Michael J. Tinker has been honoured to be entrusted with stewarding a few stories through song for others. This is one of them.

Hunter was a beautiful boy who battled for many years with a brain tumour. But this never stopped his smile (until he physically couldn’t), nor his love for Jesus. A child described him as “the boy with light coming out of his body”. John tells us that when Jesus heard about his friend’s illness he waited “because he loved them”. This is so hard to understand when we’re in the story, but we can trust the Author. “What stuck in my mind”, writes Michael, “is the story of Jesus and Lazarus and how he waited before going to his sick friend ‘because he loved them’. It was somehow better for Lazarus to die and be raised than for him to be healed of his sickness. Mary and Martha can’t understand what Jesus is doing, and often neither can we. But as we trust an author of a novel to get us to the end, so we can trust THE Author.”

This song was written with Australian singer Tenielle Neda when Michael was on tour down under last August. Tenielle was the winner of the Gospel Coalition USA’s ‘What is the Gospel?’ Song Contest alongside her co-writer Jon Guerra.

Watch the lyric video here.

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I miss the fullness of your face

The spark of light in your eyes

Still your joy it fills this place

I miss the fullness of your face

I miss the sweetness of your song

As the weakness eats away

One day my child you'll be made strong

I miss the sweetness of your song

As we weep and while we wait

Wondering why he must delay

When it's hard to understand

We can trust the author's hand

I miss the lightness of your laugh

Though I glimpse it through the pain

So, to your hand and hope I'll grasp

I miss the lightness of your laugh

I miss the feel of your embrace

But I know that you are home

What I'd give for one more day

To see the fullness of your face

I know there will be a day

when I'll see the fullness of your face.

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ISRC: GBFL62500011

"The Invitation" was written in response to the question: "What is the gospel?" which was the question posed in a song contest orchestrated by TGC USA earlier this year. There were six winning songs selected from over 200 entries across over ten nations, to formulate a special TGC twentieth anniversary compilation The Gospel Is. Neda says " 'The Invitation' was inspired by the passages in Scripture that call us and exhort us to come to Jesus in repentance and faith, and find immeasurable forgiveness, grace, love, mercy and eternal life. The picture of dining at the table with the King, the Lord of the universe, is so humbling. And yet, he invites us, he prepares a place for us, and welcomes us in. The third verse was inspired by the words of Tim Keller: 'The gospel is this: we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope." It has fast become her most requested chart for use in churches, and it's her prayer that it would be a means of encouragement that blesses, strengthens and builds up the body. You can find it on CCLI 7256793.

Come and taste and see You need not bring a thing Come and drink and eat Join me at the feast

Come and taste and see You cannot bring a thing I have all you need Come join me at the feast

There’s a place at the table Where your name is written down Enter through the narrow door Where eternal life is found

Come, look unto me And see that I am good all you who are weak and I will give you peace

Come and follow me and I will call you friend Come abide in me And I will give you rest

There’s a place at the table Where your name is written down Enter through the narrow door Where abundant grace is found

Lord, you know me well How much I doubt your love Are you inviting me? Even after all I’ve done

My child, your brokenness Runs deeper than you know But I love you more Than you’d ever dared to hope

There’s a place at my table Where your name is written down Enter through the narrow door Where unending love is found

There’s a place at the table Where the servant wears the crown and He welcomes through the door all who lay their burdens down You can lay your burdens down Come and lay your burdens down.

Written by Tenielle Neda, Produced by Jon Guerra, Performed by Tenielle Neda & Jon Guerra

As a mother of three, each of the songs on on Tenielle Neda’s forthcoming album were written in the everyday moments of life and motherhood. “The Lord is My Shepherd” was composed and sung into her phone while feeding her daughter in the highchair after months of sleep deprivation. As she read Psalm 23, an idea sparked, and both the melody and lyrics flowed almost entirely a cappella into her voice memos. The track was recorded in a single live take in her children's room, which, just days before they moved towns, was cluttered with boxes. She then sent the recording to Jon Guerra, who added intricate layers and elements that beautifully invite the listener into the song.

"The song came as a prayer from the overflow of my heart - a heart longing for and reveling in the tender fatherly, love and goodness of God. In spite of feeling as though I had nothing to give – precisely because I had nothing left to give, his loving care was so sweet, pertinent, and real to me," shares Neda.

The Lord is my Shepherd And I shall not want He maketh me strong Though I am weak

The Lord is my comfort Oh he is my peace He is my song When I cannot speak

When I’m in the valley, I will not fear. For you are near, To you I shall go.

Into the flowing waters of love Into the streams of mercy that flow from above Into the grace that surpasses all we can know Into the Fathers arms that will carry us home

The Lord is my counselor Oh he is my King For he is robed, In majesty

His throne knows no end, And he will redeem. All of creation, Will soon be set free!

Into the flowing waters of love In the streams of mercy lavished on us Into a grace that surpasses all we can know Into the fathers arms that will carry us home.

Written by Tenielle Neda, Produced by Jon Guerra