| Sho Baraka | |
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| Music |
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Sho Baraka is on the telephone telling me about his new album. You have to admit “Lions & Liars” is an eye catching title but what is he trying to communicate? He explains, “One of the things I wanted to encourage and challenge people with is that Proverbs 29 talks about the righteous being as bold as a lion and no matter where God places you, no matter whether you’re in education, politics, music or a pastor, I believe that God has placed you there for a reason. Know your arena and try to master it for the glory and that’s what a lion does, he knows his territory and tries to master his territory and that’s what I’m trying to tell people. I don’t want people to think if I’m not a pastor, evangelist or preacher then my work and service to the Lord is less valuable. I just want to encourage people to know that wherever you are God has placed you there, so serve him in excellence. Liars are people that come into opposition to that, whether it is people of the world, your own flesh, Satan or the world’s system so I just want to challenge people on those ideas and philosophy.” These are bold words and they address the issue that many people think they can’t serve God unless they’re in some kind of “full time Christian work”. Sho agrees, “It’s frustrating if people feel less spiritual because they work in the corporate world or they work in the marketplace and they don’t feel like they can be an impact in their arena and I think that’s a disservice to the Lord. God has given different people different gifts and skill sets in order for him to be glorified wherever you are. I think people in the church have to realise that and allow people to serve God in those areas.” This time around, Baraka has worked with a team of people and the results are an even stronger album than his debut. Obviously, others from the Reach Community joined in, Baraka explains, “The first album was pretty much all me so this time around I allowed some good friends and artists to come alongside and produce songs and that was a huge benefit for me.” One of the highlights is the love song, “We Can Be More” which features a guest vocal. Baraka recalls, “The first person that came to mind was JR and he did an amazing job. I gave JR the track and he re-arranged some stuff and he sang it for me and it came out great.” What is he hoping that people who listen to his new album will get from it? “I hope they’ll get a clear understanding of righteousness in Christ and a clear understanding that life outside of him is hopeless and that they be challenged to see God for who he is but beyond that that people would have a good listening pleasure and people would be entertained by what they heard.” |
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