Tag: Chris Christian

Categories
Life

Peak Experience

Today’s featured song: Mountain Top by Chris Christian from his self-titled 1978 album.

This entry from Tape JM-31 includes tracks 13 and 14. It starts with a station identification featuring an excerpt from the the song The Army of the Lord by Harvest (from their 1984 album Send Us To The World) and a reading of 2 Timothy 2:3-4, transitioning into Amy Grant’s Thy Word. Then, it brings us into the real offering for today, an “oldie” by Chris Christian. It was from his second album, released in 1978; oddly, his next album in 1981 had the same title (his name), but was musically more mainstream and not as overtly Christian. (The earlier 1978 album is the same one that featured his song Great Great Joy, from which this blog got its name.)

What I like about this song is its simplicity, and the clear message. He likes to worship, but knows that there is more to the Christian life than to just sing and pray.

I love to sing and I love to pray
Worship the Lord most every day
I go to the temple and I want to stay
To hide from the hustle of the world and its ways

And I’d love to live on a mountain top
Fellowshipping with the Lord
I’d love to stand on a mountain top
‘Cause I love to feel my spirit soar

But I’ve got to come down from the mountain top
To the people in the valley below
Or they’ll never know that they can go
To the mountain of the Lord

Now praising the Father is a good thing to do
Worship the Trinity in spirit and truth
But if we worshiped all of the time
There would be no one to lead the blind

But I’d still love to live on a mountain top
Fellowshipping with the Lord
I’d love to stand on a mountain top
‘Cause I love to feel my spirit soar

But I’ve got to come down from the mountain top
To the people in the valley below
Or they’ll never know that they can go
To the mountain of the Lord

Now I am not saying that worship is wrong
But worship is more than just singin’ a song
It’s all that you say and everything that you do
It’s letting His Spirit live through you

But I’d love to live on a mountain top
Fellowshipping with the Lord
I’d love to stand on a mountain top
‘Cause I love to feel my spirit soar

But I’ve got to come down from the mountain top
To the people in the valley below
Or they’ll never know that they can go
To the mountain of the Lord

Chris Christian Mountain Top – purchase MP3 on Amazon
Categories
Life Praise

Joy!

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 grow

He sends the sunshine beaming down, the rain below
He’ll make your happiness
Sprout its roots and grow
You’ll know, you’ll know

There’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 grow

He sends the sunshine beaming down, the rain below
He’ll make your happiness
Sprout its roots and grow
You’ll know, you’ll know

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 grow

He sends the sunshine beaming down, the rain below
He’ll make your happiness
Sprout its roots and grow
You’ll know, you’ll know

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!
Well I’ve got a great, great, great, great joy!

Chris Christian, 1978