Made for More -- Blake Wiggins, Jessie Early, Jonathan Smith, Josh Baldwin

 

He’d just made a move, and he was searching. That’s what Josh Baldwin shared as he talked about “Made for More” after the song was released in 2024. He had several collaborators – Blake Wiggins, Jessie Early, and Jonathan Smith – so it wasn’t just Josh making up his own mind about how he himself was ‘made for more’; indeed, Josh and the others implicitly acknowledged that identity begins with the One who made us all. Josh had been part of Bethel Music based in Redding, California (see its seal here), which has been a collection of songwriters that may have played a role in the song’s development. So, when he moved across the country to Tennessee, he was evidently hunting for some ‘newness’. Fortunately, he found that this endeavor did not really take him in an opposite direction, but rather allowed him to step back from leading and reexamine the basics of his faith. What did his life mean for him personally? That’s what comes through in the words that Josh began, and which Blake, Jessie, and Jonathan helped focus and refine.

 

Josh said the song emerged during a songwriting session, so one can imagine the ideas that were shared back and forth in ‘Made for More’. He says the song felt pretty special right from the start, and actually helped him rethink what the theme of the album on which it appears should be. That tells us, who are searching like Josh was, that something pretty essential is contained within the songwriters’ collective thoughts when they finished their work. It’s said that these essentials captivated them through several scriptures – Romans 8, Isaiah 43:1, and Ephesians 2 – which ancient writers also used to communicate powerful, life-giving manna to their age, and now to ours. In short, one word helps sum up how they said we should feel: Alive! That’s what the ancients were saying poetically and otherwise. The Apostle Paul no doubt read what Isaiah had written what God told him: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.’ It must have dawned on the prophets, Jesus-followers like Paul, and these 21^st Century songwriters that God doesn’t redeem people to let them remain dead or to live a futile existence; He wants His chosen ones to be as alive as He is. Josh says this living message, that being ‘made for more’ helped strengthen his own son, and became like a personal anthem when he and his family were hunting for a new church in Tennessee. There were valleys and peaks, but they could count on the Creator-God to remain faithful. If you’re feeling hamstrung by your past mistakes, leave them in the dust, and as Josh and the others wrote in their lyrics, take heart, for ‘I have a future and it's worth the living’. Life is so much more than merely being born and then dying, so don’t ‘be tending a grave’, because that will only be a temporary stopping/resting point along the way.

 

Josh and company have so much more to say about being “Made for More”, and its message evokes an emotion that actually can transcend the human life experience. It will go beyond the grave, where none of us have yet been. And yet, Josh and the others say something else that’s interesting in one of their verses – ‘The cross of salvation was only the start’, implying that there’s so much more than looking out ahead to the finish line. Jesus did say ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30), so we all look to that seminal moment when Jesus accomplished the saving act for you and me. How Josh and his friends respond, though, is to say ‘we’re risen now’. If your day has a heavy rock that you feel like you’re dragging along behind you, let it go, and grab hold of what’s said in “Made…” -- I know I am Yours. Am, not will be someday. Right now.

 

 

Details of the song found here: https://www.google.com/search?q=made+for+more+song+story&aic=0&bih=825&biw=1459&sca_esv=ae1e161c6b0f2947&ei=kOx7ae6IHqjm5NoPoLqlmQo&ved=0ahUKEwjukL_z8rGSAxUoM1kFHSBdKaMQ4dUDCBE&uact=5&oq=made+for+more+song+story&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiGG1hZGUgZm9yIG1vcmUgc29uZyBzdG9yeTIGEAAYFhgeMgYQABgWGB4yBhAAGBYYHjIGEAAYFhgeMgsQABiABBiGAxiKBTIIEAAYgAQYogRI_HhQ9A9Y_HFwAXgBkAEAmAFSoAGsDaoBAjMxuAEDyAEA-AEBmAIboALVC8ICChAAGLADGNYEGEfCAgUQIRigAcICBRAAGO8FwgIGEAAYBxgewgIIEAAYBxgIGB7CAggQABgFGAcYHsICChAAGIAEGEMYigXCAg0QLhiABBixAxhDGIoFwgILEAAYgAQYkQIYigXCAgUQABiABMICChAuGIAEGEMYigXCAgUQLhiABMICFBAuGIAEGJcFGNwEGN4EGOAE2AEBwgIIEAAYogQYiQWYAwCIBgGQBge6BgYIARABGBSSBwIyN6AHzbABsgcCMja4B9MLwgcENi4yMcgHKIAIAA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

See more comments about the song here: https://www.brightfm.com/shine/shine-daily/josh-baldwin-on-the-purpose-behind-made-for-more/ and here: https://worshipleader.com/worship-culture/made-for-more-josh-baldwin/

Read about one of the songwriters here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Baldwin

Read about a songwriting venture here in which the principal songwriter has been involved: Bethel Music - Wikipedia

See information on the image of the Redding seal here: File:Seal of Redding, California.png - Wikimedia Commons. This work was created by a government unit (including state, county, city, and municipal government agencies) that derives its powers from the laws of the State of California and is subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act (Government Code § 6250 et seq.). It is a public record that was not created by an agency which state law has allowed to claim copyright, and is therefore in the public domain in the United States. The image may be found inside this site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redding,_California

Goodbye Yesterday -- Grace Binion, Joshua Holiday, Mitch Wong, Steven Furtick

 

You can tell of whom they were thinking when they penned the words. Grace Binion, Joshua Holiday, Mitch Wong, and Steven Furtick were undoubtedly thinking of new converts, and that comes through clearly when the lyrics they wrote for “Goodbye Yesterday” are sung or heard. Such a group would be doing and feeling more than just sighing with relief  (‘Whew, I’m saved’), but rather jumping for joy, they thought. The transformation that takes place is more than a feeling and a memory; it’s a new life. These members of the Charlotte-based Elevation Rhythm band (see the seal of Charlotte here) take their name and the praise that they help propagate seriously. Elevate has to mean more than standing and singing, because when the depth of someone’s former condition is known, and the certainty of God’s salvation is appreciated, how can the response be anything but what these four 21^st Century composers brought to the table for others to consume and to further themselves with utter delight? One can imagine that that will be magnified exponentially in the new morning to come.   

 

Nate Diaz tells this much in an interview about ‘Goodbye Yesterday: The song has a connection to an old hymn I Have Decided to Follow Jesus (see the blog entry for 4/2/2016), which was the basis for some of the lyrics, and which was on Steven Furtick’s lips pretty spontaneously as the bridge portion of the song. Nate says the song is pretty ‘blunt’ and the bridge lyrics that they sing -- ‘I have decided’ and ‘no turning back’ -- are meant for people who are eager and full of zeal to proclaim their allegiance to Him out loud, who are very unashamed of their devotion. Nate said it was really energizing to see young people singing this with fervor, because the age in which we live is filled with temptation to entertain them, instead of trying to get them to truly follow God. The environment sounds kind of like what you might observe among a group of fanatical sports fans, whose team just won the championship right in front of their collective eyes. It wouldn’t be a surprise if these fans also sang an anthem song at such an event, and that’s how Josh Holiday describes ‘Goodbye…’, as an anthem to celebrate salvation. There’s no hesitation in such a gathering, when people know their hope and expectation is based on a guarantee from the One who made humans and wants them to join Him in the Forever place. Perhaps that was part of the thinking – that it is a celebration of what’s already been won – when this group of musicians decided upon a name for the album, Victory Lap, which contains the song ‘Goodbye…’ that they produced in 2024. ‘New day’, ‘born again’, and ‘resurrection in my veins’ join the song’s title words and the bridge section to reinforce what the new creation experiences when the old dead-end ways are traded for what He offers.

 

And so, the song has an energy, which is not really a shocker. It’s one that the participant just cannot really feel unless he’s on his feet, ready to move even just a little bit. If someone says ‘party’, that would be part of the thrill too, to realize that you are on the winning side and that the door to this gala has been opened for you to step inside and feel the clap on your back and the embrace of everyone you see. There’s an event at a church that this blogger has volunteered to join next month, just to see this kind of sensation. It’s called Night to Shine. Utter joy. That’s what awaits us who believe, and it’s not reserved for just a mild-mannered sort of satisfaction that you might feel after receiving a congratulatory handshake at some routine event, perhaps when you are promoted, one that’s filled with a few pieces of cake and some punch, an event that concludes after 45 minutes. No, as the Elevation Rhythm band reminds us in ‘Goodbye…’, this party goes on ‘again, and again, and again, and again’, as many times as He has  rescued me from a hole-in-the-ground ending. ‘Dancin’ on the grave…’ in this case is OK, because it’s not someone else’s demise about which I sing. It’s the one where I’ve buried my old past. You can choose -- either the hole in the ground, or the party above ground.  

 

Read some brief comments about the song here: https://www.klove.com/music/blog/new-music/elevation-rhythm-s-goodbye-yesterday-sets-the-tone-for-a-new-day-9498

 

Hear some more about the song’s development here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOoRoChETJ3/

 

Read a brief bio on the group Elevation Rhythm here: https://www.klove.com/music/artists/elevation-rhythm

 

See information about the seal of Charlotte here: File:New seal of Charlotte, North Carolina.svg - Wikimedia Commons…This file is in the public domain because official item legally exempt from copyright in its country of origin. The image can be found in this document:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte,_North_Carolina

Trinity Song -- Sandra McCracken

 

She was listening for Him. While walking on a beach in Portugal (see its flag here), Sandra McCracken says she wrote “Trinity Song”, even as the rhythm of crashing waves and her own steps metered and focused her mind on His three-person character. She found a simplicity and a power in what she heard that day; could it have been like the moments when other God-seekers have bent their ears to hearken to His whispers? It’s a rare commodity in our tech-consumed world, to seek silence. What is the normal human reaction when somebody whispers something that you cannot quite comprehend? Speak up! And yet, the God-seekers we meet in scripture did not dare say that to Him – note what Elijah (1 Kings 19:12) and others (Job 4:12-16; 26:14) said when they heard His voice faintly. That’s a picture of Sandra, as she directed people to listen for Him in 2016.

 

Silence was not a fad with Sandra, as she explained in several forums. It’s a lifestyle, a search with a goal to enter His space and receive His thoughts more intimately. She evidently had lit upon several biblical passages to spur her quest for a Godly silence; these included what ancient wisdom-writers (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2, Psalm 46:10, and Psalm 65:1) had concluded was true, but only if one heeds the advice. Be still, say little or nothing, for even in that silence, He can be praised. And so, Sandra thought that approach was how one might more deeply appreciate the parts of Him that even believers find murky – namely, the concept of the Trinity, the three persons of the Godhead. Whether Sandra’s Portuguese beach venue was just a coincidence, or instead a definite plan to find the Holy Troika in solitude, she doesn’t say. But something happened, and Sandra didn’t waste the moments trying to sort out how or why it had transpired – she just absorbed the time. She says she could imagine the three persons ‘danc(ing)’, and perhaps He was feeding her willing spirit with the sound of the waves and the pace of her own steps, which were the ones He made for her, we could say. Her own words were immaterial; only His mattered. Thus, she took a page from her own experience there to imitate for the song that was already in her head about Him in the three persons she’d just heard. Only a few words, repeated to draw the worshipper closer and closer to Him, were necessary. Say His names – Father, Son, and Spirit – and what He provides – Holy Communion. Alternately use a synonym for this Trinity – Three in One – to approach Him reverently. And then solicit what He is only too willing to provide – peace, an invitation, and holy love. That was the uncomplicated formula that Sandra apprehended on a beach in Portugal.

 

Sandra knew she had found something, and upon returning from the beach, she immediately recorded it. Perhaps because she felt it was the three persons of the Trinity, she wondered if harmony in three complementary voices would work in this embryonic composition. Some people might find what she’s accomplished too simplistic, but Sandra felt that space is where He can be encountered. He is the Omnipotent, but amazingly He doesn’t force Himself on you and me. I have to be a surrenderer. I must believe that what He brings me is so much greater, purer, and healthier for me in this world, that I am willing to cast aside my other stuff to get what He wants me to have. Less is more. Heard that one before? Gotta embrace that concept, because that’s what’s awaiting you and me – I’ll take nothing with me and instead inherit everything that He’s been prepping for me. It’s a good idea to start working on that less and more thing now.       

 

Read some of the author-composer’s thoughts on the song here: https://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/articles/music/Sandra_McCracken__A_songbysong_rundown_of_her_Gods_Highway_album/58907/p1/ …and here…https://markedministry.com/2016/11/04/song-stories-sandra-mccracken/  … and here also: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/sandra-mccracken-on-how-to-wait-well/

 

See information on the image of the Portuguese flag here:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Portugal_(official).svg …This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1930. {{PD-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States. The image may be found inside this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal