Music To Inspire! - God's Banquet of Mercy

via Worth A Thousand Words

'And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.'

Jonah 4: 2

Usually when it is close to the end of the year, my sisters and I get very active musically. This year, however, we have been 'into' it a little more than usual and quite a bit earlier too. For one thing, the choir which we are part of recently (that is in August) participated in a songwriting competition; we all got really busy with that! The group pitched in together to fully create the lyrics and music, and recorded a song of our own. It was an interesting experience, and we all definitely learnt a lot. The song is called Incorruptible Love and my sister Sarah got to write the lyrics with the editing help of another member of the choir and others came up with the music. The theme of the competition was on Church Communion, so that is the basic tone and theme of this song. You can check out the recorded link, Incorruptible Love. And now that this is over, my sisters and I are preparing for a fun music concert with another friend at the end of November which entails classical music playing, movie and game music duets/solos and ensembles and vocal music as well. I'm planning on playing a violin solo medley of Les Miserables, Lord willing, and also a violin duet with Mary doing a Lord of the Rings/Hobbit medley; I know my sisters, Sarah, Mary and Grace will all be performing different things as well. It is SOOOOOOOOOOO much fun playing from favourite movie scores, but it is quite challenging as well to get it practiced to perfection. So, all around, we're all very musically busy, and if you do happen to remember it any time, a little prayer for my sisters and me will be wonderfully appreciated!

And with all this music in the air, it is time for another Music To Inspire! As is usual, my sisters tend to be the ones to remind me to post another one when I start forgetting; so thank you, Sarah dear! Hmm, well... oh, by the way if any of you would like to know more tidsy bitsy information about this blog meme, hop over onto this link to learn more about it, please do. Leave your link for your own Music To Inspire! post too, so we can all enjoy in your favourite music of the month.

Here Are Mine!

'Horns of Hattin and aftermath' 

(Crusader Kings II Soundtrack by Paradox Interactive)

Sometime this month or the last, I stumbled across this game soundtrack by Paradox Interactive (I think it was Spotify's kindly suggestion); and it has been a favourite. It is so inspiring and dramatic and beautiful... you'll love it, so do check out the whole soundtrack on YouTube. This particular track caught me breathless and wrangled my emotions warmly with the ancient Gregorian vocals. I have been listening to it all month long while writing and studying!

Last night I listened to to two songs on my iPod which I had not listened to in a long while, - Graham Kendrick's Crucified Man and Come and See. Listening to those two songs blessed my heart so much that it brought tears to my eyes, just the encouragement and blessing I got from the beautiful words. Graham Kendrick, a Christian songwriter in the UK, is perhaps one of my most well-loved and favourite of modern Christian composers - with the exception of a few songs, I love every one of his albums and songs and some are old favourites!! Some favourite albums of mine are ones like, Sacred Journey, Banquet, The Very Best of Graham Kendrick, House Churches in England, Rumour of Angles and The Gift. I guess Kendrick's songs are as favourite to me as many of you are fond of Andrew Peterson's, though for some sad reason he doesn't seem to be as widely known as Peterson these days (if you are at a lost to whom I am talking about, you may be familiar with the song, Shine, Jesus, Shine which was written by him some years ago. One of the great things I love about his music is the theological depth in his lyrics - they are really quite biblical and deep without being stodgy! The music, while still being often upbeat and contemporary, is generally not over-the-top with hype and noisiness but really worshipful; many of the songs are about the Cross, which is a favourite theme of mine.

Though Australia is famous world-wide among Christian circles for its mega-church Hillsong brand (famous for quite a few songs like Shout to the Lord, and Thank You For the Cross - I love those ones, by the way) yet I personally tend to really dislike the repetitive shallowness of many of the newer lyrics boarding on being cliche 'I love you songs' and the worldly hype of the music. Meanwhile, songs like the ones by Graham Kendrick I find to be really encouraging to me in my walk with the Lord. I wish they were sung in churches more often! For a long while now I have wanted to get my hand on his newest album, so I was quite thrilled when I found it on Spotify! You can by the way find many of his albums there or on YouTube as well :). And so, here are a few of my new favourites!

'Banquet'

This one is about the Lord's banquet - the communion of the Lord's table, speaking of His love mercy at the Cross; the beauty of the Lord's goodness, His Body and Blood blessed, broken, and shed for us. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good! 'There is a banquet so rich, as the Bread and Wine, no table more holy, no welcome so kind. There is no mercy so wide as the arms of the Cross. Come and taste, come and see, come find and be found...'

'Holy Ground'

This one is quite beautiful as well, a song seeking the Lord and trusting Him know that He is near, therefore we need not fear; 'in this darkening world, may we shine like stars, God's own children pure and blameless. Father! May our feet be found on holy ground, on holy ground; purify the Church to stand on holy ground.'

'Merciful'

One of my favourites in the album, Merciful, is about showing mercy because God has shown us exceedingly great love and mercy... how can we not forgive? Nail all bitterness to the cross and God will turn all evil to good! 'At the cross where Jesus suffered, I lay down my bitter pain, where He prayed "Father, Forgive them", Lord, I know that I must do the same.... For my Father in Heaven showed mercy to me, how could I not be merciful when God's been merciful to me. God's been merciful to me...' 

Now that Yours Truly has finally gotten around to posting a Music to Inspire! post again after a long absence, it is your turn to share with us your favourite songs of the month, reference this post in your own Music to Inspire! post and leave a link in the linky below so we all may share in the music...