James Henley

Tale of Two Cities (Well, a city and a town...)

Hey all. I know I promised this update yesterday, but I just didn't get around to it so I'm squeezing it in today between being in Malpas Church Infants this morning and SMASH this afternoon, and then between SMASH and choir this evening. I can't really think of much to say after being at home last week doing nothing, so I have a feeling this might be a shorter update.

Half-term

We had our half-term in Newport this last week, a week after most of the UK including Aberystwyth, which meant I had very little to do and got to go home for a week which was great. Jen and I (never know what to do here - "me and Jen" seems wrong, but "Jen and I" feels a little posh - oh well!) celebrated our own Valentine's day last Monday, and she gave me the new Snow Patrol CD which I had also gotten for her and for Dad (whose birthday was a couple of weeks ago) which I'm currently listening to writing this, and the film "Accepted" on DVD which is amazing - I really wanted to see it because the trailers looked great and I missed it at the cinema.

I also got the chance to see everyone again at Cell on Wednesday night when I dropped in for a bit to see everyone, which was fantastic - I love hearing from you guys on myspace and stuff so keep sending me stuff.

I was sent home for Half-term with two things left to do that week for St. Mary's, a drama and the talk, which I gave, for the Yout h Time for Praise this Sunday.

Time for Praise

Sunday went really well. I decided to step back from playing guitar (Sarah led worship) to focus on the talk and just get the chance to worship from the back. I know some people like to maintain that they can worship just as well from the back as at the front but I will always be of the opinion that worshipping is always more about the back than the front and so ideally, we should be spending more time at the back than we do at the front. Playing every week it's so easy to just burn out, which is something I really don't want to do, so it was refreshing to be able to just worship, no strings attached. Also, I think it was John or Charles Wesley who said about his preaching, "God sets me on fire, and people come to watch me burn" so it's always good to give God the chance to set you on fire before you speak.

So anyway (I think I've ranted a bit), it went really well. All of the other guys from 24-7 were fantastic as well. We had about 80 I think, which was the roughly the same as the 9:45 and the church is getting fuller and fuller week-by-week.

SMASH

At Smash today we were looking at Jesus raising Lazarus, and it went really well. We were maybe a little low on numbers but that's probably because of it being the first day back from Half-term so they should pick up next week.

Youth Club (Trip)

Just realised I haven't actually talked about the Youth Club Trip last weekend. It was amazing. We did loads of fun activities, played some football, basketball and hockey, and got to talk a fair amount too. The Amelia Trust Farm turned out to be quite nice, although the accomodation was a little basic. We had the whole of this lodge kindof place to ourselves with a common room, boys and girls dorms, leader's rooms and a kitchen, with access to a slightly bigger meeting room in a different building.

At first it was a little bit difficult to get everyone involved in everything, but eventually over the weekend I think we managed to win people over. On the first night we played a lot of circle games and had a big game of Sardines around the farmyard, and took everyone out to explore the farm and into the woods so G could tell a scary story.

Saturday, we gave everyone a lot of free time during the day, but had a couple of sessions booked in the farm sports hall (sounds weird to right that - but actually the sports hall was top-notch) for the sportier guys... so I ended up doing a lot of running around. Then, in the evening, we went over to the meeting room and had a little evening meeting where we talked about the things that worry us, and Frieda talked a bit about Jesus saying "Do not worry" from the Sermon on the Mount. It was a really good evening, and everyone got involved and seemed to get a lot out of it.

We also did a midnight walk on Saturday night that I can't remember much of at all except for having to pick frogs off the path so that people wouldn't step on them.

Then Sunday morning I was whisked away back to Malpas, had a quick shower and then led worship at Time for Praise - which went really well as well. It was just a really good weekend all-in-all, even though with travelling back to Aber on Monday morning as well I was absolutely exhausted.

Well, thats about it, really. I was hoping to tell you I'd written a new song, but its not quite there yet. I get the feeling it might take a while, because I really want to get the lyrics exactly right because musically I think it sounds really good, so I want the lyrics to be up to scratch too. So, I might find something to do another update on sometime during the rest of this week, otherwise I'll try and write alot more next Monday.

God bless,

J.

Time for Praise Talk - John 5:1-18

This is my talk from Time for Praise today. We had thought about recording it, but didn't pull it off in the end so here are my notes for if anyone fancies reading over it. The passage is the Healing at the Pool from John 5:1-18.

I'll be back to do a big update tomorrow when I get the chance.

Introduction

I am and always have been really competitive. Way back in primary school I had to be the best in my class academically and at sports as well. And even now if you put a ball in front of me or a tennis racket or a snooker cue I have to be the best. It takes a lot of willpower for me to carry on doing something, to keep doing my best, if I know that I have a disadvantage playing something or that the person I’m playing is better than me. It’s really bad!

That’s why I really feel for the man at the pool. Everyday he lies in wait for the pool to start bubbling, hoping that if it does he will be the first one in. But he’s slowed down because he can’t walk or run on his own, and as he tells Jesus, he has no friends or family to help him make it into the water first. So he lies there knowing pretty much that, unless there’s a miracle, he won’t ever be the first in as long as there are other men who are more fit than him around. And this goes on everyday for 38 years! 38 years! Can you think what you were doing 38 years ago? I would have been -20 years old, my Dad would have been in Primary School. It’s a long time to spend, sitting, waiting desperately, but knowing that unless there’s some major change, you will never quite win the race.

Think about how desperate this man must have been to be healed, to still be waiting hopefully after 38 years.

Then the lame man encounters Jesus – the real, living God and is changed forever. So as we quickly unpack this encounter with Jesus, what can we draw out that should affect the way we encounter Him now, in our lives?

1. The Point: Jesus is Lord

Here’s the first thing: Jesus is Lord. He has God’s power and he’s equal with God. We see really clearly that he has the power to heal.

We see in verses 3 and 4 what happens as Jesus begins to talk to the lame man:

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

I don’t think Jesus is asking this man because he isn’t sure that he’s trying hard enough to win the race, the get into the pool quickly enough, to help himself. Jesus already knows how the man is going to reply – He already knows that this man has been determined, trying to get well for 38 years. I think he wants the paralyzed man to admit that he needs Jesus’ help. He wants him to admit that he can’t do it on his own – that he’s tried and failed for 38 years and knows that short of a miracle, he won’t ever make it.

We need to recognise that Jesus is God, and that we can’t do it without His help.

So, let’s look back to the passage. Jesus responds really simply to the lame man – he simply tells him to pick up his mat and walk. And he is healed. There are no magic words – no sparks of light, no heavenly choruses, no light shining down on Jesus’ face. All we’re told is that the man picked up his mat and walked. As simple as that, Jesus heals him. How awesome is it that our God doesn’t need huge sound effects or flashes of lightning to show how amazing he is – he doesn’t have to surround his miracles with smoke and pyrotechnics to show how good they are – it’s obvious. God is an awesome God who works in amazing ways! Jesus sees what the man needs, its right in front of Him, and responds to it by healing Him. And he can do the same for us today. Once we’ve admitted that we need Him that we want to live everyday of our lives His way and with His help, He will see our needs and respond to them.

2. Jesus responds to our needs

The healed man had an obvious major need in his life. It was really easy for Jesus to respond to the man’s need - even though it was such a big need – because Jesus is so amazing. If Jesus can respond to the needs of a man who had been lying, paralyzed, in the dust for 38 years, then surely he can respond to our needs as well. In verse 17, Jesus says: “My father is always at work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”

Sometimes, though, it can be hard to see what God is doing in our lives.

So what things can prevent us from noticing what God is doing? Sometimes we are focused on the wrong thing entirely. God calls us to make Him the Lord of our lives – to make Him our focus. It can be easy to get stuck on focusing on other things – being popular, our jobs, careers, sport, TV, even things that its really good to focus on like schoolwork and exams, our friends and families, even singing worship songs can stop us from seeing what God is doing if we’re focussed on them too hard. Imagine you’re life is like a car – Jesus needs to be in the driving seat, the most important place. There’s still room in the passenger seat, in the back and in the boot for everything else – but Jesus needs to be our main focus for us to see what he is doing in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

3. Results Matter – we change and we understand more about Jesus

Finally, as Jesus works in our lives, he wants us to change and he wants us to understand Him more through our experiences. Let’s look at verse 14 together. So after the man is healed, Jesus disappears before the man can even find out his name – but later at the temple, Jesus catches up with Him:

Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

Now, these might seem like pretty harsh words, but they are the truth. What use is it that the man has been healed if he doesn’t then look after his new life and his newly healed body? Jesus just wants the best for him. Would the healed man be any better off by being able to walk if he goes off and uses his body to do wrong things than if he hadn’t been healed at all and was still lying by the pool? Probably not.

When Jesus works in our lives, when we encounter him as we worship or when something amazing happens like a miraculous healing, what defines how amazing it was is what happens afterwards. If we learn nothing about God from it, and if our lives don’t change at all, then what signs are there at all that we’ve met with Jesus? We need to show to the world that God is working in our lives by letting our experiences of Him change us – and by learning more about Him, His personality and His love for us, through what has happened.

Conclusion

As we come to an end looking at this passage, let’s just take another look at the main things we can draw out of it. Here’s the point: Jesus is God – he’s God’s son, equal with Him, with the power to heal and the power to help us in our lives today. We need to let Him be Lord in our lives, so that he can respond to our needs and so that we can see Him working in us – then, as a result of Him working in our lives we need to change, change the way we live, the way the think and the way we talk.

Labels: bible, personal

Facebook

Thought I'd just mention quickly that I'm starting to get into Facebook as another one of those community sites so if you're on facebook then add me! My profile's here.

Back to Work

I thought it was about time for another big update. I was hoping to sandwich this in between SMASH and choir, but it ran over so I had to save it and then come back to it afterwards (now). So here's what I've been up to this week and last week, as well as what I'm doing this week and next week (if that makes sense).


The Refresher Course

I was away last week at the second Careforce Conference in the Quinta in Oswestry last week from Monday til Thursday, and it was really good. It was great to see people again, and to really get to talk with lots of people - much more than last time. Had great fun staying up til the early hours playing silly circle games with everyone.





On Wednesday morning (I think), we woke up to a small amount of snow on the ground which we carefully re-distributed (using airbourne propulsion techniques) before it all melted away around lunchtime. Then that afternoon we had the muddiest game of football ever - I could barely stand up let alone run around and keep control of the ball - which ended as an 11-1 massacre by the internationals against the UK volunteers (but if we had played on the hardcourt instead of in the mud our superior skill levels would obviously have meant that we'd have won ;-).





I had quite a reflective Tuesday all-in-all, which ended with me leading worship in the evening meeting. I spent a couple of hours in the prayer room at the conference in the afternoon, just really challenging myself and being critical of what my motivation was to lead worship, and I kindof realised that my prayer for most of that morning had been "Lord, please come tonight in power when we worship..." which seems pretty okay, "...so that I look like a really good worship leader" - which was the bad part. So I just really spent some time asking God to give me a passion for His name, rather than for mine - and that he'd give me a real passion for the guys I was going to lead in worship, so that I'd want them to encounter Him and to really be filled up to overflowing than for them to think that I was really good. It was a real release when I left the prayer room knowing in my heart that it wasn't about me and that I didn't matter - because then all the responsibility was lifted off my shoulders; it was all up to God.

That night there was just a real, tangible sense of God's presence in the worship - it was phenominal. We sang:

Over all the earth (Also known as "James' generic go-to praise song to begin a meeting with")
Above all
Jesus, lover of my soul (All about You)

Halfway through All About You, I just felt it was right to stop at the end of the chorus and take a moment - I had a couple of lines in my head to speak out - so I turned around with a couple of lines to go and gave the instruction to the guy behind me playing keys to hold the D chord at the end of the chorus. As I began to speak out "It's all about You, tonight, this week, this year, for our whole lives..." etc. a huge wage of voices hit me and nearly sent me flying backwards as this huge new song to God was rising up. So I did what any worship leader should do when God hijacks their worship block and stood back and just began to worship myself. That few minutes, coupled with the amazing sense of God's presense and the sense of intimacy when we were singing "I will offer up my life" as a response to the talk.

The best thing is that musically I made so many mistakes in that worship time - God just really showed how much it's not about me or what I do, but all about Him. I fumbled with plectrums, hit the wrong chords, forgot the chords halfway through that third song and had to stop playing to quickly switch around the chord sheets in front of me to the right song - but God came, and it was amazing.


Time for Praise

I arrived back on Thursday afternoon with a couple of hours to settle back home before Worship Group and then Youth Club, so this is the list of songs we prepared for Time for Praise on Sunday, which I led worship for.

Worship Block (I chose these):
- Come, now is the time to worship
- Blessed be Your name
- Friend of Sinners

and (chosen by the Time for Praise team):
- As the deer pants for the water (1983)
- Make me a channel of Your peace (1967)

Interesting... The service went well. One things of note was that this sunday there were more people in Time for Praise than in the formal 9.45 communion service so it will be interesting to see what numbers are like next week.


Youth Club

Youth Club was good last Thursday. This weekend is our Youth Club Trip to a random converted farm somewhere near Barry (The Amelia Trust Farm) so this week we've been busy preparing material for that as well as games and activities. It going to be a really good weekend. Then on Sunday, I'm flying back by helicopter (well, G's car) to lead worship at Time for Praise since Sarah's away before heading back for the end of camp.


24-7

24-7 was last night and we planned for our Youth Time for Praise service which will be a week on Sunday, and David has asked me to do the talk for. The service is going to be based around Jesus healing the man at the pool and finishes off our series looking at Jesus the friend. So basically the main point of the service is going to be that Jesus has God's power to do the impossible and that he identifies our needs and responds to them in a way that's best for us. But somehow, in between all that, two girls gave their lives to Jesus and made a commitment, which was awesome. That's part of the reason I'm really looking forward to this weekend because we're taking both of them away with us as well as a couple of others who could be quite close to making a commitment so it's going to be great to have more time to talk to them and see where they are with God. The angels were having a mega-party last night.


SMASH

We were back at SMASH this afternoon continuing our series about how God is "Awesome!", looking at how he healed the blind man.


Home

Half term in Newport is next week, so I'm coming home to Aberystwyth for a few days on Monday, then hading back to Newport on Saturday - so get in touch if you want to meet or anything, anyone.

So that's about everything. I'm hoping to get the chance to put together a paper prayer newsletter for St. Mike's whilst I'm at home, so watch out for that (if I get around to it). I might post again before the weekend but otherwise my next blog will probably be from home sometime during next week.

God bless,

J.


Prayer


Thankyous

- For a great time for everyone at the Refresher Course
- For the two girls who gave their lives to Christ
- For increased numbers (at least last week) at Time for Praise


Pray for

- The Youth Club Trip this weekend
- Time for Praise this weekend and for me leading worship
- The Youth Team's Time for Praise and for me doing the talky bit
- A good week's rest at home for me!

A Short Refresh-er-ing Break

Time for a quick update! This is as much as I can manage to write before I have to go and catch my train to Shrewsbury!

Careforce Refresher Course

That's where I'm headed in about 40 minutes. Its the second of the two Careforce conferences over the course of my year out, and this time I'm really looking forward to it. Before the first one last September I was kind of skeptical, I'd decided that I would be doing much more good if I was actually working in Malpas than out in the middle of nowhere at The Quinta (those of you who know me well are probably, well hopefully, thinking that that's a typical James attitude) and so wasn't particularly looking forward to it. I was also quite nervous which probably redirected itself to reinforce my skepticism. So, anyway, it was a real suprise and was great fun, and I met some really cool people. So, this time round I'm starting to get quite excited.

Time for Praise / The Lab / Sunday

Everything went really well yesterday, even with David still on holiday, which was good. I was phoned up on Saturday and asked if I could rap by one of the Time for Praise team who organised it this week - my reply was a very definite no - but in spite of that everything went really well, including the "rap" - which turned into more of a thoughtful monologue/recitation delivered by one of the team - much more cultured IMO.

At the Lab, we looked at the history of mission, specifically looking at the life of Hudson Taylor, who founded the China Inland Mission (is that right?) which later was rebranded as OMF. So, I thought I'd just throw in a few points that hit me about his life:

1. He thought BIG - When he founded CIM, he asked God for 24 missionaries to take back to China with him - on the first swoop CIM would make up over 25% of the missionaries in China at the time - two for each of the 11 provinces or regions in China and two more to go to Mongolia (imagine God calling you to be a missionary in Mongolia!). He achieved this number, and then on two more occasions went back to Britain and set about recruiting even larger numbers. He wasn't looking to just cruise along and maybe make a few disciples - God gave him the vision to convert the whole of China and he responded by trusting God to provide the numbers and by giving everything of himself.
2. He connected with the people he was seeking to make disciples of. Taylor was criticised by his comtempories because he made his missionaries dress and grow their hair as Chinese fashion. He became part of the community - whilst he was in China, he also served as a doctor and saw 200 patients a day.
3. He wasn't perfect - he had weaknesses. Taylor wasn't a people person - he fell out with his missionaries, constantly demanding more and more of them and questioning their zeal and their determination. But God used him - he took someone who couldn't connect easily with those who worked for him and used him to connect others with God.

Okay, I may have gone into a little more detail than I intended there... Oh well... Onwards...

Youth Club Trip - 16th-18th

We have a Youth Club Trip planned for the first weekend of our half term (in Newport), which is the second weekend in Ceredigion for those in Aberystwyth. We're taking about 16 young people away to a converted farm run by the Amelia Trust, who are a local Christian group grounded in the Methodist movement. It's down near Cowbridge, close to Barry Island, and is basically a complex with dorms, a kitchen and a meeting room, surrounded by some woods, farm animals of all shapes and sizes and a few fields - Oh, and a sports hall. The plan is to just have a lot of fun and hopefully to talk a bit about God as well. It's going to be for two nights, Friday afternoon through til Sunday afternoon, except that I have to come back to Newport for a few hours to lead worship at Time for Praise on the Sunday morning.

God Songs

Now on about page 195 out of about 280... Not bad going... Aim is to finish it in my free time this week. The next chapter is "Words and Music, Happy Together".

Half Term

Just thought I'd mention that I'm planning to get home for a few days during half term - sometime between the 19th and the 24th February.

Okay, I think that's all. I'm pretty much out of time. Next update will possibly be sometime between Thursday and Saturday, but if not I'll try and do a complete update of absolutely everything I can think of next Monday.

God Bless,

J.

God Songs / Rugby / FREQuency

Hey all,

My last post was Monday, so I decided to just talk about a few little things now, before I do a proper update on Monday.

My copy of Paul Baloche's new book God Songs arrived today and I haven't been able to get my head out of it, except to eat and for the rugby this afternoon. Its basically a cross between a textbook and a how-to on writing worship songs and also selecting worship songs - except its really readable with little sideboxes and excerpts and pieces from other worship leaders on songwriting thrown in as well.

I've been feeling kind of stuck in a hole recently with my songwriting as well so hopefully all the stuff about re-writing and crafting a song in this book will really help me bring myself out of that. Over the last few months, I've been able to write nothing but choruses (I think I have somewhere between 3-5 that are half decent) but just not been able to sit down and form anything vaguely resembling a decent verse - I keep getting inspired with odd lines and buzz phrases for new songs - my bedroom mirror is starting to fill up with post-it notes with random lyrical ideas on them - but nothing's really coming together for me right now so I'm this is help me to break my writer's block.

The other thing I've just started (day 4 today) is to read through all the psalms to try and get some more inspiration from them and widen my worship vocabulary - so I started on Wednesday on Psalm 1 and am going try and do one a day until I reach the end in about 5 months time (I think right?) and hopefully God will give me the staying power to see it through. Each day I've been writing just a simple sentance to some up the psalm in my songwriting journal/notebook and then picking out some of the lines that seem important or sound good to me or just jump out off the page at me. In future days, I think I might even try out some "Graham Kendrick Psalm Surfin'" or "Singin'" or whatever Mr Kendrick likes to call it and see if any choruses or lines come to me from that.

So, anyway, England played pretty well today. I'm not sure we can hold out much hope for Wales tomorrow, but I wasn't even going to watch the match today until I was skimming through channels and the game caught my attention. Jonny didn't play so bad for someone who's played no international rugby for 2 years and about 40 mins domestic play this season - I'm not sure whether its a good thing or a bad thing that England can now kick their way into winning every match again...

Oh, another thing I wanted to talk about is FREQuency, which is Chris Tomlin's new worship resource website. If you're into that sort of thing you can just sign up for free and get access to loads of cool stuff. Chris and band have been busy making videos teaching new songs and showing you the lead lines of guitar for some of his songs. Dan Carson, his guitarist, has a video rundown of all his gear, and there's also a great message board, which has a section on it with worship theology discussions started and moderated by J.D.Walt whose teaching on worship is really good.

Umm, what next? Some lyrics from a song I've been working on? If you read the above you should already know that this is a chorus...


FINALLY WHOLE

Oh, I can't hide it anymore
You're inside of me,
It's written in my heart
And with You in all of me
I'm finally whole


Let me know what you think. This is the most promising of my bits and pieces written so far in '07.

That's all for now, talk to you on Monday!

James.


Bonus!

I was listening to my iPod whilst reading today, and through it onto the default "25 most played songs" playlist, so I though I might share it with you... Let you know what I've been listening to since November when I bought it.


James' iPod Top 25 Played Songs
1. I Don't Want to Be - Gavin DeGraw (Chariot) 62 plays
2. The Stand - Ben Cantelon (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 39 plays
3. Celebrate - Ben Cantelon (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 38 plays
4. Love Came Down - Ben Cantelon (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 36 plays
5. Happy Day - Tim Hughes (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 35 plays
6=. Foreverandever Etc... - DavidCrowder*Band (A Collision) 34 plays
6=. How to save a life - The Fray (How to save a life) 34 plays
8. Here is Our King - DavidCrowder*Band (A Collision) 31 plays
9. From the Inside Out / Majesty - Ben Cantelon (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 30 plays
10. I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair) - Sandi Thom (Single) 28 plays
11. Through the Valley - Lex Buckley (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 27 plays
12=. The Highest and The Greatest - Tim Hughes (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 25 plays
12=. Breakaway - Kelly Clarkson (Single) 25 plays
12=. Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol (Eyes Open) 25 plays
15=. Chariot - Gavin DeGraw (Chariot) 23 plays
15=. Belief - Gavin DeGraw (Chariot) 23 plays
15=. She Moves in Her Own Way - The Kooks (Inside In Inside Out) 23 plays
15=. Above All - Rebecca St. James (Worship God) 23 plays
15=. It is Well - Rebecca St. James (Worship God) 23 plays
19=. Follow Through - Gavin DeGraw (Chariot) 22 plays
19=. Bright Idea - Orson (Bright Idea) 22 plays
19=. Who Knew - Pink (I'm Not Dead) 22 plays
19=. Better is One Day - Rebecca St. James (Worship God) 22 plays
19=. Unchanging - Tim Hughes (Love Came Down: Soul Survivor Live 2006) 22 plays
19=. Chocolate - Snow Patrol (Final Straw) 22 plays