You know the verse probably. Philippians 4:7.

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

The thought of peace guarding your heart is pretty mindbottling in and of itself when you think about it, but we’ll leave that for another day. This is all about peace and understanding.

When uncertainty comes, acquiring understanding becomes priority one. When we’re out of control we want to be in control. If we could just understand what was happening maybe we’d have rest. If I just knew why he did that or why she said that … then I’d have comfort. If you knew all the details, you’d be able to calm down. And so we pursue understanding as king.

But the Bible says the kind of peace God gives transcends the kind of peace understanding gives. Dictionary time:

Transcend – “to triumph”

God’s peace triumphs over the false security of understanding

Transcend – “to be prior to”

Marinate on that for a while! The kind of peace God gives comes before all the votes are tabulated.

So if you’re reading this and life is uncertain, your God is not uncertain and His peace is greater than understanding. Knowing what’s going on is important, but knowing God is life. Pursue Him at all cost and His peace will guard you. His peace that’s more than we can wrap our minds around.

Well we finished up mastering Thursday at The Hit Lab and the record is off to the printers. We’re still waiting to hear exactly when the “All Bright And Beautiful” release date is going to be (certain aspects of this are out of our hands), but in the meantime I did want you to be able to hear some of what we’ve come up with.

Below is track one off our soon to be released debut album. The song’s called “He’s Alive.” Give it a listen and let me know what you think. And if you’re a worship pastor or service programmer, I’d love for you to consider using this song as Easter approaches at your church. I think it could be a really great fit!

“They went to the tomb early this morning and didn’t find his body. They told us that they had seen angels who said that He’s alive.” – Luke 24:22-23

“He’s Alive” lyrics

Christ the Lord is risen
Satan’s power lifted
Christ the Lord is risen
He’s alive

Men and angels sing it
Hearts and minds believe it
Christ the Lord is risen
He’s alive

Oh my soul, arise
You’ve seen it with your eyes

He’s alive, He’s alive
He’s alive, He’s alive
He’s alive, He’s alive, oOo

DOWNLOAD THE “HE’S ALIVE” CHORD CHART NOW

I’ve always taken God “seriously,” but it probably wasn’t until a few months ago that I really, really started taking my relationship with Him seriously serious- a newfound (God-given) desire for His Word, an all-day-long kind of prayer life, etc. But then a storm came to my life, one that maybe we’ll sit over coffee and discuss someday. As I started my New Thru 30 reading this week I was hit with some amazing stuff. It’s like I was reading my story.

The disciples too had just started to really follow Jesus when “without warning (Matt 8:24), a furious storm came.”

Ever happened to you?

Without warning.

A Furious. Storm. Came.

Now I don’t have a happy ending for you. Not yet, at least. But I do have the words of scripture just three verses later when Jesus “got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.”

So we know he can. As scripture says: “His arm is not too short to save.”

And the disciples? They were amazed, asking “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

So that’s my prayer tonight: for Jesus to rebuke the winds and the waves and bring forth in my life a complete calm; not for my peace ultimately, but so that my friends and family and an onlooking world might be amazed and ponder the power and the love of our God. For even the winds and the waves obey Him.

What’s your favorite thing about your spouse?

Merry Christmas, everybody! I recently did a photo shoot with my friend Mike from Beacon Photo in conjunction with our new record coming up. Below is just a small sampling of what we came up with. More CD news soon!

Hit singles make you generally known, but great albums buy you true fans.

CNN ran an article yesterday about Britain’s Got Talent phenom Susan Boyle, who this week set an all-time record for the largest ever sales debut for a female artist- over 700,000 copies in the first week alone.

“Hit-driven artists tend to do well on the download side but aren’t moving as many albums as they once did,” the article said. “If you have an artist who resonates [like Susan], you have an artist who can sell more albums.”

I’m not sure how many songs on All Bright And Beautiful will blow up universally (there are a few songs I could see being sung throughout the greater Church), but that’s not priority #1 for me. Rather, I want to produce a CD that- as a whole- is creative, authentic, accessible, and fresh. One that moves people and makes them want to move in God’s direction.

Part 1 of our series “He’s Still Got The Whole World In His Hands”

Hey friends, wanted to take a sec today and update you on our progress recording the CD! I use an exclamation point there because things are really coming along well and we’re excited for you to hear some of it soon.

One of the great things about not having a record label breathing down our necks or the pressure of pleasing millions of demanding fans is that it’s allowed us to really take our time in the studio getting things just like we want them for this release, and seeing how All Bright And Beautiful is our debut album we really want it to be great.

All the drums have been tracked, as well as all the bass and electric guitar stuff (there is no acoustic guitar on this CD). We’ve recorded keys on 6 of the 9 songs that will feature piano or organ and we’ve laid down vocals on 9 of project’s 10 tunes in all. One of our songs will feature horns, and those are being recorded on Wednesday. We’ve got BGVs left and some simple strings stuff too (not to mention sleigh bells and chimes on the Christmas song). All in all, though, we’re wrapping up.

Many of you have been asking me when we can expect to have this thing in hand. Good question! I’d be lying if I said I knew for sure right now, but our goal is to be done “mastering” mid-to-late January. That being said, I imagine we’ll release this album to the general public by early March. I’ll keep you posted for sure when we do set a definite release date, however. Would you be up for kicking it at a CD release party the week before? That could be fun, right? =)

Anyhow, I’ll try to do better about keeping in touch for the 100 or so of us who are regular here. Soon we’ll announce that ever anticipated “release date,” show off the album cover, and even let you hear some of the songs. So get excited!

Hope y’all have a great week-

About 3 times a year we hold an event at Athens Church called Community Celebration. It’s a night of worship and communion paired with a time for our core to connect over some sort of meal or fun. Essentially, it’s a church for outsiders doing a service for insiders … and our people love it! For the second year in a row, we’ve held our Fall Community Celebration event at a local venue in our community called the Seney-Stovall Chapel. It’s definitely got an “old school” vibe to it, so we kept that spirit in mind by going with an acoustic-driven music set and a warm feeling set design. Supper was held at the (legendary) Varsity, located next door, beforehand. Below are some pictures from yesterday’s event. It was really a great night!