SOUL SURMISE

How Can I Give You Up (Hosea)

It wasn’t vows you’ve broken

But my soft and tender heart

Oh the ache of the shredded rip

Of my insides being torn apart

And into the dark black night

That’s where my love went

I drowned here in a flood of tears

That my heart spent

 

How can I give you up

How can I let you go

When Grace is who I am

And forgiving all I know

 

I’m not a tablet of stone

I breathe and feel deep down

Like nails hammered into flesh

The vile thud of adultery’s sound

Maybe no one hears the cry

When emotions are left paralysed

Sticks and stones don’t hurt me

Like a lovers lies

 

How can I give you up

How can I let you go

When Grace is who I am

And forgiving all I know

 

I’ll romance you back to life

You’ll know me once again

Whatever it takes to take you

To the story of love’s end.

Lyric For The Day 28.1.12 from Frozen Lake by Iain Archer

" I wanna be someone who makes you feel beautiful

I wanna be someone who does

I wanna be someone who makes you feel beautiful

I wanna be someone

Who covers you with love..."

  - from Frozen Lake by Iain Archer

This was on our family compliation CD this afternoon and it is just so hard to beat. Whether directed to wife, lover or everyone I meet this is a grand design of human ambition.

TOMORROW IN FITZROY

Tomorrow morning at 11 in Fitzroy we get an insight into the warm and tender heart of an angry God as we follow Hosea into chapters 10 and 11... a creative sermon is in the writing! It can't be done in traditional exegesis! We will hear from one of our members Carole McFarland who works for London City Mission. Also the countdown to our Community Bible Experience where we will be reading the entire New Testament during Lent. Vibrant worship will have a Rend Collective slant.

In the evening, at 7, it is our monthly Faith on Trial where Christianity comes under a cerebral microscope. Tomorrow night it is the BBC's William Crawley speaking about Science and Faith. It'll be quality and no doubt deeply thoughtful.

Lyric For The Day 27.1.12 from Joy by Mick Jagger

"My soul is like a ruby
And I threw it in the earth
But now my hands are bleeding
From scrabbling in the dirt
And I looked up to the heavens
And a light is on my face
I never never never
Thought I'd find a state of grace

Oh joy, love you bring
Oh joy, make my heart my sing
Oh joy, joy in everything"

-          From Joy by Mick Jagger

I have discovered the Rolling Stones for the first time this winter and one of the things that has most surprised me is the morsels of Christian Gospel that can be found in their train wrecks of hedonism! Here again, in Mick Jagger’s solo career, a clear and poetic expression of Christian grace. Something very special was given, the singer threw it away and needed an outside party to save what was lost through an act of grace. Obviously the fact that Bono joined Jagger on lead vocal on this song suggests that Jagger was writing with the U2 singer in mind but it is not a co-write; fascinating!

Lyric For The Day 26.1.12 from Who Am I Living For by Katy Perry

"So I pray for favour like Esther

I need your strength to handle the pressure

I know there will be sacrifice

But that’s the price

...

I can see the writing on the wall

But I cannot ignore this war

At the end of it all

Who am I living for?"

-      From Who Am I Living For by Katy Perry

 The racy and often sexed up Katy Perry pulls out the Old Testament heroine Esther as a role model. Wow! What’s going down here? Well, we shouldn’t be surprised at Perry’s knowledge of all things Biblical. This “bad” girl of pop was brought up in the home of a pastor and started her career singing Christian songs. Perry has spoken about how her mid teen self would be horrified by who she is now and has said that this is one of her most introspective songs, wrestling with her past and her present and her future. There is no doubt that this is a song in turmoil. There is a sense of call, maybe to fight for God. There is an awareness of the cost of that call. There is also an omnipresence of flames and sense of lightning striking judgement. Does Perry see herself tossed about in the seas in between. Or is she hoping to be a redeeming factor in the world she now inhabits?

Esther is an interesting character for Perry to turn to. God is never mentioned in the book named after Esther but she saves God’s people. The sense is that, though not named, God is sovereign and all around the story. Is that what Perry wishes for herself? Is this how Katy Perry sees herself; God being no longer part of the conversation around her but no less a presence of the love and destiny surrounding her?

Whatever the seas or the turmoil, like Dylan’s You’ve Gotta Serve Somebody, it is a question we all have to ask; who am I living for?