Grace Child EP (Lyrics, Inspiration, and Testimony)

Welcome to the Grace Child blog on Hall Pass!  Thanks for stopping by and checking out the Lyrics, Inspiration, and Testimony of the music that God has given and encouraged us with. If you would like access to any of the songs, video, or ways to keep up with my music or anything Freedom Song and/or I will be doing I'll post the links here...  Also if you would like to be notified of future events, or projects send me your email with the text "NOTIFY ME" to thedrewhallmusic@gmail.com.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/fallow-ground-ep/id853394010    (Music)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLLTsvvJXGY                        (Music/Videos)

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I'd like to take a moment to wish my mother a happy birthday today. :)  Almost every birthday, mother's day, or Christmas the answer is the same... "What do you want me to get you Mom?!".  The response, "I just want a CD of your music..."  Well I wanted to do you one better!  So I am releasing this project on your birthday!  I love you and you are the best Mama ever! ;)

I had a great time getting the opportunity to open for Jimmy Needham at Zera Coffee Shop in Denton, and it was a blessing that it got recorded and turned into this project.  I wish I had more pictures but I just took these off of facebook. 

Absolute

Verse
My discontentment leads me to repentance.

Unspoken lies in a truth spoken sentence.  

I'm an apprentice of theatric performance.

Convinced but ignorant, the consequence is enormous.

Forbid that I'm boring but I bear no resemblance

to the light bearer, compromise for assurance

of a life full of comfort, a life full of blessing,

where's Christ where's truth these lies I'm addressing.

Chorus
Every day another lie creeps in
Trying to rise above the truth that I believe in
Heathen heathen, do you dare to show your face?
There's no heathen no heathen on this side of grace.

Bridge
Belief is a virtue that no one can conquer,

A gift rarely sought but one not rarely offered.

Risk is involved it’s the measure of faith.

The gift that you seek manifests in its place.

Refrain
Give us the heart to seek your face

All that you are will replace
All of the lies that we face.
Repeat

Chorus
Everyday, another lie creeps in
Tryna rise above the truth that I believe in
Heathen heathen, do you dare to show your face?
Heathen heathen, do you dare to show your face?
Heathen heathen, do you dare to show your face?
There's no heathen, no heathen on this side of...
Grace…

Absolute (inspiration)

Psalm 42:5 and 6

⁵ Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation^{[c] 6} and my God.

Any person who has the Holy Spirit of God feels the constant tension of realizing you hold all things (2 Peter 1:3), but with that also sometimes comes the feeling that the Father is holding back on you.  Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”  We live in the constant pursuit of joy and happiness and often times many of our pursuits end in sorrow or end up not measuring up to our expectations.  This song addresses the awareness of our fickle nature and the awareness of the enemy’s attempts to play on our conviction to shame us.  There are times when either sin clouds our vision of the grace of God in our lives, or the lack of an emotion makes us feel distant from the Father.  We must listen to the voice of truth in those moments to know that the love of Jesus surpasses every lie, every discontent feeling, and every evil desire we may have given in to.  As long as it is called today we must remind ourselves of the grace of God and let his kindness lead us to repentance (Romans 2:4).  The truth is the truth and Jesus came to die for us while we were at our worst (Romans 5:8), so that means His love is not conditional to our actions but to his character.  God is love and that “absolutely” overrules anything that discourages unity with the Father. 

The bridge is a reminder that the faith to believe these truths come not from ourselves but from God as well.  “Belief is a virtue”… And a high esteemed virtue at that!  The world is constantly feeding the idea to believe in so many things whether it be in one’s self, social unity, the supernatural etc.  Vague belief accomplishes much, but to what avail?  There is power in belief, no doubt (see what I did there…) But there is only one faith that honors true justice in the physical and spiritual sense, and honors the one who establishes order.  As long as faith is continued to be abused for vain imaginations and self ambition we will continue to see the manifestation of that self ambition in the destruction of family structure, social unity etc. and we will see the leadership of the world continue to transform into the hierarchy of oppression that it is becoming. This is why prayer for government officials and leaders is encouraged in the bible (1 Timothy 2:2).  2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Faith works supernaturally on an individual, relational, and societal level.  We must be careful in defining things as good from our limited understanding.  We need to trust the creator God who designed things with purpose to teach us what is good.  We must follow his leading in who he says we are, and what he says we can accomplish. I’m not so worried about becoming a depressed broken man in this life as I am becoming a successful accomplished man who leads many in the road of positive thinking to the end result of pride and eternal destruction.  God’s grace continues to show me his holy perfect character and nature and my need of dependency on Him.

Prodigal Son

Intro

When I was a child, I did what children do.

I always believed Daddy cause Daddies words were true. 

Pleasures and desires began to disengage. 

Once out poured the praise, now to spill the rage. 

Hey, you thought you knew what was better. 

Taking Daddies gifts and then you'll run away forever. 

He gave you what you wanted. 

You can't force love to stay or a ghost away from a house that's haunted. 

Maybe the scare reminds you of the beauty of the daylight or the moment someone finds you in the dark. Wherever your at I hope you're running fast. 

Don't keep him waiting and don't look back 

Chorus

Prodigal son run run run 

hands are open can you hear him calling son. 

Prodigal son run run run 

Leave your burdens at the porch clean up cause supers done.

Verse

Lost in the footsteps of a giant world. 

Lies made to look like shinning pearls. 

Remembering the brighter days. 

Of living in my Fathers ways. 

Those ways guide me back home. 

I cannot do this on my own. 

I should be crying at your feet.

Instead you ran to welcome me. 

Repeat Chorus x2

Bridge 1

Everybody raise your glasses. 

We all do what Dad says. 

It took a fall to understand. 

He takes back as I am. 

Now everybody's dancing around. 

Cause I've come home safe and sound 

I was dead now I'm alive you see. 

Now we're having a jubilee. 

Instrumental

2nd Chorus

It is done said your Son.
He has brought a love to us that cannot be undone.
Everybody come come come.
Any shame you bring is covered by his blood.
(X4)

2nd Bridge

Now I see your grace.
It's raining down on me.
Now I see your grace.
And I'm running cause I'm free.
(X2)

Prodigal Son (Inspiration)

(Luke 15:11-32)

The Parable of the Lost Son

¹¹ Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

¹³ “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

²¹ “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

²⁵ “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷ ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

²⁸ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

³¹ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Affliction

Intro

This earthen vessel may not impress you I’m not alone

It seems I’m battered and tattered from all these sticks and stones

Only taking bits and pieces of what I deserve

But it’s ridding me of demons as I’m running home.

Rap

Walk by faith and not by sight, let God be true and everyman a lie

So that you prevail when you speak and when you judge you’ll be proved right

Don’t fear the terrors of night, take your delight, in the afflictions have peace

Whatever surfaces stays and remains and the things you deny don’t rely on will cease

Refrain from the ease cause even the beast have peace when their stomach is filled

Food for the stomach and stomach for food, in the end it amounts to roadkill

Take an example from history, as you walk through the desert don’t be distressed

Those who grumbled complained at His name, these are those who never entered his rest

Chorus

They call me foolish one, as I run, down the road of affliction

I choose to eat the herbs, bathed in love, than the fattened calf in hatred’s kitchen

And though I dine alone, I have fellowship

I may not see any people but I will never quit

And through his word alone, my life I commit

I walk in light of the fire where darkness can’t persist.

Bridge

There’s a mystery in the fire, and you’ll never find if you appease

The flesh, this disease…

There’s a mystery in the fire, and you’ll only find if you believe

That He, is all we need..

Chorus

They call me foolish one, as I run, down the road of affliction

I choose to eat the herbs, bathed in love, than the fattened calf in hatred’s kitchen

And though I dine alone, I have fellowship

I may not see any people but I will never quit

And through his word alone, my life I commit

I walk in light of the fire where darkness can’t persist.

Refrain

I’m safe in the fire…

Affliction (Inspiration)

Lamentations 3:26-36 “It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.  It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.  Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him;  let him put his mouth in the dust -  there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.  For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.  To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve.”

Jacob’s Vision

I have a friend by the name of Jacob Grace who happened to be hanging out with some friends and I one night.  We were reading scripture and worshiping God when he got a word picture from the Lord (seen below).  In the vision he saw a piece of beautiful pottery full of color and appealing to the eye.  There was a lid on top of it and peaking its head from under the lid was a dark figure hiding inside of the pottery.  It was very evident that the dark figure did not belong there.  Over time the pottery was exposed to fire and slowly the color faded away and the design and beauty was no longer visible.  It was marred and ashy but still intact.  Although much was sacrificed in the process the heat was too much for the dark figure to remain.

 Immediately lyrics began flooding from my heart and the song “Affliction” began.  This song expresses more so the process of the life of following Christ through the trials, knowing that each struggle is producing the character of God in our lives.  Whether you find the reproof of God justly in your life or you are going through a trial that is unjustly happening to you it is an opportunity for you to grow in your awareness in the terrible nature of sin and rebellion.  As you sit and wait for the salvation of God to happen either in that moment or for Him to reveal unconfessed sin you can allow the sinful nature in your life to be burned up as you rejoice in the trial that produces perseverance (James 1:3).  It’s one thing to be aware of the wrong that is in your life but it is another thing completely to welcome the pain, suffering, and sorrow that teaches you to love righteousness and produces repentance in your life.

Scriptures either used to inspire or used directly in this song.

2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”

Romans 3:4 “Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, ‘That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”

Hebrews 3:7-11 “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit  Says, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.  Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart:  they have not known my ways.’  As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest’”.

Proverbs 15:17 “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it.”

If you pair the Hebrews and Proverbs scriptures together it reminds you of one of the works of God the Isrealites saw in the desert and how they still complained.  God gave them manna and quail to feed them and after a time it was not enough for them.  This is a reminder to rejoice always in abundance and in lack.

The Rock

Chorus

When you stand in the sand and the water passes through

You will wash away, I will reach for you.

I will bring you to the rock cause it’s what I’m clinging to

It’s where my house is built, it will not be moved

(X2)

Verse 1

They threw me out a rope, called it a life preserver

But to die is to gain, so instead I sink further

Further and further, no I will never stop

The ocean floor is my grave that’s when I hit the rock

Some hang out at the surface and up on that beach

Getting burned up but call it beauty while we sing under the sea

Getting pruned, regenerated culture

Irony under the sea he lifts me higher than them vultures…

Chorus

When you stand in the sand and the water passes through

You will wash away, I will reach for you.

I will bring you to the rock cause it’s what I’m clinging to

It’s where my house is built, it will not be moved

(X2)

Verse 2

How can it rain under water, where did this storm come from?

Give rain a memory check 93^rd chapter of Psalm

And Matthew chapter 8, where Jesus calmed the storm

Practice authority, that’s where real faith is born

He rules with a scepter of righteousness

So keep in step live a life holy like His is

And be about His (business) so when we’re grown up

We can bring freedom to the orphans who were just like us kids…

Bridge

It is the rock I’m holding on

Yes I’m weak, but it’s Him that makes me strong

I knew it all along,

I’m baptized now I’m striving to stay alive

I won’t die alone

(X2)

Lord God I give it all to you…

The Rock (Inspiration and Testimony)

This song is my invitation to the hopeless and my encouragement to the hopeful.  I have sung this song about a million times outside of the bars on Fry Street in Denton Texas with all my brothers and sisters who were a part of what was called “Fry Street” Ministry.  I’ve had the most interesting freestyle raps added to it by people who have had too much to drink and have had some interesting encounters.  I’m not sure if it was this song but as I was singing one night on Fry Street I remember a brother who started singing along and in the midst of his drunkenness after we began praying he just started crying and repenting to the Lord.  Those are the good moments, he’s been faithfully hanging tight in community with believers now which is an encouragement.  This song is the encouragement of the arm of the body of Christ to reach out to those who are struggling and looking for hope and also telling the hopeless where our hope lies.  This was exactly what “Fry Street” Ministry was about.  After taking people off the streets into my house and seeing how difficult that was and how inadequate I was at that (and receiving a lot of grace from roommates who actually paid rent) I learned more about the messiness of life but I didn’t lose hope.  There were some really low points, discouragement and oppression that made it really hard to press on and just a lack of wisdom.  But God used it all to take me deeper.  After doing “Fry Street” Ministry every Thursday night, sacrificing sleep and space for almost a year and a half span consistently, we met a man named Jeremy Adams.  The ministry at Denton Freedom House was an answered prayer for the lack of wisdom we experienced.  His family had taken men into their home from the streets while introducing them to the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus for ten years. In faith, their home ministry turned into a full blown ministry, church, with functional businesses that teach those who once used their hands for thievery to work hard and those who used to hate their brother to lift one another up.  Little had I know that these radical Jesus loving felons had been doing “Fry Street” Ministry long before we got there.  God has used this ministry in my life in a huge way and they are the reason these songs are even available to you today.  They have even redeemed the freestyle mess from Fry Street.  Now we have freestyle worship after we play The Rock some nights which has often extended to a good 30 min after the song ends

One of the faithful men in the home named John Michael Lewis is responsible for the contribution to the end of the song… “Lord God I give it all to you.”  Shortly after he entered the home he got up on the mic one night during freestyle worship and spontaneously sang it out in the Spirit!  

Sanctuary

Chorus
God you're moving in ways that we can't see.
Hope that's greater than all that we've known.
Lessons learned in the depths of this great sea.
Stretching us and no we're not alone.
(X2)

Verse
The darkness shows the brighter side.
From all the times we've missed the light.
The shadows in the day and night.
To see your glory with these unveiled eyes.
To see your glory with these unveiled eyes.

Chorus Repeat

Bridge
We want to seek seek,
Want to go deep deep,
Don't let go of me,
We want be
With you you,
Do what you do do,
Rest in your truth,
In the shadow of your wings. 

(X2)
Shadow of your wings
Sanctuary...
Sanctuary...
Sanctuary...
Sanctuary...

Bridge Repeat

Chorus Repeat

Special Thanks
Denton Freedom House and Zera's Coffee Company for all their support!
Alexis Barnett (Cello), Andrea Lyn  (Piano and Harmonies), Jared Adams (Cajone), and Tyra Haley (Flute and Harmonies) for co-writing music and bringing these songs to life and for the time they put into it!
Matt Haley, Jeremiah Moore, and Joseph Orsak for their service to Jesus and to investing in the men at DFH and bringing their knowledge and heart to training us up in God's word and in music. Matt Vancil for his videoing and editing the footage from the performance.  Sharel Gaskey for the "Grace Child" album artwork.  Leighton Pustejovsky for the graphic design work of the album cover. And Shaun Green for mastering the audio from the one track he had to work with and making it sound so great.