30/08/2018

Praying for peace in Yemen.

Lord I lift your name on high


My prayer tonight

Our Father in heaven, 
I pray that you protect all people in Yemen 
 and give peace in the area, 
wisdom to all the leaders involved. 

Have mercy Lord, 
and anoint them with your Holy Spirit,
 speak to them o gracious Lord 

I ask you that other countries send 
humanitarian help very quickly 
and that nobody stops help 
from coming to those who need it. 

 I pray that no leader interferes
 for their own interest 
but think of the good of the people there. 

I ask you Father in the mighty name 
of our Saviour and King 
Jesus-Christ 

25/08/2018

King of Kings, Majesty.

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.

Continue here

24/08/2018

Here I am to worship!



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…

22/08/2018

Highly exalted is the Messiah!


Ram Venisa Ha'Mashiach - Lyrics and Translation.

Image result for 2 corinthians 3 18

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. 

The following verses in Romans 5:8-9 jumped at me when I read them the first time:
But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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?