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Sometimes in life you catch yourself… you know, one of those pauses that causes you to step back a little bit from what you are doing to get the big picture of the job at hand and to catch your breath.  

Well… the other day I did just that.  I have been working for a live event promoter and brand marketing company out of atlanta for a few years now and usually don’t think twice about an upcoming concert that I’m responsible for building graphics, or uploading things to a website… or making sure that tickets are all figured out a so forth.  But this last concert caused me to realize that we are part of something really really really cool!  

 

 

I also found myself saying… out of every concert that I have ever been involved with… and attended [side note:  I’m going to school to work in the concert industry for a living... so i have been to one or two concerts in my life.] this one is by far the one I’m most excited for!

 

 

Kicking off the evening is a local band from Atlanta and a close friend to our team, Helios.  Check out their information at www.heliosmusic.com

 

but the headlining acts are what cause me to get excited like I have… When I went to Passion 07 in Atlanta this winter, I was able to get my hands on a copy of Steve Fee’s newest worship record…. and if I haven’t told you this personally already… this is your chance to hear it!  I think that this CD is quite possibly one of the best worship records ever released. period.. it’s that good!  The record is called “Burn For You” and isn’t available on iTunes yet but of course can be purchased at North Point Community Church’s resource center or website along with www.independantbands.com.    I’m telling you… this guy is good.  Along with playing as one of the regular worship leaders at 7|22 and North Point Community Church, Steve has been able to be a key part in Passion Conferences, Big Stuf Camps, Student Life Camps and many many more!

 

But if Steve isn’t enough for you… you have to buy a ticket for this next band!   and trust me it’s worth it!

 

Leeland is not only creating tunes for the modern mainstream market and making huge headway there… they are also writing for the Kingdom.  They are in the same caliber of musicianship as U2 and Switchfoot.  Not only has the lead singer just turned 18, but most of the songs written for this record were written at the age of 16 or 17.  Leeland Mooring, the lead singer and lead songwriter for the group has also assisted with Michael W. Smith in writing most of the content on his latest release “stand.”  This is unheard of… figuring that MWS has been floating around for over 40 years!

 

Their music can be found on iTunes, and almost every other music distribution platform.  I really encourage you to check them out if you haven’t heard of them yet.

 

 

 

These three bands are going to be in concert on Thursday, February 15, 2007 at First Baptist Church of Alpharetta.  Tickets are an amazing $12… and trust me they will go fast!  I just encourage you to check these guys out and see if you can grab a few friends and make it over to Alpharetta that night… if you trust me… it will be worth it!

 

 

for more information check out: www.outerlightconcerts.com 

 

 

check it out, and I’ll see you back here next sunday!

-L.

 

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So I missed last week.. and that is going to happen time to time…  but hopefully not much.

 

 

I love listening to music! and a lot of the times… I’m looking for something new, something fresh, or something that isn’t stuck in my head and just is the same old boring stuff that I pour into my head day after day after day.  But then I realize that there is the wonderful invention of iTunes.  After less than a few minutes of playing around in there… I was able to find music that I not only hadn’t heard before… but actually enjoyed!

 

I think life is a little like that… in a way. I think that we want to live lives that have a bit of unpredictability, but in the end, we will always retreat back to what would be considered ‘us’, or the predictable.

 

[let me know if I've lost ya!... I don't know how your going to do that.. but hopefully this will make sense.]

 

WE want to be different… we want to do something out of the ordinary and we want our lives to count toward something EXTRAordinary… but the problem with that desire inside of us, is that we can’t break away from what, and who we are!  so in the end we end up doing what is ordinary to who we are naturally. we end up being ourselves. 

 

So what does it take to become a part of something EXTRAordinary? It doesn’t just take a simple… oh, let me jump on iTunes and try to find some music that isn’t the norm for me… it takes a change of heart… a change of direction.  We have to figure out a way to make what we are.. the focal point of what we want to be.

 

so… what does it take? 

 

a new mindset. 

a new understanding of what we want to be.

a new passion.

sometimes new friends.

maybe a new lifestyle…

 

If we want to be EXTRAordinary… we have to actually live a life that incorporates EXTRAordinary things…  

 

Just pour into this thought.  The thought that you can be someone that you want to be… you CAN make a difference, regardless what the world likes to tell us most of the time and regardless what our past is like!  Just as easy as us going into iTunes and trying to find music that we don’t already have stuck in our heads… God can go into the library of our lives and pull out the melodies that he has placed in us at birth and let them rise to the top.  

 

there is only one small trick to this whole thing.. you have to invite God to enter in and transform your ordinary life to extraordinary.  GO ahead… take a chance. Go ahead.. jump.  GO AHEAD… give it all to God.  

 

 

 

it’s not an easy thing… and not something that we know how to do that well… but God soooooo wants us to be a part of his story.  He has an EXTRAORDINARY story… and you can be a part of it… it just takes an invitation.  God designed us to run toward him with our fears, desires, wants, hopes, dreams, failures, problems, and everything else under the sun… he is big enough to make something tremendous out of them.

 

Let God transform your ordinary actions and allow you to become the extraordinary person that you can be!  all it takes is a little bit of “extra” …

 

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Have you ever asked that question before?

 

What a loaded question.  With that question, we can get anything from the worst response in the world… “because” or we can get a great deal of insight on something we may not totally by into yet.  the problem is that most of us don’t want to ask it because we don’t want to challenge the status quo or whatever is given…  

 

We can ask that question and have regretted asking it. 

We all have asked it because we are curious.

We all have answered it because we are eager to tell people information.  

WE all pass by the word every day. 

We all ask it a thousand times a minute.  

 

It is what makes our brains process, its what causes us to do what we do, and it’s what makes us who we are. 

 

 

 

If we never asked the question, why?, we would most likely be a wishy-washy society who didn’t believe in anything and always followed everyone else… we would have no leaders… we would have no guidence… and we would have a world of followers.  

 

I think that why?  is God’s favorite question!

 

 

I think he really really really likes it when we run to him and say “Why this God?” “why now?” “why me?“ 

 

but why don’t we ask those questions everyday?  I don’t really know the answer… but for me I think it has something to do with the simple fact that I don’t really want to know a lot of times… but thats the problem. God sooo wants us to ask him Why because it shows a heart that is eager to know more… eager to understand… and eager to follow.

 

 

You can ask your friends questions like What is your favorite color… or what is your sister’s name… you can ask how many dog’s have you owned… or where someone is from…. who they like, and how old they are… and almost all be answered with one or two words…

 

“WHY” takes more than that…  and that’s why God loves it SOO much!  It takes more depth, more thought, more response. He doesn’t want us to just have a quick “AIM” chat with him that is really abbreviated and really concise. he wants depth, he wants you to dive into what he is doing in your life… and above all he wants you to ask the question why?

 

 

 

When someone asks the question why… it shows genuine interest in the subject because it is wanting more depth.  It comes from a eager person that is questioning the given thought.  and that very thing is what God so desperately wants from us… an eager heart desperate to know why God choose me? why God sent me here?  why God did this now?  

 

You’re not going to get a one word answer… and your not going to find it easy… but thats the journey.  and thats the plan.  

 

 

whether you accept it or not… God loves you with more passion that anything we can imagine… and sooooooo desperately wants us to run toward him with the why questions. He created the universe… and for some reason we don’t think he can answer question… or maybe were just afraid of the answer we might get…

 

 

 

So the next time God is doing something big in your life… ask why?  dig deeper… and eagerly seek to find the answers…  it’s in this journey of finding answers that you will hear the clearest voice of God and align God’s passion and plans with yours.  ALL THE WHILE… asking why?

 

 

 

Why Me?

Why Now?

Why This?

Why Him?

Why Her?

Why There?

Why Then?

Why Here?

WHY GOD???

 

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So I may have mislead you a bit by saying that “you better believe I will be here next week…” but give me a break things got mega-busy and I just needed a break… so i took one.  

 

lo and behold I am back, and so is a really cool thought that God has been stirring in my heart for a few days, so hopefully it challenges you  to something extraordinary and causes you to want to pursue God with an unending passion to live for him. 

 

 

 

I don’t run that often, however when I do I like to process stuff that is going on in my life or things that God may be trying to tell me… I don’t know if your like this, but it’s my way to getting alone with God and meditate on him. 

 

The thing is… since I don’t run that often, I can’t only rely on the run for God to talk to me… and I can’t make every run for God… It’s just not feasible.  So this christmas I decided that I would go running and take my brothers dog with me.  Brooks, the name of my brothers dog, is a ’setter-po’ meaning a mix between an english setter and a standard poodle, and this cute puppy is less than a year old.  All he wants to do is play… and play hard. 

 

But needless to say, I heard he is a pretty good runner, he never stops, he stays by your side most of the time and isn’t a pain because he wants to check out that stick he just past, or pull ahead on the leash cause he sees something in the distance… etc.

 

Well this is the very thing that God used to catch my attention. 

 

 

When we were running I noticed that he was driven to quite simply… run.  He was so incredibly focused on the end prize, a treat, that he never turned his head when other dogs passed, never tried to go check out someone else’s yard, didn’t want to stop and claim his territory on the bush he just past.  But best of all, he was so focused on the path before him and not slowing down that he went to the bathroom in between strides… on the road… while running.

 

As weird as that is… I want to be like that.  [let me explain.]

 

 

On this path of life, we are running… some of us are walking but most of us are running toward something.  And the hope and prayer is that your running toward your creator, hoping that one day we may get to live in eternity with him.  [side note: maybe we will touch on what your running toward on a later blog entry.]

 

But the problem is that along the road we see SOO many distractions that cause us to stop and take a breath or check out whatever that was that we just passed.  for some reason or another, in life we want to get ourselves into trouble sometimes because it seems like fun at the time. But most of all, we let the Crap [pun-intended} in life stop us.  

 

 

God wants us to love him so passionately that we don’t even stop to let the crap slow us down.  He wants us to strain ahead to the prize before us.  

 

“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Jesus Christ.” - Philippians 3:14

 

 

so what are you running towards?  The crap in life or a creator of the universe?  Are you letting the distractions in life get to you and take you off path?  

 

for some of us the solution is as easy as never taking our eyes off of what’s ahead.  but I know that most of us need more than that.  WE need a running partner, we need someone to keep us focused ahead.  We need prayer, we need inspiration, we need passion.

 

 

so I encourage that this year you make it a point to focus on what God has in store for you… maybe that means finding someone to live life with… an accountability/prayer partner.  Maybe for some it means to make it a habit to dive into God’s word every morning.  Some may just need to make it a point to listen to God and spend a lot of time in prayer with him.  but whatever you decide to do this year, learn from what my dog has taught me…. and strain toward the goal which God has called you to.

 

L.

 

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