Tight-wad

(Rap written for Poorer than You's HP bundle giveaway)

If you’re talking about dough, I’m in the know and I know what
Let’s bring it down with the sound of the money clinking, but
To get the feel for what I’m saying and the thoughts I am relaying
Understand that the plan I am presenting ain’t my own.

If you’re just a high and mighty tight-wad (tight-wad)
And you pass your peeps with just a tight nod (tight nod)
And cruise avenues in a shiny hot-rod (hot-rod)
From the books it looks like you think you’re God (Almighty God).
When the flowin’ of the dough is slowin’ (down)
And you knowin’ that the show is goin’ (down)
As extinct as the mink on a lady’s fur-coat
What’s your fall-back plan? Whatchya gonna do, man?

It seems like solid sense to save your dollars and your cents
But when it comes to shiny wheels and bigger rims--you get my hints?
Or student loans to pave the way so you don’t pay, except you do,
We move from spending into lending and we toss out all the rules.
Spending money you don’t got will get you caught like you’s in jail
That lender’s got his own agenda—debtors ain’t for posting bail.
Plan on working for your money, when you get it, pinch and save
‘Cuz the Word says what I’m thinking: Borrow and you’ll be a slave.

If you’re just a high and mighty tight-wad (tight-wad)
And you pass your peeps with just a tight nod (tight nod)
And cruise avenues in a shiny hot-rod (hot-rod)
From the books it looks like you think you’re God (Almighty God).
When the flowin’ of the dough is slowin’ (down)
And you knowin’ that the show is goin’ (down)
As extinct as the mink on a ladies fur-coat
What’s your fall-back plan? Whatchya gonna do, man?

I ain’t chargin’ tips for givin’ tips, this next ones on the hizzy
Saying lay up for your pay up even if you’re getting busy.
Credit scores will open doors that ACTs and FAFSAs won’t
Chance circumstance will find you dancin’ with destruction if you don’t.
If your history’s a mystery of bills that you been missing
Ain’t no pleas or promise gonna make those agents up and listen.
But if you been payin’ promptly, then those cats’ll understand
‘Cuz the Word says what I’m thinking: Yo! Owe nothing to no man!

If you’re just a high and mighty tight-wad (tight-wad)
And you pass your peeps with just a tight nod (tight nod)
And cruise avenues in a shiny hot-rod (hot-rod)
From the books it looks like you think you’re God (Almighty God).
When the flowin’ of the dough is slowin’ (down)
And you knowin’ that the show is goin’ (down)
As extinct as the mink on a ladies fur-coat
What’s your fall-back plan? Whatchya gonna do, man?

The last’s the law of cash for goods, investments got your back
Sometimes spending money right can keep your gold from goin’ black
Some call it buying friends, but it’s insurance by my readin’.
If you’re movin’ provin’ generous when friends are in the needin’
Your boys’ll be more cool to you when you get in a squeeze and
Return the favor. Payin’ down their debt’ll be the reason.
The Word says what I’m thinking: Just be ready with your givin’
‘Cuz friends are the investments that pay back long as your livin’.

If you’re just a high and mighty tight-wad (tight-wad)
And you pass your peeps with just a tight nod (tight nod)
And cruise avenues in a shiny hot-rod (hot-rod)
From the books it looks like you think you’re God (Almighty God).
When the flowin’ of the dough is slowin’ (down)
And you knowin’ that the show is goin’ (down)
As extinct as the mink on a ladies fur-coat
What’s your fall-back plan? Whatchya gonna do, man?

Create in Me a Clean Heart

I wanna tell my story, but the truth is hard to bear
Will it lessen my confessing, will my lesson keep you guessing
If I wait until the end and I pretend I wasn’t there?
It starts out with a Papa and his couple brawny boys
The younger gets a hunger to be leading life alone
Demands a cash advance and spends on women, wine and toys
While dining with the swine he gets to hungering for home.
Comes limping down the lane, a pimp in pain, no sordid gain,
Now humbled and repentant, mumbling asks to be a slave
His Papa wraps him up and wipes away each teary stain
“Let’s party, ‘cuz my long lost son has risen from his grave!”
A happy ever after seems in order—not so fast!
Remember that I said that Papa had an older boy?
Reflecting on his reputation and his brother’s restoration
He demands an explanation of the joyous celebration
Whining in his own frustration at the lack of acclamation
For his faithful occupation. He required no reformation.
What a dirty revelation that this sinner caused sensation.
Muttering an imprecation at his Papa’s great elation
Turns his back refusing to share in his father’s joy.


Create in me a clean heart, Father
I am Your ungrateful, rebellious daughter
I said I had no sin and so my sin remains
Purify with hyssop, Father, cleanse me of my stains.
Create in me a clean heart, Father
I am Your ungrateful, rebellious daughter
I said I had no sin and so my sin remains
Purify with hyssop, Father, cleanse me of my stains.


I’ll paint it with a different brush, to make the story clear.
A different place, a different space, behold the same redeeming grace
Embracing and erasing as it draws the sinner near.
As Jesus eats His dinner with a teacher of the law
A lady somewhat shady makes an entrance to the scene
Silently this sinner gives the Master’s feet a spa
The Pharisee finds kissing feet to be a sight obscene.
In answer to the question that had never yet been made
“Simon,” said the Master, “Let’s suppose two men had debts.
One owes much and one much less, the Master pardons both
The one who is forgiven little, finds he soon forgets.
He proudly casts his eyes about for someone worse than he
And seizes on his fellow-debtor, “Give me what is mine!”
If the Master hadn’t heard the news and kindly intervened
The second man would still be in the clinker doing time.
Mercy isn’t measured by the size of what’s forgiven.”
But Simon’s heart was hardened by the lie that he’d been living.
Reflecting on her reputation and her current occupation
He detests the explanation for the Master’s degradation
Whining in his own frustration at the lack of acclamation
What a dirty revelation that this sinner caused sensation.
Trashing up his celebration by her teary reformation.
Muttering an imprecation at this hooker’s restoration
Turns, refusing to accept the grace that she’s been given.


Create in me a clean heart, Father
I am Your ungrateful, rebellious daughter
I said I had no sin and so my sin remains
Purify with hyssop, Father, cleanse me of my stains.
Create in me a clean heart, Father
I am Your ungrateful, rebellious daughter
I said I had no sin and so my sin remains
Purify with hyssop, Father, cleanse me of my stains.


I know what you been thinking as you listen to my story
This history’s the mystery of how God saved me graciously
And thankfully and gratefully I’m giving Him the glory.
I wish I were the prodigal who wound up feeding swine
Or the woman of the city whose repentance proved God’s pity
Or the wretched debtor that the Master saved from doing time.
But actually, in honesty, the truth you’ll see exposing me
Is that I am the older son, the wicked slave, the Pharisee.

And since I scorn repentant brothers, pointing out the sins of others
Suddenly reality is facing me with clarity
Is there a possibility that mercy hasn’t measured me?


Jesus said:
‘If you forgive men their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” (Matthew 6:14-15


The secret isn’t sinning more so that I am forgiven more
Instead I should be recognizing that my prideful patronizing
Is a sin that bears despising just like those I’m ostracizing.

I understand the reprimand and that is why I’m agonizing.


Create in me a clean heart, Father
I am Your ungrateful, rebellious daughter
I said I had no sin and so my sin remains
Purify with hyssop, Father, cleanse me of my stains.
Create in me a clean heart, Father
I am Your ungrateful, rebellious daughter
I said I had no sin and so my sin remains
Purify with hyssop, Father, cleanse me of my stains.

Come Away With Me

You’re conversing on exertion and you think it’s all good
But there’s a fundamental incidental you’ve misunderstood
In the perfect world that I made, before sin separated
I gave the first man work to do and then I legislated
For him to eat from any fruit except the knowledge tree
The reason this was treason is that wisdom’s knowing Me.
When knowing Me is not enough, you’ve bought into the lie
When you withdraw from knowing me, my love, you’re gonna die.
You’re lonely and you’re empty, so you’re eating from the tree
Just like your daddy Adam, when the bread of life is Me.
You’ve bought into the age-old lie that you can be like Me
Seeking knowledge, good and evil, you’re still eating from that tree
Afraid to meet Me openly, and come repentant, brokenly,
In filthy rags you’re joking Me if you think you can token Me.

I despised the disguise of your fig-leaf lies
I devised their demise through My sacrifice
Realize that your tries aren’t My highest prize
In My eyes it’s My price that satisfies

Come away with Me to a lonely place
Gaze at My face and be embraced by grace
Come away with Me to a lonely place
It’s time to be alone with Me.
Come away with Me to a lonely place
Gaze at My face and be embraced by grace
Come away with Me to a lonely place
It’s time to be alone with Me.


Your endeavor for the pleasure that your labor cannot buy
Slaps grace in the face, this chase of unbelief implies
That My love was not enough, My expiation you deny
When you’re hiding in the priding that you try to satisfy
But the price is supplied, your place is by My side
I didn’t buy a slave-girl--I bought a bride.

Adam was My friend when he walked with Me
Enoch was My friend and he ceased to be
On earth ‘cuz I took him up to be with Me
Abraham left Haran and he walked with Me
Moses was my friend and he talked with Me
Joshua spent time all alone with Me
David knew My heart when he’d groan to Me
Legion, once demoned, asked to stay with Me.
Peter, James and John were at home with Me.
In prison Paul learned to be alone with Me.
The key to being free in Me, in leaving your depravity
Is leaving leaves and lies behind and seeking just to be with Me.
I’ve got work for you to do, and Adam had his labor, too
Priority, I hope you see, is knowing Me and loving Me and walking with Me humbly.

If the stories that I just recalled leave you unsatisfied:
Martha was My servant-girl, but Mary was My bride.


Come away with Me to a lonely place
Gaze at My face and be embraced by grace
Come away with Me to a lonely place
It’s time to be alone with Me.
Come away with Me to a lonely place
Gaze at My face and be embraced by grace
Come away with Me to a lonely place
It’s time to be alone with Me.


When I whisper at the keyhole, “Come away with Me, my dove”
I’m trying to remind you what it means to be in love.
It isn’t like I need your labor, like I’m asking any favors,
Like the world I made won’t run, while you’re with Me. It’s done.
When I come as the Son and the One who has won
Will you be expectantly watching for me faithfully?
I don’t wanna find you on the floor, scrubbing tile
I wanna see you waiting in the door with a smile.
I made you for a purpose and that purpose was My glory
I wrote for you a letter telling out a true love story
I’m working on a place for you to come and be My bride
You should be learning more and yearning to be by My side
Instead you’re seeking liturgies, seeking to please, seeking that tree
Sin’s beginning when you’re seeking anything but Me!
The winter of dead works is past, the summer of redemption’s here
My bride, beloved, cease your tasks and seek Me while I‘m near.
You can work and you can study, but you’re eating from that tree
If you’re working and you’re learning, but you ain’t in step with Me.


Come away with Me to a lonely place
Gaze at My face and be embraced by grace
Come away with Me to a lonely place
It’s time to be alone with Me.
Come away with Me to a lonely place
Gaze at My face and be embraced by grace
Come away with Me to a lonely place
It’s time to be alone with Me.


My love, you’re forgetting that the purpose of your pardon
Is so you can walk with Me in the garden
My love, you’re forgetting that the purpose of your pardon
Is so you can walk with Me in the garden


Come away with Me to a lonely place
Gaze at My face and be embraced by grace
Come away with Me to a lonely place
It’s time to be alone with Me.
Come away with Me to a lonely place
Gaze at My face and be embraced by grace
Come away with Me to a lonely place
It’s time to be alone with Me.

Beyond Beauty

See this fallen world is wounded,
Bleeding, broken, stained and scarred.
Yet Thou knowest all our frailty
For Thy body, too, was marred

Beyond beauty, beyond grace.
This fallen world tore Thy back, Thy hands, Thy feet, Thy face.

Lost in anger, pain and sorrow,
Each wounded woman, each scarred man
Lashes out in tiger-fury
And drives each nail in Thy hand.

Beyond beauty, beyond grace
This fallen world tore Thy back, Thy hands, Thy feet, Thy face.

That first wound that grew and festered
Passed from Adam’s sin to Cain’s
Each single sin a foul rejection
Each wound a deepening, spreading stain.

Until the climax of this sickness
Cried “crucify!” in wounded rage.
The greatest wounds, the cruelest sorrow
Could heal the pain of every age.

Beyond beauty, beyond grace
This fallen world tore Thy back, Thy hands, Thy feet, Thy face.

Wounded for this world’s transgressions,
Scourged to purge away our sin
By Thy wounds our own are healed
By Thy piercing, we are sealed,
By Thy death, the cure revealed:

Beyond beauty, beyond grace
Thou rose and conquered sin and death to heal the human race.

Better Than Life