Top 14 Songs of 2014

I think we can all agree that 2014 was a great year of music. Not only did we have a resurgence in album sales in general (Taylor Swift’s 1989, The Frozen Soundtrack, Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour) but for the first time a Christian artist had the best-selling album of the week (Lecrae’s Anomaly sold 88,000 units on the week ending in September 14th).

In light of this past year, it seems to me that there is a discord between what the public wants to hear. One week you have positive and fun-loving music topping the charts, then a few weeks later you have ones about misogyny, debauchery, and murder dominating the airwaves. Due to the lack on consistency I hear on the radio, I usually search for my musical entertainment through avenues like Rapzilla.com, Soundcloud and Noisetrade. After sifting through a huge chunk of available, I found a lot of God-honoring music and artists this past year. Keep in mind that A LOT of songs didn’t make the list only because they were made by an artist who was already on the list or I just didn’t want to make the blog title “Top 2014 songs of 2014”.

Hopefully these are songs that you guys agree with as well as some new faces you aren’t familiar with. Please excuse how heavy it is on Hip-Hop. 🙂

Enjoy!

14). Beleaf – Depressed (Feat. Mr J Medeiros, Jackie Hill Perry, JGivens, & Marty of Social Club)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuCtjSIfFT4

This song is a great one not only because of the amazing features and bass-heavy production but because it coincides with something many Christians deal with; depression and addiction. Whether it be an addiction to drugs, need for acceptance, or pornography our rest can be found in Jesus.

13). Thi’sl – Take My Life (Feat. FLAME & Json)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94KGfRsfnj0

Christians around the world are persecuted, ridiculed and murdered for their faith. Something we take for granted in America is our free reign to serve the One True God without fearing for our lives. But for those of us who have truly found new life in Jesus we continue to live with a Holy expectation of being free from the body and alive with Christ. This song is an open reminder from my brother Thi’sl that we all signed up to die.

12). Stephen the Levite – Honeymoon (Feat. Christon Gray)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB2YmCxwEXI

You can’t have a top songs list without the greatest lyricist in the game, Stephen the Levite. He toned down the wordplay and lyricism for this one but has a lot of meaty theology surrounding the great gift of sex within the confines of marriage. Christon Gray also lends a helping hand with his top-notch vocals.

11). Mali Music – Ready Aim 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rlwrxh3L6qc

Mali’s biggest hit of the year was “Beautiful”, but for me his second single “Ready Aim” was the gem for 2014. The Holy Spirit is the plane allowing us to soar over this world and regardless of the attacks by the enemy, we will still persevere!

10). Ezekiel Azonwu – Frankenstein 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7MDIHUOXGg

Anybody who keeps up with P4CM’s spoken word movement has heard of Ezekiel Azonwu. What we didn’t know is this guy could spit over a beat so well. No main topic to this one just a nice flow, wordplay and exultation of the Lord.

9). TAU – Godline (Feat. Lecrae & Dimitri McDowell)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxJAkZqlOeY

In 2014, a beat produced by GAWVI equaled a banger, and this one by TAU is no different. The only foreign artist on this list, TAU is a polish rapper who speaks over 5 languages. He linked up with the best in the game to come up with Godline, a song about a man crying out to God.

Honorable Mention). wordsplayed – Martinelli’s (Feat. Andy Mineo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3p6hNGuiPY

This one came out two days ago, so I couldn’t put it on the list but its definitely a hit. wordsplayed is a new artist from Andy Mineo and he dropped a banger about partying sober. Champagne glass with that Martinelli’s! 

8). Jackie Hill Perry – The Solution (Feat. Eshon Burgundy)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmtKC1B-PIA

I probably could’ve put 5 songs from Jackie Hill Perry on this list, but I decided to settle on one of the more impressive songs lyrically from the album. 

7). Reconcile – Can’t Take This From Me (Feat. Dre Murray & John Givez)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_28jVjafeg

One of the best overall tracks all-time. 3 of my favorite artists all on one track. Enough said.

6).Social Club – Coogi Sweater (Feat. Andy Mineo & SPZRT)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI6syfQEh2Y

Social Club may have the best ear for beats around and this time they may have picked the best production of 2014. With one of the more ambiguous topics for a rap song, Coogi Sweater is a homage to a 90s hip-hop and to the Sovereign Lord who knits our lives together with hundreds of different strands. Andy Mineo adds another one of his memorable verses.

5). Trip Lee – You Don’t Know & Sweet Victory

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdUmsuqnIys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPDKbWDWZNc

The only artist to get two songs on the list is Trip Lee. I couldn’t choose between these two songs so I decided to cheat a little bit! GAWVI strikes again with some of his best production to date. While both songs have different tones to them, the consistent theme is boasting in the Lord. You Don’t Know is a celebration of the grace of the Lord here in the present life, while Sweet Victory is about the beautiful realization of triumph we find in Jesus. Regardless of the present trials we face, we truly do have sweet victory!!

4). Lecrae – Fear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvyIm5ZpW78

One of my favorite songs from my favorite artist. Fear may be the most hard-hitting songs from Lecrae’s Anomaly album because of the transparency and vulnerability in the lyrics. Being a leader in Christian community can bring about a lot of pressure and anxiety but we find peace and rest from the Father.

3). Swoope – Before Goodnight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hf4BvKJOgs

Anybody who remembers the classic album from High Society can recall Before Goodbye, the prerequisite to Swoope’s Before Goodnight. To flip a classic song on its head and make it even better is a tough task to accomplish but Swoope did it with ease. Not only is this a good stand alone song but it also fits perfectly within the story-telling of the album. Sinema did things that most albums cannot, tell a compelling narrative without compromising the hit songs.

2). Andy Mineo – Death of Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLQc0jkc2Hw

My brother Big Juice put his best foot forward on the production but the way Andy rides the beat creates the perfect tandem of artistry and emotion.

1). Christon Gray – Arena (The Final Hour)

Praise and worship at its best. Being the only song on this list that has made me cry, there was no way it couldn’t be the number one song on the list. Ironically this song is a remake of a song from the WLAK album. Collision records has a niche in remaking their own songs. The best song of the year from the best album of the year! Grace and Peace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuFleLmUv5w

Is God a Moral Policeman?

 

If there is one thing that everybody hates, its getting a traffic ticket. Not only is it inconvenient and very expensive, it’s usually pretty counter-intuitive. If I’m speeding, it’s probably because I have somewhere to go, and now I have to wait around for 30 minutes!  Whenever we spot “the boys in blue”, most people instantly transform from Jeff Gordon to Morgan Freeman in Driving Ms. Daisy. Even if we’re going under the speed limit, we’ll hit the brakes a little bit just to make sure. There’s been plenty of times where I saw a police officer get in the lane behind me and feel the hair stand up on the back of my neck; even if I’ve done nothing wrong.

For most of us, we try to find real-world parallels to our spiritual lives. Since God is commonly referred to as our Heavenly Father, the way our earthly fathers treat us is normally what we expect from God. In the same way, since God is referred to as Judge, we expect Him to interact with us like a law-enforcer. Though there is nothing wrong with drawing comparisons, it can become dangerous if we broadly apply these earthly expectations to the Creator of the Universe.

When we read the scriptures, one thing that is clear is that God is holy and righteous (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8; Psalm 145:17). Not only is He perfect and set apart from all things in existence, He also created humans as perfect beings. After the fall in Genesis 3, the inability to follow God’s law, (Romans 3:10-12) and all the great failures of man throughout scripture, we can see that we are flawed. Even though we lack righteousness, God still erects His laws, ordinances, and worship system. Not only that, but Jesus’s teachings dig even deeper to the heart issue of these laws and requirements. Even if you manage to follow the Law perfectly on the outside, the heart will nonetheless incriminate all of mankind before God (Matthew 5:21-48).

Aside from all theses Truths, I’m sure that a pastor or well-meaning spiritual figure has told you to “Keep God’s laws! God cannot be in the presence of sin!” With all these things in consideration, it seems as if this is some kind of cruel joke God is playing on you. He sets all these unattainable standards then expects you to reach them by your own might. Since He’s omnipresent and omniscient, He can spot each and every mishap to have. He may even have a big scorecard where he keeps a record of every time you missed the mark. Many of us accept the fact that we are flawed and just hope our good deeds outweigh our bad. But relying on that means we can never be too sure of our salvation.  Is this the existence God had planned for us? Does He look down from Heaven just waiting on us to break the Law so He can write us a ticket and throw us in Hell? Definitely not!  The person of Jesus Christ is the reason why I am so sure.

We touched on God’s Law previously, but didn’t elaborate on the purpose of its existence. The Mosaic Law was brought about for many purposes like revealing God’s character (Leviticus 19:2), setting Israel apart as distinct from all other nations (Exodus 19:5), and providing a way of worship for the community of faith (Leviticus 23). But the ultimate purpose was for us to see that we could not keep these laws and needed a Substitute to uphold them for us. His life, burial and resurrection paid our sin debt and now allows us to be blameless in the sight of God (Galatians 3:24). This is the Good News!

The salvation we receive from God is a precious gift, but we cannot ignore the fact that we still sin. When God sees us miss the mark, won’t He punish us for our disobedience? If we are Christ, we escape the eternal wrath of God and the hopelessness of being forever separated from Him. Even though we have salvific positioning, our sinful body of flesh causes us to stray from God’s moral will. Since we already know better, won’t God punish us for our wrong-doings? Certainly police officers are still subject to and fall privy to the same laws they know and uphold? For us, the answer is yes and no.

As we know, the penalty of sin is death (Romans 6:23), so ultimate punishment for our sins would mean eternal separation from God. Since we as Christians are exempt from that penalty, God sometimes disciplines us for our transgressions. If we continue in habitual sin and do not repent, God will bring about divine discipline upon us. Hebrews 12:7-13 explains it best:

“It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.”

So in short, God through the Holy Spirit will discipline and sanctify us unto the image of Christ. Though our transformation will not be complete until we receive our new bodies after the Resurrection, we are to be continually transforming
and renewing our minds to discern what is the will of God (Romans 12:2).

Though we are imperfect, flawed, prideful and arrogant, God is not a moral police officer in the sky writing tickets for all our wrongdoings. If we are in Christ, we escape the tragic penalty for our missteps and are given the freedom to live a life in full submission to The Lord. That Truth is even sweeter than getting let off by a policeman with a warning!

Grace & peace.

LeBron James & The Need for Performance

 

This time of year is usually when I anticipate not tuning in to watch ESPN for a few months. Not only is football out of season, but the NBA season is winding down. So instead of watching a bunch of baseball highlights intertwined with a few overly dramatic preseason football “stories”, I usually take my talents to Food Network. But while the NBA playoffs are still on television, I try to enjoy as much of it as I can.

While these Finals are lopsided as of late, they are mostly entertaining. A big part of it has been the drama that surrounds the “legacy” of LeBron James. While I hold a firm belief that Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time, I believe that LeBron is in an elite company with only a handful of athletes. In spite of the MVP voting this season, LeBron is the the single most valuable player in the NBA. Simply because he’s the most viewed, most talked about and most maligned in the game. The Kobe vs. LeBron vs. Jordan argument is a constant and legendary locker room debate. Since MJ is retired and the Black Mamba is on his way out, everybody is tuning in to watch LeBron build his resumé. If he performs well and exceeds our expectations, we cheer. But once he has a misstep, or cramps up at the end of a game, he’s destroyed in the media and in public opinion.

Though LeBron was the 3rd highest-paid athlete in the world this past year, you’d be hard-pressed to find some one who wants the pressure to perform or to face the constant scrutiny he receives. Or would you? Don’t we all seems to have issues with living up to the expectations of our families, friends, teachers, mentors and bosses? Although I have been an athlete for the last 13 years, I think the pressure to perform ON the field pails in comparison to the pressure to perform OFF the field. As believers, should we feel the pressure to perform godly acts? Or should we rest in the fact that God has already performed for us?

The building blocks of our faith includes the Messiah, Jesus Christ, living the perfect life and then becoming the substitutionary atonement for the propitiation of our sins. Though there are some big words in that last sentence, it essentially means that Jesus’s obedience all the way to the cross allowed us to have relationship with the Father (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24). You may be wondering what this Truth has to do with the issue of performance. It has everything to do with it! After the Son did his thing here on earth, it did something wonderful for us. It gave us freedom! Freedom from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2) freedom from the flesh (Galatians 5:13) and freedom from the devil (2 Timothy 2:26). Along with those things, it gave us freedom from performance. In the basketball game tomorrow, if LeBron commits a foul, the entire team is penalized and possibly gives points to the other team. In the same way, if LeBron scores the game-winning basket, its not just he who wins the game. The whole teams does!! It’s a beautiful thing to know that when it was crunch-time, and NO ONE else could handle the Rock, our Star Player came through in the clutch!!!

As an athlete or some one bred in our culture of competition and performance, this can be a hard pill to swallow. You mean to tell me that I can go through life not worrying about sinning or the repercussions of it? I can do whatever I want and tell my accusers “Jesus paid it all!”? What about the 10 Commandments? What about James 2:17? No wonder so many “christians” are hypocrites.

Before you think I jumped off the deep end I want to clear a few things up. Though our faith is given to us as a free gift of grace and there is NOTHING we can do to earn it, the freedom I spoke about two paragraphs ago has some major implications. We are free from the bondage of sin and are given the Holy Spirit to live out the good will of God. We become new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17) and are now slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:18). So even though our faith in Christ alone by grace alone has sealed us as co-heirs to the Kingdom, we are now ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). As ambassadors, we are to be obedient to the commands of our Homeland and represent it well. If you are a citizen of Heaven, you cannot have a residence in Hell.

So in closing, remember what Jesus said in Matthew 11:20, “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” You don’t have to perform anymore. Trust that Jesus has already won the game and you no longer have to follow the passions of the flesh nor be perfect in the eyes of man. Be encouraged!

Electro & The Need for Significance

 

Electro… An anomaly? Or the norm?

It’s summer time again, so you know what that means?!! More high-budget, action-packed summer blockbusters that feature superheroes!!! And this go around it’s your friendly neighborhood Spider-man’s chance to strike box-office gold. It may seem like I’m being facetious but I was actually really excited about this one. Since the early 90s cartoon shown on Fox Kids, I’ve been a Spidey fan. He’s always been my favorite because there’s such great balance in the story-telling that includes his superhero exploits as well as his everyday life as Peter Parker. Other than his super-strength, super-agility, Spidey-Sense, and web-shooters… he’s just like you and me.

But that’s enough of me reliving my childhood,  I want to share with you the cool and very relatable things I noticed within the story arc. As we all know, the best villains are the ones with true and believable backstories and a real motivation for their rebellion. While the character is not without its flaws, I felt like the character of Max Dillon aka “Electro” was one I think all of us could sympathize with.

Max was an electrical engineer who worked for the infamous Oscorp Industries of the Marvel Universe. Though he was extremely bright and was blessed with a great mind for all things electricity, he was socially awkward. Despite his abilities, he was overlooked, disrespected and ignored his entire life. That is until Spider-man saved his life. Though his obsessive gratitude to Spidey shows parallels to our reasonable response to God’s saving grace through Christ, I’m going to save that for another blog.

What I wanted to address was the nature of the character itself. If you have already seen the movie, you probably noticed how often it was made clear that Max was basically invisible to everybody he came into contact with. He lived alone, he worked alone and he had no significance to his life other than the fact that Spider-man saved him. After his freak accident at the plant, the incident was basically swept under the rug because nobody even realized he existed in the first place. But after being revived, we see that Max has gained the superhuman ability to manipulate electricity . While he staggered onto the streets of New York afraid and confused, all the people in the city began to notice his extreme power. During his showdown with the police, his face was plastered over every digital billboard in Time Square. For the first time in his life, people noticed  Max. He finally had some form of significance, but once Spider-man stepped on the scene all the attention was focused squarely on the hero. Fearing that he would fall back into obscurity, he became a furious super-villain who wanted nothing more than to get revenge for missing out on his one moment of glory.

When I saw this on the big screen, the only thing I could think about (other than how awesome the special effects were) was that all Max wanted was some form of significance. Was he so wrong for wanting to impart in the very basic human need to be known? Couldn’t he have at least one intimate relationship to fill that void of loneliness all humans have? Even the Father said, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). Or is the problem here much deeper than that?

After seeing Max’s story I think that we can learn 3 things:

1. We Are Significant to God

Max suffered from a lack of intimacy and of true significance. The great question of mankind is “What am I here for?”. Without a clear answer, we can walk aimlessly through life without any purpose, mission or direction. The secular world wants us to believe we were all a product of chance, but if this were true what would be the purpose of living? The only way to answer that is to turn to the Source of our significance. Though we seem to be so small in this vast Universe, there is a Creator who cares for us individually. David emphasizes this truth beautifully in the 8th Psalm,

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
⁴ what is man that you are mindful of him,
    and the son of man that you care for him?

⁵ Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

    and crowned him with glory and honor.”

As image bearers of God, we are significant in that He values us. Nothing more and nothing less. Our worth comes from the Cosmic Appraiser.

2. Community is Crucial

Since Max lacked any true relationships, his entire life had a void. He didn’t have anyone to encourage him, hold him accountable or just share life with. This man bought himself a birthday cake and pretended Spider-man gave it to him!! Though it may not be to this extreme, we can be assured that without true fellowship or community we can’t function normally. Meeting together with the Church (the body not the building) helps to keep us in check. It’s so crucial that Paul thought to put emphasis on it multiple times to multiple churches and to all christians (Hebrews 10:24-25; Galatians 6:1-3; 1 Corinthians 12:25-27). Do you think that Electro would’ve been running around Manhattan trying to destroy Spider-man if he had some sound brothers to hold him accountable? I don’t think so!

3. Kill Pride

Lastly, in light of all these things we must kill sin. Pride in particular. Max’s desire for significance was not a sinful one. But the way he went about finding it was extreme, obsessive and prideful. After being down-trodden for so long, once he received power he immediately wanted recognition. How often do we do the same thing with the talents and gifts God gives us? When we are given ANYTHING we need to be thankful for it in light of 1 Corinthians 4:7. Whatever gift we have been given is exactly that; A GIFT. Whether it be time, or food or oxygen or the ability to manipulate electricity, we should be thankful! We should never have an inflated view of ourselves, our gifts or our abilities. We achieve nothing on our own and apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5).

I have issues grasping this truth myself, and wrestle with pride daily. But I have confidence that when Jesus said that those who abide in Him will bear much fruit, He meant it. I challenge you to trust Him as well.