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Passion 2005: How Great Is Our God


This CD/DVD combo delivers the usual live rendition of favourites from the SixStep Records family. This year, Matt Redman, Charlie Hall, David Crowder, Chris Tomlin and Watermark's Christy Nockels are joined by acoustic duo Shane and Shane on this live recording from Memphis, TN in January 2005.

Previous studio efforts that seem a bit staid become alive in the live worship setting. These include tracks like Crowder's No One Like You and Tomlin's How Great Is Our God and Indescribable. Charlie Hall's Marvellous Light combines unusal imagery with a worshipful lyric while the whole project closes with the pensive, wonderous version of popular hymn It Is Well, which seems to lift the worship experience to whole other level with its raw hunger from a generation desperate for His renown

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Jeff Feyo's "Surrender"

An album I thoroughly enjoyed from the heart and soul of SonicFLOOD, Jeff Deyo. Culling songs from his 2 solo efforts, Saturate and Light, plus throwing in some re-done recent faves ( a la the original SF used to do so well), this set, recorded in New Zealand at the Parachute Festival in January 2005, is a good showcase of how Deyo's songs and worship-leading are able to blend together to produce an atmosphere of worship. This is despite these songs not being the most congregation-friendly.

Highlights include the storming opener "Lose Yourself" and the most beautiful live rendition of "Bless The Lord"

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The best Hillsong United album yet. In fact, the youth wing of the Hillsong church has been producing the best album from that Antipodian worship factory for the past 2 years. They best the more main stream August release by having a more relevant, punchier and edgier presentation and style, while Darlene and co. seem contented to stay with the tried and true (which is what their older audience demands). Both albums are just as worshipful but the United releases really are the better for the above mentioned reasons.

Look To You opens with the triple punch of Salvation Is Here, Tell The World (love the bassline on these tracks) and the title track. It then segues into the beautiful All I Need Is You, that is worshipful and passionate. Other tracks like There Is Nothing Like and the chant-like Shout Unto God capture the worshipful spirit of this youth movement very well. Closing with Rich Mullins' Awesome God was a master touch , making the best closure for any Hillsong live project in a while.

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Here are my 5 favourite Christian albums of 2005.

Shane and Shane have always been a favourite of mine. They first caught my attention with their extremely emotive and worshipful It Is Well on the Passion 05 soundtrack. With 4 smash studio albums under their belt, the soulful duo came out with this CD/DVD project containing the best of their output so far. From the pensive Yearn and I Miss You to the upbeat Arise, their whimsical acoustic guitar sound and tight harmonies underscore the simplicity and beauty of their work. Definitely an album worth buying for more sophisticated and mature listeners

christmas

It has been a right quiet and beauitiful Christmas. Kicked off with a series of great outreaches for the kids. All clusters did better this year. We (and myself) have a long way to go before effectively sharing the gospel but I think many effective seeds were sown. Hope to see some of those come to fruition.

Service as usual on 24th. Sensed that it needed a spiritual element so I did a 20 min mini-sermon segment that didnt go off too badly on "Light Of The World". Hopefully a good start of things to come. Indeed, Jesus is the light of this season. Let's never forget that.

Adjourned to the Kueks for christmas party. It was nice and quiet an affair that was rather casual and relaxed. Lots of fun crapping and sharing and playing of games and feasting on gorgeous food. Thanks to Gene for putting this one together. I am grateful for these friends that He has provided. Appreciate you all. This year was way better than last year.

Went for service at Lighthouse on Christmas Day. Nice sweet service with powerful sharing and vocals by Booby Michaels. Moved off for lunch at Yoshi (not associated with Mario) Restaurant for a Japanese buffet. Yummy stuff but slow due to staff not reporting to work (must be hung over). I do love my family although they annoy me no end at times these days. Haha. Thank God for all of them.

update

To everyone's surprise, an update.

Holidays have moved swimmingly slow at this point. Not too much accomplished so maybe that can be better, but other than that, its been quite calm and peaceful and most importantly restful.

Since somethings are better left unblogged, lets just say that some efficiencies need to be re-looked at.

Has my concern with other families' business stepped over the line? But then, how can we take it to the next level?

Kok Guan was great in his sermom. We eagerly look forward to his return. When God's word is preached well and it hits the mark, its awesome.

So far this week, its been 2 weddings and a funeral. Life goes on

4 gorgeous people and 1 beautiful lake in Queenstown

 

hungry kids

 

The Franz Josef Glacier

 

Pancake Rocks and Blowholes

 

En Route to the West Coast on the Trans Scenic Train

 

Chuch of the Good Shepherd on Lake Tekapo

 

Mount Cook

 

milford sound

 

nz

Went to New Zealand's South Island for about a week. It is truly a lovely place with snow-capped mountains, expansive glaciers, green meadows, roaring rivers, lakes and brooks, as well as majestic fjords.

The Maori call it "God's Own" in their own language and it truly deserves that title. Spent most of the 7 days sight-seeing, visiting towns such as Christchurch, Queenstown, Fox Glacier, Hokitika and numerous places along the scenic West Coast. Did you know that you can fly to the South Pole from CHC (Christchurch, not that other place)? We saw seals and penguins at this eden like place called Milford Sound. It was well worth the 5 hr ride there and 5 hr ride back.

We also did white water rafting and jet boating at Queenstown while the chaps went bungee jumping. With no inclination to jump off a bridge nor spend 140 SGD doing it, I sat that one out. Looked fun though. LOL.