//COLOUR IS COMING//

This is another spoken word piece that I wrote recently. I was given the word ‘colour’ and the idea for the piece at about 1:00am and it just came out. I was leading worship at a prophetic school in Kent the next day and felt that I should read the piece at the beginning of the worship time. As it turned out, the evening session was on the prophetic in art! Ha!

Here it is:

Colour is coming.
Can you see it?
Colour is coming.
Can you hear it?

                                                                     

 This Colour is a people

 Each Coloured by their God

 This Colour is a movement 

 This Colour is a song

 This Colour is an army

 This Colour is a name

 This Colour is victorious 

 This Colour has no shame

 

 

 They are the beautifully free

 They are the lovingly claimed

 They are not hired hands

 They do not run in vain.

 They are the children of God

 They are the heirs to the promise

 They are blood ransomed citizens

 They stand for truth, and they’re honest. 

 

 

Colour is coming.

 Can you see it?

 Colour is coming.

 Can you hear it?

 

This colour is flowing in the streets of the towns,

 It’s changing the atmosphere, 

 And the hearts its found.

 It’s coming to the nations, it’s coming to the homes,

 It’s coming to the destitute and it’s coming to the thrones.

 It’s binding up the broken,

 It’s breaking bonds and chains

 It’s swapping ashes for beauty

 And mourning for praise.

 

 

Colour is coming.

 Can you see it?

 Colour is coming.

 Can you hear it?

 

 

The Sound of the roaring lion,

 His voice like rushing waters.

 His eyes like blazing fire,

 His praise fills the heavens.

 

 

He’s the father that runs to the end of the road

 The shepherd who longs for the sheep on its own

 The God that comes in the servants form

 The Most High that was hung where the dark became dawn.

 

 

And after three days, that cold stone rolled away,

 And the colour burst forth from the tomb where he lay…

 He is the risen King! exalted on high!

 He is the lamb who was slain, and he cannot die

 He grabbed death on that day and he buried it there

 It’s sting and it’s grasp, it’s dread and despair

 He coloured the darkness, He showed us the light.

 No greater love story could human hands write.

 

 

And we worship Him now in Spirit and Truth

 For Our God in the heavens, we are seated with you!

 So may our voices rise, Let us sing out your praise!

 

 

 For in this disaster,

 

An artwork you’ve made.

‘Solomon’s Friends’

A song I wrote a little while ago.

Lyrics:

One day you’ll find all the things you wished you said,
and that’s where you’ll find me.

Like and ocean loosing water and keeping afloat,
all the things it thinks it needs.

Your living out there in the everyday,
is the best way to hide.

From the questions that need asking,
and the answers you might find.

Cos I’ve sought wisdom, but it’s knowledge without you
climbing mountains is a trivial pursuit.
And I’ve sought pleasure but it’s empty without you
I’ve sought power but there’s nothing I can do.
Without you.

One day you’ll find all the things you nearly said,
and that’s where I’ll be.

Don’t leave your life and love for a hospital bed,
but be set free.

And don’t think it’s ignorant to believe in love,
for I know that I can see.

So scale your walls and achieve a thousand things,
but know that love is everything.

The tides go in the tides go out,
the sun comes up and it goes down.

But you will, you, you will never change.

// THE LOVE LETTER… // Part 1 – ‘Sexuality’

VIDEOS!

Hello everyone!

So I thought it was about time I made some videos. I’ve wanted to make some performance videos for songs and spoken word pieces for a while now and I’ve finally done it! The videos will be going live over the next week and I’d love for you to watch them.
Before I talk a little bit about the different videos, I want to say a massive thank-you to my dear friend Joel Francis (www.joelfrancis.co.uk) for recording and editing the videos and for being a really great bloke.

So onto the videos…

The first song is called ‘Solomon’s Friends’ and is loosely based on the book of Ecclesiastes, but mainly my own experiences and conclusions on questions of ambition and love.

The second song is called ‘The Nazarene’ and is a song that I hope will lend some perspective towards the person of Jesus. I guess I’m asking myself the question; ‘What would my life look like if I really, really believed the things that I say I do about God?’ It’s a constant challenge to me and, I hope, a challenge to others to.

// THE LOVE LETTER… //

The next video that I’ll be posting is a performance of a spoken word piece I wrote entitled ‘Sexuality’. The poem is actually written in an earlier post, along with a bit of an explanation.

Here’s the thing though…

After thinking about it, this current video is probably going to be the first in a series of spoken word pieces under the banner of what I’m calling ‘THE LOVE LETTER…’

The concept comes from something that an artist called Charlie Mackesey said when I heard him speak at my church. Essentially he said that Christianity can often appear as a bill to people but is in reality an amazing love letter from God. For me, this is one of the most profound analogies for how the church and Christianity can so often appear to society.
The idea of ‘THE LOVE LETTER…’ is to confront a few of the key points of contention that people have with Christianity and the Church today. I’m not seeking to offer comprehensive answers, I can’t, but if these videos go just some way in showing Christianity as the truly extravagant love letter that it is, then surely that’s a good thing.

I don’t want to go on for too long so I should end here for now, but if you’re reading this, then I’d love for you to watch and share the videos when they go live in a few days (only if you want to obviously.)

I hope you’re excellent and having a smashing week.

George xxx

Monopoly and Melodrama

Some (overly) dramatic observations of the game of monopoly…

No one means to get nasty,

It’s just a fun christmas game,

‘Healthy competition!’ ‘a playful venture’ they all do proudly proclaim.

 

And who am I to disagree? 

To play Scrooge around this christmas tree.

Another voice we all wish not to hear, a small reservation that’s heard as a sneer.

 

But it isn’t cold moaning with which I am possessed, it’s just a small observation, my quiet protest.

 

For no one sees the car crash at the end of the road, no more than a child sees the thorns on the rose.

No more than a deer spies the bullet from the gun, no more than this board game sees the contempt to come.

 

And I say again that it’s not their fault! We’re just ensnared by a game that becomes a fort.

The boyfriend you had when you first passed go becomes the opponent you scowl when you’ve property in tow.

 

And when the board is cleared of houses and to the box the money goes…

You have to ponder the cost of the relationships you’ve so willingly thrown.

 

So as the silence ensues at the end of the game, at the table where you’re sitting this Christmas Day, ponder some questions over the turkey remains.

 

Like is it any wonder the problems we face, in our towns and our cities, in society today, when we’ve games that celebrate profit above virtue and good, where friendships are tattered, integrity bruised.

And all for the win, the money’s sweet glare. That sits like a carcass laid over a snare, but maybe it’s me, I probably shouldn’t care. Talking to much about unfairness appearing fair.

 

I’ll try board games again sometime, but for now I prefer christmas with cakes and mulled wine.

Where fun is to enjoy the people you’re with not to get angry at them over a board of fake gifts.

 

Racing, Chasing.

 

I wrote this poem on Sunday as I was travelling from London to Kent on the train. It was one of those wonderful moments where the whole thing decided to come out at once. I don’t like over-introducing poems, it tends to be the small leap between over-introducing and over-anaylising something that can bother me and takes some of the purpose out of the whole thing.

So I will just say that the poem is really written to London, a friend of mine once said that ‘the great idol of London is success’. This poem is an observation of that idol, and the pursuit of it.

Anyway, here it is:

 

 

Traffic lights signal deep breaths and shallow days,
Watchmen trace the steps to the station,

Their eyes bursting with the sights of the forecourt.

 

With signs and symbols, ‘we are here’, ‘we are here’

A million people crossing another’s path, 

Before turning heel and running from their sight.

 

The silence is a normative thing, hauntingly so..

Two dozen different humans, with a thousand different stories,

All shut off, quiet.

 

What barriers should be broken down to ease just one eye open?

We walk down stretched out paths, roads with five endings,

Stories pending sharing.

 

The deep stares, the city’s glares,

We’re consumed with this hypothetical joy,

This theoretical joy, possible love.

 

A decade goes by,

You exchange tears for sore eyes,

Claret for red wine,

Wonder for nice sights.

 

And before you know it you’re abandoned to truth,

A life of your living, the promise pursued,

Was all but a flicker of this earthen white lie,

That the truth is the world that you’ve watched go on by.

                                    

Sexuality…

Hello there!

So I’ve decided to post a couple of new things for the first time in ages. It’s funny how quick we can all be in resolving ourselves to do something, stop doing something, keep something updated etc. Alas my resolution to a regularly updated blog has somewhat diminished, although with the new year rapidly approaching I’m sure to only make a similar resolution again. Maybe that’s okay…

Anyway I wanted to post a spoken word piece that I wrote a few weeks ago for a ‘TED talks’ event at my university. A friend and I were asked to present the Christian perspective on sexuality (or rather a Christian perspective on sexuality). Anyway I ended up writing this on the morning of the event in a moment of early morning inspiration.

I just wanted to get across the futility of what I call ‘bouncer Christianity’ as if we should be able to say who can and can’t come into God’s church. We’ve seen in the very recent past how the church has used various platforms and media opportunities to preach Christian morality and idealism, I’m thinking specifically about the examples of gay marriage and women bishops. In John 14:15 Jesus says; ‘If you love me you will keep my commandments’, it is from a relationship with Christ and an encounter with his love that we are transformed. We can’t preach morality before we preach Christ.

Anyway here it is:

All of us here, we live in a society

Where sex and sexuality can become our soul identity.

 

Like a product and a mould, like a tale to be told. We’re all breaking at the edges with the images we’re sold.

 

And don’t mistake these words for being moralistic or self righteous, I’m just presenting the case before us, the sights that fill our high streets.

 

We’ve come to a place where the shell outweighs the substance. We put sexuality before virtue, our identity in sexual factions.

 

But what of Christianity? What does this Jesus have to say? When history is marred by Christian bigotry, by judgement and by hate?

 

I will present to you the Jesus of my faith, he’s not a God who comes in wrath or hate but with a father’s love embrace.

 

You see for far too long Christianity has sung an outside-in, legalistic song.

 

The God some claim to follow today is the God they’re misrepresenting tomorrow. If you’ve been told that God is mad at you, I stand with you and weep with sorrow.

 

Who did this Jesus hang out with? Prostitutes, thugs those of ‘doubtful reputation’, not the religious, not the self-righteous not those that claimed perfection.

 

It was the religious who plotted and put to death the man that I follow, the man that rose again. 

 

You see Christianity isn’t a bill but an extravagant love letter, it’s not about our righteous deeds but his love that lasts forever. 

 

But what relevance has this with the subject at our hands? 

It’s got infinite relevance! Unrelenting insight that seeks to widen our plans.

 

Because it all comes down to one simple truth, God isn’t a God of captivity but the one who sets us loose.

 

So don’t use your sexuality as some feeble excuse to not know the one who formed you, the one who loves you through and through.

 

Jesus meets us exactly where we are, religion expects people to come so far.

 

Christianity isn’t about where we’ve been, it’s inside out not outside in. It’s change through knowing a God who loves you, not appeasing the religious who scream above you.

 

You see we’ve got this whole thing wrong, the church presents sexual idealism before it presents the One.

You can’t receive moral standards from a person you don’t know, Jesus says if you love me, you’ll keep my commandments. 

 

So give relationship a go.

 

Turning the tide.

I wrote this piece during Summer last year. I guess it was about making the decision to make Christ my everything. I remember sitting on the fence for what seemed like a long time after becoming a Christian and I became sick of it. I was scared of really ‘going for it’ with God and more concerned with how my life might have to change than focusing on the magnificence of a real, living relationship with Jesus.
I just know that I’ve never regretted making that decision to live my whole life for God. Jesus asks for everything that we are, but we get everything in return.
I remember reading a quote from C.S.Lewis at this time which, (as usual), articulates this point far more eloquently than I could ever hope to. It was this;

‘If Christianity is false it is of no importance, if it is true than it is of infinite importance, the one thing it cannot be is moderately important.’

If you’re in this position at the moment where you’re really sitting on the fence with the notion of giving God your all, then be encouraged! The expanse of God’s love and grace for you is beyond measurement. He is calling you to a life of freedom and fullness in Him.
Honestly, I have never met anyone who has made the decision and regretted it.

Anyway, here’s the piece:

So long shallow waters!
Your superficial touch tempts me no more.
The virtues you once blinded me with
Have become your destruction.

Can you not see?
The same strength you beckon to lavish your weight on the shorelines
Simply beckons you back to the sea.

Can’t you hear? Do you not perceive?
So tragic are your ways,
As your flesh retreats to the same bones you hate.

 

Discipleship

A video that my friend Joel and I made last year for a youth discipleship course I helped produce. I talk about the need for real, radical discipleship in a world that is hurting and broken and needs Jesus. I pray that people would encounter the love and grace of God, and that  judgement and fear would flee in light of who He is.

Isaiah 61.

Light through the curtains.

This is a poem I wrote a little while ago that I’ve come back to on several occasions. I wrote it early one morning at a time when things in my life seemed very uncertain and distorted. My dad was in hospital very ill and although I had lots of people around me, I felt really, truly alone.

Its funny what some light passing through curtains can do.

 

Am I the one who seeks the tongues of men?

When so limited are it’s calls.

They surround me like specks of dust

Caught in a beam of light

When curtains give way to the folly of the sun,

That’s sought and lavished the gaps it’s won.

Have I pertained to great advances of the heart?

Or just the small retreats of the mind?

Am I pleased with all my searching,

When I know just Who to find?

Of this however I am certain,

That when I’m caught between the bed and curtains,

I seek the voices of angels and My God alone.

Who in this painful silence,

Call me home.