The Word: Recapturing the Imagination - by Michael Card
A Contemporary Christian Music Album based on the Holy Bible

Michael Card album "The Word"
Artist:  Michael Card
Album Title:  The Word: Recapturing the Imaginations
Copyright:  1992
Producer:  Phil Naish
Total Playing Time:  40:08

image from the Michael Card website

CONTENTS:

 . SONG
Length
Scriptural Basis
1 The Prophet
5:15
various
2 So Many Books... 2:42 Amos 8:11 & various
3 Then They Will Know 4:25 various
4 Recapture Me 3:04 Ezekiel 14:5
5 Song of Gomer 2:43 Hosea 1-3
6 Who Can Abide? 3:16 Malachi 3:2 & various
7 Through the Eye 4:38 1 Peter 1:12
7a And a Little Child Shall Lead Them (incl.) Isaiah 6:11; instrumental
8 Valley of Dry Bones 3:15 Ezekiel 37:1-10
9 Will You Not Listen? 2:40 Isaiah 28:23; 51:4
10 The Kingdom 5:26 Isaiah 11:6 & various
11 I Will Bring You Home 2:44 Zephaniah 3:20

LINKS:


LYRICS:

1) The Prophet

Reluctant ride in the middle of the belly of a whale
A wheel on fire in the middle of the sky
Abandoned baby kicking on the side of the road
And a wife has died but you’re denied the right to cry

Three men walk out protected from a furnace of flame
One man cries out from a miry well
See a man in the myrtles and women with the wind in their wings
Understand what these seared lips can tell

Chorus:
I am the prophet and I smolder and burn
I scream and cry and wonder why you never seemed to learn
To hear with your own ears with your own eyes to see
I am the prophet, won’t you listen to me?
I am the prophet, won’t you listen to me?

I hold out hope to everyone who hears and understands
The Word of God can echo in the voice of a man
He’s the shadow of a great rock in a dry and weary land
With the names of the ones He loved carved into His hands
(chorus)

The sorrow in His anger, my eyes weep His tears
His life alight in me
I am the sword that cuts His people apart
I speak the Word that comforts their faithless hearts
(chorus 2x)

2) So Many Books… (Amos 8:11)

There is a hunger, a longing for bread
And so comes the call for the poor to be fed
More hungry by far are a billion and more
Who wait for the Bread of the Word of the Lord

Chorus:
So many books, so little time,
So many hunger, so many blind
Starving for words, they must wait in the night
To open a Bible and move towards the Light

There’ll come a time, the prophets would say
When the joy of mankind will be withered away
A want not for water, but a hunger for more
A famine for hearing the Word of the Lord
(Chorus)

The Word won’t go out, except it return
Full, overflowing, and so we must learn
(Chorus)

3) Then They Will Know

I will speak, I will wait
I will send prophets among them
That they might hear, that they might see
And understand how much I love them

Chorus:
Then they will know that I am Father
Then they will know I am Lord
They’ll walk with Me and be My people
I’ll walk with them as their God, as their God

I will strike, I will scourge
And carry out vengeance upon them
But I will heal the wounds I make
And tenderly take them back to me
(chorus)

This is heaven, this is salvation
This is their great hope and Mine

He will come, My own Son
A word faithful hearts can’t help hearing
And by His death, with His last breath
A Father’s forgiveness comes flowing

Then they will know that I am Savior
I am Redeemer and Friend, Immanuel
The God who is with them
The God who gives all He can

He is salvation, He is the kingdom
To know Him is paradise

Then they will know that I am Father
They, they will know I am Lord, I am Lord

4) Recapture Me (Ezekiel 14:5)

Fleeing what I do not know
Recapture me, recapture me
I flee to where I cannot go
Recapture me
The bridge between my heart and mind
Recapture me, recapture me
You come across myself to find
Recapture me

You come and knock on imaginations door
You come to show to
To know You is what eyes and ears are for

With ears that hear but not receive
Recapture me, recapture me
With eyes that see but can’t perceive
Recapture me
Your paradox and poetry
Recapture me, recapture me
You speak one sacred certainty
Recapture me

You come and knock on imaginations door
You come to show, to know You is
What eyes and ears are for
(what eyes and ears are for)
To know You is what eyes and ears are for
(What eyes and ears are for)

Through prophets madness make me wise
Recapture me, recapture me
Through foolish faith open my eyes
Recapture me
With sacred words, with silent words
Recapture me, recapture me
You’re the Living Word that must be heard
Recapture me

Recapture me
Recapture, recapture me

5) Song of Gomer (Hosea 1–3)

Don’t know what he sees in me
He is spirit, he is free
And I the wife of adultery
Gomer is my name

Simply more than I can see
How he keeps on forgiving me
How he keeps his sanity
Hosea, you’re a fool

Chorus:
A fool to love someone like me
A fool to suffer silently
Though sometimes through your eyes I see
I’d rather be a fool

The fondness of a father
The passion of a child
The tenderness of a loving friend
An understanding smile

All of this and so much more
You’ve lavished on a faithless whore
I’ve never known love like this before
Hosea, you’re a fool
(chorus)

This God of yours would not have told
To lift a love that you couldn’t hold
And though time and time again I flee
I’m always glad to see you coming after me

Simply more than I can see
How he keeps on forgiving me
The wife of adultery
Gomer is my name

6) Who Can Abide? (Malachi 3:2)

A mighty storm is rising
A darkness in the land
But surely this must be a light
To those who understand

That all the prisoners of this hope
Are about to be set free
As in one lightning moment
A familiar face at last they see

Who can abide the day of His coming?
Who can withstand the final call?
If you do not stand by faith, you will not stand at all
You will not stand at all

The valley of decision
Begins to overflow
With some confused, bewildered
And some who seem to know

That this sad separation
Was their choice so they can tell
He simply speaks the sentence
That they have passed upon themselves

Who can abide the day of His coming?
Who can withstand the final call?
If you do not stand by faith, you will not stand at all
You will not stand at all

Surely this must be our God
Behold the One we trusted in
He has come at last to save us
He has forgotten all our sin

ho can abide the day of His coming?
Who can withstand the final call?
If you do not stand by faith, you will not stand at all
You will not stand at all

Who can abide the day of His coming?
Who can withstand the final call?
If you do not stand by faith, you will not stand at all
You will not stand at all

Who can abide the day of His coming?
Who can withstand the final call?
If you do not stand by faith, you will not stand at all
You will not stand at all

7) Through the Eye

Through the eye
They must always believe a lie
Who see with and not through the eye
With and not through the eye

You may see what angels long to see
Hear the harvest's harmony
Leave the prison of your shame
Hear the sound of your own new name

Through the eye
We see Salvation has come alive
And only those who will see survive
With and not through the eye

Only the eyes of the heart perceive
That the deaf and blind can hear and see
That insanity's saner than sanity
That only a slave can be truly free

Through the eye
We see our Life it has come alive
And only those who will see survive
With and not through the eye
With and not through the eye

“And a Little Child Shall Lead Them (Isa 6:11; instrumental)

8) Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37:1-10)

Behold a valley filled of bones
Bones on every side
A valley vast, the floor so full
Of bones so very dry

And the Lord did ask
“Can these bones live?”
“Might these bones rise once more?”
What else was I to say but
You alone can tell, O Lord

A legion now alive
A resurrected army
A living, holy host
Of a people born again

Then prophesy, O son of man,
Cry out to this dead hoard
And when they come to life again
They’ll know I am the Lord

And as I spoke what I was told
There came a rattling sound
As bone to bone they formed a mass
Of bodies on the ground

The dead will come alive
Their graves will lie abandoned
And all those dwelling in the dust
Will wake and shout for joy

And then I called upon the winds
Upon these slain to breathe
At once they stood upon their feet
A might, vast army

A legion now alive
A resurrected army
A living, holy host
Of a people born again

Your dead will come alive
Their graves will lie abandoned
And all those dwelling in the dust
Will wake and shout for joy

9) Will You Not Listen? (Isaiah 28:23; 51:4)

Is not He who formed the ear
Worth the time it takes to hear?
Should He who formed our lips for speaking
Be not heeded when He speaks?

Will you not listen?
Why won’t you listen?
God has spoken love to us;
Why will you not listen?

Listen to the sacred silence
Listen to the Holy Word
Listen as He speaks through living
Parables that must be heard

Will you not listen?
Why won’t you listen?
God has spoken peace to us
Why will you not listen?

He spoke a word of flesh and blood
Flesh and blood that bled and died
Bled and died just to be heard
How could you not hear this Word?
Why will you not hear this Word?

Will you not listen?
Why won’t you listen?
God has spoken hope to us
How could you not listen?
Why will you not listen?
How could you not listen?

10) The Kingdom

So near and yet still so far, far away
So close, and yet still to come
Concealed, the seed is mysteriously growing
In hearts that will listen and hear
A treasure that’s hidden, a pearl of great price
A fortune for fools who believe

Chorus:
A kingdom of beauty, a kingdom of love
A kingdom of justice and peace
A kingdom that holds all the wilds of creation
A kingdom where children will lead

For now this kingdom’s a land of the lowly
A place for the tired, plundered poor
Now our gentle King comes in peace on a donkey
But then on a charger for war
A battle in heaven, a war on the earth
To shatter the long darkened siege
(Chorus)

Not by our own strength
And not by the power of might
But by His Spirit it comes
Blinded eyes will see
And deafened ears will hear
The praise from the lips of the dumb
(Chorus)

11) I Will Bring You Home (Zephaniah 3:20)

Though you are homeless
Though you’re alone
I will be your Home
Whatever’s the matter
whatever’s been done
I will be your Home

I will be your Home
I will be your Home
In this fearful, fallen place
I will be your Home

When time reaches fullness
When I move My Hand
I will bring you Home
Home to your own place
In a beautiful land
I will bring you Home

I will bring you Home
I will bring you Home
From this fearful, fallen place
I will bring you Home
I will bring you Home


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This page was last updated on November 20, 2016

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