How Marvelous – I was feeling particularly sinful during a period of time and the Lord showed me grace, He loved me when I couldn’t love myself. I was so thankful to the Lord and how He led me back to Him and His dream for my life. I marveled at the grace and purposes of God and this song emerged from the depths of my heart.
Who Can It Be – wrote this song for Young Methodist Leaders’ Conference (YMLC) 2005 and it was selected as the theme song for the conference. The song expresses the passion of the young leaders at the conference and wherever they go. I’m so grateful to Haiks, John and Charles for helping me produce the original demo – you guys are a class act!”
Follow – I was shocked when told by my Annual Conference President that he was planning to appoint me to serve in Cairnhill Methodist Church after serving in Paya Lebar Methodist Church for only about a year and a half – and I was enjoying my ministry there. I sought the Lord for several weeks, and finally at a Sunday service, the Lord finally spoke and said, ‘it’s complete, what I’ve brought you to Paya Lebar Methodist Church to do, it’s complete’. I was on my knees, and I wept. Two days later, after the church prayer meeting, the Lord gave me this song. The first two verses describe my experience on Sunday and struggle. The third verse speaks prophetically of the joy and peace I would experience when I begin my first Sunday at Cairnhill, which I did in August 2007.”
Appetite – I had just returned from the Young Methodist Leaders Conference in Sep 2007. While at the conference, the Lord gave me such a great hunger for Him and that appetite for Him carried on for many days. He also showed me the hunger for God on the faces of the 100+ young adults who showed up at our 6am prayer meetings everyday during the conference – the largest we ever had up until that point. One morning, back in the church the office, I just had to let what was stirring within me be released and expressed in this simple song. Lord, give me an appetite for You greater than my craving for the things of the world.”
Holy One – back in 2007, my 4-year old Josiah said to me, ‘dad, can you write a song about God making light and darkness?’ I said, ‘yes, why not, I’ll try.’ And as I wrote, I was deeply impressed and moved by God’s unconditional love for me, even though I totally don’t deserve it, He sent Jesus to die for me, for us.”
Great God – this song was written for the Ohana church camp at Paya Lebar Methodist Church in 2007 where I served as worship pastor, and it was also translated into Mandarin. It was the first time I produced a song on GarageBand using very basic loops and playing the guitar live. It was good fun! God is good!
To Know Your Way – my wife May wrote the most of the words of this song feeling the pain of her friend who was struggling with her teenage son’s issues, something May could relate to as a mother of three boys. With the handwritten words on a piece of scrap paper, in front of me on the keyboard the next morning in the prayer room at Faith Methodist Church. I prayed a short prayer, and out came this entire song fluently, all done in an hour! This song came in 2nd place for YMLC 2005. I’m thankful to Haiks, John and Charles for putting the original demo together – two thumbs up!”
Thank You Father – I had come home from the last exam in my 2nd year at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Went on my knees and gave thanks to God – wanted to sing a song of thanksgiving but all the thanksgiving songs I knew then were about thanking God for Jesus who died for us on the cross. I started singing these words to thank God specifically for something wonderful He just accomplished.
God Will Triumph – this song was written many years ago when I was in a place where there were lots of people issues, misunderstandings and miscommunications were causing frustrations, anger, hurt and division; while spending time with the Lord one day, He highlighted Eph.6:12 to me where it says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (ESV) And as I started writing, the Lord showed me the hope we have in Him and it came from 1Cor.15:54-58 which formed the 2nd verse of the song – ” 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (ESV) Truly, our labour in the Lord is never in vain!
The Name I Name – this song was written during of those days when I felt so human, so sinful, such a letdown to God. As I confessed my sins before Him, the words of this song came to me. He is the God of second chances, always loving, always forgiving whenever we turn our hearts and devotion back to Him, He’s the Name I name!
We Believe – this was the very first song I wrote when I first received Christ almost 40 years ago (in 1986). I was 22 and had been a Christian for about 4 months and one night, while memorising 2Cor.5:17 (the very first memory verse in the Navigators’ Topical Memory System in card form), “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (ESV), the Lord gave me this tune. It was past midnight and I was afraid I’ll forget what it sounds like the next morning, so I recorded myself singing it with a portable Sony cassette recorder. To my surprise, the tune was still in my head the next morning and I went on to finish writing the song. Not long after, I had the privilege of forming a Christian band called Cross Culture, with several church members from my first church, Shalom Gospel Hall – the band members were drummer (Javinh Chan), bassist (Edward Lim), electric guitarists (Lim Chee Kong and Wei Hong) and then there was me on keys and vocals. Prior to my conversion, I had immersed myself in a lot of rock and heavy metal music, so naturally We Believe had an 80’s slow rock feel and the original version had a 32-bar lead guitar solo played by two guitarists playing 16 bars each (a blues rock solo by Chee Kong and a heavy metal solo in double pace by Wei Hong). The long guitar solo was meant to reflect how the seasons and years passed before I was converted to Christianity. Cross Culture performed We Believe on a number of occasions including on our band mission trip to Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh, at Noah’s Ark (a Christian-owned pub in Bugis, Singapore) and also at the Malaysian Christian Music Festival held at the Wisma MCA Kuala Lumpur (organised by Klang Wesley Methodist Church) where I sang duet with my buddy Billy Chiew. This song is very special to me because after writing it, I realised that it describes my personal life journey at that point in time.
Barnz Music 