I can't say that these are my favorites of all time but these are one's that stick out to me.
and I feel they are worth mentioning. I have tried to put all these in order 10. being the least going up to one but they are all really close to each other. I have listened to quite a lot of music and you can feel free to look my other mytakes of music which shows I am not sheltered when it comes to music. So when I choose Christian songs I have a pretty picky palate.
10. Shackles (Praise You)- Mary Mary (2000)
This is not even worth showing the lyrics as it is all about the beat and flow.
Take away the lyrics and you got a great track add the lyrics and you got
song to make you praise dance :)
9. Love Song for a Savior - Jars of Clay (1994)
This is another song where the lyrics don't matter as much. It is all about the flow and just the culture. It is describing a Christian girl like train describes meet Virginia. It tells her emotions and her journey but it is also about the flow and tone of the song too.
8. Something Beautiful - Newsboys (2006)
"It's a voice that whispers my name
It's a kiss without any shame
Something beautiful, yeah, yeah
Like a song that stirs in my head
Singing love will take us where
Something's beautiful
I've heard it in the silence
Seen it on a face
I've felt it in a long hour
Like a sweet embrace
I know this is true
It's calling out to me...It's the child on her wedding day
It's the daddy that gives her away
Something beautiful, yeah, yeah
When we laugh so hard we cry
Oh the love between you and I
Something beautiful"
It is not just about the lyrics but the lyrics are kind of poetic. I remember playing a car game on an xbox and just enjoying listening to it while driving the car around laps. There is something just feel good about it and a beat that really makes it not only a poetic song but a song with a flow.
7. Instead- Stacie Orrico (2003)
"I saw him shaking his change in a coffee cup
Asked for a dollar but I told the man to give it up
Said he's hungry, I don't think that it's true
Bet my dollar he gon' spend it on booze
I turned my back on him and began to walk away
But then I heard the little voice inside me say
What if it's really true, what if he's hungry?
What if it's not for him, does he have a family?
How'd you get here?
How'd you end up on the street?
Where did it go wrong?
Wonder what I'd do if it were me!
A new point of view
A walk in your shoes
I wish I could get inside your head
To see what you see
When you look at me
'Cause I could've lived your life instead
It was 90 degrees in the summer heat
She was veiled in black all the way down to her feet
This is America, doesn't she know?
Somebody take her shopping, buy her some cloths
She came up to me, I didn't understand a word
I was about to leave then another thought occurred
She might be really lost, scared and frustrated
I should try again to see what she's sayin'"
She is most famous for stuck but this one sticks out to me because it is about trying to relate to others being in their place and thinking about others rather than just about ourselves and our views.
6. Shadowfeet - Brooke Fraser (2006)
"Walking, stumbling on these shadowfeet
toward home, a land that I've never seen
I am changing: less and less asleep
made of different stuff than when i began
and i have sensed it all along
fast approaching is the day
when the world has fallen out from under me
I'll be found in you, still standing
when the sky rolls up and mountains fall on their knees
when time and space are through
I'll be found in you
there's distraction buzzing in my head
saying in the shadows it's easier to stay
but I've heard rumors of true reality
whispers of a well-lit way
when the world has fallen out from under me
I'll be found in you, still standing
when the sky rolls up and mountains fall on their knees
when time and space are through
I'll be found in you"
The video creeps me out a bit lol but I am just lost in this song. It is so poetic and calming that I just get lost and let the song wash over me :)
5. Eileen's Song- Burlap To Cashmere (1998)
"Hold my hand and we'll make it all right
From this hell that we live in
Cross the road until the light
Comes inside and lives within
It's a long and lonesome ride
When your friends have all gone home
But the roses in your eyes
They pull me in so I don't feel alone
You have one wing, I have another
Seeking shelter like sister and brother
Through the winter and through the summer
Like one angel we'll fly far away
Sometimes I just can't help but cry
When I think of what we've become
Like a soldier lost in the night
Forgetting all where he has come from
But the mud will soon become dry
And the sun will rise again
And the shadows in our eyes
Will fade away down to lower plains"
This song just makes me feel safe and not alone. It just makes me feel like everything is going to be alright. When you watch the video you really just get lost in all pictures of many people. We all work together and we all live together and we are not that different from each other.
4. Held- Natalie Grant (2005)
"Who told us we'd be rescued?
What has changed and why should we be saved from nightmares?
We're asking why this happens
To us who have died to live?
It's unfair
This is what it means to be held
How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved
And to know that the promise was
When everything fell we'd be held
This hand is bitterness
We want to taste it, let the hatred numb our sorrow
The wise hands opens slowly to lilies of the valley and tomorrow"
This is all about that feeling of a mothers love. When I listen to the lyrics I imagine being held in my mother arms and remember what that felt like. I am sure there are a couple other themes going on in it but to me it is a simple song that reminds me what it is like to be held. It is an emotional song and it kind of makes me think its the Christian version of Jewel's hands.
3. Barlow Girl- Mirror (2004)
"Mirror, mirror on the wall, have I got it?
'Cause Mirror you've always told me who I am
I'm finding it's not easy to be perfect
So sorry, you won't define me
Sorry, you don't own me
Who are you to tell me
That I'm less than what I should be?
Who are you? Who are you?
I don't need to listen
To the list of things I should do
I won't try, I won't try
You don't define me, You don't define me"
To me this is the Christian version of beautiful by Christina Aguilera and or unpretty by tlc. Given it is a simple song, to me it has a lot of meaning and power behind it. It says the mirror does not control beauty, it is your perception of what you believe not what is always the thing that defines us.
2. God Bless the Broken Road - Selah (2006)
"I set out on a narrow way
Many years ago
Hopin' I would find true love
Along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
I wiped my brow
Kept pushin' through
I couldn't see how every sign
Pointed straight to you
And every long lost dream
Led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart
They were just northern stars
Pointing me on my way
Into your lovin' arms
This much I know is true
That God bless the broken road
And led me straight to you
I think about the years I spent
Just passin' through
I'd like to take the time I lost
And give it back to you
But you just smile and take my hand
You've been there you understand
It's all part of His grander plan
That is coming true"
To put it simply this is a song of hope and longing that one day while we can't see that the one we are longing to love will find us.
1. East to West - Casting Crowns (2007)
"Here I am Lord and I'm drowning
In your sea of forgetfulness
The chains of yesterday surround me
I yearn for peace and rest
I don't want to end up where you found me
And it echoes in my mind
Keeps me awake tonight
I know you've cast my sin as far
As the east is from the west
And I stand before you now
As though I've never sinned
But today I feel like I'm just one mistake away
From you leaving me this way
Jesus, can you show me just how far the east is from the west?
'Cause I can't bear to see the man I've been
Rising up in me again
In the arms of your mercy I find rest
You know just how far the east is from the west
From one scarred hand to the other"
This song speaks to me as it makes me wonder, just how far am I from being the person that others are ashamed of. How close am I? I am sure I have done many things just on this site alone but its me finding where I am and what I believe. and it honestly echoes in mind and keeps me awake at night, I yearn for peace and rest. It is a struggle to do the right things and to be the right person that I am supposed to be. It really is a song of reflection for me. Casting crowns in general are what got me to start liking Christian music because they did not make it sound cheap, they have strong lyrics with emotion.
Those are my ten songs. There are so many and clearly as we start talking about worship and embracing Christianity you could go even further but I felt these stood out from the art form that they were created from. But as an honorable mention in honor of "I can only imagine" the movie. Word of God Speak is pretty good too but clearly much more Christian in lyrics.
"I'm finding myself at a loss for words
And the funny thing is it's okay
The last thing I need is to be heard
But to hear what You would say
Word of God speak
Would you pour down like rain
Washing my eyes to see
Your majesty
To be still and know
That you're in this place
Please let me stay and rest
In your holiness
Word of God speak
I'm finding myself in the midst of You
Beyond the music, beyond the noise
All that I need is to be with You
And in the quiet hear Your voice"
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