Newsong: Lord when I remember (Father's House)

 Lord when I remember (Father's house) by Thomas Dean

 I was really lucky to get some time away to write in February and this idea had been on my mind for a while. Jesus own words "Why were you searching for Me? Didn't you know I had to be in My Father's house?" get to the heart of our own lives of worship and devotion. I also wanted to try and put some flesh on the idea of being in God's presence, in his house, and understanding our new identity is in him and him only. (Romans 3, Luke 2.49) 




Verse 1
Lord when I remember
My orphaned heart
I felt no worth

Struggling for direction
You sought me out
And brought me home

I'm standing in your presence

Chorus:
Now when you look for me,
You'll find me in my Father's house
It's where I love to be
You'll find me in my Father's house
He knows my name.

Verse 2:
Imprisoned when you found me
Now your life runs through my veins
And I know freedom in your sonship
You've healed my heart
I am your child

I'm standing in your presence

Bridge:
Thank you, Father

 Father's House (Remix) by Thomas Dean 

Come to the Party

"A man asked his friends to a party. But they all said 'We're too busy!' 
The man then asked poor people, hurt people , and people with no homes. 'Come to the party!' he said. And they did! 
"The man was happy now, And everyone enjoyed the party."








This is our God! 


Everyone should own a Children's Bible. 

Good Words

“If leading worship is just about bringing a group of people into a room so we can get goosebumps and sing songs together, there’s not much value in that. But if leading worship is a means to an end, that we leave this place as a different kind of people, as part of a new humanity that God wants to create – the people that are caring for the widows and orphans, that aren’t bound by the systems of this world but becoming free, becoming fully engaged in our world – then that matters.” Michael Gungor. 

New Song: My God Lives

Had a few people ask for these to be put up somewhere, so here you are. 


  My God Lives (Fly) #remix by Thomas Dean

My God lives, breathing life into the weary

My God heals, and He wants to make me whole

We were made to reflect You in your beauty

Oh Lord

Chorus:

Would I fly, as Your spirit makes me new

My life shall point to You

Renewed, Refined, Restored

Would I soar, in my weakness You’ll be strong

An adopted child of God

I am Yours

Our God speaks, building faith into his children

Words of truth, bringing freedom from our shame

We’ve been saved, to reflect You in Your beauty

Oh Lord

Bridge:

In Your freedom, forgiveness

With the hope of Your promise

I am Yours

In the grip of my Father

Who can love like no other

I am Yours

More?

I’ve loved the last few sessions of worship I’ve been involved in. (We'll leave the fancy words behind for a change) They have called to my attention – God; and with my family, I’ve sung out to Him because of X amount of reasons culminating in Him being worth it, or worthy. Brilliant.

I get increasingly excited about gathered times of exalting Jesus. I want each time to be more awe-filled and intimate than the last. So I ask myself: 

 What can we do that takes us deeper in truth?

 How can we get out of the way so people can tune into the speaking voice of God and be reassured by His comforting Spirit?

 How can we help people who engage with God in different ways to meet with Him?

What’s right for this gathering? Celebration? Repentance?

I love all of this, I need to grow in all of this, but I get frustrated. I want more, I want the real thing. We love to sing and surrender, we love to live our lives for the glory of Him who is able, but more and more I identify with the phrase ‘now and not yet’.

'If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy, I can only conclude that I was not made for here' C.S Lewis

If all we have to look forward to is better introductions, more creative artwork, slicker productions and more thought provoking lyrics then I’m out. I want our gathered worship times to host the presence of God. To give us more and more of an idea of what it might be like when nothing holds us back from Him. To know God like Adam did – naked and unashamed.

The trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

I love the story of a well-known lead worshipper sprinting around an empty car park because there were no words left that could satisfy their hunger for God. In preparing for my next service I sometimes struggle that however pleasing our worship to Him is and however much we hear from God, there is still more. Am I just greedy with God? We have to do everything we can to allow the presence of God to dominate our times together, but no amount of planning can take the place of the euphoria of being with Him in Spirit and in Truth.

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

 Jeremiah 29

New Song: God Who Saves

  God who saves by Thomas Dean

So my good friend Robert decided he'd like to record a song of worship I wrote last year. Thanks Rob! Feel free to have a listen, the lyrics are here if you want a look.

Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death. Psalm 68:20

Newsong: Broken As I Am

 Broken As I Am by Thomas Dean

Rubbish recording but quite like the song! Hope to do it properly very soon.
Words are viewable here. Enjoy.

2011 - Some Things Must Die

Christmas is now out of the way, I don't need to transpose any more tenor saxophone parts, compile any more carol services, host any more cavalcade road shows or conduct any more scratch choirs for another eleven months. Hurrah. I loved every second and feel like I know how we can improve next year, brilliant. Now...

I have two jobs, I have time to play with, I have ideas to pursue and brand new books and records to get stuck into. I'm excited about developing as a musician, as a friend, as someone who knows God and someone who considers the things of God. But what to prioritise? I'm getting to know all too well that if you spend life spinning plate after plate you will never become chief trapeze artist! (Incredible circus analogy)

I've been compiling a mental list of all the things I'd love to commit to getting better at this year.

• Prayer Journalling
• Getting back into Classical Music listening.
• Keeping up with my BibleinOneYear.
• Spending more time worshipping in my room, with guitar and without.
• Practising to be a better worship leader
• Prioritising certain relationships and bringing the LORD right into them.
• Songwriting and encouraging others in that.
• Getting back into the habit of reading things that shape me and those around me.
• Blog now and then!

I'm already exhausted at the prospect. Painfully aware that if any of these things are going to 'bear fruit' then there is going to have to be a serious cull in previous activities to allow the things I view as priorities to take shape.

Looking around my room its clear that I love to hoard stuff. Or at least, I find it very difficult to let things go. I own about 20 football shirts, I still use two pairs of trainers I wore at school, phone chargers from ancient and deceased models are stashed away - the list goes on. In life I love to try and maintain about 16 times the recommended amount of meaningful relationships, watch every major sporting event and say yes to and end up heavily involved in every event I'm asked to participate in.

On top of this, the real-time revolution has somehow hooked me into needing to react to every tweet, read every status update and stare at my gmail inbox until the replies roll in. Ridiculous. It cripples our productivity and fills ours heads with stuff we don't really need to know.

We can't expect our priorities to flourish unless we are prepared to be ruthless with all the crap. I'm carried by the grace of a loving Father but I'm also burdened with the responsibility of being faithful with the gifts He's blessed me with. If I was genuinely radical I'd look at this observation I've made and I'd give it all up, make a couple of phone calls and rock up at a monastery tomorrow morning ready for a lifetime of contemplation and solitude. I'm not a true radical though and I don't really believe that these are all bad things to be involved in. I'm just very aware that I binge on them and I'm missing out on becoming the person I could be. I look at the people I admire and their pursuit of God is what marks them out as special. I want to pursue God desperately, to live a distinctive existence that points to Him and I need to constantly strategize and evaluate how I do that.

So to compliment the other bullet points I need to have the self-control to...

• Switch the computer off, you don't need live text updates of Man City vs Stoke - you can read the match report after the game!
• Not spend the whole of Tuesday mornings contributing hilarious puns of Premiership footballers names that sound like vegatables.
• Make hard decisions about which events and people I can really commit too and not feel guilty about that.
• Learn to have my default setting changed from 'check my phone' to 'talk to my heavenly father'.
• Go to bed earlier.
• Have a proper day off

I love living in this age but I won't let it strangle and define me. That's the war cry I feel I have to make if I want to be serious about living for Jesus. It needs to happen in community and in grace.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.