6.16.13 Worship Rewind

Worship Rewind 2013

Happy Father’s Day! I get to celebrate the day being a father of a three year old. That’s exciting to me.

Looks like it was a Chris Tomlin day! Today during worship we had a great tome considering trying to regulate the bass amp, a broken guitar string, and a keyboard going out on the last song.

Before service as I was walking up on stage, I had a guy tell me to go play some great music. Thats his favorite part. So we did. We started off with Let God Arise. Thomas, our drummer, caught me off guard with the drums coming in four measures early. That’s not how we practiced it. I literally had to jump on my distortion pedal to get it fast enough. In the second service he caught me off guard because he played it like we did in practice and I was standing ready on the distortion pedal but he didn’t count in on the high hat like he normally does.

After welcome, we did a drawing for one man to sit in the man-cave we set up. That was real fun for a couple of guys getting to sit on a sofa and won a free cooler of beef jerky, chips, root bear and a few other things.

During Victory In Jesus, I broke a string during the first service. I broke the “D” and that’s not normal for me. I usually break the “A”. I believe it was cause because I had to rewrap it a few time when I restrung it a week ago. During the third verse, we play to the beat of the drummer only, so as I was singing the verse I tuned the other strings to be sure the last two songs weren’t out of tune.

I love the song Indescribable. We haven’t played it in a while. You could tell. Lol

Lastly, we played No Turning Back. I like this version of a classic hymn. It was a little difficult to play it during the first service with five strings.

Ultimately, we had a great day at GraceLife. Loved seeing the visitors and catching up with my church family.

 

Man-Cave   photo credit: Carlo Serrano

Man-Cave
photo credit: Carlo Serrano

Disciple

One of the best Christian rock songs of ALL TIME!!! Treat yourself! I got to see them before they were popular at The Rock in Alabama. This song just blows my socks off especially when they did it live.

Here’s their second best song of all time (according to me). This song changed my life. Give it a listen to.

Making Dreams A Reality

  • “Rudy” Ruettiger- walked on the field at Notre Dame Stadium and realized his dreams were about to come true, to play for the Fighting Irish
  • Steven King – his wife pulled his draft of Carrie out of the trash and insisted he turn it into a novel. Carrie was his first published and successful novel.
  • Michael Jordan - was cut from his high school basketball team. That’s a huge spirit killer for a high schooler.
  • Tim McGraw - was told that he’d never make it in Nashville as a country music singer after his self titled debut album. He’s now married to Faith Hill and they are considered the King and Queen of Country Music.
  • Abraham Lincoln - had many many failures and is considered one of the best presidents of all time.
  • George Lucas - spent four years shipping the script for Star Wars around to the various studios and racking up numerous rejections in the process. If he’d let his negative inner voice get to him he would never have ended up having the highest grossing film of all time.
  • Walt Disney - was turned down by over a hundred banks when he tried to get funding to develop Disneyland. He was also fired from his job at a newspaper for “lacking ideas”. He also had several bankruptcies before he was able to develop Disneyland.

I say all that to say DON’T GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS. In just five days I will be standing at the front door of Hastings and having my first ever book signing. I’ve already celebrated opening the package to my first published book. I have celebrated my first sell as a published author. Now I will celebrate my first book signing and it never would have happened had I not had a dream, believed in that dream and had people behind me to back me up in my dream.

Each of us have a dream and life would be a complete waste if you don’t pursue that dream with reckless abandon. I believe God gives us the desires of our hearts and through the power of God and the will to pursue a desire that honors God, anything is possible. Don’t give up on what you dream about. Don’t give in to the naysayers including those negative voices in your head that says it can’t be done. Reach for the prize with utter determination and take nothing less than success for your dream.

Because of my determination to put my rear in a seat and write for hours on end, I get to stand by a table stacked with my books and one in my hand and smile with a heart full of joy that my dream has come true; to be a published author.

If you’re in Clarksville, TN on Saturday, June 15, between 1:00 and 3:00, come by and see me at Hastings on Ft. Campbell Blvd. and celebrate with me. If you have some money, buy a book and I’ll sign it. Put it in your calendar. However if you can’t be part of my dream, don’t sideline your own dream. Go out and make it happen. It’s your dream. No one will will make it happen for you.

6.9.13 Worship Rewind

Worship Rewind 2013

Rocking day today. Our lineup today was Kaven on bass and Thomas on Drums and me on electric guitar.

We started off with Shout To the Lord. I like Lincoln Brewster’s version so much better as a guitar player. Coming off of being congested with sinus infection and an ear infection, I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be able to hit the high notes but it came out pretty well.

After announcements and welcome, we went into Sing Sing Sing. I really rocked this one up by added some hard guitar riffs to open up the song as well as after the drums came in, I dropped the “E to a “D” like Keith Urban does in Who Wouldn’t Wanna Be Me. We also done a fake ending (Thomas’ idea). That was pretty fun too. Chris Tomlin does it in the live version.

Mighty To Save sounded good. I liked the bass riff Kaven played in the bridge after a measure of the drums by themselves.

Finishing off with a great hymn Great Is Thy Faithfulness. Sometimes I sing that song to Levi to quieten him (my two year old).

The band would like to personally dedicate our performance of Georgia Satellites to the one and only Heather Myers. It’s one of her favorites. Heather wasn’t able to play with us because she selflessly gave her time to run the computer while Jaemi, who usually runs the computer was busy preparing to teach on stage with our pastor. This song just completely rocked and we had a great time playing it. This was an idea that just came about (led by the Holy Spirit I’m sure) during worship rehearsal after the band just jammed for a minute. I love it when that happens.

Rick Warren – Ted Talk

Amazing talk by Rick Warren. What I took away from this is God made me to be me. Moses had a staff in his hand and when he approached God, God asked him what he had in his hand. The staff represented three things.

  1. His identity
  2. His income
  3. His influence

What’s in your hand?

Being In Christ is Win/Win

Matthew 5:13-16 (NASB) “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless,how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lamp-stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

Let me put it this way

Matthew 5:13-16 (MSG) “You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

This is where I’m at now in my journey with Christ. I’ve read this a thousand times yet now I’m seeing it differently. My focus has always been on being that light and a small amount of concentration on where the glory goes. It’s always kinda been a “Yeah, Yeah I get it… All for God.” But wait a minute.

Let your light shine < God gets glory (remember the grater than, less than symbol in math)

Everything I do pales in comparison to God’s glory. He will get His glory no matter if I shine bright or hide it under a bushel. He’ll get it through someone else who WILL shine their light. It’s more about His glory than it is me shining a light.

So this really impacted me when I realized I’m shining my light; the truth, the one that God gave me, the Christ from Heaven is being lifted up on a lamp-stand and if that’s not high enough, I walk to the highest point in the city and place that lamp-stand for all to see. And after all my doing, I get no credit, God does simply because of his goodness being revealed in my life.

My reward? Christ.

His reward? Glory.

It’s a win/win!

May 2013 – Book List

Library-Books-1

 

 

Continuing my research for the next book I’m writing, these are the books I read in May.

  1. On The Beaten Path (An Appalachian Pilgrimage) – Robert Alden Rubin
  2. Doxology & Theology – Matt Boswell
  3. AWOL On the Appalachian Trail – David Miller
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