Nights on Snowdonia

Affectionately called as I intentionally set out inspired by the cowboy rock of Muse's 'Knights of Cydonia'!

That’s as far as the plagiarism goes though. Fun project from a couple of years ago. It’s a bit truncated and could maybe do with a chorus!

Silence has gone away my friend,
My friend
Buildings too many without end,
Without end
The hunger is there inside
Inside
How does it feel being alive,
Alive

The World is growing but I’m getting smaller now

Buried in a shallow grave
Shallow grave
Do you believe in the resurrection of the dead?
Of the dead
The struggles, they lurk deep inside
inside
Face the truth: You have to pick a side

The world is growing but I’m getting smaller now

Guide Our Hearts, Lord

Evangelism. Mission. Prayer. Giving. Sometimes it all feels a bit like hard work, and i wonder when God is going to let me have a nice easy life after I've done my 'Christian duty'.

I wrote this song as part of an ongoing reflection of how I can find true satisfaction and joy in God by pouring myself out in love for others, like Jesus did. How to be a ‘Christian Hedonist’ as John Piper would say. I was prompted to upload this after hearing Matt’s rally call for passion to tell people about Jesus and world mission on Sunday.    

Lyrics:

Guide our hearts, Lord

Guide our prayers

In our worship

We bring ourselves

In view of your mercy on the cross

All of my strength

I place it here

Every offence

I Lay it here

In view of your mercy on the cross

Ch:

We awaken, Lord, To shine

The knowledge of Love Divine

In Jesus Hope revealed

in him our longings filled

v2:

Guide our hearts, Lord

Guide our hands

In the good works

you have planned

In view of your mercy on the cross

All my hopes

I place them here

The best of my years

I lay them here

In view of your mercy on the cross

(Chorus)

Bridge:

We place our treasures into your heart

‘Cause we want to go to be where you are

Growing compassion for this world you love

We look to your kingdom come!

(chorus)

rpt bridge

2nd chorus/ Anthem:

And forever I will dwell in the house

of my Father in whom all good things are found

(chorus)

I Am In You

Rather simple song, lighthearted and happy fare. Contains rare guitar solo!!

In one of the prayer meetings before the service I was inspired by the subject of the week which I think was God’s hospitality to us. On the way home these verses started forming in my mind…
The chorus came as a celebration that all these privileges come as a result of being in Christ. I found it interesting also that we are in Christ, we have been given a heavenly home, but also that God lives within us, we are the new temple(s) where he dwells. Jesus says in John 14 v20 ‘...you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.’
Also, I really enjoyed recording the clapping parts!

Lyrics:
How good it is to be loved by the King
How good to be given a home
How good to have all my sins forgiven
How good to be given brand new clothes

I am in you
I am in you
I am in you
thankyou Jesus
That I am in you

How good it is to be loved by the King
How good to be near Father’s throne
To be filled with joy in his presence
And from him, I won’t be told to go

(chorus)

Middle: Yes, he will keep us
Till the day of Christ Jesus x2
He has not left us as though we were orphans
He lives within us
He has made us his home.

(V1)
(Chorus)

I am Like an Olive Tree

Demo of a simple gospel song I wrote incorporating some of the (plant based!) contrasting images of the psalms.

Lyrics:
I am like an olive tree
My roots are in God
Grafted, planted
And rooted in love

I am like an olive tree
My roots are in God
Always to flourish
In the house of the Lord

verse:

Not so the wicked,
For they are like chaff
And when the wind blows
They will be gone
But Christ came to us
For sinners to save
And I am so glad
‘Cause that was my name

(rpt chorus)

Middle: Lord remember your great faithfulness
to our Fathers when they were in distress x2

Scripture refs: Psalm 52, Psalm 1, Jeremiah 17, Romans 11v17, 1 Timothy 1v15

How Great Thou Art- Becoming the Archetype

Metal Version of a classic hymn by 'Becoming the Archetype'- from the album Dichotemy.

I was reading the about Carl Jung and how the bible influenced his thinking. Don’t really understand it much but the ‘Archetype’ is a key concept.

‘The archetypal image is expressed…in the heroes of myth and legend but above all in the image of Christ “who exemplifies the archetype of the self”’

-From The Oxford companion to the Bible. 

Anyway thought I’d do a spot of googling on this, and happened across an interesting sounding band called ‘Becoming the Archetype’. I gave it a listen and discovered the band were Christians. I really like it so thought I’d share their version of ‘How Great Thou Art’.

I’m interested in this idea of ‘Becoming the Archetype’. It immediately reminds me of this scripture:

2 Cor 3 v18
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

I hear phrases such ‘being Christlike’ and ‘becoming like Jesus’, but after being repackaged into my small and limited ideas of God, a truth as big and grand as the universe (if not bigger), can become stale in the mental tupperware I keep it in.

Anyway I’m not going to try and do a bible study or anything, but I like what this band are doing.

Also, I read that this album is also inspired by C.S. Lewis ‘Out of the Silent Planet’ trilogy of books, which I’ve recently read and enjoyed.

So the song.. love it… or hate it?!

And any thoughts on the above?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smHoALlJqG4

Free

i just wrote a reflection on the song but deleted it... I guess the lyrics speak for themselves

Lyrics:

You’re worth
So much to me
But I can’t buy your love
It’s free

You’re purer
Than mountain streams
So I will drink you in
And be cleaned

Jesus Lord
Your mercy flows
And overflows
To me
I will love you
I won’t be quiet
For in you I am so free

The same blood that sanctifies
Is the same blood that justifies

To Know You

This is a song I've written (wrote?) recently, inspired by a talk on how studying and reflecting on truth about God can move us.

Then it hit me and I started feeling a bit emotional that even before I knew zip about God, he knew me so well, and how he died for me before I was even ‘a twinkle’ in anyone’s eye. I was a twinkle in God’s eye. And that makes me want to know him even more!

Lyrics:
I was known to you
In the secret place
In my mother’s womb
I was held in your gaze

To know you is to love you

Faithful and Strong
Loving and True
Jesus my goal is to know you

Faithful and Strong
Loving and True
Jesus my heart is to know you God

Is to know you God

I was held by you
On the day of pain
When you hung on the cross
There you bore all my shame

To know you is to Love you

(chorus)

Hallelujah, Thankyou Jesus

Intermission

A reflection after a busy shift at work.

I had forgotten I was on stage. The lights had obscured all but this brightly lit enclosure,  forces pushing and pulling me into action, the present drama all there was.

Intermission.

I remember. Improv over now, I walk to a chair in the wings, memories of the outside life floating to the surface;  lumpen things chained to corks, breaking the surface of the calming water.

Another.

Who is out there? My eyes have yet to adjust. I remember a conversation, a pain, a feeling. On the stage when that’s all there seemed to be, these ‘wings’ abandoned. It means more to me now than it did then. There was purpose.

Theme. Story.

I feel the presence from beyond the lights, I know the Author is watching. He has called this intermission, I remember that now; I am under his care. About this story, he cares deeply, I remember that too.

I kneel before him, the character he has created for the story, but more, now a friend of the great Author. He has allowed me to know that there is more than the story, shadow is given substance. What kind of writer could do such a thing? Here now: in the puzzlement of the character who has assumed being held up by his own conscious activity. A stab of defiant pride.

But no.

I bow, enjoying the enjoyment I feel as I let him be Author now. That is the answer. A strange connection, between author and character.  Another thought breaks surface. What if he has written himself into the story? I remember.
He is still writing.

What if I forget?

I know I will, soon the heat and the brightness, and the waters once again disturbed, for the story still requires me. He will uphold me. He will not forget, and he will remind me. He will call intermission, once again he will lead me, and I will remember.