Last year, there was an idea to hold a healing conference at Community Covenant where pastors, lay-leaders, and church members from all over the state could gather together to learn about the healing ministry of Jesus and then take that back to their churches all over the state.
Tonight, that idea, that dream, is going to become a reality as the three day Healing Prayer Training Seminar at Community Covenant kicks off tonight. Over the next three days, eyes will be opened, chains will be broken, walls will come crashing down, the boxes we’ve put God in will be busted open, hearts will be mended, and people will be healed.
I’ve been excited for this weekend for the last several months and I can’t believe that it’s finally/already here. A lot of good stuff is going to happen over the next three days.
I’m going to start giving guitar lessons! If you or someone you know would like to learn how to play guitar, or already play a little bit but would like to take the next step in their skill level, come see me and we’ll work on developing your skill in playing through rhythm, chord knowledge and progression, chord variations, effects pedals and more.
Give me a call if you’re interested or spread the world by emailing this link to friends or people you know who would be interested. Use the little share/save button at the bottom of the page to share this page with those who would benefit from it.
This is my pedalboard. This along with an amp is what I use to get the sounds I want and need when playing guitar onstage. The way it works is I play something on my guitar, the guitar sends a signal through cables to the pedalboard, the signal then runs through each pedal on the board getting morphed, shaped, and manipulated accordingly. After running through the pedals, the signal then goes to the amplifier which has a microphone set up in front of it. The signal then goes from the mic, to the soundboard, and then finally to the house-speakers which is what the general public hears. It takes every part of this chain working fully for it to sound good; when one thing isn’t functioning properly, the whole sound suffers.
January 18, during the last Heart of Worship event, I noticed that my guitar started sounding different, and not in a good way. I brushed it off as a fluke thing, “it must have been a power issue” I thought and didn’t think anything of it after. The next time I pulled out my gear and set up for a service, I noticed that it sounded terrible. There was no volume, everything sounded flat and had no depth. After some time-consuming tweaking, I was finally getting a good sound out of the gear, but I was still frustrated at the issues that were surfacing. The next time I set up the gear, sound check for the Easter service, everything sounded worse than ever. But after a lot of huffing, puffing, tweaking, and maybe a few other words ending in “ing”, I was able to get a workable tone that got used for the service. Afterward, I had no choice but to take everything to my laboratory, (my house), and find out why and what was causing my guitar to sound so dull, (known as tone sucking). I think that it might be helpful to draw you a picture so you have a better idea of what I’m describing.
At first, I thought the problem was with the guitar itself. But I ruled that out after playing through a different setup with the same guitar and it sounded great. Next I thought it was the Route 66 pedal, (the upside down house looking one). So I took all of the pedals off of the board, which were all attached to the board via industrial strength velcro, and disconnected them from one another. But before I tested out each pedal individually, I plugged my guitar directly into the amp, giving the purest signal possible to the amp; it still sounded bad. I came back later and played around a little bit, plugging the guitar directly into the amp, this time, it sounded better. I looked and noticed that I was using a different cable than I had been using. I plugged in the old cable: bad sound. I plugged in a different cable: good sound. “AH-HAH!” The cable that had been running from my guitar to the pedals wasn’t working properly anymore and was thus sucking a large amount of tone away.
Relieved that I had found the cause of the tone-sucking, I then proceeded to kick myself for not checking the cable before I completely dismantled my setup and thus have to go through the labor of re-sticking everything and connecting them, running cables over stuff, under stuff, and into stuff.
The moral of the story is this: always make sure to check your cable connections before doing a complete overhaul on your setup. You can most likely change a few words to apply this lesson to other areas, but I’ll leave that part up to you. I have to get back to reapplying the pedals to the board.
That’s how most acceptance speeches start out. Well, actually, nowadays it’s popular to say, “OhwowItotallydidn’texpectthisI’msocaughtoffguardanddidn’texpecttowinIdon’thaveanything”. They then proceed to start thanking people who have helped them get to where they are, anywhere from parents, to agents, to people they met in the supermarket, to their dentist.
A couple days ago, my blogging and real-life friend, Mindy, gave me an award on her blog for being one of her favorite blogs. In her review and reasons for giving me an award, she said that I do “all the brave stuff” like be on stage in front of people singing, playing guitar, and praying and then ended it by saying someone should give me a record deal (any takers?).
Thinking about this, I realized that I wouldn’t be who I am or doing what I’m doing if it weren’t for the amazing people that are consistently surrounding me, encouraging me, and challenging; you know who you are. I heard a quote one time that said, “Show me your friends and I’ll show you who you are”, and I think that’s true to an extent; we are greatly influenced and affected by those we allow to get close to us. All this to say thank you to my friends and those of you who are closest to me.
The last couple days, the name Susan Boyle has sprung up and made her an overnight, worldwide sensation because of her audition on the UK talent competition Britain’s Got Talent. If you haven’t seen the video of her audition yet, click here.
While I was at a chiropractor appointment yesterday, the doctor and I were talking about that performance and he suggested looking up another audition of an amazing talent that you wouldn’t expect just by looking at him. This kid might literally knock the socks off of your feet and give you goose bumps at the same time.
I think these two videos reveal so much about the character of God. These are two people who wouldn’t get a second glance by just about all of us, but both possess amazing gifts and voices that can blow you away.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:3-10
Sometimes God blows my mind with how He shows and reveals Himself in our world. The thing is though, these are just two stories among millions of how God is present and showing Himself in our world every day. I know we as a whole like to see these big stories and videos of people on the other side of the world doing great things, but there is also a lot of stuff that God is showing us here on the home-front.
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