The boasting axe...

Music, most specifically singing, has always been a part of my life. Musical ability runs deep in our family. It goes back several generations and it is something that many have always been a part of and it has usually been in a setting of church or some sort of venue for a worship type service. As a child, I heard my dad sing and was totally blown away by the strength and power of his voice and how he could move a crowd to tears or cheers simply by the way that he lead the song and the dynamics with which he sang. I began to sing in church when I was six years old. My dad always told me that anytime someone tells you, "Good job." or "That was a beautiful song.", that you should immediately turn that to praise for God. Many times I saw my dad speak silently with his lips, "Thank you Lord." when someone would give him a praise. It's been twenty years since I received that bit of advice and it's something that I've tried to practice in my own musical career.
It is easy to say that pride is the enemy of humility. However, I would say that pride in one's self is the enemy of humility. If we have pride in ourselves, we take glory away from God. We can do absolutely nothing without the power that God gives us to accomplish whatever it is that we are doing. If someone comes up to me after a service and says, "Thank you so much. That was a great time of worship." it would be easy for me to develop of since of pride in myself. It would be easy for me to think, "Wow, I did really well." However, if I have the attitude that the Holy Spirit worked through me then I can have great pride and boast in my God that he is capable of using someone like me to achieve his glory. That is humbling. I blows my mind to think that God is so great and so powerful that he can use me to facilitate worship and lead people to his throne of mercy. I am proud of that. I am proud of the power of my Savior. He is great and he is worthy of my praise. I am not worthy of praise, none of us are.
It's actually somewhat odd to me that we think that we are capable of anything. The Bible tells us that nothing has authority or power unless God has placed that someone or something in a place of authority and given them the power that they have. After all where does all power and authority come from except from God who is the ultimate authority over all of eternity and creation? I've been reading in Isaiah and in chapter ten Isaiah is talking about the king of Assyria that God is allowing to be in power and to basically wreck shop on the Israelites because of their disobedience to God. The king of Assyria begins to boast in himself and not in God for the power and things that God has allowed him to do and to see. The king says, "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones." Arrogant? Do we not do the same thing? The student ministry that God has allowed me to be a part of has been growing and we are seeing movement among our students and they are beginnning to tell their friends and family about the hope that is Christ. The worship band that I lead with is coming together in great ways and sounding better than before. It would be easy for me to take pride in that and think that we had some great part in it. I can bring no one to the throne of God. I can save no one. I can give no one eternal forgiveness. I am not God. Later in that same chapter the Lord says this of the king, "Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!" God really lays out that he is the one who moves us and uses us. We are simply the tools of His will and His glory. We can do nothing on our own. Should that be a troubling thought? I think not. I feel as though it should be a great comfort. I know me and you know the depths of who you are. Thankfully, it doesn't rely on us. If it did, it would fail.

Rubber Meets Road...

July 27, 2008
Well, the rubber met the road today for me in regards to leaving my life here in Monroe, LA. Today, at Trinity United Methodist Church I played my last gig with oneway. Honestly, I’m not really sure what to say but I just feel like writing so you’ll just have to deal with my ramblings.
I’ve been the lead singer for oneway for the past ten years. Granted, we were Everafter, Jacob’s Story (for one gig), and finally oneway for the past six or so years of playing. The Lord has blessed us in some incredible ways and allowed us to be a part of people coming to know the greatness of Christ and seeing his glory put at the forefront of things. It’s been a crazy fun and wild ride all the way here.
We’ve seen a ton of electric guitars players come and go and Harris has actually played with us before. He’s the current lead guitar player in the band. We’ve seen acoustic players change and even a bass player recently. We’ve seen a couple of singers leave even. But Matt Mc (drummer) and I have been the constant. I have to be honest, I never thought that I would see this day. I never thought that I would be the one to leave. I never dreamed. I just knew that I’d be in oneway until we all decided together that we’d done what God asked us to and fulfilled our mission and it was time for us to do something else. I never thought I’d be the one to pack up my equipment and not put it in the trailer. However, here I am.
I suppose what I just said has really happened. The part about we decided to go our separate ways because we’ve done what God called us to do for that season in our lives. Oneway has fulfilled that call and we’ve seen God do some crazy things. It’s a great feeling to know that you’ve been faithful to something like that for so long even when it was rough and took you away from friends, family, and new wives. Oneway itself really has come to an end. The other four guys, Jon, Tim, Harris, and Matt will continue on to lead worship as God leads them as a different band with a different name and perhaps a different mission. I’m glad that God asked us to be a part of his kingdom mission for this time. It’s been amazing.
As some of you know, I’ve accepted the worship leader position for the student area at First Baptist Broken Arrow in Broken Arrow Oklahoma. It’s right beside Tulsa. I’ll be moving up there for good on the 9th of August and I’ll start working with the worship band up there this coming Wednesday. It’s going to be different playing with people that I don’t know. It’s going to be different than playing with people that I know musically and think like and have experienced life with. Does that mean that I’m not excited about moving? Not in the least bit. Does that mean that I don’t want to go? No, it doesn’t. It does mean that I will miss the guys that I have played music with and been through hard things with. I’m excited about the future for them and what God has in store for them as a band and as individuals. I’m excited about being in Broken Arrow and working with our praise band there. Oneway belongs to God, it always has. The greatest thing about all of this is that God knows what’s going on and he has all of this under control. Not at any point has he wondered, “I wonder what is going to happen to the guys in oneway.” He knows. He always has. Matt, Harris, Jon and Tim, thank you for the honor and privilege of making music with you and worshiping our Savior together. Brian, Barber, Donnell, Lee, Harris, Draughn, and Gwin, I know how it feels now to leave something that you love so dearly. Thank you guys too for allowing me the honor of serving with you.

Worship hard,
gallup

Dismantle. Repair.

Wow. So much has changed since the last time that I posted. So much has changed that I'd probably have to take several days of blogs or simply write a short novel to capture them all. My life has been flipped, turned up-side down and and then turned right-side up again.
For the past several months Whitney and I have been talking about getting married and on the seventh of June, I asked her to be my wife. Things have been amazing for us and there have been several things that came in our way and presented themselves as a challenge to the relationship that we believe God had blessed us with. He has blessed us with something great and a great opportunity to serve him in different areas, in different ways and now, in different places. Wedding planning is no easy task. I'm not very involved in it and it's probably a good thing. I tend to overreact to things and worry about things needlessly. So, it's a good thing that Whitney and her mom are handling the whole thing. One might say, "Isn't the groom supposed to stay out of that anyway?" Well this is true; however, I want to be as helpful as I can. I also want to avoid making a nuisance of myself. That may be the tricky part. In getting ready to be married one must look at expenses and needs. Whitney and I have been looking at furniture for our bedroom and living room and I must say that it caused to me to border depression. Furniture is expensive! To make a long story short, a friend reminded us to look at IKEA and a good friend owns Direct Buy so my worry and depression has left, thankfully. I told you that I worried needlessly.
I've also recently accepted a worship position at First Baptist Church Broken Arrow which is located in Broken Arrow, OK, near Tulsa. It's an amazing place with amazing people and Whitney and I both love it there. It's going to be a great adventure and a great place to start our life together. I'll be leading worship for the student ministry there and working with some great people. Kyle, Jamie, Brooke, and Todd are a great team and I'm excited about doing the Father's work with them. It does suck however that I must leave oneway, the worship band that I've been a part of for the past ten years. I do have comfort however knowing that if I stayed, it would hinder God's work there and that Tim has the ability to be a great leader and all will be fine there.
There are a lot of things that I didn't mention but will be included in the short novel that will be accompanied by pictures and illustrated by Jamie Pope. God has been doing some amazing things in my life and blessed me with these last few weeks in Louisiana to focus on spending time with friends and family. However, in the midst of all of this stuff going on that I do believe was God's will which he carefully orchestrated to make happen in my life and the lives of those involved, I've managed to not spend as much time with him. Is this one of those confession blogs? No. Is this one of those confession blogs? Yes.
It's so amazing to me how we get so distracted by the things that go on around us that we forget who allowed those things to happen and put all of the right pieces in place for them to happen. It's downright embarrassing when you think about. We have what Francis Chan referred to in his book Crazy Love, as "spiritual amnesia". We get distracted by the things that we've been blessed with and allowed to participate in and wind up forgetting about spending time with, giving glory to, and worshiping the one who set all of it in motion. I've been guilty of this. I've been so focused on tying up loose ends here, spending time with friends and family, spending time with Whitney, getting ready for my last gig with oneway, getting things ready for OK, and trying to prepare for all these things that I've totally neglected my relationship with Jesus. I've not talked to him as much. I've neglected reading my bible.
None of us are immune to "spiritual amnesia". We are all able to be side-tracked by the things of our lives. Think about it. If there is someone that you are blown away by and really care about, don't you do everything within your power to spend time with that person and get to know them? It doesn't matter what you have going on. You will make and find time. I haven't. I know that we are all just as capable of doing this. I'm capable, Francis Chan is capable, C. S. Lewis was capable, Paul was capable, we all are capable. Take the time to spend with Jesus. Get to know him. He already knows everything about you and could most likely show you some things about you that you didn't know. Some cool, some not so cool. Why do we continually neglect the most important relationship of our lives? May the Holy Spirit move us to know Him.