The above pic is when I was on Prednisone and then what I look like now. If you are going through something terrible, I understand the hopelessness of thinking that things will never get better and wanting to give up. Don’t. I cannot promise the outcome of your life, but I can promise that reaching out to God is never a bad option. Even when I wanted to give up on God in my crap He would not give up on me.
Maybe you have a friend or family member who is going through a painful situation and needs someone to reach out to them. Be the one who makes that connection and bring encouragement to those you know who are down.
Have a great day and I am praying for you.
The Power of Music in the Crap of Life
There are many things I remember when I went through my eye condition but the one thing that stood out the most was music and especially the worship that I listened to while I was sick. Even though I was furious that God would allow me to go through so much pain, the music I listened to always brought me back and calmed me down.
Below are a couple of lists of artists that I listened to when I was sick and some that I currently enjoy.
I always want my life to be a resource to help people hold on, even if it is for one more day. God loves you so much and wants you to find the “holy” in the “crap of your life.
Music to Get you Through
Fred Hammond (Anything from Fred is amazing but Promise Keeper (Song) was very important to me when I was sick)
CeCe Winans (Waging War – Song & anything else she does)
Casting Crowns (Praise you in This Storm – Song)
Bethel Worship (Through it All – Song)
Jesus Culture (Let it Echo – Album)
Anthony Evans – (Real Life / Real Worship – Album)
Bryan & Katie Torwalt
Crowder – (Lift Your Head Weary Sinner – Song)
Hillsong United (Zion – Album and Empires – Album)
Lauren Daigle
Lincoln Brewster – (Oxygen Album)
Local Worship Artists
Dave & Tara Powers
Marcus David Ford
Andy Garcia
Tyree Morris
Holy Crap Book Info and Ways You Can Help!
The pic above is from the Celestial Seasonings tea tour with my mom and Yolanda. It’s in this post just for a laugh! Haha
We are only a few short days away from my book being available on my publisher’s website this coming Tuesday, June 7th. I wanted to make people aware of some things that they can do to help get the word out about my book and helping it get into the hands of people who I believe really need to be encouraged by my story.
If you can buy my book on the http://www.electiopublishing.com website the week of June 7th that would be AWESOME. I really want to show my publisher that there is a need for the book even before the full release on June 28th. I am not sure how long you would have to wait to get the book once you order it from them but you will be the first to get one before anyone else. If you are in town or at one of the book releases we are planning then you can bring it and I will sign it if you would like.
The FULL release of Holy Crap will be on June 28th and that is about the time I will have the author copies available that Yolanda and I are ordering. We are planning a probable book release here in Denver and a few other states possibly (think of states I have lived in…:) and will have books with me for you to buy. We are using the new Square credit card readers (that include the chip readers and apple pay, android pay, etc.) we will be able to process card payments as well as cash.
Once you read the book, even if you didn’t buy it on Amazon.com, if you could go to Amazon and leave a review once it is up after June 28th that would be stupendous (and I don’t just throw those kinds of words around 🙂 The interesting thing is that the “normal” book world looks at Amazon reviews to see how a book is doing and also can encourage big box bookstores, like Barnes & Noble, to carry a book if it is popular enough.
If you have ANY connections at all to people who could help get the book into areas of your town or state (radio, TV, bookstores, etc.) please notify me so we can chat (Facebook also works to connect) about how to maybe get the book into your area.
I will have window decals available (cut out 3M lettering that will look sweet and not goofy looking) of my website HolyCrapBook.com that I want to encourage people to put on their car windows to help us promote the book over the summer. I will have these decals in the next couple of weeks and can get them to people in Denver but will also be willing to ship them to you if you would like one.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, please be praying for the next few months of my life and the things that we believe God wants to do with the book. As I have said to many people and from the beginning, we are not thinking of this as a moneymaker as much as a ministry to people hurting and ready to give up. I am especially trying to get the book into people’s hands who do not go to church.
Thanks everyone!! I am sure excited for the future and using such a crappy and painful time in my life to have greater meaning than, “Hey! I made it!”
#NepalOrphanage Trip – A Wonderful Trip to Nepal
Well, Yolanda and I believe that it was the best trip we have taken to Nepal to go see the kids, our orphanage manager and his family. Everyone is doing well and we even got to see the kids that are fully transitioning out of the home and into real life as young adults. It is a strange and wonderful thing to see our kids growing up into men and ladies to be productive members of society.
I definitely saw the fruit of our decision to college educate all our kids. Some are becoming chefs, some are getting business management degrees and others are working in the travel industry as hotel management staff. I also spoke with one of our kids who is getting ready to enter his last year of college in business management. He said that he wants to be able to run a business and then do ministry around the area, which is awesome and proves the point that you don’t have to be in full time ministry to be able to minister to hurting people who need to hear about Jesus.
Yolanda and I were able to bring a suitcase of supplies as well as some fun things and luxuries for the kids to enjoy. There were many people who got involved in giving and we appreciate everyone’s gifts!
We were able to go shopping for basic supplies the homes needed as well as spend time hanging out with the kids and it was great. We had a worship night with other kids from the area and I was able to share a word about the importance of not just being a worship “performer” but living a lifestyle of worship. We also had a BBQ with the kids and played some games and got to just catch up talking. I loved this trip as well because the kids are getting older and easier to talk to because they trust that we are going to take care of them and want to be involved in their lives. Yolanda and I presented 10 study Bibles to kids who have graduated from High School (a gift that Yolanda and I have committed to each kid).
We were also able to go and look at land that is available in the area to possibly purchase and build our own compound with buildings for the boys, girls, our manager and a dorm area for people who would like to come and visit with us and work with the kids on trips. Please pray with us about this as it would involve quite a bit of money but we know that the home is God’s and He is going to take care of the kids as we listen and are obedient to do what He directs.
Yolanda and I want to bring a group of people back with us in October of 2017 so we made a site visit to the Chitwan National Park and stayed at a wonderful resort while there, Landmark Forest Park. Everything was wonderful and we got to see many things with walks into the local village an elephant safari and jeep safari! We made great new friends and a possible place to bring people so they can enjoy the culture and get to see a part of the world that many people from America never get to see.
At the end of the trip we spent a few days in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which was a great time of relaxing and winding down before heading home to the USA. Yolanda and I feel it is SUPER important to not just do ministry in life and miss the wonderful world that God has created and all of the interesting and amazing people in it.
Thanks to everyone who prayed while we were gone and will continue to pray for our kids. We have a great burden to see them all succeed and with the kids growing older they can present new challenges as teenagers and not little kids anymore. We also have some newer young kids that have come into the home and want the older ones to be a good influence on them and not bad ones.
Please pray also about possibly supporting the Children’s Home of Love. We never want to share only about need because we are about giving people vision for what we want to see happen and motivate people to team up with us. We know that God will bring in what is needed at the right time. He has been with us from the beginning and will continue to lead us to help change our little corner of the world, seven thousand seven hundred and twenty four miles away, one child at a time.
Nepal Update – Enjoy the World!
We travelled to a hotel/resort in the Chitwan Valley area for a few days to investigate something for people to do in addition to working with the orphanage when we bring people to Nepal on future trips. We did a couple of different safari’s yesterday (rhino pic above) and will do a canoe trip today with a guide. It has been wonderful to spend a few days here before we get back to Kathmandu and spend 4 more days with our kids.
Yolanda and I think it is important to always spend time in whatever part of the world you are in and experience the culture and expand your world view. I think many times in life we get so focused on “doing the work of the Lord” that we don’t take time to really see and experience the world around us. Plus, I know that we are spreading the love of Jesus to this part of Nepal just by interacting with the people we meet and also praying over the land that we are setting foot on.
I hope that there are people reading these updates and getting excited to come to Nepal with us next year and experience everything we see when we come here!
It’s off to another day of adventure and letting the love and heart of Jesus shine through our actions not only with the kids we love and support, but also the people we will come in contact with today. Think about your interactions today. Are you letting Jesus shine through you?
Do We Worship, Worship?
We attended church yesterday morning as our first thing on our Nepal orphanage trip. We started worship and it contained songs that I used to sing when I was first in ministry in the 90’s and even a couple when I was growing up in church. No Hillsong. No Bethel. No fancy new or hip songs to help entertain the crowd and make sure everyone knew that the church could compete with the best concert in town.
I had a REAL revelation about our church services in America. PLEASE hear me. I am not saying that all of the worship songs and the new songs that are coming from supernatural revelation are bad, but that we have lost our focus.
Every time Yolanda and I come to Nepal and sing songs that have been around for years we feel the same presence of God as any of the hottest new tunes that we seek out for worship services back home. I am also not saying that we need to do all “classic” worship songs but to be careful about deeming the “spiritual level” of a song purely based on its newness and “hipness”.
The only way our worship services can have the true power that people need is when we realize that the only thing the church has is the Holy Spirit and His power in their lives. Worship is to open a door and let the power of God touch people’s lives. I think many times, we stare at the beautiful and ornate “door” of worship instead of simply opening the door and allowing God to walk in and change the atmosphere.
We also need to stop thinking that the FORM of worship is going to grow our churches more than the FUNCTION of worship which is to make sure people see the worship team lifting up Jesus and not just their beautiful voices.
When we all realize that people simply need an encounter with Jesus in church as well as in our daily lives we will see the true power of God exhibited without us getting in the way of those transformational moments we all want to see in the lives of others.
Casual Christianity Sucks – Three Points for Lovers of Jesus to Live By
I posted a blog about the times that are changing for someone to be a “casual Christian” and the events of the day moving people to know what they believe and what they are willing to lay down their lives for. We have seen this more often oversees with Christians being rounded up by groups like ISIS and killed because they are followers of Christ. It seems that we do not have a problem with freedom of religion in the United States but a problem with freedom of Christianity and I think I know why.
1. Don’t be surprised when people who are not followers of Christ don’t understand why you love them the way you do.
Many times in the media, and just in our culture, the focus is normally on how people identifying themselves as Christians judge others instead of how they (should be) loving others. We all follow rules in life. It can be seen in the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the sports teams we cheer for or the places we work. The key difference is that as a true follower of Christ we need to love like Jesus, tell the truth like Jesus and let Him be the only watermark for our actions. This is only seen in the Bible and the instruction it gives. If you don’t know the Bible then you don’t know how to love people.
2. Don’t just love people, also tell them what you believe.
These two things don’t have to be mutually exclusive. I cannot recall an instance in the Bible where Jesus expressed true life-changing love without providing that person with knowing the truth about what he came to do, which was to alter the destiny that they were convinced was either their lot in life or made them the most happy. That was why Jesus was the anomaly when it came to loving people; he loved louder and more than ANYONE else but it didn’t stop at just expressing love and helping people feel accepted and listened to. It was about a difference of opinion to help people consider if what they were choosing for their life really was the best path. I believe there are many well-meaning Christians in this world that are trying to convince people what they are doing is wrong without loving them first. This method has never led to ANYONE truly giving God control of their life. It is a form of manipulation and it’s wrong.
Love, Listen, Lead – Love FIRST, Listen to where people are in life and then Lead them to Jesus (with your actions and words if necessary 🙂 (Click Here to see resources for people who have basic questions about Christianity)
3. Don’t think it’s your responsibility alone to get everyone to heaven.
Many times, especially if you grew up in church, we forget that it is the Holy Spirit’s job to draw people to Christ and not our convincing words. I have mentioned this before in other blogs, but it is important to understand that we are each just a part of the greater process that is the miracle of someone giving Jesus control of their life AND their destiny. I am not on this earth just to help people think that it’s important to give Jesus control of their life while here on earth, I want to be an agent of change for people’s destinies!
Have a great week and know that God will give you the ability to live a successful life on this earth loving people but still being able to disagree with life choices. Just make sure that your love for people is deafening. There is NO GREATER LOVE than loving someone who hates you. THAT is the true love of Jesus that this world needs and the only thing that will shock people out of where they are to where God wants them to be.
Holy Crap 