Pray for McKenna

McKenna is a 10-year old girl that was diagnosed with leukemia in September 2012.  She is from my hometown of Russellville, KY, and goes to the church I grew up at.  Please agree with me in prayer for God to completely heal and restore her.  I've seen many miracles with my own eyes, including people being healed of various cancers.  I'm believing in the Name of Jesus that God will do it again for McKenna.  AMEN!!! 

Please pray and believe with me.  Thank you so much.

In Jesus Christ's Love,

Adam

Follow McKenna's Progress on Facebook

Engaged!!

That's right!  Ya boy's engaged.  haha!!

At approximately 10:15pm on December 31st, 2012, Ms. Chelsey Nicholson said yes.  It was one of those moments that is indescribable.  Perfect.

Chelsey and I have known for a while now that marriage was on the way.  We've been talking about it for months, and she's even been planning some things early--gathering addresses for invitations, buying a dress, deciding her bridesmaids' attire, etc.  We are way ahead of the game!

So with the wedding so certain (and the tentative date closing in quickly), it was tough keeping the proposal a surprise.  Chelsey was starting to get a little antsy about the whole thing and actually asked me the day before I proposed I if I at least knew when I was gonna do it.  She was so happy when I told her I knew you would've thought I proposed to her right then!

So anyways, I had my whole thing prepped and ready to go.  I was gonna pop the question in the exact spot that I first met her.  For us, that first meeting happened at Promiseland Metro Church.  And since I'm the worship pastor there, I have keys :)  Thus, no problem getting in the building when nobody else is around.  Success!

On New Year's Eve, she had no clue it was coming.  We had just eaten dinner with some friends and were on the way back to my house to prep for some people coming over later.  The church is on the way home, so I said I needed to drop some stuff off real quick so that I wouldn't have to worry about it on January 1st.  I get there all ready to go, and I had forgotten my keys.  Are you kidding me?!  Mind racing, I told her I would just have to drop the stuff off tomorrow when I had my keys on me.  So we left, her none-the-wiser.

We get to my house and I'm fervently thinking of some way to make this work tonight as I had planned.  If you know Chelsey, you know that Chelsey loves coffee.  "Aha," I thought, "I will use this for trickery!"

"You want to go to the Creme?" I asked.  "Oh, I think it's closed," she says.  It was.  "Well you said you wanted some coffee...how about Starbucks?" I came back.  Of course she got all happy and said "sure"...she will take any offers for coffee (I usually don't make these offers).

We get the $5+ coffee from the monster that is Starbucks and then head towards the church again.  I really wanna get this stuff dropped off, ya know.

When we get there I ask her to come inside with me and then I give her some work to do to distract her.  While she is working on things, I'm in the sanctuary setting up my scene:  dimly lit, guitar set up, Bible opened, and a folder of dreams/visions/words ready for reading.  Now I'm ready.

I go get her after she finishes up her job.  We begin to exit through the sanctuary and I say something like, "I've got something else for you before we go."  She sees the setup...............and STILL doesn't know what's going on.  Of course, I didn't know this until afterwards, but wow--she must've really thought that I wasn't proposing any time soon :)

I take her coat and ask her to sit in the exact place we first met.  My Bible is open to Song of Solomon chapter 4.  I read her some lines out of there that we both really like, and then I grab my folder.  I read her the word-for-word prophecy I received about her about a year before I met her on 12/11/11.  Then, I grab my guitar as I'm telling her about a song that I started writing for her before we even met.  I sing the song to her for the first time.  She is starting to realize what is going on.

I turn from her for just a moment to retrieve the box from it's hiding place.  I get on one knee in front of her and tell her about how blessed I am to have met her and how I intend to love her, about how I thank God for her and how I intend to be a husband to her.  Finally, I ask her if she would do me the honor of marrying me.  And she said yes.

*     *     *     *     *

We are still just starting, but our whole relationship is a fairy-tale.  Too good to be true many would say.  I beg to differ.  Your reality is different when you live from a different world.  We've got a King who is not confined to the usual.  We've got a King that made love, and we've chosen to honor Him as first in our relationship.  We are not perfect and cannot even pretend to be, but one thing we are is honoring of what we feel God has laid out as boundaries for our relationship.  To honor these boundaries is to bring life--more love, more hope, more goodness.  All these flow as we obey the Father's commands.

I cannot wait to see what the future holds.  I am sure I cannot fathom the blessings that lie ahead for the both of us, but I know it will be good...and I know this because God is faithful.  He is always good and He is always pleased to give good gifts to His children.  I'm so incredibly grateful that He ran Chelsey and I into each other and let this love story start.  Our story is a showcase of God's faithfulness.  He is always good and always faithful, and He will be the same towards you as well.  Love and obey--it's the way to go.

Everybody's Hungry

When you’re hungry, everything starts to look good.  Things that you otherwise overlook begin to grab your attention.  I’ve caught myself thinking about how good bread would be with Mt. Dew on one such occasion…even the cans of soup that are pushed waaaaaay to the back of the cabinet start sounding good.

What is true of the body holds true in other parts of life.  If someone is hungry for love and does not get it from the right places, then they will satisfy their hunger elsewhere.  (Little girls giving themselves away to boys at a young age.)  If someone is hungry for attention and does not get it from the right places, then they will satisfy their hunger elsewhere.  (Kids bullying others to feel like they matter.)  If someone is hungry for identity and does not get it from the right places, then they will satisfy their hunger elsewhere.  (People falling into corrupt groups of friends, gangs, etc.)  You know all of this.  I don’t need to spell it out for you.

We know the problems and would probably agree on a lot of the root causes.  Undoubtedly THE root cause to these, and every problem, is people being void of a relationship with God. Many of you would call me crazy, or too simple-minded for thinking that, but that’s ok.  I’m not actually here to debate that today.

I want to look at one specific issue:  truth.  Just like anything else, people hunger for this.  Even if it is only on an unconscious level, every person alive in some way values truth and wants to reap the benefits thereof.  Let’s look at it from the other side:  if you say you don’t really care about truth, then that means you don’t care if you get ripped off at the supermarket, if the government does as it says it will, if the water company decides to not give you water, if serial murderers are allowed to walk the streets, if 2 + 2 = 4.  Underlying all of these things are principles of truth.  Without something being counted on as true, then all of the things built upon them crumble…food prices can outrageously shift overnight, the government does as it pleases, your water can cut off at any time, a serial murdered goes on killing people at will, mathematics and anything remotely involving numbers falls apart.

If any of these sound familiar it’s because underlying truths are being deteriorated.  At some point, at some level, truths started being exchanged for lies.  We may not agree on where it started, but we can agree this is the reality.

So let’s examine the exchange of truth for lies in one specific area:  spiritual truth.  Again, whether people explicitly express a hunger for this or not, they want it at some level.  People want things to make sense.  People want the comfort of knowing there is something underlying everyday life that is more important and bigger than what they may be experiencing.

Now, just like everything else, if people are hungry for spiritual truth and do not get it from the right places, then they will satisfy their hunger with whatever is presented to them.  Think again about your physical body.  Those things that don’t look appetizing at all, that may even repulse you, start to look good once you get hungry enough.  The same holds for spiritual truth.  When there is a lack of good stuff, people will take anything!!!

We Christians wonder why, or how, people could be led into thinking things that are so unconscionable to us.  Let me tell you:  because we are not presenting the truth.  When presented with the real truth, and presented with a shadow of the truth, real truth prevails!  Truth is heavy.  When you weigh truth alongside lies, truth wins.  Lies, perversions, manipulative teaching…they are all left wanting.

A major part of why so much of the world is disillusioned right now and has been tricked into thinking all sorts of lies is because The Church (i.e. the people) hasn’t been boldly and faithfully telling others about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I’m not only referring to the story of Jesus, but also to the healing that is in His Name, the love that He has for us, the mercy that is there for us, the hope that we have found in Him, the peace that is ours for the taking.  We have been mediocre at doing what should come naturally:  telling people about what is good in our lives.  When we tell people the real truth of Jesus Christ, the relationship that we have with Him, and what He has done specifically for us, through us, and in us, then the Gospel is genuinely spread and things change!

All we can do is present the real truth.  If people reject it, then we pray for them and try again.  But I am convinced that nothing compares to the love of God through Christ Jesus.  All imposters, all fakes, and all lies cannot stand next to the absolute truth and be victorious—they will all be found wanting.

So let us no longer wonder why people are going after so many things that are impure shadows of the truth.  They are only doing what is natural to satisfy their cravings for spiritual truth.  If they know the Gospel and have rejected it, then we pray for their hearts to turn; however, if they have not been presented the truth, the REAL truth that is Jesus Christ, we must endeavor to serve up something that not only looks appealing to the eye, but satisfies once they taste it.  And, my friend, I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good!  Amen!!!

Song of the Week #126

"The Solid Rock" from 12.10.11 by PMetro Worship. Yep, we do old ones, too :)

Song of the Week #123

PMetro worship team's take on "Fill Me Up" by United Pursuit Band. This is from a night of worship and live album recording on 12.10.11. Yes, I made the janky video to get it up here on YouTube :) you know you like it

Day of Love

Who We Are pre-release

Hey!!! Exciting stuff today! A song I wrote, "Who We Are", is being officially released today!

The single is being promoted by Mercy29. If you haven't checked out this organization go look at what they're doing at Mercy29.org. We have decided to recover all recording costs, then raise M29 $1000 right off the bat. Then, 25% of everything else over that will also go to support Mercy29's efforts.

So go download this song. You can get if free if you want; but if you want to buy it then just pay whatever you want and know that you are getting good music AND supporting an awesome organization. Tell your friends, and go get the song here:

AnewDeclaration.bandcamp.com

Enjoy!! And thanks for checking it out!

Be You Cause People Want Truth

I just had some good time with Jesus. I just sat in His presence for a little while. Prayed a little, worshiped a little, praised Him some. Then I got something I feel needs to be shared, so here I am writing it. The thing I want to tell you is simple: be true to yourself because people want truth.

Does that make sense? It’s a big deal, and you need to get it. It’s two-fold…#1 be true to yourself. You gotta be you. God made you in a unique way, so much so, that nobody else can do you like you can. The way you think, the words you use when you talk, your set of abilities, etc.

#2 people want truth. This I find to be truer every day. People want something true in this world where so many things are fleeting, deceptive, and disappointing. They are bombarded with lies from the time they leave their house in the morning until they get home at night. Then through the wonderful medium of television they can tune into whatever they choose so that until they go to sleep they can very easily be further flooded with ideas and images that are far from true. This is the world in which we live, and people are hungry for truth.

This is how the two ideas go together. When you aren’t being you then you aren’t being real, you aren’t showing truth. By not being true to yourself, you are robbing the world of who you were created to be. At the core, this is one of the biggest lies you can tell. People want you, NEED you, to be you! We do not want you to be like anyone else; we just want you to fulfill the fullest potential of who you are made to be by Your Maker.

This whole thing came to me as I was in my prayer closet. Yes, I have a literal closet I go sit in sometimes when I want to get away from noise or distraction :) So, there I was and I had already had a few good minutes of Jesus time and I was thinking about how earlier today I had urged some members of our church’s worship team to get some personal time with God. And then I was thinking how I could tell them I had some good alone time. That is when the idea behind this blog actually hit me.

You see, I started thinking about how I was gonna tell them about it. Ha. I thought about saying, “I felt led” to go my “prayer closet” and that I got a “revelation” from the Lord. You know, use all these Christian words that we love to throw out there. And then, I could sound all holy and whatnot in front of these worshipers. But that is when I thought, “Why?!” Why dress this genuinely good experience up with a bunch of crap that does nothing to really add to the message? Why do I feel it necessary to make something seem like more than it is? Why attempt to impress people with fancy words and an inflated portrayal of a real experience? My Jesus time tonight wasn’t a hear-the-angels-sing kind of thing, nor was it a completely life-changing encounter with the Lord in the traditional sense; but it was some good time with Jesus, the lover of my soul. And that’s enough.

So I’m sitting here writing this blog, eating ice cream, watching an Austin City Limits of Mumford & Sons, and being completely real with you. That’s my big revelation for the evening ;) I want you to be you, other people want you to be you, and I KNOW God wants you to be you. If you aren’t sure who you are yet, that’s ok—pray to the Lord and ask Him to reveal to you what He had in mind when He created you. Here’s a good place to start: you are a child of God! A son, or a daughter! And if you want some more Scriptural stuff to look at concerning your identity in Christ, check out this previous blog.

That’s all I got for tonight. Gonna finish this ice cream and hit the sack. Much love in Jesus Christ to all!

adam

Start It Off Right

Happy New Year!! 2012 is gonna be amazing! We’re gonna see the Lord do some awesome things—and we get to be a part of it!

I’m a big believer in starting things off right; setting things in motion correctly from the start; setting a precedent. The first things you do are the things that resound and set the stage for the rest of the show. That’s why getting the most important things first is so critical.

So to start off your 2012, I encourage you to make the most of this first week. Write down the things that are of most value in your life. Then, write down all the things that you want to do/grow in/develop/mature in/work towards/see happen this year. If you’re feeling frisky, go ahead and rank them :)

Now that you have a list, it’s time to do something with it! During this first week of the year, do something to work towards each one of your goals. I’ll use myself as an example…my big priorities are my relationship with God, my family and friends, leading worship/stuff at church, music, and business. Some of the things I want to accomplish this year flow from that list of priorities:

mature in my faith
see more unity in the Body of Christ
start leading worship in more places
write more music
strengthen the relationships in my life that matter to me
get better musically

So in starting the year off right, it makes sense for me to do things this first week to work towards each of these goals. It looks something like this:

mature in my faith --> make time to pray and fast and hear what the Lord is saying to me

see more unity in the Body of Christ --> pray for unity, interact across boundaries, set up joint events, LOVE

start leading worship in more places --> contact people now for things going on all year long

write more music --> set aside time each week to write...even if inspiration isn’t necessarily hitting me

strengthen the relationships in my life that matter to me --> spend time, set up lunches, make calls

get better musically --> practice pushing myself vocally every week, find voice instructor

Set things in motion now that are going to affect the rest of your year. If you sow good things, then the harvest shall be good! Pray and see where the Lord leads you and press into the things He lays on your heart. He knows you better than you do because He made you. Maybe you should ask Him what He thinks about you ;)

And if you don’t know Jesus as your personal Savior yet, give your life to Him. There is nothing better. Jesus is the only Son of God; He died for your sins. You've not done anything so bad that He won't forgive you. If you believe on His death on a cross for your sins, His burial, and His resurrection from the grave; confess your sins and turn from them; and acknowledge Him as lord of your life, then you can have everlasting life in Heaven with the only true God. Start 2012 with the biggest and best decision you’ll ever make.

God bless you all and may many blessings flow your way this year through Our Lord Jesus Christ! Peace, love, and blessings through the magnificent Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen!

adam

I'm Having Isaacs

One of the hardest things I have to do is not push so hard that I end up messing things up. When I want something to happen I want it to be done as quickly as possible and in the most excellent way possible. When I know something should happen, I see no point in waiting. Anybody else?

Well the hard part is this: it seems that some things take time. And I hate that. I see all this time transpire between a dream and reality, between a desire and fulfillment, between a promise and the manifestation of the promise…and I can’t help but to think that a lot of that time is wasted. All of that time sitting around and waiting could be used to pursue other dreams if the initial one would hurry up and happen. If you know me at all, you know I hate wasting time.

One thing I can’t push though is God’s timing. I don’t understand why I feel urgency with a promise He has given me and it seems as though that urgency isn’t shared by Him. I have no clue why sometimes a promise will come in an instant and sometimes it takes a lifetime to realize. The very fact that I don’t understand it makes it all the more frustrating!

There’s a million different ways to possibly explain why things take a long time…maybe God is waiting on me to do ‘x’, or maybe my character can’t handle this yet, or maybe He wants to see if I believe Him, etc, etc, etc. Whatever the reason may be, the bottom line is this: the thing I am hoping for is not happening yet.

So I’m left waiting and hoping and trusting and believing in God’s promise…which I’m SO ready to watch happen, but for some reason it is taking longer than I think it should. It is in these times where I try to remind myself not to push so hard. I can’t make the promise of God happen in my life. I can, however, make imposters of that promise if I’m not careful. Let me explain using Abram from the Bible.

Abram had a promise from God that he would be made “into a great nation” (Genesis 12:2), that he would have offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5), and that the promise would come to fulfillment through his own son (Genesis 15:4). Abram tried to have children with his wife, Sarai, but was having no success. Sarai comes to the conclusion that the Lord is keeping her from having children, and suggests that Abram sleep with her maidservant, Hagar, so that they could build the family through her. So Abram married Hagar as well, and she became pregnant.

This is where they messed up. God had already ordained marriage to be between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:19-24). In their efforts to find a way to make the word of God come to pass, they violated the marriage covenant. They reasoned that the word of God was true, but since it was taking too long to happen then they should try something else.

The error here is not in trying. Partnering with God in seeing His word culminate is usually a good thing. A large amount of the time, God’s promise coming to pass in your life will require effort and movement on your end. And if something isn’t working after a while, then it only makes sense to seek out other possible ways of going about things. However, the error happens when our reasoning trumps the word of God. “How did their reasoning trump God’s word?” you ask. This is how: they overstepped a boundary previously established in attempting to make the word happen. They let their own ideas supersede their faith in seeing the word come to pass. They regressed into only seeing the word come to pass in ways they could understand. When getting pregnant didn’t work for them within the confines of what God had laid out, they decided that they could conceive via another woman. Their faith only went as far as their understanding and reasoning could take them.

To make a long story short, Hagar, Sarai’s maidservant, gave birth to Ishmael. After Ishmael was a teenager, God again told Abraham that he would be the father of many nations (Genesis 17:4), and this time the Lord specifically indicated that his wife, Sarah, would conceive even though she was very old and beyond the age of child bearing (Genesis 17:15-16). Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to a son named Isaac. When Isaac was still very young, Sarah demanded that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away. Abraham obliged after the Lord assured Abraham that it was through Isaac that his “offspring will be reckoned” (Genesis 21:12). Thus, the Lord honored his word and opened the barren womb of Sarah in her old age…blowing the minds and the reasoning of everyone.

If we aren’t careful, we can push past God’s timing. Though we may make something happen it may turn out to be a copy of the promise, not the real thing. We can definitely try different things in partnering with God to see His promise come to pass, but let us be very mindful to stay within the confines of what He has laid out. Also, may we all (especially me) embrace the fact that we don’t understand everything about how God’s promise plays out…that our reasoning is not big enough to grasp the ways of our Creator. As much as I hate waiting, I much rather wait on God’s timing than end up with duplicates. I’m having Isaacs.

What is God Doing NOW??

One of my favorite Bill Johnson quotes is to “keep your eyes on what God is doing…do not focus on what He has not done yet.”* Though most of us instinctively turn our thoughts to what we wish God was doing in our lives, we must make it a point to rejoice in the things He is doing/has done for us already. When we focus on what the Lord is actively doing in our lives, it keeps our eyes and hearts in the right place…it keeps us from becoming cynical, builds our faith, and keeps a lot of anxiety at bay.

Today, I urge you to take some time to recognize and praise the Lord for what He has already done for you and what He is doing for you right now. Thank Him for it, and pray for more! I’m not sure what He is doing in your life right now, but I know it’s good! Here’s what He’s doing in mine:

- Providing supernaturally for me in every area of need, and He will continue to…provision in everything!

- Fresh revelation constantly

- Creativity to write music, lyrics, arrangements…letting me “have my own song”

- Stirring up new wells of love and parts of me that are completely new

- Bringing unity to believers in this city and region

- Giving me the privilege to be a part of a sold-out group of people who are genuinely hungry for the presence of the Lord, and for His will to be done

- Placing people in my life that are edifying and that listen to the Lord

- Bringing people here to become world changers via the Arise Worship Internship

- Prospects of a future partnership with a national organization to affect countless young lives for the Kingdom and to push them into their calling more effectively

- A soon-to-be-recorded EP completely backed by a growing global non-profit organization

There’s much more than that. The Lord is good! Of course there are things I’m still waiting on and looking forward to, but the present is so great! Sometimes I get caught up anticipating ‘x’, or thinking about what things will be like once ‘y’, but I remind myself to just stop and look at what God is already doing. It’s huge. All kinds of blessing. Thank you, Jesus, for everything! I love You. Bless it more, Lord. Let more come, and thank You, Lord, for all that You’ve done, and what You are doing right now. In Jesus Christ of Nazareth’s Holy Name, Amen.

*a paraphrase from the Bethel Supernatural School of Ministry DVD Session 1001: “Introduction to First Year”; not a direct quote :)