Music Monday [Empty Hands]

Tenth Avenue North 

This song was written by Mike Donehey of Tenth Avenue North.  Although we don't play it on The House FM, it's still a great song!  The lyrics were given to me by a dear friend and really helped me through a difficult day.  Let the words bring you hope.

I've got voices in my head and they are so strong
And I'm getting sick of this oh Lord, how long
Will I be haunted by the fear that I believe
My hands like locks on cages
Of these dreams I can't set free

But if I let these dreams die
If I lay down all my wounded pride
If I let these dreams die
Will I find that letting go lets me come alive

So empty my hands
Fill up my heart
Capture my mind with you

These voices speak instead and what's right is wrong
And I'm giving into them, please Lord, how long
Will I be held captive by the lies that I believe
My heart's in constant chaos and it keeps me so deceived

But if I let these dreams die
If I could just lay down my dark desire
If I let these dreams die
Will I find you brought me back to life

My mind is like a building burning down
I need your grace to keep me, keep me from the ground
And my heart is just a prisoner of war
A slave to what it wants and to what I'm fighting for


Which voices you are listening too?  God's or the worlds?  The Enemy likes to dish up attractive lies that we so easily swallow.  You know Satan doesn't have any new tools in his tool belt, because the same three still work...he steals..he kills...he destroys.  What does God require of us?  Full surrender with empty hands...So that God and only God can fill us.  Seek Him...you will find Him.

Book of Dreams

I call myself a dreamer.  I like to wonder about the impossible and wander down the aisles of my imagination.  I wishfully think of the possibilities and get carried away with hope of the future when reality tells me it may never happen.  It's the right brained part of me that tends to float and create.  I can't hold it in.  

Places to put my random thoughts 

I like to journal.  There are many new creations born on those worn tear-stained pages.  Many projects, to-do lists, wish-lists, prayer circles are born.  It's a launch pad of my emotional sink hole.  It's a safe and secure place to trust my words back to God.  It's a battleground of my transforming heart.  

It's a spiritual discipline. Habakkuk did it and encouraged others to write things down and then wait on the Lord.  It's visionary and the ways of the planners.  It tucks my feelings into God's heart.  It's a way to captivate my thoughts back to God, and as He captures my prayers, I tuck Him back into mine.  It's a glimpse into my faith.  It's faith words written.  

I have never really considered my thoughts being valuable.  I still struggle with it actually.  Some days, I feel good about what I have written.  Others not so much.  But as I pour into God's word I read the words that are recorded about our Creator.  I realize someone had to value those words to write them.  They were God inspired.  They are God-breathed. Those words are brought to life by God in our hearts and minds.    

There was the willing to lend some paper and a pen.  There those that scribbled the happenings of the day.  There were the historians of faith that were so moved by what they had seen that they knew they had to share it with others.....so great and so moving...they knew in their heart it would help someone.  At the back of the bus, there was one writing in a field journal to record on a blog later.    

If nothing else, I'm able to share with you how God has worked in my life in hopes that could help someone.  I don't know about the helping part, that's for God to take care of.  All I know right now is that I need to share with you here how He has helped me.  I dream that is good with you.  That you will come back and read often.   

For me, it's a necessity to write it down my thoughts.  If I don't I will lose it like vapor.  It doesn't matter if they ever grow into their own post.  I need to write to reason.  I need perspective with focus.  I need more growth into a deeper realm of faith.   That matters to me.  So I dream, I capture, I take hostage my thoughts.  I journal.  

You should try it too...just journal..."the shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory!"  And see what thoughts you capture.