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In our Shared Faith, Bob Bennett

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Please pardon any typos and forgive endless scrolling on your device to get around.
Lyrics are in alphabetical order by song title.

BEFORE THIS WORLD / JOLLY SPRINGTIME

W/M: James Taylor

Before this world was as we know it now

Before the land and sea were formed at all

Before the stars were made to burn and shine

Little love of mine, darling one

Who can pretend to understand at all

No one can both inside and outside be

Who can suppose he knows the way this goes

Little lamb, never mind

So let us love and let us not delay

The world is old and it will never last

Our share of joy is in this moment past

Will you come away, come away

Fall into Jesus baby child

Give up the love that takes and breaks your heart

Let go the weight of all that holds you here

Little love of mine, darling one

Oh the jolly springtime

In the merry month of May

Oh the heavenly hours

Oh the come again day

Let the day run long

Let the river run high

That tomorrow may live

So must yesterday die

Let the resin risin’ up in the tree

Make the green leaf bud

The bird and the bee and the fish in the sea

Feeling it in my blood

Oh the jolly springtime

All in the merry month of May

Oh the heavenly hours

Oh the come again day

Yes the winter was bitter and long

So the spring’ll be sweet

Come along with a rhythm and a song

Watch creation repeat

Thin thin the moment is thin

Ever so narrow the now

Everybody say got to live in today

Don’t nobody know how

Oh the jolly springtime

In the merry month of May

Oh the heavenly hours

Oh the come again day

—

GETTING READY FOR GLORY

W/M: Carolyn Arends

She’s had eighty some years

Most of them good

But she’s not gonna be here much longer

And the body gets weak

As she knew that it would

But the Spirit just keeps getting stronger

She’s got her Bible and hymn book beside her

She’s storing those psalms and old songs up inside her

She’s getting ready

She’s getting ready

She’s getting ready for glory

She’s getting ready

She’s getting ready

She’s getting ready for glory

She knows all of the verses

To How Great Thou Art

And the Spirit doth magnify often

And she’s gonna keep learnin’

The scriptures by heart

Till the day that she’s laid in her coffin

She wants to be sure when the angels come take her

That she’s got some greetings for meeting her Maker

And she will tell us

If we’ll only listen

It’s not about dyin’

It’s all about livin’

And whether we’re young

Or the end’s drawing near

There’s just one reason why God has us here

We’re getting ready…

—

GOD BELIEVES IN YOU

W/M: Pierce Pettis

When you start to doubt if you exist

God believes in you

Confounded by the evidence

God believes in you

When your chances seem so slim

When your light burns so dim

And you swear you don’t believe in him

God believes in you

When you rise up just to fall again

God believes in you

Deserted by your closest friends

God believes in you

When you’re betrayed with a kiss

Turn your cheek to another fist

It doesn’t have to end like this

God believes in you

Everything matters

If anything matters at all

Everything matters

No matter how big

No matter how small

God believes in you

Oh, God believes in you

When you’re so ashamed

That you could die

God believes in you

And you can’t do right

Even though you try

God believes in you

Blessed are the ones who grieve

The ones who mourn

The ones who bleed

In sorrow you sow

But in joy, you’ll reap

God believes in you

Oh, God believes in you

—

HERE BY THE WATER

W/M: Jim Croegaert

Soft field of clover

Moon shining over the valley

Joining the song of the river

To the great Giver

Of the great Good

As it enfolds me Somehow it holds me together

I realize I’ve been singing

Still it comes ringing

Clearer than clear

And here by the water

I’ll build an altar to praise Him

Out of the stones that I’ve found here

I’ll set them down here

Rough as they are

Knowing You can make them holy

Knowing You can make them holy

Knowing You can make them holy

I think how a yearning

Has kept on returning to move me

Down roads I’d never have chosen

Half the time frozen

Too numb to feel

I know it was stormy

I hope it was for me a learning

Blood on the road wasn’t mine though

Someone that I know

Has walked here before

—

MARIE

W/M: Randy Newman

You looked like a princess the night we met

With your hair piled up high

I will never forget

I’m drunk right now baby

But I’ve got to be

Or I never could tell you

What you meant to me

I loved you the first time I saw you

And I always will love you Marie

I loved you the first time I saw you

And I always will love you Marie

You’re the song

That the trees sing when the wind blows

You’re a flower, you’re a river, you’re a rainbow

Sometimes I’m crazy

But I guess you know

And I’m weak and I’m lazy

And I’ve hurt you so

And I don’t listen to a word you say

When you’re in trouble I just turn away

I love you, I loved you, the first time I saw you

And I always will love you Marie

I loved you the first time I saw you

And I always will love you Marie

—

THANKFUL BOYS & GIRLS

W/M: Billy Crockett & Milton Brasher-Cunningham

Let us be thankful boys and girls

For eyes and ears and toes

And puppies with wet noses

Let us be thankful boys and girls

For lessons we have learned

And love we have not earned

Follow the beat of amazing grace

Oh let us be thankful boys and girls

Let us be thankful boys and girls

For kisses on the mouth

And teenage heartbeats pounding

Let us be thankful boys and girls

For lightning in the sky

Laugher in the eye

Follow the beat of amazing grace

Oh let us be thankful boys and girls

For all that brought us here

And all that will bring us through

The passages of life that lead to you, lead us to you

Let us be thankful boys and girls

For a little common sense

And painted picket fences

Let us be thankful boys and girls

When packing up the plans

In rented moving vans

Follow the beat of amazing grace

Oh let us be thankful boys and girls

And let us be thankful boys and girls

For Mendelssohn and Brahms

Shadows growing longer

Let us be thankful boys and girls

For years that slowly go

Grandkids we can hold

For memories to keep

And sorrow running deep

Follow the beat of amazing grace

Oh let us be thankful boys and girls

For all that brought us here and all that will see us through

The passageways of life that lead to you, lead us to you

And let us be thankful boys and girls

When hope is not enough

That death won’t bury love

Let us be thankful boys and girls

For wine and bread and hymns

Remembering again

We follow the beat of amazing grace

Oh let us be thankful boys and girls

I want to be a thankful boy

Oh let us be thankful boys and girls

—

THE NIGHTFLY

W/M: Donald Fagen

I’m Lester the Nightfly

Hello Baton Rouge

Won’t you turn your radio down

Respect the seven second delay we use

So you say there’s a race

Of men in the trees

You’re for tough legislation

Thanks for calling

I wait all night for calls like these

An independent station

WJAZ

With jazz and conversation

From the foot of Mt. Belzoni

Sweet music

Tonight the night is mine

Late line ’til the sun comes through the skylight

I’ve got plenty of java

And Chesterfield Kings

But I feel like crying

I wish I had a heart like ice

Heart like ice

If you want your honey

To look super swell

You must spring for that little blue jar

Patton’s Kiss And Tell

Kiss And Tell

An independent station

WJAZ

With jazz and conversation

From the foot of Mt. Belzoni

Sweet music

Tonight the night is mine

Late line ’til the sun comes through the skylight

You’d never believe it

But once there was a time

When love was in my life

I sometimes wonder

What happened to that flame

The answer’s still the same

It was you, it was you

Tonight you’re still on my mind

An independent station

WJAZ

With jazz and conversation

From the foot of Mt. Belzoni

Sweet music

Tonight the night is mine

Late line ’til the sun comes through the skylight

—

THE STORY

W/M: Shawn Colvin & John Leventhal

Well we pounded the pavement

Between dotted lines

But we always belonged

To the fugitive kind

We were never the best

But we were better than this

To be made to bow down among princes

I got thrown around hallways

And bedrooms and towns

And you run from that voice

And it drags you around

It don’t matter the ruse

Or the weapons we choose

There is only one thing that can free us

Oh so here I am

The lion and the lamb

I was born to be telling this story

I could only be telling this story

I will always be telling this story

Well our father married

Our mother too young

And he took on a world

Like a fortunate son

But in the cellar downstairs

Waiting for the bomb scare

He would hide from us under the kitchen

Where she simmered so soft

With her weapons of tin

And like so many suppers

She just gave us to him

And he never did guess

In her cast iron dress

She was burning beyond recognition

Oh it’s not over yet

I can’t forget

I am going to be telling this story

I was born to be telling this story

I will always be telling this story

Sometimes I feel

So reckless and wild

Sometimes I feel

Like a motherless child

I gave nobody life

I am nobody’s wife

And I seem to be

Nobody’s daughter

So red is the color

That I like the best

It’s your Indian skin

And the badge on my chest

The heat of my pride

The lips of a bride

The sad heart of the truth

And the flag of youth

And blood that is thicker than water

I was made to be telling this story

I was born to be telling this story

I am going to be telling this story

I could only be telling this story

I will always be telling this story