Ephphatha Music: Living Water

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Living Water

John 7:38 | “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

This song has been kicking around for a long time in my head, maybe as long as "Be Still." I might describe it as a "soulful up-tempo rock praise song," though that might be overselling it a bit.

Jesus, I've come to realize, really is our living water as he claimed in John's Gospel. He's the water that sustains and nourishes us. Makes no sense, but it's true nevertheless... if we let it be.

The normal caveats about my being neither a singer nor a piano player apply here. Also, like the other songs here it's by no means "finished." Maybe someday it will have a full accompaniment with drums, bass, guitars, and full voices.

We'll see.

Key of Bb 4/4 Speed 110 Intro: Bb /// Eb /// Dm /// F ///

VERSE 1
Bb
Wandering in a desert waste

----Eb
The wind-blown sand that stings my face

-----Dmin------------------------------F
Conspires with heat to bring me to my knees.

--- Bb
My heart is empty in my chest

----Eb
My soul cries out for peace and rest

----Dmin ---------------------------F
My life comes down to one consuming need

CHORUS
Bb-----------------------------Eb
Living water be the author of my...

----------F
Of my surrender

Bb---------------------------- Eb
Living water let the Father's love...

---------------F
Rain on me forever.

Bb--------------------------Gm
Living water wash our tears away

Bb-----------------------------Eb

Living water shape us from this clay

Bb----------------------------Gm
Living water wash our tears away

Bb-----------------------------Eb
Living water shape us from this clay

Bb
Quench our thirst today.

VERSE 2
Bb
I'm the woman there at Jacob's well

--------Eb
Though Christ is with me I can't tell

----Dmin------------------------------F
My sins and fears are all that I can see.

Bb
If I could just reach out and take

-----Eb
Your hand I know your truth would make

-------Dmin ---------------------F
The living waters flow inside of me.

(CHORUS)

BRIDGE
Bb
Flow through me and set me free, Lord

Eb
Wash me clean and help me see

Bb
Flow through me and set me free, Lord

Eb
Let your spirit dwell in me

Bb
Flow through me and set me free, Lord

Eb
Wash me clean and help me see

Bb
Flow through me and set me free, Lord

Eb
Let your spirit dwell in me

(repeat)

(CHORUS)

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Ephphatha Music

In Chapter 7 of Mark's Gospel we read this about Jesus:

"Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers in his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven he sighed and said to him, 'Ephphatha,' that is, 'Be opened.' And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly."

This passage speaks to me. I've never considered myself a songwriter, or even a musician. But when I came to Christ in my 40th year something wondrously odd seemed to open up inside of me, and from somewhere in my soul the songs in this blog came pouring out.

I remember with a weird sort of clarity how startled I was when one day in the shower a complete chorus came to my mind and my lips. (If you're curious it's now in this blog as a mostly complete song called "Be Still.") I don't know how or why these things happen -- why I can be driving to work musing over words and melodies and suddenly find myself unraveling a song. But it happens every once in a while and I'm thankful for it.

Caveats and disclaimers: I'm not a piano player. I'm a bass player, and a pretty mediocre one at that. And my bass -- though I love my black Fender Jazz to pieces and affectionately call her "Bessie" -- just isn't a good accompaniment instrument. So the piano playing on these tracks is coarse and unrefined at its best, awful at its worst. Forgive me!

And I'm not a singer, either. Especially when I'm trying to remember where my fingers are supposed to go on the keyboard. So as I say in most of these posts: try to listen to the song while ignoring the stuff around it.

All songs displayed here in their current state are copyright Michael Thelander. But none of them are "finished." I'm more than willing to work with any partners who can help these tunes reach any potential they may have and speak to more people.

After all, they're not mine. All I can believe is that they came from God's own heart.

About these songs...

As I comment elsewhere in this blog, none of these songs are really "finished" in a true sense. They're at a point where they can tell an end-to-end-story, and where they can be played without too many gaps, but they're not finished.

Over the couple of years that I've been working on these songs I've come to realize that this perpetual state of "undone-ness" is a good thing. I believe songs are alive, and that they need to have room to grow. And I especially believe that songs of faith need input and shaping from more than one person: In as much as the spirt dwells in all who believe, it can't find its true expression in the outpouring of one voice.

MT

Ephphatha Music

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Living Water

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