"...as the spring rains that water the earth."

"Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth."  Hosea 6:3

I was listening to a sermon tonight, and the speaker had mentioned a passage in Hosea. As I was looking through the book, I stumbled across that verse and it really hit home. The sermon I was listening to was about God's faithfulness and as I read that verse, I was just overwhelmed with a feeling of peace. I was so blown away as I recalled the truth of God's steadfastness in my life. As I remember these things, I long to serve and follow Him. This verse reminded me: He's worth it! He will never let me down. He will never leave my side. He will always provide. He will refresh and replenish, just as the spring rains water the earth. What an awesome picture. It was just raining today! It's like God knew that I would read this verse later...hmmm... ;) Man, let us press on to know this awesome God!

As a side-note, I noticed that I didn't post ANY music in my last blog post. Which was like a millennium ago. I apologize for that. So, to make it up to you, I will share not one, but TWO musically awesome things for you to enjoy. Yeah. You're welcome.

First off, I will tell you about my main man, Chris Rice. The guy is a musical genius! Seriously, his instrumentation and composition skills are off the charts. I don't know where he comes up with it. You've probably all heard of him. He's pretty well-known for his song "Come to Jesus," which used to play on K-LOVE allllll the time. I grew up listening to him and I sort of rediscovered him last summer while organizing a bunch of old CD's. I found his album Smell The Color 9 and I was hooked. His lyrics are pretty unique. And man, whoever plays bass for him...well...that person knows how to play the bass. In any and all of his songs, just listen to the bass. It's ridiculous. Here's one of his songs: "Love Is Gonna Break Through"  I encourage you to go and listen to more of his stuff as well!

Round 2. This one will be quick. I've already told you about The Brilliance, but their new album came out fairly recently. I bought it and I love it. Go check it out right now: Brother, by The Brilliance

Have a wonderful rest of your week!

--Rye Bread

Thoughts on the New Year

     The end of a year. The beginning of a new one. This time around, the shift from one year to the next feels more significant than before. For me, this transition marks a lot of change that has happened and will continue to happen. In 2014, I turned 18, a weird milestone since I never thought that I would reach it. I began taking college classes. A whole lot of other things have happened that have made me feel so darn old! As 2015 arrives, I know it will bring with it more changes and unexpected twists and turns. In the spring, my brother and I will graduate high school, Lord-willing. This also means that my brother and I will be "graduating" from our church youth group as well. Which is sort of sad to think about. I've been in the youth group for five years and boy is it going to be sad to leave!
     But, of course, the biggest change looming ahead is college. Ah, the dreaded word. It seems that with this one step into that next chapter that all that is familiar and special to me is left behind. It's a scary and sad thought to think that I will leave all of my family and friends and everything that I've known for my whole life!
     So, the shift from 2014 to 2015 is significant. A lot of change is heading my way. Thinking back on all the indescribable memories that I've made with my family and friends in 2014 and beyond makes me wish so badly that I could go back! If only for a moment. I have these thoughts sometimes.
     But then the good Lord comes in and reminds me of His faithfulness. And His love. And His goodness. And His sovereignty. And I am reminded that my job is not to dwell on the past or worry about the future. My job is to be still. To look ahead with hope, knowing that my Father has a perfect plan for my life, hardships and all. He did not spare His own Son. He will provide. He will bring me through.
     So let the change come. Because no matter what familiar things I leave behind, my God and my Rock will always be at my side.


Here's some lyrics to a song I wrote while considering some of these things:

Sometimes I wish that I could start over

Looking back to the past is almost too much to bear

All the memories that have been created

Now they're just memories and nothing more

Every good thing must come to an end

And though it might be over, I'll never forget

I will open my eyes and look ahead

I will remember Your faithfulness

It's not over yet

It's not over yet

Brother, sister: God is not done sanctifying you. And He will be glorified as you draw closer to Christ. Happy New Year.

--Rye Bread

Boxing Day

Oh, remember that Christmas

It makes way for spring

--Rye Bread

Isaiah 12 and some other tunes

     The title of this post is the main reason that I'm blogging right now instead of doing homework. You see, awhile back (a year ago at least) my friend and I came up with a little guitar arrangement. However, we really had no idea what to do with it. It didn't quite sound right by itself as an instrumental, so, what to do? Well, I had been reading Isaiah 12 quite a bit during this time and apparently so had a couple of other people in my church. They had found it to be and continued to find it to be encouraging, the same as me. I, of course, had no idea until one of these gentlemen told me that'd it'd be cool if I tried to put Isaiah 12 to music. And I immediately thought, "Hey that guitar arrangement would sound totally bomb!" Or something like that. So, after a little tweaking here and there, I got it to fit in a way that I liked. So, that's the sort of super long story behind this song. Without further ado, I'll post it. Hope it encourages your soul: Isaiah 12


     I will post another song that I wrote fairly recently, called "Lest I Die." This song is pretty different, style-wise for me. I've been experimenting a lot more with electronic/synth type stuff and I've actually been loving it. So, despite this different sound, this is probably my favorite song that I've recorded. And that's saying a lot because I've recorded quite a few. I just really love how the sound turned out. Also, I feel that this is probably my favorite song lyrically that I've written in a long, long while. The words really came from my gut, if you will. Maybe soul is a better word, but I think you know what I mean. Even listening to it now, the words still resonate deep within me. It's really a song about a struggle, a war, a battle. So anyway, here it is: Lest I Die

     And, as usual, I will now share with you a super rad band/group/musician. This group is called The Brilliance and I may have shared about them before. And before I continue, I just want to emphasize that the music I share on here is pretty much always something that I really really love. So it's not just some band that I randomly pick just for the sake of keeping my promise. Ok, back to real life. Their music is stunningly beautiful and it leans more towards a classical sound. Super rich and soothing. Plus, they almost always have solid lyrics. I say "almost always" just to give you a heads-up that in one of their songs, one of the verses is a prayer to Mary, Jesus' mother. Of course, this is unbiblical and implies that they may have some Catholic beliefs. But the rest of their music is great and quite soul-stirring. The name of that one song is "Now And At the Hour of Our Death," which I believe is a Catholic hymn, but don't quote me on that. Ok, anyway, I will now post a song of theirs called "Our God Alone." And actually, the "band" that I'm in, Something Greater, will be playing this song tonight, November 22, along with some other tunes, at an event called A Night for the Necessary Ones. It's at Sunnybrook Community Church at 6:00 pm. It's gonna be a great night! I encourage you to come if you can make it! Anyway, here's the song:










Later!






--Rye Bread

Meditation

     The Psalms is a wonderful book. The words used are so poetic, yet it goes far beyond mere poetry.  I find that I am almost always refreshed after reading the Psalms, meditating on the character of God. Now I`m not some super-saint who does five-hour long meditation in my prayer closet every day. Far from it. But when I do get those opportunities to soak it in, the time is so sweet. One of my favorite Psalms lately has been Psalm 34. I hope you find time to read it and meditate on it. Maybe tonight or some other time this week. Speaking of Psalms, there is a band called Loud Harp and they made an album this year called Asaph. It`s a collection of songs based off various Psalms. I really really encourage you (with even more enthusiasm than usual) to please listen to it! Here`s the link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjIh8-EdjtM&list=PLpfomyYwEfP-pcd0XV4Dgb3ezGbqYOkWi   










Hope you check it out. And actually, there`s 11 songs, not 10 so if you have Spotify or something you can just listen to the whole thing on there. My personal favorite is "The Nearness of You". So you should at least listen to that one. ;) Alright, have a great weekend everyone!


--Rye Bread

Francis Chan sermon

     I highly recommend listening to this sermon. If you don`t listen to the whole thing, at least listen to the first 10 minutes or so. God really used this to reawaken me to the massiveness of the gospel. The outrageousness of what He did. He sent His only Son for His enemies. And forsook Him, while He was left bleeding on the cross? For us? "I scarce can take it in." Or as Francis Chan puts it, "God, I can`t BELIEVE what You did!!!!!!" We need the gospel every day. Preach it to yourself. Meditate on it. And I really do recommend listening to at least the first few minutes of this:





I do hope you find that encouraging. Anyway, as I promised in the past, I will now share with you more music! :D It makes me happy to do so. :)

Check out "Joy" by Page CXVI. It`s an interesting song all around because the lyrics are from a more happy-go-lucky VBS type song. But the way they re-did it is very minor and dark sounding. It`s so very well-done. The words don`t seem to quite match the music, but here`s a little explanation of the song that might help you get past it: http://blog.pagecxvi.com/post/683764188/joy It really is a beautiful song. I would also recommend listening to all of Page CXVI`s music. They do some really good renditions of different hymns.






Anyway, thanks for sticking around! Until next time...




--Rye Bread

Rye Bread`s Random Rambles (plus an announcement...)

     Hi everyone! Long time no read. Or something. I tried not to start out this post by saying "Hey" at the beginning. Success. I`m really starting to branch out with my "Hi`s" and all that. Cool. So, I should totally be working on my essay right now, but guess what? I`d really rather not. I guess nobody really wants to work on an essay. But I`m just especially not in the mood right now. So, I decided, "Hey I`m gonna take a break from this and just blog." Here I am, doing just that. I`m probably just gonna ramble. Not that that`s really abnormal. Such a strange word, "abnormal". I love it. Also, an announcement will be at the end of this post.

     Anyway, guys it`s sad because the show Peter Pan is over. Sunday was our last show. I met some pretty great people, learned a lot about theatre stuff, and just had an overall pretty great time. So, it was actually surprisingly sad when I left the theatre, saying bye to everyone, and remembering all the fun times we had together. I was surprised that I felt this way because I just felt so ready to be done with the show. It had involved a lot of sacrifice and hard work and I was ready to breathe that sigh of relief. And I did breathe it. And it made me both happy and sad. It was the definition of "bittersweet." So yeah, I`m officially a part of the theatre now and the theatre is a part of me. After all, I signed the wall. That`s about as official as it gets.

     Look at me, indenting and starting new paragraphs. Things are getting pretty hardcore! Anyway, that`s pretty much all that I have to say. Oh also, this fall weather is bomb!!

Oh yeah, about that announcement that I mentioned...it`s not even really a big deal, it`s simply this:
I will be sharing with you a song, album, or musician/band each time I post. And because I don`t post very often in the first place, I will not run out of resources. ;D There`s just so much good music that I don`t want you guys to miss out on! So yeah, that`s a new thing that I literally decided to do 5 minutes ago. Just to give you guys some consistency. Plus, that`s pretty much all I do on this blog in the first place. So yay. Round 1. ;)

Go check out Pompton Lakes people! Not the place, the band.

Here`s a link to some of their sweet musical/lyrical goodness: CLICK HERE FOR GOOD MUSIC

Alright, everyone. Have an excellent rest of this beautiful, rainy Tuesday! Or whatever day you`re reading this on.

--Rye Bread