RETURN TO SENDER

Just wanted to put a plug out there for one of my favorite albums that just went digital for your super-easy online purchase!

This is her page.  Then click on "view" for a little info on her and the album.  You can preview the songs, then purchase them individually or the the whole album.

I don't remember when or why I met Hannah (Emily).  It was through a mutual friend at a bible study I believe, or homeschool co-op event, or...I don't remember.  Since then, bible study, co-op and get togethers have been how we have stayed in touch.  When she put out this album I got one to check her out :).  Little did I know I knew some of the musicians on the album and the guy who recorded it for her sang in our wedding (see the post "Jeremy"). And even less did I know she had written about...me.  I asked her how in the world she could write so many of my songs! :)  So many of them resonate!
I see her smiling every time I hear "I Can't Wait".
"Abundant/Redundant" feels like our life.
"(Im)perfect Me", yup, HE loves imperfect me.
"Every time I Fall"... 
"I Think I Thought"...
And some of the other songs.  Wow.  Love. listening.

Check it out!  She is starting to write songs for a new album too!  Pray for her and her husband Erik through this process.  Their faith is amazing to me, their trust in God. God told them to put their house on the market-they did.  HE told Erik to quit his job-he did.  And know they are waiting and trusting God to see where HE will lead them.  And I thought we were a little crazy! :-}

Jeremy

Here is a link to a blog by a guy who we went to bible school with and sang at our wedding. 

I don't know what to say--his is a LONG, HARD journey.  He and his family really need your prayers in the coming months.  I've kept up with him some, but haven't really contacted him for years.  The one thing I have appreciated about him is his ability to lament...publicly.  And even though he has lamented and grieved publicly  (and been chastised for it) he still holds strong and true to his faith in the God Almighty.  He doesn't desire death of course, but he knows where he is going, should this treatment not work.  But if that were the case, he leaves behind a wife and three small kids.  He has walked a thousand miles through the valleys and desert and has thirsted for more of God.  He has been very open with the pain, physically and emotionally, that this journey has entailed.  He trusts God.

Please pray with and for him!

There have been some very good books that are out there right now. Such as “Radical” by David Platt, “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan, “Red Letters: Living a Life that Bleeds” by Tom Davis, “Hole in the Gospel”, “When Helping Hurts”, and there are others. The question I have for you- if you have read them-is how did it change you? What are you doing with what you learned? Are you living out your faith differently? Or was it just a good read and you just went on with life as usual? Maybe you want to do things differently (how you live out your faith) but you don’t know what to do or where to start. We seem to turn the books into a program/class and very little change happens, if any. People may get fired up about something but it turns out to be just another flash in the pan and it is gone. Where is the passion, the joy, the love that only our FATHER gives? I ask the question, is the church in America hindering/hurting/quenching the Spirit of God? God is not going to force anyone (the church) to love Him with the same passion that HE loves us with. A handful of believers that have surrendered completely to their Father (in body, mind, and soul) will move mountains where a mega-church of the “good content” will not even be able to move a pebble. Have you ever asked God what He wants you to do for Him? Not for any reward you would/will receive but only for His Glory, a selfless sacrifice of yourself. Are you willing to do that? In the movie The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the question is asked, “Is He safe?” The answer: “No, He’s not safe, but He is good.” It is not safe or easy and it will not work out the way you think it will and you will be hurt and suffer at times but it still comes down to one question that each person must answer for themselves, DO YOU LOVE HIM? If you do, does it show?

FAITH LOST/FAITH FOUND PART 2 (AFTER ZAMBIA)

This is the title of a post I wrote some time ago. It is a post on seeing the title, had made Kel angry, to suggest that I had lost my faith. But it was not what she was thinking. I was still a believer in Jesus Christ but I was lost and disillusioned about this life and what it is and what it is supposed to be, and asking the question “who am I?” Because when I looked in the mirror, I didn’t know who I was looking at anymore. And I realized that much of my faith was what I thought it was supposed to be because it is what I had seen and been taught, things that I thought I had to do and I wasn’t so I felt guilt. And when I got wounded and came home from the front lines…yeah, I got patched up but the wounds went deeper than most ever realized. They went into my soul, a place that only the Great Healer can go. Problem was, I wouldn’t let Him because He was the one who put me in the line of fire in the first place. I didn’t trust Him because of what other “Christians” had done to me and my family. You see, in my faith I had tied fellow believers and God together and when I was betrayed by my fellow believers/sinners I lost my ability to trust them and God because I had mistakenly tied the two together. So pretty much since we got back from Zambia I have been running from God, avoiding Him at all costs. Oh, I still played the part in certain circles. But if you knew me and looked in my eyes you knew I wasn’t right. In my world the sun didn’t come out anymore and my only goal was to get through another day; keep busy so my mind didn’t have a chance to rest, think, clear, listen. I had gotten pretty good at it. But I knew my God, my Father was passionately pursuing me and was violently fighting the enemy for my heart back; HE was relentless. It was getting harder and harder to avoid Him and I was getting tired. I knew this trip to Zambia was God and I resisted- but it was going to happen. FATHER knew I was just about out of steam and HE timed it out perfectly. When I finally collapsed HE was right there to catch me. Not to rebuke me, criticize me, or chastise, only to love me unconditionally, HIS son. All I felt was the love of my FATHER and HIS embrace. That happened the first full day in Zambia, Sunday morning in church. I laid in my Father’s arms and wept and the sun started to peek through the clouds. It was just the beginning of the hard, sometimes painful, cleansing, healing week.

I needed God to remind me who I was- HIS SON.