Have Plenty Written by Timothy Welbeck Biblical References: Psalm 23, 31:1, 37:1-5, 73; 119:36; Matthew 6:25-34; Philippians 3:7-9; 4:5-13; I Timothy 6:6-8; Hebrews 13:5; James 5:1-8 Verse 1 It would seem the life we most want is the one we don’t live/We throw fits jonesing to keep up with the Jones/And shape our lives to live the way the Jones live/We want the Jones’ home, we want the Jones’ kids/We don’t know who a Jones is/Yet we cleave to the hope that what’s theirs is ours for us to go get/And when we go get, all of the things the Jones get/It will be the very day that all of our goals end/But there is no end to this most embarrassing pursuit/When I am only doing better when I’m doing better than you/We forgot it’s our possessions that are weighing us down/They leave a burden on our shoulders and keep our feet on the ground/But we lay our covetous dreams in nests, knowing in fact/They hatch, then they go and take an orbital path/Fall and crash then begin eluding our grasp/We may get what we reached for, but we lose what we had/What do you have Hook We have what we don’t want/We want what we don’t have/With you I have everything I need/I have plenty, I have plenty (repeat) Verse 2 I’m told our days are often full, but are rarely fulfilling/Rarely are thrilling, and we can say that barely we’re living/Running endlessly to stack all of our cares to the ceiling/We’re obsessed with what cherish and cherish what we are getting/Forgetting none of it was with us there in the beginning/And forgetting none of it will be with us there in the ending/We brought nothing into this world, we take so much from it/It is ours for a moment, then the generation coming/But we pass pieces of earth, believing the grass is greener/Not glad for what we have, not even glad for we were/Imprisoned in picket fences, we never see and believe/We risk what’s most important for the more fleeting of things/Knowing the richest is the one who has the need of the least/If I have need of anything, I have need of the King/Even when what I want isn’t even within my reach/It is with Him I have everything that I need/I have plenty Hook We have what we don’t want/We want what we don’t have/With you I have everything I need/I have plenty, I have plenty (repeat) Outro With you I have everything that I need/You are the air I breathe, the life I lead/I love you, I love you/I need you, I thank you/For everything You’ve done for me/Lord I give You everything. To read the concept behind "Have Plenty," please visit: http://thepaintedone.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/rhyme-and-reason/

Mr, Incredible Job 16:19, Psalms 37:23, 90:17, Romans 5:3-4, Ephesians 4:1, Colossians 3:17, James 1:2-4, 1:22, I John 2:1 Written by Timothy Welbeck Verse 1 I used to do exciting things with my time, then I went to law school/Where all we do is read treatises and articles from law reviews/Textbooks, and statutes, then we argue too/People look at me confused, like, “R are you happy dude”/You used to have the Word of life spilling through speakers/Now you’re spending all of your nights reading Civil Procedure/A little, Torts, a little Property, but Red we need you/To preach to the streets and help them believe too/You’ve got to teach the Word of God, go and scream it out/Even if you’re not leaping buildings in single bounds/Your days used to be filled with super heroics/Your flow is potent/More powerful than locomotives/Is this really the life you’ve chosen/Sitting behind a desk with both of your arms folded/Filling out briefs, filing a couple motions/Do you really love it, or are you just going through the motions Hook Verse 2 When I tell them this is what I’ve chosen, and I have no regrets/They usually respond by telling jokes that aren’t appropriate/Like, “The only good lawyer is in the grave, then you know he’s dead”/The jokes never end, but one day I am sure they will show respect/But right now it seems like I go through/Because they ain’t joking when they tell us that we’re bogus men/They say we’re shysters and charlatans/Lying to win arguments/They rarely believe this is the field God has called me it/They say my life is devoured by the hour/And I’ll struggle to juggle life outside the ivy towers/To the naysayers, that could be the only outcome/But the would rather me live a life that they could be proud of/And fly through the air with a cape an cowl/Because the super heroes they know, they have powers/But I’m still a super hero, how’s that sounding to you/I just traded spandex and boots for an Italian suit Hook Verse 3 When I would first start off, I couldn’t say I foresaw it all/I just knew the call involved the law/So I dutiful packed my Nissan Sentra/And knew what lay beyond me was a beautiful adventure/The trek was beset with obstacles/Many were foreseeable/Some were the type I could not foreknow/I slept on a friend’s apartment floor/Some of my books I could not afford/Those were not the things I would be stopping for/The Lord showed me what I was getting my juris doctorate for/He wanted another lawyer to fulfill His intentions/Like the founder fathers who declared our independence/Or those who race to the courts when our rights need defending/Those men and women show the law can be your friend then/A skinny lawyer from Illinois bested the secessionists/Another had us believing in the best within/He had us talking about hope/Yes, he did/Even Jesus advocates for us wretched men/If you knew that, you’d probably respect us then/In the mean time I’m just trying to walk in step with Him ©2010

Southern Comfort (Hue I Am) feat. Lisa McClendon Written by Timothy Welbeck Biblical References: Job 8:8-10, Psalm 103:4, Ecclesiastes 12:9-10, Jeremiah 29:11; 31:3, Hosea 4:6, I Corinthians 1:26-30, 15:10; Ephesians 4:1-3; 7-16, Romans 10:13-17; I Timothy 1:18-19; 4:12, II Timothy 1:5-10 Verse 1 I was born by the river/In a land where the vehicle of choice was a [Cadil]lac or Chevy pick up/And the side of the track you were at is how that differed/There’s no need to rehash those facts, that just how it was/I was born to an African from over the oceans of blue/And a southern belle whose life plays the most melodious tune/In a city where blue was the hue that colored your mood/I was in the midst of it all, but I wasn’t consumed/Before I was in a stroller, the church is where I would grow up/And as I grew older it was the only life that I would know of/And from Sunday to Sunday I would learn of His one way/Knowing I would be able to make sense of it one day/And when I didn’t understand, it was good for me back then/Because something happened in all of that hand clapping and foot patting/I drew nigh unto the Lord, and He drew nigh unto me/And that’s when Jesus became my role model, all that I aspire to be Chorus This is my sto-sto-sto-story, this is my song/Praising my Savior all the day long (repeat) Verse 2 In the city that slayed the King who daydreamed/There was a little church where my parents would take me/And afterwards we ate chicken, greens and baked beans/Then talked about what the preacher was saying/The church was small, some times the floors would creak/But we knew on Sundays, through that preacher man, the Lord would speak/And my parents would see, and would be imploring me/Come with us, stay in your seat, and you’ll receive/A blessing from the Lord that will be yours to keep/And in the passing of time, I was sure to see/That this preaching and teaching was leading me to believing/And transformed the rambunctious deviant/Who climbed on tree limbs until you would want to beat him/Into the man today that you’re seeing/Who followed the training of his father and his mother/Living in what I like to call southern comfort Chorus Verse 3 A friend said, “God is a painter and our lives are His canvas”/And I say, “Man is painted in the hue of His grandness/It’s enchanting how God stands and colors in our struggles with the beauty of His planning”/That is how I became the man that you find/So I’m like Brother Malcolm is what I say in my rhymes/Any good in me, you can say is divine/The glory is God’s, the mistakes are mine/And I just show the world the airbrushes of His touches/And tell them how much He loves them/But they say my words are heavy, that I’m heavy in speech/But heavy indeed are the burdens we keep/So when I speak, it’s urgent I weigh all of my verses with heed/That the weight of each may bring each person to their knees and their ear to the streets/That they will hear the people’s needs/And intercede, that they might repent and believe/It isn’t too deep, it’s simple you see/I just want to be used, and get God’s Word out to His people/And if you would just listen, you would know all that you need to . . . Chorus

Ready to Live Written by Timothy Welbeck Biblical References: Job 7:6-7; 14:1, Psalm 8:4-6; 34:19; 88:3, 91: 16, 103:4, 118:24, Proverbs 8:33-35, Matthew 6:25-34, John 3:15-18, 10:10, Thessalonians 5:16-18, James 4:13-15 Hook I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready to live (repeat 4x) Verse 1 I know that everyone dies/But not everyone lives/It doesn’t have to be shawty, but that’s just the way that it is/Our days are swift, they are few in number/Time is running from us; trouble comes upon us/But one of life’s greatest conundrums/Is that we may escape all of its hum drum/And live this life in its abundance/Many have found it, will you be counted among them/Because there’s life after death if you’re ready to die/But the low end theory is the one most will find/Then go and miss the blueprint for their lives/But there is one for all the score outlines/But you probably think that doubt is reasonable/But with all eyes one me, God ain’t what you’ve seen before/But other guys, when de la, the soul is dead/And if you follow that blueprint 2, your soul is next Hook I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready to live (repeat 4x) Verse 2 See the thing about problems is we all have got them/But I know God is still working when my life feels rotten/When I had nothing for breakfast, nothing for dessert/I was hungry with no money, but I held onto His Word/When I was sick and felt like collapsing/The Lord blessed, I got better, thank you for asking/Remember that class when I was getting “Fantastics” and was older than my grade/Well that class I smashed it/Graduated with honors right after I passed it/I really got a ticket on the way to pay a parking ticket/I did come back a week later and found my car was missing/But there was a lesson to learn, and it was hard to miss when/Around the time I thought I had made a mess of life /I broke up with my girlfriend and then I met my wife/But in that time, I was blessed to find I could be ready to live/When I feel like I’m ready to die Hook I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready to live (repeat 4x) Bridge: Enjoy each of the moments you get/Each day is a bonus, each moment a gift(repeat2x)/And don’t you ever forget that everyone dies, but not everyone lives Hook I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready to live (repeat 2x)

The Current Written by Timothy Welbeck Biblical References: II Corinthians 4:18, Galatians 4:16, Ephesians 5:15-17; Colossians 3:1-4, 4:5-6; I Thessalonians 5:1-6; II Timothy 4:2-5; James 4:13-16 “Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.” (Marcus Aurelius) Verse 4 I was in search for the truth, but it must have been forgotten/Or it’s just harder to find than Osama bin Laden/I knew gas was flammable, who knew it’s fire was the hottest/$2.50 a gallon still burns holes in my pockets/But wasn’t that the whole reason we invaded Iraq/It wasn’t to oust a dictator when we created his job/It wasn’t to liberate a people who say we should stop/And their weapons are invisible, no one’s afraid of their bombs/But forget wars overseas/My city has wars over streets/Where the young cats are strapped, and are not afraid to see you bleed/And rest of the country is drowning in debt/Trying to figure out what this economy is about to do next/Looking for answers they’re wondering what scholars heard/Hanging of the words of politicians and astrologers/And relish hell on earth, you can check the thermometers/Because the globe is warming and we act like we don’t know that it’s warning/Of the end of days and judgment that’s before them/But we’re too busy wondering when our burdens will end/That’s why I say, “You can keep your current events/When I go into swim, it’s the current that I’m flowing against”/Because if you get caught up the current, you might be swept away/In the endless passing of events, another takes its place/I know we’re at war, I know we’re in a recession/And the more we talk but it, the more it gets depressing/I know we’ve got much in store after the historic election/But I want to point your eyes towards the heavens, if only you will let them/Before you too are swept away, and caught in the current’s progression

Good Faith Written by Timothy Welbeck Biblical References: II Chronicles 7:14-15, Psalm 14:1-3; 25:8; 53:1-3, Proverbs 14:5-8, 12, Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, Isaiah 55:6-9, Isaiah 53:6, Jeremiah 31:3, Hosea 4:6, John 8:32, 36, 14:6, I Corinthians 13:1-3, Colossians 1:19, I Timothy 3:16 Verse 1 Ahmir wanted to taste death all of a sudden/Eat, and feast on the fruit of destruction/Its just desserts came when he pressed two of the buttons/Death was coming, he would bring it upon them/He will intermingle in the crowds of singles/All he need do is get in between the people/And he knew before the eve grew so very late/He would be blessed to witness a better fate/Wrestle through his shirt and let his bomb detonate/Hurling metal and screws indiscriminately/Slinging the remains of the youths into the street/Leaving his soul in eternity, mission complete/But a funny thing happened when he reached inside of himself/His eye met the eye of a guy he despised so well/And as the child smiled, Ahmir knew he had defiled himself/And as he left, he said this is not how right should have felt Hook He’s got that good faith (good faith), faith, what does he believe in/He’s got that good faith (good faith), faith, tell me what is he seeing/He’s got that good faith (good faith), faith tell me what is the reason/For that good faith (good faith), faith, that good faith, faith/You’ve got that good faith (good faith), faith, what do you believe in/You’ve got that good faith (good faith), faith, tell me what are you seeing/ You’ve got that good faith (good faith), faith, tell me what’s the reason for that good faith, faith Verse 2 Andy’s inspired and he’s got a burning desire/To do each and everything his god would require/Baptize his faith in the fire, no faith other could be higher/It’s the very type of faith his brothers admired/So with hatred in his heart he assembled a cross with duct tape and discarded pieces of bark/And he marched off to finish what he would start/Plant his inflammatory remarks in a family’s yard/And when the sparks reached to God, he would be under the cross/And the flames would show how much he was one with the cause/But a funny thing happened when he got his match to ignite/He saw the horror on the faces of people packed inside/And Andy paused, then looked back in their eyes/And saw the sparks lit the thoughts he intended to hide/And Andy was faced with a decision that night/And he knew if this wasn’t wrong, he didn’t want to be right Hook He’s got that good faith (good faith), faith, what does he believe in/He’s got that good faith(good faith), faith, tell me what is he seeing/He’s got that good faith (good faith), faith tell me what is the reason/For that good faith, faith, that good faith, faith/You’ve got that good faith (good faith), faith, what do you believe in/You’ve got that good faith (good faith), faith, tell me what are you seeing/ You’ve got that good faith, faith, tell me what’s the reason for that good faith, faith Verse 3 You’ve got that good faith, tell what do you believe in/A loving God who isn’t hard hearing on the weekends/Who catches your echoed prayers once they bounce upon the ceiling/Who hears and sees, but doesn’t care about the way we live/You’ve got that good faith, tell me what are you seeing/I’m told we cannot see the forest because we’re blinded by its tree limbs/So we cut them down for a better view in which to see them/Forgetting the handle of the axe comes from the wood the tree gives/And it’s only after cutting that we begin to learn that secret/We say we love God, and hate people as we see fit/We may not ignite crosses, we may not assemble bombs/But when we fail to love each other, that is when sin will come/We pray for the needy, but won’t even greet them when we see them/And tell them the everlasting God is the one that we believe in/We’ve got that good faith, tell what is the reason/When it is housed in stained glass, and no one else can see it Hook You’ve got that good faith (good faith), faith, what do you believe in/You’ve got that good faith (good faith), faith, tell me what are you seeing/ You’ve got that good faith, faith, tell me what’s the reason for that good faith, faith (repeat)

A Black and White Affair Written by Timothy Welbeck Biblical References: Genesis 1:28; 5:1, Acts 10:9-35; 17:26, Romans 2:11; 8:14, II Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 3:26-29, Colossians 3:11, James 2:1, 9; 3:5-8, I Peter 1:17, Revelation 7:9-10 Verse 1 Mrs. Crowder approached two dozen kindergartners/With boxes of Crayolas, bins of markers/Sheets of paper, and the tender charge of/Make a self-portrait and splendid artwork/She needed say no more, my attention sparked up/And I raced to create the images she brought up/Her boxes overwhelmed with their assortment of hues/But I continued as an artist with a portrait to do/My hand found a brown, then I caught a glimpse of hazel/Then a peach, ignoring in consequential labels/I labored over each line for what seemed the span of hours/Slaving to perfect it, I kept on glancing downwards/And while my schoolmates scribbled and played, I trickled away, when soon would come the rants of doubters/And through the clamor it seemed that all they took the chance to shout was,/ “You’re not white, why are you using little pieces of peach/You’re black, you should have drew your picture with these”/To bewildered to speak, I didn’t disagree/I didn’t even respond or try to answer back/I was too busy hearing them say, “You’re not white, you’re black” Hook You’re black, you’re a black(repeat 3x) Verse 2 At an age when most youth seem to prove unruly/I differed from the pack, pursuing approving in schooling/I hung off my teacher’s every word, and I rarely found lectures dull/And fairly soon the respect would grow for the young man with the spectacles/As the kid from the second row who took the best lesson notes, with a keen intellect you would expect to see in adults/Even when the teacher talked about how empires back in Europe fell/I was getting more A’s than a pack of Duracells/And my parents would show their pride saying, “Son you’re doing well”/And I would glow inside just because of how good it felt/My peers would tease, but most times I withstood it well/Until one faithful day a student, he stood and yelled,/”Timothy this isn’t deep, why is it that you read/Your pants don’t dip down to your feet, and you sound different when you speak/You need to get it together, you better start acting right/Otherwise we’ll say you’re not black, you’re white…” Hook You’re white, you’re white (repeat 3x) Verse 3 There’s no escaping it, “One ever feels this two-ness”/Two souls, two thoughts beneath this human/Two striving, two fighting, two vying with two grips/Two warring ideals that peel the hubris/That reveals one voice that speaks through two lips/And tell the world which of the two is truest/Which of the two will choose him/Which of the two is you Tim/I heard black, and thought of the color of asphalt/But I didn’t see how that color fit me at all/I tried to escape it, and it came wandering back/And I lot the name “Tim” for the moniker “black”/But after we embraced, it changed place for a different word/I know I’m not black, because I feel in love with literature/And you know black people don’t read unless they pictures first/And I know I’m not white, I’m covered with a reminder/So torn, what I took the chance to find was/The Father, He is my definer long before the color line was/So I cannot let it concern me, what the world will term me/I let the hours pass as the world is turning/And color my response with this reaction/I am a man of God the world wants to call a black man Hook You’re black, you’re white/You’re black, you’re white, you’re . . . ©2005

Invincible Written by Timothy Welbeck & David P. Stevens, Jr. Biblical References: Job 8:8-10, Psalm 103:4, Ecclesiastes 12:9-10, Jeremiah 29:11; 31:3, Hosea 4:6, I Corinthians 1:26-30, 15:10; Ephesians 4:1-3; 7-16, Romans 10:13-17; I Timothy 1:18-19; 4:12, II Timothy 1:5-10 Verse 1 He was told, “Never pass the day/Without his knees bent and both of his hands clasped to pray”/But today he said, “Okay, no thanks/I just want to live before I’m passed away/And I know that they will take me for/Someone who thought that he was unbreakable/They’ll all say that I have a heart that’s made of stone/I know the way that goes/I know what they’ve said before/What if what they say is wrong/What if this is all a bunch of fables they have based this on”/So there he stood, and looked as far as he could/Looking at two roads that were diverged in a yellow wood/He couldn’t go both, so when he saw a place/He began to pace, he began to say Chorus You go your way, and I’ll go mine/I’ll be just fine/Because I’m invincible (repeat) Verse 2 Sprinting was tempting, it was the most rational action/So his feet slammed the ground in the most rapid of fashions/Click, clack, thud, clack, click/His heart was racing, but his feet moved the fastest/It took him beyond everything he had imagined/Beyond the evergreens, the greener of grasses/Beyond the pastures, and all of its attractions/Beyond everything that was keeping him captive/He became so cold and so alone, as he ran further and further into the unknown/He ran to and fro, he didn’t know where the road would go/He can outside of the scope of the overgrowth/Did anyone know, did anyone see/All of the things he had begun to leave/He felt so weak/He got on his knees/He began to weep, he began to say Chorus I’ll go your way, I won’t go mine/And that’s just fine/I’m not invincible (repeat)

Life is Beautiful Written by Timothy Welbeck Biblical References: Job 7:6-7; 14:1, Psalm 8:4; 88:3; 91: 16, 103:4; 118:24, Proverbs 8:33-35; 14:27, Ecclesiastes 12:1, Matthew 6:25-34, I Thessalonians 5:16, James 4:13-15 Verse 1 I remember the days when I was just a younger lad/More than a decade before I ventured to undergrad/When my days were filled with He-Man and Thundercats/At times when I wonder back, I want them back/Because this life’s not what it used to be/When we were little kids, Katherine, it was you and me/No matter what we down, no matter how it happened/It was me and you, Tim and Katherine/I remember them bringing you home/I’ve got the date remembered/When Mom and Dad said, “You’ve got a baby sister/Love and encourage her when you’re playing with her/And when this life is difficult, face it with her”/Our days were simpler/We would go and play: tag, Mother May I, and roller skate/And ride our bikes all over the place/We let no ray of sunshine go to waste—those were days Hook Life is so beautiful, life is so beautiful (repeat) Verse 2 I remember the days, we were babes, smaller in number/When each and everyday that would fall in the summer/Found us glued to televisions, or wallowed in slumber/Was life really simpler then, I bother to wonder/Because even in days when Happy Meals were in every car ride and G.I. Joe was the way that our day would start right/This world we lived still came upon its hard times/We just only looked as far as the days of our lives/I mean all the way up until ’93, the bulk of all of our sibling rivalries were fights to watch more television than the eye should see (our lives were sweet)/We were still old enough to play hide and seek around the second time we heard the letters H.I.V./It wasn’t Magic, it was closer than we’d like to see/When our uncle told us, “This time it’s me”/We learned that this life could leave as relatives died in threes/They left us within months of each other/Leaving us at home to struggle and wonder/Should we have been seeing those months in the summer/We had no fear of death, but wondered what would become us Hook Verse 3 I’m told the tragedy of life isn’t the pace of its ending/But lies more in the fact of how we wait to begin it/For the sake of making a living, men will forsake that they’re living/And glory in the days that they were misbehaving as children/Looking back to the future/Praying the past occurs presently/Ignoring the gift of the present as flirt on dates with destiny/We unearth our legacy as we move at this reckless speed/Working our fingers to the bone, so it’s in death we rest in peace/Scheduling meetings after meetings, appointments, agendas/We miss the beauty of this life when the point is its splendor/This life is beautiful, and though time is moving slow/It’s still moving too swiftly for any of you to hold/And we say that about the future as it moves at it blessed pace/Knowing that today was tomorrow yesterday/That makes today a gift, that’s why we call it the present day/And of a truth that’s why the elders never neglect to say/”Carpe diem, forget what becomes of what we’ve done/For in truth, life is beautiful, death is peaceful—it’s the transition that’s troublesome”/And it troubles some at last when we prevail and then we grasp/This life is a test we’ll continue to fail until we pass—on… ©2005

Love or Something Like It Written by Timothy Welbeck Biblical References: Genesis 1:28; 2:15, Proverbs 5:3; 18:22; 22:14; 31:10-31, Ecclesiastes 3:11; Malachi 2:15, I Corinthians 6:13-18; 13:4-10, I Thessalonians 4:3, James 1:23, I Peter 1:16, I John 4:16 Hook All of my life I searched to find/The woman crafted with me in mind/And we’d journey this life forever with our hands cupped together/My hand would be in hers, and her hand would be in mine(repeat)/And her and I, we would find love, or something like it Verse 1 I didn’t believe in love at first sight until I saw you the first time/But after seeing you, it would seem like I learned fine/So pursuing you was more than worth trying/I was willing to move Heaven and earth just to say that you were mine/The story short is that I had to meet you/We would cross paths after class, then our other class would resume/That’s when I saw we had a mutual friend/Asked to be introduced, so I could know who you were and then/We sparked a chemistry, it was awkward initially/But the more we would talk, the more I saw that you were into me/And when it came, I took that opportunity to silence my pride that my heart may speak fluently/And declare there was a connection existing between you and me/You would feel it, and I would feel; but both of us feared/Our hearts were calling each other, and I knew you would hear it/But it took you moving for us to discuss what would become of us/That’s when we discussed we thought we were immersed in a perfect love/And found new ways to show it when our words were superfluous/We were in love, or least so we thought/But were we in love, when what we were doing wasn’t of God Hook All of my life I searched to find/The woman crafted with me in mind/And we’d journey this life forever with our hands cupped together/My hand would be in hers, and her hand would be in mine(repeat)/And her and I, we would find love, or something like it Verse 2 Lady, we were in love or something like it/But you would have never guessed from the way that you and I meet/We met through a friend, he said that we would find bliss/We spoke on occasion, our interest coincided/And from there, all of our time was spent discussing the possibility of where you and I went/That’s when I lost control over my legs, and before I knew next, my heels had ventured over my head/And you and I, we spoke about marriage then/Envisioning the day we could do what our parents did/Espouse a soul-mate, and raise up some better kids/Together forever, we were getting no better then/Or so we thought, then we peaked as a couple/And fought to make it work the way that people in love do/But in the summer we fell like autumn leaves, when we saw who we are wasn’t who we ought to be—are and be Hook All of my life I searched to find/The woman crafted with me in mind/And we’d journey this life forever with our hands cupped together/My hand would be in hers, and her hand would be in mine(repeat)/And her and I, we would find love, or something like it Verse 3 You were a vision of beauty, I witnessed truly/There was even a time when I let those images rule me/ I guess you can say we began innocently, but soon after we’d meet, our inner beings linked/And you became absorbed with the portion we had/And for it was a little more than me wanting you bad/You were the type of woman I was to join to my half/And we explored that when we would sit there and we’d talk/And saw this virtuous woman who was bearing her all/What I thought was a contrast to those whose embarrassing faults/Have them getting around more than carousels at the mall/And as we grew closer we talked about what we hoped to be/And I knew you were destined to make someone happy/But I need to know that he was me/So I let you go, though it wasn’t what we would want do/Because I knew one can be to me if that one is the wrong one Hook All of my life I searched to find/The woman crafted with me in mind/And we’d journey this life forever with our hands cupped together/My hand would be in hers, and her hand would be in mine(repeat)/And her and I, we would find love ©2005

Love or Something Like It (Reprise) Written by Timothy Welbeck Biblical References: Genesis 1:28; 2:15, Proverbs 18:22, Malachi 2:15, I Corinthians 13:4-10, I Thessalonians 4:3, James 1:23, I Peter 1:16, I John 4:16 Verse 1 As I searched all of my life to find/The woman crafted with me in mind/To journey this life forever with our hands cupped together/With my hand in hers, and her hand in mine/I believed her and I, we would find—love/ So we parted ways, and went off in the distances/Believing you and I were not a terrific fit/Not knowing the future would hold a splendid gift/Though far and apart our hearts garbed and knitted in/A love that only God’s pen could spin/Soon we would meet again and began to see it then/This is where happily ever after for me begins/With a revelation that came when my searching ceased again/It grabbed me matter of factly/While I was searching for love, God was after me/And once I stopped giving Him half of me/He could then give me what He had for me/And reconnected me with the only lady I should have been pursuing/And when we met again I but knew what was brewing/I saw what God was doing/It was what He intended, what He had already done/Two hearts won beating as one pleasing the One/That is what we have become/Rashida, you mate my soul, you make me whole/You are the woman I prayed to know/I love you passionately, sacrificially/With all I have within me/And I want to do more than surpass all of your past memories/I shower you with the love God has given me/And let our children witness me love you endlessly/As I join in your joy, share your sorrows/Cradle your concerns, and together build up our home/Your price is far above rubies/Everyday I witness it truly/And I am ever grateful that our two paths did meet/I do not know how many days I will be blessed to have with you/But I will spend each moment of each one with the utmost gratitude/To have journeyed this life with your hand cupped in mine as we were passing through

The Way Written by Timothy Welbeck Biblical References: Exodus 15:11, Psalm 25:1-8, 53:1, 96:4, 107:43, 128:1; Proverbs 3:5-7, 14:5-8; Ecclesiastes 12:13-14; Isaiah 55:6-11; Matthew 7:13-21; Luke 10:16, 19:10; John 1:1-18, 3:15-21,14:6-7,11, Romans 1:20, 8:19, 10:9-10, 13:1, 14:1; I Corinthians 1:18-25; II Corinthians 10:3-6, II Corinthians 11:12-15; Galatians 1:6-10; Colossians 1:19; 2:3-9I Timothy 1:3-11, 3:16; II Timothy 4:4-5; James 4:1-10; I Peter 1:17-21 Verse 1 When I ran off to college, some brothers fell into debasement/But I fell into books, you could call it an education/And I would find brothers to debate and talk the day away with/And there was a day when I found such an occasion/When a brother offered peace, he said, “Assalamu alaikum”/I responded, but before my words fell on the pavement/He said, “Brothers are asleep; I just try to wake them”/And he pulled out a book and he started turning the pages/He said, we agree there is one God whom man should place his faith in/And His kingdom is not of this world, but brother there is a way in/And I said I know that, and I know who the way is/When he said it is not Jesus, I had to say that is where the debate ends/We may differ on the scriptures, but we can’t dismiss that it’s His Word/And when I am looking for the truth, I turn to Him first/And my Lord is why I am never timid in speech/I know my Savior lives, because He is living in me Hook He is the way, He is the truth, the life/I’ve found everything I need in life, I’ve find it in Christ (Repeat 3x)/He is the way, He is the way Verse 2 When I was in college we heard of different ologies/And found beliefs others felt were worth acknowledging/And one scholar he, said he had possibly read the anthologies of Kemetic philosophies/”The Crito” and “The Apology” by Plato and Socrates/He was the one who had paid his college fees and felt like he had gotten deep/And as he was talking, I let none of that bother me/Until he said, “Brother, I am a god, god is me/And my brother god is you/Don’t look so confused, the truth shouldn’t bother you/I can even walk you through your book and argue you proof”/That’s when I saw what he was talking in circles to circumvent the truth/So I apologized for not celebrating his power/He must have clothed the dirt with grass, then decorated it with flowers/Painted the sky and made rain fall downward/And hung the sun for light and designate the hour/Otherwise, he is just one of us other guys/But he has been beguiled and believing one of those other lies/That is why as he was talking, that he had to say didn’t come a surprise/But I did respond with only one reply//It had no more riddles, no more parables or metaphors/I will speak the truth and let it roar/Jesus is Lord, and that’s the realest thing I’ve ever said before Hook He is the way, He is the truth, the life/I’ve found everything I need in life, I’ve find it in Christ (Repeat 3x)/He is the way, He is the way

If Hip-Hop is Dead Written by: Timothy Welbeck Biblical References: Proverbs 15:4, 17:4, 18:1-7, 20-21, Matthew 6:22-23, 12:37, 13:13-16, 18:6-7, Ephesians 4:29 Half of a half century now removed/Industry would prove to be the mending glue/Pressing man together in groups amongst the spruce/Holding the brutes, the woodlands couldn't produce its fruit/Overcrowding the forest, the multitudes grew/People sprouting in the thousands, confounding the ruse/Islands of concrete slabs carpeted truth, that man had now forced trees to elude their roots/Swiftly towers scraped the skies, hardening lives/Dimming the Son's radiance, darkening eyes/Even in this time, their came a heartening surprise/A sassafras sprung from the pavement, hardly alive/Dozens started in line, they were spending part of their time, watching the flower grow, that grew harder to find/None believing the seedling was beating insurmountable odds/Of living after pressing through the mountainous rock/So daily, they rounded the block, astounded and shocked/To see the budding leaves, the people found it and watched/The numbers grew daily as the stalk pounded the rock/It never stopped confounding the mob, crowding in awe/But they didn't know they left all of the Son's light block/They just watch the flower grow stronger than anyone might thought/No amount of observation could belittle their interest/They were creeping in, and they were creeping in inches/But they denied the flower the very things that built it/It was weakening daily, and the flower could feel it/However, they never noticed when it shriveled and wilted/So if hip-hop is dead, it's only because you killed it © 2006

This Music Written by Timothy Welbeck Biblical References: I Kings 19:9. Psalm 13:3-6; 27:1-6; 37:1-6; 71:1; 96:1-7, Matthew 10:23-25, 39, Romans 10:13-18, I Corinthians 1:18-29, Galatians 4:16, I Thessalonians 2:14-16, Hebrews 11:37-40 Verse 1 This all started in an office with calmness/My parents heard swearing and some 2 Live nonsense/And now the name “rap” was tainted and tarnished/They came proclaiming, “You ain’t gone listen to that garbage/Disregard it, these rappers ain’t artists”/I had no option, I grabbed their tapes of Marvin, Aretha, and James, I even found Bob then/Stevie and Michael, whatever I could find art in/They were in boxes from our old apartment, and as I copped them, I popped them in my walkman/Rummaging through those boxes, I didn’t know which one to start with/But I would listen everyday, and I knew all of their songs then/I studied every cord, and every guitar riff/The became the soundtrack of my youth in all the years I grew up/And took my mind to places that I never knew/I listened carefully to the movements pass/Heard jazz grow from blues, and soul grew from jazz/I saw how rock and rap took congruent paths/And if soul influenced that, what am I do with rap—it’s all music Hook God, what am I to do with this, when no one else in the world is seeing you in it/And me trying to fight it is oh so useless/So God tell me what am I to do with this music (repeat) Verse 2 Em told us music an alter moods and talk to you/And as a youth, I learned that truth all too soon/When my cousin Audrey visited in part of June/She turned on the radio, and blasted awkward tunes/The music was contagious, it spread over its blaring beat/I moved on instinct not caring what would my parents/Audrey couldn’t help but laugh as she stared at me/Watching it carry its melody throughout my very being/This was music like I had heard through the grapevine/Percussion, bass lines, that people used to create rhymes/It changed lives, from that day it changed mine/I was in love, fighting it only would waste time/So from then on, when it spoke, I listened/To the hum of every drum, I would flow along with them/This music had touched me, giving me no description/Except it spoke to my soul in ways that old ones didn’t Hook God, what am I to do with this, when no one else in the world is seeing you in it/And me trying to fight it is oh so useless/So God tell me what am I to do with this music (repeat) Verse 3 Within eighteen months, I was simply gone/And I would pen these songs with Whitney Vaughan/On the weekends, all that we would know was writing, and we took our rhyming to every social climate/Football games, parties, we would flow in parking lots,/Rhyming in ciphers around the time that Pac got shot/I guess you could say, that’s when I earned respect then/And you had the beginning of what became a suburban legend/I battled everyone, so the praise was due/Even the music, cause it would try and play me too/And hop, and skip, and skip, like a six-year old on the way to school/But I kept rhyming, I kept writing, I kept fighting/Looking for a purpose in this, praying that I’d find it/And that’s when I gave God glory in all that I did/Flowing in His name, knowing this wasn’t my gift/So I obeyed saying that I would do it in faith/And at each place, they would say, “What must I do to be saved”/And that’s when I would say I knew that my influence was great/And I would preach this gospel, I would do what it takes/I couldn’t do this any more to rock an audience/I’m held accountable when all of the applauses end/But at each location, the battle continued/Because of tradition, churches kicked me out of their venues/And when it seemed like all else was about to fail/The Lord, He introduced me to a Malcolm Sales/And ladies and gentlemen, that’s how you’re hearing this now/Because he believed, we are recording this here in his house Hook God, what am I to do with this, when no one else in the world is seeing you in it/And me trying to fight it is oh so useless/So God tell me what am I to do with this music (repeat) Verse 4 I was predestined to spit, I will not shut up and run/Because these rhymes will stay so hot, they’ll burn the spit off my tongue/So I must release, what is burning in me/It’s fire shut up in my bones, it’s earnest to sleep/But they say, “Red, you can’t be godly and controversial/So the music you do has got to be poppy and commercial/Even if you receive the truth, don’t report it/Because the day you do, we’ll make sure that we stone you for it”/It’s like thy can’t hear, and they don’t know that they’re deaf/That’s why I feel like I’m Elijah—no one is left/They’re too busy saving their lives, holding their breath/Knowing that we pause from breathing for speaking, meaning sacred is prose/So in these last six years that I’ve been placed in these shows/I’ve been placing my life on hold for the saving of souls/And critics have been hating my songs, taking up stones, and they hurl them at me every time they say that I’m wrong/It’s days like this, I’m left with nobody, except Rashida, my sister Katherine, and a brother named Kwasi/We’re like the faithful Remnant who get the clue/God exists outside of church vestibules/I make His Word my Lyrix and take them to the restless youth/And stay on a Kwest for Jesus like I’m led to do/And since my Savior conquered the grave, I refuse to bow to death/But I will sing of His praises until I’m out of breath/So you can go ahead and stone me if you must do it/Just let it be said that I was used through this music… ©2005

Written by Timothy Welbeck Biblical References: Job 7:6-7; 14:1, Psalm 8:4-6; 34:19; 88:3, 91: 16, 103:4, 118:24, Proverbs 8:33-35, Matthew 6:25-34, John 3:15-18, 10:10, Thessalonians 5:16-18, James 4:13-15 Verse 1 I told you that, “Everyone dies, but not everyone lives”/You might not have caught it the first time, so I’ll say it again/Our days are swift/They are getting shorter/Because we keep finding different ways we can abort them/And its more than destroying the unborn in the abdomen/We’re not enjoying our lives the days that we’re having them/When we’ve got more boys in prison than are college graduates/And we attribute stats like that to happenstance/That’s while you’ll hear the philosopher say,/”Man is born free, but every where he is in chains”/Because even when you don’t find him locked away up in cages/You’ll find him behaving in ways that will enslave him/That’s not the reason that we were created/You know it’s the truth, and you should go ahead an say it/And sing along like you know the meaning is true/Because the remix to your favorite song is now featuring you Hook I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready to live (repeat 4x) Verse 2 Around the time William Jefferson was President/We heard Who Shot Ya, and things were different ever since/Our kids were “ready to die,” like they’ve never lived/It’s like they want “life after death” because they know its better then/And since they know our days, they come and go quickly/They treat this life like Rick Ross—no Biggie/And you know how the stories go with those endings/We lose our sons in the streets ever so simply/Because they grab the glocks and are not afraid to let it go/And blood spill like oil in the Gulf of Mexico/That’s the state of affairs, and it getting more terrible, and someone’s got to let us know/Cause our life-spans continue to get swifter/Like Dead Prez said, “You can get cancer from those swishers/And can destroy your liver getting lost in that liquor”/We need to give it up, focus on God and get with in His love Hook I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready to live (repeat 4x) Bridge You should sing along like you know the meaning is true/Then call up the radio, here’s the thing you should do/Tell them to play your favorite song because it’s featuring you (repeat 3x) Hook I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready to live (repeat 4x) ©2010