Make a day of it!

Christian Heritage Day

Join Hillsong United at Christian Heritage Day on June 6, 2009 at Ontario Place. Tickets starting from $36 for group pricing. Visit uniteinworship.com for more info.

Story Behind the Song “Joy to the World”

© TopTechWriter.US

The three men behind one of our greatest Christmas carols.
By Lindsay Terry

Let every heart
prepare Him room,
And heaven and
nature sing.

One of our most popular Christmas carols is the result of the efforts of Isaac Watts and Lowell Mason—and, some believe, George Frederick Handel. Watts was a frail, quiet man only five feet tall. Mason was an energetic publisher, choir director, and composer. Handel was a large, robust musical genius. Handel and Watts were contemporaries in London and one imagines they must have appreciated each other’s talents. Mason lived 100 years later in Boston.

In 1719 Isaac Watts, already a notable scholar and author, sat down under a tree at the Abney Estate near London and began to compose poetry based on Psalm 98. Watts had begun writing verses as a small child. In his teen years he complained that the songs in church were hard to sing. His father said, “Well, you write some that are better.” And so he did. For the next two years, young Isaac wrote a new hymn each week. (He would eventually write more than 600 of them, all based on Scripture.) Today, hymns like “Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed” and “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” are hallmarks of the Christian church, and Watts is regarded as “the Father of English Hymnody.”

Brandon Heath

Recently awarded Dove Award 2008 as “New Artist of The Year,” Brandon is not a newcomer to the music industry. He began his passion in writing songs since he’s 13 years old. His music is influenced by his hometown and inspired by Sting, Shawn Collin, and David Wilcox.

“Music, for me, has always been about the songwriting,” Heath says. “When I listen to a song, I really want the lyrics to actually mean something,” he says. “There are a lot of songs out today that aren’t very positive—alluding to sex and rebellion. It takes more skill to write a song with a message or story, and I appreciate the skill of good songwriting.”

Heath was never brought up as a Christian. It was through Young Life’s summer camp that he was shown Christ and got him hooked to church. Since then he became active in Young Life camp through out the US. His heart for missions and for those living in poverty has taken him around the world. “For most of my life, I’ve never had the perspective of a poor person,” he says. “A couple of years ago, I noticed how often Jesus talked about the poor and being among the poor. It’s forced me to lower my expectations of what I think I need.”

Through his second album, What If We, he wishes to challenge people to think about possibilities and to dream as big as they can. “Every part of that phrase, ‘what if we,’ is important,” Heath says. “I don’t even look at it as incomplete – dot, dot, dot – because the ‘what if’ part is about possibilities, obviously. But the ‘we’ part is saying, ‘let’s do this together, let’s not do this alone.’”

“The cool thing about knowing Jesus and knowing that God hears our prayers and desires is that he brings those things to fruition. If you seek his name, nothing is out of reach. So dream as big as you want; if it pleases him, it will be so,” he stated according to his interview with Christian Today Magazine.

For those of you who’s not familiar with him, here’s a clip of his latest single, Give Me Your Eyes.

Lyric:

Behind the song: Dia Mengerti

Ko Affendy briefly told us the story behind this song yesterday during our Sunday service’s praise and worship. Berikut adalah cerita lebih lengkapnya yang disubmitkan oleh Ci Liana. Hope this helps us to understand more about the song dan lebih menghargainya.

Terkadang kita merasa
Tak ada jalan terbuka
Tak ada lagi waktu
Terlambat sudah,

Tuhan tak pernah berdusta
Dia s’lalu pegang janji-Nya
Bagi orang percaya
Mukjizat nyata

Chorus:
Dia mengerti, Dia peduli
Persoalan yang sedang terjadi
Dia mengerti, Dia peduli
Persoalan yang kita alami

Namun satu yang Dia minta
Agar kita percaya
Sampai mukjizat menjadi nyata

Syair diatas adalah isi dari sebuah lagu berjudul Dia Mengerti. Dinyanyikan oleh Delon Idol feat Superkids yang terdapat dalam album kompilasi rohani anak-anak Hujan Berkat produksi Impact Music. Lagu ini menjadi soundtrack FTV yang tayangkan oleh RCTI setiap Minggu pukul 23.00 WIB.

Siapa yang sangka bahwa lagu ini diciptakan oleh seorang Pendeta dari kota Ponorogo ? Sebuah kota kecil di Jawa Timur yang saat ini tiba-tiba menjadi terkenal gara-gara kasus kesenian Reog Ponorogo yang menjadi polemik antara masyarakat Indonesia dan Malaysia.

Casting Crowns’ “Who Am I”

How a youth minister’s outreach project became a hit single
By Linda Owen

Casting Crowns’ ‘Who Am I’

Not because of who I am.
But because of what
You’ve done.

Casting Crowns picked up three Dove Awards this year, including Pop Contemporary Song of the Year for their hit “Who Am I.”

What many fans may not know is that Mark Hall, the band’s lead vocalist and primary songwriter, is a youth pastor at Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church in McDonough, Georgia. He wrote “Who Am I” late one November night as he drove his family home from a Thanksgiving gathering in Alabama. As he contemplated his role in God’s plan, singing and praying while his family slept, it occurred to him how insignificant he was in the midst of God’s universe. Billions upon billions of persons had lived since the beginning of time; they were “here today and gone tomorrow, like a flower quickly fading.”

S’MUA BAIK (behind the song)

Hi guys,

You may have read our previous post about the story behind ‘Janjimu Seperti Fajar’ song. Here’s another true story behind another well known Indonesian Christian song written by Julita Manik.

“Dari semula, t’lah Kau tetapkan..
hidupku dalam tanganMu, dalam rencanaMu Tuhan…
Rencana indah t’lah Kau siapkan…
bagi masa depanku yang penuh harapan…”

“S’mua baik…s’mua baik…
apa yang t’lah Kau perbuat di dalam hidupku…
S’mua baik…sungguh teramat baik…
Kau jadikan hidupku berarti”
[chord]

Sebagai seorang songwriter lagu Kristiani, saya memberi nilai sangat tinggi untuk lagu ini. Bagi saya pribadi, lagu “Semua Baik” ini levelnya sama dengan lagu “Amazing Grace” (John Newton), “Still” (Reuben Morgan/Hillsong), lagu yang so simple tapi membawa kepada dimensi hubungan yang sangat teramat dekat dengan Tuhan. Bagi saya lagu “Semua Baik” adalah lagu yang tak akan lekang oleh waktu. Dengan kata lain lagu yang tidak mengenal season. Generasi demi generasi akan mengucap syukur kepada Tuhan melalui lagu ini. Sing that God is good all the time.

Apakah dalam hidup ini jarum jam sedang berada di angka 12 (di atas), atau sedang berada di angka 6 (di bawah), GOD IS GOOD. Tuhan tidak pernah merancangkan kecelakaan dalam hidup kita.

JanjiMu Seperti Fajar – The Story Behind the Song

JANJIMU SEPERTI FAJAR (story behind the song)

‘JanjiMu s’perti fajar pagi hari….
yang tiada pernah terlambat bersinar….
cintaMu s’perti sungai yang mengalir….
dan kutahu betapa dalam kasihMu……….’

Demikian lirik dari reff lagu ‘JanjiMu Seperti Fajar’. Hampir semua umat Kristen dari berbagai denominasi Gereja bisa menyanyikannya.

Saya ingat, suatu kali dalam pelayanan kunjungan ke Rumah Sakit, kami menyanyikan lagu-lagu penghiburan dari kamar ke kamar, untuk menguatkan dan memberi pengharapan kepada pasien-pasien yang sedang terbaring lemah di Rumah Sakit. Ada seorang pasien yang meminta lagu JanjiMu Seperti Fajar dinyanyikan. Pasien ini menderita kanker stadium lanjut dan sudah sangat lemah. Kerabat keluarga yang dikasihi mengelilinginya, dan bersama-sama kami menyanyikan lagu ini. Tak terasa airmata menetes. Rasa haru yang dalam begitu kuat menguasai kami, dan kasih Bapa terasa dicurahkan atas pasien itu. Teman-teman juga pasti mengalaminya saat menyanyikan lagu ini. Ada kekuatan baru yang dilimpahkan ke atas setiap yang menyanyikannya.
Yang jelas…banyak orang diberkati, tapi nggak banyak yang tahu siapa penulis lagu ini. Penasaran ???
Untuk itu, saya sengaja meminta kepada songwriter, Afen, untuk menuliskan story behind the song. Apa yang dialaminya, sehingga lagu yang sangat powerful ini tercipta. Original lho. From the deepest heart of songwriter ‘JanjiMu Seperti Fajar’…….