Here’s two raw ones from a while back before I started using my current audio editing apps. I did try to clean them up some, though. The second is much better quality than the first.
Thanks for listening. Hope yall have a blessed Sunday.
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With Arms Outstretched Abide
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The Man-Made Forest, Bohol Phillipines 2o19
Colossians 2:8-10 KJV ⁸ Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. ⁹ For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. ¹⁰ And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power.
I woke this morning with the blues… the Sunday blues, to be more exact.
I was reminded of Kris Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” and for a moment I could feel myself walking that lonely sidewalk. I could almost smell the fried chicken.
Then my heart turned to others.
So I decided to forget myself, pray for those whose blue is a much darker shade than my own… and maybe even try on their shoes for a little while in my head.
So about these songs…
For the Lauren Daigle song “Still Rolling Stones,” I decided to amp it up a bit with the guitar lick. This is the first time I’ve ever tried to play it, and I just thought I’d do it a little differently.
And “Worn” by Tenth Avenue North was actually the very first song from the bathroom that I ever posted. I hid it inside another post though, so it was easy to miss. I thought I’d share it again.
Back in 2o18, I was involved in music ministry, and one Sunday I wasn’t feeling well. I was supposed to lead worship that evening at a men’s service for my good friend, Pastor Cecil Johnson.
Pastor Cecil had a message to bring, and he needed me there… so much so that he came in my room while I was sleeping, woke me up, told me he needed me to get up and come sing Victory in Jesus… 😄😁
Cecil was a great man of God. Sadly, he passed away a year later after a long battle with cancer.
There is a movie about his life called No Vacancy, starring Sean Young 🦸♂️ Dean Cain, and T.C. Stallings from War Room plays Pastor Cecil. It’s a really good movie, and I believe it will bless you. I encourage you to check it out.
One of the things I’ll never forget about an old friend of mine was the way he’d greet me.
He’d smile and ask,
“What’s really going on?”
Not, “How are you?”… but, “What’s really going on?”
It’s been about 20 years since I last saw him, but today I found myself thinking about those words again. Such a simple question… yet so profound.
Now, let’s get into the music.
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The Words I Would Say
Keep Making Me
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Physically Building Churches in Buenos Aires, Argentina 🇦🇷 Oct 2o19
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Jude 1:24-25
To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without blemish and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
So whether you believe in God or not… how many of you are going through something today? ✋️
I know I am. Sheeesh… probably the most critical season of my life right now. But I’m staying strong 💪 and trusting in the One who’s brought me this far. 😎
Here are two great songs from Shane & Shane that I recorded about a month ago. I hope you enjoy.
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Beg
Yearn
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Psalm 143:9–12 (My Version)
Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies… I flee unto Thee for refuge to hide me. Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God, Thy Spirit is good. Lead me into the land of uprightness onto level ground because of mine enemies. Quicken me, O Lord, for Jesus Christ’s namesake. Preserve my life. In Thy righteousness bring my soul out of trouble. In Thy steadfast love cut off mine enemies and destroy all them that afflict my soul. For I am Thy servant, Thy friend, Thy child.
No matter your beliefs… I like you… I’m for you. Together… we can lift each other up. We’re not meant to live this life alone.
Work on trying to let someone in… even if it’s just one.
Ain’t no life outside each other.
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I have two excellent songs for you today
🎵 No Man Is an Island 2o14 🎵 I Have This Hope 2o16
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Be blessed… and don’t forget.
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Hebrews 10:24–25 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another
For the past few months, I’ve been doing late-night recordings of songs in my bathroom because the acoustics are good. No fancy recording equipment—just my phone, the Lexis Audio Editor app, my guitar, and me. This one is a cover of You Love Me Anyway by Sidewalk Prophets.
What’s a fear you’ve overcome — and how did you do it?
This is my first ever blog… ¡ started it back in November of last year… one reason was to help make it easier for me when ¡ get ready to write my first ever book… about my life…
¡ know fear
It knows me
¡ve been at war with it since the 90s
And newsflash
¡m winning
¡ always knew ¡ would
¡ do not give up
And ¡ do not give in
There’s been many dim lit days… dark nights… where it appeared though it had me.
But fear’s power is one that is borrowed
Borrowed from me
So ¡ve learned not to fuel it
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All ¡ know… is what it did take to make this
All ¡ am… is what it will take… to break this
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On a lighter note
Let’s talk about something a little more relatable
Spiders.
Big effin’ huge ones.
So ¡ve always been scared of them in the past… like fearful…
And I’m an outdoorsman haha
¡m not scared of much
Like snakes for example
Even poisonous ones ¡ will catch and hold carefully…
They don’t bother me at all
But spiders had my number
Until the summer of 2o1O
That’s when ¡ finally dealt with it
¡ was living and working at a Christian men’s drug rehab in Florida
It was a long-term treatment program
The guys lived there for 18 months
¡ was the resident director and lived in the same house with them
Well… the pastor that ran it wanted me to have my own place separate from everyone
So he purchased a used fifth-wheel camper trailer and we set it up out back on the ten-acre property
Hold up…
Let me back up a lil
The property had a lot of spiders
Florida has a lot of spiders lol
We would find them in the men’s residence all the time
Come to find out… they are called Huntsman spiders
And they are enormous and intimidating… most as big as your hand.
Ok… back to the story…
The camper had some type of hole somewhere underneath the frame
And shortly after ¡ moved in
So did all my long-legged, hairy little roommates
They would crawl on me while ¡ was sleeping
¡d wake up and they would be on… the ceiling… the walls… the floor… just all over
¡ went to put my bedroom shoes on once…
And a big one was in there
¡ could feel it on my bare toes
It was frantically moving around trying to get out haha
So like lightning… ¡ pulled my foot out and out it came… then it ran up my leg
These types of things happened often with my new friends
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¡ didn’t think ¡ could stay
Live here like this
In this place… with them. 😬
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We searched and searched trying to find how they were getting in
But we never found it
As the days passed
¡ had more encounters
Daily…
Nightly…
Then it occurred to me
¡ had never once been bitten by one
So ¡ did much praying
Asking God to help me get over this fear
And He did
Little by little
¡ got to where it didn’t bother me
¡ even stopped trying to kill them
¡ got to where ¡ could lay in bed at night and read
Even if one was resting on the wall beside me
Sometimes there might be three or four in plain sight in the room at the same time
And it didn’t faze me anymore
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¡ stayed in that camper for about a year
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Never once got bit
Not one time
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There was nothing to fear… ever.
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only something to face.
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This is a Huntsman Spider I was told… not a Wolf Spider as me and my friends are calling it in this video…
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For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. — 2 Timothy 1:7
So I’m starting a new band this week for my Sunday music post…
Tenth Avenue North started in the early 2oO0s when a group of students met at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida. Lead singer Mike Donehey, drummer Jason Jamison, and their friends needed a name for a local show and couldn’t agree on one. They ended up using the name of the street where some of them lived… 10th Avenue North. The name was supposed to be temporary—but it stuck.
Before signing a record deal, they spent years playing churches, colleges, and small venues while releasing independent projects. Their breakthrough came with their major-label debut album Over and Underneath (2oO8), which included songs like Love Is Here and By Your Side.
They announced a farewell in 2o2O, but later reunited after a multi-year hiatus and returned to recording and touring. From what I’m hearing, they’re still going strong today and back out on the road again.
I first heard them in 2oO8… and I remember thinking, “these guys are pretty dang good.”
Funny story though… I actually bought into a rumor back then. Someone told me this band started in his church in Sarasota, Florida, and that they were named after the street the church was on—10th Ave N. So I ran with that for a while 😄
There’s a little truth mixed in there—they are from Florida, and they are named after a street—but yeah… not Sarasota, and not that church. That’s how stories get twisted over time.
So what happened? How do things like that even start? 😄😁
But anyway… we’ll leave that there.
Let’s get into the music.
I hope y’all enjoy 🎶
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Bathroom Recording Of Worn
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Proverbs 3:5–6 (ESV)
Trust in the Lord with all your heart… and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways… acknowledge Him… and He will make straight your paths.
Heart of Loia `'.,°~ 