Originals: Some of the songs I've written...also found below with lyrics and additional info about the songs.

Recorded live at Wesley United Methodist Church, Shawnee, Oklahoma, worship concert on July 22, 2001 with Chadash Praise & Worship Band. Newspaper article about Chadash

Recorded live at St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church, Shawnee, Oklahoma, contemporary service on January 9, 2005 with the St. John praise team.

Battle Cry of Praise (sample below): Recorded in my home studio. I'm singing, playing guitar, my small Balinese djembe and didgeridoo.

The first part of this song was birthed out of something God showed me about battles in the Old Testament. I noticed how many times the singers and musicians went before the battle with shouts of "Praise the Lord! For His mercy endures forever!" Check out the OT, it's everywhere! Many times God's children never had to actually fight, their battle was won when the Lord responded to their praise. The second part of the song was birthed through a vision of Revelation 4:8 where the four living creatures around the throne of God "do not rest day or night, saying: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!" (NKJV) The vision changes in the end when I saw us, His children around the throne... These started out as two separate songs, written a month apart, but became one song after the picture was complete with both songs together. As I recorded the second part, I could hear an instrument in my head, an unusual instrument making a holy sound without words because there are no adequate words. This explains the didgeridoo in the second part of the song. The song is in predominantly in E, with a few D and A chords - I am using my E didgeridoo (they are key specific) and I only blow it on the E chords.

My study of the book of Revelation gives me a picture of what the throne room is like. I picture color, lots of color. Those of you who know me know I have a love for colorful things; I like crystals because of the rainbows that come forth when the sun shines through them, and I am usually wearing a tie dye shirt. Perhaps this is where my love for colorful things comes from. Jesus Himself is described "like a jasper and sardius stone in appearance" with a "rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald." Rev. 4:3 NKJV. Chapter 4:4-6 goes on to describe "lamps of burning fire" and a crystal sea - and again I picture smoke swirling upwards in a multitude of colors as the light which comes from the Lamb (Rev. 21:23) produces more rainbows as it shines through the crystal sea and the street of "pure gold, like transparent glass" (Rev. 21:21). Chapter 21:18-21 offers yet another burst of color as it describes the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem being "all kinds of precious stones..."

It is something like this that I picture when I think of the throne room...(click the image to view the words of Battle Cry of Praise)

Recorded in my home studio, this is a song I wrote a number of years ago during one of my many times of suffering. It was then – and continues to be – a prayer, a cry to the Lord God for help.

Silent Cry

Listen
(I'm playing guitar and singing)

Lord, please hear my cry, as silently I cry out to You
Lord, please feel my tears, as invisibly they form like morning dew
Lord, please rescue me or I will surely die
For I've fallen deep into a pit, and here lifelessly I lie

Lord, stay with me now, so I won't feel so scared and all alone
Lord, please heal me now and help me find my way back home
Lord, look deep within and hear all I cannot say
Have mercy as You look upon me, Lord please don't turn away

Lord, look deep within and hear all I cannot say
Have mercy as You look upon me, Lord please don't turn away

by Tamara L. Pinkston
Copyright © 1989