This post page was displaying “Three Secular Love Songs” in the opening window. This post is meant to reclaim the home page for Jesus.

Another Christmas Song Video

I am secretly in love with the greatest gal in the world. Presently the following scripture best describes the state of our relationship…

I Corinthians 7:37: “Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well.”

GOIN’ HOME

LYRICS

Goin’ Home

4     I really love you,
4     I really love you,
4     I really love you.
4
4     But you don’t love
4     Me.   I’m goin’
4     Home.
4

4     I really need you,
4     I really need you,
4     I really need you.
4
4     But you don’t need
4     Me.   I’m goin’
4     Home
4

8     It’s a story that is old as time,   a
8     Story that is often told.
8     But I don’t want to hear that story no more,-   That
8     Story is gettin’ too old.—

8     Weary,   so weary,   of
8     Beatin’ my head against a wall.   The
8     Fortress of your affections,   I
8     Reckon it will never fall.

4     I tried to tell you,-
4     I tried to tell you,-
4     Can’t live without you.-
4
4     What’s a boy to
4     Do?   I’m goin’
4     Home.
4

4     I tried to win you,
4     I tried to win you,
4     But I can’t win you.
4
4     What’s a boy to
4     Do?   I’m goin’
1     Home.

 

HOW COULD IT HAVE COME TO THIS?

LYRICS

How Could It Have Come To This?

8     Until this moment I was doing okay.   I
8     Planned on enjoying the rest of my day,   but
8     Now you inform me you’re going away.
8     How could it have come to this?   It

8     Came like a bolt from out of the blue,   this
8     Terrible thing that you’re planning to do,   the
8     Terrible pain that you’re putting me through.
8     How could it have come to this?   Without any

8     Warning,   with no premo-
8     nition,   you’re putting my
8     Heart,   in an awful con-
8     dition.   I

8     Guess I was sleeping, and missed all the signs.   I
8     Never imagined you had these designs.
8     Maybe you grew tired of my monkeyshines.
8     How could it have come to this?

8     I just journeyed on so complacently,   as-
8     summing what was, would forever be.
8     Now you inform me that you’re leaving me!
8     How could it have come to this?
8     How could it have come to this?

 

TEN PIN

LYRICS

Ten Pin

8     Why should there be any problem?
8     Why should there be any pain?
8     Everything should be    going like clockwork,     so
8     Why am I going insane?     In-

8     sane since the moment I saw you,     you
8     Bowled me over right then,     just as
8     If you were a big old bowling ball,   and
8     I was a little pin.     I

16   Saw you were right down my alley,   the
16   Minute you rolled into my town.     I
16   Feel like the luckiest ten pin,
16   Ever to be knocked down.

8     Now that you’ve toppled me over,    and I’m
8     Layin’ on my side,    if you
8     Wait til’ I get set up again,    I
8     Will be satisfied.    I’ll

8     Be in anticipation.
8     We can resume the game.   I’ll be
8     Standing at the end of the alley,
8     Ready for another frame.

I, the humble administrator, being slightly bipolar, and experiencing the tail end of a manic episode, finally reached a point of utter exhaustion. I utilized the energy of my last manic episode to write, record, and post several songs. This natural cycle of productivity has ended, but (despite my many limitations) I propose to incorporate the continuing maintenance and augmentation of this site into my routine.

In my ignorance I have no way of knowing if anyone has even seen this site. I have put some of the materiel on SoundCloud, allowing for free downloads of the mp3’s posted there. Thus far a few dozen people have responded. SoundCloud features good usage statistics. I have put the songs on Youtube as well, although they seem hard to find there. Title searches are useless, especially since so many Christian songs seem to share the same title. My site within a site can be discovered by typing “homemadegospel.org” into the search field. No one is likely to do this by accident. The results list solicitously asks me if I meant “homemade gospel.” There are plenty of artifacts associated with that theme.

It is a lot more gratifying to create music (as supplier, mind you, not as performer) than to attempt to publicize it. But the more ears that the message of the songs can be poured into, the better. I intend to ultimately profit on only one song, “Holding On”. You may help to fulfill the Great Commission by either casually or purposefully assisting to disseminate all of the other efforts. The most useful thing you can do is utilize your own talents to recast them into a more aesthetically gratifying shape. You are free to perform them non-commercially under the Creative Commons aegis.

At this point I am supposed to say that “if only one person comes to a knowledge of Christ through these feeble efforts it will be all worth it!” Well, this is true. But millions of people use the internet. It is hoped that, with your assistance, the harvest will be better than one soul.

This effort should remain non-denominational and ecumenical. I fail to find as much controversy and contention in the Bible as many others do. I want Jesus to save me, and I want to obey His injunction to go save others. A wise man once told me that no denomination is flawless. My personal denomination attempts to adhere to all of the commandments scripture contains. It does not promulgate easy grace. That is what draws me to it.  Matthew 5:17,18:

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”

My denomination goes to church on Saturday, and although they feel that they possess a special place in the Kingdom, they confess that they claim no monopoly on salvation. It is not an easy denomination. That’s what I like about it. It attracts good people to it. And, life being what it is, a few scoundrels show up as well. As the lyrics go, the place contains people “unqualified to boast or brag, as unrighteous as a filthy rag…”

The music is good. One of the founders put music on a level with speech as a means of worship. Which leads me to personal heresy #1: “Don’t trust anything that makes a predominately emotional appeal.” The sensuality of music should be used sparingly as an aid to the easy digestion of it’s textual content. A Christian could forsake most of the worldly pleasures but still overindulge in cupcakes and cantatas. Music is effective in ministry, but in the final analysis it is secondary to preaching. I try to resist appeals to instinct, as opposed to reason. Emotion caters to flesh. This attitude, which some may indeed label heretical, is understood by Muslims and members of the Church of Christ. I recently read “Doctor Faustus” by Thomas Mann. It is an allegory of the rise and fall of the Third Reich. The Richard Strausses of this world compellingly underscore both good and evil. Art in the service of the church must be utilized with great care and humility.

Music is a tool. It is like the letters of the alphabet: The same 26 characters that are components of English translations of Holy Scripture also constitute “Fanny Hill” and “Tropic of Cancer.” Similarly music can be said to consist of a maximum of eleven tones. They stand ready to serve. They are not capable of judgement, and will readily follow anyone who bids them. Music for the Glory of God is the highest use. But music is not the highest art form. That honor belongs to literature. I will be all things to all men and borrow freely from practically any musical genre, if it will serve as a setting for the “words of eternal life.” Robert Penn Warren once condescendingly described music without lyrics as “meaningless.”  So lets give it a meaning. The meaning for which God no doubt originally intended it.

 

Romans 1:16, 17

16      For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

17      For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written. The just shall live by faith.

I used to be a whole lot more of a sinner than I am currently.

As a heathen I blamed my constitution on heredity and environment, nature and nurture. As a relatively new Christian I accept the doctrine of original sin. My upbringing may not have been the most conducive of virtue, but even if it had been the greatest imaginable I would have still grown up to be a sinner.

I matriculated in the Seventies. This was the era of the Album. Musically speaking, many disparate threads got knit together at that time. All styles of music were incorporated into what has been termed “progressive rock”.  I was an avid listener and unwitting pupil. There was a piano in the house, but I never took lessons. I got a guitar when I was fifteen, and a few books that told me where to place my fingers on the frets. I had gone as far as I could (not very far) with the instrument by the time I was sixteen. I played the clarinet for a few months in the high school band, but never learned to read music. But I really like music. There are no bad forms of music (dissonance excepted), but only bad lyrics.

If the Seventies were musically rich, they also had the distinction of being morally bankrupt. I was exceptionally bankrupt from puberty until my regeneration ten years ago. My righteousness is still as filthy rags, but Jesus has done a thorough job sweeping the rubbish from my brain. This represents a supernatural act of divine intervention. If He could fix me, I know that He can fix anybody.

“But I’m not broken!” is the reply of far too many. One of the greatest hurdles to jump over as an evangelist is trying to gently convince people that, yes, indeed, by all means they are broken. This fact is clear from the perspective of one who has been mended. The blind, however, can not see their sinfulness without some kind of miraculous restoration of their vision.

God is in the miracle business.