This is the first song I ever wrote as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ…nothing fancy by any stretch but it amazes me how that we knew so much of what was required of us while yet babes in Christ. Twenty-one years later, I feel we have only been learning what we’ve known all along, that faith is the key and substance of our walk with God, that we must come away from all carnal thought and participation in order to walk with God by faith and be pleasing to Him.
CHORUS (repeat after every verse):
You’ve gotta learn how to walk by faith,
you’ve gotta learn how to walk by faith,
You’ve gotta learn how to walk by faith,
if you’re ever gonna walk with the Lord.
VERSE 1
You can’t go by your own understanding;
do as He says and stop demanding;
You won’t understand so stop your figuring,
if you’re ever gonna walk with the Lord.
VERSE 2
You’ll have to say good-bye to all institutions,
carnal men’s creeds and all their traditions;
You’ll have to say good-bye to their doctrines and systems
if you’re ever gonna walk with the Lord.
VERSE 3
You’ve gotta say good-bye to mother and father;
if they won’t come with you then you just don’t bother;
Only those in Jesus will you call brother
if you’re ever gonna walk with the Lord.
VERSE 4
You can’t walk by your eyes and ears;
you’re gonna have to shake all your doubts and fears;
Be ready to accept heavy trials and tears
if you’re ever gonna walk with the Lord.
VERSE 5
The most important part of this wonderful story,
the part you must know if you’re to enter into glory,
Is if you start and finish, you’ll never be sorry,
if you put your trust in the Lord.
While traveling, 1975-Oct.’83
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At a time of uprooting and forsaking all once again, my wife was finding it difficult and this song came then. It held the promise of better things ahead as we had always experienced in similar times before. Encouraged, we plodded on.
This satire is an expression of a time oft repeated wherein I felt incredulous and scornful of the thinking of so-called "theologians." They shape and size God, formulate the things they think He does, analyze Him, dissect Him, figure Him all out, put Him back together again according to their desires and tastes and put Him in a neat box, gift-wrapped and stamped, ready to be reproduced and mass-marketed to the ignorant masses the world over who swallow their doctrines as unsuspecting fish swallow bait, hook, line, sinker and rod. By the way, God hates the term "theology." How presumptuous is man that he should dare try to study God!
Twice in my life has the Lord enlightened me on this person in particular, once by revelation without the experience and the second time by a taste of what Job suffered, taking me back to my mother's womb, my earthly origins. It is not our righteousness.