And Can It Be (redone)

So last year was a fairly fruitful year for me for song writing, not that it's about numbers, but i've enjoyed seeing songs develop and being used at church and hopefully helping people fix their gaze on Jesus better.

The song that people seemed to connect to best is one that I can't even take all the credit for. The hymn "And Can It Be" has always been a bit of a favourite song of mine. There is great depth to the song and I love how the gospel seems to flow through every verse.

One night I felt a melody pop into my head and I quickly grabbed the nearest guitar to see how it fitted. It seemed to work well with the lines of "And Can It Be" so I mulled it over for a few days and then played it to a few people. I thought there were are few lines that people might not understand as well - e.g. "Thine eye diffused a quickening ray" (or maybe I just don't get a very obvious meaning) and so I rewrote a few lines to make things more clear (this involved combining verse 2 & 3). Another addition was a progression of "And now..." where I tried to create a journey of what has now happened culminating in "And now my soul complete". Lastly I added a little riff to begin to the song as well which hopefully is catchy-tastic!

The first morning I played it, I expected an outcry at the sheer audacity of changing a beloved hymn yet people seemed to receive it well... So here are lyrics (i've highlighted in red the changed lyrics) and I've put a very rough acoustic recording at the bottom (excuse poor sound quality/singing) and hopefully I'll be able to post the full studio recording of it soon!

And Can It Be - Words - Charles Wesley, Additional lyrics & Music Josh John

Verse 1:
And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Saviour’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, should die for me?
And now my soul is well
All because of his amazing love

Verse 2 (original verse 2 & 3 combined):
‘Tis Mystery all: th’Immortal dies
Who can explain this grace divine
He left His Father’s throne above
And bled for Adam’s helpless race
Tis mercy all, immense and free
For O my God, it found out me
And now my heart must bow
All because of his amazing love

Verse 3:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin, in death and shame
But God himself, He heard my cry
My Saviour came, gave me new life
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
And now my spirit sings
All because of his amazing love

Verse 4:
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
And now my soul complete
All because of his amazing love

Listen here 

Hopefully those at RFC are still enjoying singing the song and hopefully if you haven't heard it before you'll enjoy this acoustic version (or at least it doesn't put you off til we get the CD done and you can hear how it should sound!)

Monday Football Thoughts

So another new blog series is "Monday Fooball thoughts" which are on my thoughts from the weekend and of the coming weeks fixtures. Being an Arsenal fan they shall be almost entirely Arsenal focused...

So Arsenal drew 0-0 with Sunderland... It seemed a fairly average game where Arsenal seemed unable to once again turn possession into goals, though the shocking refereeing/linesman decisions at the end clearly cost us 2 points (how did they manage to miss Arshavin being pushed by Bramble!! *sigh*)
The only 2 redeeming factors being that Gyan didn't score (and therefore I didn't have to watch him do "that dance") and Man Utd managed to completely fold against a still pretty average Liverpool side (though King Kenny is definitely doing something right). One game in hand and only a 3 point gap between us and Man U means it would seem that there's all to play for.

Unfortunately after the Cup final , the tame draw this weekend and the Barca game, there's a sinking feeling that perhaps we might be destined for our usual end of season fizzle out and potentially be knocked out of contention for the 3 trophies in quick succession. The first hurdle is the Barca game tomorrow... Now don't get me wrong, I was quietly confident in the first leg against Barca that we could defeat them and I was pleasantly surprised at the result. However having Van Persie and Fabs only just back from injury means they might be off the pace, Nasri not quite the same since his injury, Song and Walcott out etc... means that this won't be the same confident, injury free team of the first leg and that's why I'm worried. Guess us Arsenal fans will just have to hope that we manage to get Barca on the break and finish clinically... you never know Bendtner might actually put his money where his mouth is and become this world class striker he's claiming to be... i'm yet to be convinced though

Spurgeon on prayer

I've just finished reading a little book by PJ Smyth called "The World Needs More Elders..." It was a brilliant read and I came across this quote from Spurgeon on prayer

"If we were not constrained to pray, I question whether we could even live as Christians. If God's mercies came to us unasked, they would not be half as useful as they are now when they have to be sought for. Now we get a double blessing - the blessing in the obtaining and the blessing in the seeking. To pray is to bathe in a cool swirling steam to escape the summer sun.  To pray is to mount on the eagle's wings above the cloud and get into clear heaven where God dwells. To pray is to enter the treasure house of God. To pray is grasp heaven in one's arms, to embrace deity with one's soul, and to feel one's body made a temple of the Holy Spirit. To pray is cast our burdens, to tear away our rags, to be filled with spiritual vigour, to reach the highest point of Christian health."

It's funny how I often I fall into the trap of making prayer in my head such a small thing and forget what an amazing blessing it is that I can talk to my Father in an intimate way and best of all He listens! I love the language Spurgeon uses to paint a big picture of prayer. Hopefully that quote inspires you in the same way it did for me!

Humble pie/soup experiences 3

So I wasn't expecting to have to blog again on my newly started series but I guess I said I would update as soon as they happened...

So it was a normal weds lunchtime, I was looking forward to my delicious Goa Carnival Covenant garden soup. I like my soup to be extremely hot rather than timidly warm. Being the last to get my food ready I wandered over to our lunchtime seated area and placed the bowl in my lap... it was hot... extremely hot... i reacted by moving it backwards leading to the bowl tipping over into my lap in front of everyone... as i slowly walked towards the nearest toilet with soup essentially everywhere and muffled/loud laughter following me, I realised that it's just another experience to learn to laugh at myself, be thankful that God likes to keep me humble because he loves me, and that next time to carry hot soup on a tray...

I later scored 2 own goals in quick succession at table football... i think it's going to be a long day...

Humble pie experiences 1 + 2 (and will be a continuous series...)

At the beginning of my FP year I felt really challenged to seek after humility in a greater way than I had before. I tasked myself with reading CJ Mahaney's book "Humility: True Greatness" and then try to take small steps in this journey. It's been amazing seeing how when you decide to take a new path, how quickly you're challenged on that issue and you suddenly see if you can put your money where your mouth is...

So I thought I would share 2 "Humble pie" experiences and will endeavour to blogging about them when they come, as I think it's good to share stories and secondly cause laughing at yourself is a brilliant way to keep yourself humble... Anyway you may not find them funny or particularly insightful but here's the start of the series...

#1
So it was my first slot at leading worship since I had begun my FP year. I was excited, raring to go and had planned to perfection (in my mind). I was confident that I had done all that I had needed to do and therefore the meeting was going to be a success (music wise). I had however picked up a cold/man flu but that wasn't going to take me down, and for some reason i believed the solution was some night nurse tablets. For those of you that don't know what night nurse is, it primarily used to help those who are struggling to sleep due to sickness, but i believed my body would be able to handle any side effects... the next morning showed i could not... my thought process were one step behind what they should be and this affected everything... I ended up breaking a string, struggled to remember what I had planned to say, slurred words, and played through 1/2 a song in the wrong key to everyone else in the band... one of the elders would later suggest that I not lead in the evening as i was clearly that much "not with it". It was a massively humbling experience, though I can now look back on it and laugh (while also being able to suggest any worship leader to not take night nurse the day before leading).

#2
At a recent training block, during a meaty bit of theology, I saw at the edge of my vision one of my fellow FPers doodling as the talk went on, I thought to myself "clearly not able to concentrate on this brilliant topic like myself"... in a few mins time as a browsed twitter on my phone i realised how quickly i'd fallen into the trap of hypocrisy and pride. Big "Doh!" moment...

I'm glad I have a God abounding in grace for all situations, who uses me despite my many shorting comings! It's a good journey I'm on and I'm happy I have my Saviour with me every step of the way.