, maybe you heard it this night-

dear lord
you know what-i am just about done
done being forgotten, misunderstood, left behind - pretty much last
it doesn't feel like humility
it seems more like humiliation
you say
BE VULNERABLE,
LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY,
TELL THE TRUTH
So what, what then?
Be forgotten, misunderstood, left behind AND Last...again
but then
you were forgotten, misunderstood, left behind and last
you turned humiliation into humility
what now? What More?
What is that you say?
I can be done...
...because of ALL that you have done


Psalm 130

A song of ascents.
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;

2 O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.

3 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?

4 But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.

5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.

6 My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.

7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.

8 He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.

How long O Lord will You forget me
How long O Lord will You look the other way
How long O Lord must I wrestle with my thoughts
And every day have such sorrow in my heart

Look on me and answer, O God my Father
Bring light to my darkness before they see me fall

But I trust in Your unfailing love
Yes my heart will rejoice
Still I sing of Your unfailing love
You have been good, You will be good to me

In the secret of His presence

In the secret of His presence how my soul delights to hide!
Oh, how precious are the lessons which I learn at Jesus’ side!
Earthly cares can never vex me, neither trials lay me low;
For when Satan comes to tempt me, to the secret place I go,
To the secret place I go.
When my soul is faint and thirsty, ’neath the shadow of His wing
There is cool and pleasant shelter, and a fresh and crystal spring;
And my Savior rests beside me, as we hold communion sweet:
If I tried, I could not utter what He says when thus we meet,
What He says when thus we meet.

Only this I know: I tell Him all my doubts, my griefs and fears;
Oh, how patiently He listens! and my drooping soul He cheers:
Do you think He ne’er reproves me? What a false Friend He would be,
If He never, never told me of the sins which He must see,
Of the sins which He must see.

Would you like to know the sweetness of the secret of the Lord?
Go and hide beneath His shadow: this shall then be your reward;
And whene’er you leave the silence of that happy meeting place,
You must mind and bear the image of the Master in your face,
Of the Master in your face.

•Ellen Lakshmi Goreh•

You're Everything-David Crowder

You're everything
I could want
That I could need
If I could see
You want me
Could I believe?
'Cause You're perfectly
All I want, and all I need
If I could just feel Your touch
Could I be free?
Why do You shine so?
Can a blind man see?
Why do You call?
Why Do You beckon me?
Can the deaf hear the voice of love?
Would You have me come?
Can the cripple run?
Are You the one?

To raise me up
From this grave
Touch my tongue
And then I'll sing
Heal my limbs
Then joyfully I'll run to You

To raise me up
From this grave
Touch my tongue
And then I'll sing
Heal my limbs
Then joyfully I'll run to You

You're everything
I could want and I could need
I can just, feel your touch
and I can't breathe
And how you shine so
the blind can see
and how you call out
you beckon me
the deaf hear the voice of love
you bid me come
and the cripple run
You're the one

So raise me up
from this grave
you touch my tongue
and then I'll say:
Heal my limbs
and joyfully I'll run to you

So raise me up
from this grave
you touch my tongue
and then I'll say:
Heal my limbs
and joyfully I'll run to you


You're everything
You're everything
You're everything
You're everything

And I'm alive and I'll sing
And I'm alive and I'm free

And I'm alive and I'll sing
And I'm alive and I'm free

And I'm alive and I'll sing
And I'm alive and I'm free

And I'm alive and I'll sing
And I'm alive and I'm free

And I'm alive and I'll sing
And I'm alive and I'm free

And I'm alive and I'll sing
And I'm alive and I'm free

Jesus, Savior, pilot me,
Over life’s tempestuous sea;
Unknown waves before me roll,
Hiding rock and treach’rous shoal;
Chart and compass came from Thee:
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.
As a mother stills her child,
Thou canst hush the ocean wild;
Boist’rous waves obey Thy will
When Thou say’st to them, “Be still!”
Wondrous Sov’reign of the sea,
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.
When at last I near the shore,
And the fearful breakers roar
’Twixt me and the peaceful rest,
Then, while leaning on Thy breast,
May I hear Thee say to me,
“Fear not, I will pilot thee.”

Maybe I'm Amazed-Jem

Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way You Love Me All The Time
Maybe I'm Afraid Of The Way I Love You
Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way You Pulled Me Out Of Time
And Hung Me On A Line
Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way I Really Need You


Maybe I'm A Girl And Maybe I'm A Lonely Girl
Who's In The Middle Of Something
That She Doesn't Really Understand

Maybe I'm A Girl And Maybe You're The Only Man
Who Could Ever Help Me
Baby Won't You Help Me Understand

Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way You're With Me All The Time
Maybe I'm Afraid Of The Way I Leave You
Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way You Help Me Sing My Song
Right Me When I'm Wrong
Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way I Really Need You


Maybe I'm A Girl And Maybe I'm A Lonely Girl
Who's In The Middle Of Something
That She Doesn't Really Understand

Maybe I'm A Girl And Maybe You're The Only Man
Who Could Ever Help Me
Baby Won't You Help Me Understand

Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way You're With Me All The Time
Maybe I'm Afraid Of The Way I Leave You
Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way You Help Me Sing My Song
Right Me When I'm Wrong
Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way I Really Need You

....sometimes when i can't find my own words to go with my feelings,
I believe God (the Only Man) gives me some,
Other times He gives me an image, & in times like these...
He gives me a song...

Where True Charity and Love Dwell Ubi caritas

Where true charity and love dwell, God is there.

Since the love of Christ has joined us in one body,
Let us all rejoice and be glad now and always.
And as we hear and love our Lord, the living God,
So let us in sincerity love all people.

As we are all of one body, when we gather
Let no discord or enmity break our oneness.
May all our petty jealousies and hatred cease
That Christ the Lord may be with us through all our days.

Now we pray that with the blessed you grant us grace
To see your exalted glory, O Christ our God,
Our boundless source of joy and truth, of peace and love,
For ever and for evermore, world without end.
—Latin; tr. Joyce MacDonald Glover

so now imagine, 33 Holy Sisters sweetly singing these words
while sitting among them surrounded by Holy words
that hover over one whose heart is full...so very full

BREATHLESS by Cat Power

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKCV4Xi9LQ8

It's up in the morning
And on the downs
Little white clouds
Like gambolling lambs
And I am Breathless over you
And the red-breasted robin
Beats his wings
His throat it trembles
When he sings
For he is helpless before you
The happy hooded bluebells bow
And bend their heads all a-down
Heavied by the early morning dew
At the whispering stream
At the bubbling brook
The fishes leap up to take a look
For they are breathless over you
Still your hands
And still your heart
For still your face
Comes shining through
And all
The morning glows anew
Still your mind
Still your soul
For still
The fare of love is true
And I am breathless without you
The wind circles among the trees
And it bangs about the new-made leaves
For it is breathless without you
The fox chases the rabbit round
The rabbit hides beneath the ground
For he is defenceless without you
The sky of daytime dies away
And all the earthly things
They stop to play
For we are all breathless without you
I listen to my juddering bones
The blood in my veins
And the wind in my lungs
And I am breathless without you
Still your hands
And still your heart
For still your face
Comes shining through
And all
The morning glows anew
Still your soul
Still your mind
Still, the fire of love is true
And I am breathless without you

....and if we are not, then whom or what else are we drawing our breath from or allowing to take that breath away?