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

The Freshest Groove You Will Ever Hear

AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Simplify

     Hey people! I can`t believe I`m posting again so soon! But this time I am actually doing a post for a specific reason and that is to officially tell you guys my "album" has been "released"!! I sort of eluded to it in my previous post, but just to give you a refresher.

     Okay, so, the photo credit for the cover goes to the awesome Zhenya! She`s a fantastic photographer!! And, I will have physical copies sometime, but for now I just put the whole thing on a playlist on SoundCloud which I will put at the bottom of this post. Also, I will hopefully put it on Noisetrade or Bandcamp or something sometime. Yeah, so, physical CDs coming if you really truly want one, but for now, check it out on SoundCloud! You can download it for free on there, and then you can just burn your own CD if you want. Or wait until I can burn one for you haha. ANYWAY, I`ll post the link now. https://soundcloud.com/ryan-nordstrom-1/sets/simplify

So, check it out if you want, and be in awe of our great God. Worship Him.


--Rye Bread

Be Still

     Whad up, blogland. There is a lot going on round here, schedule-wise, and also in my brain. So, let me tell you about it. I think that's what this blog is for...idk haha. I'm not sure what the specific purpose of this blog is (I can't even say "my blog" cuz it's not even mine technically). Alright, so now that I've gotten distracted a few times, let's move on.

Life. Coming at me way faster than I would prefer. Wait, I'm sorry, did somebody say I'm a senior this year?! And I'm taking college classes? Whoa now...

Yep that's right. I'm officially a college student this year. And it's weird. Making daily commutes to colleges in this here city. So anyway. That's happening. Did I mention that I feel old? I know people say that all the time...but here, right-now-in-this-moment, I legitimately "feel old". 

Yeah, so on top of doing old man things like college and stuff, I am also going to be crazy busy with a whole bunch of other things that I won't even list in order to spare you from being bored. Which, you probably already were five words into this post, but whatever. If you're still reading this, props to you. Oh and now my super rad sister lives 4 1/2 hours away. *tear* So that's gonna be a new thing this year. Attending Northern State University (go Wolves, by the way) in Aberdeen, SD. Got her all moved in this past weekend. But the really cool thing is that her boyfriend lives there (what a coincidence) and so now they get to hang out all the time!! So that's exciting for her. 

Anyway, lots of change this year. But nothing God didn't see coming. In fact, nothing God didn't plan before the foundation of the world. It's good to chew on that fact. Downright tasty actually. And all the things that will come this year that we don't even know about, God knows. It's already happened in His plan. Because He is not bound by time. We get to live it out, knowing that God's plans are good. If only we could step back for a moment and see that. 

Psalm 46:10

"Be still and know that I am God."

--Rye Bread

P.S: On a completely different note, I finished my little album! The title of it is Simplify, it has 12 tracks, and I'm excited for people to hear it! Yay! I'll probably have more details later. Til next time...