Official As the World Bleeds Lyrics

I AM
(Lyrics and Music: Smith)

I am the light upon your path when you have lost your way
I am the footprints in the sand the ocean’s tide can’t wash away
I am the shelter from the storm that rages on and on
The incorruptible foundation that the wise man builds upon
I am the bread that feeds a starving man upon the street
I am the bounty on the table in the palace at the feast
I am the rain upon the earth after a scorching drought
I am the quenching of the thirst you never thought you’d be without

I am the melody that weaves its way inside your soul
I am the symphony, the masterpiece, the actor’s greatest role
I am the poetry that speaks to you with every rhyme
I am the songwriter who seems to write your life in every line
I am the simple truths that shaped your world from your birth
I am the vast volumes of knowledge spanning all across the earth
I am the whisper of the wind you feel, but cannot see
I am the alpha and omega, first and last, eternally

I AM
You cannot see me
I AM
The resurrection and the life, the doorway and the vine, I AM
I AM
You cannot touch me
I AM
The bread of life, light of the world, long before Abraham, I AM

Lead Break: Val

I am the trusting child whose simple faith is ever sure
I am the parent’s love, unchanging, unconditional and pure
I am the loyal friend whose heart will never let you down
I am the hand that pulls you back into the boat before you drown
I am the thunder and the glory and the blinding light
I am the still small voice that tells you what is wrong and what is right
I am the sacrificial lamb a guilty world reviled
I am the father ever waiting for his lost and wayward child

I AM
You cannot see me
I AM
The resurrection and the life, the doorway and the vine, I AM
I AM
You cannot touch me
I AM
The bread of life, light of the world, long before Abraham, I AM

I am the heart of the righteous desire and the fourth man you see in the midst of the fire
I am the giver of life and the promise of Israel
I am the hope of the lonely and lost in the blood running down to the foot of the cross
I am the breaking of chains and the tolling of freedom’s bell
I am the notes that eternally ring in the music too holy for angels to sing
I am the fire on the altar consuming the sacrifice
I am the three and yet I am the one in the grace of the Father and death of the Son
I am the one who redeemed you by paying the highest price

I am grace and mercy, I am sacrifice
I am endless glory, I am light and life
I am long-awaited hope of Israel
I am longing sated, prophecy fulfilled

I am from the beginning of time, and I am sustaining the system of life
I am symmetry, reason and rhyme, and I am conviction that cuts like a knife

I am the author of order and flow
I am the Father of Lights: watch me put on a show!
I am the seeker of all gone astray
I am the keeper of souls ‘til the end of all days

I am power, I am glory, I am love’s unending story
I am justice, I am honor, I am hope and living water
I am righteous, I am holy, I am three and one and only
I am sovereign, I am faithful, everlasting, I AM that I AM

Solo: Val
Harmonies: Val and Jon

I am humility, the one who laid it all aside
Traded a crown of kings for a crown of thorns, betrayed by human pride
I am humanity, took on your curse and all your pain
I am divinity, eternity, forever I remain

I am your guilty scars, as Roman soldiers tear my back
I am the crimson stain that washes all the souls faded to black
I am the one who bled in silence and endured it all
I am the Word who spoke no word, with a thousand angels waiting for my call

I am your covenant
Your hero in these bloodstained pages
I am your guilt, your sin
Your debt fulfilled for all the ages
I step into your shoes, your substitute
Your sacrifice
Your raison d’etre
Your second chance
Your breath of life
I AM

I am the joy of angels dancing in the streets of heaven
I am the sinner’s prayer for mercy and a past forgiven
I am the lamb upon the altar dying willingly
All hope that was
All hope that is
All hope to be
I AM

 

The Master Storyteller
(Lyrics: Smith; Music: Smith and Hinds)

What do you see when you look around?
In the shadows where you would think no light could be found
It’s there
Pictures and signs in these modern times?
It’s there to be seen if you read between the lines
Everywhere
Tell me, do you see what I see?
Tools of the Creator to tell His story
All that ever was and will be
Is it really hard to believe?

Turn the pages, all down through the ages
See the Master Storyteller bring His masterpiece alive
All the shadowed glimpses, scattered fingerprints align
And tie the threads together to the Architect of Life
Turn the page, the story is alive

Everything good comes from above
Every picture of grace and sacrifice and love
It’s Him
Music that makes your spirit fly
It’s His signature painted right across the sky again
I can see His hand everywhere
Even in the dark it’s so obvious He’s there
It’s really not a surprise
If you only open your eyes

Solo: Jon

Turn the page, the story is a masterpiece of faith and reason
Turn the page, the story is alive

 

Nailed
(Lyrics: Smith; Music: Smith and Wood)

I’ve been working for my whole life to get to the other side
And try to achieve true righteousness
All the scourges and whips I cracked
The flesh I ripped off my back
It only led me to emptiness

Here I am, a broken man who’s done all that a man could do
And found that it’s only filthy rags
Monasteries, religious schools, indulgences, laws and rules
It all added up to nothing and darkness and death
Vanity, Heartache, and emptiness
Efforts all fading away
The flesh and defeat that it brings
‘Till You guide me and show me things
That my eyes have never seen before
As I burst forth from the belly of the beast
Never fight it anymore
For the burden on my life has been released
Nail it to the door

Solo: Val

Nailed these ninety-five things I’ve learned
They’ll say that I must be burned
For God has no place for heretics
All the things that they try to sell
It’s trickery straight from Hell
To turn it into a den of thieves

See these madmen peddling the wares of dead men’s souls
Collecting on a debt already paid so long ago
There’s fire in my spirit, and fire in their eyes
For now they’ll want to burn me alive
Yet freedom rings
Unworthiness is all I bring
The blood of Christ is all I claim
This grace revealed everything
That my eyes have never seen before
As I burst forth from the belly of the beast
Never fight it anymore
For the burden on my life has been released
Nail it to the door

Solo: Val

 

Hide in the Fairytale
(Lyrics and Music: Smith)

A child in sweet duplicity
For innocence? Or slavery to nature
And the bents that haunt him straight out of the womb?
He doesn’t have to learn the things unseemly that his instinct brings
To carry like a burden from the cradle to the tomb
You’ll never have to teach him how to lie
If we are born in innocence, well, don’t you wonder why?
For selfishness already dwells inside
The birthright of Adam, the curse of the old man

Day and night
Jekyll and Hyde in the fairytale
This is much more frightening
Darkness and light
Feed the new man and tear the veil
See the old man dying

Behold the loving family man
Who tries to do the best he can
And loves his wife and children even more than his own life
But just like that, a wandering eye leads to a suffocating lie
And selfishness and deep betrayal cuts them like a knife
If mankind doesn’t have a sinful drive
Then tell me why he’d wreck his life to get some on the side?
The warring of two natures deep inside
Starving the new keeps the old man alive

Soulsickness nailed to a cross

Solo: Jon
Solo: Val
Harmonies: Val and Jon

Humankind in innocence, a lie so thinly veiled
Man born without Soulsickness: this is the fairytale
Hide in the fairytale

 

The Gift of Music
(Lyrics: Smith; Music: Smith and Wood)

Close your eyes, you little dreamers
Numbered as the grains of sand
Do you believe there is a treasure you can’t hold in your hand?
Stewards of My great Creation
I will give this gift to you
A language that can speak your heart when words could never do

The melodies will give you wings to fly above creation
Whenever you can’t find the words to say
So My child, I give this gift to you and all the nations
So you can give it back to Me one day

See the child, ashamed and broken
Words can never come out right
Dreams of failure dance in his head every single night
But twelve words in a simple language suddenly make sense somehow
That little boy, once shy and awkward, stands before you now

Music is Your masterpiece, Your signature and smile
The glorious crown jewel of all Creation
Gave a voice and sense of wonder to this lonely child
Whose melodies ring forth Your coronation now

Instrumental Section
Solo: Val

And the strings crescendo like the sunrise in the sky
The percussion section thunders like the stormclouds
In their wonder up on high
The brass is roaring like the mighty ocean’s tide
Creation is music, and music is creation
All the earth, a symphony of balanced majesty
All of life, a melody with four-part harmony
The rhythms march in great complexity
Creation is music, and music is creation, let it sing

 

30 Pieces of Silver
(Lyrics: Smith; Music: Smith and Benson)

What’s the bottom line?
Or what’s the price I’d take to leave it all behind?
To trade a cross of shame for glory of mankind
To sell a crown of life for pennies on the dime
And trade eternity for one moment in time

For if the key to life is right here in my hand
Why would I trade it for an hourglass of sand?
Or choose the riches of this mortal coil
Forego the incorruptible for praises of man

All the treasure in the world so blinding
30 pieces of silver shining
Tell me what’s the price you seek
To place the kiss of death upon His cheek?
Blood money and the serpent winding
30 pieces of silver shining
Treasure fades away
What a price to pay anyway

What’s the price you’ve named?
Well is it money, power, acceptance, or fame?
And will you sell out for a temporary gain
Or dare to stand up undeterred and unashamed
And let the glory fall to whomever it may?

When all the world is asking you to sell your soul
And to deny the cross for silver and for gold
The kiss of Judas or the bended knee?
Vainglory or humility?
The ultimate goal

All the treasure in the world so blinding
30 pieces of silver shining
Tell me what’s the price you seek
To place the kiss of death upon His cheek?
Blood money and the serpent winding
30 pieces of silver shining
Treasure fades away
Sold out for the price of slave

Solo: Val

Treasure blinding
Silver shining
Redefining

 

Drown
(Lyrics and Music: Smith)

I see a ghost, a spirit
Walking on the water
He bids me come to Him
Without a boat
To walk upon the sea

So I jump over the edge
And take a step upon the water
I’m getting closer
As I feel the sea move
Underneath my feet

I feel the wind and hear
The roar of waves
That crash around me
And when they get their hold on me
I feel I’m going down
Please don’t let me drown

Like Peter all those years ago
Who looked away and sank below
When I sink in seas of doubt
Will You take my hand and pull me out?
The devil and the deep blue sea
With open arms awaiting me
But I won’t go down tonight
If I keep my eyes on You, I’ll be alright

God, the storms are heavy
And the waves have beaten me down
And the winds have turned me
Every which way
Round and round and round

It’s so hard to focus
But I don’t want to look away
Even when the waves grow higher
Every day
Higher every day

Waves and whirlwinds turn my eyes
Raging under threatening skies
The miracles of yesterday
Can sometimes seem so far away
Oh we of little faith, how quickly we forget

Solo: Val

Tired and battered by the waves
Won’t let the waters be my grave
Devotion deeper than the sea
The ocean’s tide won’t swallow me
A hand is reaching
I grab it and rise

 

Altar to the Unknown God
(Lyrics by Smith; Music by Smith and Wood)

Build a fire and fan the flame
Sacrifice without a name
Offerings on the altar to the unknown god

Multitudes of gods cover our landscapes and our lives
Images of deities and halls of sacrifice
Philosophers and scholars and sophisticates we are
Our gods are our religion and religion is our god

A stranger came to town one day
And fearlessly proclaimed
“The unknown god you worship
On this altar has a name”
He said, “This god is not an image
Or a statue of the dead
In Him we live and have our being
As your own poets have said”

Build a fire and fan the flame
Sacrifice without a name
Offerings on the altar to the unknown god
Dance around the altar blaze
Brings the works your hands have made
Place them on the altar to the unknown god

He dwells not in temples
Built by human hands
He needs no assistance
Or service of man
The nameless you worship
Is greater than all
Your idols of death
Never answer your call
All nations He formed
From the flesh of one man
He marked out their times
And the boundaries of lands
Your life and your breath
He bestows with the day
So seek Him and find Him
For He is not far away

Fire upon the altar
Burns the sacrifice
Sacrificial lamb was slain to pay the final price
Come, ye heavy laden
Sinner’s mercy cry
The unknown God your call upon is nigh

Gather ‘round the altar
Stoke the holy fire
Purifying flames of righteousness
Are rising higher
Come ye hungry, eat the bread of life
And drink the wine
Altar to the living God divine

Solo: Val

No image of stone or of silver and gold
No effigy mankind has raised to behold
The day and the hour of judgment is set
He’s proven Him by the resurrection of the dead

Build a fire and fan the flame
Sacrifice without a name
Offerings on the altar to the unknown god
Stand before the altar blaze
Bring the lives His hands have made
Place them on the altar to the one true god
Your unknown god
Is the one living God

 

Light of the World
(Lyrics and Music: Smith)

So the candle’s gone out, it’s been soaked by the rain
And the cold winds of doubt have extinguished the flame
The lighthouse sits idly in darkness again
As the ship sails ocean alone
The sun’s frozen over and all has gone cold
And the fires of the past have been bought and then sold
And the light on the porch is abandoned and old
So the child cannot find his way home

Arisen
Forbidden
We keep our candles hidden
Born leaders
That follow, floating with the tide

“You are the light of the world,” He said
But we’ve blown out our candles
And left men for dead
Singing “we are the light of the world, He said”
As the darkness descends on us all
If we were the light of the world today
Would we hide in the shadows
And scare them away?
Are we the light of the world
Or are we failing to answer the call?

Lead Break: Val

Men love the darkness
Much more than the light
For their deeds can be kept out of mind
Out of sight
And the line has eroded
Between wrong and right
Like it’s all relative after all
To stand like a wall and resist the temptation
To sell ourselves out
For hollow acclimation
And cheapen the message
A weakened foundation
Revealing the cracks in the wall

No power
No glory
No one to tell their story
No wonder
It’s all unraveling

“You are the light of the world,” He said
But we’ve blown out our candles
And left men for dead
Singing “we are the light of the world, He said”
As the darkness descends on us all
If we were the light of the world today
Would we hide in the shadows and just look away?
Are we the light of the world
Or are we failing to answer the call?

Solo: Val

To lift up the fallen
To stand for the downtrodden
The poor and the hurting
Are our ministry

“You are the light of the world,” He said
But we’ve blown out our candles
And left men for dead
Singing “we are the light of the world, He said”
As the darkness descends on us all
If we were the light of the world today
Would we hide in the shadows and darken the way?
Are we the light of the world
Or are we failing to answer the call?

 

As the World Bleeds
(Lyrics: Smith; Music: Smith and Wood)

Why do we only call Your name when there’s no one else to call?
And we only really seek You when our mighty towers fall
Why do we say You’ve failed us and You’ve turned Your eyes away
When we’re only sleeping in the bed we made?

Why do we call for free will, but reject all consequence?
Why’s the path we’ve made to Heaven stained with the blood of innocence?
Why’d we ignore the warnings that we’ve read and always known
And get angry when we reap the things we’ve sown?

So we blame You
‘Cause our world’s not come out right
While the devil’s masquerading
As an angel of the light
Just imagine
All the pride and all the nerve
To ask where You’ve been, when we’re the ones we serve

It’s not a mystery, it’s been foretold
But we ignored the warning bell so long ago
There’s a way that seems right unto men, but we’ll die with the wages of sin

As the world lies bleeding
The giant is no longer sleeping
Poisoned harvest reaping
Blindly we just carry on, but the glory is gone
Gone

We live our lives like we could care less what You have to say
Then curse the skies when You don’t come clean up the ugly mess we’ve made
But You gave us a choice and we made it and dug ourselves into a hole
We always thought we knew the way despite the things You said
We just ignored the pile of bodies and the bloodstains on the bed
Painting ourselves right into a corner as life spiraled out of control

As the world lies bleeding
The giant is no longer sleeping
All we’ve sown now reaping
Blindly we just carry on, but the glory is gone

See us – Our promised land of milk and honey
Became a land of filth and money
Like Babylon and Rome before
A land of greed and sin and guilt, a stained and scarlet whore
See us – Living in our ivory towers
Self-appointed kings with no power
Built a monument to man
We’re passing down empty decrees like a disease across the land

Solo: Val

This is the system we’ve created
This is the world so devastated
This is what it looks like when mankind asks You to just leave us alone
This is the monster now awakened
This is our legacy creation
This is the place we end up when we say that we can do this on our own

This is our masterpiece: corruption
This is our monument: destruction
Game point of life and death, the nadir of existence painted black
This is the road the Hell we’ve wandered
This is inheritance we’ve squandered
So raise a glass to all we’ve lost and wonder if we’ll ever get it back

Nations calling “Our will be done, mankind answers to no one”
But now it has begun – In death, our sin hath borne a son

Please forgive us for we’ve only made it worse
Even after You had warned us
Sin would only bring a curse
Guess we knew better so we went a different way
Now we’re only sleeping in the bed we made

All the glory and the power left this place
When we turned our backs upon You
And chose to live in our disgrace
But You warned us
And You let us have our way
Now we’re only drowning in the mess we made

Blood on our hands

 

I typed what the booklet said verbatum (except the credits, the last page said "all lyrics by Matt Smith" so I assumed the credits on the individual songs were who wrote the music), and the booklet included solo, lead, and harmonization credits. Odd, since just last week someone wondered who did what. The booklet was obviously printed before they asked, so it's really cool that it answers that question.

 

Shawn's been with the band for 7 years and Jared's the new guy, and still getting a feel for the specific nuances that make a Theocracy song. Shawn's been playing all of them for years, so he knows the ins and outs. Plus, he got pregnant on the song it gives him credit for, so that actually may be why.