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    <title>the writer's closet</title>
    <link>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset</link>
    <description><![CDATA[The Writer's Closet is what any closet is... a place to store things.  In this case we're talking about storing songs.  Part of being a songwriter is allowing yourself room to grow and to experiment.  Not every song you write will end up on your next recording.  The Writer's Closet is an effort to provide some stretching room and to express the thoughts and emotions that may not fit into a certain genre or sound category.

Each month I'll add a demo of a song I've been working on. These are rough drafts at best, and instead of being recorded in a professional studio, they are often recorded in my bedroom on my laptop (because its comfortable). I throw them out there to get a reaction and help me to develop as a songwriter. 

Feel free to DOWNLOAD these songs as often as you like - it won't ever cost you a dime. All I ask is that you leave a comment and let me know what you think. It could end up on a future project.  Just click the "download" link in the player.  Give it a spin, Share it with a friend.

For more info on David Herndon, visit: www.davidherndonmusic.com

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      <title>You Got Love (02/09)</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/posts/text/2064763</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The latest installment of "The Writer's Closet" is available for free download.  It's a song called "You Got Love."  Give it a listen, and give this blog a read.  Enjoy!

I won't lie, it feels like bleak times in America these days.  Most of us are more focused on what we don't have right now - jobs, investments, money - instead of what we do have.  Yet, we keep surviving, right?  In everything you read, in everything you hear, you would think that we're losing it all.  But we're still here, and while we may not be "thriving," we are surviving.  Which makes me ask the question: What do we really need to make it?  Are we losing everything we NEED, or just everything we WANT.  There is a big difference.

It is in times like this that I'm reminded of the simplicity of Jesus Christ.  He came to the earth to accomplish one purpose: to provide for us what we NEED most.  And the driving force behind is sacrifice is exactly what we need.  Love.  He came out of love.  He died out of love.  He arose out of love.  He enables us to love.  He enables us to be loved.  Not to sound cliche, but love is really all we need.  

Take a trip to any third world country, and I'm sure you will find that what people value most is relationships.  Before material possessions and wealth, they value families and love.  In their "lack" of "things" they have discovered that love is their ultimate need, and as long as they have that they survive.

I might lose my house, my car, my 401k, but I still have my family and my friends and my faith.  Why look for anything else?  Simplistic?  Yes!  But that is kind of the point.  There are a lot of things Jesus could have said and done while on this earth, but he chose one thing: Love.  And he teaches us to pursue that same, simple thing.  Find love, and you will find all that you need.

For more free mp3's and blogs, check out www.virb.com/thewriterscloset
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:19:13 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/posts/text/2064763</guid>
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      <title>you got love (02/09)</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/audio/402384</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:43:55 -0800</pubDate>
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      <title>church or a brothel demo (01/09)</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/audio/385247</link>
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      <pubDate>Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:13:03 -0800</pubDate>
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      <title>Prepare the Way (12/08)</title>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:05:51 -0800</pubDate>
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      <title>Come to the Cross (12/08)</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/audio/374787</link>
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      <pubDate>Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:02:03 -0800</pubDate>
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      <title>Of All The Things (10/08)</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/audio/350281</link>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:02:44 -0700</pubDate>
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      <title>Everything You Need (9/08)</title>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:17:28 -0700</pubDate>
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      <title>This Was The Worst (8/08)</title>
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      <pubDate>Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:54:36 -0700</pubDate>
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      <title>Pittsburgh - Easton's Song (7/08)</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/audio/316077</link>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:52:00 -0700</pubDate>
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      <title>The Things You Do (6/08)</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/audio/302690</link>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 29 May 2008 23:59:04 -0700</pubDate>
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      <title>Baby, There's Still Me (5/08)</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/audio/302689</link>
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      <pubDate>Thu, 29 May 2008 23:58:49 -0700</pubDate>
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      <title>Fragile and Frail (4/08)</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/audio/282962</link>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:18:39 -0700</pubDate>
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      <title>Morning's Coming Soon (3/08)</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/audio/265431</link>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:35:57 -0700</pubDate>
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      <title>Diamond Ring (2/08)</title>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:28:44 -0800</pubDate>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:46:26 -0800</pubDate>
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      <title>Church or a Brothel Demo</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/posts/text/1016572</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This month's free song is not really a new song.  Its been a full year now since I released Into Danger/Out of Rescue, and "Church or a Brothel" was the first song on the album.  So to commerate the 1 year anniversary, I'm putting up the first demo version of the song.  It is quite a different version of the song, and I'm pretty fond of it.  I hope you enjoy it too.

"Church or a Brothel" is one of those songs that came out of nowhere.  Several years ago I sat down one day just to play music as a sort of release.  I've been in ministry for over ten years, and I had one of those days when I felt like no one got it anymore.  I felt like the church had become a source of entertainment and social mobility instead of a place of refuge and spiritual mobility.  And as a church worker I honestly didn't feel much different than a prostitute - expected to do whatever the customer wants as long as he pays me at the end of the day.  I saw so much need around our community and in our world, but so little desire within the church to do anything about it.  My frustration overwhelmed me, so I just started singing.  This is the song that came out.

Not long after sending this demo to Jason Harwell, my good friend and president of Rebuilt Records, he said we should record an EP.  So we did.  We felt like there was more message to the project than the songs were offering, so I wrote a collection of essays.  We put them together and it became Danger/Rescue.  Then came the big question - what am I going to do with this thing?  

The song was just the beginning.  It was a small shift in my perspective.  Am I doing ministry because it is what I'm passionate about?  Or am I doing ministry for what I get out of it?  What does real ministry look like without the personal reward?  What does ministry look like when instead of paying, it costs you?  I began realizing that this song was not as much for the church as it was for me.  It was/is God speaking to me, asking me, "What are you willing to do to bring change to this world?  How far are you willing to go?"  So about this time last year I resigned from my full time career and began traveling around, singing my songs, telling my story, and asking the question - What's it take for some change?

Now here I am a year later, and I can honestly say I have no regrets.  It has been a great year with a lot of new faces and a lot of lessons learned.  I feel less like a prostitute and more like a minister.  It has not been easy.  There were so many times that I doubted, so many times I felt like I made a huge mistake, and so many times I felt like I just was not good enough.  But it never really was about doing it right as much as it was about doing it.  God has come through 100% each and every time, and He was proved that all things are possible with God.  My faith has grown, and more importantly I feel like I've helped others' faith grow.  I feel like change has occurred, is occurring, and will continue.  What more could I ask for? 

Thanks to everyone who has supported my family and the Rebuilt family over the past year.  You have made this adventure possible, and you have been a true agent of change in this world.  Thank you!]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:54:54 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/posts/text/1016572</guid>
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      <title>Prepare the Way</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/posts/text/986441</link>
      <description><![CDATA["Tomorrow."

I heard the word, but it just didn't compute.

"Tomorrow."  He said it again.  

I guess my face showed that my brain was not processing, so I added an "Uh-huh," to my blank stare.  I could not remember what the word meant.  We had been waiting for so long, preparing for so long.  I felt like the day would never come and now he says it again.

"Tomorrow."

At this point I just started repeating whatever the person in front of me said.

"Tomorrow."  "Tomorrow"

Sometimes I would add different anunciations, making it a question or an exclamation.

"Tomorrow."  "Tomorrow?"  "Tomorrow!!!"

No matter how many times we said it, I just could not compute.

This is what it feels like to become a parent.  The moment I'm describing is the day my very pregnant wife and I went to the doctor for a "check-up" and found out that our first child would indeed be born the next morning.  For all the months, money, and energy we had spent preparing for this moment, I still did not feel ready.  Of all the books I read, none prepared me for the temporary memory lapse that my vocabulary suffered and the bouts of temporary insanity I would undergo over the next 24 hours (I went home and vacuumed the house 3 times.  I couldn't stop cleaning).  

We read.  We cleaned.  We painted.  We prayed.  We prepared.

But the closer and closer we actually came to "tomorrow" the more and more unprepared I felt.

Can you imagine being Mary and Joseph?  Not only were they were going to have a baby, but they had so many other issues.  They are unwed.  She is a teenager.   Its not his child.  They have to make a long trip in the last trimester.  Oh yeah... and their baby is going to grow up and become the Messiah.  How do you prepare for that?

I was a wreck going into the birth.  I couldn't remember anything from any book.  I didn't understand anything that was going on around me.  The vocabulary memory thing happened again, only 10 times worse.  At one point I wanted to tell the doctor to just put the baby back in and we'd just stay pregnant.  

It would be easier to just live in a perpetual state of preparing.

But there was no escaping it.  That's the thing about babies... they are eventually born.  And now the doctor was handing my son to me.  I would hold him for the first time.  No more preparing.  This was the moment.  And as soon as we touched, something happened...

I surrendered.  I gave up.  I gave up trying to prepare to be a dad, and I just started being a dad.  I didn't need any books or any words or any time.  All I needed was to hold him and let him hold me.  

I'm sure Mary and Joseph discovered the same thing.  You don't have to figure everything out beforehand.  You don't have to have all the answers.  All you have to do is love this child and let this child love you.

I hope this Christmas season you discover the joy of surrendering to Christ, of simply holding onto Him and letting Him hold you, of loving Him and letting Him love you.  

A thankful heart prepares the way of the Lord.
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:01:42 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/posts/text/986441</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Come to the Cross</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/posts/text/964378</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The cross is offensive.  I'm speaking of course of the cross on which Jesus died.  It is offensive in every way.  Simply from a non-christian and non-spiritual perspective it is a torture device of death in the cruelest form.  But even from a Christian perspective it has become offensive.

You may disagree and not think the cross to be offensive, but if that is the case I ask you to do a little experiment.  The next time you find yourself in a situation in which you are surrounded by unbelievers or even in a group of strangers, just try to bring up the cross in casual conversation.  Does that make you hesitate a little?  Would you expect to be responded to with criticism or ridicule or worse yet... confusion?  Would that make you anxious in anyway?  Of course it would.  The cross is offensive.

As a musician who is a Christian (but not necessarily a "christian musician"), I find the cross offensive.  I often fear that if I speak of it to much or rather sing of it too much, it will turn people off.  So many people have already made up their minds as to what a "christian" is and I don't want to be seen in that stereotype.  But if I mention the cross, I have no choice.  So often I find it easier to keep quiet.  Often we all find it easier to keep quiet.  

We, the devout in faith, the firm believers of Jesus, would rather keep quiet about the cross.  In the name of being found relevant, in the name of ministry, in the desire to win people to Jesus we would rather keep quiet about the cross.  It could offend someone. 

The cross is offensive.

Yet, when we come to the cross we find the cornerstone of our faith, the key ingredient to our spiritual healing and restoration.  On the cross all that is wrong is made right, the old is made new.  Second chances are born.  Grace is delivered.  Mercy is poured out.  Without the cross we are utterly hopeless and forever condemned to a life of hell.  Without the cross, we are hopeless.

Perhpas we find the cross so offensive because we cannot explain it.  It seems overly simple.  We are separated from the Holy God because of our dreadful sin - sin we willingly live in each day.  Even if we wanted to do better, we'll never be good enough on our own.  So Jesus died on the cross, and now we can be made right with God.  Jesus died on the cross and I can have salvation and abundant life and healing.  We're talking about total life transformation here - shouldn't it be more complicated than that?

We fear speaking up about the cross because someone may ask us, "So how does it work."  Our answer, "It just does," is not exactly a strong argument on any level.  But that is the truth, and that is what makes it so offensive.  One reason the church has so much trouble reaching the lost is because in our desire to share the amazing truth of the cross we have felt the need to make it more impressive, more complicated, more astounding.  In short, we have felt the need to defend the cross - to explain away its offensiveness.  But we have only made it more offensive.

Jesus never asked for us to defend Him... or to understand Him... or to explain Him.  He only asks us to bring others to Him.  Let Him do the explaining.  Let Him do the healing.  Let Him do the saving.  

We cannot understand it fully.  We'll never be able to explain it with any expertise.  All we can do is accept it:  Jesus died on the cross and that makes everything right.

Offensive, but true.



]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:13:38 -0800</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/posts/text/964378</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Of All The Things</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/posts/text/853338</link>
      <description><![CDATA[

Faith is a curious thing. As one church billboard recently read, "Faith is taking God at His word." That's the trouble for me - taking God on His word... believing that what God says is true.

Sure, some promises are easy to believe in (or at least to want to believe in). I like to hear that God says He will not leave me or forsake me. I like to hear that God says He hears me when I pray and that He will answer me when I call. Some promises are more problematic. No one wants to hear that salvation depends on dying. In John 16:33 Jesus promises, "In this world you will have trouble." Its hard to believe in (or even want to believe in) a promise that seems so negative.

I have prayed for God to heal people who were dying... and they still died. I've prayed for someone not to lose his job... and he still got fired. I've prayed give me important things, things my family and I need... and we never got it. I've prayed for God to free from temptation and sin... and yet I still fall. There is what God says. There is what I understand. And then there is what actually happens. All too often these three things are far different from each other.

It makes it hard to believe in God when things don't work out the way I want or expect them to work out.

The second half of John 16:33 says, "In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world." God's ultimate promise is that in the end He wins. Things may happen that are out of my control, but nothing is out of His control. He literally has the whole world in His hands. Sure, some of my prayers seem unanswered or even blatantly denied. Sure I have failure in my life. Sure I don't have everything I want or need. But life keeps going. The world keeps spinning. It gives me fits, but God seems to be okay with it... so doesn't that make everything okay?

One promise God has never made: Faith is easy. It's just the opposite. Faith is difficult. Faith is uncomfortable. Faith is a struggle. I don't know why I expect it to be anything different. It is hard to come to grips with the fact that God intends for us to struggle. I guess in the end it makes us stronger. Faith is just plain hard sometimes, yet I still keep believing.

Like I said, Faith is a curious thing.
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:06:11 -0700</pubDate>
      <guid>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/posts/text/853338</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Everything You Need</title>
      <link>http://virb.com/thewriterscloset/posts/text/807073</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In high school, I once asked a girl's answering machine for a date.  My intention was to ask the actual girl out on a date, but she didn't answer.  Her answering machine did.  Liking this girl was nothing new to me.  I had long been infatuated with her, and I had imagined several hundred times the day when I would get the nerve up to actually express my interest in her and take her out on a date.  Even before the phone call I had actually practiced the conversation in which I would profess my love for her.  Every time I imagined this conversation and every time I practiced it, she always answered.  Now it was the actual call, and her machine picked up.

I was immediately ashamed.  I could see her in her room, probably screening the call with her answering machine.  I panicked and words just started coming out of my mouth.  I stammered around for a while, making small talk with the answering machine, then with no warning - actually in mid-sentence - I said, "Will you go out with me this weekend?"  Then I panicked again and hung up.  It took about 5 minutes before my heart decided not to explode and then I realized that I had never left my name or number or anything.  She had no way of knowing who it was that asked her answering machine out.

The whole experience was so stressful for me that I never tried again.  I never told her it was me.  I went on secretly liking her... hoping one day she might figure out it was me.  If she ever knew it was me, she never said anything.  Eventually my feeling for her disappeared.  I guess thats what happens when you don't take action with your emotions.  

I think it can be this way with God.  Its a scary thing to surrender - to actually confess to another being that you are weak and you feel a void in your life and you will never be satisfied until you are in a relationship together.  The bigger the being, the more frightening the surrender.  My panic with this girl was that she might not feel the same.  She may not feel a need for me like I feel a need for her.  She may not even be aware that I exist.  God is no less frightening.  He really has no need of anyone.  He's perfect and holy all on his own.  What could He possibly want with me?  And if He doesn't need me, then why should I try to pursue a relationship with Him?  It would be easier if He demanded my surrender in person.  It would be easier if He would ask for it.  It would be easier if He did all the work.  Surrender is scary.  We don't fear His sovereignty or His judgment or His sovereignty.  We fear rejection.  If God rejects you, what hope do you have?

Here the truth, friends: God does not need you... but He does choose you and He does want you and He does not screen His calls.  Be in awe of the fact that a God who knows no need still desires incomplete, unholy people as ourselves.  Let that awe draw you closer to Him every day that you live.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:13:32 -0700</pubDate>
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