Burning Like The Midnight Sun

I've been a fan of the Choir for a good few years now, loved their Circle Slide album, still do and would listen to it still on a regular basis....
but just recently by chance (https://noisetrade.com/index.aspx# ) I discovered the Choir had released a brand new CD called Burning Like A Midnight Sun. I must say it's a great album, love the theme of friendship and friends that seems to run through it...
well worth checking out

http://www.thechoir.net/

looking to go back to the future

listening to....

Jars of Clay (on spotify) //

The Choir - Burning like a Midnight Sun & Circle Slide

and loads of Thin Lizzy (I'm reminiscing)

reading....

Francis Chan - Forgotten God

hello,
just wanted to pop in and blog a few things....

Recently got a wee message on FB from my cousin letting me know of a Canadian Band called Blue Rodeo who where coming to Belfast...
After a lot of will I won't I go deliberation i decided to give it a go, exhausted and all as I was.... oh my goodness...
they where amazing... totally blew me away. Before Eva had mentioned them I'd never heard of them.
They had a stand in guitarist for the night called Luke Doucet.... AMAZING.... i watched him nearly the whole night... that guy is G.O.O.D.

Blue Rodeo @ the Real Music Club

for a review of the night go here

http://stocki.typepad.com/soulsurmise/2010/10/blue-rodeo-live-at-the-errigle-inn-belfast-281010.html

its kinda funny really you make a choice go one way then find maybe just maybe that wasn't probably the best thing to do..

at a bit of a crossroads now wondering, praying for a clear road to take

a friend said to me recently (well when I say 'said' i mean through FB) going back is wrong if you're just going back but if in going back you can go forward then maybe its worth it..

also just over this past weekend was at GLS...someone at it said 'bad decisions make for good reason are still bad decision...hmmmmmm!!!

to be continued (maybe)

Aaron Ferris // Solitary Realignment - The Review

it's been along time from I've done a review.... here's my thoughts on the latest by Northern Ireland's very own Aaron Ferris



Artist: Aaron Ferris
Album: Solitary Realignment
Url: www.myspace.com/ferrisaaron
Time: 10 Tracks / 38.17 mins.

Almost 5 years after the release of his debut solo EP A Round of Silence. Aaron Ferris who hails from Northern Ireland is back with his first full length album Solitary Realignment and boy what a way to come back.


The title, as the cd sleeve lets us know, is a play on the words solitary confinement. These songs I feel are borne out those solitary moments where it was just him and God, deliberate moments. Moments he has chosen to draw near, to listen and be realigned by the Spirit and moments he has captured in 10 beautifully crafted songs.

The lead of track All I Ever Wished For kick off the album beautifully upbeat and sees Aaron back playing with a band for the first time in a long time and that my friend is a beautiful thing, no less than the song deserves.


These songs, for me, paint pictures in my mind. I see myself crying out ‘I don’t deserve you, I don’t deserve such grace’. I’m right there as those of the persecuted church are martyr in N.K. and I realise the blessing of my wife and the challenge of being a husband in Heaven Awaits & Chosen to Love. Song after song I’m drawn in and I’m laid open before the Father.


Standout track for me is the haunting N.K. which recounts the martyrdom of believers in the persecuted church and included Scripture read in Korean and include the line ‘I would rather die than deny my king’ Other tracks worthy of a mention are Chosen To Love, Someone like Me & I Don’t Deserve You.


It seems to me that too often much of what we hear musically, no matter how good it is, doesn’t seem to go much further than tickling our ear. These songs demands our attention and should have us longing of those solitary moment where we to can be realigned.
To paraphrase what someone much more intelligent than me has said. ‘These songs are not just good but good for something’


By the way I just love the sound of the bass on this album.

Check Aarons MySpace for a taste of the tunes and details on how to get your hands on a copy of the album www.myspace.com/ferrisaaron

The Signal and The Noise

Just listened to the audio of the service from last Sunday at TLC!! (Get it here - http://www.thrivinglifechurch.co.uk/audio.php

Very interesting!! It's actually something I was thinking about lately, about listening to/for God's voice!

In my own life I'm very aware of the possibility or even inclination to surround myself with 'noise' which could be anything. Life it seems bombards us with what can only be described as almost like a tidal wave of noise, things that distract us, take our attention and focus to horizontal at the expense of the vertical.
Now I'm not saying our interactions and relationships on the horizontal aren't important in fact I think they are vital. It's just sometimes we miss 'the signal' because of the noise or at least lost the picture because of interference.



Very recently I was listening to an Irish singer called Juliet Turner, who sings a song called 'The Signal and The Noise' to be honest not really sure what its about, but there's somethings about that line 'separate the signal from the noise' that challenges me with what noise I allow to impact me to the detriment of missing out on the holy signal.

Jesus says in the Parable of the Good Shepherd in John 10 in verse 4 that his sheep follow him because they know his voice and in v5 they want follow a stranger because they don't know his voice, I wonder which voice is my default, which is the voice I recognise and ultimately follow

I wonder!!

thats what friends are for

Its hard to believe but I've now been going to Thriving Life Church for nearly 10 months, its been an amazing journey... I've went through the have a made the right decision thing, the being lonely thing loads of different emotions... but the more I'm there the more like home it feels....

over the past few month i feel I'm starting to really develop friendships... all my christian life I've longed for friends not just people i know but people i can share this journey with honestly... I'm a long way of that at the minute but i really feel I'm on that road and pointing in the right direction
i have had this kind of friendship in the past but for some reason it ended or at least 'cooled'

so here's to the future

I'm really excited about the vision of TLC... God I believe is going to d ostuff beyond what we could even think and we are thinking BIG ...

bring it on!!!

What Matters More!!!

listening to...

Derek Webb // Stockholm Syndrome

lots of U2

Jars Of Clay // Long Fall Back to Earth

reading....

Cut To The Chase 0.5 by lee and baz

So its been awhile...

I often think about blogging here but never seem to get around to it until.... now

this little blog is about something that's been going round my mind for a while...

its seems to me that sometimes we (including me) are very quick to judge and condemn for whatever reason...

and Ive had to catch myself on several times...

what right have I to judge anyone about anything... i have a friend who has 'only God can judge me' tattooed on his arm... and he has a point

this was brought home to me very recently listening to the 'controversial' song by Derek Webb called 'What Matters More' of his new cd Stockholm Syndrome

I recommend you prayerfully listen to it, but be warned it contains a word that may offend some people...

very interesting that nearly everyone Ive either let listen to the song or told about it have highlighted 'the bad word' while missing the whole point of the song.. loving no matter what and not judging

yeah this kind of thing is very interesting to me how sometimes we can become so focused on one thing and we seem to miss the whole point.

this is a link to the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5pBXY2AkeY

be interested to know what you think

step by step

reading...

samson and the pirate monks - nate larkin

listening...

Supertramp - Breakfast In America // Live In Paris

U2 - NLOTH

so its Sunday....

Friday has been, all hope may have seemed lost, death victorious....

but it's Sunday a new day has dawned the sun has risen on this day as we celebrate the Risen Son.

My friend who is a pastor always calls it Resurrection Sunday...

so on this Resurrection Sunday as we live this journey on this planet I'm encourage by this verse..

It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's Romans 8:11

______________________________________________________