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A new song from Matt Redman: Upon Him

Matt Redman’s new album Let There Be Wonder comes out on Friday. Here’s a third song from it, Upon Him. We like it! Here is a live performance video and also a lyric video.

Lyrics:

Upon a hill, a perfect Saviour

Upon that day, the greatest love

The punishment that should have fallen on us

Upon Him, upon Him

Upon His head, a crown of thorns

Upon His heart, a broken world

The wage of sin, the weight of our transgressions

Upon Him, upon Him

Christ has died

We are forgiven

And Christ alive

We are the risen

And He shall come again

Praise the King

Praise the King

Upon our hearts

His name is written

The King of Kings and Lord of Lords

We’re pouring out a song of praise together

Upon Him, upon Him

One name upon our lips Jesus

No greater name than this Jesus

And every knee will bow

Every heart confess Jesus, Jesus

Written by: Matt Redman, Andi Rozier and Jon Guerra

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Build Your Kingdom Here

Build Your kingdom here
Let the darkness fear
Show Your mighty hand
Heal our streets and land
Set Your church on fire
Win this nation back
Change the atmosphere
Build Your kingdom here
We pray

Build Your Kingdom Here, written by Chris Llewellyn, Gareth Gilkeson and Will Herron.

Image by UCB.

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Tomorrow: The beginning of a week of prayer for Christian unity

Tomorrow there is a special joint service with the other Churches in Ottery at 10.30am, part of the week of prayer for Christian unity.  The service will be followed by a Bring and Share lunch for all in the Dorset Aisle.  Come along, but because there is a 10.30 service, there will not be an Explore service.   Colin’s been asked to represent St Mary’s this year in choosing one of the hymns, and he, Annette and Gill are going to lead us in singing My Song is Love Unknown!

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Consider your responses to failure

From the book It’s Not My Fault by Henry Cloud and John Townsend:

We have seen how important it is to look at the meaning that you attribute to failure, because negative feelings and conclusions can cause you to remain stuck. The next step is to figure out what you do at that point, in order to do that, you must evaluate those feelings and conclusions. How did they affect your responses to failure, and what can you do differently?

When you fail, do you:

* Withdraw?

* Get angry at yourself?

* Get angry at someone else?

* Give up?

* Not try again?

* Change courses impulsively?

* Eat, drink, or medicate yourself in some unhealthy way?

* Look for meaningless distractions that get you no closer to what you want?

* Make excuses?

* Blame?

* Avoid looking at it and remain in denial?

* Run to some area of strength to make yourself feel better instead of looking at your weakness?

The negative meanings you place on failure and your emotional reactions to it always generate accompanying behavioural patterns. You must uncover your own negative patterns and take steps to change them. To do that, you will probably need Continue reading “Consider your responses to failure”

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An interview with Justin Welby: Brexit, evangelism, tongues and the future of the Anglican Church

When Justin Welby told Premier Christianity magazine that he spoke in tongues daily, neither the interviewer nor the editor thought much of it. After all, millions of Christians do too. No big deal. But within hours of the interview being released, a host of mainstream media channels including The Guardian and the BBC were running the story, with the BBC putting scare quotes around the offending phrase in their headline: “Archbishop Justin Welby prays ‘in tongues’ every day”.  Here is that interview from March last year.

Justin Welby prays in tongues every day. Whether or not you think that is a newsworthy fact about the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury, it was remarkable enough to generate several articles in The Guardian and The Times newspapers at the beginning of this year

The comments were made during a wide-ranging interview I conducted with Welby on the challenges and opportunities he has faced six years into his role as the leader of the Anglican Communion.

Not that Welby saw speaking in a heavenly language as something “to make a great song and dance about”. He freely offered the information as an unremarkable fact about his morning routine. After all, around half a billion other Christians in the charismatic and Pentecostal traditions would claim something similar.

Continue reading “An interview with Justin Welby: Brexit, evangelism, tongues and the future of the Anglican Church”
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Isaiah 40: He energises those who get tired

Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,
    or, whine, Israel, saying,
“God has lost track of me.
    He doesn’t care what happens to me”?
Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening?
God doesn’t come and go. God lasts.
    He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.
    And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energises those who get tired,
    gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
    young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
    They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don’t get tired,
    they walk and don’t lag behind.

Isaiah 40:27-31, The Message

Image by Don Moen.

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Explore tomorrow: A New Beginning with Giving

Join us tomorrow for the second of our new series. How can I be generous like God?  Don’t I need to grab what I can and then ‘sit on the can’?!  If I am generous, won’t I find I don’t have enough?  Gill challenges us about A New Beginning with Giving.  11.15am, Ottery St Mary Parish Church.