The definitions are:

contentment: Desiring no more than what one has; satisfied. (lack of contentment would be of course wanting more than you have or not satisfied)

Restlessness: characterized by or showing inability to remain at rest: arestless mood; unquiet or uneasy, as a person, the mind, or the heart.

What I find odd is that we as Christians throw the word “contentment” around quite flippantly. It has become this “buzz” word that is vague to most people. What does it mean to be content in the Lord? If we go with the definition doesn’t that really suggest that we should be just happy with what we have and not really interested in wanting more. We are satisfied with what we have been given and it’s good enough for me.

I have given a lot of thought to this lately. I think ultimately we need to be content in God and thats it. I think placing too much stake in contentment for anything else either sets us up for disappointment or paralyzes us from being creative or forging ahead with dreams.

That’s where the word restless comes into play. Sometimes we find ourselves in life no longer content with what or where things are going. No longer satisfied with our location, money, church, job, etc. So we go back and pray that God would help us with our lack of contentment.

This is a good thing because we do want to drill into our heads that everything is but a vapor and in the end God is sovereign. It is also a bad thing, because sometimes it is not a lack of contentment that is the issue it is restlessness. Sometimes God is tugging at our hearts to dream, to move, to change, to create.

I don’t think it is easy to decipher the difference if it is lack of contentment or God making us restless. That is where prayer and fasting come into play.

We as christians need to make sure we are deciphering between the two as we move through our daily lives because God could be tugging at our hearts and itching to do big things thru us and we in turn could be stifling His great work because we are too concerned that our lack of contentment is a sure sign we are no longer relying on God.

Be still and know…it is a verse about clear cut clarity. Make sure you seek it out.

The Vertical Self How Biblical Faith Can Help Us Discover Who We Are in An Age of Self Obsession

By Mark Sayers

I recently had the privileged of receiving this book in the mail via Thomas Nelson Publishing.

I was really excited to get this book because it looked very interesting. It talks about returning to a life of Holiness. It is a book about being less self absorbed or “horizontal” and having our eyes fixed on Christ “vertical”.

I personally love books that deal with our identity because I believe it is one of the biggest struggles we as Christians have. Who do we get our identity from? Are our eyes pointed upward or do we continue to look to our environment and peers as our barometer for how we should act and ultimately be.

While the insights are butt kicking and inspiring I felt the actual writing of this book made it a bit monotonous to read. Make no mistake, the content of this book is much needed in the church today and it has some fantastic points. It is a must read, but I just was not a fan of the writing style. It did not keep my interest and therefore it became a bit of work to get through it.

Bravo to Mark for tackling a subject that we as the church seem to forget about and that is Jesus calls us to be like Him and He always looked to the father. Hopefully this book will inspire more to start looking vertically.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Go to your CD collection and grab these CD’s/book:

1. Panic at the Disco
2. Kings X
3. Flemming & John
4. Blondie
5. Queen
6. Bjork
7. Alice in Wonderland Book

Ok..you have them? Now…throw them in a blender..use the PULP setting for about 32 sec.

Once it stops look inside…

do you see the new “Dirt Poor Robins” CD?

hmm…didn’t work..

well lets go to plan B and save you $70+ because instead of buying all the CD’s above you could buy:

the new “Dirt Poor Robins” CD

and join the COOL club!

It was a great time with family, friends and serving, but I noticed some odd things as well.  When pastor jack was done preaching to the men and women there he gave an altar call. Of course many got saved and I am not about to judge who were for real or who just wanted to go through the motions to get their dinner. All the people got up afterward and proceeded rather quickly to the dining hall. Well, all but one. One man stayed behind and talked to Jack and he got to pray with him. I love when that happens because to me thats how you really know how hungry a person is for God.

This man went for the bread of life before he went for the bread that came with the Ziti.

There was a homeless man there that i guess is on staff with the place. He was breaking down the room, clearing chairs, and stacking them. I went up to him and asked if I could help. His answer floored me.

“Huh?” he said “you want to help?..Uh yeah! thanks so much…You are now my favorite church!”

“Why?” I asked “thats what I’m here to do…Help”

“Because most of the other churches show up to preach and then leave. They don’t stick around to help me”

AMAZING! He went on to say that he was floored we have 8+ people because usually churches send the preacher and maybe another guy. I was happy to hear we were there for him and could help even in what seemed like such a little task, but also sad that churches are just sending people there to preach.

I’ll leave you with this quote that I think sums up the problem with the church today.

“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” St. Francis of Assisi

We spend so much time drilling people with the gospel that sometimes we need to realize all people need to see the Light of Christ is just a helping hand, somebody to love them, somebody to care like Jesus did.

If you read my blog, which you should be, you would have noticed a group of men I meet with that we call “the Forge”. It is a group where I can go and be completely transparent with fellow brothers in ministry from other churches. About 7 months ago God had me move out of the role of HS youth director/leader into the role of being part of a team running the men’s ministry in my church, along side of leading worship. If there is one thing I love about our men’s group that I have not seen in any men’s group I have been in it’s honesty and transparency. In both my men’s group and in the Forge nothing is off limits. Everybody is broken.

I decided to look up the definition of Transparent. Here is what it says:

transparent [trænsˈpærənt -ˈpɛər-]adj

1. permitting the uninterrupted passage of light; clear; a window is transparent

That definition is astounding. I think there are two keys for real ministry within the church. Honesty and Grace. I have been talking about both with my men and forge group for months. We need to be honest with one another, but at same time we need to have grace for each other when things get put on the table that may possibly floor us, hurt us, or concern us.

On Feb 16th, in anticipation of her new CD coming out later this year, Vicky and integrity music will be releasing a 3 song EP.

I am stoked to be able to offer the chance for you to hear the songs first on my blog and two others listed below.

I promise integrity did not pay me to say this, but I think I got the best of the 3 songs to preview and I can’t wait to do this one in my church!

LISTEN BELOW:


UPDATE: we have been asked to shorten the song to a 30sec clip. For those who heard it before I switched…Count yourself AWESOME!

What’s that? you love it and want the chord chart?
COME AND GET IT!!

Deliverer
Words & Music by: Vicky Beeching , Sarah MacIntosh

VERSE 1
Deliverer, come set me free
Break every chain holding me
Deliverer, come have Your way
I surrender to Your rule and reign

CHORUS A
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is healing

VERSE 2
You say the word and mountains are moved
Oceans and stars stand in awe of You
Just say the word, I will be changed
We’ll see Your face and we will not be the same, ‘cause

CHORUS B
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is hope
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is healing

BRIDGE
And Your blood is enough to break every chain (8X)
Every chain, every chain

© 2010 Integrity Worship Music and Thankyou Music (adm worldwide by EMI CMG Publishing, excluding Europe, which is administered by kingswaysongs.com) c/o Integrity Media, Inc., 1000 Cody Road, Mobile, AL 36695 and EMI CMG Publishing, Inc., PO Box 5085, Brentwood, TN 37024 All rights reserved. Used by Permission. CCLI#5657498

Looking for more info on Vicky Beeching? Here are a few places to start –

www.vickybeeching.com
www.twitter.com/vickybeeching

You can hear the other two songs from Vicky’s EP over the next couple of days at these two blogs –

Monday, February 8 – www.chrisfromcanada.com
Tuesday, February 9 – www.klampert.com
Wednesday, February 10 – www.fredmckinnon.com

A year ago I was able to meet Randy in person and talk with him. What I encountered was a man of integrity and transparency. A Godly man with a great marriage. This alone made me want to read whatever he put out.

This is a book that tries to debunk the old church rules about sex and nudity. It talks about the history of our creation and what we were created for. It delves into the connection between sexuality and spirituality starting first with nudity and sex onto our longing for God.

I am an artist and have drawn nudes and been around that culture a long time, but I am also aware of how much the nude body terrifies the main stream church. Randy talks about the lies that are out there and delves into teaching the reader how to achieve freedom from the way we have always been taught. There is a difference between “beauty” and Pornography” and Randy gives us a pretty great check list to determine that.

There is so much in this book to go over and re-read. I will be reading it for a second time next week and will probably need to blog again about it to really dig deeper.

A great quote from the book which really stood out to me was:

“Simply gather a handful of the succulent fruit described in this chapter and your mate will be literally eating out of your hand while racing you to the bedroom for an endless time of wild and abandoned lovemaking.”

Randy goes on to talk about the Fruit of the spirit and making that the most important Foreplay in a marriage. Something I am sure we all need a reminder of daily.

Last but not least it talks about communion and the sacraments. For the sake of a long post I won’t get into it, but let me tell you the connection he makes to the above is amazing.

Folks, this is a must read and maybe the top book I recommend this year. It’s not very often you will hear me say I need to read it again.

Do yourself a favor and order this book, but order it with an open mind because it will challenge you.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from cre:ate 2.0 Publishing to read and post a review on my site. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> >  “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I recently had the privilege to do some design work for my friends, Wisdom and Ben, at the All about Worship Podcast. They contacted me about a new retreat/conference they were putting together and I wanted to tell my readers about it.

It’s called the “All About Worship Retreat“.

“All About Worship Retreat is a place where worship leaders and pastors can come together for a time of spiritual renewal, building genuine friendships and engaging in intimate worship sessions led by notable worship leaders.

All About Worship Retreat 2010 will take place May 20 – 22 at Grace Church in Overland Park, KS.

Engage in worship, prayer, and authentic conversations in an intimate setting with fellow worship leaders and artists like Tommy Walker, Jared Anderson, Darrell Evans, Dwayne Moore, and many others.”

I am personally going to attempt to go. I think this retreat will be set up a bit more intimate than your typical conference. If you can make it I encourage you to go.

Here is what his site says:

“I am so happy to announce that I will be teaching a workshop and attending the worshiptogether.com Training Conference, April 12-14 in Lenexa, KS.

In 1999 I remember attending as a younger worship leader one of their training events and over the past several years I have enjoyed getting to know some of the people at this company. Wholeheartedly I can say these people love the local church and this event is designed to equip worship leaders at churches of any size. Even their cost is reasonable.

Some of the worship leaders there include: Leeland, Brenton Brown, Matt Maher, Christy Nockels, Phil Wickham and Audrey Assad.

So, I would love to see you there at the conference and meet you! In fact, I am going to be giving away free passes. With THIS post, I will give away 2 FREE PASSES for YOU AND A GUEST!

Instructions: You get one point to a drawing for doing each of the following.

comment on this post and say “I want the 2 passes for me and a friend!” [1 point - mandatory]
Facebook status: link back to this post! [1 point]
Twitter: RT or tweet linking back to this post [1 point]
So, you get three chances to win if you do all three! I will draw the winners on Monday night!

*BONUS: 2 more points to repeat this post on your own blog if you have one!”

1.  “Jesus Saves” (hear it on FredMcKinnon.Com)
2.  “Rain It Down” (hear right now…here at Klampert.Com)
3.  “We Will Worship” (hear it Thursdays, Jan 28 over at ChrisFromCanada.Com)

RAIN IT DOWN – Carlos Whittaker

DOWNLOAD THE FREE CHORD CHART FOR RAIN IT DOWN!

Rain It Down

Jason Ingram, Phillip Larue and Carlos Whittaker
© 2010 Sony/ATV Timber Publishing/West Main Music/Windsor Hill Music/SESAC, Deeper Still Music Publishing/Songs of Razor & Tie/My Maxx Songs (All adm by Music Services o/b/o Razor & Tie Music Publishing)/ASCAP
and Integrity Worship Music/ASCAP

There’s a storm coming in the distance

Some will run to it and some will resist it

Our eyes will turn to the sky

With desert hearts looking to the heavens

Desperate for your Holy fountain

Our eyes will turn to the sky

Rain down on us
Father

Rain down on us

Spirit
Rain down on us
Jesus
Rain down on us

There’s nothing like your healing water
Pour it out on Your sons and daughters

Our eyes are lifted high

We are here and we are waiting
Flood our hearts til their overflowing

Our hands are lifted high

Come Lord we’re thirsty now

Come Lord and rain it down
Come Lord we’re thirsty now
Come Lord and rain it down