This page is provided so that you can hear the tunes of items which we use in church. Mostly they are written by the vicar. Please note that they are copyright - we are very happy to give permission to you to use them, but we would like to hear about it. Please include any use on your Christian Copyright Licence returns.
Down this page:
- the words,
- the story,
- the sheet music,
- media player.
God so loved the world
God so loved the world
CHORUS with the word "God" shouted
God so loved the world,
that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him,
should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
VERSE 1
Some think the world just came by chance,
some think that God just launched the dance,
some think he's now beyond our glance,
but Scripture says he sees us
lived human life as Jesus:
for with us he has a romance.
CHORUS with the word "loved" shouted
VERSE 2
He could have just sent message-boys,
He could have just sent gifts and toys,
He could have yelled, made lots of noise:
but these would all just tease us,
so he came here in Jesus:
now he knows our sorrows and joys.
CHORUS with the word "gave" shouted
VERSE 3
We all can choose to love or hurt,
we all can choose the clean or dirt:
and let's admit: we all pervert!
But God comes down and frees us,
redeems our lives in Jesus,
so let's come and change and convert.
CHORUS with the word "believes" shouted
VERSE 4
In Jesus we can now believe,
and if we do we will perceive
such joy as man cannot conceive
for God himself can please us
and fill our hearts in Jesus.
So let's come and freely receive!
CHORUS with the words "not perish" shouted
VERSE 5
So here's God's invitation:
he wants to give salvation,
include you in his nation -
the kingdom of our Jesus.
Will you accept, believe us?
Or do you want termination?
ALTERNATIVE VERSE 5 (which of the two is better?)
Ignore and face destruction
in fire and pain and ruction,
the logical deduction
if we let Satan seize us!
Resist him! Turn to Jesus,
and you'll find eternal salvation!
CHORUS with the words "everlasting life" at the end shouted.
Words and music copyright © John Hartley 2008. All rights reserved.
Based on John 3:16.
Story behind the song
I started this song a good long while ago - June 2006 - but for a long while I couldn't really get beyond the chorus and the basic framework for the verses. It's really intended as a teaching song, to teach people the most famous verse in the bible - and to that end it could well be the sort of song where everyone sings the chorus, and then a soloist sings the verse before everyone joins in with the next chorus. The idea is that each verse focusses on one key word, and attempts to unpack the meaning of the key verse ... well, anyhow, you'll get the idea as you read through it. And it would accompany a sermon on the verse, probably with a visual aid.
The tune is intentionally semi-serious rather than profound, and I think the tune of the verse is the weakest area of the song (but I could be wrong). The basic idea is that the key verse on which it all hinges is easy to memorise if you remember it in four lines of three key words each, with a hiccup after the third line.
As always, I am NOT interested in comments to do with balance or instrumentation or speed or getting a better vocalist or any of that kind of thing: it's the words and the melody and the harmony that I'm interested in getting right. Imagine me singing it at the front of a school assembly of 200 primary school children, with a slightly out-of-tune honky-tonk piano, and you've got the general idea.
John Hartley.
Windows Media Player. When you click the left-hand "play" button your computer should have started to play the tune. If it didn't, you might be able to get the tune by clicking here, or by right-clicking the link, choosing "save target as", saving it onto your computer, and then opening it with a music-playing program.
Please remember that a midi file of a tune isn't supposed to be a state-of-the-art musical arrangement - it is only supposed to give a basic idea of how the tune goes. Any reasonable organist / keyboard player / music group could make it sound far better.