Things above...

I decided to fast and pray with a friend this week. I know, I am sooo spiritual... and that's what I would think typically, but something has changed. This time fasting just felt like the natural thing to do, the next step I guess. There was nothing more to it, it just came as a desire from both of our hearts, just felt right for us to unify in prayer. It was as simple as "lets fast', "okay when"... Monday? Cool. We haven't really talked about it any further yet but I know we are on the same page. There is a confidence in me that God is doing something special and I am pleased to be a part of whatever He has for us, and honestly just thankful for a tender heart towards His quiet voice lately.

We are very excited about the way God has blessed our efforts to honor Him with our talents. We wrote six songs of worship in the last two weeks. We only met three times and spent a total of maybe 10 hours. Never have I finished songs so gracefully or quickly and never have I loved their content or had so much fun writing them. Refreshing. But we are also ready to work hard for this new little endeavor of ours.

During my fast I was reminded of how beautiful this spiritual discipline is. I was being bombarded with food from every side. By 8am I had more cravings for breakfast than ever before and I typically just have a coffee. I got to work and saw cookies at my desk. I decided to be strong and put them away. By 10am I didn't remember being as hungry as I was ever before in my entire life... but I hadn't changed a thing from my daily routine just yet, it was before my regular lunch just alike a typical day! Only difference was I decided to fast the night before and everything changed. I reminded myself to pray and focus my desire my need my hunger on God and He satisfied me. I was still physically hungry but utterly satisfied.

Around 2pm my wife texts me that she is making dinner. She hasn't offered to make dinner in a long time (to put it nicely) and what a surprise, the same day I am fasting she will be making something yummy to eat! Everything has a way of being magnified when you are fasting, everything seems beautifully in its place. I had been so humbled by this point I would catch myself praying prayers of thanks to God for all the little things He would bring my focus upon. I realized again how blessed I am to know Him and how He continues to provide for my family's every need. God is good. It was a thought I could not escape in my hunger, I smile.

Prayer is now my central focus. I am still at work but I am filled with peace and gratitude. Its hard to care for anything too much since everything seems so earthly and of little value compared to the things that really matter. Things above. I can see how fragile life is and how deep down I am not satisfied with anything here on earth. Don't get me wrong there is plenty of things I love, but nothing hits my core like Jesus. No one satisfies me like He does. And I realize what little I have, what little I know of Him, and a deeply want more.

When our minds are fixed upon Him other things start to fade. Lesser important things find their place well below the high calling I have to be in communion with God. Through Jesus I am able to meet with God. I feel so rich, so privileged to know Him and to love Him. He has done so much for us, for me. And I fall into His arms, look to the cross where He showed His love and paid the price for my sins. Glory. Glory to Him alone. Glory, to the One who was able who said 'it is finished' and who molds my life. He is by my side, and never has left me, He is faithful and He cannot deny Himself. He is love, He is good, and I trust all I am to Him.

I am meeting up for some prayer around 8pm with my friend Joseph and I am so excited because I know we will not be alone. There will be a third person among us when we pray tonight and I couldn't be more excited. Its not that He ever left us but we are aware of His presence because things are in their rightful place. Our citizenship is in heaven and we are aware of the fact. We see Him beside us, and all around us, He is working all things for our good. We love Him, cause He first loved us.

To Live is Christ.

He is Faithful by Jesus Culture

I have heard a sound coming on the wind
Changing hearts and mind, healing brokenness
I feel a generation breaking through despair
I hear a generation full of faith, declare

And our song it will be
Out of the darkness we will rise and sing

He is faithful, He is glorious
He is Jesus, all my hope is in Him
He is freedom, He is healing right now
He is hope and joy, love and peace and life

I have seen a light like the break of dawn
Giving blind men sight and letting lame men walk
I see a generation with resurrection life
We are a generation filled with the power of Christ

He has paid the highest price
He has proven His great love for us
We will praise Him with our lives
And proclaim our love for Him

Sky is the Limit

Yesterday I realized something. When I say realized something, I mean it hit me like when I figured out I was a sinner and in dire need of a Savior except it was about music. Music has played such an important role in forming me and bringing me closer to Christ, so I try to take it seriously.

I realized the sky is the limit with music. While a bit depressing it was surprisingly uplifting at the same time. I noticed an a real way that no matter how much I improve as a musician and worshiper of Christ there will always be more. A new season, a new chord, a new melody, a new tone, a new style, a new lyric, a new depth, revelation, closeness, frustration, victory, truth... (the list goes on...) and with every single day and hour celebration through music, honoring what God is doing. With music alone there is so much to lean that a lifetime is too short to really get what you want or express how you feel. And again this is always changing, just as you are constantly growing so does your soul. A new depth arrives in your words that you never had before, you may even sing the same lyrics but the meaning has completely changed, or there are new lyrics and fresh meaning along with them to apply and strive for in faith! That fact is your worship is always different and changing as you do. Your expression is also developing as you do. And while there is something unsettling about it all, there is something inside all of us that understands it, and even yearns for it.

Eternity.

How amazing is it to think God put eternity in our hearts. (explains some things doesn't it!) While a lifetime isn't enough to worship God or even express how you feel about what He has done or is doing, eternity is. I realized this was Gods plan all along, that we would worship Him in Spirit and truth forever. He is giving us all the desire of our new hearts! In every moment, in every season we will learn a new song, a new depth from which our hearts will worship. The context will be ever changing, the music constantly evolving (not that music is the only worship), but yes there is something that will remain the same! God. His love, His truth, His nature, His saving power through grace, His goodness in all things, and forever more... God remains the center of our worship. The One Holy Savoir.

Awesome.

There is more than can be said but for now, I will worship God for who He is, and was, and is to be! I will learn in every waking moment what it means to worship this God of love who was not created and died for me while I was still a sinner.

To Live Is Christ!

Matt Redman 'You Never Let Go' Bridge:

Yes, I can see a light that is coming

For the heart the holds on

And there will be an end to these troubles

But until that day comes

Still I will praise You, still I will praise You

Christ In me.

God is so good to always set His children straight. I'm constantly amazed at His approach to lead my family and me daily. The quietest whisper from His heart to mine gives me complete assurance that I am His and that He is orchestrating something far more beautiful than I could have ever have imagined for His glory! My life seems to be typical, business as usual in the suburbs of Chicago, but every time I meet with Jesus - sometimes in the car, sometimes in the chaos at work, sometimes in the stillness of my home - He again brings me to utter satisfaction not with how things are, or even will be, but with Him and Him in me. Its hard to believe sometimes and hard to understand most of the time but remains truth none the less - Christ in me is the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

That fact doesn't cease to amaze me, and even frighten me occasionally.

Ephesians 1:3-14

To Live is Christ.

Tim Hughes 'Everything'

God in my living
There in my breathing
God in my waking
God in my sleeping
God in my resting
There in my working
God in my thinking
God in my speaking

Be my everything
Be my everything
Be my everything
Be my everything

God in my hoping
There in my dreaming
God in my wathcing
God in my waiting
God in my laughing
There in my weeping
God in my hurting
God in my healing

Christ in me
Christ in me
Christ in me the hope of glory
You are everything

Christ in me
Christ in me
Christ in me the hope of glory
Be my everything

You are everything
Jesus, everything