Album of the Week: Better Is One Day

The album I'm highlighting this week was a pivotal one in my life: Passion's Better Is One Day. Originally released in March of 2000, a time and place that seems almost a lifetime away. It's available as an MP3 Album now.

Why is this one so pivotal to my life? It was everything that I thought I would always hate...about Christian music. Praise music? Worship music? A live album? So not going to like it, right? Wrong! This was my VERY first praise and worship CD. While I'd grown up listening to some Christian music--DC Talk, Audio Adrenaline, Newsboys, Jars of Clay--I thought all praise and worship music sounded the same. AKA, I thought it would sound boring. But this album is anything but boring. It's alive. It really is. So vibrant. So joyful. So wonderfully-Christ-centered.

The album list:

Freedom Song
I've Found Jesus
You're Worthy of My Praise
You Are My King
To Speak Your Name
Knowing You
Be Glorified
Glorify
Let Everything That Has Breath
Better Is One Day
Agnus Dei
The Heart of Worship

I'll just focus on a few songs. Better Is One Day, the one that lends its name to the album is taken from Psalm 84.

Psalm 84 How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young— a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob. Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one. Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.

And Let Everything That Has Breath is taken from Psalm 150.

Psalm 150 Praise the LORD. [a] Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.

I love so many songs on this album...including "You Are My King," "The Heart of Worship," and "You're Worthy of My Praise."

I love this album because it helped usher in so many other albums and artists into my life.