It's been a long time since I've blogged! Wow.

I wanted to give those of you that were interested an update on my stolen laptop - it happened over a month ago when I was in Orlando for the onething conference.

The laptop was stolen directly from our "green room", the secured area in the host church where the worship team and speakers spend time briefing, praying, and eating our meals at the conference. I initially thought that the church's insurance company was going to cover my loss, but because of a series of logistical circumstances they are not able to. So, I'm back to raising funds to buy another Macbook Pro that is able to run all of my music software.  read more »

Well, I'm here in Orlando, Florida at the onething conference here, and Matt Gilman led worship tonight. It was a powerful time!

But the bad news is that my laptop was stolen out of the green room. (I'm using Justin Rizzo's laptop to write this...) I went to go worship in the auditorium for about 30 minutes and when I returned to the green room to get some water, I noticed that my laptop was gone.

I know this is an attack of the enemy, and I know that the Lord is watching how my heart responds in the midst of this little bump in the road of life.

I am confident in the Lord. He provided the laptop for me almost a year ago when my old one died, and I'm confident He will provide again or return the old one. My treasure is in heaven, and the things that I have in this life are nothing compared to what Jesus will reward me with on the day I see Him!

I bless whoever it is that stole my laptop! May the Lord bring conviction to your heart and then encounter you with His kindness and His goodness.

Matthew 5:19-20 says "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasures is, there your heart will be also."

Pray for me if you would - pray that I will have grace to keep my heart free of offense and discouragement, and that I would give Jesus my love in this whole process.

Well, it's been a while since I've traveled with onething, but this weekend I'll be in Orlando, Florida with Justin Rizzo and Matt Gilman for a regional onething conference. I'm thankful for the opportunity to play keys and travel with these guys. We'll be connecting with a bunch of the folks from OHOP, the Orlando House of Prayer as well.

I'm excited to get into some warmer weather with a bunch of people I love, serving them and the Orlando area through worship and prayer for a few days!

If you'll be in Orlando for the conference, find me and give me a high five! If you won't be there, pray for us this weekend!

To my loyal readers, friends, supporters, and lurkers - it's been a while since I've blogged, for two reasons:

1) I am currently helping as a teaching assistant for David Sliker's IHOPU 4th year class called "The Kingdom of God". It's a biblical overview of the kingdom of God from Genesis to Revelation. In short - the kingdom is an entirely future reality that will be manifest on this earth, where Jesus will sit in government over all of the nations of the earth in the same manner that David sat governing Israel. The kingdom of God is not a "spiritual" reality in the hearts of believers but a very "physical" reality yet to be manifest on the earth. I will definitely be blogging about the topic in the future as there's so much confusion in the body of Christ about it!

2) I have been working on a redesign of my website. I've had the same design for the past year and a half, and it needs a bit of a refresh. I'm also working on a boat-load of new content for it as well including new photos, teachings, downloads, audio, and a "gear" page describing how I use my Mac on stage at IHOP.

So with that in mind, is there anything in particular you want to see on my redesigned site? Leave me a comment!

Realistically it may be a couple more months before I get it launched, but I'm hoping to get the blog stream moving again once this class winds down in a week or so.

Thanks for staying tuned!

I don’t often write here on the signs of the times (not because I don't want to, but that's a subject for another day) but it’s been very interesting to watch how the media has been covering every single aspect of the world’s troubled economy recently. I’ve read articles on how it compares to the times of the Great Depression in the US in the early 20th century. I’ve also read practical articles on how to live off of $10 per day, and some humorous ones including how to make a prom suit out of duct tape.

It does not take any prophetic anointing to discern that that these times are putting a “strain” on the western consumer lifestyle. But it does take a heart that is “watching” (Mark 13; 1 Thess. 5) to see that it’s the Lord’s doing to shake us from our lethargy and to prepare us for Christ’s return. John Piper recently articulated this very well in several points that I’ll just summarize here, and then just point you to the actual sermon for you to read:

God has several reasons for today’s economic troubles:

1. He intends for this recession to expose hidden sin and so bring us to repentance and cleansing.
2. He intends to wake us up to the constant and desperate condition of the developing world where there is always and only recession of the worst kind.
3. He intends to relocate the roots of our joy in his grace rather than in our goods, in his mercy rather than our money, in his worth rather than our wealth.
4. He intends to advance his saving mission in the world—the spread of the gospel and the growth of his church—precisely at a time when human resources are least able to support it. This is how he guards his glory.
5. He intends for the church to care for its hurting members and to grow in the gift of love.

But did you know that the Bible prophesies a drastic turnaround of today’s economic recession at some future time?  read more »

I came across this amazing quote from Thomas Dubay's book "Happy Are You Poor" and wanted to share it with you all.

“Plain honesty requires that we assert that the New Testament teaches an unblushing and uncompromising asceticism [simplicity], a hard road and narrow gate, a carrying of the cross every day, a renouncing of all that one possesses, a being rid of superfluities, and a dying with the Lord (Matthew 7:13-14; Lk 9:23; Lk 14:33; 1 Tim 6:7-8; Rom 6:3-5). But it also teaches a rich, abundant human living, a complete and intense joy beyond understanding, a joy no one can take away, a rejoicing in the Lord always, a tasting of the very goodness of uncreated Beauty (Jn 10:10; Jn 15:11; Jn 16:22; 1 Pet 1:8; 1 Pet 2:3; Philippians 4:4).

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It’s so easy to read the scriptures become overly familiar with them – so much so that we end up floating on the surface of the waters and never plunging into the depths of them. That’s been my recent experience with John 4 when Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well. Jesus asks the woman for a drink from the well, and the woman responds with shock because Jews never have dealings with Samaritans in the way they were interacting at that point. Jesus responds in such a stunning way:

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” (John 4:10 NKJV)

This entire verse is loaded with bread for the hungry, but I want to highlight the latter part of the verse. Jesus is saying “if you knew what God was really like, and you knew who I was – God in the flesh – you would be filled with absolute confidence and boldness in asking Me to give you a drink.”  read more »

Yesterday we were all rudely awakened to several inches of heavy, wet snow. Above is just a shot of my back yard. I was assuming the forecasters were just being pessimistic by saying we'd be getting 3 inches. But when everything stopped yesterday around 4pm, we had close to 5 inches on the ground.  read more »