Music: “Could I.”

Sung by Kim McMechan.

Photograph: Delphi Co Mayo. Ireland June 2017

Music: Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

Sung by Taya Smith

Written By:  Matt Crocker, Joel Houston and Salomon Ligthelm

Photograph: Leeuwin Coast August 2017.

Music: Gracious Tempest.

Sung by Ben Tan.

Written by: Matt Crocker, Marty Sampson, Ben Tan

Album: We Are Young and Free

Photograph: Albany’s Whaling Station Aug 2017.

 

 

 

Music: ‘Lead Me To The Cross.”

Sung by Brooke Fraser.

 

Nooma “Rhythm.”

Rob Bell.

What does it mean to have a relationship with God? What does it look like? For a lot of us it’s a hard thing to fully understand. If God is an infinite spirit with no shape or form, how can we possibly relate to that? And what about Jesus? He said he came to give everyone life in its fullest. He came to show us how to live. Maybe it’s through trusting Jesus and living the kind of life he taught us to live—a life of truth, love, justice, compassion, forgiveness, and sacrifice—that we have a relationship with God. Maybe the way we live every day, every single choice we make, determines how in tune with God we are.

Your Faithfulness.

Brian Derksen.

Album: You Shine.

Brian’s introduction to this song:

This song began days before the birth of our 6th child, who was born in Kingston upon Thames, England, while we were living and working there. Several years before this, we had found out about “Fragile X Syndrome”, a permanent condition that was affecting our son causing severe development delays and big challenges toilet training (Ben is now 11and still not fully toilet trained). Knowing the information that the syndrome is passed genetically through the mother, and having four daughters and one son, we decided to take a ‘step of faith’ to try to have one more child. We were hoping and praying for a son who would not be affected by the syndrome. As the due date approached in June ’99, I found myself becoming more and more overwhelmed by the uncertainties of life, and I asked myself this simple question, “Is there anything I can count on in life?” As I began to pour out my heart at the piano, this song spilled out amid the tears with the assurance that there is only one thing we can really count on, even when we do not understand. The faithfulness of God.

This song was initially used in Father’s House, the Musical in London in 2000 with different words in verse 3. When I began to prepare for this recording, I decided it was right to include it so I changed the words of verse 3 from a lyrical focus on the version of Father’s House, to a verse on our appointment with death. Actually the day I wrote the new words for verse 3, was the day after my car was totalled in an accident, and the day before I was booked to sing at the Sevenoaks Alliance Church in Abbotsford. That weekend one of the elders from that church had been killed in an accident, and the words about appointment with death rang particularly true that Sunday morning.

Our 6th child was a son, and we gave him the name “Isaiah Robert”, which means “God is generous – Shining Fame”. We found out recently that Isaiah has Fragile X Syndrome as well. The day we found out, my natural response was to resign from ministry and to focus all my energies on raising special needs children. Before that day was done, both Joyce and I felt God’s leading not to resign, but to continue forward and minister with a ‘limp’, trusting God’s faithfulness to cary us through.