Recently i have fallen into the trap of making out that christian music as a whole has nothing of value to offer. I have many problems with the way christian music operates and presents its self, and yes there are plenty of people out there who have a negative impact on the genre but there are also those who are doing something brilliant.
Every time i feel like there is nothing good in the christian music scene, i am reminded that this is not the case at all!
The band that have done if for me this time is “Gungor”. I was struck firstly by how distant their sound seems from anything else that you would find in a christian book shop, the verse of beautiful things just comes across as very genuine, as if the thought of a congregation singing it had never crossed his mind. They remind me in many ways of “The Rend Collective Experiment” and this is never a bad thing. Gungor are a great band with some awesome tunes, i would love to see more bands like this!
Anyway enjoy the tune!
This has to be one of the best songs i have heard this year. In being a folk band you are always going to be compared to Mumford and sons and not many bands could say that they could be an equal match to them. I honestly think this song is of the same calibre as Little lion man and white blank page.
Cherbourg were an awesome band, i say were because they have actually split up.I am genuinely frustrated that i only discovered them after this had already happened. All is not lost though as Andrew Davie (Previous frontman) now has a solo project and he is releasing some banging tunes so check him out!
Ok so here is a picture of a baby how does it make you feel? Maybe you are one of these people who can’t help but let out a huge awwwww every time you see a new born, maybe you are completely impartial on the baby front, or maybe they just freak you out. Now imagine the name of this baby is Jesus…. do you feel the same way? Colossians 1:15-18: By Jesus Were All Things Created
“The firstborn of every creature: for by (Jesus) were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead So here we are told that everything was created by Jesus…. Obviously as a man I can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like to go from being the creator of the universe to being a small human being who can’t even walk, talk, or feed himself. Christmas (the real Christmas) seems like a day of huge sacrifice, it was the start of everything else to come. Here was Jesus on earth as a human baby taking the first step in God’s plan to save mankind. It might be an interesting thought to try and reflect on over the Christmas period. As always if anyone has any thoughts on this I would love to hear them!
I’m not sure how many of you will know this but the summer before last I was applying to go on a team to Canada with a christian organization. It was quite a lengthy process, first of all I had to fill out a pretty in depth application form, I then had an interview with two of the local reps, at this point everything was going great, the guys from the organization seemed pretty excited for having be on board and the interview went really well.
I then had to have an interview on Skype with the workers in Canada, it was a bit awkward but I got to tell them why I wanted to do the team and they got to tell me more about it.
The thing is though that was the last I heard from them in months. After 3 or 4 months I guessed the application had been unsuccessful and I forgot all about it. I then got contacted by the guy who runs the Northern Ireland team and he was interested in having me on board here at home. It was only when we met up for coffee that he discovered that no one had bothered to tell me that my application hadn’t been successful. I wanted to know why not and the reason he gave was interesting…the guys in Canada didn’t feel I had enough passion… my thoughts on this might be a bit biased but the way I see it is that they just wanted me to put on the big youth worker act. They wanted me to be over the top loud and use phrases like…On fire…Shining Light….a real heart for young people etc. I don’t like these things so I didn’t say them, I told them how I thought God would teach and use me a lot, I told them that I thought really great things could come from me being on the team, heck I told them I was willing to move to Canada but that’s not what they were interested in.
It is safe to say I was not interested in joining the Northern Ireland team, I didn’t want to use a year of my life in an organization that weren’t organised enough to tell me what was going on. I was planning on taking a gap year, it’s actually pretty important that you know what is happening so you can plan around it. Since this I have been put off the idea of doing something like this because I know i’m not the kind of person they are looking for, I can’t take part in all the cliches and if you can’t do that, well then good luck trying to find somewhere who will have you.
I think most people would agree that we live in a consumer society, we consume large amounts of pretty much everything and create a lot of waste in the process.
But…
What does a consumer society look like in practise??
Who you are and what you do are no longer important but what you consume is. It doesn’t matter if you are a doctor, an artist or even whether or not you have integrity, what is important is what music you listen to, what clothes you wear and the places you choose to socialise in, all of this stuff is what defines us now.
Well so what??
what do you bring to the table?
You listen to Frightened Rabbit…. so what? You didn’t write any of the songs….
You wear clothes from Topman… so what? You didn’t design them….
You go to that venue/or coffee shop full of people that look like you..
What do you produce?
This stuff isn’t original. You are picking clothes that the shops want you to buy, you are listening to the music that the record labels want you to hear and you are going to the only places that are available.
The real point of this post I guess is just that I feel we should evaluate what defines us.
Is it what we consume or is it who we are?
I find this entire thing hilarious, i saw the video that i have posted below after seeing a few local people talking about it on Twitter. At this stage it only had about 1000 views and it was relatively unheard of. Tonight i go on Twitter and i see that Charlie Chaplin is trending and i’m thinking…there’s no way that this could actually be about the same thing, but it was and the video now has over 2 million views!!
For those who haven’t seen it yet, it is basically a bit of a conspiracy video.It shows a supposed he/she time traveler on a mobile phone at a Charlie Chaplin movie premiere in 1928. Or at least that’s what people are saying…..
Anyway have a look at this video and let me know what you think, i like many other people have no idea!!
This is definitely a belated post. We (The 1930s) had the pleasure of playing with Basia Bulat at last years cathedral quarters arts festival in Belfast.I will admit that i had never heard of her, before we were asked to play the gig, but i really should have! So having no idea who we would be playing with, i went on youtube and found the video that i have posted below. I love this song and i have to say on the night she put on a brilliant show!
I think “Goldrush” is one of the more poppy tracks on the album but if you enjoy this you definitely have to check out the rest ! (You can find it here on Spotify)
Enjoy!
I have looked at groups of christians and weighed up whether or not I could be a part of that group. I have thought that some groups are too liberal, and I have looked at others and thought they were too uptight. I have also looked at people and thought that I could get along with them because they like the occasional drink, and they don’t mind using words you didn’t hear in Sunday school.
Here is a sentence that will have you labeled hardcore…
I think we treat sin too lightly. There I said it.
We tend to surround ourselves with people that make us feel acceptable. We have conversations about how we wish the christians we knew weren’t so legalistic, and how their legalism is as bad as the words we say and the things we do. By the time we have finished the conversation we are satisfied that the priorities in our life are the way they should be, and we can carry on dreaming about the day when everyone has the same opinion as you, and the world can be restored to the way it was in Eden.
We think our sin isn’t significant. We are taught in Sunday school that it’s the bad things we do, and they need forgiven. We can brush over our own sin because we think we make up for it in other areas of our lives, even though we know deep down that isn’t how it works.
What if we change how we describe it.
The bad things we do…..
or
The stuff that killed Jesus
Psalm 1- I want to rewrite and upload all of the Psalms so here is the first one it’s pretty short but i hope you like it!
Thoughts come like a run away train
or unexpected torrential rain
you see its approach but there’s nothing you can do
to separate its impact from you
You can try and push it to the back of your mind
push it out with a thought to make you smile
but they both run on parallel lines
with identical tracks and lines
Wanting to see the world through deeper eyes
will come to you as a surprise
as both a gift and a curse, you stick through better and worse
no matter how hard you try
So now you see the truth
in the shape of a noose
and you try to rebury your head
but its above ground and you hear the sound of creation speaking the truth.
