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by Matthew Clark | One Thousand Words
Jonathan Koefoed is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Belhaven University, where he teaches courses in American history and the history of thought. He is particularly interested in the dynamic relationship between ideas, their historical context, and the way that any historical idea or author can illuminate the ubiquitous human quest for a good life. His previous intellectual journey involved postdoctoral work at the University of Texas at Austin, a PhD in History from Boston University, an MA in Historical Theology from Saint Louis University, and a BA in Philosophy and History from Arizona State University. His scholarly research focuses on transatlantic intellectual history, particularly the romantic movement and its influence on US thought and culture. His articles have appeared in Symbiosis: A Journal of Anglo-American Literary Relations and Religions, and his reviews have appeared in such journals as the Journal of Transatlantic Studies and American Nineteenth Century History.
By The Rivers of Babylon
by Matthew Clark
The endless voices whisper,
all our hopes are only dreams
No Deliverer is coming,
that we are blind in our belief
but in the land where we all sojourn,
with its beauty and its ash
I will sing still for the Kingdom
and a King who’s coming back
CHORUS
by the rivers of Babylon
we will sing a gospel song in a foreign land
While the nations all are raging,
hear the Lord in heaven laugh
we will stand upon his promise,
the ways of men will never last,
and like a seed is to a tree,
in the twinkling of an eye
we will see the heavens open,
we will meet him in the sky
CHORUS
BRIDGE
there will be no word for lonely
In the Kingdom Jesus brings
Every fear shall be forgotten
and all will be made clean
all the merciful will know him
The pure will touch his face
See the children bear his banner
and the slandered share his name
Soon the river of our exile
Will become a holy spring
While the bent tree with its bitter fruit
It will never grow again
Now, the face that showed us kindness
Met our thirst by Jacob’s well
He will clothe us in his garments
He will marry us himself
©2023 Matthew Clark, Path in the Pines Music (ASCAP)
The post S5:E17 – A Tale of Two Trees: Jonathan Koefoed, “Moonlight in the Desert: Singing the Sojourner’s Song” appeared first on Matthew Clark.
by Matthew Clark | One Thousand Words
Susan Cowger is the author of a poetry collection, Slender Warble (Wipf & Stock/Cascade, 2020), and a chapbook, Scarab Hiding (Finishing Line Press, year 2006). Founder and editor emeritus of Rock & Sling, her most recent publications include Ekphrastic Review, Windhover, Perspectives, Crux, McGuffin, Presence, and In A Strange Land: Introducing Ten Kingdom Poets (2019). She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Eastern Washington University and her BA in Art with teaching credentials from Montana State University. Married to Dana for forty-seven years, she has four children and twenty-two grandchildren. (I know, she finds this rather shocking too.) Contact her on Facebook and at susancowger.com.
In the Waters
by Matthew Clark
I was scared for my life
Saw the ship was capsizing
And the Lord lay asleep while the storm raged
I was losing my mind
All the darkness was blinding
Till the Lord with a word stilled the chaos
In the waters, in the waters
I’ve seen life go so wrong
Seen the best sink in sadness
Till the dark seemed their only companion
But I’ve seen Jesus come save
Walking out upon the waves
With his feet planted firm in the madness
In the waters, in the waters
Interlude
And some days nothing makes sense
Lord, the still place is spinning
And the center can’t hold for much longer
So won’t you bring us your song
As the howling grows stronger
Your voice is an anchor, Your voice is an anchor, Your voice is an anchor to me
In the waters, in the waters
BRIDGE
I can hear it, I can hear it, I can hear it coming through
Through the storm, through the darkness (I can hear it coming through)
In the places I was sure your love had left me
Every night I was sleepless
But the beauty of the moonlight was you singing
When the flames tore the house down
There were friends who became my home and family
So I know you will not fail
That your love, my God, endures forever
©2023 Matthew Clark, Path in the Pines Music (ASCAP)
The post S5:E16 – A Tale of Two Trees: Susan Cowger, “Time Between the Times” appeared first on Matthew Clark.
by Matthew Clark | One Thousand Words
Anita K. Palmer has always turned to pen and paper to figure out what she thinks, feels, and believes. That propensity launched a career when she fell into editing a Christian publication, which—unrelated to her hiring—soon went to magazine heaven. The experience failed to squelch an appetite for editorial work that included thirteen years in daily newspapers and five as a university media relations officer. For two decades she has worked with publishers and individuals on upward of 125 nonfiction books, and has written more web content, blog posts, newsletters and marketing materials than she cares to count. Born and reared in Southern California, she now lives in Colorado. She is blessed with many dear friends and one kind and brilliant adult son.
Take to the Fields
by Matthew Clark
I saw a man with a bleeding heart
A bleeding heart
Ragged as the wind, eager to begin
Oh, his eyes they were clear as gold
Searching out the crags
Tender, strong and sad
Gave up all he had, left his home behind him
Gone a-seeking
CHORUS
If you got eyes to see
Come keep watch with me
If you got ears to hear
I pray you know
The Lord is near
I saw a house full of shepherds in repose
Moths ate off their clothes
All naked emperors, wrapped in soothing words
But you skinned your knees when you slid to break my fall
I howled up at the moon
When the salt got in the wound, the fire licked my tomb
And fire rolled like water there to cleanse me
So take to the fields, oh take to the roads
Wonder at the thorns that bite into the rose
Cut down to the bones
Take your pail and gather where you can
The field is ripe with grain, and scattered sheep like sand
Too little callous on my hands, there is mercy on the wind
If you can hear it
©2023 Matthew Clark, Path in the Pines Music (ASCAP)
The post S5:E15 – A Tale of Two Trees: Anita K. Palmer, “Mercy in the Wind” appeared first on Matthew Clark.
by Matthew Clark | One Thousand Words
Amber Salladin is a conductor, pianist, worship leader, singer, organist, and educator based in Manhattan, New York. Amber has worked in churches and for professional choruses in Vancouver, Canada, and London, UK. She is the Music Director at Emmanuel Anglican Church, Arts and Ministry Director for the C. S. Lewis Foundation, Music Teacher at Geneva School of Manhattan, conductor of the Academy for Teachers Chorus, Online Leader for United Adoration, and Principal Pianist and Board Member of the New York Session Symphony. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, Jim and their two boys Caleb (boy soprano) and Peter (future electric guitarist).
The Word Became Flesh
by Matthew Clark
Driving up to Memphis
A bitter winter night it was
When my engine froze to death
And I called you from the roadside
You left your bed and drove the miles to find me
The frozen street turned into home with family
CHORUS
The Word, the word, the word … became flesh
I sat down at your table
And the plate you set before me
In your small apartment kitchen
Was a simple meal you made
But the bread we broke flung wide the palace doors
And I tasted of the goodness of the Lord
BRIDGE
What you’ve got to give is what he gave to you
Like a still small voice, it may not seem like it’s enough
But you can let the song ring out in a wilderness of doubt
Ever since the word became flesh
God he opened up his mouth
The sun rose bright as a golden ring
When he knelt to say ‘I love you’
A bride awoke to sing
Don’t think your voice too poor to join the song
The smallest touch moves symphonies along
©2023 Matthew Clark, Path in the Pines Music (ASCAP)
The post S5:E14 – A Tale of Two Trees: Amber Salladin, “Singing the Feast of the New Creation” appeared first on Matthew Clark.
by Matthew Clark | One Thousand Words
Lancia E. Smith is an author, photographer, teacher, and business owner. She’s the Founder and Executive Director of Cultivating Magazine and its discipleship and creative team, The Cultivating Project. She has served in executive management, church leadership, school boards, and art and faith organizations for over thirty years. A recovering addict herself with more than forty years of sobriety, Lancia has done extensive support counseling. Her defining life focus is discipleship, expressed through mentoring, nurturing, and teaching. Lancia and her husband Peter make their home in the Black Forest of Colorado Springs.
Let your roots go deep
Sit with me and talk awhile,
Here while there’s a quiet hour
We’ll whisper with these witnesses,
These steady stars
Who shine out in the universe,
Marking out this path of ours
That only faith has eyes to see,
That ends in joy
CHORUS
Oh, let your roots grow deep
Is the word of truth you heard
beginning to grow faint?
Let your roots grow deep,
Let your roots grow deep
Don’t give up the fight just yet,
Fix your eyes on Christ and
Let your roots grow deep,
Let your roots grow deep
Drink deep from the Holy Fount,
Whom angels praise and heaven crowns
He washes weary pilgrim feet
with Riversong
And even though this riverbed
does not bear a river yet
These trees that grow know underground,
Deep waters wait
CHORUS
The Kingdom that we see ahead, t
he joy of our inheritance
Is built upon a Cornerstone
the world rejects
So, if today you hear his voice,
Still and small amidst the noise
Don’t miss the call to fall into,
His open arms
BRIDGE
Oh, let your roots go deep
©2023 Matthew Clark, Path in the Pines Music (ASCAP)
The post S5:E13 – A Tale of Two Trees: Lancia E. Smith, “Reaching for the Unseen” appeared first on Matthew Clark.
by Matthew Clark | One Thousand Words
John Barnts wishes he could spend all his time reading, writing, and talking about interesting things. Unfortunately, books cost money, and words are hard to sell, so he spends most of his time playing piano for schools and churches, and working as a case manager in a local Drug Court program in Madison, Mississippi. John and his family moved to Mississippi in 2011 to attend seminary, which led to five glorious years of teaching the Bible at the college level. Before Mississippi, he spent twelve years at a private K-12 in Los Angeles as a music teacher and administrator. He is currently working on a non-fiction book project, teaches a couple of home Bible studies, and makes short theological videos with his son on YouTube called Barnts in the Belfry.
Follow You Down
by Matthew Clark
Whoever would lose their life
They will save it
CHORUS
I wanna be in your story, Jesus
I wanna follow you down, down, down
Whoever would save their life
They will lose it
BRIDGE
Your love is teaching me a new story
©2023 Matthew Clark, Path in the Pines Music (ASCAP)
The post S5:E12 – A Tale of Two Trees: John Barnts, “Downside Up” appeared first on Matthew Clark.
by Matthew Clark | One Thousand Words
Jason Smith serves on the board of An Unexpected Journal, as a strategist for the C. S. Lewis Foundation, and as the senior editor for acquisitions and development at Wootton Major Publishing. In his spare time, he works a day job as a marketing director for a medical device engineering firm, where he writes about fun things like FDA regulations and embedded cybersecurity. As J. Aleksandr Wootton, he is the pseudonymous author of the much-loved young adult fantasy series Fayborn and reviews every book he reads at www.goodreads.com/mrwootton.
When I Cried Out (Psalm 40)
by Matthew Clark
When I cried out from the pit that I had dug
His song burst past the dead end grave
Isaiah’s burning ember came and kissed me on the mouth
And I knew there was still music to be made
CHORUS
After all that I’ve seen, I cannot seal my lips
Even when my heart fails within me,
For the Lord did not hide, no, he listened in his mercy
And his song of lovingkindness still persists
Though I do not understand it, I am standing on this
All my troubles when they swelled into a crowd
The shame of failures too many to count
Then I whispered through the tangle, and you looked me in the eyes
I found quiet that sang louder than those lies
CHORUS
BRIDGE
I thought I had to climb that holy hill to twist your arm
But when you bent to wash my feet, I knew that I’d been wrong
CHORUS
© 2023 Matthew Clark, Path in the Pines Music (ASCAP)
The post S5:E11 – A Tale of Two Trees: Jason Smith, “The Power and the Pit” appeared first on Matthew Clark.
by Matthew Clark | One Thousand Words
Steven Elmore is the President of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. He has over 20 years of experience working at nonprofit organizations and educational institutions, including serving as a community college adjunct professor (English composition), software instructor (basic to advanced MS Office), GED instructor (science, history), test preparation tutor, and in a wide range of office management and administration roles. His specific skill sets include event management, teaching/training, team leadership, program management, writing, communications strategy, strategic planning, and computer technology. He is also a writer for Cultivating Magazine.
Like A Lamb
by Matthew Clark
Fear and pride are just two sides, friend
Of Caesar’s tarnished penny
Quietness and rest belong to God
But who hasn’t studied warfare
On the battlefield of life here
Perfecting self-defense just to survive?
You know how good it feels, love
To scratch the itch of anger
But complaining only chains us up inside
Feels like safety and power
In a world so full of danger
It feels like danger to be grateful, small, and quiet
CHORUS
But Oh, I see the Mighty Word of God
Go silent to the slaughter like a Lamb
Oh, I hear the voices of the crowd
Grow louder as the buried kernel’s roots descend
Cause the roots beneath the surface
Search and listen for a music
That is and was and will be evermore
Like an acorn to an oak tree
Who would ever think it could be
That those little lambs might ever rule the world
But the meek will spread their branches
Above the clamour of the nations
The sons of God will rest beneath their shade
And the politics of power
That seemed so strong until that hour
Will fall into the traps their power laid
CHORUS
BRIDGE
Nobody’s free from hardship
And the briers in the garden
Can push their way so deeply down inside
Till what started out so tender
Is choked out by the winter
And gentleness don’t have a chance to flower
But don’t let your love grow cold, dear
or buy the lies they’ve sold here
For the fools of God will fiddle on the roof
All their lives they were the punchline
Now their laughing faces outshine
Every image Caesar thought would get him through
©2023 Matthew Clark, Path in the Pines Music (ASCAP)
The post S5:E10 – A Tale of Two Trees: Steven Elmore, “Sustained by Joy” appeared first on Matthew Clark.
by Matthew Clark | One Thousand Words
Benjamin Holsteen believes that a life spent in pursuit of awe, wonder, and gratitude in the midst of the everyday is the best preparation for an eternity spent in the presence of their ultimate Source. He spends his days thinking, writing, talking, and living out of this conviction, currently as a PhD candidate in Art and Theology at the University of St Andrews. He lives on the edge of the North Sea with his wife and two children. You can find him online from benjamin.omg.lol and subscribe to *Transcendent Mixtapes*—his forthcoming newsletter reflecting in writing on religious life in the 21st century, filtered through a lifetime of obsessive pop music listening—at transcendentmixtapes.substack.com.
How can we sing?
by Matthew Clark
Our captors cracked their whips and grinned
Down by the rivers of Babylon
They laughed and mocking bid us sing
Down by the rivers of Babylon
So we hung our harps upon a withered tree
Down by the rivers of Babylon
And we gave up songs about being free
Down by the rivers of Babylon
Pre-Chorus
Oh don’t let our love grow cold
CHORUS
But how can we sing the Lord’s song
How can we sing about home?
How can we sing the Lord’s song
By the rivers of babylon?
We wake up strangers in a foreign land
Down by the rivers of Babylon
Lord, dry as sand slipping through your hand
Down by the rivers of Babylon
Pre-Chorus
CHORUS
BRIDGE
Oh, his love endures forever
(Lord, don’t hide your face forever)
©2023 Matthew Clark, Path in the Pines Music (ASCAP)
The post S5:E9 – A Tale of Two Trees – Benjamin Holsteen, “Sing an Exile’s Love Song” appeared first on Matthew Clark.
by Matthew Clark | One Thousand Words
Heidi White, M.A., is a teacher, editor, podcaster, and author. She teaches Humanities at St. Hild School in Colorado Springs. She is the Managing Editor of FORMA Journal and a contributing author, speaker, and consultant at the CiRCE Institute. She is a weekly contributor on fiction, poetry, and Shakespeare on the Close Reads Podcast Network and the CiRCE Institute Podcast Network. She serves on the Board of Directors of The Anselm Society and sits on the Academic Advisory Board for the Classical Learning Test. She writes fiction, poetry, and essays, and she speaks and writes about literature, education, and the Christian imagination. She lives in Black Forest, Colorado with her husband and children. She also hosts The Daily Poem Podcast
A Tale of Two Trees
by Matthew Clark
I dreamed I saw two family trees
They grew from very different seeds
One stood tall with flowered crowns
And one was bent and bitter
The bitter tree bore sour fruit
That made the people eating do
Wickedness upon the earth
Until they grew to love it
The flowered tree put out its leaves
Which perfumed faintly that bitter breeze
The bent tree’s branches shook like snakes
And did their best to kill it
But up the sweetness rose again
Like children rise from water cleansed and
Though the thorns tore at their flesh
They would not stop their singing
Well ages came and ages went
And it seemed the good tree’s strength was spent
While the bitter tree kept sprouting strong
And choking out its fragrance
Till one day evil’s wicked limbs
Entangled all the hopes of men
And struck that holy heartwood down
And felled the mighty timber
The crooked fingers of that tree
Took hold of earth and made it bleed
And most forgot what goodness was
Or where to go to find it
And holiness decayed to dust
The spinning world gave way to lust
And justice cracked like splintered wood
The world lay in confusion
BRIDGE
A tree is known by the fruit it bears
And every day we plant ourselves
In one of two families
In one of these two family trees
But no one saw the twist to come
The prophets of the stump of God
Were killed like fools and all ignored
But underneath the soil
A tender Word beneath the roots
Uncurled until a little shoot
Unfurled into the poisoned air
To raise the ancient family
To stir the dormant seed of faith
And water withered hearts awake
To die upon that bitter tree
And uproot it forever
And one day soon we’ll see his face
David’s branch will clear away
The stubble where the wicked grew
And Jesus will make all things new
©2023 Matthew Clark, Path in the Pines Music (ASCAP)
The post S5:E8 – A Tale of Two Trees: Heidi White, “Two Trees, One Cross” appeared first on Matthew Clark.
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