Jesus is King

This past week one of the most controversial Christian albums dropped. Kanye West, a rapper known almost more for his controversies than his music, has recently became a Christian and released his first Christian album last Saturday. Since then, my Facebook has been filled with people either praising his work, criticizing it heavily, wondering if it will be CCLI compliant so they can use a song on Sunday, the horror of playing his album on Spotify and then it going to his older profanity filled songs, and so on. So last night on my way back from Pensacola I listened to the entire album. These are my thoughts:

First of all, rap is not my preferred genre of music. I was never a Kanye fan to begin with so I can’t compare this album to his previous work, but I was disappointed. From a production side, I was often annoyed with how the songs ended, the mix, song structure, etc. The guy has talent, but it was hard for me to see where he was going musically on a lot of the songs. 

But let’s take my bias against rap music out of the equation and focus on the lyrics. Yes, there are some horribly corny lyrics. Probably the worst is from a song called “Closed on Sunday” which says:

Closed on Sunday, you my Chick-Fil-A

You’re my number one, with the lemonade

I wish I was joking. However bad those two lines are, the lines right after are: 

Raise our sons, train them in the faith

Through temptations, make sure they’re wide awake

Follow Jesus, listen and obey

No more livin’ for the culture, we nobody’s slave

The two biggest complaints I see are that his lyrics are theologically shallow and that Kanye is just doing this for the money (or in other words he’s not really a Christian but saw an opportunity in the Christian market to make more money). When people talk about the shallow issue, I just have to laugh. No his lyrics aren’t completely accurate or deep, but they are at least on par with the majority of what is on K-Love at the moment and this is coming from a guy who has been a Christian less than a year. Hopefully we hold the long term Christians to the same level of scrutiny, but if we’re being honest we don’t. 

On the second issue of if Kanye is really a Christian… How dare we. Besides it probably being a horrible career move into the Christian music industry, what makes any of us think we are in a position to know what his relationship with God is? We rejoice with the person who goes to the altar in our church and gives their life to God, but when a famous person does it we assume the worst. The sad thing is, Kanye knew this would happen. In the song “Hands On” he says:

What have you been hearing from the Christians?

They’ll be the first one to judge me

Make it seem like nobody love me

I’m not tryna lead you to Visas

But if I try to lead you to Jesus

We get called halfway believers

I’m not sure if I’ll ever willingly listen to his album again, like I said, it’s not my preferred music style. I really dislike a lot of what Kanye has done in the past. But this album, this over talked about album, has already brought people to Christ. Maybe instead of tearing each other down, we should rally around new believers, even the ones who haven’t quite figured out all the theology (ok, especially those people), and build them up and show them Christ’s love.

What Are You Focused On?

As I get ready for a surgery on my knee this week, I have been surrounded by people who have came up to me and said you will be so glad to have it done. There are so many people who have had the same surgery and you would never know it. Folks who have had this surgery said it was a piece of cake but make sure you do the rehab.  It’s all about the rehab!

You know it’s like when you buy a different car, then you get on the road and notice so many other cars just like it.  

As I read my devotional for the day I got encouragement and focus.

“Go gently through this day, keeping your eyes on me.  I will open up the way before you, as you take steps of trust along your path”

We will all have obstacles in front of us, and it is how we address these roadblocks that can define us. 

I will always remember my first time coming into Nashville wanting to be a musician there.  A good friend of mine had been in Nashville for 10 years and had just gotten a job playing piano with George Jones.  He told me “welcome to Nashville you will find out how good you are not” but with that he said all you have to do is find your niche. It was the best advise I ever received.  

Each of us has that person in our lives in which we can vent to, someone to be vulnerable with, someone to hold us accountable.  We need to be thankful for those people in our lives who keep us balanced.

There are days and times where we will have the weight of the world on our shoulders.  Its not “if” it will happen., it is when it will happen and how we react to it.  Most of the time we think we are in control.  One of my favorite quotes is “You want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” When the time comes where the weight of the world is on our shoulders, are we turning to God for guidance?  God’s presence enables you to face each day with confidence.

So as I go to have surgery this week, it is like I have the full confidence in my surgeon and the staff.  But I know through my faith God is present and what ever obstacles I have, God will guide me through them.

See you in a few weeks.  I was going to say I would be in rehab but let me be clear, I will be re-habbing my knee.

What are you focused on?  Who are you focused on?  If you focus on the love of Christ and its will you will succeed.

Ephesians 3: 20-21

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus through out all generations, forever and ever amen.

Saved By A Cookie

On Friday night August 16th we held a concert at Navarre United Methodist Church. We had special guests Nicki Montgomery from Orlando, Sandy Wyatt from Jay, and Chloe Channell from Pace who was on America’s Got Talent and American Idol.  For some reason this was one of the hottest days of the summer.  We could not seem to get the sanctuary cool enough and the back stage area was blistering hot.  We all gathered around to pray 10 minutes before the concert and we were all drenched in sweat because the air was not working in the back part of the church.  We are all having a laugh about it now but at the time the women and men were melting!

We had a few goals for the concert. The main goal was to glorify God, be professional in how we played and sang, and to give everyone who attended that night a glimpse of our church where everyone would say "I am glad I came”.

Although it was “warm” for us on the platform, one person actually had more heat than anyone. John Davis our drummer for the concert was in the drummers “cage” as we call it.  John went through two bottles of water in the first 20 minutes. The temperature in the cage was about 15 degrees warmer than the rest of the stage. Not to mention he was whaling away on the drums and sweating. I did not know the following information until the following day.  There was a point in the concert where I did some speaking and sang one song by myself.  I did not know that John was face down on the snare drum pouring water down the back of his shirt.  He had almost blacked out.  John is a tough guy and is in the military and has gone through all the training.  So when he was telling me about this I felt so bad for him.  He was close to blacking out and was kind of blurry eyed and remembered he had brought a cookie in from dinner.  While I was singing, he ate the cookie, drank all of the water, and came back to life and finished out the concert.

The week leading up to the concert was a great week for the team who served.  We laughed, we prayed, and we served.  Not only did we get to know each other a bit better than before, but also we knew after a Wednesday night and Thursday rehearsal we had each other’s back.  We were not doing this concert to glorify ourselves but to glorify God and do the best we can for our Church.

The concert week came to an end, we were exhausted but rejuvenated at the same time, knowing we did everything in our power to do the best we could for the kingdom.  All saved by a “Cookie”.  We did it together, not any one person but all of us together.

1 Corinthians 12:12 

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 

1 Corinthians 12:18 

18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.

Regardless of where we are or whom we are with, there is a satisfaction knowing as a team we accomplished this project together.   God has placed all of us in the place where he wants us to be.  Do not spend your time wishing you were somewhere else when God has placed you in the very place where you can further his kingdom.   He supplies you with all you need, and sometimes it’s just a cookie!

To watch the entire concert, click here.

Horsepower

At the end of the 19th century, cities were faced with a health epidemic. Horses were the main source of transportation. While they were the fastest way to get around, their major downside was that they were not potty trained. A horse’s waste is the perfect play place for flies. Doctors and scientists had recently discovered the correlation between flies and transmittable diseases, and so they were now concerned with how to control the flies. Countless man hours and money were invested in finding out a way to chemically engineer the food horses ate, or to find an alternate source of food for the horses so that the flies were no longer attracted to their droppings. In the end, their research really didn’t matter the way they thought it would. 

You see, right around the time they were really trying to solve the fly issue the automobile was invented. In just a few short years city roads went from a horse’s bathroom to the car’s domain. As the switch to automobiles became more common, horse droppings in the street decreased as well as the flies that were attracted to them leading to a healthier city. 

I know this sounds like a really random story, and it is, but we have so much to learn from it. We can spend out entire lives trying to fix the problems that we’re faced with and miss the next opportunity completely. The funny thing is, our current conversation about climate change is centered around the use of fossil fuels (in large part because of the automobile industry). While I’m happy that there are people trying to figure out more fuel efficient cars, I’m more excited about the people who are trying hard to get us away from gas altogether. 

In our own lives, we can spend all of our time and energy trying to address the problems we have. Or we can instigate a paradigm shift where we completely bypass the things that are causing those problems to begin with. The public secret of the Christian life is that we aren’t free from troubles. Our troubles just look different as a result of following Jesus. We all came to the realization that trying to do life on our own would get us nowhere (or more like lead us to H-E-double hockey sticks). Following Jesus is simple, but hard. We are supposed to love God and love others as God loved us. But how that plays out in our lives is rarely simple. So stop worrying about the horse poop. It’s there, it stinks, but there is a better solution just around the corner if only you can admit that there’s a better way. 

What's Your Passion?

I grew up in a musical family and my earliest memories are when my father’s side of the family would get together and play music together.  I was fascinated with how every instrument would compliment one another to create this sound.  So I had the passion of music early on. If you are a musician there has been a cartoon going around that pretty much explains it.  It reads. “ Musician” the only people I know who spends $5000.00 for equipment, loads it up in his $500.00 car, travels for 5 hours to the show and plays for 4 hours for $50.00. Musicians are the most passionate people I know.  The love for playing music consumes you.  

There are many levels to being a musician.  Either you want to play music for fun or you want to earn money for playing music.  When you decide to play music for money you are putting your self out there because the competition is brutal. When I first went to Nashville, a friend of mine who played piano for George Jones told me when you get to Nashville. “ YOU FIND OUT HOW GOOD YOU’RE NOT” which scared me to death.  I learned to play all instruments by ear not by the note. So me not being able to read music I thought I was defeated but then he said find your niche.  I went on the road for 3 months and off for two weeks and back out on the road and repeated the process for 10 years.   I have slept in “Band Houses” “Motels” “back rooms where I would not even let my dog sleep now.  But for the love of the music I did it and did not even flinch.

I know no other profession where people would say “I would love for your band to come and play for X event next weekend, it will be great exposure for your guys”.  You would never ask a plumber to come out and fix your problem and say I will make sure my entire neighborhood will know of your service.  You expect them to do a job for a fee.   People don’t understand that for a band to play any event there is travel time to the venue, time for the band to set up equipment, and then sound check, which is normally 2 hours prior to start time.  The next step is to play for 1 or 2 hours for the EXPOSURE and then you get to tear down all the equipment and then travel back home.  So for a job from 12 till 2, you start at 9am and you get home about 4pm, but your only playing for 1 maybe 2 hours is what the promotions person tells you even though that is an 7 hour day for the musicians.  There is a great line in a Travis Tritt song that says “Why's the rich man busy dancing while the poor man pays the band”.

I say all of this because of the passion I have for playing music. I have gone through all of these scenarios and lived to tell about it. When you see someone playing at a club, beach restaurant, or on a street corner, they are there because the love for what they are doing is outweighing any obstacles they are facing.  

What is your passion?  Would you do almost anything at almost no pay just to pursue it?  That is what Jesus asks us to do, is pursue him with passion. Be devoted to him, draw close to him and trust him. 

Colossians 3:17  “What ever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of Lord Jesus”. 

Romans 8: 28     “ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”

Ok, So what does this all mean?  What ever you are passionate about is the purpose according to his will?  Regardless of the passion you have it can be used to further the kingdom.  Sometimes just being nice to someone or helping someone in need is a gift.  God uses everything and every one for his kingdom.  
As James says in Chapter 1: 25  “But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard but doing it---he will be blessed in what he does.”

Are you using your passion to further the kingdom?

Your reward in heaven will be waiting.  

God Bless

Mike