Tag: christianity

Zach Williams drops a new song “Turn It Over”

Posted on by Kevin Thorson
 

16 April 2021 – Franklin, TN – Today, two-time GRAMMY Award® and multi-GMA Dove Award® winner Zach Williams drops a new song, “Turn It Over.” Accompanied with a lyric video, the track is now available on all digital platforms and will appear on Williams’ Rescue Story Deluxe Edition, slated for release in June. 

“Turn It Over,” an autobiographical song about Williams’ journey of faith, and, as he recently shared, “It feels like a prayer for this current time that has been filled with fear and doubt.” The song was written by Williams along with Jason Ingram and Paul Mabury. 

Additionally, “Less Like Me,” his current single at radio, continues to be Williams’ fastest-rising song in his career. It is currently No. 2 on both the Billboard Monitored and AC Monitored charts. 

Due to the pandemic, Williams’ Rescue Story Spring Tour was postponed to this fall, but he has been able to get back on the road with his Drive-In Theater Tour, hitting cities across the country. Joined by Mac Powell and CAIN, the tour will run through June. Concertgoers are getting to hear all of his top hits along with newer songs such as “Turn It Over,” “Stand My Ground,” and “Less Like Me.” It’s a show you won’t want to miss! Be sure to visit his tour page for all of the latest tour dates and information.

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Tim Timmons releases his new album “HERE”

Posted on by Kevin Thorson
NASHVILLE, TENN. (April 16, 2021) – Tim Timmons releases his new album HERE on Integrity Music available today. This special eight-song release is an invitation to encourage the listener to pray and keep a thankful heart throughout the day. 

“I think if I was going to put a practice or theme to the songs on this record, it would really be ‘What am I giving my attention to? What do we give our worship to all week long?’ It’s about aligning and re-aligning our hearts to Jesus,” shares Tim Timmons about this project. 

Timmons kicked off this year releasing the song, “This Is The Day,” which is featured on today’s release and is his radio single currently moving up the National Christian Audience chart. This song reminds the listener to practice thankfulness all day long. And as one who is all too familiar with trials and pain, he takes this song to heart personally. 

“I’m now 21 years into a 5-year death sentence with an incurable cancer diagnosis […], one of my primary reminders is to practice thankfulness for another day that I get to wake up,” explains Timmons. “Focusing on Jesus’ nearness in and through our struggles is where we realign ourselves toward joy. I see the gift of cancer is perspective. It’s really the open door to speak into peoples’ stories.”

Timmons has been releasing new music with Integrity Music since 2020. He debuted his first project in 2013 with Cast My Cares followed by 2015’s Awake Our Souls. He has been writing songs for himself and for other artists, including a GRAMMY® nomination for co-writing MercyMe’s “Even If,” which stayed at No. 1 on the National Christian Audience charts for 19 weeks.

“For years I’d heard people all over town talk about Tim Timmons in the most unique way,” shares Andrew Osenga, Director of A&R, Integrity Music. “It has been such a joy to get to know this guy and find that it’s all true, and to partner together to create an album of songs that invites the listener into this same relationship that so many people in Nashville were talking about. This is an album that befriends you and invites you in: To come alive to the heart knowledge that you are seen, valued and loved, and to be present HERE, safe in the love of Jesus.”

Later this month, he will be launching his podcast “10000 MINUTES: The Experiment,” hosted by Timmons with co-hosts Chris Cleveland (STARS GO DIM) and Emmoe Doniz along with some amazing special guests. The Experiment is a weekly deep dive into the adventures and struggles of living out our daily lives WITH Jesus, not for Him. 

All of his songs – Timmons calls them prayers – have stemmed from personal experience after spending the previous 15 years leading worship in Orange County, California. He is now based in Nashville, with the past nine years touring full-time around the world. 

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Slightly Obsessed #254: Be Not Deceived

Posted on by Pamela Thorson

Can you tell the difference between Good and evil? are you sure?

 

“But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil.”

-Hebrews 5:14

We walked through the tall, dry grass with a forester friend as we checked out the progress of the fledgling evergreens on our property overlooking the Clearwater River valley. The men sauntered down the hill, intently inspecting the little trees. The friend’s wife followed. I brought up the rear, watching my feet.

In this part of the country, you never know what might be lying in your path.

Toward the bottom of the hill, I heard the buzz and saw the grass part beside me. The rattler had lain quietly while the others passed, and only alerted at my approach.

I shrieked. The snake crawled away. My husband carried me back up the hill.

In northcentral Idaho live two species of snakes that look remarkably alike to the casual observer. The bullsnake, a subspecies of the harmless gopher snake, has a pattern much like its venomous neighbor, the Northern Pacific rattlesnake.

When threatened, it coils and shakes its tail in warning. A longer inspection reveals this species to have a longer, thinner body and rounder head. The above photo is one of a bullsnake.

The rattlesnake is fatter, shorter, and more docile. Its head has the characteristic viper triangular shape with the hooded eyes. Its tail has the namesake rattles to warn an intruder. Sometimes, the first alert to its presence is its distinctive, loud buzz. Occasionally, it gives no warning, and you must be able to recognize it before it strikes.

Both snakes are beneficial hunters.

One can kill you.

Satan is compared to a snake in the Bible because of several common qualities:

  • His predatory nature. Snakes hunt and feed on the vulnerable.
  • The ability to camouflage his presence. Like a snake, he blends into his surroundings to get close to his prey.
  • His deadly bite. In John 10:10, we read that Satan comes “to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10 NASB)

In our part of the country, it’s imperative to know the difference between a harmless snake and a venomous one.  It’s a solemn reminder that it’s a deadly error to either denounce the innocent as evil or fail to recognize danger ahead. It takes trial and error, success and failure, to discern good from evil.

We live in challenging times. The temptation is strong to either ignore the warning signs or to lash out blindly at those around us. Our charge is to be as wise as the serpent. Know what is good and what is evil. Watch your path and be smarter than your adversary. And always, be as gentle as the Spirit of God.

Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. 

Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

-Matthew 10:16 (NKJV)

Slightly Obsessed #253: As It Began to Dawn

Posted on by Pamela Thorson

 

When God Invades Our Despair

 

Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week….

-Matthew 28:1

So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst….

-John 20:19

 

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” Henry David Thoreau wrote in 1854.

My Southern-born mom put it less eloquently but more graphically on her bad days: “I’m so low I have to look up to see a snake’s belly.”

It’s hard to get much lower than the dirt. And that’s where the serpent wants us, groveling in the dust as he slithers over us.

Christians are under attack like no other time in history. There is more persecution of believers in this age than ever before. Satan roams the earth, storming homes, churches and families. He feeds on shattered lives, hearts, and relationships while he grows in insolence against heaven.

We are shaken as everything we believe is trampled under the brutality. Our trust in God’s Word faces its most severe challenge. What happened to all His promises? Where is the life of victory?

Alone, trapped in hopelessness, our people suffer in quiet despair. We can’t even understand the heartbreak happening to us, much less confess our struggles to someone else. So we hide in the darkness, convinced of the permanence of the death of our hopes and dreams.

Just like Jesus’ first disciples.

When the disciples met the Christ, the majesty and power of the carpenter ignited their imagination. They believed He was their Messiah, the King of the Jews. They followed Him, watched His miracles, listened to His word, and rejoiced. The Kingdom of God had arrived with this Deliverer.

They eagerly waited for the Anointed One to take His throne. Instead, he shocked them by dying at the hands of the executioners. All they hoped and believed died with Him

In their panic, they forgot everything He taught them. Imagining they were next to be killed and in complete despair, they trembled behind locked doors and waited to die.

Then, it began to dawn.

True to His word, Jesus rose again, conquering death in a single moment. Nothing but the graveclothes of their misconceptions remained in the tomb. The miracle of miracles shattered the desperation, killed every lie of the serpent, and raised them up out of the dirt.

Now they understood. God had planned it all. At no moment were they ever out of His hand. Even in their deepest night, He carried them toward the greater dawn of a new forever, better than anything they could have imagined. And nothing was lost except their fears.

This Easter morning, the tomb still lies empty. The risen Savior still reigns over this earth and every single moment of our lives. He will give us strength for today as He crushes the enemy under His feet through our acts of faith.

The serpent is defeated. Arise from the dirt.

Dawn is coming.

 

The Lord has risen indeed…! 

-Luke 24:34