Worth it all

One of the most arresting verses I remember reading as a child was Mark 8:36:

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul (Mark 8:36)

Bam - straight to the point.  The point of this life is not pleasure, money, posessions: that is simply "chasing after the wind".  We're on a deeper journey.  To the one who IS life.

I always thought as a Christian that it would be easy to keep my heart fixed on what truly matters.  But the reality is my heart is fickle and it wanders so easily!  It gives in to fears.  Believes lies.  Looses sight of the most beautiful One in the world.

About "Worth it All"

In life and in worship, I often find myself turning to David as my example.  I love that when things were tricky, he'd talk to his soul... reason with it... speak truth to it... encourage it:

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits (Psalm 103:2)

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (Psalm 43:5)

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.(Psalm 62:5)

"Worth it All" is MY song to my soul. For this week!

Here In This Place

Wow!  What a week...

The whole idea of 'the spontaneous sessions' was to encourage me to actually record some worship.  Stands to reason that the heart of this project is to just sit down at the piano and do it.  But no!  There are a million other things that need attending to in order for this to happen: sound proofing, rearranging furniture, mic placement tests, learning about recording technique, choosing MIDI plugins, .wav uploads... and the list goes on!

So, the recording process is a lot like life...  All I want to do is seek God, listen out for His voice.  But so many other things crowd into my time.  Things that need to be done.  Things that are important.   Things that distract...

But I want to be like Mary (Martha's sister) who understood what was needed: to sit at Jesus' feet. I want to be like King David who, in the midst of overwhelming times, still had his heart focused on intimacy. Even in the midst of a battlefield, right in front of his enemies, he still took the time for communion with the Lord:

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. (Psalm 23:5)

About "here in this place":

So it seems fitting that this week as I sat at the piano, I found myself affirming that in His presence is indeed where I belong.   Something in us yearns for that place... "one thing i ask, one thing i seek..." (Psalm 27:4). All our life story begins and ends in that place... there is no place like it....

Water of Life

As I haven't actually recorded anything for the spontaneous sessions yet (whoops!), the track I'm sharing today is not quite so raw as the next ones will be.  It's from a spontaneous worship session from 2011 which was then taken and overlaid with a beat and additional instruments.  It's one of the tracks included on the eponymous album by Lion&I (an RnB duo comprised of myself and fellow worshiper, James Bough).  

Ok, so I get that using a track from last year is totally cheating - but in the interests of getting this project started, I'm prepared to bend the rules a little, just this once... 

About "water of life"
This spontaneous song came out of a time when I was mulling over God's  invitation to come and eat and drink and be satisfied:

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. (Isaiah 55:1)

 And of course, the reality is that He is the water of life... 

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Rev 22:1)

I sat down at the piano to digest this incredible invitation: the enormity of what God is calling us into, and the incomprehensible reality that we so often choose to stand outside the fullness that is found in Him.

But the invitation resounds: 'come and drink your fill.  come and drink from the river of life...'

lyrics

The Spontaneous Sessions Are Here!

My very first spontaneous session plog-post, and I'm already so excited!

What is the "Spontaneous Sessions" about?

The purpose of this plog (explained in "about this plog") is not only to encourage myself and others with an invitation into worship, but to provide the much needed motivation to actually sit down and record some of this worship.  The plan is to post one 'spontaneous session' a week for the next year.  Oh yes, peoples.  That's 52 sessions I'll be posting in the next 12 months... Eeeeek!!   For this reason, much of the worship featured here will be (necessarily!) raw and unedited.  But that's no worries, right??  After all, my plan is to cultivate intimacy and anointing  which won't always equate to perfect production values!

Weekly Worship 

These weekly sessions will be between 5-15 minutes and would be perfect to use for quiet time, or for resting in Him.  The sessions will be available to listen to right here on the plog - but they'll also be available to download from bandcamp.  So by the end of the year, there'll be a nice little collection of spontaneous worship songs that can be used for all sorts of devotional and soaking times!  Well, that's the plan anyway!

It's my hope that you'll be blessed by this project.  But better than that, I hope you'll come to know the extravagant love of Jesus more and more as you spend time in His presence.