Peter Mackie (Lampstand)

Hello Saints,

Over the last 2 months, with a small group from my church, I have been reflecting on the Armour of God (Ephesians 6:10-17) and my Faith, accompanied and supported by the Spiritual gifts we are given to use and the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) which I/we should show in our daily lives.

I was particularly drawn to the Fruit, or for want of a better word, the ‘virtues’ we should live by and decided to try and write a song that encapsulated them all in a way that I could use to say thank you to Jesus for all that he has done and continues to do in my life.

I hope and pray that as you listen, you can repeat the words and take comfort and encourage from the sentiment and gratitude expressed in the song and praise Jesus for his continued presence in your lives. I for one, am very grateful.

Cheers Peter

Hello Saints,

A couple of years ago, after Easter and during the lead up to Pentecost I spent some time reflecting on ‘The Love of Jesus’. How could I express what it meant to me?

The first word that popped into my head was, ’profound’, so I decided to incorporate it into a song I was working on at the time. As usual, I had the music and the outline of the song but no lyrics.

Jesus’ love can be expressed using many different words. Some people for example, Jesus’ love is gentle, understanding, compassionate, giving. For others it is a more robust love, where words such as challenging and demanding can be appropriately used.

After much thought I decided on; profound, deep, staunch, sound, tough and great. I am sure you will be able to come up with your own 6 words and please do sing them over the top of my words in the song, ‘The Love of Jesus’

As I have said in previous updates, the ‘Love’ of Jesus never ceases to amaze me, and I thank him for it.

Cheers Peter.

Hello Saints,

Jesus’s forgiveness and compassion never ceases to amaze me.

The last person that we know of to be physically healed before his death and resurrection was a man who was sent to harm him. Malchus (John, Chapter 18), one of the chief priest’s servants who had his ear cut off.

Even after all he had been through during his trial, one of the last things Jesus asks for is that his Father will forgive those who have persecuted him and nailed him to the cross.

I find these actions to be an incredibly powerful witness of the love of Jesus towards his fellow humans.

The song, ‘Father forgive them’ uses the words Jesus spoke from the cross as the backdrop to the reading of the scripture from Luke's gospel chapter 23. I wanted to write a song that expressed Jesus’s love for all but decided that the best thing to do was to record Jesus’s words as the bedrock for hearing the spoken word over the top and I have used the Revised English Bible translation for this purpose.

I hope you all have a very special and blessed Easter.

Cheers Peter

Hello Saints,

I hope you have had a good start to the year. Happy New Year.

Scripture tells us that we are not primarily fighting against the powers and principalities of this world, but rather those in the spiritual world and I have certainly experienced this in my own journey of faith over the years.

Normally, when I get an idea for a song it seems to fall into place quite quickly with the structure, tempo and instruments almost suggesting themselves. It’s just a matter of prayerfully working with the bare bones and building the final composition.

The song, ‘Healer of the world’, has so far, been the exception to this rule and has been through many variations each of which did not seem quite right. In fact, it reached the stage when I was going to drop the song altogether. However, I concluded that the message, simple as it, was just too challenging for the powers and principalities of the spiritual world and they were trying to prevent me from finishing it. So trying one final idea using the piano as a guide, I would ‘free sing’ a melody. The version we now have is the result of that decision. One take! I hope you like it.

Our world desperately needs to turn away from the competing ideologies, values and separatist thinking that is reinforcing the conflict and hardship we are witnessing across the globe.

I offer this song as an encouragement to all and particularly those who are suffering and struggling. I hope that it will be an encouragement to either affirm, reaffirm, or accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour and recognise that he is the only one who can heal and restore this beautiful broken planet that we live on.

Cheers Peter

Hello Saints,

I was fortunate enough recently to visit the ancient cities of Athens and Thessaloniki in Greece and Ephesus and Pergamum in Turkey and admire the fabulous ancient architecture and get an understanding of the history of the cities and relate them to my understanding of the Bible.

The splendour that is each of these cities and their connections to the spread of Christianity is mentioned in the New Testament and it got me thinking about the braveness and commitment of the early believers as they went about the region spreading the word of God through actions, preaching and service to others showing there was a different and better way to live.

Paul in particular visited Athens, Thessaloniki and Ephesus and it was in Ephesus where riots broke out over his teaching in the amphitheatre when he addressed over 25,000 people. Being able to stand in the same amphitheatre and reflect on his witness was a real privilege and a challenging experience.

Pergamum is a place in a class of its own, perched on a high hill that you need to take a cable car to get to visit the temples and the amphitheatre that is carved into the steep hillside. And the nearby church of St John is an incredibly moving ruin of a building and is one of the oldest churches in the world.

The song ‘Protected and never alone’ is my take on Ephesians 6:10-17 and I like to think of Paul singing the words as he followed his calling to proclaim Jesus wherever he went knowing that he was protected and never alone in his endeavours. My prayer is that should you need to, you may be able to use them and that they will provide encouragement and reassurance as and when you come upon hard times following Jesus. The song has certainly helped me.

Cheers Peter

Hello Saints,

All my songs are written using the guitar and when I am happy with the final structure, we make a recording and if the Spirit leads, we then work on developing a piano or fuller band sound in the studio.

TRUST(ING) is one of those songs at 2 minutes and 59 seconds that I was happy with as a standalone ‘unplugged’ vocal and guitar song which I use as a call to worship at church services. However, I also like the fuller ‘band’ version which is 3 minutes and 33 seconds long and was a lot of fun creating. This left me with a dilemma; which one do I upload to N1M? I couldn’t make up my mind, so I have decided to offer both and let you the listener decide which one speaks to you the best and if you like both that is a bonus. Whichever one you prefer the message of the song is the same.

We are living in a time when many people are confused as to what to believe and think is real and truthful and in what and in whom to believe and trust. Jesus is the only one we can really believe in and ‘TRUST’ as he is the only (T)ruly, (R)ighteous, (U)nique, (S)ervant, (T)eacher the world has very known. He is also the only one worth TRUST(ING) as he is the only one of whom it can be said is the Truly, Righteous, Unique, Servant, Teacher, (I)mparting, (N)ever-ending, (G)race.

Remembering, first and foremost that we are sinners who constantly fall short of God’s expectations. Every day, we face the challenges and difficulties that life throws at us, and we also celebrate the good times. As Christians we should not be afraid or ashamed to remember and then proclaim that we TRUST and are TRUSTING in Jesus who is walking with us every day. We may be sinners, but we have been redeemed because of who he is and through his sacrificial love and gift of grace.

Cheers Peter.

Hello Saints,

At this time of Pentecost, we celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit as our comforter, guide, revealer of the truth in Scripture along with many other blessings.

I attended a baptism many years ago and during the service I got to thinking about the cleansing we go through and the link we have to Jesus as we come to him be to cleansed and start a new life with him. I also realised that this is a once in a lifetime occasion but it is also the start of an amazing journey with Jesus as we walk with him day in day out and through the working of the Holy Spirit, God our heavenly Father continues to cleanse us as we sin, repent, pick ourselves up and carry on.

As we stay close to Jesus giving thanks that he is our King and Saviour he continues to wash us clean and make us presentable to his Father, our creator God. What a wonderful blessing we have been given in the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Cheers Peter

Hello Saints,

There is an amazing book called, ‘The Four Faces of God’ published in 1992 by John Bickersteth and Timothy Pain in which they look at the 4 gospels and, in a nutshell, express the view, ‘that the Holy Spirit has revealed the essence of God’s nature in four main aspects or faces: as powerful king (Matthew), suffering servant (Mark), perfect human being (Luke) and holy God (John)’.

Having reflected on this idea and using the book as my source text I wrote the song, ‘You Came and you Give’ and have tried to reflect on not only how amazing an individual Jesus is, but also the fact that he has passed on his gifts to us through the Holy Spirit.

I hope that we will all have a joyous celebration this Easter and that we will never forget that ‘Christ has risen’ and is with us every day.

Cheers Peter

Hello Saints,

Jeremiah 18:4 - Now and then a vessel he was making from the clay would be spoilt in his hands, and he would remould it into another vessel to his liking.

For many years I puzzled over this picture of God the Potter, trying to get my head around the possibility of God being a manipulator in my life rather than a benevolent Father. After all, does not the potter work the clay and is responsible for how it turns out?

It was only when I realised that although God shaped me in his own image when I was born. He also graciously gave me freewill to make decisions and think for myself. And it is this understanding that has helped me make sense of the image of the potter.

It is the clay in the potters’ hands that goes wrong and becomes misshapen or unworkable not the potter making something go wrong and that is why he must reshape it.

There are many things in the world that take us away from the image God created and shaped when we were born. Things do go wrong, such as illness, bad decisions, outside influences all of which change and affect us in many ways. So, for me, it is wonderful to know that God will graciously hold me in his hand and gently reshape me into the perfect vessel he wants me to be.

I hope this song is an encouragement to us, not to become disheartened or think that God is making unpleasant situations for us, or deliberately making our lives difficult. The reality is exactly the opposite. He is there waiting for us to call to him so that he can gently and graciously reshape us and remake us again and help us back on the right track.

Please do check out the lyrics.

Cheers Peter

Hello Saints,

As we are settling into a new year I just wanted to wish you and your families a God filled 2023.

Just before Christmas I started to receive emails from N1M about the latest videos that people had been posting in support of their songs so I decided to do one myself.

I made a video for the first song I uploaded to N1M 3 years ago called, 'Shine as a Light'. It is a very simple video of a candle burning slowly and provides a focus when listening to the words.

I think 2023 is going to be a very difficult year for many people around the world so I offer this video as an encouragement to us to be guiding lights for those we meet as we continue to follow Jesus.

Stay safe

YouTube

Cheers Peter

Hello Saints,

The song, ‘Who am I’ was influenced in part, after reading Luke’s Gospel chapter 20, where Jesus has an amazing discourse with a group of Sadducees who say there is no resurrection (verses 27–40).

Jesus words are full of comfort for people of faith, and when you think about it, are a wonderful truth that all people who die believing in him will have eternal life and as such will see each other again, ‘for to him all of them are alive’ (verse 38).

Here, Jesus is telling his listeners and us as readers, that all people who have faith though they die, (and we will die), will live again because as far as God is concerned, he is a God of the living, not of the dead and therefor He is a God of resurrection which he proved when Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven alive and well! What an amazing future we have ahead of us.

At this time of Advent followed by Christmas, when we remember Jesus first coming, we also look forward to this second coming and the promise of eternal life, which for me is an important message for our society today as I look at the mess we are in and the ongoing problems we face all around the world. So, if you ever feel like asking, ‘Who am I?’, remember that God loves you and you are very precious to him.

Stay safe.

Cheers Peter

Hello Saints,

For many years I always looked at the cross and thought that it was the ultimate example of Jesus commitment to God to bring people back to Him.

It was only when reflecting one day on the fact that Jesus was with God from the very beginning of time as one of the Trinity that I realised that Jesus made a huge sacrifice when he came to be one of us. He had everything in Heaven and he gave it all up to 'reconcile' humanity with God. What an amazing sacrifice that was!

This song reflects on Jesus first sacrifice, 'coming down from heaven' and then his second sacrifice, 'pouring out his blood' for us and I for one am truly grateful that he did and through his sacrifice I am reconciled to God my maker.

My prayer as you listen to the song is that you will be filled with the awesomeness of Jesus willing actions and give thanks we have an amazing God who paid the ultimate price to take us back into his loving Kingdom.

Cheers Peter