 The experience of God's presenceI'd love to hear about a time when you've experienced God's awesome presence. I’ll never forget feeling the awesome fear of God at the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The sense of His power was so palpable, I felt like running from that place. God has used that in my life to show me that he has the power to accomplish the impossbile in my life. Let me know about your experience of His presence. Quotable
We've just released my lastest song to Christian radio, Forgive Myself. This song refectls a hard won battle in my life and a victory that I use God's power to hold onto every day.
I believe this song has a real life transformational potential. I hope that God can use it in YOUR life. Pray that God accomlishes HIS purpose for the tune. Forgive Myself could be a huge cross-over song. Like a lot of the music of Christian artists I've enjoyed that have been on the Billboard Pop charts, that song resonates of a spiritual meaning that could reach out to a larger audience. It isn't just good Christian music, it's good music with a Christian message. There are ways to touch people spiritually that extend into places they didn't know existed. If you'll promise to personally autograph your CD, I'll buy it if it contains Forgive Myself. That song will be on a lot of MP3 players in Syracuse. Cathy from Syracuse, NY It pains me
The new covenant is God's unshakeable promise to forgive our sins, to meet with us face to face, to write his laws on our hearts and finally to give us eternal life.
This promise that God will write his laws on our hearts gives us the the ability to offer him deep, heartfelt obedience. So he writes his words on my heart? That sounds painful. It's seems to me that when God's writes his laws deep within me, it hurts. I can imagine God taking his sacred quill and carving his precious words on my tender, unprotected, innermost being. His carving pains. And yet the pain gives way to a deeper obedience. Which relates to the biblical idea of suffering: The idea that suffering makes us more like Jesus. Maybe these two: God writing his laws on our hearts and the sufferings of life are intimately linked. Perhaps in these times of suffering in life, God is actually carving his laws deep within. And after the pain, after the incisions of his carved words heal, we follow him and love him with a passion and devotion like never before. This, I believe, is the wonder and awe and mystery of being changed into the image of God: That he does it through our sufferings and that the suffering comes from the pain we feel as God is writing his law within. So. Every time you and I feel the pain, let us remind ourselves that he is writing his word on our hearts. And let us find the joy in it. Because the pain is leading to more of the image of God in this life and to a brilliant perfection in the world without end. "I can stop this punishing myself"
Forgiving myself is all about embracing and accepting with open arms the complete forgiveness of Jesus. For me a huge part of accepting that forgiveness is letting go of my own anxious efforts to try to add to what Jesus has done for me. It's choosing to release the killing load of debt that I'm no longer meant to carry. It's rejecting self punishment, fully trusting Jesus Christ because he has pronounced my sin debt PAID IN FULL.
The new music video!
The creation of my new music video marks a brand new phase in promoting the song and the new project "Endless Fields."
In June the song was released to the inspirational format at Christian radio. Because we picked up a couple of networks the song has been heard on over 100 stations across the country. Now the song is being released to the adult contemporary format at Christian radio which esentially means it'll have a chance to be heard by a whole new audience. Bottom line though, if the message can reach one new person and help them to see life in Christ in a fresh way, that's what it's all about. It's not about a top ten song, it's not about big concert venues, it's not about Dove awards, it's not about an article in Christianity today, a great review in Billboard. It's all about the glory of God and impacting one more life with the power and love of Jesus Christ. I've had to relearn these things of late and I'm coming back, as Matt Redmen has written, "to the heart of worship." You Don't Need Me I'm thrilled to share with you the first single from my new record "Endless Fields!" You Don't Need Me (But You Want Me). To God's glory, I'm excited to share that the song is being played on over 100 radio stations across the country. Feel free to play the song using the player at the bottom of the page. There's also a short segment that includes my thoughts about the song. It's the second cut on the player. Check that out as well 'cause I think it will add an even greater dimension to the song for you. I'd also love for you to click on "comments" and let me know what you think. Enjoy! Man of Grace, Boy of Shame
forgiving myself This is my daughter Kali Joy taking the leap of faith! I don't know about you but my journey of faith has been a lot about coming to grips with the incredible reality that Jesus died for me. It's been a journey of understanding what that means with my mind, learning to open my heart to this indescribable love, accepting it and taking the leap of faith to actually forgive myself and let go of the past. Why has it taken me so long to let go of things that happened when I was just a teenager, for example? I don't know. I'll let the shrinks figure it out. All I know is that it just has. And I also know that I've learned SO MUCH in the process of really accepting Jesus' grace in my life and choosing to give it to myself. Things I would have never learned had it happened overnight. So here's what I've slowly learned through the years. Self forgiveness begins with realizing that Jesus took the punishment that I deserve. I deserve wrath for my sins, Jesus took the wrap for me. Theologians call it substitutionary atonement. Jesus was there in my place on that cross. Then self forgiveness involves the realization that I'm becoming someone new, someone who's starting to reflect him. Maybe you've heard this before: "I'm not who want to be, but I'm certainly not who I was." Slowly surely I'm seeing that he's making me more like him. I see Christ being formed in me and it gives me hope that I'll be totally like him someday. This transformation going on within helps me to see myself not as simply a forgiven sinner but as a new creation in progress. Next, self forgiveness involves realizing that to him, I am precious, priceless and greatly loved. He LOVES me. In love he created me. In love he has rescued me from my sins. You might want to read this a couple times: I find my worth in that which inspired God to create me and redeem me: LOVE. It was his love that inspired him to create me and redeem me. And if it was the love of God that brought about my creation and redemption, then it must follow that I have incomprehensible value and worth to him. Finally, to forgive myself certainly involves understanding these truths. But in the end it's a leap of faith EVERYDAY to trust that these things are true. I think you and I understand these things with our minds but for whatever reason, we don't really fully trust them to be true. So the final step of self forgiveness is a leap. A leap to trust. Maybe it just comes down to saying: "Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross in my place; thanks that you live forever in perfection in my place; thank you that your Spirit lives in me; thanks that I am precious to you; I take the leap today to accept your love and I take your strength now to forgive myself and live in the joy." I will forgive myself Let it go I will forgive myself Today I forgive myself I will release it Let it go I will forgive myself Today I forgive myself (chorus of a brand new song that'll be on my new record to be released in spring 2008) 
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 First off and most important, I'm just a guy who's trying to follow Jesus and figure out where He's leading. Most of the time it's fun and sometimes it's really hard. You may or may not know that I'm a singer, songwriter, guitarist. My passion is following Jesus and making him known and I try to share that through my music. This passion to share Jesus through music has taken me to Russia, Turkey, Mexico, Thailand and Belgium. For several years I've worked with Family Life Radio www.myflr.org as the afternoon drive host in Midland, Michigan along with my solo aritst work. Now I've joined a ministry in Phoenix, Arizona and am using radio and music to, with love and respect, invite Muslims to follow Jesus www.frontiers.org. If I can encourage you in any way, then you've made my day!  Upcoming events
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I came to faith in Jesus when I was just ten years old. And He put in my heart a hunger to want to please him. But as I came into my teen years, I failed Jesus so often. And every time I would fail, shame would say to me, "This is who you are and this is who you're always going to be."-600.jpg)
