Friends:
Welcome to the First Pres Contemporary Music email/blog, dedicated to enhancing your Contemporary Christian music experience!
In Christ,
Mark
SONG OF THE WEEK This week’s feature is Switchfoot’s “THE WAR INSIDE”, from their excellent September release, VICE VERSES. As you know I am a self-confessed fanboy of Switchfoot, so it’s probably no great surprise to you that I’m featuring a second song from this album. Musically this is trance rock — hypnotic synth anchors it, with monotone rap-like verses and melody-strong choruses layered on top. The mood of the music fits perfect with the theme of the lyrics.
The WAR INSIDE is an acknowledgement that our worst enemy is ourselves. Many people get dealt crappy cards yet we all must at some point deal with ourselves – fight our human nature, rise above self-centeredness and pride. This war Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman describes is constant, incessant. It wears you down.
This confession is advanced citizenship in this life – it takes moral and mental maturity to believe you are the problem, and even more to try to do something about it. The realization that we are the problem is the first step to keeping it at bay. Surrendering to God pushes it further back and allows us to be the people God meant us to be.
But you can’t let your guard down – after all, you will be you for the rest of your life.
The War Inside
Put your hands up open up wide
Put your hands up side by side
Age don’t matter like
Race don’t matter like
Place don’t matter like what’s inside
Let the kick drum kick one time
Breathe out let your mind unwind
Eyes on the ceiling
Looking for the feeling
Wide open let your own eyes shine
Yeah, it’s where the fight begins
Yeah, underneath the skin
Between these hopes and where we’ve been
Every fight comes from the fight within
- Chorus –
I am the war inside
I am the battle line
I am the rising tide
I am the war I fight
Eyes open open wide
I can feel it like a crack in my spine
I can feel it like the back of my mind
I am the war inside
I get the feeling that we’re living in sci-fi
I get the feeling that our weapons are lo-fi
Ain’t no killer like pride
No killer like I
No killer like what’s inside
Yeah, it’s in the air we breathe
Yeah, it’s in the blood we bleed
Beneath these dreams and what we’ve seen
We are the kids of the in-between
Put your hands up open up wide
put your hands up side by side
Age don’t matter like
Race don’t matter like
Place don’t matter like what’s inside
Yeah, every thought or deed
Yeah, every tree or seed
The big things come from the little dreams
Every world is made by make believe
You can hear THE WAR INSIDE here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcwsXPBje2A
SONGS THIS WEEK: Partial list includes YOU ARE A CHILD OF MINE, LAY’EM DOWN, SWEETLY BROKEN, WALK WITH ME
VERSE(s) OF THE WEEK:
Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”
Luke 18:27
FEATURED MUSIC Songs we are listening to – some for church, and some for just the fun of it. Let us know what you think of them!
AFTERLIFE, Switchfoot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5VbzR0ZeHA&feature=related
THE ORIGINAL, Switchfoot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ChOOVK5Rho&feature=related
UPCOMING CONCERTS
DAVID CROWDER BAND, November 6, Manatee Civic Center, Bradenton
CASTING CROWNS, SANTUS REAL, THE AFTERS, November 18th, Idlewild Baptist Church, Tampa SOLD OUT
