To Speak With Jesus...Press 1

While the fam & I were out hitting the town in the big D, our Creative Arts teams were back here in Clarksvegas doing what they do best. Our drama team started the service off with a really funny tongue-in-cheek sketch about how difficult & almost silly we make prayer out to be. Please forgive the video shakes when switching between cameras. We kind of got thrown into this video venue stuff pretty quickly & are slowly getting better equipment as the funds are available. So, if you're itching to give to this ministry, we need a better switcher. In due time. Anyway, enjoy the video!

        To Speak With Jesus..Press 1

Reason for not blogging

Here's a few pics that should explain why I haven't been blogging lately. My family and I took a little excursion to Dallas. Today we went to the American Girl store for lunch & a little shopping. GOD IS GOOD! He has blessed me with a truly amazing family. I don't deserve it. THANK YOU LORD!!

Waiting for the fancy fru-fru food

Emmy J

Sammy B

Dazed & Confused...but loving every minute

Do over

As Lamar Boschman once said..."It's a good thing God sees the heart & not the art". Let's just say that we had our fair share of technical difficulties this morning. It's always worse to me than the average joe sees (or hears) it. You know, the whole I'm my worst critic thing. Here's a video of one of the better moments. I posted this song last month, but this time it's with the full band. Enjoy.

The Lord's Prayer

Help Please

Hello fellow bloggers. I received the following e-mail today from my friend Shaun Groves. He and several others are about to take a trip to Uganda on behalf of Compassion International. As you can see, I've added the widget for their trip to my sidebar. I would encourage you to do the same. It's the least we can do to help the impoverished  children in Uganda & around the world. You can also help by clicking on the give button on the widget. My family sponsors a beautiful girl named Piper from the Philippines. My 5 year old heard Shaun talk at our church about the many children in need. She then turned to her mommy & said..."we have to do something". What will you do?

On Sunday (February 10th) I'm heading to Uganda with 16 other bloggers in hopes of documenting and spreading the life-saving work of Compassion International there. Compassion International is the first organization of its kind to spread its message through the blogosphere in this way and, as a result, hopefully, release hundreds of children from poverty in Jesus' name.

We could use your help making this first-of-its-kind trip a success:

PRAY: Please pray for our technology, creativity, health, families we leave behind, for our thousands of readers and the thousands of children in the third world in need of our help.

READ: Please visit our blogs February 10-18 and leave comments on our posts, let us know you're with us. Go here for a complete list of participating blogs: http://www.compassion.com/share/uganda-blog.htm

SPREAD: If you have a blog yourself, please link to our posts from Uganda, embed the videos we churn out, post a list of the bloggers and invite folks to read along with you. If you don't, e-mail posts that grab you, spread the word about this trip through your network of like-minded friends. Lastly, we've got widgets you can embed on any website. Here are links to those:

SMALL WIDGET perfect for blog sidebars etc:
http://greenhouse.sproutbuilder.com/sprout/seed/WgCXsHBYAJBMvplE

LARGE WIDGET: perfect for Facebook and Myspace pages etc: 
http://greenhouse.sproutbuilder.com/sprout/seed/mgDRP3ijAE14ROiS

For more information about Compassion International visit http://www.compassion.com.

Thank you for helping us release children from poverty in Uganda.

-Shaun

Thoughts on prayer

This past weekend we started a new series simply called "Prayer". In preparation for this series I quickly realized that I have so much more to gain in this area. Do I talk with the Lord? Yes. Do I even take time to listen for His voice? Yes. Is it a top priority in my life? I would have to say...No. That fact has really convicted me. In order for my relationship with the almighty to grow deeper & more intimate (which is something I deeply want), I must make prayer a priority. If you've noticed in my sidebar, I have put one of my favorite books, "Secrets of The Secret Place". It was actually the reading of that book that began me on my journey to a closer walk through prayer. Now, all these months later, after reading it, I find myself slipping out of the discipline.

Okay, Okay, enough of the confessional. Confession is good for the heart, but I wouldn't be telling you this if I didn't strongly believe that many of you are right there with me. We love the Lord, we follow his teachings, we are even beginning to love our neighbors. That's a big one! Yet, we still lack the intimacy that we so greatly desire. I know exactly what it is for me...LIFE. I let the things of this world take over my schedule. On top of that, I have the added challenge of working in the church. It's very easy to see everything that I do as a direct part of my personal relationship with the Lord. Though there is some truth to that, I often find myself accidentally substituting my job for true relationship. For me, I have to do what doesn't come naturally...get with Him in the morning. Man, am I sooooo not a morning person. This is why I get up at 5:30 on Sundays. It takes that long to be coherent by the first rehearsal at 8:00. I will say though, as Bob Sorge put it in "Secrets of The Secret Place", there really is something special about the morning. Jesus prayed in the garden early in the morning. The past few months have been really good & getting better every day. I challenge you. Let's not reduce our prayer lives to giving thanks at the table & an occasional shower song. Let's vow to start our days on our faces. Let's be honest, not taking the time for prayer is really pride. It's me saying, my stuff is more important than you Lord.

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you."

-James 4:10

Darrell wrapped up our first service on prayer with a great story. Prior to that I shared a song that God gave me in my prayer journey. Take a listen & see what God is speaking to You.

Grunting & Pointing

Draw Me

Evangelism Conference - Lesson #1

Morning friends. Well, I've had some time to process last Monday's conference. Oddly enough, I think I received the most insight from arguably, the least engaging speaker of the lot. In his defense. Dr. Roy Fish is now in his eighties. However, in Dr. Fish's case, age has obviously brought great wisdom. To be completely honest, he really just hit me where I am right now in my journey to Christ-likeness. 

He began by quoting 1 Corinthians 9:19-27. Click on the scripture to read it at Biblegateway.com. For me, I knew I was in trouble, with the very beginning of that passage:

"Though I am free and belong to no man, 

I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible."

God has really been teaching me a lot through the birth of our new recovery ministry, "The Well". You know how I know that "The Well" is absolutely a God thing? Because it couldn't be more out of my comfort zone. Don't get me wrong, I have my own issues, but for the most part, I thank God daily that he has kept me from falling too hard. Lately, God has really been opening me up to a new outlook on life & even more, his children. ALL OF THEM, not just those who look...well...good. By the way, in many cases, it is just that, a look. Just because someone looks like they have it all together on the outside, they may very well be falling apart on the inside. 

Along this same line, Dr. Fish smacked me with this statement:

"you have to do away with prejudice. 

Everyone should be welcome into the kingdom of God."

Prejudice! I'm not prejudice! Actually...I am. We all are. How many times do you catch yourself judging someone simply because they're not like you? I'm not talking about extreme examples such as racism. It could be as simple as looking down on someone because they wear jeans & a t-shirt, instead of a suit & tie. Be careful. Prejudice is very sneaky. We have to constantly be aware of it & head it off before it takes root in our minds & hearts. For those of you that know me, I've always been a bit strange. Isn't that a prerequisite for being a musician? Even as odd as I am, I still find myself judging those stranger than me. IT HAS TO STOP! I am so thankful that, through "The Well", I have made new friends that I can honestly say, I love being around. Never forget that God is healing all of us from something.

Another stiff statement from Dr. Fish was this. As evangelizing Christians (which we should all be):

"We want the good guys to come to Christ...not the Lee Harvey Oswalds of this world."

What can be said about that? It's incredibly convicting to me. I'll let you process it on your own. No need to flesh out the obvious. 

Lastly, Dr. Fish basically made the cry that we have to strive to be students of our culture. "Cultural relevance is a fact in building God's great church". I don't think this means that you have to change who God made you to be. For that matter, I don't think that's what Paul was saying in 1 Corinthians. We just have to allow God to help us relate to those that may not be where you are in your journey, but nonetheless, we are all on the same journey. Being prejudice towards someone is absolutely not going to bring them to the cross. Sitting with them & listening (even though you don't have a clue about what they're going through), could very well move them one step closer.

For me, Dr. Fish's message simply cemented that I am headed in the right direction. God help me to stay on that path. I hope some of this was able to help you along. I'll be back next with lessons from the fiery preacher Robert Smith.

Blessings!