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Yonder Shines the Infant Light 2005​/​12 Advent & Christmas songs

by Bill Mallonee

/
1.
ON TO BETHLEHEM So, i'm at this wheel it's three am waiting for the caffeine to come around and life rears it's ugly head again they say your radio's cool and retail's way down and i'd like to say i'm faithful to the task at hand speaking gospel to a handful and others with their list of demands it's cold this year and i'm late on my dues it's cold in here ah but that's nothing new my heart's electric with your love again so it's on to Bethlehem you might surmise that i ran there but i really only crept lead me to the place where love runs wild and then it dogs your every step you know how fickle my heart is prone to wonder my Lord yeah we talk but it's at arms length always got one eye on the door God wraps Himself up in human skin for those who want to touch and God let them drive the nails in for those of us who know way too much You come bearing all our burdens and take Your lovers for a ride but we stay holed up in our cages fashioned by our own design so tell me what is your secret what's on your blister soul what is that one little secret you know the one that has taken its toll 'cause daddy's banging on your gate again yeah he won't leave you alone got a whole lot of dry warm rooms and the finest of homes
2.
EVERY FATHER KNOWS (WHERE HIS SONS & DAUGHTERS ARE) words & music by Bill Mallonee. c.2005 BMI well the angels sang the sweetest song echoing refrains the shepherds were up to something maybe drunk again no there probably wasn't any snow on the ground at the time though the greeting cards show that sort of thing with a warm and fuzzy rhyme and the stable is neat and tidy the hygiene is five stars and the planet it spins lonely as i step out of this bar now some are lost in shopping malls and some on battlefields and some are lost in suburbs and some on capitol hills some are lost on terminal wards or in a nursing home and some are equally as lost in between their headphones but whatever your coordinates on your map of shame rather close or far away we're all lost just the same the birth of births was like a death under that hallowed star still every father know and cares where his sons and daughters are so you may wake up a bit confused with the ache that's in your heart doesn't matter if you got there by choice or got there by default and every birth shall come with tears and with youth there is a cost Jesus what's it like to grow up in the shadow of a cross where You take on more than You could know more than i'd want to say i put you there a long time ago when i do it every day
3.
KNOCKIN' AT YOUR DOOR Written by Bill Mallonee for CyBrenJoJosh (BMI) ©2005 all doubts and depression born of guilt and separation push your boat far from the shore but like a lighthouse beacon His heart is always seeking and then He comes a-knocking at your door Amid the problems and the pain of ambition and sordid gain this grinding of the face of the poor He will lift up the lowly the humble and not slowly and then He comes a-knocking at your door When He comes knocking at your door we'll understand what this all meant when He comes knocking at your door you won't be disappointed Amid the conflict and confusion of winning and then losing whether against terror or for oil He was heaven sent even for our president and then He comes a-knocking at your door Amid the fears and frustrations tumults and tribulations of all of the whys and wherefores it'll all flee as the night vanishes with morning light and then He comes a-knocking at your door
4.
5.
6.
Nativity 02:15
7.
early flight probably skip sleep getting back to you not as easy as it seems and all these dreams that just got in the way like the congress the president lies like static on the ??? phone line i rub my eyes and try to stay awake well your eyes seem to know mazzy star on the stereo the razor's edge we walk of faith and doubt yes and your kiss all full of surrender me white flag helpless and tender and then then the bottoms drop out why does everybody in this old (damn) town plead and assent when the crime goes down it's never hard to tell (trace) whose blood's been spilt holy mother mary when the wine gives out and the land is parched stricken with drought i've never seen it look quite like this before yes and ask your Son He's pretty strong He's got a real good heart and loves everyone an open heart is always an open door it stepped up on the windy platform the trains were late and the stars were being born that is to say they were just coming out rolling out like a new car from the factory like a closet gay getting free of shackles of one kind or another i know this thing is as long as shit and by now you're ready to hit skip i didn't do it for you no i did it for me and all these film techniques that you employed in the heart a camera full of melted solenoid
8.
some seed it fell on a rocky place among the thorns and thistles and those radio waves and the birds they feasted the brambles they did fall at that virgin seed if it sprouted up at all please oh please would you take care of me between the devil and the deep blue sea got a stack of records more like a sunday school and a summer of love that is only for fools yeah and fools we are fools we'll surely be till sweet hallelujahs reign down over me oh holy sower your spirit and heart bound up the concrete around my steely little heart thirty three and a third that will be the cure for you you can drop the needle right down in the groove
9.
10.
well some things are plain to clear eyes some gifts go completely unrecognized we're shackled to hate bounded by fear straining to see my face in the mirror yeah i once knew a man who left town on the run he went looking for joy but joy didn't come so let Your name with praise be adorned sing angel choirs for Jesus is born yeah i'm picking through pieces of yesterday's boasting hold them up to the light and examine them closely a love is a field that the weeds have grown up in my earth is all scorched with my wreckage and ruin yeah the cup is tarnished but the wine is true only the finest two hundred proof so let Your name with praise be adorned sing angel choirs for Jesus is born holy Mary meek and mild full of the Spirit full with Child stumble around through the message each year so open these eyes open these ears
11.
God rest ye merry gentlemen we're empty but full of dreams seen it on the gallery walls read it in books and magazines second Person of the Trinity Saviour dearest friend two worlds crash and flesh and blood there in bethlehem your love's whisper tapping on the wall and then breaking down my door come and claim the ??? come and claim what's rightfully yours it's amazing you should seek me i've been hiding out for so long it's amazing you should greet me and call my heart your home at this time of visitation i see how deeply that i'm spent melt the snow around this cold heart with the fire of your intent it's a tired world this Christmas it's getting wearier by the minute we've hit the quota overextended on the limits of sadness, badness and madness come to think of it come and wake the sleeping come and give them rest the numb dumb damned depressed possessed naked and undressed hark the herald angels sing we've heard good tiding from on high all escape routes have been sealed off every alibi strangles and dies Deity hits the newsstand Jesus the Father sends two worlds crash in flesh and blood there in bethlehem at this time of visitation i see how deeply i have spent melt the snow around my heart with the fire of your intent joy to the world the Lord is come
12.
so i'm at this wheel it's three am waiting for the caffeine to come around and life rears it's ugly head again they say your radio's cool and retail's way down and i'd like to say i'm faithful to the task at hand speaking gospel to a handful and others with their list of demands it's cold this year and i'm late on my dues it's cold in here ah but that's nothing new my heart's electric with your love again so it's on to bethlehem you might surmise that i ran there but i really only crept lead me to the place where love runs wild and then it dogs your every step you know how fickle my heart is prone to wonder my Lord yeah we talk but it's at arms length always got one eye on the door God wraps Himself up in human skin for those who want to touch and God let them drive the nails in for those of us who know way too much You come bearing all our burdens and take Your lovers for a ride but we stay holed up in our cages fashioned by our own design so tell me what is your secret what's on your blister soul what is that one little secret you know the one that has taken its toll 'cause daddy's banging on your gate again yeah he won't leave you alone got a whole lot of dry warm rooms and the finest of homes

about

"CONSIDER THIS"
The world seems dark & getting darker.
Confusion & Uncertainty reign.
Arrogance & Ignorance have grabbed the wheel.
I understand that "religion" has been a "bad trip" for so many.
The sins of greed, abuse, ignorance & compliance, when found among those who supposedly represent Jesus, are heinous & reprehensible. Such sins seem to be "written larger" than ever these days among those who claim His Name.
I'll play my cards: This world is either charged with a Meaning & Mystery, a hallowed "something" bigger" than ourselves; a something that we, in our finitude can't competently explain or "nomenclature," or...it isn't.
If it IS suffused with such a meaning, then things like Love, Compassion, Sacrifice, Birth, even Suffering & Death can lead us to a final Wholeness, a final Redemption, a final Restoration.
The evidences of that inexplicable Something Wild, Beautiful, & Good are what draw me back to the Christmas story year after year. And, yes, I truly think I "see" such Wild evidences all around me: In Creation, in family, in friends, in little acts of random Kindness and Mercy. Call them little messages, small nudges from Beyond.
The world? Dark. Dark & getting darker.
It's in times such as these that Christ's words of Forgiveness, Peace & Wholeness seem like all we have left...
But in reality? They were all we ever needed.
Grace, Courage & Joy on the journey,
~ bill mallonee
painting by:
Gerard van Honthorst - Adoration of the Shepherds (1622)

credits

released December 12, 2005

Bill Mallonee, Muriah Rose, Vigilantes of Love

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Bill Mallonee

Bill Mallonee is an Americana artist w/ 80 plus albums over a 30 year career. Voted by Paste Music Magazine #65 in their "Top 100 Living Songwriters" poll. He was the
founding member of Vigilantes of Love. He has worked with Mark Heard, Buddy Miller, Emmylou Harris, & Peter Buck from REM.
His most recent work, "Lead On, Kindly Light" is a 23song double Cd released Feb 2020.
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