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He who testifies to these things says,
‘Yes, I am coming quickly.’
Amen. Come Lord Jesus.
– Revelation 22:20
Watch in fear,
O nations.
Tremble before His splendor.
Slink away,
you night terrors.
Your passing comes in a moment.
Wait in wonder,
all host of heaven.
Eternity falls upon you.
Can you not hear the rumble of His voice,
the singing of His sword?
How His arms have ached to finish the battle,
Eternal One awaiting the dawn!
Laugh with joy,
every faithful one.
Shine in the light of your new forever.
Fall before His majesty,
all creation.
Was ever a shepherd arrayed such as this?
No longer a manger-Child
the warrior-King rejoices,
For His day has come.
The lights are up. The gifts are mostly bought and at least partially wrapped. Children everywhere eagerly await Christmas morning, when a year’s worth of yearning sits in hope under the tree. It’s the season when miracles still happen and a weary world celebrates the mystery of the King of the universe entering time and space.
Every year we return to the manger in reverence for the holy Child.
It’s a beautiful thing to remember, though in reality, the manger is empty.
Jesus Christ grew up.
He’s no infant, and He won’t be relegated to a stable. He is the Lord. He is coming again to save His beloved Bride, cleanse the world of evil, and restore His creation. He came once clothed as a commoner. He will return as a conqueror.
This season, the yearning of the ages sits in hope under the tree. His return is imminent. He is, in the words of the apostle, “standing right at the door.”* We wait in eager anticipation of justice restored and eternity realized.
We worship in joy because He’s amazing. We rest in trust because He is totally in control. We smile at the future because He wrote the ending.
He is coming.
*James 5:9
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Come, have no fear,
God’s Son is here
“What Child Is This?”
– William Chatterton Dix
The voice on the other end of the phone cracks with emotion.
I pause to allow time for composure to come. I’m fighting to keep mine.
A person I love is in pain. There have been too many of these kinds of calls lately.
It’s intense out there. The trials are relentless. Emotions are raw. The season’s glitter seems to amplify the doubts and discouragement assaulting Christ’s body.
I see it in their eyes. I hear it in their voices.
The saints are weary.
That’s why I thank God for Christmas. Forget the presents, the tree, the expectations of season’s greetings and jingle bells. My tree still isn’t decorated, and I doubt I’ll get cards out this year. The presents aren’t wrapped either. But I still feel like celebrating.
I rejoice because God has come to save the day. I lift a halleluiah to the sky because our Deliverer is born. We are no longer orphans who cower against the darkness in fear. We are not lost, after all. This suffering is only for a short time; eternity has dawned in our hearts and a forever without death awaits us.
I celebrate Christmas because Easter is on the way.
The Bible gives us the ultimate good-versus-evil story, the one about the Prince on a white horse who comes just time to rescue His beloved. He’s the beginning and ending to every life’s drama. He’s the only real reason life is worth living. His coming split history in half and made our every loss bearable, our every day a gift, and our future secure.
Because He came, every day is Christmas.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
to which indeed you were called in one body;
and be thankful.
– Colossians 3:15
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True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.
– C.S. Lewis
Two of our sons love to hike together in the wilderness of Washington and Idaho at least once a year.
Our eldest son Erik is an avid photographer and takes breathtaking pictures of the scenery surrounding them on their hikes.
This summer they trekked into the wilderness area known as the Seven Devils, named for the series of jagged crags that jut against the skyline. The main trail loops the mountains, but it’s possible to take a side trip down into one of the alpine lakes in the area.
Erik took some pictures of one of the lakes and showed them to me recently. The lake’s surface was smooth and glassy. It reflected the foliage and rocks so perfectly the picture looked nearly identical when turned upside down.
It occurred to me later that I hadn’t really noticed the lake itself, because the view was dominated by the mirror image it reflected. No turmoil roiled the water; no waves disturbed the image it was projecting.
Perfection.
It’s just the image we want to give others. We want to keep it smooth on the surface. So we don’t cause any waves; we hide the rocks and muck on the bottom where no one can see them.
Just keep projecting Jesus.
Except for one thing: water doesn’t project; it reflects.
What we are can’t be hidden. Peace can’t be conjured up. It has to come from a deep work of the Holy Spirit. It begins with honesty and openness before God, surrendering to His lordship. Brokenness is the storm that roils the water and allows Him to still the waves by His power.
He knows us. He understands our sincere desire to give Him glory. The more we can learn to keep our eyes on Him, the less we will be thinking about ourselves. The less we think about ourselves, the calmer our hearts will be. The more we live in that stillness, the more others will see of Him.
Perfect reflection.
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And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?
– Esther 4:14
A Jewish orphan raised by her older cousin appeared to be destined to a life in obscurity.
Then the king of the land became unhappy with his queen. He decreed that all the beautiful young virgins of the provinces be gathered together to be brought to the king. From them he would pick a new queen.
He chose Esther.
The kingdom stood at a crucial juncture at the time; political intrigue reached as far as the Persian throne. There was a plot afoot to assassinate the king, which was foiled by Esther’s cousin Mordecai. Meanwhile, Haman, a descendent of a long-standing enemy of Israel, was promoted over all the princes of the land by King Ahasuerus.
But Mordecai refused to pay homage to Haman. For this slight, Haman plotted revenge not only on Mordecai, but on every Jew in the land. He decreed a day of genocide by his new authority and even built a special gallows for Mordecai.
But God saw the evil planned against His people. He called upon Esther.
And with that, Esther stepped out of obscurity and into a drama that would touch all humanity. Because she was willing to lay her life on the line to intercede for the Jewish nation before the king, the lineage from which came the Savior was preserved.
Once again, the kingdoms of the world stand at a turning point.
The footsteps of an unseen enemy reverberate through the nations as he grows bolder in his genocide against the humanity. He defies anyone to stand in his way.
But God sees the evil planned against His creation. He calls upon us.
Will you step out of a life of obscurity to reach out on behalf of those who are perishing without a Savior? Are you willing to commit to prayerful intercession for others? Are you prepared for the messy business of helping a dying planet find its Deliverer?
It may require some sacrifice.
But who knows whether you, a child of the King, have not attained royalty for such a time as this?
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It is good to give thanks to the LORD
And to sing praises to Your name,
O Most High.
– Psalm 92:1
Dear God,
I’ve been thinking lately
about those in the Old Testament who complained
and became the Ungrateful Dead,
while I wallow in my complaints,
Unscathed.
I’ve been wondering about me who is so blessed
and just as undeserving
and thankful maybe once a year,
the ungrateful living,
and how it must hurt Your heart.
Renew me.
Restore me.
Remind me
of all I have been given.
Teach me to live as if “amazing grace”
were not a cliché,
on my face every day
in worship of such a forgiving God.
Amen.
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Are not five sparrows sold for two cents?
Yet not one of them is forgotten before God.
The very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.
– Luke 12:6-7
It was not a sparrow but a junco huddled on the concrete.
Juncos are one of the little winter bird species that populate our area. Nondescript in color, their cheerful banter around the bird feeder nevertheless enlivens the gray days until spring arrives once again.
Yesterday I happened outside to discover one of the juncos had fallen prey to our black cat, Dawn, who hunts with such relish we should have named her “Killer.” The poor little bird was badly wounded but had flopped to a corner of the basketball court in a feeble effort to escape. Killer sat nearby, enjoying the spectacle with smug satisfaction.
If I had left the bird for the cat to finish, it soon would have been mercifully over for the junco. But I couldn’t stand to watch the cat toy with it; I just had to intervene. I locked up the cat for a while to see if the bird would recover on its own. When it was obvious it couldn’t fly, I put it in a box and set it in a safe place away from the cats.
The junco died in the night, witnessed only by God.
This morning I removed the little body, struck by its tiny insignificance. Neither its life nor its passing affected the world in the least. Yet God knew and cared. If He does not forget the smallest of creatures, how much more must He care for the crown of His creation.
Even this one little bird testified to the beauty of creation and the Creator. In its death, we are reminded of the sorrow humanity’s rebellion brought upon all God’s world.
That God would speak so much through one small life should give us hope to go on.
Do not fear. You are not forgotten. You are more valuable than many juncos. You belong to a God who dresses the lilies, feeds the ravens, remembers the sparrows, names the stars, and counts every hair on your head. Not one detail of your life has escaped Him. He loves you fiercely. He has a plan for you, and He asks for your trust.
Believe.
Do not be afraid, little flock,
for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.
– Luke 12:32
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I cried out to You, O LORD;
I said, ‘You are my refuge….’
Psalm 142:5
– A Maskill of David, when he was in the cave.
The young man David huddled in a cave and pondered his future.
He was so very far away from his beloved pastures, where he cared for his family’s sheep and wrote his songs of praise to God. He loved being a shepherd. It was a common life, but a satisfying one.
Then God shook up his world. The prophet Samuel anointed David as new king of Israel, and it appeared David was destined to live in the palace. A series of events propelled David toward the throne: he became a national hero with the death of Goliath; he developed a close friendship with Saul’s son Jonathan; he married Saul’s daughter Michal.
Things were looking good.
When it looked as if David might really be a threat to his kingdom, Saul decided that David had to die. Jonathan warned David just in time to flee.
Now he dwelt in darkness, feeling very much unlike royalty.
From this dark place in David’s life came many of the heartfelt and beautiful songs of Psalms. For thousands of years, believers have been encouraged through the work of the Holy Spirit in his life. Had he never suffered the indignity of this humiliation, we would not have these precious words upon which to cling when we are hurting.
His cave was a terrible place to live, but it became a place of safety from his enemies while God worked in his heart to transform him into the king he was anointed to become. The dark place you are in now serves the same purpose. Yes, it’s dark and dirty. It does feel many times like God has forsaken you. But you are not there because God has made a mistake or forgotten His promises to you.
You are there because God is preparing you to receive those promises.
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
that He may exalt you at the proper time,
casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
– 1 Peter 5:6-7
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Word of God speak
Would you pour down like rain
Washing my eyes to see
Your majesty– MercyMe
There is nothing so compelling as a person who listens.
The prophet Eli was an old man when Samuel began ministering in the house of God in Israel. In those days it was rare to hear the Lord speak, as were visions. Israel was a dead zone of sorts: Limited or no connectivity with God.
It wasn’t that God didn’t have anything to say. He was just waiting for someone who would listen.
Eli certainly wasn’t listening. When his sons profaned the holy sanctuary, Eli looked the other way instead of rebuking them. Even when God sent a man to Eli with His own rebuke, Eli took no action.
But God would not leave His tabernacle barren.
He was already at work in the heart of young Samuel. Eli was so used to turning a deaf ear to God that at first he didn’t understand what was happening when Samuel came running to him at dawn and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”
The third time it happened, it finally occurred to old Eli that God was calling.
But God was not calling Eli, the seasoned prophet. He was speaking to Samuel, the boy.
In these last days, the voices are relentless. Everybody’s talking. But God longs to find the person who is waiting in the dawn to hear His voice alone. He searches for the heart that springs to life at the call with the words He yearns to hear, “Your servant is listening.”
Speak, for Your servant is listening.
– 1 Samuel 3:10
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There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man
which cannot be filled by any created thing,
but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.
-Blaise Pascal
Not feeling fulfilled?
The beloved and time-worn expression “God-shaped vacuum” gives the impression a human is like a five-jillion-piece jigsaw you spread out on the kitchen table and work on for weeks.
Have you ever started on one and realized part way through a critical piece of the puzzle had fallen under the table? The solution for our lives might seem as simple as finding the missing God-piece, so we can finish the picture and put it all away.
There, that’s done; now on with our lives.
But it’s not that simple, is it?
The void inside us isn’t just a blank space in the broad picture of our lives.
It’s an ever-expanding universe, growing until He has filled every inch of us.
When we invite Him into our hearts, He is glad to take up residence there. But He is not a human, who can be contained in the pretty guest room. Like a golden oil, His Spirit flows through every crevice of our lives, opening us up for inspection.
Soon He has flowed under the locked door of our thought life, taking things out of the closet we hoped no one would discover. We’re offended until we remember that He lives here.
Actually, He owns the place.
He wants it all.
And He bought it all, so it’s all His. Deep inside, we know that’s what we really long for, too.
Filling that God-shaped hole inside us is a life-long process in which God gently challenges and inhabits every corner of our being, until we are permeated through and through with Him.
God delights in filling our nothingness with His amazing universe of discovery.
It’s a strangely beautiful trip. The more I have of God, the more I thirst and hunger for Him. The more I understand, the less I know. The more I am emptied, the more I am satisfied. A thousand lifetimes could not contain all God has of offer His sons and daughters. That’s why, I guess, we need an eternity with Him.
The “missing piece”?
Really?
Who wants to end there?
For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father,
…that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all the saints.
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and the know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled up to the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:14-19 NASB
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Only you musn’t press him. He’s wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.
-Chronicles of Narnia
C.S.Lewis
I want so much to have God figured out. Categorized. Safely tucked into stackable boxes of doctrine.
But decades of this pursuit have left me convinced He is unfathomable. The more I know Him, the less I comprehend Him. He refuses to be caged by my dogma or defined by my prejudice.
He is so much more of everything.
He never walks the same path twice. Just when I think I understand His ways, He surprises me again. My most eloquent entreaties leave Him unmoved, yet He bounds to my side at the smallest whisper of His name in the broken night.
He is fierce, powerful, and majestic.
He rules the vast wilderness of my heart, and He takes down any who presume upon His territory.
Life with Him is never boring. He pushes me into a dangerous faith. He coaxes me to the very edge of trust and transports me to back to safety. He draws me ever onward through desert valleys and hopeless jungles. His footsteps are unerring; always He leads me past the chasm of despair and into new heights of His radiance.
He will not be owned by any man, yet He has completely captured my soul.
This is the one called Jesus Christ. He is the Lion of Judah, and He is my Lord.
I will never know Him completely until that day I see His beautiful face. But I’m going to die trying.
Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.
Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah,
the Root of David, has overcome….
Revelation 5:5
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alien n.
a being from another world, sometimes specifically an extraterrestrial 1.
…the detection of alien intelligence will be an enormously big story. We'll know we're not alone, and we're not the smartest things in the universe. -SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute 2.
Each year, the U.S. government spends billions of dollars and endless man hours in the search to find evidence of life outside our own sphere.
Ironically, for thousands of years we have had eye-witness accounts and verifiable ancient manuscripts testifying to the most amazing news ever revealed to humanity:
God is an alien.
Not little green men or shape-shifters, but an entity far beyond our ability to see or comprehend. When you strip away the trappings and icons associated with religion, our elemental understanding of God comes down to this:
*A Being lives independently of this planet (extraterrestrial).
*We know absolutely nothing about this Being except that which He has chosen to reveal to us.
*He displays the qualities of a creator, not a creation.
*His intelligence is much greater than ours.
*He has demonstrated powers that exist far beyond the natural realm (supernatural).
*There are other extraterrestrials which He has created (angels and demons).
*He has entered our time and space with an urgent message for humanity.
You would think the world would be awestruck. You would think we would be scouring the Bible as eagerly as scientists scour the galaxies to discover who this Being is and why has He chosen to communicate with us.
You would think we would be honored to be in association with Him, to understand we are His creation. One would imagine we would be electrified by the realization this Being actually came to earth to rescue this dying planet. We would be shocked to discover He even took on a human body in order to identify with us.
You would guess people would flock to this Alien with grateful hearts and gladly accept His offer of deliverance.
You would think.
Now they may say to me, “What is his name?”
What shall I say to them?
God said to Moses,
“I AM WHO I AM.”
Exodus 3:13-14 NASB
- Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003
- http://seti.org/faq
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I may not know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future.
I may listen to a thousand tongues, but I only hear one whisper.
The Future
First Call
When Elijah fled from the evil queen Jezebel, he was one tired prophet.
Exhausted in body and soul, he figured he was a dead man. Jezebel had sworn to kill him in the next twenty-four hours, so his future looked both brief and bleak. He finally sat down under a tree in the desert and begged for God to let him die.
Instead of granting his wish, God sent an angel to strengthen him. As he journeyed on in the wilderness, he received a command to appear at Horeb, the mountain of God.
Elijah obeyed and found a cave in which to wait for God to appear. Soon a windstorm raged around the mountain, a gale so strong that rocks broke under its force. Elijah listened for the voice of God in the wind. But only noise filled his ears.
Next an earthquake rumbled through the ground. Though the earth shook beneath Elijah, no voice came to him.
After that, a fire roared on the mountain. Elijah saw the flames, but again heard nothing. God was not in the fire, either.
Then a gentle sound beckoned him from the pit in which he took refuge. He ventured to the mouth of the cave.
God was there.
In the silence, He spoke. His voice filled the void to give His weary servant fresh marching orders and renewed hope.
Today we are greeted each morning with a thousand sounds and images from our embattled world. As our earth quakes under the deafening din of its inhabitants, we await the holy hush in which we hear the one whisper for which we long – the voice of our Deliverer. He comes in the space that follows the noise and speaks life to our spent souls.
In Him alone we find rest, restoration, and redirection.
Your ears will hear a word behind you,
‘This is the way, walk in it,’
whenever you turn to the right or to the left.
Isaiah 30:31
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God can use broken instruments to make incomparable music.
-Joni Eareckson Tada
Are You Broken?
All of us are, in one way or another. For some of us, physical disability or devastating illness has ravaged our lives. For many, the emotional pain of secret wounds and failures have become unbearable. Some of us are whole people trapped within the physical shells of our flesh. Others are the walking dead, shattered souls inhabiting functional bodies.
If we are all broken, how then shall we live? How do we serve Christ from the place of woundedness in which we dwell?
In her book A Healing Place, quadriplegic artist and disability advocate Joni Eareckson Tada tells the story of famed violinist Yitzhak Perlman, disabled at a young age by polio. At a concert in 1995, he made his usual painstaking entrance onto the stage with the help of crutches and braces. During the performance a string suddenly broke on his violin.
An awkward silence fell over the hall. He could not simply walk off the stage for a few moments and replace the violin string. He had no spare violin at hand. He stopped, closed his eyes, and thought a moment. Then he motioned for the conductor to begin again.
The virtuoso played the entire piece minus one string. He masterfully rewrote the piece as he went, innovating with the strings he had to coax new sounds from his disabled violin.
The performance was incredible. When it ended, the awestruck audience erupted into applause.
Mr. Perlman answered their appreciation with these words: “You know, sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.”
Ever feel you are beyond repair?
Has life beaten you up, thrown you down, and threatened to steal away the song God put in your heart? Have the circumstances in which you exist convinced you that you have nothing to offer your Savior?
It’s no problem for God. He’s a creative genius. He knows exactly how to take what’s left of our lives and use them to display His incomparable song of grace. In fact, the greatness of His power is magnified when played out on broken instruments. There’s no danger someone will think we made the music ourselves, no doubt the Master is in the hall.
All He asks is for us to offer ourselves and get prepared to be awestruck. The song of praise that results will be incomparable.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,
so that the surpassing greatness of the power
will be of God and not from ourselves.
-2 Corinthians 4:7
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I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down
upon the earth and be an atheist,
but I cannot conceive how a man could look up
into the heavens and say there is no God.
-Abraham Lincoln
It was just an article about a bird.
It wasn’t just any bird, though. This tropical, ground-dwelling bird was so rare scientists had officially decreed it extinct. Nowhere on earth had anyone found a living specimen.
That is, until somebody happened to look up at the right moment and discover their “extinct” ground-dwelling bird alive and well, living in the trees.
Imagine that. Living in a tree.
But as unsurprising as that might seem, scientists had searched in vain for this particular one for years, because they were convinced they knew where it should be found.
What a vivid example of humanity’s eternal bent toward the sin of presumption! We rarely know as much as we think we do.
But you can’t tell us that. We have it all figured out. We stumble along looking for life’s meaning with our eyes fixed on the dirt at our feet. We presume God doesn’t exist or has abandoned us, because we can’t find him in the mud in which we’re wallowing.
Like scientists in the jungle, we search in all the wrong places for truth.
Then one day, we finally look up and find God right where He was supposed to be all along: infused throughout the height and width and depth of His incredible universe.
Enthroned in the heavens.
Commanding the stars.
Waiting for us to find Him.
To You I lift up my eyes,
O You who are enthroned in the heavens!
Psalm 123:1
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Fireflight’s lead vocalist Dawn speaks with cmaddict contributor Jon Fisher about their latest album “Now”
1. Your last album was titled “For Those Who Wait” and the new album is title “Now.” Is there any significance to that juxtaposition?
We didn’t set out to create one, but in the end I suppose it’s a pretty big coincidence, lol. Truly, the message of FTWW was for those who felt stuck in a waiting game, to look deep and see how God was working in the midst of our troubles. Now is a call to take action: to rise above, break free, and defeat the things inside of us that hold us back. Because this life is about more than living in the past, this world needs us to take back our lives, so that we can be light to those who are still in the dark.
2. Did you approach this album differently musically than past albums?
We wanted to turn up the intensity musically, to create music that cultivated the feeling of urgency in our hearts for the message that we felt God had given us.
3. What is the significance of the symbol on the front cover of the album?
We created a symbol to be the mark of what we are encouraging to become a movement…to promote the feeling that there is a force we can join with the power of Now.
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4. Was this the first time you worked with Jasen Rauch?
This is our first album ever with our friend Jasen Rauch (RED). We had an incredible time working with him and are very excited to be a part of his burgeoning career as a record producer.
5. Your new album seems like you took your sound in a new direction. Can you tell me how your sound has evolved?
We didn’t try to take our sound in a new direction per se, we just wanted to take it to a new level. We’ve added a lot of new electronic elements and have worked hard to express a new openness and raw honesty in our lyrics.
6. Tell me about the new video for “Stay Close.” How was this different than the previous videos that you shot?
We used a producer named Kip Kubin, who we’d had been delighted to work with earlier on the short-form interview video for “What Ive Overcome.” He did an incredible job with that one, so we were excited to see how a full-blown music video would go. We weren’t disappointed! It was my first time playing a fully developed separate character, which was pretty challenging, but we are very happy with how it all turned out.
7. You had the same line-up since 2002 until 2011 when Phee left. How did you transition with his departure? Do you still keep in touch with him?
Phee left us to pursue a speaking ministry on his own, but we stay in touch all the time. God led us quickly to our new drummer Adam McMillion, and he has been an incredible addition to our team.
8. Tell me about your “Stay Close” tour.
The “Stay Close” tour is going strong, with Rapture Ruckas, Cory Lamb, and Devin Williams. We’ve got stellar production that we’ve never traveled with before, and the shows have been awesome so far.
9. Who would you list as your musical influences?
30 Seconds to Mars, Foo Fighters, Def Leppard, and Juliana Theory, among others
10. What is one thing about Fireflight that people might not know that they should know?
We answer all of our own messages online on. Feel free to write us!
11. What scripture would you consider to be most meaningful/influential to you?
2 Cor. 1:3-4
” 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. ” God has comforted me through all of my trials, and I believe He has done so to help me be an encouragement to others.
12. Are there any particular missions or outreaches that you are passionate about?
We are strong supporters of World Vision and The Legacy of Hope International. We also support Hello Somebody and To Write Love On Her Arms.
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Synopsis:
Seven Days in Utopia is a heartwarming drama film based on David L. Cook’s book, Golf’s Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia. The movie stars Lucas Black as Luke Chisholm, a talented young golfer who experiences a professional meltdown during a tournament.
After his breakdown, Luke finds himself stranded in the small town of Utopia, Texas, where he meets Johnny Crawford (played by Robert Duvall), a wise and eccentric rancher who also happens to be a former professional golfer. Over the course of seven days, Johnny mentors Luke, teaching him valuable life lessons and helping him find his true purpose on and off the golf course.
The film beautifully explores themes of faith, redemption, and personal growth, all set against the backdrop of the serene and picturesque landscape of Utopia. It’s a story about second chances and finding one’s way back to the heart of what truly matters.
PG
1 Hour 38 Minutes
Release Date: 2011
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After twenty years as Newsboys lead singer, Peter Furler goes solo with his debut project “On Fire”. CMADDICT Contributor Cara Fisher asks him about his new album and life after Newsboys.
You toured with Newsboys for two decades, was it difficult adjusting to “normal” life?
What’s normal life? [laughs] I don’t think I know what that is? Life to me is so strange. But I’ve adjusted very well. I’m having the greatest time of my life.
When you left the Newsboys, did you still plan on writing songs?
No, I didn’t have any plans. It took quite a while to make the transition. And I was kind of in it for the long haul. So we obviously had plans for me to be behind the scenes for a while, and I was. But Mike came out and road the bus for thirty or so shows, kind of caught the vision, and then we made the switch, and I was behind the scenes for a while. But then it became really apparent to all of us, it’s time for them to walk on their own two feet, without me being some sort of puppet master behind it.
So that kind of set me free and not knowing what I was going to do. One of the biggest misconceptions is that I left the Newsboys to go do a solo record, which is just crazy; I would have never done that. But anyway, after that I didn’t know what I was going to do. So I kind of roamed around the Earth for a bit and slept in my own bed and did a bit of painting and surfing. I stayed busy, but just kept off the road. I didn’t know what I was gonna do.
What inspired you to write and release your solo record, On Fire?
Well, I had Steve Taylor come around my house. As most folks know he’s a guy that I’ve written over a hundred songs with. And I had a bunch of tunes that over the years- every time you make a record you have songs left over or songs that didn’t fit the record or songs that weren’t finished, and so I had a few songs. And Steve came around and said, “What are we gonna do with these tunes?” And I said, “I don’t know; I’m up for anything. The only thing I don’t want to do is a solo record.” And I said, “We’ll work them out; let’s finish them up. I’ll do it if you’ll sing them,” I said to Steve.
So I went into the studio with Steve and we pulled in Jimmy Abegg and John Painter, and we began to make a record, which is coming out sometime maybe late this year or early next year. It got a bit of a hiccup in the middle of it, because of Steve having to do the Blue Like Jazz movie, which was great so we were all for that.
So while he started to take off and do that, I just kept writing. And I think it was really my wife, Summer, she really sort of encouraged me, “You’re a singer; you’re a songwriter; you need to use the gifts that God’s given you, and I really want to hear you sing again.” It was really that. So I just began to kind of work on some songs and chip away at it. And the next minute I’ve made a record, and here it is.
Did you play most of the instruments on the album?
Yeah, it was actually Seth Mosley and myself. I usually played a lot of the instruments on the Newsboys’ records- something most folks don’t know. I played the drums and usually a bit of the bass and a bit of guitar and keyboards and stuff. So that wasn’t a big change. And Seth’s a great musician, so he played a lot of the guitars and keyboards too. It was a lot of fun.
What is your favorite song on the album?
I don’t have a favorite. But the song that comes to mind when you asked that, I guess I’ll go with that one, is probably “Glory To The King.” It’s one of my favorites. Yeah, I’m not sure… it’s when I go and play a few of them live that they become something different. We’ll see what happens.
What do you hope people take away from the album?
I hope they really catch the fire of freedom and encouragement, that’s what songs are meant to be for. Life- just encouragement I think is a big one, especially in the world that we’re living in now and the way things are. It’s easy to get down so, I think they walk away stirred up.
Peter Furler “Reach” Music Video
Do you plan on touring for this album?
Yes I do!
Do you think you’ll cover any Newsboys’ songs?
Yes I will! I’ve already done a couple of shows already and just played the favorites. They’re parts of me, so it’s very natural for me to sing them live.
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