Love Shine Through

I’m getting really excited for March 21st, the release date for Tim Hughes’ latest studio album Love Shine Through. This one’s going to be a cracker!

Tim’s been dotting samples of some of the songs around the place which is a great way of preparing us for the musical feast we are about to enjoy.

His most collaborative project ever, Hughes further co-writes for Love Shine Through with Ben Cantelon, Phil Wickham, Nick Herbert, Nikki Fletcher and Keys Kraayenoord. Additional guest musicians adding their unique stamp on the album include members of Rend Collective Experiment on various instruments, Jesus Culture’s Kim Walker-Smith adding her distinct vocals, Michael Guy Chislet (Hillsong UNITED) on guitars, Josiah Sherman (The Listening) adding his keyboard work and Marc James (Vineyard, Verra Cruz) on slide guitar, background vocals. Additional backing voices on the album include: Jerry Brown, David Grant, Fay Simpson and Jesus House Gospel Choir. The album was mixed by Sam Gibson (Pearl Jam, Jesus Culture, Elvis Costello) and mastered at Abbey Road.

I’ve always been a huge fan of Tim Hughes. His songs are in a class of their own as over the years he has helped to shape and define what we have come to know as a ‘worship song’. Over his 15 years of songwriting, he has constantly provided a mix of profound poetry and beautiful melodies, helping to enable the church and the worshipper every step of the way. God has blessed him with such a wonderful gift in this area and Tim certainly hasn’t let it go to waste.

Perhaps his best known worship song is Here I Am To Worship, which featured on his first studio album of the same name. In many ways this song typifies Tim’s style – a simple but heartfelt, personal approach to God in the chorus and a wealth of deep lyrics in the verses – the line, “All for love’s sake became poor…” is a perfect example of the rich poetry in his writing.

Love Shine Through kicks off with Counting on Your Name – I posted its music video a while back. The song is an anthemic declaration of where we find ourselves – the only thing that we can count on to save us is the name of Jesus. It’s a cracking song that I can see being heavily featured in worship sets in churches throughout the country. Tim led worship at Momentum 2010 with it and it was so powerful.

The second track, God Is Coming, which Tim co-wrote with Martin Smith of Delirious? has been going through my head all day. The chorus is perfect:

Here You come
Running to find me
King of the universe
Yes, our God is the God who saves
Here You come
To light up the darkness
Forever glorious
Yes, our God is the God who saves

The chorus speaks of the God we see in the story of the Prodigal Son, literally running to meet us as we find our way to Him. Such a beautiful picture of our Father. The harmony (which sounds like Martin Smith) over the top of Tim’s vocal line makes this chorus one of the best I have heard for a long time.

Tim has also recorded All Glory, which was written by Nikki Fletcher (his colleague from WorshipCentral) – I have written a post about the song, which is here.

At Your Name is a co-write with Phil Wickham. Aside from the quite hilarious use of the rhyming pair “crumble” and “tumble” in the first verse, this is another one that is well worth a listen. It is the ‘New Song’ on WorshipCentral this month and you can find a chordsheet there too. I especially like the use of the word ‘Yahweh’ here. I’m not sure why but it’s something that makes the song stand out somewhat. The album actually features this song twice – one version is a more laid back, reflective piece, while the other is a full-on anthem, ready for worship leaders to take and use in services.

Many of the songs can be found as demo versions on the songs page of WorshipCentral website, along with chordsheets.

In addition, be sure to listen to the WorshipCentral podcast from March 2011 – there is an extensive interview with Tim about the album and the opportunity to sample some of the tracks. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to hear him chat about his experiences while recording and writing the songs and what some of them mean to him personally.

A full review of Love Shine Through from ChristianSonic can be found here.

All Glory

Earlier on this year, Nikki Fletcher from WorshipCentral released the single All Glory. If you want to have a listen, there is an acoustic demo available here, on WorshipCentral, along with a chordsheet. You can also download the song from iTunes – in my opinion it is very much worth the 79p I paid for it.

Feel free to decide for yourself what you think of the song. I love it – Tim Hughes did it at Momentum in the summer of 2010 and it was so powerful. Nikki Fletcher also has a wonderful voice!

I thought I’d take a few moments to look at the scripture it is based on. Jude 1:24-25 says:

Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to him who alone is God, our Saviour through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen. (NLT).

Like 1 Corinthians 13, this passage is one of my favourites. Jude is a very short book and is often overlooked and forgotten, but it is full of wisdom and truth.

I am in the process of reading the book Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey – it is a fantastic read where Yancey writes about 12 people who have helped to make him who he is. Practically every theological and religious topic is covered in one way or another, and it is a brilliant opportunity to explore the writings and lives of many influential people. Martin Luther King Jr, G.K. Chesterton, Leo Tolstoy and Feodor Dostoevsky are among those who feature. It is a compelling read and I highly recommend it – buy it from Amazon.

In Soul Survivor, I came across the most moving reference to this passage from Jude that I have ever seen. It is part of the chapter on Dr. C. Everett Koop, the Surgeon General of the USA from 1982 to 1989. He was a pioneer in the field of premature birth – saving hundreds of babies other medical professionals would consider a lost cause. During his time as the Surgeon General, he worked in the battle against AIDS, starting his 1986 report on the subject with the following:

‘At the beginning of the AIDS epidemic many Americans had little sympathy for people with AIDS. The feeling was that somehow people from certain groups “deserved” their illness. Let us put those feelings behind us. We are fighting a disease, not people.’ - cited in Soul Survivor, p. 183.

Unfortunately, Dr. Koop is not well remembered. His report on the effects of abortion on women in January of 1989 concluded that, ‘…the scientific studies do not provide conclusive data about the health effects of abortion on women.’ This became twisted by many ‘pro-choice’ groups, who proclaimed that, ‘Koop says abortion does not harm women.’ Dr. Koop, personally, was fiercely opposed to abortion. He had seen so many premature births grow to become healthy human beings, and it was a tragedy for him when he thought of the number of potential lives wasted. As his report on abortion seemed to contradict his own values, he soon lost credibility and he quietly resigned.

Back to Jude…here is the passage that broke my heart:

[Dr Koop's] serene faith was tested in 1968 when [he] suffered the most painful tragedy of his life, an event that profoundly changed his emotional make-up. Before then, Koop thought it a sign of weakness for a doctor to cry with grieving parents; afterwards, he found it hard not to. His son David, a twenty-year-old student, fell to his death in a mountain-climbing accident. David’s body lay on the rocks for fifty-two hours before rescuers could reach it, an excruciating ordeal for the Koop family. Yet Koop’s personal journal of the time, published as the book Sometimes Mountains Move, contains no hint of any wrestling with God. It ends with a quotation from the New Testament book of Jude, ‘And now unto him who is able to keep you from falling…’ followed by Koop’s own declaration of faith: ‘God was able, but in His sovereignty He chose not to.’ – Soul Survivor, p. 174.

What strength.

We can all learn from that passage. It helps us to remember that God is all powerful and God is able, and He is also wise and just. We need to trust that ‘in His sovereignty,’ He holds the world in balance. When circumstances hit us, they are not always from God. Yet God has the power and the authority to work for our good through all things.

And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. - Romans 8:28, NIV.

God is working to His purpose in all things. All we need to do is love Him.

All glory to God who is able.