Having started uni now (just starting my 5th week of lectures) – I’ve been thinking about how to tell people about Jesus, how to live my life in  way that makes people want to get to know Jesus and be a light to people here at King’s College London. So when I heard this new song from Kari Jobe, my ears pricked up! Great lyrics about us shining, being the light of the world. Check it out here!

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” Matthew 5:14

So the summer (that never really arrived) is over and so begins another year and another stage of life. I am officially a student. I am enrolled at King’s College London and will be reading medicine here! V exciting. I am absolutely loving being back down in London, and although lectures haven’t begun yet, it’s been great seeing friends, being at church and meeting new friends too!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I will try to continue to post on here a bit. I just like to use it as a way of getting some of my thoughts out, so forgive me if it’s not all spelt right or structured well!

Ok, so my thoughts at the moment?!

Well, you may or may not have heard that Worship Central recorded a live album back in March 2011 at the HMV Forum, and it was released a week ago today. And since then, it has been in the iTunes top 10 albums for most of the last week and on Sunday, the official downloads chart named it the 10th most downloaded album in the country. It was also #48 in the overall album charts. Amazing. Now I mention this not because I or Worship Central care about how many records we sell (although it is a fantastic album – so check it out here!) but instead we are just so pleased that the praises of God has been made so public in the last week and it’s just very exciting to see some great songs hopefully empowering churches all across the world.

The album is called Spirit Break Out and the title track is written by Luke Hellebronth, Myles Dhillon, Tim Hughes and Ben Bryant. It is a simple song that is a cry for the Holy Spirit to break out, to touch peoples lives and for revival to come on this earth. It is such a powerful song and every time I hear it or sing it, I meet God in an exciting and fresh way.

At church the last couple of weeks, we’ve heard Nicky Gumbel talk about leadership and why we are all called to lead. It’s a great mini series so check it out here if you want. Nicky spoke about how the church is the hope for the nation and how we need to be leading in our culture and stepping out as the people of God. It’s very exciting stuff and has really got me stirred up. I think it is so true that the church can bring hope to a hurting world. I think that as the people of God, we should indeed be on the front line, living out the love of God. I think we need to be praying that the Spirit will break out in our churches, in our cities, in our nation and all across this world. We need to be passionate about making God famous and hearing the sound of heaven on this earth.

Anyway, so that probably doesn’t make much sense, but the point simplified, is pray that God will break out in this world, and be ready when God asks you to lead people, because you are called to lead here and now in your situation.

Much love,

Oli x

Well, my year is over and in fact has been for just over a week now. I have officially finished my time on staff at HTB/AI (Holy Trinity Brompton/Alpha International) and finished my time with Worship Central…and it feels really weird!

I have had an absolutely amazing year and I have loved every moment of it! I’ve met some incredible people, worked with some pretty cool people too, made some brilliant friends and (hopefully) built a firm foundation with a church in London that will support me over the next few years I’m in London!

It would be impossible for me to thank everyone who has made this year what it has been – so thank you to everyone who’s been a part of it! I love you all!

However, I do feel like I should say a special thanks to a couple of particular people:

Mum and Dad – thanks for giving me money to live – I wouldn’t have been able to do anything without you!

Tim – thanks for (eventually!) saying yes – you’ve allowed a dream to come true!

Luke – thanks for being an incredible mentor and boss – it’s been so much fun getting to know you and hanging out!

Rachel – thanks for letting me stay with you – the flat was perfect and I’m so glad that you were able to put up with me!

So – thank you to all who have been reading/commenting this blog and also to those who have supported me financially or prayerfully – I’m so grateful for what you’ve done!

I’ll keep this blog and post on it every now and again hopefully – I’ve really enjoyed having somewhere to think out loud!

For those of you who don’t know what the next stage is for me – I’m going to be living in London (still attending HTB) and studying at Kings’ College London, reading Medicine! Do keep in touch.

Love,

Oli

This was my last official week of work for HTB, and what a week to finish with.

I was playing keys and doing BVs (backing vocals) in the band all week, so it was quite tiring but a huge amount of fun!

There was an incredible line up of teaching, worship and fun. Some of the main speakers included Heidi Baker, Nick Vujicic, Judah Smith, Mike Pilavachi and of course our very own Nicky Gumbel . We also had Matt Redman as a guest worship leader.

I would really recommend listening or watching some of the talks from the main sessions. Click here and it will take you to the HTB website. Click on the talk you’d like to hear and either listen to it online or download it for later (by clicking the little down arrow just below the video). I’d thoroughly recommend both of the sessions with Judah Smith (I slyly feature in one of them!!) and the VIDEO session from Nick Vujicic (who was born without any arms or legs).

Enjoy!

I’ve just got home after a great night at HTB Students where we worshipped, prayed, heard a few thoughts from a couple of people and then waited on God. Now, by ‘waiting on God’ I mean praying and simply asking that God would show up and do what He wants to and so we just wait and see!

Now I must admit, I was very tired and kind of thought I’d go to students, say hey to a few mates, listen and then go home, but God had other plans.

Nothing major happened to me individually, God was doing stuff all over the place with lots of people, but I was just quietly praying and waiting, I didn’t really notice anything specific.

Now. Back to the title. Our God Rains…

A play on the phrase “Our God Reigns” of course. The name of a song, that happened to come on my iPod shuffle as I cycled the 5 miles from church to my flat.

When I stepped out of the church, I noticed it felt like it was ever so slightly raining, but I thought, I’ll just power on home, do it quick and it’ll be fine. However, if you’ve ever cycled or been outside in very light rain, you’ll know that very quickly you become VERY wet! I got home soaked! In fact, I’m still soaked now as I type this. Hopefully I won’t drip on my laptop!

As I was listening to this song and getting wet, I realised this was a bit of a metaphor of what God does often. We won’t necessarily feel that He’s doing something in us, but He is continually refreshing us, filling us up and blessing us. Now that I think about it, I’m feeling a lot more positive since praying at students, so maybe our God rained on me, but just…lightly?!

Maybe that makes no sense to any of you. But this is my blog!!

…oh and for the record…our God REIGNS!!

I hope you’ve had a great Easter weekend. I know in many ways, this post is slightly late, but I’ve just finished watching ‘Passion of the Christ’ on TV and it’s not only heaven’s eyes filled with tears!

I’m completely and utterly blown away by what this weekend is all about.

Betrayal, rejection, torture, execution.

AND

Victory, fulfilment and ultimately, love.

There are no words to describe what and how this single act of love through Jesus’ death and resurrection changes everything. And I mean everything. The curtain was torn in two, we now have access, we now have life!

The title of this blog refers to a lyrics in Phil Wickham’s song ‘True Love’. It’s an amazing song that I think tells the story of Easter amazingly. The lyrics for the chorus are as follows:

The earth was shaking in the dark
All creation felt the Father’s broken heart
Tears were filling heaven’s eyes
The day that True Love died, the day that True Love died.

When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn’t move came crashing down
We were free and made alive
The day that True Love died, the day that True Love died

There is always the juxtaposition of emotion over Easter, as it was horrifying what happened to Jesus, the film I’ve just watched shows that. Tears were filling heaven’s eyes, the Father’s heart was broken. It was awful. But it was also triumphant. Walls we couldn’t move came crashing down. We were made alive.

Have a listen to the song here:

Like I said, there are no words to describe this incredible event, and so this blog post isn’t really that great, but I just had to write something!

Firstly, I’m very excited to be typing my first blog post from my new iPad. Well, new to me at least! As my technophile father got the new iPad 2, I was lucky enough to acquire his original one. Loving it so far!

Secondly, I’ve just got back from a week camping in Newport, Pembrokeshire with my family. It remains one of my favourite places in the world! The weather was mainly good and I had a lovely week of relaxing, not doing a lot, soaking up some sun, going on the beach and reading. But now it’s back to work and back to the city, although I must admit, London looks so amazingly beautiful when it’s sunny. Today I was so happy because the sun was out! Everything is better when the sun is out!!

Anyway…! To the point!

Have you heard the song “Lifesong” by Casting Crowns? If not have a listen here.

I love that lyric – “let my lifesong sing to You”. That’s exactly what I want. I want my life to be all about Jesus, for the way I live my life to reflect Jesus and for people to look at me and see Jesus. The reason this song came into my head was because of a talk I heard today at church. Actually, I heard it 3 times! That’s the funny thing if you’re on the band on a Sunday, you hear the talk twice, but then I attended my regular service as well, so by the third time, I kind of hope that some of it has sunk in!

Miles Toumlin, associate vicar of HTB, was speaking on Colossians 3 (about putting on your new self). It was a great talk. The passage speaks of taking off the rags that we wear, our old broken lives, our sinfulness and rubbish and putting on our new selves, the life restored through Jesus, loving, kind and so on. It’s a huge challenge. Are our lives being lived for Jesus, living out His love? Or are we slipping back into our old selves, sinning, not caring for others etc? Verse 3 – “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” God wants us to put to death our old sinful ways. That life has died and is hidden by the grace of the cross! Amazing hey?!

But it is a choice. Miles explained it like this. Imagine if in the morning, you could just fall into the cupboard, and then step out fully clothed, looking swish as anything! Pretty cool right? But that doesn’t happen. Instead, we must not only choose what to wear, but also, we have to intentionally put it on. So, not only should we choose the right thing (ie. loving others, living out Jesus’ teaching), but also, we intentionally have to do it. It’s an action, not just a kind of “yes I agree that is good” thing! It says “put on”…it’s a verb! Verse 12 – “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,”.

So, let our prayer be this.

God, I put to death my old self. I put on love by Your grace. Let my lifesong sing to You.

So as I’m sure you know, lent has just started. I’ve given up tea and coffee, which I’m already finding difficult! But I suppose that’s the point really!

Anyway, a really short post today to say two things!

Firstly, 24-7 prayer, the initiative set up by Pete Greig, are running this thing called “Prayer Spaces”. Basically, they are little 5 minute videos every day through lent with a little thought for the day and prayer. I’ve done them for the last 3 days and they are really great. I’d thoroughly recommend. Check them out here.

Secondly, Worship Central is recording there very first live album in 13 days! Yes, it’s that soon. It’s going to be an amazing night of worship and ministry with worship from Tim Hughes, Al Gordon, Ben Cantelon, Nikki Fletcher and Luke Hellebronth, and Mike Pilavachi will be speaking. I’ve been privileged to see/hear/be involved with some of the new songs that we’ll be doing, and they are really great! So make sure, if you can, you get down. Click here to book your tickets! If not, and you’re the praying type, we’d love your prayer support, so that would be great too!

Anyway, I’m off to have a cup of tea….oh wait…..!

Oli

Once again, sorry it’s been so long since I posted!

So, I’ve just come to the end of a very busy, but very exciting week! On Thursday and Friday of this week, HTB held it’s first ever “live link” multi-site event. This meant that both HTB and St. Paul’s, Onslow Square were used as venues and they were linked via satellite to each other with video and audio. The reason for this was that the ‘HTB Leadership Conference 2011′ is the biggest event that HTB has ever hosted. Over 1800 leaders from around the country, and the world, gathered together for some amazing teaching, networking and worship over the 2 days. I was privileged to be involved by playing keys and BV’ing! The conference was truly amazing and the atmosphere was very exciting. As Pete Greig put it in the closing session, with that many leaders equipped and inspired “we could do a lot of damage”!

However, this meant long days and lots of things going on. And on top of getting up at 5.30AM for the 2 days and not being home until late evening, I’ve been having trouble sleeping recently….which got me thinking!!

I’ve called this post “It’s time to look up”, which is based on a lyric from Rend Collective Experiment, who’ve just released their latest music video for the song ‘Come on my soul’. Watch it here and listen to the lyrics.

The lyrics are pretty simple right. Come on my soul, let down the walls and sing my soul. Come on my soul, it’s time to look up.

Now, out of this simplicity, there’s a lot we can draw, but basically, it’s a cry that we would wake up, long for more of God, worship Him, take it out, and rely on Him. It’s that last point that I’ve been thinking about. Mainly because I’m shattered!

Psalm 121 - I lift up my eyes to the mountains, where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Much like this song, this blog post is simple. God is our strength and help.

So, it’s time to look up.

I’ve been listening to Phil Wickham’s album ‘Heaven and Earth’ again today and was reminded how much I love the song ‘Cielo’. The word ‘Cielo’ means heaven in Spanish which is apt as this whole album is all about, well as the title suggests, heaven and earth. This song is a story which starts with ‘walking through the bright white gates’ and then the response of ‘I can’t sing loud enough when I’m singing for You my God’ then ‘I can’t bow low enough at the vision of You my God’ and finally ‘I can’t lift my hands high enough when I’m reaching for You my God’. I just LOVE those lyrics. And it’s so true. However much we sing to God, there is always more to sing about.

Remember that passage in Job that talks about how big and mighty God is (actually it’s God kind of telling him off but still). Look at this:

4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?

8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
10 when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,
11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt’?

Just forget for a second that this is a passage that is primarily to show Job that he ain’t the boss, and think about the statements that God is making. He was there at the beginning, He made it all, and He knows it all! So, next time you’re singing, remember that there’s always more to sing about!

Oh, and the bowing low and reaching high thing too! It’s “more than just a song” after all! (cheesy reference to my blog title!)

Anyway, I am going to finish my triple shot caramel machiato and head back to church soon. Keep in touch.
Blessings,

Oli