Have You Checked Into Rehab?

"The Christian life is an entrance into rehab."

Reach Records released Lecrae's new album, Rehab, on 9/28/10. This amazing album ranked very high on several iTunes charts, including #2 in Hip Hop/Rap albums and #3 in all music genres. The debut week sales for Rehab were 25,864 units. This is a huge jump from the first week sales (about 10,000 units) of his previous album, Rebel. No other Christian Hip Hop album has ever sold so well in its first week.

One of my favorite things about the release of this album is that the day it released, Lecrae was in Southern Sudan working for Jesus' Kingdom. At the RR blog he writes:

At the height of my new album REHAB, I plan to be in Southern Sudan. I believe it is of critical importance for people to see that the Gospel impacts every area of culture. I want to give them hope in Christ. So, I won't see the iTunes charts on release day. I won't know what Billboard, fans and critics have to say about it. I'll be consumed with the Master and His work.

In this album, Lecrae invites us to join him in detoxing ourselves of sin. We are to attack and kill sin at its root, not just sever the fruit of our sinful indulgences. In his own words:

My prayer is that people will not just gain practical insight for their lives, but they would find real sympathy from myself and mostly in the High Priest who sympathizes with us–Jesus. He is more than our healer. He IS our healing. He doesn't just offer us peace. He IS our peace. And He IS our rehabilitation. So find rest for your weary soul and Joy in the midst of life's ups and downs, with my offering of music.

Here are the lyrics to one of my favorite songs on the album:

Boasting (ft. Anthony Evans)

If this Life has anything to gain at all / I count it lost if I can't hear you, feel you, 'cause I need you / Can't Walk this Earth Alone / I recognize I am not my own, so before I fall / I need to hear you, feel you, as I live to make my boasting you alone

With every breath I take, with every heart beat / Sunrise and the moon lights in the dark street / Every glance, every dance, every note of a song / It's all a gift undeserved that I shouldn't have known / Every day that I lie, every moment I covet / I'm deserving to die, I'm just earning your judgment / I, without the cross there's only condemnation / If Jesus wasn't executed there's no celebration / So in times that are good, in times that are bad / For any times that I've had it all I will be glad / and I will boast in the cross. I boast in my pains / I will boast in the sonshine, boast in his reign / What's my life if it's not praising you / Another dollar in my bank account of vain pursuit. I do / That count my life as any value or presence at all / Let me finish my race, let me answer my call

Tomorrow's never promised, but it is we swear / Think we holding our own, just a fist full of air / God has never been obligated to give us life / If we fall for our rights, we be in hell tonight / Mere sinners own nothing but a fierce hand / We never loved him we pushed away his pierced hands / I rejected his love, grace, kindness, and mercy / Dying of thirst, yet, willing to die thirsty / Eternally worthy, how could I live for less? / Patiently you turn my heart away from selfishness / I volunteer for your sanctifying surgery / I know the spirits purging me of everything that's hurting me / Remove the veil from my darkened eyes / So now every morning I open your word and see the Son rise / I hope in nothin, boast in nothin, only in your suffering / I live to show your glory, dying to tell your story.

Glory was solely meant for you / Doing what no one else could do / With All I have to give,(With all I have to Give)
I'll use my life, I'll use my lips / I'll only glory in your Word. What gift to me I don't deserve / I'll live in such a way that it reflects to you, my Praise.

Buy the album from Amazon. Download the album from Amazon / iTunes. Check into Rehab. Follow Lecrae on Twitter. Keep up with what Reach Records is doing. Enjoy!