You're All I Need

So...Aaron, Mike, and I got together tonight to record a little tune we wrote over the past weekend. The inspiration for this song comes from Mark 1, the story of Christ healing the leper. Oh how we need His healing hand to touch our lives. Give it a listen. Hope you are encouraged.

Clarity

One of the most amazingly relieving feelings is when God, after allowing me to wait on Him, makes His will so clear and evident in my life. All of the sudden, I know exactly which direction to walk and now I can walk that direction with conviction, confidence, and passion knowing that God has made Himself clearly known. I praise God for His word, His Spirit, and the brothers and sisters He puts in my life to do this."Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path."Continue to acknowledge Him, and let Him direct the path. He'll make your path more joyful and more satisfying than any other path you would have taken on your own.

Draw Near, Be Close

This is a song a wrote a while ago. Not one of the more produced ones, I never even really played it with the band. It's definitely special to me as the words take us to the sweetest and safest place we can be when life seems to weigh heavy, that is, near to Jesus. If you get a chance, give it a listen as this is probably one of the most important songs I've ever written. It truly reflects a heart that is so desperate that it knows nowhere else to go but to the only One who will hold it in His sweet embrace.

Don't know the title yet...maybe you can help!

Wonderful, my Matchless King
On a cross, salvation brings
In my blindness called to see
And fix my eyes only on Thee

Walking wholly in the dark
Without purpose for my heart
Until Your light shined gloriously
And fixed my eyes only on Thee

Oh precious Savior, Friend of mine
The wretched, bought by love Divine
And when my heart is wandering
Lord fix my eyes only on Thee

And when the face of earthly fame
Has drawn my heart to walk astray
Lord, bring me near my All to be
And fix my eyes only on Thee

When days of darkest dark may fall
To rob my joy with shadows tall
You're here amongst my suffering
To fix my eyes only on Thee

Oh precious Savior, Friend of mine
Though wretched, bought by love Divine
And when my heart is wandering
Lord fix my eyes only on Thee

And in a moment faith is sight
Swept up in glory’s final flight
And with eyes fixed only on Thee
I’ll sing Thy praise eternally

Abide WIth Me

This song has ministered to me in so many ways. Hopefully it can minister to you as well:

Abide with me fast falls the eventide
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide
When other helpers, fail and comforts flee
Help of the helpless, abide with me

Thou on my head in early youth didst smile
And though rebellious, and perverse meanwhile
Thou hast not left me, oft as I left thee
On the close Lord, abide with me

I need thy presence every passing hour
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter's pow'r
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, abide with me

I feel no foe with Thee at hand to bless
Ills have no weight, tears lose their bitterness
Where is thy sting death? Where grave thy victory?
I triumph for Thou dost bide with me

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies
Heavn's morning breaks and earth's vain shadows flee
In life, in death Lord, abide with me

Here's the plan...

I'm gonna do something for myself for the first time in a very long time. I don't know what it is yet, but it's gonna be for me.

Walk with Jesus Again

I'm unceasingly amazed at how easily I forget the simple pleasure of walking with Jesus.

With so many things to draw my attention elsewhere I find myself too often lacking in the solidarity of focus to keep my eyes on Christ. The temptation is always to look around for other amusements - friends, jobs, family, even ministry. These things are not in and of themselves bad, in fact, they all have potential to cause me to walk more closely with Christ as they have consistently in the past. But these things are not Christ. And the replacing of Christ in my life with these things is nothing short of adultery against the only unfailingly eternal lover of my soul.

So again I'll ask the Lord to once again change the way I praise. That I might be diligent to draw equally near to Him on Monday morning as much as Sunday morning. That I would renew the investment of my affections in Christ on a daily basis. That I would rejoice daily in my salvation and in the One who gave all to gain it. That I might surrender daily to living a life of Worship that glorifies Christ. There is no greater calling than the calling to walk with Jesus.

"Whom have I in heaven but You, and there is nothing on earth I desire besides You. Though my flesh and my heart may fail, God is the strength of my life and my Portion forever."
-Psalm 73:25-26