18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Good afternoon my friends,
I hope that you are having a beautiful day.
This beautiful worship song always makes me emotional. When I fist heard it in January 2007 in Bolton when Steven and I were dating, it brought tears to my eyes.
King of kings, Majesty
God of Heaven living in me
Gentle Saviour, closest friend Strong Deliverer, beginning and end
All within me falls at Your throne
Your Majesty, I can but bow
I lay my all before You now
In royal robes I don't deserve
I live to serve Your Majesty
Earth and Heaven worship You
Love eternal, Faithful and True
Who bought the nations, ransomed souls
Brought this sinner near to Your throne
All within me cries out in praise.
Your majesty, I can but bow
I lay my all before You now
In royal robes I don't deserve
I live to serve Your Majesty
Your majesty, I can but bow
I lay my all before You now
In royal robes I don't deserve
I live to serve Your Majesty
I share this interview I found in Cross Rhythms website Tony: You must be used to having the whole of your ministry summarised in one song.
Jarrod:To some it's still coming through as a new song. I've heard some amazing stories about it. I've got a friend who went out to India - a very rural part - and the Gospel had just reached there four months before. This community had heard the Gospel for the first time and had just started to gather as a church. When this friend of mine walked through the door into their worship service, they were singing "King Of Kings, Majesty" in their own dialect. That's wonderful. Somebody once asked me, 'What's it like to be a one-hit wonder?' I said, 'Better than a no-hit wonder.' I wrote "King Of Kings, Majesty" in the room next door. (Jarrod momentarily stops to gesture to the adjacent office in the New Life Christian Centre where we sit.) There used to be a recording studio here; there was a reel-to-reel here on the desk. All the walls were carpeted; we ripped it out about 10 years ago.
Tony: During those years that you were leading worship at Colin Urquhart's Faith Camp and then those subsequent years when you were establishing the church in Hull, you seemingly wrote hundreds of songs. Then it seemed to suddenly stop. Did the Lord impress on you to lay your songwriting down and do other things?
Jarrod: That would be part of it. For the last decade I've been leading a church; administration, leadership, organisation is a really valuable valve to the engine of who I am. I do write, I just write a lot less. I used to write hundreds of songs - many of which awful: for every hundred, I'd write two or three good ones that would end up on an album. 10 years in, my life is beginning to get a little bit of space, so the creativity is starting to stir again. But you're right: for about a decade I've not written or recorded much. That's been down to leading a church.
Tony: In 2012 a number of your earlier recordings made between 1988 and 1998 were released on a couple of compilations.
Jarrod: Yes, there were two download only releases, 'Dreaming' and 'Shine On Me'.
Tony: I was surprised to see your name by only one song on the Revive Church album 'One Hope' - and even that song was an oldie.
Jarrod: That's right - "Faithful God", which I wrote in 2005. Even then, one of our young lads sang it. I was going to go in and sing another one of the songs on 'One Hope', but I was ill. So I didn't even make it onto the album. 'One Hope' is a good snapshot of where Revive Church has been in the last few years. We are surrounded by creatives here and there's plenty of them doing worship music better than I ever did. I've just enjoyed encouraging them and learning a different set of skills with the stuff that I've been going through. I am still songwriting a little, but nothing like I was.
I oversee the worship at the church, help set the culture and the values, but I largely let them get on with it. I said to someone the other day, 'You've been with us two years; have you ever seen me lead worship?' He'd never seen it. Those that have would have to go back probably seven years to when I last got up at the front and led from the piano. The thing is, when you're not leading worship regularly, you get out of practice. It's not just that sense of anointing - your prayer-life, being close to God - you've got to be relaxed enough in your skills. I am not relaxed enough in my skills to get up and play: I'd need to be doing a lot behind the scenes, getting old muscles operating again. But anyway, we've got a great team growing, a full-time worship pastor, Phil Buston, setting in some new creative coaching structures to increase the amount of worship pastors. We need lots of different teams around the region, leading at different times of the day across a Sunday.
Light of the World You stepped down into darkness Open my eyes Let me see Beauty that made This heart adore You Hope of a life Spent with You
Here I am to worship Here I am to bow down Here I am to say that You're my God You're altogether lovely Altogether worthy Altogether wonderful to me
King of all days Oh, so highly exalted Glorious in Heaven above Humbly You came To the earth You created All for love's sake became poor
Here I am to worship Here I am to bow down Here I am to say that You're my God You're altogether lovely Altogether worthy Altogether wonderful to me
I'll never know how much it cost To see my sin upon that cross I'll never know how much it cost To see my sin upon that cross I'll never know how much it cost To see my sin upon that cross I'll never…
My friends, let me confide in you: being a disciple of Jesus-Christ fills me with joy and I am so grateful to be part of our family of brothers and sisters in Christ.
9 Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him!…
Before my encounter with my Lord, I thought that I was a good person; what I was doing was to bury everything dishonourable (my conscience told me so) I'd done in a part of my brain and I was getting very good at that.
Unknown to me, the Lord who was pursuing me with his love, He used different people in my life to plant seeds in me. When I taught in a Christian high school in the Isle of Man, I attended church twice a week. Also a Christian colleague invited me and my two daughters to attend her Baptist church but it still wasn't the appointed time. We stayed in this school for five years when I decided to leave. We moved to Manchester where I found myself in a pit, knowing that I'd made a wrong decision. I called out to the Lord. This was a memorable moment, He heard me and though I had to go to a women's refuge, He gave me strength and helped me out of this disastrous situation. A few months later, I felt I had to confess my many sins which all came back to me. A few months later, I met Ty Brando, an American musician on a dating Christian website who told me about Jesus-Christ on one of our many long phone conversations. Every day, he would answer my questions and he'd explain them then I would read the corresponding passages in the bible. Eventually, I said the sinner's prayer and accepted Christ in my heart, through the grace of the Lord. My view of things got completely changed. Scales fell off my eyes!
So my soul will exalt Jesus my Saviour for ever and I will praise Him and declare what He has done for me. He's taught me how to love others and filled my heart with compassion. He has transformed my heart of stone in a heart of flesh.
Still, don't get it wrong, it takes time, I was saved in November 2006 and I am still a work in progress and far from being perfect. The transformation still goes on. He is by my side and helping me out.
Those verses come to mind: So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord--who is the Spirit--makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. 2 Corinthians 3:18
Have you yet accepted the Lord Jesus Christ in your life?
