What awaits me after I die is the single mystery of life that I simply cannot understand until the moment when it occurs. I can imagine what it might be like to walk on the surface of the moon, or on the bottom of the ocean, even what it might be like to jump from an airplane and fall to the earth. The reason I can imagine these things is because people have done them already, and described their experiences.
The Bible reassures me that since I have faith in Jesus, that he paid the price for my sins, that I have a place in heaven for me when my life here is over. What the Bible does not do, however, is give any concrete details about the experience of dying, and exactly what happens after death. Yes, it talks about it in general terms — we will be in the presence of Christ, we will no longer suffer any pain or sorrow, and it will last forever. But the Bible is lacking in details.
We do know it will be better than anything that anyone has ever experienced here on earth. In 1 Corinthians 2:9, Paul quoted Isaiah, saying “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” So what the world ahead holds in store is beyond what I can imagine.
Keith Green spoke of this in his song, I Can’t Wait To Get To Heaven on the album The Prodigal Son in 1983. Keith starts by talking to the audience at a concert:
“You know, I look around at the world and I see all the beauty that God made. I see the forest and the trees and all the things. And it says in the Bible that He made them in six days, and I don’t know if they’re a literal six days or not. Scientists would say no; some theologians would say yes; it doesn’t matter to me. But I know that Jesus Christ has been preparing a home for me, and for some of you, for two thousand years. And if this world took six days, and that home took two thousand years, … this is living in a garbage can compared to what’s going up there.”
Seaside sunset, silver linings round the clouds,
Birds fly, singing, making such a joyful sound.
Thoughts of heaven somehow seem to fill my mind,
But I can’t even imagine, what it is I’m gonna find.I can’t wait to get to Heaven, when you’ll wipe away all my fears.
In six days you created everything,
but you’ve been working on Heaven two thousand years.Deep green forests, mountains reaching for the sky,
Grasslands and deserts, your creation fills my eye.
Thank you, thank you Jesus, though this beauty is just a taste,
Of all your glory I’ll see when I pass through those gates.I can’t wait to get to Heaven, when you’ll wipe away all my fears.
In six days you created everything,
but you’ve been working on Heaven two thousand years.
Tags: death, Heaven, Keith Green
While in the fifth grade, I discovered in my school library a series of books that would have a significant influence on my life. They were the stories of children taken out of this world, and dropped into another world. There, they had exciting adventures and had a very real encounter with Good and Evil, before their return to their normal lives. The books were the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis, which started with The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and ended with The Last Battle. They captivated my imagination with Lewis’ depiction of the lion, Aslan, and his repeated redemption of Narnia from attacks by evil.
Especially influential to me were the events in the final chapters of The Last Battle, in which the Pevensie children and their friends, now grown older, find themselves back in a Narnia that is all made new, and is actually part of Aslan’s Country. There, they were told that they were now there to stay, that this Narnia would never see evil again, and that all of their lives to this point were just an introduction to the story that was yet ahead. This idea of what heaven might be like fascinated me, and made the whole concept a bit more real.
A few years later, I came across the Space Trilogy that C.S. Lewis also wrote. In this series, Elwin Ransom from earth has adventures on Mars (Malacandra) and Venus (Perelandra), and learns the true nature of our solar system, and the fallen status of our own Earth (Thulcandra, the “silent planet”). The future restoration of Earth was discussed in the last chapters of Perelandra. Similar to what was mentioned at the end of the Narnia series, Lewis again stated that the whole of our history was just a mis-step at the start of a long journey that would be more wonderful than could be even imagined.
Despite my young age, these glimpses of heaven motivated me to learn more about the real story of God in our world, and drove me to learn what the Bible said about it. And as my enjoyment of music expanded to include Jesus Music, I was always attentive for songs that talked about heaven.
Chris Rice has written serveral songs about heaven; he has a vision of what it might be like, and communicates it beautifully in his music. One that I had listened to before, but did not really hear all the lyrics until just recently, hearkens back to the Narnia stories I read in my childhood. The oddly named song, Nonny Nonny from his 2003 album Run The Earth, Watch The Sky, contains these words:
… My adolescent 70’s
Reads just like the Pevensies adventures
‘Cause every perfect now and then
I cought a glimpse of Aslan’s mane
And I longed for His treasureSomething in His mystery was drawing me
To love the Author of my own biographyCHORUS
Nonny Nonny Odle’ee
River washes over me
Up for air and carry me away
Nonny Nonny Odle’igh
Run the earth and watch the sky
Playing hard and waiting for the day
Nonny Nonny Odle’ayAll grown up and living fine
Biographies all intertwined with billions
And soon He turns the final page
We’ll look the Author in the face
Then the book really begins‘Cause something tells me all these years of memories
Are only the first sentence of eternity …CHORUS
Tags: C.S. Lewis, Chris Rice, Heaven, Narnia
Joy is not a term we use much these days. At Christmas time the songs say “Joy to the World”, but we’ve heard it so much during our lives that it just becomes part of the background of the season.
One of the definitions I can find on the Net for “joy” is “To rejoice; to be glad; to delight; to exult.” So, “joy” is something that I feel when I’ve got something to be happy about.
The title for this blog about Jesus music lyrics was inspired by Chris Christian‘s song Great Great Joy from his self-titled 1978 album. I don’t consider this “joy” to be something to be mindless about, to look at the disasters that happen around me and have a stupid smile painted on my face. This type of joy is something that is a deep underlying current that can be present despite those disasters of life. It holds and sustains me, and is endlessly available, because of the source of the joy:
There’s a great, great joy in Jesus
And through me, Lord, it longs to be told
If you’ll just be a little child
He’ll take care of you and make you growHe sends the sunshine beaming down, the rain below
He’ll make your happiness
Sprout its roots and grow
You’ll know, you’ll knowThere’s a great, great joy in Jesus
That I’m anxious for you to know
If you’ll just try to follow Him
He’ll take care of you and make you growHe sends the sunshine beaming down, the rain below
He’ll make your happiness
Sprout its roots and grow
You’ll know, you’ll knowThere’s a great, great joy in Jesus
And through me, Lord, it longs to be told
If you’ll just be a little child
He’ll take care of you and make you growHe sends the sunshine beaming down, the rain below
He’ll make your happiness
Sprout its roots and grow
You’ll know, you’ll knowI’ve got a great, great, great, great joy!
Well I’ve got a great, great, great, great joy!
Well I’ve got a great, great, great, great joy!
Well I’ve got a great, great, great, great joy!
Well I’ve got a great, great, great, great joy!
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Tags: Chris Christian, Joy
My enjoyment of music has always been about both the music and the lyrics. During my early 1970s high school years, I recall a number of top 40 hits on the radio whose tune and beat were enjoyable, but whose lyrics were objectionable. And there were a few songs whose music was bland, but had lyrics that attracted me such that I could overlook those small musical deficiencies.
My arrival at college in the fall of 1974 was a change in my life in a number of ways, but one important one was the discovery of this new phenomenon of “Jesus Music”. Groups like Love Song, the 2nd Chapter of Acts, Andrae Crouch and the Disciples, and Larry Norman gave me an amazing fusion of lyrics with meaning that also appealed to my enjoyment of a rock/pop style of music. This is not to say that I liked everything in the Jesus Music genre that I came across, but it opened my world to something that helped to build up my blossoming faith. God has continued to use this music over the past 30+ years to uplift, encourage, and even draw me back to Him when my love became cold.
I’ve digitized much of my collection to a format that will play on my computer and iPod, thus freeing it from the storage cabinet under my turntable at home, and making it playable in a way that it has never previously been possible. Since the lyrics are the content that the musical vehicle delivers to me, my intent with this blog is to share the lyrics of songs that are particularly meaningful to me.
Along with the lyrics that are posted here, I intend to post the audio of part or all of the songs they came from. Due to copyright restrictions and space requirement, I will do this as 24 or 32 kbps samples, and also try to include links to places where the music can be purchased new today, for those who are interested.
Thank you for joining me on this retrospective on the music that charged and changed a generation of Christian believers!
Tags: Jesus Music
