Yesterday afternoon, Cathy and I decided to go for a date at SM Megamall without the children. True to form, we ended up shopping for the kids anyway!

I passed by the House of Praise kiosk at the basement level of the mall and riffled through the CDs in the PHP75 discount bin when I spotted… THIS!

A VeggieTales Greatest Hits collection for PHP75?!

That’s ridiculous!

Almost all audio CDs from VeggieTales were flushed out of distribution when Big Idea signed distribution rights over to Viva a few years back. Since then, Viva has brought it a bunch of VeggieTales DVDs (thank you, Viva!) but all audio production has stopped.

This was a gem of a discovery, and it was all I could do not to jump around.

Two CDs behind the VeggieTales Have We Got a Show For You CD was… THIS!

Another VeggieTales gem!

The VeggieTales Sing-Along CDs were in rare supply, and this particular one, the Pirates Boat Load of Fun, contained a whole bunch of traditional and original tracks from Larry the Cucumber, Mr. Lunt, and Pa Grape, who together, make up the infamous bunch of scallywags, the Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything!

15 tracks, plus minus-one tracks, total 30 songs.

At PHP75.00 each.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why it’s awesome having a God who likes to bless His kids so His kids can bless their kids. VeggieTales rock! When best friend Raft3r gets back here, he’ll be bringing in two more CDs for Nathan & Nicki: Bob & Larry’s Sunday Morning Songs and Veggie Tales: On the Road With Bob & Larry. My house is a garden of VeggieTales.

Oh, by the way, Cathy picked up a few clothes for Nicki. Clothes for girls, how exciting. *roll eyes* Hahaha, kiddin’.

Mark Roach is arguably my favorite new Contemporary Christian male discovery for 2008. After seeing the chart progress of his hit Inspo single Surrounded, I was drawn to his MySpace, where I discovered an artist with an ear for memorable, sing-able melodies and a skill for producing earnest lyrics that speak of God’s goodness and majesty.

While it was easy to predict the Top 10 potential of Surrounded, Roach’s second Inspo single The Least I Can Do betters it across many levels. First of all, The Least I Can Do has a much easier, more memorable melody to sing. Second, the lyrics are easy to sing, with a hook that worshippers will find easy to remember. Third, The Least I Can Do’s two main topics – the heart of gratitude for what God has done and for the sacrifice of His Son on the cross for our sins – speak on both personal and community levels, making it a potent double threat that should make it a ready staple for church worship.

Assuming Warner Bros. stands behind this track and given the previous success of Surrounded, I predict an easy Top 5 finish for The Least I Can Do, with a #1 finish not entirely out of the question. Easily one of my favorite tracks of 2008.

Listen to Mark Roach The Least I Can Do mp3
The Least I Can Do Mark Roach lyrics after the jump. Read more

Late last week, I visited the 700 Club studios along H.V. De La Costa Street in Makati to do a brief interview on the topic of Superbook. I’m sure many of you have fond memories of Chris, Joy, Gizmo, and Ruffles entertaining and gently evangelizing to us back in the 80s; I certainly have!

Anyway, it was an interview that was short and sweet. I talked about the influence Superbook had in my faithwalk, how it influenced my decisions as I grew older, and how it eventually played some kind of role in where I am today and the many communications materials I generate for Joey Bonifacio and the Makati church in which I serve.

Unfortunately, I think this interview won’t air locally, as Celeste Endriga, the ever-accommodating, wonderfully funny, and tremendously insightful producer who conducted the interview, tells me it’s intended for an American audience. I hope I can get to see the rough cut though, para makita ko naman ang aking American television debut. Hahahaha!

It was quite an experience, and I praise God for it. Who would’ve thunk I would eventually make an appearance on a show I grew up on, talking about another show I grew up on? Wow, God, You really do rock my world.

The Philippine blogosphere has long ignored a focal niche market: the Filipino-Christian blog.

I estimate around 5% of Philippine blogs are overtly Christian in nature, and this number is growing. Even as more Filipino-Christians make the foray into social media marketing - fancy talk for blogs, podcasts, and the like - without any real idea of the implications of being an online ambassador for Christ and the Philippines, Christian media leaders are coming together to engage believers, establish them in the faith, equip them with ideas on how to really be effective witnesses for Christ online, and empower them to go forth and Multiply, so to speak.

Redeem The Airwaves: Upload! is a three-day media conference on tapping the effective potential of various types of traditional and digital media for Jesus Christ. Running from April 10 to 12 at the Lighthouse Christian Community Building along Buencamino Street in Alabang, Redeem The Airwaves: Upload! is the ultimate starting block and the ideal stepping stone for Christians and their communities seeking to use social media networking to their best advantage: to honor God and make disciples.The conference features the following topics and speakers:

• Making Sense as a Communicator, Francis J. Kong
• Blogging 101, Joey Bonifacio
• Radio 101 and the Future, Mike Pedero
• Podcasting, Jim Reyes and Arnold Gamboa
• Making Videos for the Internet, John Tan of CBN Asia
• The Role of Christians in Media, Julius Fabregas
• The Long Tail Economy, Dr. Chuck Quinley
• Media Values vs. Christian Values, Kata Inocencio
• Organizing Life-Changing Events, Ardy Roberto
• Song Composition, Jungee Marcelo
• Launching Your Band, Roca Cruz

I, for one, think this event is gonna be bananas! You can visit Redeem The Airwaves online, email love@theedgeradio.net for reservations and inquiries or call 339.0140 or 0918.959.EDGE for more information.

Go, Filipino-Christian bloggers! GO! Super-duper mega EB!

Everyone deserves a sex life that blows their socks off, the kind that makes old ladies blush and friends ask “What’s your secret?” You don’t have to have a porn star’s endowments or Energizer’s lasting power.

This R-18 post is going to piss off some people. Real men - the type who want sex lives that blow their minds - should click through. Are you an avowed porn-lover who will never consider giving up smut, or a person who has sex with her/his partner a year or less after getting together, and will not consider waiting longer for sex? You are? Yeah, you can leave now. Buh-bye.

Read more

Have you heard Unrestrained? Written by Calvin Nowell and Tony Sutherland, and performed most notably by American Idol finalist Mandisa and Myron Butler and Levi, Unrestrained is an absolutely spectacular worship song. (I want the worship team at the church in Greenhills I attend to do it.)

The Biblical basis for this worship song is Luke 7:36-50, which details the story of the sinful woman who visited Jesus at the house of one of the Pharisees. (Many believe this to be Mary Magdalene.) In an act that took the entire household by surprise, she entered the house weeping and began to “wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.”

This act prompted several important events in the story:
1) A Pharisee’s self-righteous condemnation of the woman (in his mind)
2) Jesus’ parable of forgiveness, the point of which is, between two debtors whose debts are forgiven by the lender, the person in greater debt is more likely to be grateful to the lender and “love him more”
3) Jesus forgave (absolved) the sinful woman of her sins
4) Jesus asserts the sinful woman’s faith in His power to forgive sins has saved her

Unrestrained is a particularly powerful song of worship for me because it puts a lot of things into perspective for me about the act of worship:

1) God knows me inside and out. The initial verse goes:

Most holy Lord
You have my attention
You know my thoughts and all my intentions

In Luke 7:39, the Pharisee mutters his condemnation of the sinful woman in His mind. Jesus is able to read his mind and proceeds to tell a parable of forgiveness. I can’t hide anything from God, and when I set aside time exclusively for Him, to worship Him, to talk to Him, to ask of Him and to hear from Him, I can trust that what happens in that sacred time is honest and open, because the Lord knows what is really going on inside me.

2) Worshipping God is to put Him first above all else, sometimes at risk of rejection or scorn.

I want to honor You in every way

I pour my love on You
My whole life belongs to You
I worship You completely unashamed
I give You my heart unrestrained

When the sinful woman came before Jesus, she honored Him in the best way she knew now, the context of that day: she came before Him and perfumed, wet, and kissed His feet. One’s feet can literally one of the dirtiest parts of the human body, and in many cultures, kissing one’s feet is one of the ultimate acts of servitude. To do it before a crowd can be utterly humiliating, but the sinful woman knew who Jesus was. What she did was total, unrestrained, unashamed worship of Jesus. Combined with her own repentance and her faith in Christ to forgive her sins, she was forgiven everything.

Of course, everything can be taken out of context in today’s day and age. People have different ways of worshipping God, and I don’t think any of them should be criticized for being any more or any less relevant to God. For instance, me, I like to worship God in my car. Seriously. At 5AM. It’s the only place in the house where I feel I can sing at the top of my lungs and not be heard by my sleeping wife, kids, and househelp. I can play a worship song - like Unrestrained - and literally worship Him with my arms flailing around. For me, when I sing Him worship songs in the early morning, I feel it’s literally just Him and me, and I appreciate that.

3) To worship God is to offer Him everything. There’s a favorite Christian saying: Either God is Lord of all or not at all. Mandisa sings:

Almighty God
You have my devotion
With all my mind and all my emotion
I want to, God, I want to know You more

When we worship God, we offer Him all we’ve got. Heart, mind, and soul. It’s easier said than done, but the desire to know God more, to draw closer to Him, overpowers any feelings of self-consciousness or shame. With one’s faith in Jesus, one offers God his brokenness and sinful nature and allows Him to purify us and make us whole.

My favorite part of Unrestrained is the bridge:

I pour my love like oil from this broken heart
I give myself away unrestrained
I let myself go
You have set me free
I surrender my soul

Jesus mentioned that the Pharisee did not anoint His head with oil. In those days, anointing with oil was a high token of honor and esteem. When we offer God our love, offering it onto Him like poured oil, we’re offering Him the best we have to give. Total surrender, total praise, total worship, in thanksgiving for setting us free from certain eternal suffering.

It’s no wonder I can’t stop listening to Unrestrained. It’s a song that’s so rich in meaning and relevance for me. I hope you can give it a listen; it may minister to you in ways you’ve never experienced before.

What makes a good friend? Is it regular updates? Is it his or her show of love and concern? Is it the many things you have in common?

Let’s take a look at James 2:23.

“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend.” (NIV)

What can I learn about being a better friend from this verse?

1) Friends believe (in) each other. Friends want the best for each other, trusting that s/he has nothing but the best intentions for the other. “Abraham believed God.” The Amplified Bible’s translation reads “Abraham believed in (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on) God.” The very essence of a friendly relationship implies trust in and reliance on the other in good times and bad.

2) Friends help the other become better people. A good friend helps his friend become a better person, one ‘more righteous.’ The Amplified Bible’s version reads Abraham’s friendship with God “was accounted to (Abraham) as righteousness (as conformity to God’s will in thought and deed).” No self-respecting friend would help his friend down a dangerous path, or knowingly stand by while his friend is self-destructing. Friends care passionately about their friends, and help them reach their fullest potential.

3) Friends hold their relationships with their friends in the highest regard. A friendship is a privilege. When one stands up and declares that s/he is a friend of someone, s/he is saying, “I value this person.” We are close. I cherish this relationship. To be called someone’s friend is an honor. (Can you imagine dying and having no ‘friends’ at your funeral?)

At face value, it seems easier to build relationships with people we see on a regular basis, but just because you’ve been out of touch with a friend doesn’t mean the friendship has to end. Work on your friendships. The best relationships are built on a foundation of trust and regularity; if someone hasn’t been in touch a while, it may be hard to rekindle the flames of friendship. If your friend, however, is willing and open to bringing the relationship back, then it could be the beginning of a wonderful new friendship.

Go ahead, talk to a friend today.

GannsDeen.com is featured on page D5 of the Manila Bulletin’s Blog-o-Rama section today. I want to specifically thank vivacious and effervescent AJ Jusay of AJay’s Writings on the Wall, who maintains Blog-o-Rama, for shining the spotlight on a Filipino-Christian blogger.

The interview takes up a half-page (!); in it, I discuss my history of blogging, the advantages of blogging as a family (and whether I’d encourage Nicki and Nathan to blog too, when the time comes), advice on starting and maintaining a blog, and the blogging rules I live by.

I was also asked, by the way, what my blog plans were for 2008. (This didn’t appear in the interview.) I replied:

My biggest wish is to blog less! Hahahaha! Seriously, I want to start Filipino-Christian blogger events, and I’m already laying the groundwork for that. Aside from working on the local Godblog scene, I’d like to promote more positivity in our blogs, and perhaps participate in more local blog events. I’ve volunteered for the second Philippine Blog Awards, and I have every intention of visiting as many local blogs as I can. There’s enough negativity out there without us contributing to the muck. One extremely selfish item on my wishlist: I wish Mandisa Hundley or Matthew West - two of my all-time favorite Contemporary Christian musicians with blogs - would drop by and leave me a note on my website or send me an email.

I was also asked if I still saw myself blogging five years from now. I replied:

I can’t imagine my life without blogging, so yeah, I’ll be blogging at 36, if technology hasn’t come up with something to replace it. (Exploring vlogs, or video blogs, is a step I’m researching on.) As a Fil-Christian blogger, I understand the importance of being online to my personal vision, which is to be a person of significant positive influence, a world changer who honors God and brings glory to His Name.”

Please do buy a copy of the Manila Bulletin so we can send out a clear message to its stakeholders that the Filipino-Christian online community is alive and well, and supportive of those in its ranks. Thanks!

I survived!

Seven days of liquid fasting - okay, five, because I had one meal fasts yesterday and Sunday - and I’ve seen breakthroughs on several levels, God talking to Cathy and me about a variety of things. It’s awesome.

One of the things on my prayer list is for courage in testifying of God’s goodness to people I otherwise would not share with, owing primarily to a huge fear of rejection or misrepresentation of Jesus’ goodness. (Some people judge my perfect God by looking at imperfect me, which is wrong, because just because I’m not the best thing that happened to you doesn’t mean God can’t be the best thing that’ll ever happen to you.)

Well, last week, in the middle of the fast, I took a leap of faith and sang to some of my officemates a Christian version I wrote of Beyonce’s Irreplaceable. If you’d care to see the video, please click here.

Tonight, the fast ends, although Cathy and I are seriously thinking of extending it because the fast has been good to us spiritually (physically, I’ve dropped about three pounds but that’s mostly water weight, so I don’t think it’s a very good thing).

Have a good week ahead, everyone!

Tomorrow, thousands of Filipinos will join the seven-day prayer and fasting activity of Victory Christian Fellowship that kicks off every year. It’s an amazing way to get into the right frame of mind for the year by reconnecting with God, asking Him for direction, and praying that He sanctify and bless one’s year ahead. In the case of VCF-Greenhills, it is also a powerful community-building activity that I, for one, am looking to enjoy in every way (Cathy and I will most likely participate in the Saturday prayer meeting).

I’m praying for the following:

1. A closer relationship with God. I pray to be closer. I want to be closer. I need to be closer. Draw me close, Lord, so close I can feel Your heartbeat. (And so mine can beat in sync with Yours.)
2. A heart - and mouth - for evangelism. I so desperately want God to give me opportunities to bring people to Him, and the wisdom to say the right things when the opportunities arise. I’ve had it with No more chickening out this year!
3. Wisdom in guiding my family daily. Cathy and I have an awesome vision for our family. This year, we’ll really make it happen.
4. Wisdom to decide whether to stay at my current job. I’m actually happy at my job, but there’s an opening in ministry that I, quite frankly, want so bad and I know I’d be great in. If I get it, great; if not, great anyway.
5. Wisdom for our finances. We’re not in bad shape by a long shot, but we want to really GIVE.
6. More opportunities to minister in music and media, and humility as I take advantage of these opportunities. This year, I will be given the opportunity to lead worship. I pray God takes center stage and glory, not me. I also pray that wherever I may be, that the talents of music and writing always be available so I can use it for His glory.
7. Safe delivery for Jess and Thammie
8. An opportunity to move to Makati, in a place we can afford, by next year so we can be closer to work and Nathan can go to a great Chinese school
9. An ASUS EEE

Do you have any prayer concerns? Feel free to email me (email address is in the Contact part of the website) and let’s see God work.