Beauty and Purpose

When you gaze upon beauty,
purpose is sure to fall like sweet rain.

Not just any kind of beauty.
The author of beauty.
The perfection of perfect.
It’s in this place that we discover there’s a story being told with our life. A grand masterpiece of a story, given to us by our creator.

And its here that the weight of our call is felt.
Our story isn’t finished.
We have much to do.

But here’s the catch. As my dad has said,
“If purpose comes first then our hearts will turn to worship what we do rather than the One who gave us our story.”

If we respond to the call, but forget the unsurpassed beauty of God, then we will worship the work of our hands instead of Jesus.
Epic fail.

May we be a generation that re-defines the American dream.
“I will give my life away for another. I will boldly pursue my destiny and calling, but I will never forsake my God who has given my story, who is the reason why I breath, who is the source of life. I will climb the mountain of the Lord. I will sit at His feet and pour out my love.

We must feel our inadequacy to hold this line. We can’t without God.
Cry out to Jesus for his ever flood of Grace.
I promise you, in the Presence of Jesus, our call is clear.
Clarity comes. Boldness explodes.
But we must never trade our call for the presence and perfect beauty of Jesus.
We are worshipers, secure as sons and daughters of God.
Everything else we do is like lifelong recess on the world’s playground.

As Heidi Baker says, “All fruitfulness flows from intimacy.”
We can’t afford to forget. The world is crying out for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed.
But first, beauty.

Sift and Dig

A brother is a true brother when he digs for the gold inside of another. He diligently sifts through the rocks, dirt, and the all around rubbish for the hidden gold on the inside. He never gives up. He doesn’t back away when he comes up empty. He keeps trying, month after month, year after year. And when he finds the gold, he does what Jesus would do. He hands it right back over and says, “This is what I’ve found in you. This is the gift of God inside of you. This is what I see. This is what I know.”

A sister is a true sister when she digs for good soil in another. If she finds toxic soil, she keeps digging. It doesn’t scare her. If she finds dry and barren ground, she brings her sister water for her soil, words of life, and the water sees fruit grow from the good soil of commitment and pursuit. Toxic soil isn’t to be so scary we run the other way. The Holy Spirit is the master gardener, and is asking if you would be the rookie apprentice. We have much to learn, but the Holy Spirit is ready to teach.

“May your love still abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment.”  - Philippians 1:9

A part of being a real community is that we see the “stuff” in others. This is all part of God’s healing plan, because through relationship and the gift of trust and acceptance, we can help see the hearts of others healed. We will never know the joys of community if we see the crap in each other’s lives and we run away. No, Jesus calls us to sift for the gold and dig for the good soil.This is what I think it means for love to abound all the more in knowledge and discernment. When we pursue true community, we will see stuff that’s hard and painful. We will have intimate knowledge of each other’s fears, insecurities, and sin. But this is our crossroads, a place where this knowledge can either cause offense and the withholding of love, or it will cause love to abound all the more.

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” 1st Peter 4:8

Well said Peter. And here the healing continues. Here is the joy of relationship.

Today I experienced a brother digging for the good soil in me. And breaking through the toxic soil brings out some of my greatest fears. Things I’m embarrassed of are in me. This flares up when the pick ax breaks through my hard ground. But then my brother accepts me even still. He doesn’t run away. He actually runs into the scary places with me. This is family. Family runs with you to fear’s edge, and jumps off with you, knowing God will catch us both.

Come on Jesus, we believe you for a family revolution to break in into our broken and wounded relationships! For the Church to walk as a family together. Life to life. Home to home. For the world that’s known no family to find one carrying the name our Father and to be invited in. Amen!

Andrea Marie + Here Begin = HAPPY YOU

The Backstory
Sometime in late 2008, I (Nathan) was in Chicago at a church worship event, and I heard a girl named Andrea sing for the first time. Her effortless guitar playing blew me away. Then add smooth and angelic vocals to the mix. And did i mention anointed? I was hooked. I remember thinking, “We’ve got to figure out a way for her to join us.” So I did what any smart guy would do. I gave her our EP. Now for few who could appreciate this, lets just say the old EP wasn’t the prettiest to look at. We learned the hard way that certain colors on Photoshop don’t quite look the same once printed. So I reluctantly handed her this dark-green-but-almost-black looking cd and said she should take a listen sometime.

Fast forward a few months. The details are a bit vague in my memory (Will should know them), but I ended up seeing Andrea in Kansas City over the New Year and invited her to record with us on our next album (Radiance). She said yes. Success. So sometime in early 2009, we tracked a song with her in the Banks House Studio. Recording is quite the bonding experience, and we were all sold on Andrea being part of our community. Especially Will. He was more than sold. Now its his story to tell, but lets just say some magic happened, and sure enough, Andrea eventually became a Reagan. (For all the females that want the details, you’re gonna have to hear them from the source)

Recording Process 
Once married, Andrea and Will tucked away into the studio and started working on Andrea’s solo album. 6 months later they’ve emerged with a masterpiece.  The core of the album centers around a grand piano in the Reagan’s living room, an acoustic guitar, and the stories of Andrea’s life told through soaring melodies and poignant lyrics. This album wants to be listened to from start to finish. Then again.

Help us spread the word!

Evolution of a Song

I remember it like it was yesterday. Hidden inside the walls of a college ministry at the University of Tennessee, Will and I sat ready to close out a 100 hours of prayer week. We were flatly lit up by cheap fluorescent light. Drop ceiling, white walls, no sound system. Nothing glamorous, but we like it that way. No props to entertain. Only worshippers remain.  Armed with one acoustic and one small djembe, our sound had no ability to impress. We waited on God, and the music became a channel for the passion in the room. Then a prayer surfaced…

You provide the fire, I’ll provide the sacrifice.
You provide the Spirit, I will open up inside.
Fill me up God, Fill me up

I’ve watched Will do this for years. He finds the chorus that wants to be sung in the moment. It’s as if everyone in the room is leading worship, and Will is simply helping find lyrics and melodies to match the moment and what the Spirit is doing.

This time was no different. Just a spontaneous chorus caught in the moment. Somewhere in an old journal of mine are lyrics from this song. I remember thinking, “why write them down, there’s only two lines?” I wrote them down anyways and I’m sure glad I did.

A few weeks later, Will and I were in the studio working on some songs, which later became our first EP. The Fill Me Up chorus was still just in idea form, sitting loosely in our brains and in the journal. I remember talking about whether it could be a song.

“Its too short. We can’t call this a song.”
“Maybe we can add a bridge or tag?”

 Not exactly sure how it happened, but I vaguely remember Will jumping on the keyboard and playing the melody to what is now the “Love of God overflow” tag. Then the first lyrics made their appearance.

“Sweet, one new line. One more to go.”
I was in the tracking room, setting up drums, and then I started yelling out lyric ideas through the glass window to Will on the other side.
“Permeate, all my soul.” 

I think I was half joking. Who sings the word “permeate” anyway?
Well, Will grabbed it, and that was it. It stuck.

You never know how a song will evolve. From the humble beginnings of a fluorescent-lit college ministry room, to a simple home studio hidden away in a 110-year-old house, Fill Me Up became a song because God wanted it to. I write all of this, because I want to help demystify the worship song writing experience. You don’t have to join a writing session with famous worship leaders to write a worship song. They happen when they’re supposed to happen. It’s our joy and privilege to worship the King of Kings, and offer our gifts and talents as the small fish and loaves that they are. Let’s let God do the multiplying.

I felt like God gave me a special gift this summer concerning this song. I was in South Africa on tour with the guys, and we got word that Kim Walker sang Fill Me Up at the Jesus Culture stadium event in Chicago. We pulled up the recorded stream of the song, and I was moved to tears to how God could take the simple lyrics and melody born from our community, and see if impact 18,000 people in a stadium that night. It was my birthday that day, and I have to say it was a really special gift.

So yeah, just wanted to share that story from the drummer’s perspective. I’m proud of my best friend who had courage to release a song that didn’t even feel like one. You never know what can happen when God get’s in the mix. May the fishes and loaves multiplication continue! Its all we will ever have anyway.

"Here Begin" Video Teaser

Little teaser for you…Andrea Marie’s album releases Dec. 10th on iTunes!
And if you’re in the Knoxville, TN area, she’s having an album release show.
Here’s the venue/time info – http://tiny.cc/022ko, Help us spread the word!

Here’s an excerpt from a conversation with Andrea talking about the album…

“This album has set me on a journey of finding myself, and what’s inside.” All thirteen tracks are songs that I wrote from the age of sixteen till now. I feel as though they capture some very significant moments in my life. Some were written at uncertain moments of life, some at very defining moments- like the weeks right before and surrounding my wedding. A few were even written while in the studio during the recording process, which i think speaks a lot about the dynamics of the music. So, I look at the album as a whole, as an extended story and expression of those years.  

 Recording music and producing something for the world to hear is like uncovering an outer layer of yourself and inspecting it with a magnifying glass. I believe, in the end, the finished album is the result of what you found there. It causes you to be extremely vulnerable and transparent- whether you want to be or not. I know God used it for the bettering and furthering of myself, though. I’m moving forward in finding out who I am on a personal level, who this Creator is inside of me, and then how those things work and move together. Because of that, I’ve found that all the uncovering and transparency in this process has been absolutely worth it.

But over all, no matter how actively involved I am with performing or writing new material, my dream is that this music would be a reflection of the hope of Jesus Christ and his love for the world he created. God is real. My desire is to put a soundtrack to the life that he gives to us here on earth.”

NEW ALBUM COMING SOON FROM BROCK HUMAN

If you’ve you ever listened to our music, or have listened to Jesus Culture latest album, you’ll probably know the song “Come Away”
Brock Human, part of the UP family,  wrote this amazing song. Well’s lets just say that’s the icing on the cake.

He’s been working on a solo album for the past year, and its about to come out NEXT WEEK (Nov. 8th iTunes release)

Here’s some samples to wet your appetite. We think his music is genious.

Brock Human/Color Of Red-preview by Brockhuman 

update: Now available on iTunes

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