The Money Song

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Roger E. Bruner

Wealth is the rich man’s great advantage.
Poverty is the poor man’s great curse.
Righteous men spend money to help others.
Wicked men spend money on themselves.

About this Song:
Maybe you’ve noticed that some of my songs are shorter than others. Although this one is probably THE shortest, that doesn’t diminish the importance of its message.

The words are adapted from Proverbs 10:15-16. I’m including six translations here. . .

15 The wealth of the rich is their fortified city,
    but poverty is the ruin of the poor.
 16 The wages of the righteous is life,
    but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.
(New International Version)

15 Great wealth can be a fortress,
    but poverty  is no protection at all.
 16 If you live right, the reward is a good life;
    if you are evil, all you have is sin.
(Contemporary English Bible)

15 The rich man’s wealth is his strong city;
The destruction of the poor is their poverty.
 16 The labor of the righteous leads to life,
The wages of the wicked to sin.
(New King James)

15 The wealth of the rich is their fortress;
    the poverty of the poor is their destruction.
 16 The earnings of the godly enhance their lives,
    but evil people squander their money on sin.
(New Living Translation)

15 The wealth of the rich is their bastion;
   the poverty of the indigent is their ruin.
 16 The wage of a good person is exuberant life;
   an evil person ends up with nothing but sin.
(The Message)

15 Wealth protects the rich; poverty destroys the poor.
 16 The reward for doing good is life, but sin leads only to more sin.
(GNT)

If I’m reading these Scriptures correctly, they agree that the rich depend upon their wealth. They hide in it. They take refuge in it. In my mind, that gives them a “great advantage.” The second part of verse fifteen seems to agree that “Poverty is the poor man’s great curse.”

Although these versions agree that money enables the rich to have “life,” “exuberant life,” and “a good life,” I chose to put a different spin on the first part of my parallel to verse sixteen. My wording goes along best with “The reward for doing good is life.” The rest of Scripture supports that. The rich–all of us, for that matter–ought to help those in need to whatever extent they can.

I chose not to deviate from the second half of verse sixteen, however. When wicked people squander their money on sin rather than using it to accomplish good, they end up getting exactly what they deserve.

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Please leave a comment if something in this post has spoken to you. I’ll be back again next Wednesday. If you’d like to receive my posts by email, just go to “Follow Blog via Email” at the bottom right.

I have free lead sheets (chords, notes, & words) for many of my songs. To see which ones and print or download any of them (including today’s), GO HERE.

“As I Come Singing” isn’t my only blog. If you’d like to see “On Aging Gracelessly,” CHECK IT OUT HERE.

My new novel, The Devil and Pastor Gus, is out now. If you’re interested, please check it out at Amazon.

Best regards,
Roger

 

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Night Sounds

Posted on July 30, 2014 by Roger E. Bruner

I listen to the night winds sigh
Because they know you’re not with me.
I listen to the night winds sigh
Because they know you’re not with me.
And I reach out for you,
But you’re not there.

I listen to the crickets chirpin’
As they wonder where you are.
I listen to the crickets chirpin’
As they wonder where you are.
And I reach out for you,
But you’re not there.

I listen to the night birds singing
As they call out your name.
I listen to the night birds singing
As they call out your name.
And I reach out for you,
But you’re not there.

I listen to the running footsteps
As the moon lights up the path.
I listen to the running footsteps
As the moon lights up the path.
And I reach out for you,
And you take my hand,
And the night’s like the day.

About this Song:
This is the only purely secular song I’ve ever written, and it dates back to the mid-seventies, when my first wife and I were still relatively newly-weds. Her family was visiting, and I had gone to bed while she stayed up talking with them. As I lay in bed, not altogether happy at her not being there, the idea came to mind.

Professional singers Mike and Sally Hendon (they performed together for years as Two’s Company–you may have seen them at the Trappe Family Lodge in Stowe, VT–but are no longer together) later sent me a recording they had made of this song. One thing they had added to the “as they call out your name” line was a plaintive echo of “Debbie, Debbie, Debbie.”

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Please leave a comment if something in this post has spoken to you. I’ll be back again next Wednesday. If you’d like to receive my posts by email, just go to “Follow Blog via Email” at the bottom right.

I have free lead sheets (music, lyrics, & chords) for many of these songs. “Night Sounds” is one of them. Look for it in this drop-down box.

“As I Come Singing” isn’t my only blog. If you’d like to see “On Aging Gracelessly,” check it out here.

Best regards,
Roger

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As I Come Singing

Posted on January 5, 2014 by Roger E. Bruner

As I come singing, I sing to praise the Lord;
With a song in my heart, I come to proclaim God’s Word,
To proclaim God’s Word. La, la la la la.
The melody may seem compelling as the rhythm moves right along,
But if my life’s not full of God’s love, then the message will come out wrong,
Will come out wrong. La, la la la la.

As I come singing, I sing to preach God’s Word
To each believer and to those who have never heard,
Who’ve never heard.
The song itself is simple, and the words used are quite plain,
But if my life’s not in tune with my song, then the message will come out vain,
Will come out vain. La, la la la la.

As I come singing, I sing to praise the Lord;
May the song that my life sings be the one that He wants heard,
That God wants heard.
La, la la la la. La, la la la la. La la.

About this song:
During the days when I was presenting musical programs more frequently than now, I used this song as my theme song. I wanted to emphasize my role as a preacher of sorts–a conveyor of God’s Good News–and to help people realize that I wasn’t singing to entertain them.

I believe that so strongly that–to this day–I have trouble using the word “perform” in regard to doing a Christian song in public. “Present” works a little better, but “perform” definitely doesn’t preach!

You can tell that this is one of my older songs because it rhymes. Although a few of my most recent songs rhyme, most of them don’t.

You can find a free lead sheet for this song (tune, chords, & lyrics) on my website. Check here for all of my free lead sheets.

Stay tuned. I’ll post another song lyric next Sunday.

Best regards,
Roger

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Take This Piece of Bread

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Roger E. Bruner

Take this piece of bread
As a symbol of my body.
When you eat it,
Think of me,
And remember who I am,
Who I am.

Take this cup of wine
As a symbol of my life’s blood.
When you drink it,
Think of me,
And remember who I am,
Who I am.

What we shared last night was close to perfect,
But where have they gone?
Don’t they know Who I Am?

About This Song:
The year was 1972. Jesus Christ Superstar was at the height of its popularity, and I loved the music as much as anyone. I just disagreed with some of its theology. Uh, a lot of it, actually.

So I wrote a one-hour Christian rock opera I called The Identity of Divinity–or ID for short. I used it to “straighten out” the bad theology of Superstar.

I was still teaching 9th grade English, and I arranged to use the gym/auditorium at my school one evening to present a single performance of The Identity of Divinity, using students, folks from church, and even people from the community at large.

I have fond memories of the multitude of rehearsals involved. Getting the nearly fifty people involved together at one time was a major accomplishment. Thankfully, most of the practices involved much smaller groups.

Although this song obviously refers to Jesus’ words when He served his disciples the commemorative meal we refer to as “The Lord’s Supper” or “Communion,” I use that one last bit of the song to indicate that Jesus was remembering that last meal with His disciples while dying on the cross. And that He was very conscious of how most of His disciples had deserted Him.

I’ve noticed on Facebook that a number of my former students are Christians. I would like to believe that The Identity of Divinity played a role in their spiritual growth. And that the songs I post on this blog are contributing to your spiritual growth as well.

You can find a free PDF lead sheet (chords, melody, & lyrics) for this song on my website. Check here for all available lead sheets. And don’t forget to check the archives for other songs that might be similar in theme to this one.

Please come back again on Wednesday for another song. Better yet, subscribe to receive each week’s two posts by email.

Best regards,
Roger

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