Tuesday, August 15, 2006

I Will Never Be



I Will Never Be
(Version Two)
Music ©: 1995 Word Music
Words ©: 2004 Geoff Bullock

Verse 1:
I will never be the same again
I can never return
I’ve closed the door
I will walk the pathI will rung the race
and I will never be the same again.

Verse 2:
I will never be the same again
I can never return
I've closed the door
You have walked my path,
You have run my race
So I may never be the same again.


Chorus:
Love like fire, grace like rain.
Flows like mighty waters
Again and again.
Sweeps away my darkness,
Loves away my tears,
And lets a flame burn
That comforts all my fears


Verse 3:
Higher than the heights,
Deeper than the seas,
Unmerited and unearned,

Eternal and free,
Your mercy and love now fills my life
And I will never be the same again.



Monday, August 14, 2006


The Power of Your Love II
Music ©: 1992 Word Music
Words ©: 2004 Geoff Bullock

Verse One:
Lord you come to me,
And as my heart is changed, released
This miracle of grace gently sets me free
And Lord I’ve come to know,
The weaknesses I see in me,
Will be stripped away
By the power of your love.


Chorus:
You hold me close,
You’ve let your love surround me,
For you’ve come near
To draw me to your side.
And in your life
I’m rising like the eagle
And I will soar with you
As your spirit leads me on
In the power of your love


Verse Two:
Lord unveil my eyes,
You let me see you face to face
In the knowledge of your love
As you live, in me.
You renew my mind
As your will unfolds in my life
In living every day
In the power of your love

Verse Three:
Lord you’ve come to all
With hope that shines to light the way
As mercy soothes our souls, healing every heart.
Love that sees the tears
Overcomes our darkest fears
Grace that lifts us up
In the power of your love




Why rewrite the lyrics?
Why tamper with a song that has so much history?
I suppose the answer is because of "this history".
At the time when I wrote this song, which was late August 1990, I was being driven by a desperate need to proove myself. My life was captivated by guilt, and my guilt was a captive to a shattered self esteem, and that self esteem was at the mercy of my obsessive striving and perfectionism. I had to "come to God" more, the "weaknesses that I saw in me" demanded continual penance, and no mattter how I cried "hold me close" I always felt as if I had jumped out of the arms of "Grace and mercy".
It wasn't until late 1996, when my life collapsed around me that I could find the time to realise that I could never "come to God". The Christmas story was surely God's "coming to us", and, in that coming, he had made the choice to "hold us close".
It was with this revelation that grace suddenly started to make sense, and the song needed a rewrite.
The miracle is not "our love for God", it is "His love for us". Our "worship" is not a celebration of "us coming to God", it is our overwhelming awestruck thankfullness of "His coming to us". These grace filled arms that hold a rebellious mankind safe and secure will never let us go. His hands, scarred with religious nailprints, hold us with a love that burns brighter than the universe of suns, a love that refuses to respond according to our deeds, a love that answers our darkness with overwhleming light filled love and life.
My faith has changed.
I no longer base my spirituality on "what I do for God". I am now intoxicated by the all that "God has done for me".