Category Archives: Video

FLASHBACK FRIDAYS: Week 2 (New Map Of The World by Paul Colman Trio)- We all want to be accepted and loved, so why do we try to be famous, when sometimes it doesn’t work?

Have you ever stopped and sat and tried to think about all of the jobs/occupations you wanted to be when you were older? I bet if you counted the number of positions you wanted to work as, they’d amount to maybe more than the number of fingers/toes you have…on both of your hands/feet! I certainly know, that at various stages of my life, that I have thought about what I wanted to work as when I ‘grew up’. At times, I wanted to be a farmer (when I was in kindergarten, and loved drawing animals!), at other times a writer (when 10 years ago, my brother and I started writing our own autobiography, which is currently put on hold, and may forever be!); and never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be working in a café, that my parents, brother and myself own. It was certainly out of left field, not in a good or bad way, but in a different way. The point is that even I had a few inklings of what I wanted to be, and what I am doing now work-wise isn’t where I thought I’d end up- in the same way, I’m sure you all have goals, dreams, plans to do great things. Plans to change the world. Sometimes though, we may try our hand at being ‘famous’ in order for us to show the world what we’ve got, and hence get people to like us.

Continue reading FLASHBACK FRIDAYS: Week 2 (New Map Of The World by Paul Colman Trio)- We all want to be accepted and loved, so why do we try to be famous, when sometimes it doesn’t work?

FLASHBACK FRIDAYS: Week 1 (Arriving by Chris Tomlin)- We all worship something, so why do we still feel empty?

Imagine a hypothetical scenario. With your friends, you organise going to a really big, important event, that’s special to all of you. You plan out all of the details, figure out the transport, in how to travel to the venue, and make a day trip out of it. Then, once you and your friends have arrived, with the atmosphere buzzing, you take your seats, settle in, enjoy the pre-show entertainment, snack on a few chips and other tasty finger foods, and soak up the once-in-a-lifetime experience. When the main event starts, you’re in awe, and transfixed for the entire duration. There’s an intermission in there somewhere (you’re not really sure when it is, cause you’re captivated by the event, even during the intermission), and during that time, as well as the time after the event ends, it’s all you can talk about. After you have all exited the venue, you’re talking in the car about all sort of topics arising from this event, your views on the topic, which may differ. But you all come to the conclusion that life will never be the same again, because of this one thing you all went to, this one thing that you all participated in. So… what is it that you think I am talking about? The latest Passion conference, or a mainstream pop star’s opening night of their world tour? …or perhaps the opening game of the 2018 rugby league season, or even the night where you and your friends met up at someone’s house to watch the opening night of the 2018 Winter Olympics? Or maybe it’s any or all of them, depending on your point of view?

Continue reading FLASHBACK FRIDAYS: Week 1 (Arriving by Chris Tomlin)- We all worship something, so why do we still feel empty?

TOP 10 ___: (Christmas Albums We Haven’t Reviewed)

On every top 10 post we have released on 365 Days of Inspiring Media (since I can remember), we have presented to you all a collection of 10 items (be it songs, artists, albums, etc.) that are to be celebrated for that particular week in question. On this particular Top Ten’s post however, as 2018 officially begins, I will delve into 10 Christmas albums from 2017 that we never reviewed, yet really wanted to, but didn’t because of time and work constraints. While we reviewed Christmas albums/EPs from Marc Martel, Planetshakers, Mallary Hope, For King and Country, TobyMac, Hannah Kerr, Point of Grace and Casting Crowns, and compilation albums WOW Christmas 2017 and the soundtrack of The Star, not to mention singles from Lucy Hale and David Dunn; there were several other reviews of Christmas albums that never eventuated, due to simply because both Josh and I became busy with work. Which albums did we want to review, has we had ample time? Check out these 10 albums below (complete with a projected rating and our favourite song from the album/EP)! Which album were you sad that we didn’t review?

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BEST OF 2017- PART 10: Top Ten Anticipated Albums/EP’s of 2018

Can you all believe it? It’s the 1st January 2018- well, it’s the 1st where I am in Australia, I’m sure other places around the world, it’s still the 31st December 2017. It’s been quite a while since we as a site have posted anything (not since mid December), but with busyness in work leading up to the Christmas season, we have since decided to take this time to rest a little. Now with this new post, I have looked forward to the year of 2018, and what it will bring. While 2017 had a lot of great albums released that we could celebrate, I have catalogued 10 album/EP releases that release between this year, that I have been excited about, and I’m sure you will be too. While this year has been quite possibly one of my favourite years when it comes to album releases, if these 10 album releases are as great as I reckon they could be, then next year will be one of the best years yet in Christian music!

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Message Mondays: Just Follow the Headlights, and Know that Nothing Is Wasted When We Realise that God is God and We are Not!

There’s always a beauty and a tension in life. In the moments when you make a plan about how you want your life to look like and go. And then in the end, 99% of the time, it doesn’t end up that way. Rarely when you do make plans, does it do go to plan. Usually we are left with hindsight and looking back, and realising that where you are right now is far from where you wanted to be, either good or bad. And it is in that moment when we realise that there’s always a tension, from wanting to just follow the plan, to accepting that not only is the plan going to change, but rather, we’re going to end up in a place far from what we have initially expected. How do we reconcile these thoughts? How do we come to a peaceful place of being at a restful state, accepting that yes, I do have plans, but I have to be content that my plan will change? Because frankly, we are a controlling bunch of humans, aren’t we? We love to plan things and line it all up in a nice neat row. Never once do we realise that to follow a path, especially the one that we know God has laid out for us, is far more rewarding than we can ever fathom. But what happens when we can’t see what’s in front of us? When God doesn’t make it clear? When our plan goes out the window, and the Lord encourages us to follow Him- into the unknown, the places where we travel with only faith and trust as our guides, into the places where plans and maps are of no use? What then?

Continue reading Message Mondays: Just Follow the Headlights, and Know that Nothing Is Wasted When We Realise that God is God and We are Not!

Message Mondays: The Power and Need of Rest

To rest in today’s culture almost seems foreign to practically everyone. There I said it. We as a human race do not know how to just be still and have a rest. We’re always constantly on the go. Whether it is moving from one task to the next, having multiple jobs, being parents, thinking about work at home on your days off…whatever the case, to carve out that time for intentional rest when all we’re doing is just thinking about nothing and just enjoying life for just what God intended for us to do, we almost need to be intentional about the rest we so desperately ache for, need and is a necessity for us to survive this crazy thing called life. Because without rest and without times where we enjoy life just because, we’d go crazy. This life is busy enough as it is. The pressure of performance, the pressure of keeping up with the joneses, the pressure in keeping up with fashions and trends, of being up to date on social media and making sure that everyone in the household is taken care of…you get the picture. If we just don’t take a step back and just assess our lives and think about what needs to be changed and what needs to be altered for us to have a happier and healthier lifestyle, then we’re just going to continue along the path towards the erosion of family values, relationships and sanity, all at the betterment of increased economic productivity in mainstream society.

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TOP TWENTY ARTISTS AND SONGS THAT SHOULD BE PRESENT ON WOW HITS 2019

Welcome to the latest installment of our most recent blog series Top Tens. Last time, we unveiled 10 artists and songs that in our opinion should have been included on the official WOW Hits 2018 track listing, but weren’t. This time, on this special post, and in keeping with a similar theme, I will take an educated guess and list 20 songs that should be shoe-ins for WOW Hits 2019 (key word- should… I wrote a similar post last year and only 2 out of the 20 made it on WOW Hits 2018!). Some songs that I will predict for WOW Hits 2019 are released right now, so audio slides/lyric videos/music videos/song stories will be below, but others haven’t been released yet and I am just predicting based on the artist. Will these tracks be there in a year’s time? Only time will tell.

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BEST OF 2017- PART 3: TOP 20 SONGS OF 2017 (APRIL – JUNE)

Just a few months ago, I posted my favourite songs of 2017 thus far, from January – March 2017. Now here is a follow-up post, favourite songs from April – June 2017. And while this type of series hasn’t really been done before (in previous years, I’ve only posted one ‘top songs of ____’ post at the end of that particular year), I’ve said, and I will say again, that 2017 is the year of the song. Not just hit songs on albums, but just hit songs period- whether it’s on an album or just released as a single. Because frankly these days, when I look at the year up until now objectively, I have realised that more often now than years previously, artists are releasing singles as opposed to new albums. Don’t get me wrong, the number of albums this year is just as much, if not more than last year. It’s just that within these last few months, we have been blessed with tracks that aren’t necessarily attached to any album. And maybe that’s a good thing. To not have to wait until an artist as a collection of songs that they can release to listeners. Often if that is the case, artists may have to wait for management approval, or they’ll have to discuss about radio format and marketability before they release an album. In 2017, with artists releasing more songs as opposed to albums, we are ever reminded that in such an industry like the music industry, it takes a lot for an album or even a song to be released on iTunes- so we ought to be appreciative when an artist does release something, be it an album or a single.

Continue reading BEST OF 2017- PART 3: TOP 20 SONGS OF 2017 (APRIL – JUNE)

BEST OF 2017- PART 2: TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2017 (JANUARY – JUNE)

Another few months later, another post. Last time I posted my Best-Of 2017 list, it was incorporating my favourite songs throughout the first three months of the year. Indeed I’ll post another favourite songs list in July (encompassing April – June) and again in September and December. Now in this best-of article, I have decided to reveal our Top 25 albums of the year thus far- from January – June 2017. Now we will also post our favourite albums of July – December in December, and then maybe do another post of the albums that didn’t make it in either list. Because frankly, there’s just too many albums that have released this year to have our favourite 25 for the whole year. There’s just too many! So without further ado, which albums throughout 2017 thus far that have impacted my life during these last 6 months? Read on to find out.

Continue reading BEST OF 2017- PART 2: TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2017 (JANUARY – JUNE)

BEST OF 2017- PART 1: TOP 20 SONGS OF 2017 (January – March)

I know, I know, I’m posting this in May. But hear me out. There are a lot of songs in 2017. A lot of good songs. So I have since decided, that I’m going to release a series of three posts, once now, one in about another four months, and one at the end of the year- each encapsulating 20 tracks during that time period that have been some of my favourites (and then maybe a final post to pool all the three posts together and then come up with a final ‘top songs’ list…maybe).

Continue reading BEST OF 2017- PART 1: TOP 20 SONGS OF 2017 (January – March)