Twenty Years of Composing – Grace and Truth

May 27, 2020 By Stanton Lanier 6 Comments

It is hard to believe I composed my first instrumental melody twenty years ago (click above to listen with Spotify as you read). In May 2000 I had a new keyboard and basic studio set up. God inspired the idea to use a verse of Scripture as the basis for an instrumental song. The first melody was titled Grace and Truth from John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

This idea leading to my first instrumental has become more and more profound over the years. Below are a few thoughts about this song, and what it has meant to my life and faith journey. I hope these reflections inspire your story.

Grace and Truth is in the key of C, which made it easier to compose and play. It begins with delicate verse variations to represent how grace is gentle and tender. The chorus is big and bold with low chords to express truth. This is followed by a new grace melody with higher notes flowing down. The truth chorus repeats again. Then the original grace melody returns and ends the song. It became the seventh track on my first album Walk in the Light.

This amazes me how grace comes before truth in this verse. As my desire to study Scripture grew in the 1990s, I didn’t realize my heart was filling with more truth than grace. In the 2000s God began to teach me to have more grace and forgiveness toward people. He was gradually helping me to see every person as He sees them, and to love them with His love, as He first loved us. In my life and faith story grace has been catching up with truth. Today both grace and truth are filling my heart more and more. For many years I lived life with more of an either or perspective, where either grace or truth was the lead story. In my case truth carried more weight than grace. This made me quietly more self righteous and judgmental with regard to others, even though I was just as unrighteous and sinful in God’s eyes. Only Jesus is filled with one hundred percent grace and truth, but He invites us to grow in receiving and sharing both with others through our lives.

The Lord has been so patient with me. His grace is an amazing gift (Ephesians 2:8). His truth is perfect, refreshing my soul (Psalm 19:7). My life and musical journey with grace and truth is woven into all one hundred forty songs I have composed and arranged over the past twenty years. I hope my music and story continue to be a blessing and encouragement to you!

How does the music and inspiration behind Grace and Truth speak to you?

10 Ideas to Live Out Grace and Truth

May 12, 2015 By Stanton Lanier 6 Comments

Click above to listen to Grace and Truth, from my first album Walk in the Light. You can listen to and play the CD or MP3 Album or Sheet Music or hear this song on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and more. What do the words “grace and truth” bring to mind? Fifteen years ago this month (in May 2000), I composed my first ever Scripture inspired piano melody. I had been meditating on John 1:14 which reads, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (NIV). Musically, this piano composition features a higher, simple section symbolizing the gentleness and patience of God’s grace, and a lower, big chord section representing the strength and power of God’s truth. I have thought a lot about this song and verse. The following ten ideas to live out grace and truth are from my journey since writing the music fifteen years ago. In the midst of corresponding lures of the world, perfection is unattainable, but little by little, progress is possible. I hope these inspire the story you are living out… Jesus’s Grace and Truth / Lures of the World 1. Love and listen to people first / Judge people without knowing their story 2. Offer grace and forgiveness / Seek to always be right 3. Create more to serve others / Consume more for me 4. Give generously / Store up selfishly 5. Spend strategically (family vacation) / Bank on the future (secure retirement) 6. Pursue childlike wonder and awe / Settle for more seriousness and less joy 7. Practice simplicity and silence / Overdose on busyness and noise 8. Work at solitude and surrender / Join the crowd and be self-reliant 9. Take one step toward God’s big dream / Predetermine big dreams will never work 10. Abide in God’s purpose to receive / Strive for success to achieve Which of these inspires you the most?

How I Composed My First Instrumental Song

August 21, 2014 By Stanton Lanier 2 Comments

Click above to listen to my first instrumental composition Grace and Truth from my first album Walk in the Light (2001). If you enjoy, consider purchasing the song, album download, or CD from iTunes or stantonlanier.com (where sheet music is also available).

Does your view of others lean a little more toward grace or truth?

I began twelve years of piano lessons at age six in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and wrote my first song at age fourteen in Milton, Florida (after wanting to quit piano lessons at age twelve because of basketball). The photo below is from the eighth grade talent show, when I played Tony Orlando and Dawn’s “Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” (and went along with my mom’s idea to tape yellow ribbons all over my navy shirt and blue jeans!).

With musical influences ranging from Bach to Windham Hill, Beethoven to Billy Joel, and Charles Wesley to U2, God planted a new idea in my mind — use Bible verses He had spoken into my life to inspire instrumental melodies. I called this “Scripture inspired piano” and my heart was to bring peace to the soul and listen for God’s voice. After about twenty years of song writing (piano and lyrics) I composed my first instrumental melody called “Grace and Truth” in May 2000. Here is how it happened…

Grace and Truth is inspired by John 1:14 which says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” This is a great mystery, how Jesus was filled with grace and truth. For me, this is 100% times two = 200%, which is not humanly possible. But this is the wonder of the Gospel, the gift of forgiving grace combined with God’s truth and wisdom.

I started in the key of C (all white keys) and played a simple left hand chord pattern. Then I added a delicate right hand melody to represent grace. The “grace” melody is then answered by a chorus of “truth” represented with bigger chords in both hands. It was fun creating a musical blend of grace-forgiveness with truth-strength, and to discover I could compose instrumentals. I hope you enjoy listening and reflecting on this verse and idea.

Where can you start simple (like the key of C), and seek to apply a little more grace or truth in life?

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” — John 1:14

31 Days of December Peace: Day 23 ~ God is not Silent

December 23, 2012 By Stanton Lanier Leave a Comment

The new 31 Days of December Peace eBook is available for only $4.99. Download at stantonlanier.com or the Amazon Kindle Store.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14

Meditation
Despite what anyone may think or feel, despite what you may have felt at times, God is not silent. Throughout history, he has used whatever it took to reach the ears of the people whom he loved. He spoke to Moses on a mountain so people would know how to live. He spoke to Elijah in a still small voice to tell him that he was not alone and that his mission was not completed. He spoke to Ezekiel through a vision so that Ezekiel would not fail to tell his exiled people that God could go anywhere. He spoke through dreams and visions and visitations, through angels, through a donkey, through his law. He spoke volumes through the prophets, who each received a certain measure of the revelation of God. But their revelation was incomplete. So God, himself, in the flesh, came down. God’s final word to mankind was Jesus Christ, Son of God, the “image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15), “the radiance of God’s glory” (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus did not just speak about God or for God (as the prophets had). He spoke as God. The entire universe belonged to a tiny baby in a manger who would grow up and speak the most important words we would ever hear. No wonder we failed to understand. But now that we do, we must do as Moses commanded: when the one God sends comes, we must listen to everything he tells us.

Prayer
Holy Son of the living God, all the Scripture that was written prior to your incarnation pointed directly to you and anticipated your person and work. You are the perfect fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies that spoke of your redeeming work as the Savior of the world, and of the prophecies that remain to be fulfilled when you come to judge the world and rule in righteousness. It is clear to me that I cannot fully understand your great story without the witness of inspired Scripture prior to the coming of the Lord Jesus. Remind me to regularly expose myself to the whole counsel of your Word by drinking deeply from the well of both Testaments. Grant me the time to read, meditate, pray and trust in your promises found there, and allow me to see Jesus in every page. In your life-giving name I pray. Amen.