{"id":250,"date":"2014-06-06T17:45:43","date_gmt":"2014-06-06T17:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.risen.org.uk\/?p=250"},"modified":"2014-06-06T17:45:43","modified_gmt":"2014-06-06T17:45:43","slug":"blog-june-6th-great-and-marvellous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/?p=250","title":{"rendered":"Blog June 6th \u201c Great and Marvellous\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"great<\/p>\n

Merilyn – Christian Edwards (Back 2nd from left )\u00a0 with Mustard Seed Home Group
\nMustard Seed Girls Choir prepare to sing “Great and Marvellous” at\u00a02000 Millennium concert at Crofton Community Centre<\/p>\n

The pop songs I had made up \u201cconverted\u201d into enough Christian songs to complete our first album \u201cI Look up to the Heavens\u201d and also a lot for our second album \u201cLove is the Way.\u201d\u00a0 When I had ran out of pop songs to convert I thought that was it – but no, something remarkable happened- I \u00a0was \u00a0sat down in my lounge reading the Book of Revelation and in Chapter 15 it said<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat and Marvellous are Your deeds Lord God Almighty. Just and true are Your ways King of the Ages\u201d and a tune came into my head- the words continue \u201cWho will not fear You, bring glory to Your Name? For You alone are Holy. All nations will come and worship You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.\u00a0 You Lord will reign.\u201d The tune in my head continued.\u00a0 I really could not believe it, especially as I knew the tune was nice and melodic.<\/p>\n

That evening I went to see Merilyn Christian- Edwards; \u00a0the wife of Michael, \u00a0the Holy Rood Vicar who had run the Alpha Course ( see blog April 3rd) Merilyn was leading a home group of people that had been on the Alpha Course – the home group was \u00a0called the Mustard Seeds;\u00a0 same as\u00a0 our charity. \u00a0I was already close to Merilyn and \u00a0earlier\u00a0 had sought \u00a0her opinion on my \u00a0\u201c converted songs\u201d \u00a0I remember singing one to Merilyn \u00a0with her then disturbing Michael in his office (something you did not do when he was preparing a sermon!) and then me having to sing to him.\u00a0 Michael said something like \u201cWe will have to support you in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyway I was in my car with Merilyn on the way to our Mustard Seed home group when I told her that I had made up a new song. After \u00a0singing \u201cGreat and Marvellous\u201d to her in the car Merilyn said \u201cThat\u2019s from the Lord.\u201d \u00a0That was the start of God giving me songs – I suppose that so far there have been over 200.<\/p>\n

It was decided that the churches of Stubbington should combine to produce a Millennium Concert and so as not to show any favouritism it was to be held on the \u201cneutral ground\u201d of The Crofton Community Centre\u2019s Sports Hall. Someone asked if I had a suitable song for the occasion and I immediately thought of \u201cGreat and Marvellous.\u201d\u00a0 Nicola and Fiona Poustie were still at Crofton School \u00a0and part of Lucy Stimpson- Maynard\u2019s School Choir that doubled up in our concerts as the Mustard Seed Girls\u2019 Choir. Nicola and Fiona went on to front the Mustard Seed Soul Band in future concerts and in our musical \u201cHis Story.\u201d They both have an amazing gift for harmony and worked out a harmony for \u201cGreat and Marvellous.\u201d \u00a0I remember them doing this after- school one day in Crofton School\u2019s Music Room Two.<\/p>\n

So in 2000, or it may still have just been 1999 \u201cGreat and Marvellous\u201d was performed unaccompanied by the Mustard Seed Girls\u2019 Choir with Lucy singing the first verse. Unbeknown to me my colleague at school, Neale Gordon was recording the singing on his minidisk.\u00a0 Although the acoustics in the Sports Hall were not good the recording came out remarkably well. John Hodgkinson processed it in his studio and it ended up being the last track on our second album \u201cLove is the Way.\u201d It is this week\u2019s featured song.<\/p>\n

In our forthcoming musical Risen! I have used some melodies from previous albums for some recitative.\u00a0 The tune to \u201cGreat and Marvellous\u201d is used when Jesus proclaims to His followers on a mountain in Galilee (Matthew 28) that \u201cAll authority in heaven and earth has been given to me- So go make disciples of all men, go and baptise them.\u201d This \u201cGreat Commission\u201d finishes with what I would say are the most reassuring words every spoken \u201cSurely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.\u201d<\/p>\n

So \u201cGreat and Marvellous\u201d became the last track on our second album \u201cLove is the Way.\u201d \u201cLove is the Way\u201d was reviewed in a Christian music publication called \u201cCross Rhythms\u201d and next blog I\u2019ll tell you what was said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merilyn – Christian Edwards (Back 2nd from left )\u00a0 with Mustard Seed Home Group Mustard Seed Girls Choir prepare to sing “Great and Marvellous” at\u00a02000 Millennium concert at Crofton Community Centre “Great and Marvellous” featuring Lucy Stimpson and The Mustard Seed Girls’ Choir at Millennium Concert, Crofton Community Centre The pop songs I had made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-shearsmiths-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1154,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions\/1154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}