Hey guys,
As I post this, the weather is getting colder, we’ve made it through adjusting to Daylight Savings Time and Thanksgiving is around the corner. This has been another incredible year of growing and seeing God’s hand in our midst. I’m excited to say that one of our artists at Cornerstone Festival is revamping my website. I’m excited at it’s new look and hope you guys will keep walking with me and seeing what God has. So hopefully, I’ll be touching base with you soon from my new site. His peace to you..
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How often do we miss the new thing God is doing in our lives? On the one hand, it is important for us to remember how God’s met us in the past…..moments when He reached from outside of time to remind us, “Yes, I’m here with you…come on, let’s keep going.” We run into problems when we let that become the yardstick we gauge everything else by and are unable to see God move in a different way; maybe something utterly more we could ask for or even begin to think. I’m not talking a new theology or something that goes against scripture, or a prosperity doctrine, but just the amazing way God works.

The story of the woman at the well in John, chapter four. Jesus asks her for a drink of water. She’s astonished that a Jewish man would ask a Samaritan woman. Jesus says, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give Me a drink,” you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water. ”

The woman said to HIm “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” Is she insulted? Is she bothered that this stranger is claiming to have something more to offer than what she already knows and is familiar with? Our ancestor Joseph’s father, Jacob, the surplanter,the one who wrestled with God, the man who worked for 14 years for Rachel, the one who lost his son only to receive him back as a leader in Egypt, who would provide for his entire family through the famine..that Jacob. How is that even possible? Jesus was claiming to have something for her of a depth that she couldn’t initially understand.

Do we get stuck here? Again, there is a definitive line here…not prosperity, not material things, but God Himself is what He has to offer us. That is of more worth than all He’s provided before….

Take a step forward today…Stop looking back, even the good things can be distracting and keep us from what God is trying to show us today. Maybe you’ll be shocked to see how you’ve grown in an area, maybe you’ll allow God to be who He says He is in your life. You’ll never know, unless you take that step.
peace,
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ReImagine went really well last week. It was great to see Fred and Carol continuing to shake things up in their congregation. Fred shared from Henri Nouwen’s book, “Wounded Healer” and we had roundtable discussions about it. Sang a few songs, shared a bit about God’s hope in the midst of the struggle of the human condition. Had the chance to pray for God’s healing and offer our time and efforts to God…what a blessing…

See you next week at Starbucks…Hilde Bialach from the Crossing will be joining me…it will be great…peace..
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Hey guys…I’m going out to play at Redeemer Church tomorrow night. Colleen Davick and Tom Crozier from the old Seeds days are joining me, along with Joby Morey who plays with the likes of the Psalters, GKB, Leper and many more. We’ll be doing some of my newer material, worship and have a time of sharing and the opportunity to ask for healing prayer…hope to see you there..
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Hey ya’ll…I’m just back from St Louis.  It was an incredible trip…I was actually overwhelmed to be honest.  Pastor Don invited me to be part of some pretty significant moments in his flock.  Some of it was heartbreaking and further evidence that we are in a battle.  I continue to pray for all those we prayed for and hope that you can all find strength in our Lord. I’m reminded of Romans 8:28; ” And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ”  Sometimes, it’s hard to believe what God says to us.  How many of us have been disappointed by promises made and broken?  Somehow through years of heartbreak, words begin to lose their meaning.  Or even worse, the words that remain in our minds are the destructive ones that take life and hope from us; rather than the life giving words of God.  I heard something referring to the average attention span of an adult.  It varies from 7-90 minutes!  Depending on the topic at hand.  At the bare minimum, a little longer than it takes to bake a potato.  At it’s peak, the length of a full length movie.   For today, can we ask God for the ability to believe His words through the darkness of our circumstances, for seven minutes ?   Maybe that 7 minutes can grow to 14, 21  and beyond that for today.  May we find comfort in the arms of our Savior.peace-a   

Hi guys, just wanted to post a little note and put a song up.  I’m headed down to St Louis to see some old friends.  Church of God at Baden is a great church.  They’re really active in their neighborhood providing free meals, clothes, fellowship and the love of God.   I’m thinking I’ll be playing at their coffeehouse Sat night, then leading worship Sunday morning, but you’ll have to call them for times…see you later…

I can’t believe it’s been two years since I posted to this site.  In my mind, I guess I was thinking a year tops, but time really does fly.  Trials come and go, you get a taste of balance as you swing from one side to the other, and the wheel just keeps turning.  My kids are 21, almost 18 and 10.   Tim and I have been married for almost 14 years and I’ve been here at JPUSA for almost 16 years now.   I stand amazed at what God has done and is doing in my life.  Some of it has been incredibly painful to say the least, but I can see His hand in it all.  That’s a miracle in and of itself; the angry, skeptical one inside can see God and not blame Him for the pain in my life that always seems to cause the most growth.  I’m so excited for this part of the journey.  Musically, I’m on my own again.  I’ll be posting some things up as we get them mixed.  I hope you like them, but more importantly, I hope you can hear God’s voice in them and have a sense of His healing hand.    Talk to you soon.. 

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21

Where is your treasure? Is it your family? Your ministry? Your kids? Of course not! We don’t think that literally. Not one of us wants to have an idol. The first and second commandments speak directly against it. (1. I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other God’s before me. 2. You shall not make for yourself an idol) No, if any one of us has a desire to please God, we spend a big part of our lives putting aside the things that can typicallly become idols..money, security, our plans, the approval of others ……the things that put us at war against God’s desire for us to have intimacy with Him, trusting Him for our provision, absolute surrender to His will.

Moths are not as popular as butterflies, though they come from the same insect family. Moths are usually gray, brown and cream, not as bright as the beautiful butterflies, and they’re quite hairy. They are typically at rest during daylight hours. So basically, it’s the same insect, unless you look at it in the light. You need the light to discern if it’s a beautiful butterfly, or the moth that comes to snack on your clothes in the closet. Without light, we may not be able to tell the difference between the two.

I think we can get confused about where our treasures are in the same way we can be unable discern which is the moth and which is the butterfly. Without the light of His word, we can easily get our treasures mixed up. Hanging onto a gift God has given us, rather than having our treasure, our true fulfillment in Him. What is your treasure? Is it your freedom? A relationship? A heart’s desire or even a desire for ministry? If we get ourselves twisted up in what we want here on earth, we can let something that appears to be a beautiful butterfly, come in and eat away at our ultimate treasure, our relationship with God.

peace to you…
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Ephesians 4:1-6

“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit,just as you were called in one hope of our calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all and in you all.”

Depending on our mood, sometimes, these words can make us feel even more hopeless. How can we possibly be unified? There are billions of people on the earth. I sometimes have difficulty getting along with my friends, how much more so the people I don’t spend much time with? How can God ask for unity? Remember again, this is Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. Good works, patience, sound doctrine are all commended in his letters, but a weakness within the church was a loss of love and backsliding.

Sometimes, we can muster all the kindness we can, yet still have difficulty coming to agreement. Unity does not mean betraying your own sense of what God is speaking so that the status quo is not disturbed. That usually causes a great deal of unrest in your own soul…no peace for you. In these scriptures, God is saying, bear with one another patiently. Work together. By the strength and grace of His Holy Spirit, we can be unified. Unified in a sense that we have the Spirit of God living in us and that He can work unity, forgiveness, and love in a way that we, as fallen creatures can only masquerade for moments.

Paul goes on to say in verse 7, “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.” In verse 11, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers , for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,”

There’s so much more in this chapter, continue reading it, absorbing it when you have time. We’re all different, with different gifts and callings, but God calls us to love and work together, when we may not feel much love for one another. Offenses, unforgiveness, resentment, they all take a toll on our ability to see beyond the temporal moment at hand to the eternal wonder of God’s Spirit working; healing and bringing us together in His Name.

May the wonder of His grace keep you in awe this day…

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Hey all…Just wanted to take a moment and wish you all a Merry Christmas. We just had our annual Christmas Open House on 4th floor here at JPUSA. It’s great fun. We all make a special treat, turn on the Christmas music, hang our stockings and spend the evening going from room to room, enjoying the treats and just hanging out. Sometimes it can be hard to find the time to simply “be” together…to pass the time with a dear friend, or an acquaintance that may become a dear friend in time. The kids were playing in the hallways, running from room to room eager to discover the sweets awaiting them in every room. One family even had a chocolate fountain…wow!

As I stood in our kitchen washing the last dish, I had a strong sense of gratitude and awe of what He is doing in our midst constantly. We can get too busy to see how He truly is always with us…speaking, healing, renewing our minds, bridging gaps, deepening friendships. Our God is an amazing God, and promises to never leave us or forsake us.

His blessings to you this Christmas. I hope you find yourself in awe of our Lord, over and over again….
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