Great & Glorious

The title track and the last song written for the Great & Glorious album. I often do this, come up with a name for a project and then end up writing a song to sum it up.

‘You’re the greatest sign and wonder, You’re the brightest shining star’. I needed an opening line that tried to express how huge and incredible God really is. We can only gain a glimpse of His greatness this side of eternity, our words can’t truly describe Him, and our minds can’t even imagine Him, but as songwriters we have to at least make a valiant effort! So to me, “the greatest sign and wonder”, describes God as the most miraculous of all miracles, greater than the entire created universe, way above the highest thought, and yet still drawing us; fallible, needy creatures that we are, towards Himself, through Jesus Christ and by the power of His Spirit.

Verse two describes Him as “the greatest of adventures”, “the hope that burns in us”, and “the author of the life eternal”. That’s me trying to get a handle on eternity. I can’t imagine eternity being a place or existence without a journey of discovery. I can’t imagine waking up and instantly knowing everything about God, so I’m ready for an adventure that started when I first met Christ at my Damascus Road experience in my lounge and will never ever end! That’s my deep burning hope, inspired by the Spirit in me testifying of Jesus, and Him in turn leading me to our Father.

Verse three, “the One of new beginnings”, “writer of redemption’s song” and “healer of the lost and broken”, a new viewpoint, this time of the coming Kingdom of God. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we’re made new in Him, so our lives are reset and we get a chance to start again at 1, redeemed by the grace of our God who also chooses to stand with the lost and the broken of society. Surely that will be what it’s like to see God’s Kingdom emphatically come on the earth, not just one long worship-fest, but peoples’ lives reset, redeemed and made whole again?

This is the God I’m passionate about, not one who carried out a one off act of salvation and rode off into the distance, but One who saved us and who sticks around to be Lord of our lives, the Lord of everlasting light, the Great and Glorious God Almighty – that’s my God!

 

Alive

I had a version of Alive written and we were actually playing it live. It was going down well with the crowds, but I knew that it wasn’t right, the chorus just wasn’t quite finished. I got together with Tim Hughes the day after I’d seen Led Zeppelin at their reunion gig at the O2 in London. It was an amazing night, they were brilliant, way beyond what I’d hoped they’d be, the arena was full and there were many celebrities in the crowd, but there was something walking in the room that night, something I instinctively knew wasn’t quite right.

It’s interesting that the next day, it was the chorus of Alive that Tim picked up onand we changed, “I’m alive ‘cos You’re alive, breathing life through me” these lines already existed, but we tweaked the melody adding “be the life, be the life in me”.

I find it compelling, now, that I re-affirmed who I wanted to live in me, that we get to choose what life lives and breathes in us. As Christians we’ve already invited Jesus to live in us, but sometimes we need to just check there aren’t any squatters there too - like the things we choose to look at, the language we choose to use or the physical acts we choose to do.

Jesus Christ, come alive in me, therefore Death has lost its hold on me, and I don’t intend on getting drawn into a situation where I’m hanging out with its cronies!

 

Come let us worship

From what I’ve gleaned over the years, a worship leader’s job is to help people engage with God in times of our (mostly) sung worship. We help lay a foundation where people become focused on our Amazing God. We choose songs that build upon our understanding of Him, we create flow, we are sometimes visible and invisible, but overall we’re led by the Spirit to exhort the congregations we serve, to lift up the name of Jesus and worship Him.

‘Come let us worship, come let us sing of all the Lord has done’ isn’t a vertical, directed at God line, but really we sing it to the whole of creation, to each other and to ourselves. Why? Well if we do a quick examination of ourselves, the vast majority of us will be able to tell of something God has changed in us, maybe an attitude or use of language, maybe a healing or our salvation itself.

‘He made the heavens and they shine His glory, (see Psalm19), He moves the sun across the sky’ – We know that the earth moves around the sun, but I like they way this line harks back to a different time when man was more mystified by the world and felt more dependant upon God. Let’s face it, I haven’t met anyone else who’s been able to make a universe, or star or living creature from scratch!

‘He made the world in all its countless wonder, composed the song creation cries’ Don’t you just love the way that the natural sounds of the world are a thing of beauty? Stand anywhere in the countryside, or on the seashore and we’re in it – the great symphony composed by our God who knew we would love the sound. Next time you’re somewhere away from our noise, listen carefully, and you’ll be able to pick out the individual instruments, the breeze in the trees, the insects, the birds, and that’s just the things we can hear.

God is glorified by His creation, Jesus is exalted because creation is for Him. We’ll will never be able to fully understand everything, for now we see in part, but our spirit unites with His Spirit, and a conversation takes place that makes sense in our deepest depths, where we know much more about our Maker than our minds can express.

 

You are great

Come with me to the shore of the Atlantic Ocean and dip in your toe. Most of us can feel the lap of the waves, sense the temperature, see the colour, hear its sound – but to say we have an all-knowing understanding of the ocean as a result of our short paddle is just ridiculous.

Now let’s imagine our experience of God. He’s given us loads of information about Himself; through His Word, by revelation and by impartation of His Spirit. Yet to say we have fully searched the Unsearchable, that we have solved the mystery of the Greatest Mystery, or fathomed the depths of the Almighty Deep, would be much worse than any exaggeration, it would be to limit our limitless God to our understanding.

We cannot even come close to understanding the All Sufficient and Powerful Father, Son and Spirit, who chooses to share eternity with us. He already shares a perfect community within Himself, no competition, no self-seeking, no ego, just an eternal ever-entwining dance, the ‘perechorisis’.

God doesn’t need anything or anyone. I really despair when I hear Him referred to as a needy God who sent His Son to die so humanity would like Him again and come to His party – Nooooo!

Friends, our God is the most incredible, exciting, unimaginable entity, an unceasing force of goodness and greatness, so much so, that any attempt to use grand phrases to describe Him, fails pitifully to even scratch His surface. And while He is so, so great, for whatever reason known to himself: He loves us. His endless waves of grace carry us ever closer to Him, perfecting us as we go, changing us into the likeness of His Son, with the presence of the Holy Spirit acting as a deposit in us for what is to come.

Take time to ponder how great God could possibly be, then multiply it by a number you could never count, then do it again and again for maybe the whole of eternity and you might get closer – but not much!

 

You Spoke

There is a group of worship leaders and songwriters who get together once a year for teaching, fellowship and direction. This group is fronted by Graham Kendrick, who hosts us all and alongside various invited heroes, encourages us to stretch higher, use new imagery to describe the Indescribable, and just write better songs. At one of these conferences, the last thing said was ‘go and tell the stories of God’. Great food for thought, and it just so happened I’d arranged to travel with Matt Redman to his place to write the following day.

After a musicians breakfast, we did the usual listen to some of each others ideas before settling on an idea I had which was chords, a basic melody and chorus that sang Jesus, Jesus. We talked about themes and decided it felt like a ‘light’ song, (I don’t know how you get there either, it just feels right.)

So a song about God’s light has to start at the beginning right? When God said ‘Let there be light’ and there was light. We chewed over when time began and it all made sense, the beginning of history (His story) and how throughout God reveals Himself to us.

The birth of Christ - has there been a more significant day for humankind? They followed the star, Your guiding light, that led them to You, led them to life – telling the stories. We don’t have to keep the traditional Christmas story for Christmas! God has revealed Himself through Jesus incarnation; we can only describe it as a mystery how it happened.

The prophetic Word of the bible has told us that when time ends we will be with God and He will be our eternal light. We will be His people and He will be our God (Rev 21). No darkness will exist because it just wouldn’t be able to stand in the presence of the Great and Glorious God.

Jesus, Jesus, You light up the world, You light up our lives, Your light is alive in me. This is the point of the whole song, as believers, we receive the light of God that illuminates our very being. The light of eternity already resides in us, we therefore have the task of letting this great light shine before men, like a blazing beacon, like a city on a hill and not hide this light under our bed linen like a child reading late at night.

Wherever you are, be the energy, the catalyst for good, the one who cares most, the one who is set apart, the one whom people can share their burdens, the one whose mandate is freedom and life in all it’s fullness. Be Jesus to this starving generation - You are the light of the world!

 

Creation

All around us, there are sights and sounds of worship, the great symphony of the Almighty plays and the universe resonates, the song of eternity resounds and some of us choose to tune in to its broadcast frequency.

Psalm 19 tells us that night and day, the heavens speak of and reveal the knowledge of God and these signs go out to the whole earth. The universe lights up from an estimated 100 million, million, million suns, who show us vast space scapes, telling a story of someone more brilliant and beautiful than themselves, our amazing God.

On the earth, every living creature breathes out praise to their Maker, birds burst into song as perpetual dawn circles the earth. The sun casts shadows upon mountains and they bow to praise. Oceans move in their tidal procession, in harmony with themselves and with the draw of the moon directing the crescendo of their roar.

Our response? To join in.

To worship God with every heartbeat, with every breath and to take our place in the eternal orchestra: a place designated ours before we were born.

Can’t play, can’t sing?

Our worship is perfected in Christ so you can’t be out of tune, out of time or out of sync. Hands up, hands down, it doesn’t matter as long as we come to worship Him in spirit and in truth (Jn4:24) for that is what the Father seeks.

Creation was spoken into being. It was formed by Jesus, (Col1:16) it exists for Jesus and is held together by the power of God’s Word – who is Jesus.

We are being conducted by the Holy Spirit, to worship Jesus as He is revealed in us.

When we sing ‘it’s all for you my Lord’, we’re referring to ‘it’ being Creation in the context of the song, but significantly this includes the dedication of our lives too – every part.

Eugene Peterson’s Message translation of Romans 12:1 sums this up for me – ‘Take your everyday, ordinary life, your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking around life – and place it before God as an offering’.

 

Saviour & Friend

How can an all powerful God become our Saviour and be our friend?

Most of us can accept that Jesus is our Saviour, He died on a cross to take away our sin, we’re taught that Jesus who was without sin, became sin for us. (Read 2Cor 5:18-21). This amazing scripture illuminates the essence of the gospel. When Jesus gave His life, he did so to reconcile us back to God, He saved us and now He encourages us to share in His resurrected life, a life of fullness, a Spirit filled, God breathed life.

When we’re baptised, Paul tells us that we share in the death of Christ, that in that act of immersion we are baptised into His death (Rom 6), but the great news is that as we reappear from the water, we get to share in His resurrection. Death has lost all power over us, Christ can never die again, therefore nor can we – yes we may have an end of chapter, when we get to shed the constraints of our bodies, but we will never die, we will be with God in our full resurrected state with a new body that will see us through the whole of eternity.

Remember that Jesus chose to die, he wasn’t made to do so by His Father like being sent to His room for being out of line. He took the path to an incredibly painful death – our death. He took the spear into His side as he hung on the cross. He took the abuse, physical, verbal and mental. He did this, so we didn’t have to, He did this because of His unfailing love for us.

John says ‘ Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends ’ (John 15:13) I guess that makes us friends of God! Imagine the God who doesn’t need anything or anyone choosing to be our friends. We haven’t done anything for Him, not loaned Him our Gameboy, or cooked Him an amazing meal – He’s our friend because of who He is – a never-ending river of grace.

What can we do for Him in response to this unmerited friendship? Only one thing: to spiritually die to ourselves: to die to our selfish ambitions: to die to self and put Him above all things. Then even as we offer this sacrifice, the Holy Spirit helps us through the process, encouraging and comforting us, leading and shaping us. Why? Because He knows that we can’t do any of this in our own strength. He gives us the reason and the means to change.

The King of glory, the Holy One, chooses to be with us. He has removed our sin for good, He has given us beauty where there were ashes, He has given us unending life where there was death. Our Saviour and friend calls us to draw near to Him in all things, He has removed any obstacles that separated us, so let us decide in our hearts to never build any new ones.

 

You will not steal our children

Well let’s immediately clear up who’s the ‘you’ in this song – it’s not God.

I had this eureka moment and there it was, the idea, the expression that we parents feel the need to speak, pray or shout for our children.

It’s a serious subject, one that I didn’t take lightly, nor do I still. I’m reminded of the account in Jude1 where the archangel Michael comes before Satan and says ‘the Lord rebuke you’ and it’s in Jesus name we stand as we sing this song.

I met up with Martin Smith at an event we were both playing at the NEC in Birmingham. I remember explaining the premise of the song to him and his eyes opening wide. I sent him the lyric and we got together very soon after that to finish the song. Martin had been playing around with a melody that formed the verses and chorus, we just put a new bridge together and there it was.

‘There is One the angels bow to praise: whose Name’s above all names: who brought out Lazarus from the grave,’’ it’s pretty clear who’s the One we’re talking about right? All of creation knows who this is and the darkness trembles when He says ‘Let my people go’. I remember coming up with this theme and just feeling so overawed. We can come before the powers that would steal away our children and just like Moses before Pharoah, speak in the name of the all powerful God and say ‘Let My people go! You will not steal our children, you will never break our hearts’.

Please take hold of this and allow the Holy Spirit to stir you to pray!

There is nothing more precious to us on this planet than our children, from the moment they take their first lung full of air we’re programmed to love them, in a life changing, defend them with all of my life kind of way, it’s just the way it is. Yet I’ve seen countless Christian parents, for whatever reason, battle for the well being of their kids. Whether it be a walking away from a relationship with God, or becoming beguiled with other ideals, relationships or attitudes, this has led to a separation from their parents in some kind of way.

This message is not just for birth parents, if you’ve sown into someone, if you’ve sponsored underprivileged kids, if you’ve prayed for this generation, then you too can sing these words.

There is a battle raging that we cannot see, but we feel its effects, we sense its victories and defeats. Just remember that Jesus broke the power of darkness at Calvary, once and for all – it’s just making its final stand.

In a famous quote, the head of MTV said that not only did they control the thoughts of this generation of young people - they owned them. Well I hope the Church has something say about that - I know God does.

 

Joy of the Lord

A few years ago I was invited to a gathering of church leaders in Singapore. Nice for some I hear you say, a bit of sun, meeting up with old friends etc, but this gathering was different. The leaders were from churches in nations where they were being persecuted because of their faith. Some had been smuggled out of their country to be there, some were wanted men and women being hunted by their governments, why - because they were Christians. Like you and me, but at the sharp end!

I listened to horrendous tales of imprisonment, torture, murder, and unimaginable things that mankind has done to each other. One thing above all blew me away, there was no self-pity, no troubled faces or obvious fear, but there was an incredible amount of laughter. These guys knew how to laugh, how to praise God, how to pray and all at maximum decibels, with obvious passion and with clear intimacy with the Almighty. What an amazing and humbling time it was.

In people who were suffering, oppressed, hunted, illegally bankrupted, living under the threat of arrest, and who had lost friends and family members to murder – there was joy, an inescapable, profound and contagious joy that I have seldom seen in our western culture.

‘When the darkness feeds oppression, when we’re broken, suffering, weak. In our lives Your power perfected, Jesus Christ our victory, for the glory of Your Name!’ This verse came from my recollection of that gathering and the example set by my brothers and sisters who passionately serve our God in the darkest of situations. They were living it. The joy of the Lord was their strength (Neh 8:10). They burst into song at every opportunity, their worship was inspiring, their hope set on a God who had delivered them from much and whom they were sure going to rely for the rest of their lives.

I felt pretty broken. Not at the stories, they were uplifting and inspiring, but at my attitude. How many times had I felt too tired, or too distracted to give my all to God in worship? How often had I not spent time in prayer, instead choosing to busy myself with something unimportant and long forgotten.

Sometimes our greatest battle is within ourselves. Have you been in a church meeting and just can’t be bothered to worship? You know who God is, know what He’s done for you, but just can’t seem to connect.

There are times when we have to make the sacrifice of praise, we have to will ourselves to worship and be disciplined in our prayer lives.

‘Sing my soul, my heart rejoice, come marvel at God’s saving grace. Love explosion, fill my being, breaking out in glorious praise, for the glory of His name!’ Let’s tell ourselves to do it, make every effort to connect with God, spend quality time in prayer. The more we do, the deeper we’ll connect, the clearer we will hear the quiet voice of the Spirit and the easier we’ll find it to express the deep joy that He has birthed in us.

Allow yourself to naturally glorify your Saviour and your song will grow louder, resonating in both you and those around you.

www.seed-ministries.org

 

Reign in me

I’ve been a Christian for seventeen years and yet I can still look back to my conversion and rejoice. In hindsight I can see the plans that God had for me, how He transformed and shaped me into the man I am today and know that He will continue to do so all the days of my life.

In this ever-deepening adventure that God has set me upon, He still breathes new things in me, works on my old failings and transforms me into the image of Christ – thank you Lord!

I can still sing ‘Reign in me’ because I desire it, I know that I’m a better person because of God’s transforming grace, I know that I’d feel an empty shell without the presence of the Holy Spirit in me and I know that for the rest of my days, I want God’s will to be paramount to my will. Sadly I can’t say that I always deliver on this intent, but God continues to work on me, challenge me and to love me.

He has delivered me from the pit, from the eternal flames and from myself. He is gradually allowing the song of my life to play out, a melody that has good notes and bad notes, a lyric with great chapters and bad chapters (it’s a long song!). This song is unique to me – you have your own. Forgive my metaphor but, there are many who will prove to be better songwriters than I, folk who’ve never walked a stage or been published on earth – whose song will be written in the great books and God will delight over their stories, their poetry and their amazing melodies as they allowed the Spirit of God to sing though their deeds on earth.

Like all great songs, we have to work hard on them, we must allow God in to continually refine us, to allow His great truth to dawn in our hearts, to give Him free reign in our lives. He will finish the good work He has started (Phil 1:16) and we must persevere so that His maturing process will be completed.

 

There on the cross

Possibly my favourite track of the Great & Glorious album. This song helps us celebrate Holy Communion or at least help us express in song, the basic premise of what we do as Christians as we take the bread and wine (or juice in most churches).

We confirm that Christ died on a cross for us, and in the verses we cover the two significant emblems that Christ instructed us to remember: His body broken for us and His blood poured out for us. I do enjoy the occasional opportunity to receive/take communion when it’s in a higher church form, you know, the Minister in full regalia sharing ancient words from their tradition and I find a sense of authenticity and power in joining with fellow believers in this two thousand year old act of worship.

The chorus of the song, “What would I have been, what would this life mean, what would I have been, if it wasn’t for Jesus” is for me both a cry and an admission of truth when faced with the incredible sacrifice of Jesus. His act of obedience took away the sin of the whole world, every impure thought or deed of every person to ever live on the earth, either past, present or future, leaving us to choose between life in Him in all its fullness, or to remain dead in our sin and separation from God. Where would we be without Him! Just dwell on that for a moment…

What is our response to the cross of Christ, to honour Him above all things for His life changing and saving sacrifice and then to worship Him in true thankfulness with everything we have. The words and music in the bridge section become more uplifting, more worshipful, the lyric vertical, speaking to God in the first person with the melody rising to draw a physical, emotional and spiritual response from us.

I hope you find yourself able to use this song in your personal and corporate times of worship, you don’t need to sing it exclusively during times of communion or Easter, I suspect our response to the cross of Christ will be eternal.

I hope you're able to use these songs to connect with our Great &
Glorious God.
God bless
Ken Riley
April 2009