I Believe

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

2011-12-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

Here's another contemporary version of a Christmas song that I've been working on. This one is of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel". Just like with "O Come All Ye Faithful", if you'd like a FREE mp3 of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" just click here or on the contact tab and send me an e-mail and I'll send you one as soon as I can. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed recording it! Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

O Come All Ye Faithful

2011-12-07T11:44:00.001-08:00

Since Christmas is coming, I thought I'd share with you all a contemporary version of "O Come All Ye Faithful" that I've been working on. If you'd like a FREE mp3 of the song just click here or on the contact tab and send me an e-mail and I'll send you one as soon as I can. Hope you enjoy it!

Help get songs from "I Believe" on Radio Shine

2011-05-04T08:23:00.000-07:00

I recently sent a copy of my album "I Believe" to Radio Shine (90.9 FM in Cottonwood) and now I need your help to get them to play it. Please call 1-888-58-SHINE (1-888-587-4463) and request either "Lord, Listen To Your Children Praying" or "Let My Eyes Be Pure" (of course say by David Lockard : ) These two songs are shorter, more upbeat songs that are more radio friendly than some of the other longer, slower songs on the album (but I'd be happy if you requested any of my songs!). You can call in a request to radio shine 24/7 and leave a message with a request. If you call while Radio Shine is playing music you can make your request directly to the DJ in the studio. Tell anyone who you think might call in a request. Thanks for your support!

My First Press Coverage!

2011-04-07T12:23:00.000-07:00

An article about "I Believe" came out today on the Verde Independent website!

Check it out here.

http://www.verdenews.com/main.asp?SectionID=74&SubSectionID=114&ArticleID=41265

2011-03-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

This is a simple video I made for the title song of my new album "I Believe".

I Believe Song Story

2011-03-20T06:40:00.001-07:00

I’d like to share with you the story and thought process behind the title song from my new album “I Believe”. The seed for this song started through a conversation with a friend. He told me that he had met and talked with a Christian man from Africa who had recently come to the U.S. for a college education. This man, as he was talking to my friend, said that people in this country (the U.S.) don’t really believe in prayer, they say let’s pray for this or pray for that, but they don’t really believe that anything is going to happen. He went on to say that in Africa he had seen mighty works of God come about through prayer. He had even seen people being healed right before his eyes. I was really struck by what he said and could see the truth of his words even in my own prayers.

As I thought it through I realized how often I would pray for different things simply for the sake of praying for them and mentally checking it off of my list of things I needed to do without really having any expectancy for God to actually do something. Is this kind of prayer really useful for anything? Probably not. It says in Mathew 9:30 to “…pray earnestly to the Lord…”. I had unconsciously fallen into the trap of thinking that miracles were a thing of ancient times and didn’t really happen today. It occurred to me that perhaps in the U.S. we don’t see miracles in our lives as often as we should because we don’t believe that God will actually do them. This is reflected in Mathew 13:58 “And he [Jesus] did not do many mighty works there [Nazareth], because of their unbelief.” Sometimes I think we also miss seeing miracles that God is doing because, since we don’t really believe that they will happen, we aren’t looking for them.

With that in mind I wanted to start praying expectantly; believing that God could and would do something in the situations I prayed for. It was from this idea that I wanted to write a song declaring firmly that I believed in the power of God to perform miracles. So I sat down with my guitar and I began to write:

Verse 1

God, You created the world and everything that lives within it

So what is it to You to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to cure the blind, what is that to You

It’s not to hard for You, if we could just believe, Lord, please help me…help me believe

Chorus

I believe You can heal the wounded

I believe You still raise the dead

I believe You can heal the broken hearted

I believe in You, I believe in You, I believe in You

Verse 2

God, You created the world and everything that lives within it

So what is it to you to feed the poor, to heal the lame, to heal the heart that’s crying out to You

It’s not to hard for You, if we could just believe, Lord, please help me…help me believe

But what about the times that a friend or family member isn’t healed or even dies? These are tough times to accept, but we have to remember that God can use every situation to work towards His will and purpose even though we may not know what it is at the time. So, I added something more to the song; something that expressed that I would trust in God no matter what happened, that I would submit to His perfect will even if it was something that I didn’t like or want at the time, because I know He always has my best interest in mind. I came up with this.

Bridge

You are the way, the truth, and the life

No one comes to the Father except through You, only You

So who am I to say what can and should be done

You are the Lord and I am the created one

Ending

So I will trust in You

No matter what You do

You gave Your life and I believe

Your will is what I need

Every time I sing or think about this song it serves as a reminder to me of two things:

1. That God is the all-powerful, omnipotent one who created the universe and as such He is most certainly capable of performing miracles today just as He did throughout the times of the Bible, so I should pray earnestly and expectantly.

2. In every situation He is deserving of my belief in and trust in His power, plan, and will which are infinitely greater than my own.

What do you believe?

It's Finally Here!!!!

2011-03-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

After 3 years of writing, recording, mixing, re-mixing and re-mixing again and again and again, my first CD is finally finished and here!

Priorities for leading worship

2011-02-06T16:05:00.000-08:00

Ever since I've been leading worship I've always had two main priorities that I placed in this order: First, connect with and give praise and worship to God. Then, secondly, help the congregation connect with and give praise and worship to God. I had always figured that if I was worshiping God, then that should be enough to lead other people to worship God. However I've been starting to realize that my priorities are slightly backwards.

I believe that anytime I lead people in worship, I need to give up my desires for the way I personally want to worship God in order to pay more attention to how I can most effectively help the congregation worship God. By doing this I am effectively worshiping God through serving His church but my own personal worship has become the secondary priority and the congregation's worship has become the first priority. I think this is a helpful policy to have for anyone participating in a worship team. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think? Would you prefer a leader to lead with his or her own worshiping heart as the first priority? Or would you prefer a leader to lead from the standpoint of the congregation's worship as being the first priority?

We Will Praise You (Angels We Have Heard On High)

2010-12-15T14:47:00.001-08:00

Here's a new version of the song "Angels We Have Heard On High" that I've been working on for church. I've added a chorus that I wrote to it called "We Will Praise You". Hope you enjoy it. (Watch it in HD for better sound : )

Album Photos With TRIND Photography

2010-12-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

I know it's been ages since I posted anything, but I am making progress on the album. This last weekend at Sycamore Springs I got together with a good friend of mine, Thomas Blackford, who runs TRIND Photography, and he took the pictures that will make up the artwork for the cd case of the album. If you don't know him or his work, Thomas is a great photographer. Here's a few of the shots that he took.

Thanks Thomas for doing a fantastic job and thank you Steve and Shirley for letting us shoot at Sycamore Springs, you guys are great! By the way if you're interested in more of Thomas' work check out his blog http://trindphotography.blogspot.com/ or his website http://trindphotography.com/ . Or if you're interested in staying at Sycamore Springs here's a link to their website http://www.ssguesthouse.com/ .

Almost There

2010-09-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

In case you were all wondering, I haven't been sitting around doing nothing the past few weeks. I've finally finished mastering the 12 songs that I originally intended to have on the album!!! : ) However, I wrote a new song about a month ago called "Have Mercy On Me" that has seemed to have a really good response from people in our church and I decided to add that song to the album. I've already got a start on recording it and hopefully will have it finished in 2 or 3 weeks. My wife said to me, "Until you finish this CD you shouldn't write anymore songs cause you'll want to just keep adding them" which is totally true, but at the same time she is glad that I decided to add this new song because she really likes it. While I'm finishing that I'm also getting ready and planning for the production of the CD itself (getting together the lyrics, cover and insert design, pictures, artwork, and all the legal stuff that you see on CDs and inserts that you get with them. I'm also about halfway through editing a new video that I've been working on for the song "I Believe". I'm getting pretty excited now that I'm finally almost there. I can't wait to release the CD and share it with you all. Thanks for hanging in there me!

Update

2010-08-24T08:20:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to put out a quick update on where I'm at right now with the CD. This morning I just finished the final mix for "I Believe" and have 4 or 5 more songs that I need to make a final mix for. I'm trying to decide now on a few of the songs if they are good enough to actually make it on to the album and I am also getting down to finalizing the track order. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel...almost there!

On another note, I wanted to share with you all a blog that my wife discovered and started reading a while back. I have just started reading it as well. It is called The Journey and the URL is www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com . This blog is the amazing story of Katie, a young Christian woman, who moved to Uganda and has adopted, cares for, and shares the love of Jesus with many orphans who were starving and neglected (as well as with anyone else she is in contact with). Her ministry is absolutely mind blowing and needs to be shared with as many people as possible. I hope you'll take a look at it and read about the love of Christ in action in Uganda. There is a link to The Journey in the sidebar of my blog.

This is Katie and some of the girls she has adopted

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord

2010-08-09T12:43:00.000-07:00

In church yesterday I led the song "Everlasting God" written by Brenton Brown. The verse of this song says "Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord". I've led this song many times and have always thought of it from the mindset of "God will give us strength as we wait to see Him move". Yesterday, however, God gave me a different way of thinking about this song. The word wait is also used as a synonym for serve. For example a waiter waits on (serves) people in a restaurant. If we use the word wait in the sense of serving in this song it really changes the meaning. Strength will rise as we serve the Lord. The more we serve Him, the more strength He gives to us. The more strength He gives to us, the more we can serve Him.

Sneak Peek - Lord, Listen To Your Children Praying

2010-08-04T18:29:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone. Here's a quick look (mostly listen) at one of the songs I'm currently working on for my album. Thanks for watching.

My Recording Gear

2010-07-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

I always like to see what equipment other people have used to record their music,
So I made a quick video that shows some of the stuff I have used to record my music.
Thanks for watching.

Free mp3 download and E-mail Updates

2010-07-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. Through the month of August you can download a free mp3 of "Our Savior And Our King". Just click on the Free Music tab and follow the directions. Enjoy and tell everyone you know that might be interested.

I also just added an E-mail Updates page. If you want to get updates about new music and stuff just shoot an e-mail with "Sign Up" in the subject line to lockarddavid.blogspot@gmail.com Don't forget to add this e-mail to your contacts lists so it doesn't wind up in your spam folder.

E-mail updates

2010-07-19T11:35:00.001-07:00

Just added an e-mail updates page. If you'd like me to e-mail you updates whenever I have new stuff just shoot an e-mail withe "Sign Up" in the subject line to lockarddavid.blogspot@gmail.com

Music Page

2010-07-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

I just added a music page where you will be able to listen to mp3s of some of the songs from the album "I Believe". Right now "Our Savior And Our King" is on the music page. Check back for new songs as I will be posting more when they are finished.

Ringtones

2010-07-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

I added a ringtones page today where you'll be able to download short mp3 clips of the songs from "I Believe" to use as ringtones for free. Check back as I'll be adding more as I finish up mastering the rest of the songs.

My First Copyright!

2010-07-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

I officially registered my first copyright (for "Our Savior And Our King") with the Library of Congress yesterday. That may seem un-interesting to most people, but I was really excited! I did it completely online here http://www.copyright.gov/eco/.

Our Savior and Our King

2010-07-06T18:43:00.000-07:00

This is a praise song that I wrote called "Our Savior And Our King." It is the first song that I recorded for my upcoming worship album "I Believe." I started working on this album almost two years ago and it's finally getting close to being finished! I recorded all the tracks for this song at my house with a digi 002 rack.

Test

2010-07-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

Testing, Testing, One, Two, Three...