Ministering reconciliation...

Last night, at worship Practice we were reading through Psalm 21-25 and Proverbs 5. Let me back up... Our worship pastor, Adam Walker, was given a Sabbatical of 4 weeks. At the time we found out, he asked my wife, Amber, to lead worship in his stead. With hesitancy, she said she would. Adam, then enlisted the aid of two other people to help with leading songs that are out of Amber's range. We chose songs, and who would sing them, and were very excited for Adam. Little did we know that he was such a huge influence on that area and had such huge shoes to fill. Part of that was further broken down into someone overseeing the musical side of things and supporting Amber from a musicianship stand point. Selah. I was asked 2 days before the first practice to help with that portion. Now, I have grown up in the church and had some incredible experiences in worship. My goal as a musician is to allow my worship to be an extension of my love for God. In that, learning to play beyond my n...

Thistles and Thorns: As I read through my bible reading for the day, I prayed and asked God to reveal something new and fresh in this scripture. Matthew 13 is what i read through today. To many, this is a common and very ordinary scripture that we hear a lot. But as I began to read, God was talking to me about who I am in this picture. For those of you that don't know it, Matthew 13 starts out with Jesus getting into a boat and talking in stories. The first story he talks about is a farmer who is sowing seeds. He said the kingdom of heaven is like the man who sows seeds and some fell on the road and was promptly eaten by birds. Some fell in rocky soil, and quickly grew, but because the soil of their character was too rocky, the seed was scorched by the sun and died. Then he said there was a bunch that fell among thistles and thorns. They too grew, but the thistles and thorns chocked them out. Finally, there was some seed that fell on what the bible describes as "Good soil....

Over the last few months, I have found the need to keep pressing my life into Christ. My problem is stagnation. I let that stagnation begin to take root in my life and it began to corrode my relationships. Now, I had no clue that it was happening; all I knew was that things seemed to be getting harder for ME. I would hear myself saying things like, 'I didn't like that at all," or "I don't feel like this person is getting what they are supposed to do." My attitude was quickly becoming one of get out of my way, I can do it better. I didn't realize that this was a bad thing until just recently. The veil was shattered when I caught myself thinking, "How is it that I can be smarter than this person." The fact that the person was an authority figure in my life, the fact that these thoughts COULD HAVE BEEN true is not the problem. The problem for me is that I forgot one of the most basic things in Christianity. Romans tells us that all authority is p...

Psalms 14:2-7 2 The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. 3 All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. 4 Will evildoers never learn— those who devour my people as men eat bread and who do not call on the LORD ? 5 There they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is present in the company of the righteous. 6 You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the LORD is their refuge. 7 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad! This makes me think. This verse is very clear when it says that God "looks down" for nay who can understand. In David's defense, it would be pretty depressing to look out and see that NO ONE is seeking God. I have...

I was listening to Ed Young yesterday and he said, "How often do you share your vision? Do you say it, spray it, teach it, preach it? Have you said it a squillion times?" I feel its time to re-share the vision God gave me. If you are reading this and you feel like God is telling you the same, gimme a call :). This is the best way to share it, so bear with me: "It's dark now, cold, still, and dark. Although the air is cold and still, there is an electric buzz that seems to permeate the darkness. As I move, I can see my breath coming out in anxious gasps. This is the moment I have been waiting for since I was a teenager. I look out and see thousands. I know every one of them. I have served everyone of them, and now, standing in front of them I know I am about to fulfill the plan of God. I walk into the crowd, randomly checking armor. Then, hearing God's voice clearly, I walk to the front and I say, 'Son's of the king, the time has come.' They unde...

Over the course of the last month, my pastor has been asking us to pray a prayer. Interrupt and disturb me, Lord. My heart has been torn for far too long between complacent and the epic call God has placed on my life. In one hand, I desire to run through the valley's and to the mountain tops and shout! "God is real, anyone can be reconciled, it doesn't matter what you did. Just take a step!" But then all too suddenly, thought sink in of insufficiency. Thoughts of "why do this, it won't be effective," began to hit me like one of Iron Mike's left hooks. These thought stay with me about as long as the stars one would see after said hook. The problem with this thought is that its all wrong. Not just from God's perspective, but from God's too. Enter a song that totally shifted my perspective. "All that I am," from the Fellowship Church (Grapevine, TX) worship team to remind me of the truth. Verse two's blazing off-beat tempo and lyr...