You took a break from recording and stepped away and you’re back now. I know all of the fans are excited. We’ve got 19 cuts on The Restoration. Where’s that title come from? Is that the whole theme of the project, or is that a personal theme?
Good question. The answer is yes to both of those questions. Restoration comes from seeing it in the word, understanding that the gospel is God’s restoration of messed up people. Before I got married I thought I was a pretty Godly guy, as a lot of us single guys thought of ourselves. Coming into marriage has really showed me the real me, so to speak.
But God didn’t leave me there after showing me my deep need for Him. He showed me that what Christ has done at the cross in taking all our sin, it’s Him earning the perfect right standing that only He could ever have earned on our behalf. His blood covering our sin and His resurrection, restoring us from the power of sin and death.
What Christ has done in the gospel is enough for the most messed up people, and that’s me. The Restoration CD is just to point believers and unbelievers to the gospel of Christ, to feed off of what Jesus has done, how it really frees us to begin to love Him and enjoy Him and love others and then go and spread His restoration grace, as Christ is in the process of restoring this broken world.
Talk about the songs on The Restoration. You did team up with Shai Linne for a couple of cuts on the project. We’ve got “I’m the Problem.” It’s pretty straightforward right there, isn’t it?
It is. That song is a challenge for us to stop blame shifting. It’s easy in marriage to see your spouse’s sins , especially when you have children. But really, even when other people around us have sinned, our sin is seen in how we respond to their sin.
The song “I’m the Problem” shows that although I did come out of a broken childhood, it's not an excuse. My parents divorced and I was diagnosed with mental health issues early on, and I’m not discounting any of that. This is a broken world. But at the end of the day, my biggest problem is my own sinful heart. Christ’s grace again, once we recognize that, is enough to restore us.
That’s the theme behind that song.
I love the title “The Pharisee and the Tax Collector.” It is Luke 18, a retelling of the parable in song. Tell us about that.
That’s exactly what the song does. I got a couple of my favorite fellow Christian hip hop ministers together. A guy named The Phanatic, who has been a legend. He basically pioneered Christian hip hop with his group The Cross Movement in the 90’s before I had even heard the gospel.
Him and another brother named Json, from St. Louis, who is also on the record label. The Phanatic plays the part of the Pharisee. He’s a 21st century Pharisee, conceptualizing self righteousness, making it out that he’s coming to God based upon his performance, based upon how good he is. He’s really looking down on me. I’m the messy, jacked up tax collector.
Json plays the part of the narrator introducing each of us and the tax collector, which was kind of seen as the scum of society in Jesus’ day. As a tax collector, I come before God not making excuses for my sin, not saying, “But I tried,” just saying, “God, have mercy on me a sinner. Receive me because of your mercy, because of Christ.”
It’s just a song that prepares the listener for the next couple of songs after, which are really hitting home what Jesus has done for sinners in the gospel.
Tim, I’ve got to ask you. This is a great hip hop project. But there's not a whole lot of radio airplay for artists such as yourself. It can be tough. What do you hope to accomplish with The Restoration?
Good question. I just put it into the Lord’s hands. It’s my five pieces of bread, my two pieces of fish, and whatever the Lord wants to do with it. I don’t always expect it to succeed in the genre that we have musically. Our style is not really commercial. It’s not really mainstream. It’s a little more what people might call underground. So we don’t expect it to blowup. Read More Here
The Restoration: The All-Sufficiency of Christ in the Gospel of Grace to Restore Ruined Sinners to Himself for their Joy and His Glory. The title of this album speaks for itself as to what you can expect to hear as a listener. The title alone can preach without even playing a single track; but, as you do listen, can expect to hear the story of Timothy’s restoration in all areas of his life, which makes this a very personal album. With that, you also get a heavy dose of the gospel and the all-sufficiency of Christ which serve as the remedy for fallen sinners to be restored.
The Restoration is Timothy Brindle’s life put to music, and it clearly shows as you listen to this project and hear the passion with which he delivers his verbal soliloquies. This is immediately evident in the opening track “The All-Sufficiency of Christ” where he details the working of Jesus Christ in his life to cover him and empower him to overcome his sins. It’s here that we see that Timothy hasn’t lost a step, and makes it hard to believe that he’s been away from music for half a decade. Outside of a misstep here & there, this is the Timothy Brindle that we get for the entirety of the album. On top of this, there is a lot to like for the hip-hop purist, such as the addition of scratching and snippets from previous Lamp Mode recordings (like shai linne’s “Christ Crucified” on “I’m the Problem”). The instrumentation on this project makes for a very somber & introspective listen, which is both good & bad. It’s good because there is a lot for the listener to meditate on, but it can also make it feel very long & drawn out. One highlight to mention, while not the best track on the album, is “The Completeness Cypha” which is the first track from Lamp Mode to feature the entire roster on a single track. What’s more, this track serves as a concise summary of the entirety of the restoration we can receive because of the completeness of Christ’s work. Read More Here
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