Descriptions of Jay Rinkel's Songs
Any reference to the first person (I, me, etc) are referring
to Jay Rinkel since he wrote this page.
This song is one of the all-time favorites of many -- especially kids.
This song tells the story of a missionary who goes to Africa.
When he gets there the people decide that they don't like him
and they want to get rid of him. God miraculously intervenes
and the tribe becomes converted to Jesus!
This song comes from Revelation 21:1 to 22:6.
The song and scripture are about the place the Bible speaks of
as New Jerusalem. The song musically restates what is in the scripture.
It describes what the place looks like and what's inside the city.
Also, the song says that you must go through Jesus Christ to see this
place. This song is also a favorite of many including the author.
This joint effort between myself and my good friend Nathan Jackson
describes a situation where Christians must worship God in the
privacy of their homes due to persecution. The song describes the
feelings, the concerns, and their need to trust God for their safety.
This song was first inspired by a youth event where the adults
set up an environment where Christian's had to meet in a
dark store to discuss and worship God. Most of the youth probably
were not greatly impressed by the setup. However, I was
impressed and finally wrote a song about such a thing.
Sheet music is available for this song.
This song remains to be the all-time favorite and most
requested of adults. This song simply is the sharing and telling
to others how great Jesus Christ is as a friend to us.
He sticks with us. He walks with us. He wants to talk with us.
He wants us to talk to him. He is there in time of need.
But most importantly he is there always!
Sheet music is available for this song.
This song was originally a poem written to my friend Nathan Jackson.
It was for his birthday when he was 11 years old. He still remains
as one of my best friends. The song was later turned into a song
when I learned how to play the guitar. The song talks about how
a boy builds "toys" from pieces of paper.
Just like this boys builds toys and he becomes the ultimate authority
over what the toys do, God is our authority and he has control
over what we do.
Sheet music is available for this song.
The inspiration for this song came from a hike in the woods
with some friends of mine, the Jacksons. After becoming astonished
at the things God put together for us I wrote this song.
This song is accompanied by a lap dulcimer. It is the first song
I wrote using the dulcimer. It is a nice piece.
Sheet music is available for this song.
This song has absolutely no application to life whatsoever. It
is simply silly. It was written when I was young and became
a "popular" song among the kids in my class. It has only
been preserved because of its simplicity and historical value.
The song came to being when a movie came out called Jaws.
I never saw it. Never intend to see it. Yet, this song talks
about a shark that "Dangered Salt Lake City."
Sheet music is available for this song.
This song was written when I was in junior high school.
The song has no meaning. It has been preserved because of its
simplicity and historical value.
Sheet music is available for this song.
This song is a simple introduction to the life (the gospel)
of Jesus Christ. It covers his birth, ministry,
death, burial, and resurrection. It summons people to
trust the one who conquered death so we may also become alive.
The song stresses the miracles and wonderful things Christ did.
Also see Jesus, a related song both in
message content and musical content.
Sheet music is available for this song.
This song talks about the rugged, sinful, and ungodly state our
world is in today. Speaks strongly on certain issues.
The message is that God doesn't like it and the only way to turn
our world around is to turn back to God.
Sheet music is available for this song.
This song is another song that the kids like. It is an
upbeat tune on the dulcimer. The simple message : Come to
Christ to go to heaven. One must trust Christ as his/her personal saviour.
Sheet music is available for this song.
This song was inspired by a bad experience in college.
I was failing a class. I did not understand the material and
I was tempted to drop-out of the class. I discussed the
situation with my dad. He told me that I should not be afraid
to fail. He told me I should stick it out and do the best I could.
Well, I failed the class but this song came out of it as a result.
The song is about a race and a runner who doesn't do well in the
beginning but works hard to win in the end. I sang this song in a
concert that I did in January of 1996. I sang it as a dedication to
my dad. After this one performance this song's popularity became larger
than I thought it would. One lady asked me to sing it for a special
awards ceremony for AWANA. At the AWANA ceremony the kids heard the
song and one kid has asked me repeatedly for me to sing this song.
The song has gained more attention than I thought it would.
This song was inspired by a friend, John Cranston. One day
we were discussing that people in America think they are
Christians simply because they live in America. People
think they are okay and they strive for monetary goals.
They do great things on Earth only to miss out on the most
important thing in life -- Jesus Christ.
Sheet music is available for this song.
This song is silly. The song speaks of an imaginary world
where the citizens are robots, birds fly with jet engines,
and fish breathe with electronic devices. If you were to apply
this to our world today -- we live in a world where technological
advances are normal. We can do so much with electronics, etc.
So, welcome to the wacky world of Gizmos.
Also see The Wacky World Of Gizmos Symphony
This song came as a result of listening to a letter that
Dr. Dobson read over the radio. He was giving a
"State of Affairs" as he saw it in our country.
He started talking about how gays wanted to be in the boy scouts
and the boy scouts were fighting their legal rights to be able
to reject gays from their bunch. The song asks all Christians to
stand up for what is right and be a light to the dark world around us.
Sheet music is available for this song.
This song was originally written for my brother and his wife
because of their first born son. It is a simple song which talks
of the hope that the new child will one day know Christ and follow
the footsteps of his parents. The song is not gender specific as
far as the "Little One" is concerned.
Sheet music is available for this song.
This song has its roots further back than any other that is still
sung by myself this day. This song was written back when I was
about 8 years old. This song at first was the simple chorus and
one verse. Since then, the song has been expanded to many verses.
Only 6 verses are official to the song. The song is the result
of me wanting and really longing for friendships.
As a young kid I hated to move. My dad was in the Air Force and
we moved frequently because of this. This song is a viewpoint
of myself in the situation of having to move and not wanting to.
The song ends on a good note though my real life experiences
weren't always quite so good in the end.
One day I was reviewing a tape done by the Childrens Bible Hour.
It was a Keys For Kids tape. A story on the tape came from
Isaiah. This song talks about people needing to walk on the
highway of holiness.
Back in 1993 I offered to teach our church's 3rd through 6th grade
church a lesson on the birth of Christ (this was near Christmas time).
The idea was to teach the lesson and sing some songs that would go
with it. During my study, I wrote this song. This song talks
about the birth of Christ. The first verse talks about Mary
and Joseph. The second verse talks about the shepherds who go to
see the newborn. The last verse talks about the wisemen who go to see
him. The original performance of the song used a mandolin
(this was the first piece I ever wrote specifically for the
mandolin). Now, I normally play this song with a guitar or
use synthesized accompaniment. This is one of my favorites.
Sheet music is available for this song.
This is the first synthesized instrumental that I have
ever worked on. I describe this piece as a musical dramatization
of the song The Wacky World Of Gizmos. The piece
is a little over 18 minutes long. This is the first instrumental
piece that I did. Sometime I will work on others based upon stories
in the Bible.
This song was intended to be used during a set of lessons on
spiritual warfare for our 3rd through 6th grade kids. The
lessons never got developed but the song did. The song comes
from the famous passage in Ephesians chapter 6.
This song is a simple folk melody that describes the life of
Christ. It starts with his early ministry at 12 years of age
and goes through to his resurrection. This song is related to
another song The Miracle Man both
in message and musical form. I often think of these two songs
together and I am capable of singing the two songs back-to-back.
The title comes from a young friend of mine. He was 9 years old at the time. His name is Jeff Abbott. I sang this song for our 3rd through 6th grade kids one sunday morning. I didn't have a good title for it (the title I had I didn't like) so I told the kids they could recommend song titles. The next week, Jeff summoned me and told me he had a title for my new song. He told me "Jesus." I was personally was searching for this deep, thought-provoking title. However, the more and more I thought about the title the more I realized just how appropriate it really was. What more could one say than the simple words of the one who died and paid it all for us to know him? Simple, yet complex. An extremely appropriate title.
This song is about John The Baptist. The song came as a result
of studying the gospels. I wanted to read about the life of Christ
in a way that was as close to chronological as possible. One
of the first things I ran across was John the Baptist. So, I wrote
a song about him and his message.
The gospel of John talks about a man who came so Jesus could go home
with him and heal his son. The man had great faith. Christ had never
healed anyone before. The only miracle Christ had done up until this
time was turn the water into wine at a wedding. This man could have
only gone by what Christ had said and done. Christ probably had already
said that he was the son of God. He probably said that he
was (equal with) God. The man simply had to trust in what Christ
had said about himself and act in faith.
I know a boy named Tim Douthit. He grew up in a Christian home and
for the longest time he himself had not accepted Christ as his own
saviour. He said he had a problem with the resurrection of Jesus.
On May 30th 1996, I went on a 3 week business trip to El Paso Texas.
On the plane, I spent some time with God. I am fairly confident that
I prayed for Tim that day. Later in my trip I remember asking God to
save him. During my trip I was asking God to give me a song to write.
I was inspirationless until that last night I was there. This song
came to me. It was written from a new believer's perspective. I
thought it was very odd that I wrote a song like that. When I got
back home the next day, I had email and messages awaiting me. Some
friends told me that Tim had gotten saved and asked Christ into his
heart. This event took place the very day I left to go to El Paso.
I then realized why God had given me the song. Also, a few weeks after
Tim had gotten saved. Another friend of mine, Jeremy Tipton, had
settled his eternal soul as well. This song is dedicated to these
two friends.
This song was written back when I was in college. It has no great
meaning but it is a free verse type of song and I think the melody
is kinda nice.
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