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MP3 Gareth Hoare - Living For You
1 MP3 Songs in this album (4:19) !
Related styles: Spiritual: Contemporary Christian, Spiritual: Praise & Worship, Christian
People who are interested in Chris Tomlin Martin Smith Tim Hughes should consider this download.
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Growing up, I was surrounded by Christian influence. My mother is a Christian and so I went to Church with her. She was also part of a gospel group called Kerygma and so I used to sit in on practises and attended their services. I was a member of the Church lads and Church Girls Brigade from the age of 4 up to my teens and would try and get involved in anything the Church was doing.
I was never a popular kid in school and consequently I was a magnet for bullying. I was bullied through primary school and into secondary school. By the end of my first year in secondary school, I was desperate to fit in and stop the bullying and so I started to hang around with a pretty rough crowd. I began smoking at 11 years old and by 13 I had tried most drugs. Family life became a blur and God was no longer a part of my life. From the age of 14 I really went downhill. I had pretty much stopped going to school and had been sucked into a world of drugs, violence and crime. My Mother, Sister and Brother were regularly on the receiving end of my bad mood and often my fist. I was a user of cocaine and heroin amongst other things and had developed an abuse of alcohol. At the age of 16, it looked like there was no going back for me; this was the life I was going to lead. I couldn’t hold down a job or a relationship and most of my friends had disowned me.
A good friend of my mum’s had been popping in and out of my life for a few years, giving me some help here and there as best as he could. He is a music producer and music is something I have always had a passion for. I loved to sing and had taught myself the basics on guitar and keyboard. I was always writing songs to explain how I felt in the hope it would help me vent some of my frustration. When I was 18 years old, he asked if I would go along to an informal service he was holding in the local village sports hall. I went, just to show some support and about half way through the service went outside for a joint while the guest speaker gave his talk. As I was listening, something suddenly struck me. He was talking about forgiveness and how Jesus loves us so much that he never gives up and he is waiting to help all we have to do is let him help. He spoke of unconditional love and it reminded me of my mum. Through all the heartache and violence and worry I had put my mum through, she never held it against me and never stopped loving me. All those who still loved me had Jesus in their lives. I wanted that!
I gave my life to Christ that night and surrendered my drug addiction to him.
About 4 years later when I was 22, I attended an Alpha course. It changed my life. Although I had given my life to Christ, I wasn’t really active in my faith. On the Holy Spirit day I had 2 ladies praying with me. I felt really frustrated; I just wanted the Spirit to fill me. One of the ladies stopped praying for me and said “Gareth, you ARE forgiven”. I hadn’t realised that I had to forgive myself for all that I had done. As soon as I did, the Spirit washed over me from head to toe and has never left me since.
I began to get more involved in Church and started to play at our informal Praise and Worship service. It was then I listened to my first Worship CD, Hello Love by Chris Tomlin. I was totally blown away; this was the music for me! I quickly started to lead more of the songs at the service and in February 2009, lead my first service. In April 2009 I went to Spring Harvest and was inspired by one of the Worship Leaders there, Ben Cantelon. I remembered a song I had written when I first came to faith. The words were so refreshing and exciting and God really spoke to me. I began writing songs for God. Some were testimonies, some were prayers. In September 2009 I got a group of friends together and recorded 8 of my songs onto a demo. We are now hoping to record a full album this year.
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