Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hope For Despair, November 3, 2009
After the tragedy that struck the Chapman family in May 2008, I knew that Steven's next album was sure to be a completely different experience, and I was very curious as to what Beauty Will Rise would sound like.
The day I watched him perform the song "Beauty Will Rise" live on YouTube, I was blown away. The words and the message spoke right to my heart and comforted many of my personal despairs & troubles . . . God spoke to me amazingly through that song and it became my instant favorite.
Of course I was eager to hear the rest of songs---and having heard them now, I still am astonished at how much the lyrics seem to have been written exactly for my problems---God used and is using these songs to remind and comfort me.
"I Will Trust You" is a another favorite of mine. The opening lyrics describe how desperate Steven felt ("I don't even want to breathe right now") , and yet he continues on with hope ("I will trust you/Even when I don't understand")---("Your plans for me are better than my own").
In "Our God Is In Control" , "Jesus Will Meet You There", & "Faithful", we are reminded that no matter how terrible and wrong things are going, even worse than we could have ever imagined, God is there, in control, and He is faithful.
"SEE" & "February 20th" are tender, wholly heartfelt songs that triggered many emotions in me. Just the way Steven sings "SEE" was enough to move me deeply. These are the sad and tearful songs---especially "SEE"---gently comforting and reminding us that joy is coming ("Just wait and SEE").
"Heaven Is The Face" & "Just Have To Wait" are sort of bittersweet songs that both deal with Steven's intense longing to get to heaven, where he can dance, laugh and play his daughter again---all the things he misses and can't wait for once more. ("But I/Oh I/Just have to wait/Cause I know that day's coming")
"Questions" & "God Is It True? (Trust Me)" both tackle all the struggles, wrestles and questions that appear through all our pains and tribulations, and again assures us that God is there, and He is saying "Trust Me".
Finally, "Spring Is Coming" is an uplifting and deeply encouraging song that is the perfect ending to the album. Even though things seem dead and lifeless now, "Spring is coming/And all we've been hoping and longing for/Soon will appear/"
Steven's style is as unique as ever, this time centering heavily on acoustic guitar, supported by piano and cello.
A truly wonderful album, more than words can say.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing, November 4, 2009
Wow. I can't think of a cd filled with as much raw emotion as this one. Steven Curtis Chapman lays all his heart-wrenching questions about life, faith, and God out there. Knowing all that his family has been through over the last year and a half since the tragic death of their daughter, this cd is difficult to listen to, and yet it serves as a reminder that there is hope in Almighty God. He brings us into his world of pain and hope. The music is great, to be sure, but it's the lyrics that will grab you and bring you in. Through this cd, the Gospel came alive for me in a way that it has not in quite some time. This music will be a reminder that God is faithful even in the most unbelievable circumstances.
Chapman's conclusion, even in the midst of questions and circumstances I pray I'm never faced with, is found at the end of the song SEE: "Taste and see that the Lord is good," from Psalm 34:8. May you catch a small taste from this music.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Beauty" is a Glorious Testimony of Chapman's Faith, November 4, 2009
Prime Cuts: Our God is in Control, Heaven is the Face, February 20th
Sometimes tears have away to wash away the manufactured superficiality encasing so many modern songs today. Though Chapman is by no means a nouveau in the contemporary Christian music market, lately his songs possess a platonic platitude. However, a freak accident tragically took away the life of one of his adoptive daughters devastating the Chapman family. After one and a half years of struggling with the pain of the tragedy, Chapman finally chronicles his pain in the light of God's Word via these 12 newly penned songs. What functions as this album's trump card is that Chapman is not afraid to confess his fears, doubt, pain and frustrations. Yet not all is left in the mire of self pity and despair. Rather, hope and faith in the sovereignty of God amidst suffering beams just as bright over the course of the CD. At the end of the day, this is one of the most balanced albums in Chapman's illustrious career.
Personal references to the death of Maria are especially poignant in the piano-led "February 20th." The title refers to the day Maria came to know Christ as her Lord and Savior, just three months shy before her death. The tracks is blanched with so much melancholy that ought to strike a chord with anyone who has had suffered lost. Despite its sleek rhythm beat, album opener and current single "Heaven is the Face" details Chapman's fatherly grief of losing his daughter. But these songs are not just specific to the catastrophic plight of the Champans, there's a universality rhetoric to them that has ways of reaching those who are suffering. Words like these from the popish acoustic "See" echoes the universal cries of the suffering, "But right now all I can say is, 'Lord, how long?' / Before You come and take away this aching / This night of weeping seems to have no end / But when the morning light breaks through / We'll open up our eyes and we will see... / Wait and see / Oh taste and see that the Lord is good / The Lord is good."
What makes "Beauty Will Rise" such a spiritual treasure trove is that Chapman knows that grief left alone will only evolve into bitterness and destruction. Rather, grief can only find healing when it's brought before the throne of God in worship. Such is the theme of the treacly worship anthem "Our God is In Control." The title track "Beauty Will Rise," a declaration of faith in the reliability of God, is old-school Chapman with this multiple Dove award winner rocking his boots off with his screeching electric riffs and pulsating drum beat. Continuing on the same theme is "Jesus Will Meet You There" here Chapman paints vignettes of Christ and his comforting presence in various trying times.
With the current obsession of today's messages on prosperity and well-being, it's easy to be too earthly-blinded for any heavenly good. However, tragedy has a way of re-directing us towards thinking about death, the after-life and heaven. "Just Have to Wait" is sober comfort for those whose trust is in Christ, yet it has a way of poking the unbeliever to think of the after-life in non-preachy yet compelling ways. On the whole, Chapman's "Beauty Will Rise" is an important sonic tome in the canon of contemporary Christian music. "Beauty Will Rise" not only addresses one of human being most searching questions, the question of suffering, but it also provides the best answer. Only in God's sovereign grace, can one find healing, insights and spiritual strength.
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