Welcome to the Gospel fill up station! Focusing on Christian music CD Reviews, Concerts and Testimonials. I will also share articles to strengthen and challenge you to strive to become all that God has purposed for you! I hope you can find this to be a place of refueling your spirit and recharging your batteries!
I wanted to create a short video to introduce why I created this blog spot and face book page with the same title. I was recently tremendously blessed completing the I Am They Album Reviewand I share a sing-a-long of my favorite song off their album at the end of this short video as well. I hope everyone has a blessed week!
Back in 2002 I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It was found when they took an X-ray of my eyes during a visit while they were trying to figure out what was causing my visual disturbances and migraines. A couple times I was sent to ER because my pupils had a tendency when the tumor would put pressure on my optic nerve to get all spastic and start dilating differently at crazy speeds causing instant migraines and dizziness along with seeing spots all over.
I remember times when I could not do anything for days walking around with sunglasses on inside the house and just wanting to stay in bed just to keep my eyes closed. For about five years they would send me for an MRI every three months or so.
The big problem was the location of where it was on my pituitary stem and the fact it was inoperable. My choices were operate and I had high probability of being paralyzed or don't operate and I will eventually go blind. In my Heart the only thing I could stand on was my faith that God would heal me. During those five years other people of faith questioned my relationship with Christ because I was not receiving a healing. I have always been a firm believer in the Word, and I understand that logically we all will not be delivered from sickness while on this Earth. If this was the case the majority of the disciples would not have died horrendous deaths for the sake of the cross.
I was ministering in a nursing home one day during those five years a message I titled, "Our hope is not on this Earth". You can't go into a nursing home full of elderly, disabled and dying people and preach to them a feel good message about "by His stripes we are healed". They need to be encouraged that our life here is a short journey and the promises of being delivered from this earthly body one day is the hope and promise we find in Him. By His stripes we are healed but take it from the deliverer of those words Himself. We're not promised deliverance on this Earth, we are simply promised He will heal us from all inequity. For some this could be an Eternal healing.
However, I believed in my heart in this case God had other plans. I felt led to skip one MRI and wait six months before going for what I believed would be my testimony scan. Shortly before my last MRI my dad and mom prayed with me and my dad said, "Lord if it be your will take this from my daughter and give it to me."
I went in to see my doctor to go over my MRI results and he walked in the room and said, "Well, I don't know where it came from or where it went, but it's not there anymore." We were all overwhelmed with emotion and I haven't had any more symptoms since then. I was also able to share my faith and testimony with a flabbergasted doctor who had no way to reason how it had gone away after five years of monitoring.
Only two weeks after that celebration we found out that my dad had a brain tumor. It was almost in the same exact place mine was (the pituitary) but not connected to his optic nerve or pituitary stem and his was ninety five percent effectively operable with no side effects. However it was ten times the size mine ever was and it was growing. They told him as big as it was he should have lost his peripheral vision.
The night after his operation he was laying in the hospital bed and I looked at him and thought to myself, "It's because of me that he is laying there, it's because of me that he is hurting, it's because of me that he could have lost his life in that operating room today."
I didn't say anything to anyone that night, but the next day my mom and dads Pastor was at the hospital and they sat and visited with me and my mom for awhile. I told Pastor Tim that I felt like it was my fault that he went through all that, and Pastor Tim said, "We don't always understand everything God does, but the Lord gives and the Lord takes away and he is OK now and so are you."
When I went in to see my dad, I looked at him and told him that I was sorry, that I felt it was my fault that he was in all that pain, and he said "Don't feel that way if I could go back, I would have prayed the same exact way." It was at that moment that I realized the love that my dad had for me. The love of a Father.
I do not think God took my tumor and placed it ten times bigger in my dad's brain, that is not why I wrote this. I believe God healed me and my family knows that God healed me. I believe that God provided my Father with a surgeon who was a Christian and believed God could guide his hands during that operation so that he came out on the other side in one piece and with no complications. I also believe that God did all of this to minister to me on a level He knew nothing else could.
When my dad said, "I would do it all over again". I thought about Jesus and how much He loved us to go through all that pain, to go through all that suffering and to hang there and die because of His love for us. If given the opportunity He loves us so much He would go through it all over again.
You see my dad and I had many a rough patches when I was young. Many times as I got older we had many different opinions on subjects and still struggled to have a relationship at times with one another, but by and through the grace of God we are now solid. He may still want to give me direction from time to time and I have a tendency to buck and kick and say, "Whatever, OK" but he does it because he loves me.
For many of us our relationship with God is the same way. We all have rough patches with God, some of us have not even decided to try to have a relationship with God because we don't agree with Him or His ways. We have different opinions of how we think things should be and what is right and wrong and what is best for us. But by and through the grace of God we learn that He does know what is best for us, and He only wants what will make us happy and give us peace and joy in our lives. He usually has to give us direction from time to time and we often misguide ourselves right back into another mess by saying, "Whatever" but He is there in the end always saying, "I would do it all over because I love you."
I am not comparing my Father to God. I am comparing his love for me to the same love that God has for all of us. Willing to suffer for our freedom, for our peace and for us to live a joyous life. I am not sure if anyone will take anything from this or not but one thing I know is that I will never forget how precious the love of a Father truly is. I have been fortunate to be blessed with a wonderful relationship with both my Earthly and Heavenly Father and I will forever be grateful to both.
Those five years of struggle, to being healed and seeing my dad in that hospital bed was worth the spiritual healing that took place inside of me that I wasn't even aware was needed. When past hurts and anger and bitterness get buried so deep inside of us sometimes it takes a multitude of removal processes by the Holy Spirit surgically removing that deposit we don't even realize needs to be released. I told my dad recently because of things that happened in the past I honestly did not know How much he truly loved me until that day seeing him there in recovery. We were both in the recovery room that day, though His was physical mine was spiritual.
Several years have passed since then, nearly almost a decade and I recently had an eye exam done. The specialist looked at me and asked, "Did you USED to have a tumor?" I said, "Yeah I did a long time ago". She said "Well, you have what we call a psuedo tumor, cause you are still able to fully see where the scar tissue is from where it was removed."
I started crying, and she said, "I'm so sorry are you OK?". I explained my healing to her and I said God just used you to remind me again of the amazing physician He truly is. We all have scars and we all face battles, but Jesus was scarred for our freedom through His blood He heals all. Again, "SCAR TISSUE FROM WHERE IT WAS REMOVED" and yet the only doctor that touched me was the amazing Physician Jesus Christ. Thank you Lord for opening our eyes to your Love.
I Love you Dad, and I hope you have an amazing Father's Day!
With two of the most amazing men I have ever known. My hubby and my Father.
Sidewalk Prophets are one band who lives out the scripture in Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever." No strangers to the Christian music industry and claiming New Artist of the Year at the Dove Awards in 2010, they continue to touch lives. This group of musical epistles released their latest album "Live Like That" the latter part of March 2012. Birthing a new generation of listeners and stirring the hearts again of those already humbled by previous encounters of the third kind (spiritually speaking).
The relevance and maturity that the lyrics bring together by these gentleman, combined with the love they have for God and people creates a supernatural energy right into the lives of those who hear it. "Live Like That", was created to motivate us to become people that others want to live like. A disposition in us created by the spirit of God for others to see and desire to emulate.
I was blessed with an opportunity to interview Dave, Cal, Shaun, Ben and Justin in Atlanta of 2011. It was a surreal moment for me because even though I get to talk to several people who have ministered to me, these guys really touch my heart through their music. I can relate so deeply to the messages in their songs.
Did I mention the fact that they are extremely fun loving and just truly down to earth humble guys? One of the highlights of my writing career, not because of who they were but because of how much the love of God shined through them that I had already heard in their music.
They spoke briefly about working on the new CD in the future. Dave mentioned they were not changing direction that they still planned to "Demonstrate the gospel of Christ through song in a message that people can relate to as regular people". That pretty much sums up "Live Like That", except for the fact that Sidewalk Prophets are not just regular people. They are a rare breed that exemplify Jesus in spirit and in truth staying humble while producing flawless inspirational and challenging lyrics to bring us to a closer walk with God.
This five-man band has a way of creating a personal experience into a song and building it to anticipation, then relating that same experience from the perspective of a Christ centered relationship. It’s like each song is a movie and right at the perfect moment in that scene that has you on the edge of your seat, it happens. You know what I am talking about! It’s that thing that has you overwhelmed with happiness, excitement or has you brushing away the tears, don’t fight it! God wants us to stay sensitive. Remember He is close to those who have a broken and contrite spirit (Psalm 34:18). That is one of the reasons I recommend this album.
The album starts off with a symphonic prelude to Hebrews 12:1, which is what generated the creation of the production, according to Dave.
"We have this cloud of witnesses around us and perseverance is important and it takes integrity to like that, to live like Christ."
The first release off the album obviously matches the title and can be found on track two, or currently playing every hour on just about every Christian radio station. It does hold a different meaning to each of the members, yet demonstrates the desire each of them have to live a life selfless. Whether it is for someone else near to them that looks up to them, or someone that has influenced them that they want to live like. Living an unselfish life as Christ did no matter what the purpose is a goal we should all have.
"Love, Love, Love", is an upbeat message about how you can see love in the things we do and how it comes back to us when we give it out. It calls us to love others as Christ loved us nailing His love to the cross. It is a celebratory song of appreciation.
One of my favorite songs on the CD is "Save My Life". We often go about our day to day lives not asking God to give us a word of wisdom or knowledge or encouragement to speak to another. God can use all of us to say something right at that specific moment to change a person’s life, but we have to be sensitive to hear it and speak it. Truly a plea for us to be attentive to the needs of others and the spirit of God to speak through us.
I wanted to share a testimony video I made in regards to this song that changed my life; because it was one of most amazing God moments I have experienced to date. At the end of the testimony I sing along with them to the song but feel free to skip that part! Please listen to the testimony though I left some of the experience out of this video cause I started getting choked up talking about it again. I actually made this after doing the CD Review but decided to throw this in here.
One of the most humbling songs on the album is "Keep Making Me". With lyrics that come from a heart that truly desires to be surrendered to God.
"Make me lonely so I can be yours, until I want no one more than you Lord; cause in the darkness I know you will hold me. Make me lonely. Until you are my one desire, until you are my one true love. Until you are my breath my everything, Lord please keep making me."
"It’s Good, Love’s Not Safe", is my favorite song on this album. It’s such a true heartfelt and learned message. It’s not one for the person who believes that all is candy and roses when you accept Christ as your Lord and Savoir. It’s truth, and it’s proven. Lyrically and melodically this song is brilliant and moving and validates the powerful relationship experienced when someone truly understands and has grown through a submissive adoration of Christ. "Anything good in life is gonna take a sacrifice, don’t let up when it gets tough, don’t ever give up the fight. Everything you need in life was given by His sacrifice, I will give it all to you, I will give it all to Christ. He’s not safe at all. He might let you fall. He’s not easy, but He’s good. He will take your time. He might feel unkind. He will break you, but He’s good."
Many people find themselves struggling as Christians trying to find the right direction to go and what the purpose is that God has for them in their lives. "Help Me Find It",
resonates this emotion and brews sincerity to a place of emptiness for complete direction from the throne of grace. "Heart’s On Fire" follows the same sentiment, from a perspective of someone who is full of a desire to be ever closer to God.
From a different direction, "Wrecking Ball" is a plea from someone struggling to separate themselves from the fleshly desires that we all battle against.
I can see into the future that this will probably be a favorite at live performances. It is filled with intent emotion and simply put, brings the house down with a slight bit of a rockier twist.
"Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us" and "For You Tonight" continue to deliver messages of encouragement and hope as the album comes to end with the delivery of "This Is Not Goodbye". This is probably one of the most touching songs I have ever heard in my life. It is relevant to so many different situations and I can see it touching the lives of so many people. Dave delivers a brilliant vocal on this song with the help of his ingenious musicians and producer Ian Eskelin. I believe that it is a great bow on this lovely gift that they have given all of us out here in the world to unwrap and treasure.
Sidewalk Prophets are examples of living epistles carrying about the love of God to others through musical messages and video devotionals. They encourage thousands upon thousands of people in all age groups. For those who have had the opportunity to enjoy "Live Like That", I would be curious to know if you picked a favorite. If you have not taken advantage of the artistic gift these men humbly created for you, don’t wait another second to take pleasure in what awaits you in that little case. It may just save your life, or give you the courage to make a difference in someone else’s.
