Skip to main content

The Dawn - Vincent James

Searching through Noise Trade I tend to find great artists that I would have never encountered.  Yesterday I came across Vincent James and I have been listing to his EP all morning!  Powerful harmonies and strumming patterns that remind me of Judah and The Lion truly brings life from music.  Typically on first pass the musical arrangement is what truly awakes a desire to return to the album again then I tend to find the lyrics to be even more powerful!  This song exemplifies that process as this powerful duet captures the ear and then his powerful motifs about how life that arises in the dawn.  


Hallelujah
I can just start to see the light
and this wilderness below 
that we had come to know has given light, given life, given hope.

Praise the Lord for the dawn!  The night seems so dark, we feel lost in ourselves, lost in our minds, lost in our sin.  Then the hope of light enters into the picture but as we talk about the dawn we do not speak of the full brightness of a midday sun.  We are talking about as the light penetrates the dark and allows clarity, hope, and the promise of the future to slowly grow.  I feel like I live my life in cycles of night and day when I am truly tuned into the leading of the Holy Spirit and when I can not seem to find any path because of my own blinded eyes.  Praise the lord for the dawn that he picks us up from our slumber, replacing our shame with grace, replacing our brokenness with hope, and replacing our stony hearts with hearts of flesh!

I awoke before the dawn
and the dark wild night is clinging to my eyes
I was scared to make a sound
I went forth into the morn
In my own two feet
they felt the ground beneath trembled for the coming joy

Hallelujah
I can just start to see the light
spent so long in the dark we have forgotten who we are
praise the lord for the dawn

Distant dreams foggy fields
With my own two eyes I swore them to come alive
dying world giving life!
I stood still as the storm and the sun lashed low on these tired and weary bones
shed the darkness for light

Hallelujah
I can just start to see the light
And this whole wide earth longs for rebirth
Praise the lord for the dawn

Every beast, every bird
Well they came out from their caves
the dark and weary days
it all but withered to the ground
we can out from the woods
and the morning light spread like the wildfire and we danced with a joy we've never know.

Hallelujah
I can just start to see the light
And this whole earth came awake like a dead man from the grace
Praise the Lord for the dawn

Hallelujah
I can just start to see the light
and this wilderness below 
that we had come to know has given light, given life, given hope.


All is Great in the Kingdom of God
Paul Shackelford

Popular posts from this blog

Rise Again - Needtobreathe

I have been reading a book about the arts and Christians role in creating culture.  Steve Turner, the author, asserts a major critique that modern Christian art does not speak about real life.  The art created does not sound genuine or have any ties to real life that people outside the faith can connect with.  While reading the book I listened through this album and I think that this song does a great job of breaking the mold.  The members of Needtobreathe are all outspoken followers of Jesus but very little of the art that they produce mentions Jesus or Christianity at all.  Instead they craft creative music, written from places of pain and joy.   "Rise Again"  steps through pain that occurs in life as we see relationships stretched and torn.  The bitterness of broken hearts and friendships is then contrasted with the truth that we will get up from this pain and rise again.   "I can see us moving on, I can feel that coming on strong", the joy that comes after the

Twenty-Four - Jess Ray

Lately I have been listening to lots of music and podcasts while working and biking to work.  I was feeling a need for some new music so I turned to NoiseTrade to check out some new artists.  My favorite thus far is Jess Ray because of the honest lyrics, tastefully simple musicality and overall enjoyable listening environment.  While on my flight back to Atlanta I was struck by this song at first because of the drums that propel this song behind the walking guitar.  If I were to add drums to a track like this it would have been done in a very similar manner.  Once I got past the drums I was awe struck by the simple power of these lyrics, take a read below and follow the link to her blog to listen.   To me it was not written for an outward expression of hope or encouragement but rather as a inward proclamation to the soul.  As the psalmist often choose to sing, this song speaks inward in a call to stand up and be reminded of truth all to often forgotten.  As I gear up for the star

Alleluia - Jesus Culture with Martin Smith

Once again worship last night was Glorious!  Had a great day just chilling with my SDP folks from last summer, went up the river and just talked about the past season of life and where the Lord is leading us into.  Exciting and scary stuff but it was great to be back with some awesome people who speak some potent truth.   Last night during worship was one of many firsts...  For the first time in a long time I actually stood while I sang, for the first time in a long time I was singing from a place of Joy, for the first time in a long time I did not care how I worshiped my Lord I just worshiped.  Well its not like these things have not happened ever in my life, but I just felt so much peace during worship.  So I decided to throw the song that we just repeated for a long while up here, mainly cause I did not know the name so I was looking it up and now I am pumped, gotta buy this album!   All the angels cry out, Holy is the Lord God All the earth replies, Holy are You Thi