| John Mark McMillan – How He Loves Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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"He is jealous for me" Ex. 34:14 Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. "Loves like a hurricane I am a tree Bending beneath The weight of his wind and mercy" This image not only makes me think of a hurricane, but also the story of Elijah when God creates a windstorm and earthquake but then passes Elijah in a whisper, it's a great illustration of how his power can destroy us, but he chooses gentleness "When all of a sudden I am unaware of these Afflictions eclipsed by glory" I always thought it was "aware" not "unaware" but either phrase evokes the same meaning that God's glory and forgiveness covers our sins and empowers us with his glory "And I realize how beautiful you are And how great your afflictions for me" Also here, I was sure that it was "great your affections are for me" but again either phrase works. The magnitude of God's love by sending Christ to die on the cross is the ultimate sign of affection, or his death on the cross was the ultimate amount of affliction that no one will ever experience again. It's beautiful in its theological completeness and how a tragedy turns to triumph "Oh how he loves us so Oh how he loves us How he loves us so Yea He loves us Oh how" John 3:16 1 John 4:10, 1 John 4:19 etc "We are his portion" This is kind of a controversial statement because in scripture, God is our portion, not the other way around, unless you think of portion as being set-aside lit. "We are his set-aside" aka "we are his holiness" God is made up of holiness, he is holiness, and Christ in us is his holiness, so we are able to be a part of God's holiness because of his love for us "And he is our prize" Phillip 3:14 "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." "Drawn to redemption by the grace in his eyes" Joseph found favor in the eyes of Potifar, we find favor in the eyes of people around us; God's favor comes through his grace; by his grace he sees only his love for us and his holiness, not our sin, we can only come to redemption because of this "If grace is an ocean we're all sinking" I love this line so much. Grace is not in limited supply we are flooded with grace in every breath we take, we sink in his grace because it is so overwhelming "So heaven meats earth like a sloppy wet kiss" the controversial changed line... I think JMM said somewhere that he thinks of a sloppy wet kiss like a baby; it's innocent and pure joy "And my heart burns violently inside of my chest I don't have time to maintain these regrets When I think about the way He loves us" How can we hold on to our regrets when God's grace is forefront in our minds and hearts... as a side note if you don't cry out this line when you sing the song, you're just not feelin it |
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| John Mark McMillan – Carbon Ribs Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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"A Thousand pairs of firey eyes Burn like a serpent down the hwy 5 As the Long road to Los Angeles unwinds" JMM is on a road trip commenting about the mundane act of driving to work "I've got resurrection down in side my skin But for all my revealating I just cant make sense Of this gravity we're in" JMM is saying that he is filled with the power of God, but this gravity ie principle of going through our daily lives he can't make sense of- why are we going about our lives when we have God's power? "Cause I'm a dead man now" We have died to ourselves in order to live in Christ "With a ghost who lives" Either a shadow of former self or literally a ghost ie the Holy Ghost (Spirit) "Within the confines of These carbon ribs" The word carbon alludes to earthly, our 'earthly bodies' - we are confined because of our inability to be holy within our earthly bodies... It could also mean that the holy spirit is in our earthly bodies, therfore sanctifying us "And one day when I'm free I will sit The cripple at your table The cripple by your side" if we have the holy spirit within our earthly bodies, when we die we are freed from the power of sin and will spend eternity at our father's table in heaven... the other commenter was spot-on about David's table and Johnathan's son, I'll add that David killed the other descendants of Saul, but because of his covenant with Johnathan he spared him. God's mercy has spared us as well and we are invited to sit at his table. "A thousand miles of pain I'm sure Led you to the threshold Of my hearts screen door To tell me what it is I'm dying for" JMM continues the road analogy and alludes to the gospel of Jesus Christ which tells us Luke 9:23-24 (NIV) "Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." So Jesus literally tells us what we are dying for, to follow him "Gravity comes Like a cold cold Rain" This one is more difficult, it could be the gravity of a decision or situation, and if you've ever felt cold rain you know it from the first drop. It is not a pleasant refreshing rain, it is shocking. Gravity could be realizing the mundane way we are living life. "To lead me to the rope again" But the son is standing in my place" The rope line relies heavily on the next line, rope could mean a lot, but it appears to be a noose, and Jesus is standing in our place to die for our sins. So gravity could then mean the desire to sin and when it comes it's unpleasant and sin's only purpose for us is death, and it leads us down a path to death, but Jesus Christ offered his self in our place so that we don't have to die because of our sin. This is one of my favorite JMM songs. Everyone should go check out Borderland, his latest! |
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