Magdalene-Life Beyond Death

Magdalene, one of the greatest bands, not just in Mizoram but nation wide, was formed in mid June 2005. A year later they released an album, "Life Beyond Death".

They have won two of the 'biggest' awards in Mizoram, Lelte Award and Rimawi Khawvel Awards as Best Band of the year in 2007.

They went on to compete in IIT, the most coveted music competition in India and won 3 (three) First Prizes in 2006. Individually Victor won the best guitarist and Steward won the best vocals 3 times. In the same competition the next year, they won second prize.

Magdalene is:
Vocals- Steward
Guitars- Victor
Bass- PBa
Drums- Patea

Original from Da Scavenger Records. Da Scavenger Records is owned by Victor and is one of the most 'happening' studios in Mizoram. It was for the first time today (23/Sept/2009) that Magdalene converted their album to mp3 (I was fortunate enough to be in the studio while the process) If you've had an mp3 of this album before, it was pirated, delete it.
Click below to download Magdalene-Life Beyond Death with two bonus tracks and Album covers and recent pictures of the band.

Download Life Beyond Death.

Why God Allows Pain

This is one of the best explanations of why God allows pain and suffering that I have seen...

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed.
As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation.
They talked about so many things and various subjects.
When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said:
"I don't believe that God exists."
"Why do you say that?" asked the customer. "Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist.
Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people?
Would there be abandoned children?
If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain.
I can't imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things."
The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond because he didn't want to start an argument.
The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop.
Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard.
He looked dirty and unkempt. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber:
"You know what? Barbers do not exist."
"How can you say that?" asked the surprised barber.
"I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!"
"No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist because
if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside."
"Ah, but barbers DO exist! That's what happens when people do not come to me."
"Exactly!" affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God, too, DOES exist!
That's what happens when people do not go to Him and don't look to Him for help.
That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."
If you think God exists, tell this to other people---
If you think God does not exist, don’t tell anyone else.

Reviewing some of my older mails, I came across this mail sent to me by a friend back in 2007. I believe and know and sometimes feel the presence of God so here it is. (The picture is my work)

BIBLE Statistics

OLD TESTAMENT STATISTICS:
Number of books: 39
Chapters: 929
Verses: 23,114
Words: 602,585
Letters: 2,278,100
Middle book: Proverbs
Middle chapter: Job 20
Middle verses: 2 Chronicles 20:17,18
Smallest book: Obadiah
Shortest verse: 1 Chronicles 1:25
Longest verse: Esther 8:9
Longest chapter: Psalms 119
Largest book: Psalms

NEW TESTAMENT STATISTICS:
Number of books: 27
Chapters: 260
Verses: 7,957
Words: 180,552
Letters: 838,380
Middle book: 2 Thessalonians
Middle chapters: Romans 8, 9
Middle verse: Acts 27:17
Smallest book: 3 John
Shortest verse: John 11:35
Longest verse: Revelation 20:4
Longest chapter: Luke 1
Largest book: Luke

Meaning of Praise and Worship

General meaning

Dictionary Meaning of Praise and Worship
Praise: express warm approval of or admiration for…(Concise Oxford Dictionary) (esp. to intelligent beings or deity, it can also be to unintelligible or non-living things.)
Worship: the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity. Religious rites and ceremonies. (Concise Oxford Dictionary)
When ‘praise and worship’ is mentioned, we or most Christians think of praising God with music, singing and probably dancing too. Praise and worship is also a genre for contemporary church songs. Praise is used for songs with faster beat and worship for slower ones. Songs by Hillsong, Sonic Flood, I Worship, Matt Redman, and Chris Tomlin are good examples of the praise and worship genre. Other gospel songs fall under different genres like hymns, gospel rock and so on. It doesn’t mean they are not songs of praise. We can praise and worship God in all category of music. Let us just remember that God don’t care about style. All that we really need is a heart of worship.

Deeper Meaning

Biblical Revelation of Praise and Worship
Praise: To glorify, magnify, to give thanks etc. etc. because of the things God has done for us. To proclaim His greatness.
Worship: All of the praise meaning, however, focusing more on submission, reverence, adoration, awe, and to marvel God’s glory. To revere His Greatness.

Praise and worship is about God and for God, it belongs to God alone, focusing only on God’s glory. Therefore when we sing, “I surrender all…All to Thee my blessed savior I surrender all” we’re rather committing ourselves to God and not actually praising or worshiping. Gospel songs can be songs of petition, testimonial songs, confessional songs etc.

One On One

There are so many aspects of praise and worship. The most important one though, in my opinion, is to make sure you have your own praise and worship time with God. You don’t need any fancy prayer rooms, although, that would be nice. Matthew 6:33 says to seek His kingdom first and His righteousness. If you do that, fancy rooms will be added unto you.

God loves you so much He wants to be with you, not just in churches or gatherings but alone. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying God don’t want you in the church, hell no! What I’m actually trying to deliver is the fact that you and I gotta be strong even when we’re alone.

(Note: in this post, the word ‘alone’ refers to your time away from Christian activities of any sort, alone or with others.)

Most Christians backslide when they’re alone. Temptations are easier to overcome when we are in united groups. Even if we do not pray very much, our Christian friends are there to help us overcome them. Praise God for godly and spiritual friends Gal 6:1. So, it’s good to attend church meetings even if you don’t want to worship, it’ll keep you away from doing what you may regret.
We are, as normal people should be, compelled to be in our best behavior in front of our pastors and elders. I’m not against this standard; I respect men and women of God too. Therefore I go to church in my formals and sit like the most civilized person on earth to please the congregation not God. I have met a few who were bold enough to admit this. Are you? I used to think I was doing it for God until 1 Samuel 16:7 (God looks at the heart only and never the outward appearance) made an impact in my life.

Let me elaborate here to cement my point that most Christians backslide when they’re alone. Well, I wouldn’t fall into fornication at worships, I will never do drugs while a sermon is going on in church, I don’t even fidget too much in any service. They’re eyes everywhere and I wanna look dignified. Even murderers don’t choose to kill when everyone’s around. So where is God now? Are we just doing ‘good’ and not doing ‘bad’ just to please others?

Dear readers, I was once a junky and I know where physical demanding sins are committed and you don’t have to have been a junky to agree that it’s never in the spot-light of any creditable Christian gatherings. Mizoram, I proudly call home, is a 100% Christian state and yet I’m not the only pastor’s son who had been an addict. I dare not blame my parents, as far as I’m concerned, they did everything a pastor would do to raise a God-fearing son. It was my disobedience and mostly my lack of personal devotion with God.

Just like the people of God we respect so much, we have the same God by our side 24/7. Praise and worship Him wherever you are. It is an awesome privilege to come before His presence in personal devotion! You will come to call your own devotional time a quality time with God. Bless His name especially when you’re alone and have nothing to do. That’s when Satan tries to sneak in. But let’s not be afraid, “How can we fall if we are always one on one with God?

1 John 4:4 – Greater is He… (open your Bible and read the rest...)