jon mark music

i’m going to take this opportunity to bragggggggggggggg on my wife. just a few months ago i was joking about a label she was given. the doctor diagnosed her “ama”.

ama = advanced maternal age. HA.

so a mere three months after giving birth to molly kay, mrs. ama decided to compete in a duathlon. she started the race by running 2 miles. then she rode her bike 18 miles. finally she finished the race by running another 3.1 miles. compete she did and in fact she decided to take home the first place trophy in her age division.

molly kay’s t-shirt for the race said it best…”my mommy rocks!”

wow! tonight’s service was just awesome. the entire focus of our service tonight was God’s grace and how it has set us free. pastor dan’s mom, ruth, gave her testimony and told what God’s grace had done for her and how she was set free from fear. let me tell you she has been set free, because there was no fear in her as she spoke.

i pray that everyone who reads this has been set free! and i thank you Lord for setting me free. thank you for reminding me of that this week in a major way and for coordinating our service tonight.

i’m not sure what is going on today, but every time i turned around God is using a person, a blog, a song…to tell me that i am set free from sin. this is not a new concept at all, but it has been a great encouragement to me today. it all started out with reading pastor terry’s blog this morning and then with a short promo on wbcl as i drove to work. so i started looking up “freedom from sin” on the web and it lead me to romans 6:1-11 for my study time today. so i’ll share what that passage says and continue with my day…

1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. 5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. (NLT)

there were several things that stuck out to me…we are no longer slaves to sin…sin no longer has power over us…and my favorite…we should consider ourselves ALIVE to God through Christ Jesus. these are the things that i need to focus on when satan tries to tell me that God can’t use me because of some weakness or sin from my past. nope, not true. i’m free and i’m ALIVE.

to end my day i got a phone call asking me to lead a few songs in the saturday night venue service and sing a “special”. the song i’m singing is “amazing grace (my chains are gone)” which was done by chris tomlin not too long ago for the movie soundtrack to “amazing grace”. here’s the chorus…

“my chains are gone, i’ve been set free

my God my Savior, has ransomed me

and like a flood, His mercy reigns

unending love, amazing grace”

i think God was trying to tell me something today? what do you think?

so today i had the wonderful task of going to the dentist. YUCK!!! this is one task that i have hated for quite some time now, mainly due to the fact that my teeth seem to be prone to problems. but for the last two visits (prior to today) i hadn’t had any cavities! but the dentist said both times to “keep an eye on it”, referring to one of my teeth. there was a problem developing, but it didn’t need attention at the time.

in my mind this made no sense. being the tough guy that i am, i would prefer to take care of any problem BEFORE it caused me any pain. but i’m not the dentist, just the tough guy? today it came to the point where the dentist felt the problem had developed into a cavity that needed to be taken care of…in three weeks.

this reminds me of a passage of scripture believe it or not. james 1:14-15 says, “Temptation comes from our own desires, which intice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.” (NLT) when i read this, i think that james and i are on the same page. he is giving a warning of where the problem starts so it can be taken care of before it causes more pain than it has to.

just like my small problem 18 months ago, if we just “keep and eye on it” and don’t take care of it, temptation can cause great pain. temptation that is not dealt with becomes bigger, sinful actions. then if it is not dealth with…death. WOW! that’s pretty cut and dry.

so no offense to my dentist, i would rather take care of the problem before pain. and i need to carry that over to my life and deal with temptation right away, before it gives birth to pain.

this week has a been a learning experience for me. i didn’t really get it til today, but no one ever accused me of being too swift!!! it all started a couple weeks ago when i was able to play a Taylor guitar for the first time. NOT GOOD! this thing was amazing. the feel and the sound were like no other guitar that i had ever played…so the search was on for the Taylor guitar that was meant for me. to make a long story a little shorter, i found it and purchased it from a store a mere 60 minutes away in ft. wayne, indiana. i was told the guitar would arrive within 48 hours.

so i started checking to see where the guitar was in the delivery process…for those that don’t know me all that well, i have a problem with delayed gratification. i can’t keep secrets, Christmas and birthday presents have to be opened early, and so on…so yes i was checking by phone before anything was posted on the web. let the games begin.

24 hours later i get an e-mail letting me know that the guitar had been shipped. it first went to a shipping warehouse there in ft wayne. then it was shipped to a warehouse in toledo, ohio. after setting for 24 hours in the warehouse, it was shipped back to ft wayne to another shipping warehouse. then 6 hours later it was placed in a truck on it’s way to lima. the guitar arrived at my office 5 hours later…so the 60 minute, or 1 hour, drive from lima to ft wayne took my guitar a total of 72 hours.

i can’t begin to tell you how many times i checked the internet to see where the guitar was and called in to talk with the salesman who sold it to me. all for a guitar. i was really frustrated, over a guitar taking to long to get to me. they were driving it all over, for nothing. i mean i could’ve driven to and from ft wayne 36 times to get the guitar in the time it took to get to me. they took the slow route!

as i sat and thought about it today, how many times do i take the slow route in life. what God has for me is a mere 60 minutes away and i take 72 hours to get there. for me, i have to study the map God has given me each and every day and stay in communication with Him. that way i don’t take the slow route! or atleast not too often.