Blog: Song By Song: HTC Music - Everything We Have Is Yours
Will Herron from HTC Music writes this guest blog for LTTM, discussing each track from their new album 'Everything We Have Is Yours', giving his thoughts about each of these powerful songs.
Everything We Have is Yours
This was actually the first track we wrote and recorded for the album. It's a simple song of surrender to God. In the bridge we sing “Your heart is our home”. When we surrender to God’s ways and plans, we are actually, in a sense, coming home. This place of humility and trust is where we were made to live.
Worth
A danger that we are all susceptible to is finding our worth in something other than the fact that we are made in God’s image and loved by Him. There is a temptation to determine our worth based on the things we own, the people we know or our achievements in life. Yet, all of these things are subject to change. Our worth is secure in the unchanging truth that we are made in God’s image and loved dearly by Him.
Always (Your love)
A song of reflection on and response to God’s unchanging, transformative love. “Your heart hasn’t changed yet, and we’re never gonna see the day. There's never been a love like this, we’re never going to be the same”. It's such a reassurance to know that there is nothing within us or outside of us that can come between us and God’s love. Wherever we find ourselves in life, we know that God’s love for us is present.
My Light
Often it is only in looking back on a journey that we have a clearer perspective of the journey itself. My Light is a song of someone reflecting back on their story/journey and recognizing a common theme that, even in the darkest moments, God was and is their guiding light.
East West
“...our innocence You’ve won forevermore”
It is truly an amazing and beautiful thing to be forgiven. Through Jesus, our failures of the past, present and future are all paid and accounted for. We don’t have to live under the weight of our failures any longer. Not only are we forgiven of our past, we are given the strength to follow Jesus in the present.
In 1 Peter we read, “He personally carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right”. This song celebrates both the forgiveness and freedom found through Jesus.
You Are
Every summer we have a church family retreat which has a party on the Saturday evening. We thought it would be a fun idea to write a track that we could play at the party. You Are is a celebration of our relationship with God and of how He has turned our lives around.
Forever Faithful
At any one time there are people facing challenges in life - whether it's battling sickness, experiencing stress at work or dealing with difficulty in relationships. Forever Faithful came out of seeing God at work in these kinds of situations. He is our guiding light when we are lost, our strength when weak and our anchor in doubt.
In the Psalms we often see the writers reflect on God’s past faithfulness. This is a good habit to follow! When we consider what He has done in the past, it helps us to look forward with hope and peace.
Love Like You
It can be easy to fall in love with the teachings of Jesus and yet never put them into practice. Jesus calls us to love our neighbour and our enemy, and yet to live that out can be extremely challenging at times.
We’ve talked a lot about developing an authentic community here at Holy Trinity Church where we genuinely follow Jesus example in loving one another. Yet, the reality is when we come closer as people, we begin to see the best and the worst in each other. This is the point at which love can go from a buzz word or an admirable idea to a formidable force that continues to show mercy in the face of offence and kindness through every season.
This kind of love is a divine love, the love of Christ. We cannot love like Christ by ourselves, we need His Spirit within us. He leads us and helps us to love like Jesus. This song summarises this in a prayer; “Come, make us like You, to love like You do”.
Nothing Can Separate Us
Perhaps one of the hardest questions to answer is; if God is love, why do we see so much suffering and hardship on earth? Being part of a large community of people means you frequently share in joys and sorrows. This song came out of a season of seeing friends walk through difficult circumstances and wrestling with the two realities of God's love and the suffering we face.
Two of the clearest promises in the Bible relate to God’s unending love for us and His presence with us. When we walk through pain and suffering, we may feel like we are in the dark in regards to why, but my prayer is that this song will be a reminder that we are not in the dark when it comes to God’s love and presence - both are promised and proven.
Will Herron - HTC Music
