quotes from Joel Houston. again~

hehe couldnt resist the urge of quoting him here. its not so much of the person, but the amount of things that goes on inside the person. i wonderrrr and wonder how and how much God speaks to this person. and how much he in return has caught hold of God's every word, lives, drinks and feeds on it as though its the only means of food he has to survive.

and then, he pours it out into writing and melodies given by God Himself. This then brings out the raw and obsolute power of God whenit is sung and spoken out into the atmosphere. The praising, worshipping, proclaiming, and prophesying through these songs, has caused the heart of a listener like me, to be completely broken into pieces until i feel like that there nothing left.

Songs like: Take it all, From the inside out, None but Jesus (BrookeFraser),The Stand, Hallelujah, Lead me to the cross(BrookeFraser),Found, Hosanna, Never let me go, and Solution, even Take all of me(marty sampson), sing(Your love)(reuben morgan), and Forever(marty sampson). All these have transformed my life to where i am right now.

it was in worshipping with these songs, and ofcoz with the correct heart, i made it to the secret place. being broken time after time after time, surrendering many things wasnt easy. each time, it felt like a part of my heart was being torn away. in the process, God assured me and showed me that every part He takes away was actually bad parts. Things like wrong behaviours, wrong attitudes, complaints, wrongly set priorites, all were taken away one by one. Thats the hard part. God tears it away one by one, not all at one go. I used to ask God, wuldnt it be easier and less work for him and less painful for me if it all was settled at 1 go?

cant wait for the quotes. here goes..

on the plan of doing the I-Heart Revolution 08

"and besides, since when has this thing been in any way, shape or form reliant on whether WE could make it happen...NEVER.. and when did we start categorising ourselves with "every other artist"..??? the very nature of what we do is different.. this is way bigger than all of that.. and so, once again God got a chance to make himself known in our weakness.. we found ourselves falling once again on our need for Him to come through with the goods - and that's exactly where God wanted us to be.."

This experience of walking on water and relying on nothing else but plain faith is universal. Many times, almost everytime actually..id come to this stage and say "God, iv come so far, what next?" then really amazingly, the "next" happens right in front of you and you walk through it yet again.

"as soon as we started thinking and prayin about it - opening our hearts and eyes and ears to what God might be wanting to do.. it became screamingly obvious.. this thing was gonna be all out.. and that's how we approached it.. in every aspect.. everyone involved has given everything they have to making every element of this album everything it had to be.. and in the midst of it God became everything we desired for it..

yep.. it's different.. but it's still the sound of real people getting real with a real God... it's in the studio, but there's no fancy, fancy or over-indulgent production trickery.. we laboured to write the best songs we could.. not just lyrics bending around melody over a bed of instrumentation in a way that would "work in church"... but we chased hard after the heart of God.. searching and pursuing the right words.. pushing ourselves to find the right melodies.. not just playing our instruments.. but worshipping with them.."

it was a beautiful way of doing it.. just forgetting we'd pressed record at times.. and letting the song and the Spirit have their way..

it's about a selfless faith.. the call to love.. the pursuit of justice and helping others.. the hope and freedom we have in Christ.. and the truth of the gospel in a world that is searching.."

i wake up every morning, and remind myself of my role to play for that day. That im not in this alone coz He is with me. Id lay hands and He'd heal, Id pray and He'd answer that prayer, I'd command and He'd cast out the evil spirits, I'd proclaim His name and He'd show up, I'd go evangelism and He'd speak and touch the heart of the seeker. Reminding myself moment by moment, I want to be good hand and good feet for God.