“I need you” by Plumb

This is one of my all time favorite songs. Back in the days when I was writing poetry, this song could have SOOO been written from my heart. It still resonates with how I feel towards God, my Father, during hard times in life. (I have shortened the lyrics below, so the refrain is only written once)

Well, everybody’s got a story to tell
And everybody’s got a wound to be healed
I want to believe there’s beauty here
‘Cause oh, I get so tired of holding on
I can’t let go, I can’t move on
I want to believe there’s meaning here

Standing on a road I didn’t plan
Wondering how I go to where I am
I’m trying to hear that still small voice
I’m trying to hear above the noise

Though I walk,
Though I Walk through the shadows
And I, I am so afraid
Please stay, Please stay right beside me
With every single step I take

How many times have you heard me cry out?
And how many times have you given me strength?

How many times have you heard me cry out
“God please take this?”
How many times have you given me strength to
Just keep breathing?
Oh I need you
God, I need you now!

This song is available as a free ring tone at http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/p/plumb/need_you_now.html

I also really like her songs “Beautiful History” and “In my arms”. Check out her heartfelt songs on your favorite music provider.

Sarah’s Choice

Netflix delivers again!

I found this sweet movie, starring Rebecca St. James of all people! The story of a young woman faced with the toughest choice of her life – the job promotion of a lifetime or becoming a single mom with a deadbeat boyfriend.  The journey with “Sarah” is believable and relevent, without being preachy or judgmental. A good prequel to “October Baby”, yet far from the same movie quality or acting performance.

Rebecca does a great job – multi talented lady 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGtEQ2tbxaU

October Baby – a must see!

I love it! More and more high quality films with GREAT, solid, engaging stories are making it into our movie theaters and homes! Hallmark productions – step aside! You don’t have monopoly on this genre anymore!

October Baby, released in March 2012, is another top-notch production with a powerful story, with good actor/ress performances and splendid videography. Right up my alley. When it was all over, I felt like I had just read a wonderful, captivating novel that I just didn’t want to end. Unlike the “typical Hollywood” films, this one skips the sex, the profanity and the predictable happily ever after ending. In other words – a movie most of us can relate to in some way and be moved by.

Two thumbs up and I hope the Erwins make more of these kinds of movies!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7oTLVevO5g

Music by Jamie Grace

I prefer using Spotify to create my own music playlists to listen to and I get artist/song ideas from K-Love Radio to find new favorites. This is how I discovered Jamie Grace, a young, new, Christian artist with a lovely “folk music” sound and plain and engaging lyrics. I liked her album “One song at a time” so well, it became the first whole album I have ever bought as a download. Her music is so happy, inspiring and easy to relate to, it always puts a smile on my face as I’m drumming and humming along.

www.jamiegrace.com

Courageous! The Movie and The Novel

I just finished listening to the audio version of “Courageous”, the novel by Randy Alcorn. WOW! Let me say it again – WOW! If you thought the story, characters, suspense, drama, and humor of the “Courageous” movie was great – the novel is even better!  

Interestingly enough, the novel was written after the movie by the Kendrick brothers (makers of “Fireproof”) was complete. So instead of the movie being based on the novel, it’s the other way around. Randy Alcorn was asked to be the author, and he did an excellent job re-rendering the story for the reading audience.

I don’t normally get very emotionally involved in movies, but the book really captured my heart, my imagination, my emotions, and my attention. The novelized version of “Courageous” teaches, inspires, provokes, encourages, entertains, shocks, grieves, and LOL’s the reader/listener for 8+ hours. Alcorn added some characters and sub-plots to his version that gives his novel a much greater insight into the main characters’ lives. We get to experience the story from the inside, sharing in their thoughts, emotions, struggles, motives, and spiritual journeys. We can feel the tension, the desperation, the fear, the adrenaline rushes, the pain, the confusion, the temptations, the disbelief, and all the other emotions the characters are dealing with as Alcorn so cleverly unwraps the story of 5 very courageous men. The audio set is available at the library, the Christian bookstores and the internet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw9QbeuIYXs

For those of you who tend to think that movies often ruin great books – I would recommend sticking with the novel. The actors/esses of “Courageous” do a good job, but Randy Alcorn + your imagination, do a much better one!

http://www.courageousthemovie.com/home

 

Update Jan 28th 2012: I have finally watched the movie and am happy to say; It is REALLY good. I am impressed at how far Sherwood Baptist Church and the Kendrick brothers have come in their productions! From their first movie “Flywheel” in 2004 until “Courageous” in 2011, the advances have taken them to results that are really showing professionalism and high quality movies. Very worth seeing and owning!

The Grace Card

Watched another great movie last night. I had seen the advertisements for this movie and was excited to get it as soon as it came out on DVD. I had expected a good, but “B” quality movie, very much like “Fireproof”, “Flywheel” and “Facing the Giants” by Sherwood Baptist Church. But “The Grace Card” is made by a different church team, and is more comparable to “Faith like potatoes” and “Soul Surfer” in quality and performance. Calvary Baptist Church already went into this project with 15 years of experience from televised stage productions, already having a trained movie crew, artists, make-up and costume designers, actors and directors. It shows in the end product.

The Grace Card has many similarities to Fireproof, as it tackles relevant family issues and reveals the true heart of man. Faith is being tested, families driven to the breaking point, compassion reaching out to save the fellow-man, while truth and love prevails at the end. There were parts where I though things got somewhat cheesy, times where my mouth dropped as the conversations got really blunt and piercing, and times where I wanted to jump up and shout “Yeah!” Love the family counselor part 🙂 Then there are the tear-jerking parts, gripping and moving, but not more than my tender heart could handle. Two thumbs up for “The Grace Card” and now I can’t wait for the next one to debut on Friday: “Courageous”!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XllflkjmoC8

Music by Matthew West

Cruising on Spotify (free internet music service) I rediscovered the music of Matthew West. I’ve loved his song “the Motions” for a long time, but didn’t realize all the rest of his music is just as “down-to-earth” and moving as his #1 hit. From “Survivor” about cancer victims, “Two houses” about children of divorce, “Save a place for me” about having lost a loved one, and “One Less” about adopting, “Life inside of you” about teen pregnancy and suicide, there is at least one song that will move you to tears and stir your faith. The themes in his songs are contemporary, relevant, relatable, and simple, showing how much God cares about each and every one of us, no matter what our messy circumstances are like. The songs are full of hope and “you are not alone”. So if you need some real inspiration, today, look up his albums “The story of your life” and “Something to say”.

Living Proof

I really like movies based on powerful true stories and saw another good one, yesterday. It’s called “Living Proof” and is the story about how Dr Slamon fought for more than a decade to get his groundbreaking new drug approved and on the market to help save 40,000 woman a year from terminal breast cancer. After the movie you can enjoy the commentaries of the “real” people of the story that confirm the movie is pretty accurate. This movie is “clean”, heart-gripping, funny, tear-jerking, captivating and engaging. You will recognize many of the actors/esses.

Narnia and beyond

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I just finished the last of the 37 CD’s of all 7 Narnia Chronicles unabridged audio books 🙂 Whew! What an amazing journey the last 2 months have been as I have “re-read” all these wonderful stories.

I read the books as a teenager, but must admit I didn’t remember a word of them. That’s why the old BBC movie versions and now the new Walden versions are great reminders of C.S. Lewis’ masterpiece. I so wish I could dream and write like him. Also, if you haven’t already, I highly recommend watching “Shadowlands”, the movie based on the C.S. Lewis biography.

The Chronicles of Narnia are in this order in case you want to borrow the library’s CD sets:

Magician’s nephew.

Lion, the witch, and the wardrobe.

Horse and his boy.

Prince Caspian.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Silver chair.

Last battle.

None of the books are inferior to another, although some are more captivating as movies and more “doable” as a 2 hour theater feature. The 7 stories are in chronological order, the plots building upon the previous book and really should be read in order. Although every story has a beginning and an end, people and places make more sense when you know their background from previous books. The first book describes the creation/beginning of Narnia and the last book ends with Narnia going under as a country but with a new Narnia beginning.

The old BBC movie productions (of book 2, 4 and 5) have ridiculous special effects and “B” rated actors, which actually makes them much more child friendly. But on the other hand they are VERY true to the books. Even big sections of dialogue are directly taken from the original manuscripts. Absolutely worth seeing.

I wish I could say the same for the new productions. The 2 first movies had very recognizable scripts, characters and wording, although with a very “Hollywoodized” spin to make the stories more flowing and “on the edge”. As if Lewis’ original books aren’t exciting enough…  With spectacular special effects, amazing music, great acting performances, we have been whisked away to Narnia with the Pevensie kids again and again.

I saw the latest movie “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” yesterday and I was half impressed and half sorely disappointed. The producers have taken great liberties in eliminating so much then added a whole lot to the story that isn’t in the book. Trying to rehash the whole movie, my subjective opinion is that this movie is only 30 % true to the book. BUT they still capture much of what the book is about AND did a fairly good job condensing a 7 hour story into a 2 hour movie. This book is very much about the relationships between the characters and that is something the movie completely missed.

Looking ahead: I really hope Walden will make another movie and it better be “The Silver Chair”. None ot the other 4 remaining books would make sense at this time. Going back to previous books will be completely out of context and very confusing. But I believe Walden is already working on the possibility of book # 6, since the last movie ends with the brief introduction of Jill Pope, one of the main characters in “The Silver Chair”.

“Three Weeks with my Brother” by Nicholas and Micah Sparks

I’ve been spending a lot of time DRIVING lately and get bored with the radio. Since I don’t read books, I figured my driving time would be wisely spent listening to audio books. I picked up “Three Weeks with my Brother” at the library because …… it looked more interesting than the alternatives. I can now say I actually finished a whole book this year AND enjoyed every word of it.

The book is a memoir, or a biography without all the boring stats. It start with current time, as Nicholas Sparks explores the possibility of taking a trip around the world with his one and only, older brother Micah. Then through the progression of the world trip, he shares several “flash backs” to his life so far, from the earliest memories until current day. It’s a story about family, love, loss, faith, success, failure, dreams and unbreakable bonds. I thought about my own 2 boys a lot.

I normally don’t get emotionally involved in books of movies, but this story had me laughing, crying, shouting in disbelief, my mouth dropping in shock and pondering my own life and values. I even learned a thing or two about parenting and life in general. By the end of the book, I felt like I knew the Sparks family personally and I really didn’t want the story to end.

Nicholas Sparks should be well-known to most people. He has written many “best sellers turned into movies” and is still at it. The memoir reveals how he started writing in the first place (it’s pretty funny). Next up on my list (if I can find it in audio version) would be “The Rescue”, inspired by Sparks’ own experience with an autistic child.