iRecommend: The Feature by Sho Baraka [+Free Album Download]

if You Like: Busta Rhymes, Lecrae, Group 1 Crew, Blacked Eyed Peas, Xzibit, Red Man, Ludacris.

Sho Baraka is one of the few openly christian rappers who has broken music records even on the secular music scene. His 2010 hit album (Lions & Liars) included giddy tunes like 'We Can Be More' which featured (eclectic artist JR) Erica Cumbo on 'Famous' . Click here to download this album/ mixtape which he is giving away for free. Enjoy!

You can connect with Sho on Facebook and Twitter @AmIshoBaraka

Ponder: 

"If You want JOY in your life, get your priorities in the right order

Jesus

Others

Yourself "

For The Author of a Book

It may take a while before your baby is born
But if it's a tear, let it stain the page
Let it write a language only this who have passed this route might understand
Cause there will be days you won't have anything to tell your book
There will be days the writing room becomes a comfort room, a fortress
There will be days the writing room becomes a waiting room, your mine for the precious stone called patience
If it be silence, let it leave it's colorless ink on your page when no words form
it might take a while but keep showing up
Maybe this is what we don't know that we give up too soon when our writing room begins to morph
That writing goes on
That the writing never stops
Cause even on days we don't write on the page the soul is being written upon.

Question: 

I once heard a popular author give this writing advice 'Writing is easy. All you just have to do is to stare at the white page till you bleed'. Do you agree with this?

P.S.- Coincidentally today, author Jeff Goins is given away his book 'You are a Writer' for FREE!. If you are interested in getting this book click here (It's just for a limited number of days though) and also check out Jeff's blog here.  
 

iRecommend : Singalong 2 by Phil Wickham [+ Free Album Download]

if You Like: Jesus Culture, Mumford and Sons, Hillsong United and Elevation Worship

Today's iRecommend features CCM  artist Phil Wickham. He just released Singalong 2. To download the full album for free click here. Enjoy!

Ponder:

"Discipline is doing what I can do today, to enable me to do tomorrow what I can't do today."

Slave.

A slave lives with reckless abandon
A slave has no say
A slave is not the owner of the house
A slave points to the owner  of the house
A slave has no name
A slave's pride is in her master's glory and reputation
A slave benefits and income is dependent on her master's income

Now I want to ask, 'are you a slave?'
But I guess i was late on that one cause I also found out we all are
A better question is 'whose Slave are you?'

"I am the Lord's slave" said Mary. "May it be done to me according to your word." Then the angel left her.  - Luke 1:38

iRecommend: Hymnbook by Don Moen [+Free Album Download]

If You Like: Michael W. Smith, Ron Kenoly, Paul Baloche, Jeanne Rogers, Promise Keepers and Kari Jobe

I was so excited and could not wait to share with you when I heard popular and phenomenal worship artist Don Moen was releasing a new album and giving it away for free. If You don't know Don Moen, Don Moen is a veteran worship artist and producer who has been making music for over the last two decades. He has also produced (via Integrity Music) lots of great artists and band such as Hillsong, Lincoln Brewster, Darlene Zchesch and Sarah Macintosh. He also penned worship songs that you would not miss hearing entering any church even till this day. You can download the album here. It's called Hymnbook. Enjoy!

You can connect with Don Moen on Twitter @donmoen and don't forget to join the wagon on his new Podcast Don Moen and Friends.

Ponder:

Weighed down by regret? Feeling afraid? WORSHIP! Don't believe the lie that worship is only for the perfect and the brave. - Don Moen

Miracle.

  [Image via Pinterest]

Sometimes this reality just makes me forget those things that are truly real. . .
Like giving being far better than receiving.
Like dying being the best way to live.
I want to live like these things I believe with so much reckless abandon.
But when I arrive at the battle with so much in my hands to give
I lay all down and I see the soldiers defending our very own country quivering at the threats of a seemingly uncircumcised  philistine giant
Honestly I am flabbergasted at why men of valor would bow and quiver at these threats
What happened to heaven's hope?
What happened to the empty cross?
And this is where I am and trying to break free from:
When I raise my testimony of a good great God who no uncircumcised giant can contend with, they want to push me to the battle ground in their armor.
It's heavy and secured
 Over-sized and safe
It's in this moments the question of my own faith shines through
Will I trust the simple sling and stones over an armor?
Would I let God be God and me a vessel?
Oh, I don't want to point to an armor when asked for the reason  of my triumph
In the end people this is the miracle that turns the attention of the whole world to God.
It's not that we face our giants with the best strategies, market-place techniques, pop- psychology and philosophies and even before we are asked by the world what is the secret to our success 'they already have the answer'.

The miracle is when the world sees the giant on the floor and they can say 'this was not you, this must be God'

Ponder: 
What common threats do believers of The Way face today?
How is life as detailed by Jesus contradictory from how the world calls us to live it from day to day? What current events or stories in your life if told in it's raw simple form can a listener respond to 'That must have been God' ?

"The Christian Life is Humanly Impossible"

iRecommend: Formerly Known by Andy Mineo [+Free Album Download]

If You Like: Rick Ross, Drake, Tedashii, Big Sean, and Trip Lee

Andy Mineo is no new name on the CCM hip-hop scene. Already featured on various albums ranging from Lecrae's to Trip Lee's, he is a confirmed showstopper and sure knows how to rock any party. His album 'Formerly Known' is downloadable for a limited time here and you sure do not want to miss this. Go get it.

You can catch up with Andy on twitter @AndyMineo

Ponder:

"Porn is the modern day story of cigarettes. As a whole, our culture has absolutely no idea how destructive it is. Years later, we will." - Andy Mineo

The Best Action [ #SendAPrayerInsteadOfATweet Challenge]

Things stop working.
Life is at a stand still.
The fear of life and failure overwhelms.
You loose a loved one.
When you don't know what to do, what do you do?
The normal reaction is always a form of action, maybe cause there's always an 'action' in every 're-action'. But in times like this the best action is to pause and pray.
Do you believe that prayer (no matter how broken we come) is moving the hand that holds the world?
Do you believe that prayer is giving God the space to do the work we can't on our behalf?
Do you believe that prayer could bring about change, real physical change, just that act of kneeling and raising your words to the heavens?
Prayer's got so much potential power in it. It has the ability to make great amount of power available, Power powerful than any nuclear plant. Power that can make the sun stand still.
And the best thing we can do when we don't know what to do is to PRAY!
Sometimes all it takes is a surrendering in the place of prayer and being still and in that very moment you are giving up your control to God.
Sometimes all it takes is speaking words of grace and hope that come on your heart
Sometimes all it takes is reminding the forces of evil where and what they do not own and showing them their boundary line marked by the Blood
And most times all it takes is listening cause then we hear heaven's fashion for a course of action that might turn things around for good.
Prayer is the path to accurate precision in life. It's communicating(hearing and listening) with God and if we truly believe in God, he can't go wrong.
Most don't pray because of former disappointments, most don't pray in response to the feelings that well up inside, most don't pray because it's illogical and doesn't make so much outright sense, but friend is this what makes outright sense?: that when we are at crossroads and barriers, we go ahead blindly and find a solution and do the work that brings us back to where we are? Is that what makes sense?
Prayer is no false hope or a playful endeavour, it's power.
But never misunderstand a wish for a prayer. A prayer has a stamp and heaven recognises when it arrives at it's door.
In whose name do you pray?
"You haven't done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy." - Jesus (John 16:24, NLT)
P.S. - Please join me in prayers for my country Nigeria as we've just suffered a tragedy. A lot of people died as a result of a plane (carrying 153 people) and setting up several houses on fire in the Lagos area.
I personally have decided to mourn this by going off social media ( twitter, facebook) for the next three days, store up my tweet/update ideas in the new ubersocial feature and at every moment an idea to tweet comes to my mind remember that little one whose parents might have been on the plane or that parent whose little one might have been on the plane and say a prayer instead of sending out a tweet. So please pray for Nigeria. I resume all things social media on Thursday, see you then.
And if by any means you decide to join in this cause for the next three days( #SendAPrayerInsteadOfATweet ), Just update the #(hashtag) as your last update on all your social profile for the next three days and let me know in the comment section. Thanks :)

Deviations

'I don't know that man' I said as we stood on the patio facing the endless screen. 'Honestly, I've never seen him before'. 'Are you sure?' She said with a smile as we walked on. Scene after scene, my life flashed before me. Places I never stepped, popped up in bright colors with my own feet on its ground. Hands I never shook, I saw myself holding in the looming screen.

There was one I would never forget, it was me helping a little boy walk again, telling him it was all going to be alright, reassuring him how beauty could spring forth from the ugliest of things. But I never remembered holding this little boy's hand. Last I remembered, the little boy was the grown man in prison. Yes I met him once or twice, his parents attended our church but I only scolded him for being 'such a naughty boy'. In the story I saw I helped him when he was a little boy, I helped him see things better and he became a leader, a warrior of sort tearing down the dark kingdom'.

We were still walking when I stopped and turned to my guide asking her for the umpteenth time 'Is this my life?' 'Yes it is' she responded with a smile again. 'But if you do not recognise it' she quickly added 'maybe this was what it was meant to be'

[Fiction]