Tag Archives: message mondays

Message Mondays: What “ONCE UPON A TIME” Has Taught Me Over The Past Few Years!

ABC

Season Air Date:

  • Season 1: October 23rd 2011 – May 13th 2012
  • Season 2: September 30th 2012 – May 12th 2013
  • Season 3: September 29th 2013 – May 11th 2014
  • Season 4: September 28th 2014 – May 10th 2015
  • Season 5: September 27th 2015 – May 15th 2016
  • Season 6: September 25th 2016 – May 14th 2017
  • Season 7: October 6th 2017 – May 18th 2018

Reviewed by: Joshua Andre

Once Upon A Time (Season 1-7)

Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Lana Parilla, Josh Dallas, Colin O’Donoghue, Jared S. Gilmore, Lee Arenberg, Emilie De Ravin, Robert Carlyle, Sean Maguire, Michael Raymond-James, Rebecca Mader, Andrew J West, Dania Ramirez, Alison Fernandez, Meghan Ory, Eion Bailey, Raphael Sbarge

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Message Mondays – Tenth Avenue North – Control (AILO Remix) / Control (Acoustic)

Reunion Records/Provident Label Group

Release Date: March 9th 2018 [Control (AILO Remix)] / March 16th 2018 [Control (Acoustic)]

Reviewed by: Jonathan Andre

Tenth Avenue NorthControl (AILO Remix) (iTunes/Amazon mp3) / Control (Acoustic) (iTunes/Amazon mp3)

Track Listing:

  1. Control (AILO Remix)
  2. Control (Acoustic)

If you were to ask me which song has snuck up on me in the last year or so, I’d say ‘Control’. Yes, ‘Control’ from Tenth Avenue North’s 2016 album Followers. And while I may have thought that a song with much more radio marketability, like ‘Revival’ (Third Day), ‘Love Won’t Let Me Down’ (Y&F), ‘Even If’ (MercyMe) or ‘He Still Does’ (Hawk Nelson) would’ve impacted me within these last few months, this certainly wasn’t the case…and I’m glad for it. Because ‘Control’ is a track and a song that vulnerably speaks to the heart on the subject of…yes, you guessed it- control and the need of rest, and the ability to set everything down and give things to God that we have held onto for far too long- a theme that is very much relevant and necessary to hear about as society is in its current economic and political state. And as I have been hearing this song more and more within the last year, I have had the privilege of the Lord speaking to me about a few things.

Continue reading Message Mondays – Tenth Avenue North – Control (AILO Remix) / Control (Acoustic)

Message Mondays- Why Christian Music & Mainstream Music Do Not Have To Be At Odds, & how God can use Both to further His kingdom at the same time.

I reckon this year, the year of 2017, is the year where I have branched out the most in terms of listening to mainstream music. Just like how I think 10 years ago in 2007 was the year where I branched out in listening to Christian music (as prior to that I only listened to Carman and Delirious?…yep, call me old fashioned, or sheltered, or both!), this is the year where I have sat up, and taken notice of many of today’s current pop songs. Not that I wasn’t that much in the know before (I knew several mainstream artists, like One Republic, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, One Direction, Justin Bieber, Adele, Kelly Clarkson, Justin Timberlake, and others, but I wasn’t following them religiously- I didn’t go out of my way to purchase an album of theirs!), but it was this year where my eyes and ears were opened to the realities of the type of music people listen to these days. Partly from exposure to Cimorelli’s covers (of which you can check out on iTunes here!)- and then  from there I wanted to see how the original sounded- and also partly because some of the neighbouring stores surrounding our café played pop music very loudly every single day; but whatever the case, I was exposed to more and more mainstream music each and every day this year, with some songs being inspiring, and others on the other end of the spectrum and quite disturbing.

Continue reading Message Mondays- Why Christian Music & Mainstream Music Do Not Have To Be At Odds, & how God can use Both to further His kingdom at the same time.

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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Message Mondays and Worship Wednesdays (Being Honest, Vulnerability and Worship)

Recently I’ve been listening and observing, interacting with people and coming to a conclusion. Whether this conclusion is completely baseless or actually really true is really a different post in and of itself. If you think what I am about to say is hogwash, then let me know in the comments. I hope to think that I am open to other people’s views…so, here goes. The human race doesn’t like to be honest with each other. There, I said it. Yes, even Christians can sometimes fall into the notion that to be honest is to unveil certain secrets and moments in our lives where we may or may not be judged if we unveil them to the world. Society sees honesty, sadly, as a form of weakness. To be honest, according to the world, is to unveil your true self. And then in doing so, to isolate yourself from everyone else who may think differently to you, or even behave or believe something different compared to what you champion or how you live on a daily basis. So what does that have to do with worship, and the whole idea of being honest not only during worship but in every moment of every day that we live, regardless of what people think of us?

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Message Mondays: In the flood or the fire, You’re with me and You won’t let go (Tenth Avenue North – I Have This Hope [Ailo Remix])

Reunion Records

Release Date: June 9th 2017

Reviewed by: Joshua Andre

Tenth Avenue North– I Have This Hope Ailo Remix (Single) (Amazon mp3/iTunes)

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Message Mondays (Living the Christian Life):

Sometimes I wonder and imagine what life would’ve been like if I didn’t grow up here in Australia. If my parents were different, or if they were the same, but lived somewhere else. If I wasn’t in the first world, or if I didn’t even have the same values that I currently have now. Would I still be me? And therefore, in effect, I am faced with the ever-haunting question- what makes me, well…me? Is it my surroundings, my environment, the culture of people I surround myself with, or even my parent’s influence? Or will I still be me, despite all the change I have just aforementioned?

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Message Mondays – Fear and Trust, and How We Need to Trade One For the Other

Maybe it’s time to confess- often I tend to worry and obsess more about situations more than I should. As my parents have often said to me, there’s 365 times that the Lord says in the bible for us not to fear and worry- therefore, one for us to reflect upon each day. That that is entirely true. Because when we look at it from an objective standpoint, we are indeed a fearful bunch. Afraid of politics, afraid of religion, afraid of people of other races, creeds, different kinds of faith, different sexual orientations…the list goes on. And then there’s things that people are afraid of that are on a personal level- heights, spiders, snakes, bombs, volcanoes, flashing lights, noises, crowds, war movies, metal music, tomatoes, eating healthy, the gym…you get the picture. Why are we so afraid? Sometimes I wish that Adam and Eve never took that apple- but that doesn’t change that the fact that it indeed happened, and because of sin, there are things in our lives that we want to change. One of the biggest things I’m sure people want to eradicate in their lives is fear, but sometimes I think- maybe we all are afraid because we’re not fully confident in what has been promised to us and given freely by the One who created us in the first place.

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Message Mondays and Worship Wednesdays – Slowing Down To Realise that God Has Been With Us All Along!

What we fail to realise is that we were not made to do everything. I know that sounds like I’ve said the deadliest thing ever, but really, we weren’t made to do everything. Think about that. Really. When have we as a human race tried to fit whatever we can, within a 24 hour day? Because honestly, just because we see superhero shows like Batman, Spiderman, Fantastic Four, X-Men or Ironman on TV, that doesn’t mean we can emulate them in every aspect of our lives. Because if you end up doing everything that you’d like, you won’t do anything well. That is our crime as a human race. We are rushing around and undertaking whatever we can, in fear that our days are numbered, therefore, what we do with them ought to matter. But then in not slowing down, we often miss out on what the Lord is trying to speak to us through the circumstances and scenarios we find ourselves in. I know in my life there’s been moments when I’ve had to catch myself, consciously slowing down because I’ll know that if I don’t, I’ll run myself to the ground. What about you?

Continue reading Message Mondays and Worship Wednesdays – Slowing Down To Realise that God Has Been With Us All Along!