A song written for Trinity Sunday 2018 at St James Church, Hill. It's trying to bring a modern take on Trinitarian thought without over-complicating matters, and with language that most of our younger members could access. Inspired by Kingsland Church's song about the Holy Spirit that got all nine gists in the chorus, I tried to do the same in verse three of this song.
I think it's such a powerful thing to declare Jesus as king - we join with all of heaven when we do so. This song is about turning from our sin and idols, and placing the crown on Jesus' head. It works well as a response song, and fits particularly well during communion.
'Mary chose what is better,' Jesus said. She sat at His feet and listened. I want to be like that. But I can’t. I tried and tried, but just don't seem to be able to sit down and stay there. I wrestle with that. But I found out that I might not be able to sit down and listen the way Mary did, but I can at least give what I have, even if it is only a minute of focussed attention. And I can ask God to help me to listen longer and better.
This song is about the prodigal son and how the fathers arms is our home. I wrote this when wrestling with the idea of home as I left London where I felt so at home and been wrestling with the idea of what home looks like for me. Reading the passage in Luke 15:11-32, I realised my home isn't in a building, an area or a person, it's in the Fathers arms.
I'm accepted sings about our life, now adopted into Gods family, redeemed, forgiven, accepted by Gods sacrifice. The reality of our new life in God, worshipping as a response.
The more I discover about God the more I am amazed by the depth of love and freedom the LORD gives us. I also realise how we carry around a great deal of baggage emanating from what I call ‘bad church’; our received cultural heritage of “what the bible says” rather than a true understanding of what it really does say and mean. This song is about one particular issue that we may carry some hang-ups about - confession.
Being brought up as an Ulster protestant it is not surprising that I might see confession as a ritual to keep us feeling bad and fallen and under the thumb of a controlling church, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Confession is a fantastic gift from our loving God who only wants us to be set free. There is nothing we can do that could make God love us less, we just think there is. We carry hurt, self-loathing, all sorts of pain, and Jesus simply says, “Give it to Me, I will take it away and release you from it”. That is what confession is for, to release us. We never have to be ‘good enough’ because Jesus is. Give all the rubbish you carry up to him, He’ll take it all and it is gone. And it isn’t a contractual arrangement where we have to confess it for Christ to take it away. We are forgiven already, the confessing is for us to surrender the hurt, pain, and wrong, so that we can let it go too and be released from it. So whatever it is that you are carrying, give it up to Jesus and just bask in His love.