Merge Worship

I'm shutting down the studio over here at mergeworship.com for a little while. I'm hoping to relaunch it in the future. Please check out the new blog here. Thanks for your friendship and connection.

I am in the middle of trying to overhaul my blog and have been a little light on the postings over the last couple of months. I thought I'd drop in and throw on some graphics we've been using recently. The first one is for our church's series "REACTS". We've been going through Acts 1-6 and using RE words for the first through "renew/reignite/revolution". Anyway...we went through 5 designs and I'm including the top 3 here. Also, at the bottom you'll see a Valentine Graphic I did for a friend. Feel free to use any of these you'd like if you find reason for them.

(My favorite)

(Another look)
(Valentine's Series)

I spent some time at a spot outside of Nashville in prayer and reflection. I rarely take the time to get away just for that but was so blessed that today was one of those days. I thought I'd share one of my prayers here with you:

I got an advance copy of PRIMAL from the good folks at Multnomah Publishing and Random House. I've been reading it as I could during the busyness of the Christmas season in church life. I've made it through a few chapters but figured the release day would be a good day to give you my take so far.

When I started reading it I was a little taken back by the idea that they wanted us to encourage people to make it their first book of the new year. Twenty pages in I realized that that's exactly what it should be. I've found myself challenged and left wanting to be closer to who Jesus calls us to be. Mark's writing style, that I came to know on his blog, speaks clearly in the early part of this book. He has a way of stripping away a lot of the trappings that we use to talk to each other without ever saying anything. When I read him I don't think about his theological bent but about my own heart. I don't find myself just listening to a lot of christianese strung together but really hearing the heart of the matter, and having my heart challenged to change. The one thing I can say succinctly about this book is that I walked away from two parts early in crying to find a place of prayer and reflection.

I can't wait to finish Primal but it's not a quick read for me. It's one of those books that I feel like is reading me. I've been left very dissatisfied after my reading; not with the book, but with the condition of my heart. It's delivering on its promise to "an invitation to rediscover the compassion, wonder, curiosity, and energy that turned the world upside down two thousand years ago. It is an invitation to be astonished again."

You can purchase the book on Amazon here: http://ow.ly/OHhL

I know it's been a while since I posted, but I'm honestly taking a bit of a break from blogging. This season of life has been rewarding and revealing and I just need some time to process in my own head before I share it with the world. (or the 100 people who stop by here regularly {and I LOVE you guys and gals!}) I'll leave this post with something I read today that totally resonated with me.

"Love to worship? Pray for Iranian Christians who long to 'shout to the Lord' but usually have to sing quietly and in secret." -From IRAN 30 (http://twitter.com/iran30)

This so speaks to why I work with them and why I respect those who worship Christ in closed environments so much. My heart hurts for their oppression and longs to live with their level of passion.

I just got some amazing news from my friends @Iran30. They just announced that Maryam and Mazrieh were released after 259 days in prison. I've been overwhelmed and amazed at the response from twitter and facebook friends. People have really responded and it has shown me that people are indeed praying for those being persecuted for their faith. God is indeed good. All the time.

You can check the entire article here:

http://elam.com/articles/Released/

My heart has been a little wrecked recently. There's more than one explanation as to why that could be the case but none are really worth rehashing here. I was surprised by the way my heart has been revealing itself recently. Just the other day I sat down at the piano and this chorus came flowing out:

I want to tear down the walls of apathy and make believe

Take off the mask I wear of everything is perfect here

I wonder if I will ever find a place where I can just be me

I want to live...honestly

Now I hadn't been doing a ton of thinking about living honestly but I will say that I live (and have for the past couple of years) in a state of what I call "holy discontent". My heart has been heavy with the desire to be a great leader, a phenomenal Dad, a wonderful husband and a difference maker in the world for His sake. And the truth is that on any given day I feel like I stink at a number of those things but I don't know who I'd actually say that to. I have a great wife, amazing family and wonderful friends but some days I still feel all alone.

In many ways I think I just want to be able to be real. Human. Honest. Broken.

Do you ever wonder if you'll ever find honesty? Do you ever dream of a place where you can share all your stuff and hear truth and love in response? I do.