John Mark McMillan - Borderland Album Lyrics

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Holy Ghost

Who are we sometimes I wonder
Mercenaries or lovers
On this side of the thunder
It can be awful hard to know

Sell our love for the paycheck or
Spend the night on the freight deck
For all the dues that we collect
Our hearts can be overdrawn

Dead in the water
Like lamb to the slaughter
If the wind doesn't sing her song
And I'm speaking in tongues
Cause I need a Holy Ghost

The geeks they can smell when you're coming
Even out in the cold
They'll wait you out yeah
They'll grind you down
But they're gonna get what they're owed

I know the red thread unravels
I know you're blue and you're black
But there's still time if you don't mind
The way that the odds are stacked

Dead in the water
Lamb to the slaughter
If the wind doesn't sing her song
And I'm speaking in tongues
Cause I need a Holy Ghost

 

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Love At The End

Out of the gaslight
Off the roads we've traveled on
Down by the wayside
Against the sheen of a Babylon

I've seen an empire
Taste the tempest of a gathering strong
But I found love at the end of the world
My rabbit's running
On the street hot heels of Rome
My hour's coming to reconcile with the dawn

I'm on the brink
I'm on the brink
I'm on the brink
But I found love at the end of the world

Tell the reaper
Tell the repo man
I've got nothing that belongs to him
Ruin pushes rubble in the city of sin
But I found love at the end of the world

Out of the goodnight
I was born into your arms
Like you're my country
Like you're the hills where I belong

Out of that goodnight (I'm on the brink)
I was born into your arms (I'm on the brink)
You are my country (I'm on the brink)
Like the hills where I found
Love at the end of the world

Tell the reaper
Tell the repo man
I've got nothing that belongs to him
Ruin pushes rubble in the city of sin
But I found love at the end of the world

 

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Guns / Napoleon

You're sinking all my ships
You're climbing all my fences
The storm upon my gate
The breach in my defenses

Like the sun against the morning
You set your face against the doors in
All the houses where I run
And I'm laying down my guns

And you keep coming on
Like Napoleon
And I'll lose my head and throne
In the bloody revolution

You fill the hollows of the halls
In the houses where I walk
You're hanging pictures on the walls

In the houses where I haunt
You're standing on my harbor
You're landing on my shore
I'm handing down my armor
I'm landing on my sword

On the brink of kingdom come
And I'm standing in the flood
Of everything I ever was
And I'm laying down my guns

And you keep coming on
Like Napoleon
And I'll lose my head and throne
In the bloody revolution

You fill the hollows of the halls
In the houses where I walk
You're hanging pictures on the walls
In the houses where I haunt

[Love can break your bones
Broken bones sing songs
I'm laying down my guns
So I can sing along]

 

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Future / Past

You hold the reins on the sun and the moon
Like horses driven by kings
You cover the mountains, the valleys below
With the breadth of Your mighty wings

All treasures of wisdom and things to be known
Are hidden inside Your hand
And in this fortunate turn of events
You ask me to be Your friend
You ask me to be Your friend

And You,
You are my first
You are my last
You are my future and my past
[x2]

The constellations are swimming inside
The breadth of Your desire
Where could I run, where could I hide
From Your heart's jealous fire

All treasures of wisdom and things to be known
Are hidden inside Your hand
And in this fortunate turn of events
You ask me to be Your friend
You ask me to be Your friend

And You,
You are my first
You are my last
You are my future and my past
[x2]

You are the beginning and the end [x3]

And You,
You are my first
You are my last
You are my future and my past
[x3]

 

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Borderland

Living in the borderland
I don't feel like a boy, I don't feel like a man
In the things I don't understand
Things like love, like the law
Like the law of the jungle

Are we all animals
Are we all animals sharpening
Our teeth and claws
Stocking up on cannonballs
Living like nobody knows
They can't hold on to love
And live by the law, the law of the jungle

Help me Holy Jesus
Won't you show me how to live
I've got monsters at my table
I've got Bibles bent like shivs

Help me Holy Lord
I see the light of heaven's porch
But so many of us are born here
Outside your chain link fence

Living in the borderland
You gotta fend for yourself,
Let the dogs eat the other man
Living in the borderland
You gotta take what you get,
Gotta get what you can

Are we all dangerous
Are we all dangerous lost boys shoring up
Pockets full of fairy dust
Suffering the wanderlust
They all get crushed without love
By the law, the law of the jungle

Living in the borderland
Are you going to fight like a boy,
Gonna run like a man

Living in the borderland
Gotta take what you get,
Gotta get what you can

But you can't hold on
Can't hold on to love
You can't hold on
You can't hold on and live
By the Law

 

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Counting On

When the night stops pushing up the day
When the miles drop me on the open planes
When I've lost grace with the lady of the dawn
You're what I'm counting on
You're what I'm counting on

Where the hounds run
Track me in my sleep
When I can't trust the company I keep
When I've push passed the point of pressing on
You're what I'm counting on
You're what I'm counting on

I'm throwing stones
Up at your window
I'm casting shadows
Upon your door

Where the bombs break
Right outside my door
And I can't shake the onset of my wars
When the stakes are raised
We hold the hand we've drawn
You're what I'm counting on

I'm throwing stones
Up at your window
I'm casting shadows
Upon your door

 

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Monsters Talk

Monsters want to talk to me
No quarter drawn by lawyers on a crimson sea
Weep like willows, break like waves
We are fragile creatures on collision
With our judgement days

Nightbird says she knows my name
But she don't call it out to me
Beneath the rubble like the way you say it
Weep like willows, break like waves
We are fragile creatures on collision
With our judgement days

Monsters want to crowd my room
But on the night the cold wars bloom
You're the only roof I'm standing under
Weep like willows, break like waves
We are fragile creatures on collision
With our judgement days

Your heart smolders in the marrow of the night
Bitter waters cannot quench my thirsty fire
Still, I want to do what's right
But I can't get no sleep
Can I stand beside the way you love tonight
Can I stand
Can I stand beside the way you love tonight
Can I stand
Can I stand beside the way you love

 

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Tongues Of Fire

The nights we spoke with tongues of fire
The days we walked out on the wire
We were young and we were not afraid

The angels whispered in our ears
To tell us what the hilltop hears
Beholden to the promises we made
When we were young and we were not afraid

River waters moved inside
Our bodies like the ocean tide
The spirit swam the hallows of our veins
The years they roared like waves down on

The rocky shores we stand upon
And beat against our banks with iron rage
When we were young and we were not afraid

We can still push up against those pillars
We can light those foxes tails ablaze
Nighttime still pushes up against the sun
Where we grow young and we are not afraid

And you, you gotta find your way back home
Out of the woods
And you, you don't have to hold your own
You gotta find your way back home
Out of the woods
They're gonna smoke you out
They're gonna find you out
Out of the woods

 

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Silver Shore

Billowing hills
Shoulders of steel
Hide behind faces of glass

The street light valleys
The midnight tallies
Recollections of our past
These thoughts of home

And tonight we sleep
With lions all around
In furnaces of fire we sleep
Tonight we sleep
With lions all around
In furnaces of fire we sleep

We're ghosts inside of our bodies
Naked inside of our clothes
We're all terrified of the writhing ocean tide
But our pockets are all full of hope
These thoughts of home

And tonight we sleep
With lions all around
In furnaces of fire we sleep
Tonight we sleep
With lions all around
In furnaces of fire we sleep

We were born on heaven's silver shores
I know it in my heart there's more to be afforded

Did I hear you in the driving rain
I swear somebody was calling my name again

We were born on heaven's silver shores
I know it in my heart there's more
To be afforded

We were made for the other side of the lake
It's more than we can take
The fever's gonna break for us

 

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Heart Runs

Like deer to the pool
I'm coming after you
Like a thirsty animal
My heart is for your love

Like Jonah from the deep
I'm coming out of my sleep
To find the secrets that you keep
Is the only thing worth rising for

From the dirt you've drawn me out
And you draw me out again
I'm coming back from the dead
I'm coming out of my skin

And you are everything my heart wants
Everything my heart wants
And my heart runs
My heart runs after you

Like breakers on the shore
You're knocking on my door
Like the deepest places in you
Calling to the fountains of my soul

From the dirt you've drawn me out
And you draw me out again
I'm coming back from the dead
I'm coming out of my skin

And you are everything my heart wants
Everything my heart wants
And my heart runs
My heart runs after you

(So) My heart runs
(So) My heart runs
(So) My heart runs
My heart runs after you

 

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Visceral

A visceral love runs the length of our veins
As we sit above the miles of pain
Till all of our fears become skinny ones
And from your window I can see a kingdom come

Hearts will wage war, but in the settling dust
What remains at the end of us
Our skinny fears for our cold resolve
When from your window I can see the ages dawn

Cinder and stone (brick and mortar)
Everybody folds (up against the water)
Cinder and stone (brick and mortar)
Everybody folds, everybody folds

Hearts will wage war, but in the settling dust
What remains at the end of us
Our skinny fears for our cold resolve
When from your rooftop I can see the ages dawn

Cinder and stone (brick and mortar)
Everybody folds (up against the water)
Cinder and stone (brick and mortar)
Everybody folds, everybody folds

Memories rust and trophies fade
In the remnants of our glory days
Will we regret the thing that we've made
From your table I can see a better way