Da’ T.R.U.T.H. released "J.I.F.E." as the first singe off of his latest album "Love, Hope, War" back in December 2012. The Song J.I.F.E. Is about Jesus being for everybody regardless of race, class or anything else that divides us as people. Da’ T.R.U.T.H. sheds light on the fact that seasoned veterans in the faith still need Jesus as much as the lost, and we shouldn't belittle the person who spends most of his/her time ministering to the believer instead of the non believer. J.I.F.E is a must listen just off of sheer relevance of the topic of the song alone. Da’ T.R.U.T.H. dropping lyrical gems like this only adds to it.
“I guess the moral of the story is,
Jesus Christ came for the notorious, and the saint/
grace for the less glorious and the fame/
Just understand where the glory is, its in His name”
"I'm a nobody, here to tell everybody, about somebody who can save anybody"
If you haven't read Pt 1 of my series on the Gospel click here.
Lesson 2 What Jesus saved us from.
How can a carpenter who lived over 2000 years ago save me or you from anything? I would be more than happy to tell you. Jesus saved us from eternal separation from God. Romans 6:23 says "for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" earlier in the book of Romans Paul said "For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God" (Romans 3:23). What can we take from these two verses? In Romans 6:23 we can see that consequence of sinning is death. Paul was not talking about a natural death, after all God can killed the body and the soul.(Matthew 10:28) The death Paul was talking about was Separation from God, in other words damnation to hell. Going to hell is the consequence of sin. In Romans 3:23 we see that EVERYBODY HAS SINNED, You, Me, your Mother, even your pastor. Since we all have sinned we all deserve to go to hell. God is prefect, and he demands perfection in return. I'm sure we can all admit that we are not prefect, well at least I can. Even if your good deeds out weigh the bad, that still is not enough. All of your good deeds still cannot atone for what you would consider you smallest sin. Simply put we are in a bad spot in a worst way. We need a hero to swoop in to save the day. I'm here to tell you that Jesus is that hero. Jesus descended down from Heaven, to live the sinless life we could not, and to die the death we should have so we would not have to. Those nails in his hands and feet were for you. That cross he carried to Golgotha was for you. The unbearable beaten he took, He did it for you. Jesus' death on the cross serves as payment for my sins and yours. His blood wipes away all the sins we have committed, So we can have that prefect record in the eyes of God. The next logical question should be what to do with this salvation that Jesus has provided for us. We will tackle that in Lesson 3.
The Gospel, the greatest story ever told, that is hardly ever told. My question is why? The Gospel has become assumed knowledge. Rarely do you see ministers or other believers just sharing the story of Jesus. After all the Gospel has the power to save us all. I don't like to give problems without giving solutions, so here is my attempt to explain the Gospel. To give an accurate account of the Gospel I decided to break it down into a series of post.
Lesson 1 Who is Jesus?
The Old Testament foretold of the coming of the Messiah countless times, Genesis 3:15, Deuteronomy 18:5 just to name a couple. Jesus is the Messiah that the prophets of the Old Testament talked about. Jesus undeniably fits the mold that the Old Testament created. I mean just look at this video click. It is clear through scripture that Jesus is the Messiah, but who was Jesus socially? It was Jewish custom for a man to take on the profession of their fathers. So it wouldn't be a stretch to say that Jesus was a carpenter for most of his life.(Mark 6:3) At the age of 30 Jesus started his ministry proclaiming that the kingdom of God is at hand, and that he in fact was the long waited for Messiah. According to Philippians 2:6-7 Jesus was God himself. Jesus gave up his position as God Just to save you and me. What did Jesus save us from? I will address that in lesson 2
After much debate within myself on the topic of my first post, I decided on Christian Hip-Hop(CHH) songs that affected my christian walk in some way to give insight into my life while providing my readers with Good music. Hopefully these songs can help you like they help me.
This is not necessarily a list of my favorite CHH songs or my opinion on the top CHH of all time. Some of these songs taught me a lesson. They talked about something I could relate to or shined a light on an issue I thought was important. I guess it is time to cut the small talk and get into the meat and potatoes of the post.
"FOREVER" by Cross Movement
Album "Holy Culture"(2003)
Cross Movement Records provided some of my first experiences with Christian Hip-Hop. I was 12 years old when my brother, who has been a CHH junkie for as long as I can remember, brought the Holy Culture album. "Forever" was easily my favorite song on the album. Tonic's flow on the track takes the song to a whole new level. You can tell by the tone of his voice, while rapping in the song, that he is confident in his salvation. This song really drove home the concept of Eternal life for me at such a young age.
"TAKE ME AS I AM" by Lecrae
Album "Real Talk"(2004)
"Real Talk" was Lecrae 1st studio album. This is one of the many songs that lead to Lecrae becoming my favorite artist. As a child, I had this perception that you had to "get your ducks in a row" before you could have a relationship with Christ. Through this song, I realized That you didn't have to clean your life up to be accept by Christ. It was Jesus' job to do the cleaning. My boy Crae does a masterful job of addressing this theological misconception with "Take me as I am"
"PRAYING FOR YOU" by Lecrae
Album "After the Music Stops"
* disclaimer watch the video before reading my comments or it will give anyway the ending*
At the very youthful age of 14, I held christian rappers in the same respect as I do pastors. Later in life, I realized the two are apples and oranges. In "Praying for You", Lecrae does an excellent job of story telling. In the song, he is telling a story of how he is earnestly praying for his friend who is just struggling with life in general. The last bar of the song, he reveals that the person who is in need of pray is himself. This song made it crystal clear to me what Paul was saying in 1 timothy 2:1-2, that Christian leaders need pray just as much of as the rest of us.
"EMPTY SPACES" by Dre Murray
"Hell's Paradise" Mixtape
"Empty Spaces" is off of the Highly acclaimed mixtape "Hell's Paradise" by Wilt and Dre Murray. I felt as though this mixtape as sightly overrated. "Hell's Paradise" came out during a time when I was the furthest away from God as I could be. I had STRONG doubts that God existed. You could even have considered me an atheist. Back in the day, I could not get into my brother's car without even hearing the "Hell's Paradise" mixtape. "Empty Spaces" was the only song that caught my attention while listening to the mixtape at the time. Seeing as how I had huge doubts about God, I could easily relate to the song.
"BACKGROUND" BY Lecrae
album "Rehab"(2010)
After having my doubts with the existence of God and living the so called "college life" of partying and what not, I found partying was not fulfilling to me. With my Christian Up bringing, if you will, I decided to try God to fill this void I had in my life and it turned out to be the best decision I have ever made. The natural progression of wanting to replace the mainstream artists I listen to with christian artists came. Unfortunately I had a hard time finding christian music I enjoyed. Here comes Lecrae with the "Rehab" Album to save the day. I could write a post on the impact that the "Rehab" album alone had on me. In my opinion, "Background" is the best song on the album. The topic of putting your pride to the side and letting God take the lead is humbling itself. Lecrae's poetic rhyme scheme and Andy Mineo's(FKA C-lite) soft auto tuned hook makes the song even more humbling.
SHUT US DOWN by Sho Baraka
album "lions & Liars"(2010)
Spreading the gospel is never an easy task, especially when it is not well received. Seeing people turn their nose up at your attempts to spread the truth of God can feel like a kick to the mid section. Sho Baraka, Lecrae, and After Edmund provided a speaker blowing blend of rock and rap to put the world on notice that CHH is not going away. This song echos Romans 8:31 "if God is for us who can be against us?"
"MY STORY" by Da T.R.U.T.H
album "Open Book"(2007)
At this time, I started to double back and try to find some of the music I had missed. One of the songs I found was "My Story" by Da T.R.U.T.H. His story is the church boy anthem. I felt the same way as the Da T.R.U.T.H. I can remember being at a event where people were sharing their testimonies of how they were rape, didn't have a father figure, or how they overcame sickness and disease. The whole time, I can remember scrambling for something meaningful to say. Truth is, I already had something meaningful to say. Jesus saved my soul that is more than enough. I will proudly say that my testimony is found in Ephesians chapter 2.
"HIGHER LOVE" by sho baraka
album "Turn My Life Up"
"Higher love" is the ultimate love song. The greatest love is found in God.You won't find any catchy word play or cheesy punch lines in this song. It a beautiful description of the love that God offers. Songs like this is what the world needs to hear.
"DON'T WASTE YOUR LIFE" by Lecrae
album "Rebel"
There is nothing I can say about this song because it speaks for itself. Crae's lyricism could not be any better. How he flawlessly changes the speed of his flow throughout the song is incredible. The beat is absolute brilliance. On top of all that, the concept of the video really drives home the point if your not living for Jesus than you are not really living at all.
"CLARIFICATION"' by bizzle
The Messenger mixtape
After putting out the song "Explaining to do", accusing Jay-z of being apart of this so call "Illuminati" and making anti-christian comments, Bizzle received a lot of back lash from just about everybody. Everybody from people in the church to Jay-z fans were upset with the song. "Clarification" is the response to all of the controversy. In "Clarification", he admits that he has a lot of growing to do in Christ. In the song, states he thought about cleaning up the language used in "Explaining" to do but that would be him putting on a front just to look like a better christian. As Christians, we all fall short of God's glory. Like Adam, we all try to hide our mistakes.
"I WISH IT WASN'T TRUE by lecrae
I promise this is the last song by Lecrae I will mention lol. I can relate to this song because I feel like I was in the same position Crae was in when it wrote this. The more I felt God using me for his glory, the more depressed my life felt. It is amazing how things in your life falling apart can increase you hunger for the lord. 2 Corinthians 12:9 matches this song perfectly.
"HELLO" by KB
Any song with Natalie Lauren (FKA Suzy Rock) on the hook is bound to be a hit. This is a scientific fact. We all fall victim to our sinful nature. The regret of the fall can become overwhelming at times. Kb uses his talent as a MC to remind us no matter how many times we sin we are still forgiving.
116 by Derek Minor(FKA Pro)
Anybody who know anything about Reach Records knows that their calling card is being unashamed.(Romans 1:16) If you follow their music, you will found countless song about being unashamed of the gospel. "116" to me is the one that gets me the most hype. If you want to see me bounce around a room like a nut(which is totally out of my character), play this song or "until I pass out" by uncle Reese. Its not easy being a kid in this world trying to live for Christ. This song and other unashamed anthems reminds kids to be unashamed of their faith.
"ALI" by Sho Baraka
album Talented 10th
Sho Baraka lyrical ability was at an all time high on Talented 10th. Songs like "Ali" proves that. Sho Baraka's word play on this track is scary. As a person I love to settle for just getting by. This song inspired me to have my best semester in college yet. Sho taught me that striving for greatness should be the standard and nothing else.
"YOU WILL' by Andy Mineo
I was having strong doubts that certain goals I wanted to reach was not going to happen. Wouldn't you know here comes Andy with this single off of his debut album "Heroes for Sale." The longer than usual hook where andy keeps really repeating "I know you will" drives home the point that God is able to do anything.
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