This past year has featured great musical comebacks from female Christian artists who all dominated the charts in the early 2000s, with great new songs by Rebecca St. James ("Shine Your Glory Down), Charmaine ("Run"), Rachael Lampa ("Remedy"), Jaci Velasquez ("Give Me Jesus") and Ginny Owens ("Before You Fly"). 

 

Now you see her. Now you don't. So goes the story of Rachael Lampa, who skyrocketed onto the pop scene in 2000 as a mere teenager amassing four No. 1 singles, five more Top 10 tunes, and the powerhouse vocalist/songwriter became an internationally recognized face in less than a half decade.  

 

After a greatest hits disc in 2006, Lampa practically disappeared from the public eye at the peak of her career, leaving fans scratching their heads and searching feverishly for news of future projects. But as the personable artist who's now in her twenties so eloquently admits, the time away was just to recharge her understandably overworked batteries and plot her next creative step, which manifests itself in her new album All We Need.

 

I have loved Rachael Lampa's songs "When I Fall", "Live For You" and "I'm All Yours" since they released, and her 2011 return was one of my most anticipated albums of last year.

 

I had the great opportunity to interview Rachael about her catchy title track "All We Need."

 

 

When I started writing songs for a new album, I wanted to celebrate God and the privilege of knowing Him. The title track is called "All We Need" which is my own story. God talks about love and how we all need to show love. The hook is ‘love is all we need.' I've gotten to do a lot of awesome stuff and was able to see a lot of things, and all I wanted was just to simplify and to just slow down and to enjoy what was actually in front of me—my friendships and my family and little things and that's where I've gotten all my joy from in the past five years. And that's kind of what the record is.

I mean "All We Need"--that song just came from really just becoming a child again to God and like looking at Him as my Father, and there's nothing else. Not as the person who drives my business or who I write about for my music and my record. He's just my Father. When I wrote "All We Need," it was like I just wanted to write a song that just declared that literally He is all we need. Love is all we need. That everything else will fall into place and everything else will make sense if we can just love first. So that kind of sets the tone for the record, just that title and that song. But really a lot of the songs on the record just touch on the fact that God is consistent and He's "getable." You can "get" Him. He can embrace you and remind you that you're just His child, and so I wanted to grasp just that simple, childlike kind of view of God.

 

 

1 Corinthians 2:1-5: "And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."

 

 

As you get further along in life--and I'm in my mid-twenties now--you start to simplify. There's not a lot of things sacred in life anymore, and the ones that are include people, family, friends, love and God. Money, success, and career don't seem as important to me as they did when I was younger. The theme of this whole album is to not "lean on our own understanding." 

 

That's why we need God. Our understanding isn't enough. If we can just trust God and love Him, He's "all we need." I'm learning how to simplify my world and allow myself to be the best daughter, wife and friend to my smaller world so that I can be someone genuine and real. I want to walk with people who will point me to Jesus all the time. 

 

Growing up in Christian music as a teenager, I knew a lot of people, but I wasn't known by many people. I wasn't sharing my life with anyone. I want richer relationships. Even in the way I approach Jesus, He knows our hearts and it's a great reminder that I can walk with Jesus all day and talk with Him about everything. 

 

I had kind of sped through pretty big years of being a Christian and being a young Christian. I think also when I was travelling they were also some of the greatest forming years for me, just putting me around Christian people. 

 

I grew up in a Christian home and we went to church and we did all the right things, but I think that what we were missing was community. We didn't have a lot of Christian families or Christian friends around us so being on the road really helped with that because I was around people my age that said words like "let's pray" or "I'll pray for you," and that was a huge thing for me because I didn't have friends who said those things. Some of my best friendships I still have now are from being out on the road. 

 

Those were amazing years and great years for me to grow in my faith, and God knew that I needed that. But I think I missed some of the really simple, sweet things about God and being a Christian, and I think that's what I got to see through time off, through getting married, through just having a consistent life.

 

 

Matthew Henry's commentary: "Christ in His person is the sum and substance of the gospel, and ought to be the great subject of a gospel minister's preaching, but not so as to leave out other parts of God's revealed truth and will. Paul preached the whole counsel of God. Few know the fear and trembling of faithful ministers, from a deep sense of their own weakness They know how insufficient they are, and are fearful for themselves. When nothing but Christ crucified is plainly preached, the success must be entirely from Divine power accompanying the word, and thus men are brought to believe, to the salvation of their souls." 

 

"All We Need" is such a yearning song with a lot of passion. Rachael is the perfect vocalist to bring out the strong message of the song. God's plan of salvation is Jesus plus nothing. Rachael pours herself into her ministry and her transparent lyrics. I love singing this song to Jesus and telling Him plainly that I need no other than Him. What a great testimony. Make a commitment to know Jesus. 

 

That's the story of redemption and salvation. God meets us where we are and saves us from ourselves. We're broken and in need of a Savior. Jesus is our Healer and the ultimate remedy for our needs. I especially like songs with vertical lyrics that proclaim Jesus as our Savior. 

 

Although we all know Proverbs 3:5-6, Solomon wrote that to us to remind us today about the importance of trusting in God with ‘all of our hearts. In our modern society, many people put their trust in technology, money, career and themselves. Jesus reminds us that "where your heart is, that's where your treasure is as well." 

 

This song is a great reminder to not look for therapy from the world, but to instead look to Jesus as our love, hope and remedy. As this great song proclaims, "Love is all we need." Amen to that!

 

(Here's a video about Rachael's album.)