KSC’s Blog

As mentioned before, Chris Tomlin’s “new” album is just amazing. I found the back stories on my favorite songs on the album. Here’s Chris talking about each song:

Holy is the Lord
This song was inspired by the picture of worship around the throne of God in Isaiah 6. The heavenly creatures sounding this anthem back and forth to one another.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty
The whole earth is full of his glory

Louie Giglio helped complete the thought with another picture from Nehemiah, where the people joined in a mass assembly, a great example of corporate worship. The Bible says they raised their hands to God at the hearing of his Word, they bowed with their faces to the ground and together made this statement, “the joy of the Lord is our strength.”

Indescribable
This is one of those last minute songs that doesn’t happen that often. The song was written by Laura Story. Just before we were making the final revisions on the record, my producer showed me this song he had demoed with Laura. I instantly fell in love with it because of the grandness and otherness it paints of God. Yet at the same time, this all-powerful God knows the depths of our hearts. Amazing God!

Unfailing Love
This song was co-written with my friend Cary Pierce. In 03, God divinely crossed our paths together. One night, after realizing I had lost the keys to my car, (which I often do) I stayed at his home and we were up all night playing and singing. This was our first attempt at writing together. Yes, God can use even our forgetfulness for His glory.

Your Grace is Enough
The band and I were leading at a Youth Specialties convention. We were asked to back up a guy named Matt Maher for one of the sessions. Matt handed us the chord charts and, with less than 5 minutes of practice, we were playing it live. I fell in love with this song immediately. You can’t hear the message of God’s sufficient grace too many times. Matt is a great lead worshiper and is a part of Life Teen, a growing worship movement in the Catholic Church.

How Great is Our God
Another simple song that started from the thought of God’s greatness and presence. I love how Psalm 104 writes that “he wraps himself in light”. My hope is that it is simple enough to sing, yet profound enough to cause the heart and soul to stand in wonder. I’ve already been overwhelmed from the response I’ve seen from this song.

Mighty is the Power of the Cross
God has the right timing for all things. This song has missed the final cut on several albums now. But deep inside, I’ve always known it was a song for the church and a song that I would record. It was just never right with previous attempts. I had co-written this one several years ago with a great lyricist, Shawn Craig. I love the bareness of it. It’s the moment on the record for me, all about the cross.

All Bow Down
The song that actually carries the title of the record.

You’re arriving with the sound of thunder and rain
You’re arriving in the calm of the wind and the waves
You’re arriving in the glow of a burning flame

It’s a song about anticipation for God to come near to us. And when he comes, he comes in many different ways. But the great truth is that he does ‘arrive’ in our lives. This holy, set apart, totally other God draws close to us. I think of all of us like individual landing strips preparing the way for his coming.