ISAIAH 53 v 5

“He was pierced for our transgressions,

He was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,

and by His wounds we are healed.”

And thanks to Emily Hawksley who helped me with the chord structure in the verses. Nice one sis!

No explicit Christian content. Although influenced by observing breakdown in a Christian marriage.

Hence: “remember us complete” and “teach us how to love”

Written in first year, Recorded in final year, Remastered last year.

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

Can a nation be changed?

I took this photo in Rio de Janeiro of Cristo o Redentor during my gap year. It was really a very happy accident. I took it from Sugar Loaf mountain on one of my last evenings in Rio. I love the image of Christ it portrays it’s kind of got the whole ‘light in the darkness’ thing going on.

tx

This astonishing 18ft drawing of the world’s most famous skyline was created by autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire after he spent just 20 minutes in a helicopter gazing at the panorama.

I’ll let the images speak for themselves. (images © Barcroft Media)

Read the full article on the Daily Mail website.

I had been reading a famous book about the “historical figure of Jesus”-a historian’s point of view about what we can and can’t be certain about regarding the person of Jesus. I just wanted to lay my cards on the table about who Jesus was and is, and sing out nice and loud that he was real man who walked and talked, could be touched, seen, and heard, who could bleed, and who died for real, and rose again for real.

Before the earth’s foundation were laid,
You were the Son of God
Through you all creation has been made
You are the Living Word.
In You all things now hold together,
Sustainer of all life.
You are the heir of all things Jesus,
The first-born from the dead

I believe in One Lord Jesus Christ
I believe He walked the earth and died
To rise again, the promise of new life
Now He is high and lifted up

Eternal Word of God made flesh,
The Father’s love revealed.
You made Your dwelling here with us,
Our God Immanuel.
Emptied Yourself of ev’ry form of kingly majesty,
Humility and love perfected,
Our God the Servant King.

Then as a lamb led to the slaughter,
You bore our punishment.
Without a cry of protestation,
This cruel injustice stood.
Oppressed, afflicted, bore our sorrows,
Our sickness and our grief,
All sin and judgment there exhausted,
Humanity redeemed.

Bridge:
All glory, all honour,
Majesty and praise,
Be unto the Lamb who was slain.
Let all earth, and heaven,
Magnify His name,
For our Lord Jesus lives again.

From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when i should climb higher.
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.

From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings,
Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the crucified.
From all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.

Give me the love that leads the way,
The faith that nothing can dismay,
The hope no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire.
Let me not sink to be a clod:
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.

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.

This Vid was a good collaborative effort…

Shot in the church hall amidst building work - the band were super patient as were the builders with playback for the vid happening for 16 plus hours.

Many thousands of people, Christian and non, move to Leeds every single year to paticipate in what I like to call, the “university challenge”. There has always been an epic battle between studying, socialising, exploring your indepence, maturing and developing in readiness for the rest of life which, if you’re flying solo is going to be tough.

A few have noticed the need to support new and old students in the city and as a result dontjustsurvive.co.uk has been birthed.

The site development has been an exciting, challenging and an emotional one. That is to say there have been a few tense hours in the office while some disobedient code has been causing trouble, but I’m happy to report the final product has certainly been worth the sweat and (almost) tears. Though the site has only been live 1 week, we’re already starting to discuss the next steps which leaves me excited.

I encourage you if you’re a student or not to take a look, leave some feedback in the comments and aswer this one question…
Question — In what way(s) would you like to see the site develop to further accomodate and reach it’s goals (see below).

Here’s some information about dontjustsurvive.co.uk:
What exactly is dontjustsurvive.co.uk?

dontjustsurvive.co.uk is a website designed to help students in our city to:
— Not just survive university with a remnant of their faith - but thrive!
— Find a local church and get stuck in - learn and love Jesus! 
— Connect with Christian Unions or missional organisations operating on their higher education campus - make Him known!
— Have a relevant and up to date city resource - The Survival Guide

Why have this resource?
With so many new experiences and opportunities it is vitally important that students are connected to Missional organisations on campus and plugged into the local church as soon as possible so they can make the most of the incredible opportunity university can be.

dontjustsurvive.co.uk aims to help make that connection quicker and more effective.

How does it work?
dontjustsurvive.co.uk allows churches and missional organisations operating on higher education campuses to communicate who they are and what is going happening all on one site. It provides a facility to update information whenever required.

For 2009/10 the site will work with a flier available for students and churches to give out and use to help people make the links they need.

The site has been developed as a collaboration between the Christian Unions, the Christian Union Advisory Board and Chris Mason from Mosaic Church working with David Sorley & Matt Jones from WE_ARE_BOXHEAD ⁄ ™a design studio based in Leeds.

How can you get inolved?
Our aim is that every Christian Union, on-campus missional organisation, and church in Leeds will be represented on the site.

We want to build a huge resource of articles relevant to leeds (bus service information, interesting places see, what to do when the parents visit, the best gig venues and so on) that will be represented in the survival guide.

——————————————————————

If you would like to help make a difference to the student population in Leeds by writing a survival guide article, suggest an article topic or recommend a church or missional on-campus organisation, then please contact us at hello@dontjustsurvive.co.uk

The video that was released for “Hurt”, a cover of the song by Nine Inch Nails, fit Cash’s view of his past and feelings of regret. The video for the song, from American IV, is now generally recognised as “his epitaph”.

More information about Johnny on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonny_Cash.

This is the result of my praise (very rough).

YOUR LOVE IS HIGHER, WIDER, DEEPER

(V1)
A love that shows no bounds,
Nothing we do can make you love us less
A grace, free, completely free
We cannot pay, we cannot do

(Pre-Chorus)
Anything but give our lives as a living sacrifice
Anything but bring to you, all that we are

(Chorus)
You love is
Higher than the stars above, it conquers all things
Wider than the universe, it hems us within
Deeper than the deepest sea, our fears are relieved
Your love is, your love is, more than all we need

(V2)
Your blood, it knew no bounds,
Giving It all, you said, “your will be done”
We stand free, restored, redeemed
We cannot pay, we cannot do

(Bridge)
O praise him, he is our king
O praise him, was crucified
But now the curtain has been torn, we are set free
He paid the sacrifice on calvary
But now he’s risen, exalted, seated on high
That we might stand before the king and sing

I collaborated with Benjamin McAvoy on this film as a way to promote his Music Composition business to ad/production agencies. The film was also an opportunity to produce a concept film to which there where no set criteria.

The film is of four parts. Each section is layered on top of the first (but with a slight time delay) to create a sense of depth and slightly unnatural movement. The film is also designed to play as a loop for live projection. 

A song inspired by a journey one saturday morning at 2:30am on the M1 motorway traveling down into Belfast City

A few months ago in the sleepy town of Sleaford 200 past, present and future Worship Academy (go to http://www.worship-academy.com/1.html for more details) students joined together for a big reunion celebrating the journey they had all gone on thus far. As part of that celebration a grass routes Live worship album was recorded featuring some very talented up and coming worship leaders. Backed by an amazing band this recording is being very well received through out the UK and beyond. All the money raised from this recording is being put stright back in to The Worship Academy world vision and supporting students in Romania to go through the program. To buy a copy go to www.bridgemusicstore.com.

I’ve had the amazing privilege to be apart of this vision and serve on the leadership team having input in to Academies all over the world. Go to the above web site and see just what God is doing among the nations of the world through Worship. Who knows maybe we could be welcoming you onto the next Worship Academy UK. They honoured me by allowing one of my songs to be featured on this album which is the one I’ve hopefully up loaded successfully. Be blessed Danny

Damion Miller (worship leader at Kings Arms Church in Bedford) co-wrote this song with me and Jon Brown (Mosaic Church) sings lead vocals.  It was recorded live and can be found on a worship album called ‘Dedicated’.  It’s a bit ‘me’ centered but I like the chorus!

Was doodled during various sermons at Mobilise Conference last week.

Based on Psalm 25v4-5 - “Show me Your ways O Lord, and teach me Your paths; guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Saviour, my hope is in you all day long”.
and John 6v67-69, ” “You do not want to leave too do you?” Jesus asked the twelve. Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God”. “

Written by both of us one evening - roughly recorded in Charis’ garden - hence birdsong, trains and delightful water feature!

The play is set in a public school. I just went for a traditional look. The panelling is real wooden panelling, with an oak stain and varnish.
Again, posted for the use of collaborating with someone in the future.

The film is a combination of two tracks by Cinematic Orchestra, the video directed by Up The Resolution; a london based production company. An interview with the directors can be found here.

As David Knight from Promo News writes “It’s a beautiful, sedate 12-minute short film for two tracks, To Build A Home and Breathe, which chronicles the final hours of a dying woman with her devoted, loving husband”.

The reason I’ve posted this video up (other than the fact it’s an amazing short film) is that its a great example of narrative storytelling, collaboration and acheivement… 

Realising an idea/concept/dream into an end product rarely comes cheap; whether it’s time, money (or both) there is generally financial expense and risk involved in producing a personal or commercial, low budget piece of work.  If you feel like you have a creative talent/gifting or are a creative professional this can be a constant source of frustration and stress – we all have bills to pay and are also probably over committed in our personal/church lives too.

So… What to do? Easy…Collaborate! 

I see a huge number of talented individuals who are part of Mosaic (and beyond) but there doesn’t seem to be enough collaboration. Lets get some bands formed. Photographers working with Designers, Film makers collaborating with sound designers and musicians, writers working with web developers etc etc. The God given talent is there and he’s put us together in community but we are not going to see any major breakthrough unless we get together, start bashing ideas around and start making stuff.

So for the next couple of months the criteria for posting stuff up on this creative arts showcase is that it has to have a collaborative element and I for one am looking forward to seeing the results.

My job? I design and build sets for a local amatuer theatre group. This is a set currently in production. Set in a prep school the idea was to go with the traditional look. The Panels are made from pine and stained with antique oak stain and varnish.

Another photo-construct from the Taxonomy series.  The images captures the latent beauty of temporary construction apparatus that disguise its final architectural horror!

Part of an ongoing body of work entitled ‘Taxonomy’.  The names of the photo-constructs are taken from butterfly names in latin. Some are posionous and allude to the deteriating nature of our architectural expression.  Others are beautiful and express what can be achieved with a ‘good client’.  Good clients however seem to be a dying breed; taken over by ravenous developers financed by debt and protected by limited liability at the expense of other people’s risk.  I take such architectural demise to be symptomatic of wider economic problems, emboddied most recently as the credit crunch.

Hi ladies and gents. A Creative Arts Showcase - genius idea. Thanks for letting me being involved. Just wanted to share a track from my wife Becky’s album “All About Everything”. We’re both passionate about God and music… Don’t know how the compressed mp3 will turn out but hopefully you’ll get a taste of her sound. Being thinking about this quote recently:

“Each generation of the church in each setting has the responsibility of communicating the gospel in understandable terms, considering the language and thought-forms of that setting”
Francis Schaeffer

Why Not!

Vulnerable.
Trusting.
Transparent.

Whenever I see streams like this I always think about Jesus’ invitation to come a be filled with living water.

I design and develop websites for a living with Box-head*.
I was considering whether it would be appropriate to showcase some of my work (sites) on here. When you hear the word “website” you don’t immediately think about it as a piece of art (if ever for that matter). I thought about it for quite some time and drew some comparisons between a “traditional” art piece and a website with the intent to discover if they could come under the same “banner” ART.

Now I may be thinking too generally but hear’s what I determined. An art piece communicates, it is brought to fruition through a thought process (collaborative or individual), and it serves a purpose (perhaps just to reveal the emotion of its creator).
I realise that there is a wealth of other characterstics we could define but lets stick to these BIG 3.
Think now about a website and some of its characterstics, and chances are (as I found) that those 3 would be pretty high in the list. So as video, photography, music, sonnets, architecture etc can and are considered art, I too would list websites.

My mini waffle aside, here’s some of my most recent art:
The Bivouac
This is handmade
Samuel Fisher
Wave Media Productions

Feel free to challenge my thought process in the comments!

A rough recording from a Sunday meeting at mosaic- recording’s a bit distorted but you get the idea! The song is a prayer for the gospel to reach the nations and for the Church of Jesus Christ to rise up to its calling.

Song was originally on acoustic guitar inspired by plucking rhythm Mr Richardson showed me. Then I made it a dance track instead. Very explicit content.

I thought this was a interesting composition. It has a Yorkshire feel to it.

This series of photographs was taken on a walk in Calderdale. The simple strong colours and background trees caught my attention.

As a little review exercise I thought it would be beneficial to hear your thoughts on how you think this part of the site has been received over the last 5 months and how you think we can improve it in the future.
If you would be so kind as to answer the following questions in the comments or by email that would really help me to put in motion the changes required to make this space more usable and valuable to you.

1. How did you find signing up for a new account using the online form?
2. Did you receive your “welcome” e-mail and introductory tutorial quickly (from the time you signed up).
3. Was the tutorial easy to follow and understand?
4. Is there anything you thought was missing from the tutorial?
5. Have you submitted an entry to the Showcase? If not is there any reason why?
6. How often do you check the Creative Arts pages for new content?
7. What changes would you make to the showcase and how do you think they would benefit the community?

Thanks for your time answering these. We want to keep the Network/Showcase fresh faced and as functional as possible for everyone.

I don’t really have much to say about it except that I like it, in particular 00:38. Check it out!

I checked out their Vimeo account and found some other cool videos. I’ll post another one up a little later maybe.
For now though enjoy this one.

The verses of this song I wrote on scraps of paper here and there over a few weeks, and didn’t actually match them up together, unti one day I wrote that chorus and then dug out those lyrics from the songwriting box next to my fridge, and realised they fitted together! I am a Christian and believe the God created this world beautifully, and intended that we live in it in freedom, with justice and equality. Sadly and awfully, sin entered the world and due to our sin and selfish thoughts and acts, I now look round and get so gutted about the way things are, across the world, down the street, and in my heart. My view is that we cannot and must not sit back. I do sometimes (actually if I’m honest, really often!) feel like i don’t know what we can do about it- as the chorus states- yet, I also am an absolute unbeliever in hopelessness. With Jesus, hopelessness is a fallacy and I know that He has the power and compassion to set us free- individuals and nations. I see transformation, in the office, in my heart, and I believe that one day we will have full restoration to the way things were intended to be. With this song I am hoping that it will resonate not just wih other followers of Jesus but also with non-belivers who feel similarly, and then that they will see the heart behind it and be directed to the Prince of Peace who rules.

I have recently been following the blog of David Capener who, if you have seen the Lovenations webpage, or have read one of the flyers will know is speaking at the conference. You should check out his articles, some are challenging, most are humerous and all are honest.

He posted this video and I thought I’d repost it as it is so very cool!
I’m not sure how they we’re able to get permission for it, maybe they didn’t… All I know is it made me smile.
The music track from UNKLE is pretty sweet too.
Now that was 7 minutes well spent wasn’t it!

Be sure to register yourself for Love:Nations on the webpage if you haven’t yet done so (it’ll cost you less and guarantee you a space!).

What if each person saw things differently then the other?
For example, what if what I saw as the colour ‘blue’ was seen totally different
to someone else. That each person had recognised a colour as a child and some
how agreed with someone else and then many people that is ‘blue’. If this is
true or not, I think God has a few more pressing things to think about. Thank God!

We are attracted by many exciting things and ideals. I guess we Brits are
happiest with more mid grey and humour. Other cultures have other colours I
guess. Is a rainbow what we need?  With the internet, tv and other influences,
we have an artificial one. Perhaps the best one was seen when the floods receded
in the story of Noah’s ark. A conclusion?? Yes, culturally speaking, we Brits
are quite unique..the mid grey is in fact a melting pot of many other colours.

Above all else Lord,
before anything else is said or thought,
thank you for your unfailing love,
that accepts me no matter what I do or say.
Lord, I desire your truth in my inmost place,
and I ask that you will give me the faith
to whole-heartedly say,

“Jesus, you are my first love.
If all these things were taken away,
I would still love you.”

Help me to live always by your grace,
to be hungry to know more of you,
and to have humility at all times,
glorifying your name in everything
because my strength and approval
are found in the joy of you saving me,
and not only that, inviting me into sonship,
to one day sit with you and your Father in Heaven.
How great will that day be!

So Lord, teach me your ways,
inspire me to be more like you,
and in doing so to love those who you love,
serving them from a willing heart.
For you alone are holy,
and one day all nations will come and worship you.

I love you Lord, thank you for loving me more.

I am so aware of the imperfections of my love,
The weaknesses of my desire,
The frailties of my yearnings,
I know you delight in the utterances of my heart,
Yet they are wavering and inconsistent,
And my frustration grows.

Yet my relief comes at a glorious revelation,
That this is about your love not mine,
Your love, my Lord, has not a hint of lacking,
But is eternal, overtaking, never to be revoked.
Your love, my King, has captured me,
I cannot resist, I cannot escape your gaze.

So enduring is your love that it cost you everything,
And as you paid that ransom, your heart was burning for me,
Even though I was far from you, and rejected you,
You knew that your love would not fail,
You knew you would have me,
And, my Lord, you were right, for I am yours always.

You have romanced me with wine,
You have called me your own,
I am no longer mine,
So Jesus, please take me home. 

I shot the original footage for this back in January. Matt Jones risked repetitive strain injury ( God Video ) again to do some serious painting on three of mosaic’s stage panels.
Then with a little bit of jiggery pokery in post-production added some camera moves and motion graphics. 

Viv Thompson put together the score for the 60 second spot which highlights all the key moments amazingly well. We wanted to make sure it wasn’t just another grungy promo with a drum and bass track. 

Putting the ‘function’ first we wanted the video to reflect all the preparation and detail that goes into mission - Hopefully this comes across.

Tim and Zach discuss Switchfoot’s creative process and life as an independent band.

“Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.” www.wordle.net

I put in the text of ‘what we believe’ from the Mosaic website. It looks pretty and it’s a cheat’s way of picking up the key words without reading the whole thing…

A life coach told me about this quote some months back and I have it on my desktop at work.  It keeps me focused on not getting bogged down in the rat race.  Be inspired…..................

Recorded one Monday morning in the Summer of 2008 with Jon Darby and Matt Jones. It’s pretty much a chorus that we played around with. As we were playing, a loose structure was formed that provided a gateway into some quality worship.

We recorded the session to document the process and ideas. So, the the quality isn’t that great and you get to hear the three of us giggling at the start of the track!

Psalm 42 - How amazing would it be to be in the turbulence of crashing waves and waterfalls and yet know the safety and comfort of His presence enveloping you!

I came across this presentation by Timothy Ferriss whilst browsing the DO Lectures website.

“The Do lectures are all about getting a handful of speakers together in one place, in the hope that they may inspire you to go Do something. To give you the tools and the desire to change the things you care about.” - The Do Lecture Website

Of the 21 incredible presentations available to watch, this one particularly struck me.
So often I find myself getting bogged down with circumstances that I tend to forget my potential.

Timothy challenges us…
“Dont think small. It doesn’t serve you. It doesn’t serve those around you. It doesn’t serve the world!”
“Only those that attempt the obsurb achieve the impossible”

I wrote this song in 2007 whilst taking some time out in the Lakes.  I wanted to write a song that incorporated both the awesome, holy, mighty nature and character of God, but then at the same time His gracious, compassionate and merciful nature too.  The fact that He can be all of those things blows my head back and whilst I originally just wanted to write about the “fall on your face and eat carpet” kind of God that He is, I felt that after spending time singing about these things, it would be amazing to try and sing about the complete picture, i.e. the fact that if we had a face to face encounter with Him we would at the very least be thrown to our knees in fear, but because of Jesus’ work on the cross He allows us to stand before Him; and more than that, that he wants an intimate relationship with each one of us!

I wrote this song about a year ago out of a desire to worship God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The song takes a verse on each person of the God-head outlining some of their attributes and blessings combining together in the Chorus to worship our Trinitarian God.  I hope you like it, feel free to use the chords in the .pdf in Mission Group or your own personal times with Him.

Live Now is a project consisting of a growing collection of quotes, thoughts, stories, lyrics, creations and other various mediums pursuing the idea of living now and inspiring us all to grow, live meaningful lives & be who we were created to be.

It made me smile…

When the wall was being built to make the foyer and ‘slidey’ rooms we fixed a camera up on the scaffold. This video is the result. The Audio and Sound design were produced by Vivian Thompson.

This song flowed out of a personal time of worship-as I sang the words of the chorus I was simply proclaiming, meditating on and worshiping the beautiful name of Jesus-the name that in the words of Charles Wesley is “music in the sinner’s ears”, and “life, and health, and peace”. The verses just began to express some more of the truths that the name of Jesus represents and speaks to us, and that I was so grateful for: His mercy, His forgiveness, His saving grace and power, His new life, His words, His victory and authority over powers of darkness, freedom in Him, and the justice, righteousness and renewal that His kingdom brings to a needy and broken world. And praise God that this kingdom will endure and His reign will know no end.

The piece lists some of the names and words used to describe the character of GOD.