ChristianDance

The song "Keep On" by Heather Pillsbury started in her classroom. Heather is a teacher-musician, and she encourages others to stay the course. At the same time she was quietly feeling discouraged about her own life. Heather shares: "This song became my reminder that the breakthrough often comes right after the hardest stretch of the journey." The lyrics read like the letter to God, acknowledging the world's attempts to tarnish God's name, and she admits that she too isn't blameless. Despite all of this, Heather points out that God never gave up! The lyrics of this song draw on the promise found in Galatians 6:9: "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Heather opens the song with brutal candor, "I have added to the slander, fanned the flames." She adds: "You were calling me Your daughter long before I called You Gentle Father." This re-frames each of our ...

Rachael Mann's "Didn't Have To Do It" opens with an "alone stranger in deserted land," who discovers that she/he was never invisible. We have a Savior who has "always been there You have never left my side." Jesus has already written our names in eternal ink, and as Rachael states, he has "taken the cross for me."   The song is a front-row seat to the fact that Love doesn't stay distant. And most of all, the song is also a protest against that one stubborn lie that keeps haunting us… the lie that tells us that we must earn His grace.  You'll enjoy this beautiful duet between Rachael Mann and Terell Davy, accompanied by a piano. The two parts of the song that really touched me the most is the part where Mann and Davy sing, "And You tell me with You I'm okay I'm enough // Because I belong to You," followed by a question, "Why You did? You didn't have to do it." The answer? It's so simple that i...

"Come to Your Throne (Live)" by Arcadia Worship is both a confession and a surrender. It's an invitation for the Spirit to break through our hardness and make us whole again. The song was written from a place of struggling between guilt and grace.  The song starts with a prayerful confession, "Honestly, I come to Your throne." God makes it clear that we may come as we are, without polished prayers, and with all of our faults and imperfections. God asks us to come to Him with an honest heart.  This musical prayer continues with, "Shatter this heart I have of stone." Yes, we may admit our brokenness to God. But instead of feeling despair, we may know that each confession brings us closer to healing. We may ask Him: "Create a pure heart in me, God." Haven't we all needed that same prayer at some point in our lives?  What I love about this song is its invitation. It's an invitation to really see God, not as a distant God, but to see Go...

There's something about the quiet of the morning. It's during those early hours that it's easier to listen to our heart, when honesty can surface, and our prayers can rise before all of our daily distractions start to take over. Red Letter Society released "Psalm 5 (Lead Me)" and noted that the song is "a perfect praise in the morning."   "Psalm 5 (Lead Me)" is written together with Jordan West as part of an ambitious project to song-write through all 150 Psalms. Each of these songs is a modern cry straight from Scripture.  This song walks us through the cry of King David, who longs to be near God, "Hear my words, O Lord, my King // In the dawn, my prayers I bring." David is struggling with the brokenness of the world around him. And in that sense not so much has changed compared to present days, where we too see the brokenness of the world all around us. A world where the "wicked" can be described as deceitful, boastful, a...

There are moments in life that most of us know too well, the moment where life loses its color and everything is overshadowed with a dull, heavy gray. That's the starting point of "Color My View" by Carli Lessing. Carli shares: "Sometimes losing a dream or someone you love can feel like all the color draining from your life. But the Master Painter can pick up His brush and color your view with love again and make things new."  But instead of staying in the shadows, Carli shows us that we can choose to boldly step into God's light, His light of renewal. There is more to this song than healing. More important is that it is an invitation to start seeing again. We can choose to sulk in the past, stay in the gray, or see a love that is so vivid, "red, green, and golden," that it changes our perspective on life. Carli reminds us that the Master Artist doesn't just patch up the broken, "You color my view // Red, green and golden // Brushstrokes ...

The key message in "Eye On The Sparrow", by Robert Peterson and The Crusade, is that God sees and loves you. He knows your pain, and your hope isn't fruitless. Robert was triggered to write this song by the 'desperate' people he saw in the inner city streets of Saint Paul, MN (USA) and along the banks of the Mississippi River near the Port of Saint Paul. Robert uses the word "desperate" for the people who appeared to be either homeless, lonely, lost, on some kind of drugs (acting very strangely), in poor health, and basically… desperate… possibly even contemplating suicide.  That is the setting for this song, with a side note that there are many shades of "desperate." There are so many people who are also desperate without others being aware. There are "undercover-desperates" around us, who are facing circumstances in their lives that might make them question their value. "Well, I've got my eye on you," the lyrics decla...

"Living Water [Live]" by Coming Kingdom, featuring Zac Carpenter, is a song that draws you to something greater. It invites you to experience an intimate encounter with the Holy Spirit and let it change your everyday life. In other words, it's about submitting to God, inviting the Holy Spirit to come and expecting His move, and a renewal of your heart and mind.  This live rendition of the song was recorded live at the Power and Presence worship evening of Croydon Vineyard church.  The song's lyrics serve as an invitation to renew your spirit and dive into the living water of divine grace. "Spirit, come and fall afresh on us // we long to taste the sweetness of your love," a reminder that the road to change begins by opening your heart and being willing to submit to God. It's a call to action! Invite the Spirit to "Come and have your way / Come and move in power." God's Kingdom can break into your routines and bring you hope and healing if...

When the Divine Vibes set out to write "Love Never Fails", he wasn't chasing a love song. He turned to 1 Corinthians 13 because of the radical challenge that Paul gave the Corinthians (and to us as well). The essence is that this love is agape love, which is a selfless, sacrificial, and active love. This love isn't a feeling. It's a way of living! It is superior to all spiritual gifts and is eternal, whereas spiritual gifts are temporary and will pass away. The song encourages us to see this agape love as a powerful, active way of living that serves others and reflects God's nature. Agape directs our focus beyond the flashy spiritual gifts to the building of the body of Christ and Christ-like living.  So what kind of love are you showing today? Is it agape, the type of love that can't be counterfeited by Satan or duplicated by pagans? The agape love in this song is the distinguishing mark or characteristic of the Christian. "By this all people will kn...