Proverb of the Day

"The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a level highway." Proverbs 15:19

It's a no-go

Alright, so the ear thing isn't all worked out yet. Apparently, they were confused over the phone, or perhaps when we went to see them and weren't really sure what we were talking about. Once we explained it to them, they weren't even sure if could do anything like that. So, we shall do a little more research and hopefully get the molds made soon. Mary Beth and I are to leave and head to spend some time with the gang from GSP. I got the chance to see everyone over the summer but Mary Beth hasn't seen everybody since summer of 2005! We're both excited- see you all later.

Proverb of the Day

"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." Proverbs 14:12

Going Home

I just finished my last final a couple hours ago and now I'm finishing up some last minute packing before I head back to the big city of Frankfort. Well, actully, I'm going to go get a mold made of my ears, and then probably do some Christmas shopping, and then go back to Frankfort. I'm looking forward to a nice, relaxing, and peaceful break. I was planning on working at my old job, you know, Kroger, but I've decided that a month of no-work will be nice and give me a chance to catch up on some reading and spending time with family and friends. It should be a nice day for loading and unloading all of my stuff due to the unseasonably warm weather we've been having these past couple days. The mornings have been a little chilly, but once the sun comes out it's nice and warm.
Oh, the JMB DVD planning is still in full force and if anyone has any suggestions, we'd love to hear them. You can head over to our message board or you can post comments on this blog. Josh just started a new thread yesterday about band member interviews. If you guys have any questions and you've been dying for us to shed a little light on the truth and set the record straight, tell us! We really want this DVD to, first off, bring glory to our Creator and, secondly, be an enjoyable experience for all parties involved. We always (well, usually) have fun whenever we play and we really want the fans to have just as much fun whenever they come to the show or watch it on their own tv. Let us know what you think.

Proverb of the Day

"The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death" Proverbs 13:14

Summer Plans

I got my official call from Cedarmore today about working as a bible study leader at Crossings this summer. God has been so amazing through my entire application process and has continually opened and closed doors in His perfect will. My original plans were to play in the band at Jonathan Creek but God has pretty much shut that door off and shown me that He wants me to be at Cedarmore leading bible study. Although I don't really know what's going to happen this summer, I know that God's hand is over everything and nothing will happen outside of His master plan. I'm so excited to see how God is going to work next summer and to see how He might use me. That sounds like such an odd statement. God is going to use me- God is using me. While God is so incredibly holy, we are so unworthy to praise Him, to serve Him, to have anything to do with Him. But, He still chooses to use us to do His will.
"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscutable His ways! 'For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who Has been His counselor?' 'Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid?' For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen." Romans 11:33-36 (ESV)

2 down, 2 to go

I got my "real" finals out of the way today and also finished both of those papers that are due at the end of this week. Tomarrow I'll turn those in. So, today I had my geology final in the morning and then my math final earlier tonight. I think I did pretty well on both of them- well enough to pass the class. The only things I've got left are my two theory finals and a short matching test that will take 15 minutes in my honors class tomorrow morning. So far finals are going quite well.
Thursday, I'm going to go to a hearing-aide place here in town to get molds made of my ears so that I can get custom fitted ear-pieces for my in-ear monitors. I've got some Christmas money that I must spend so I figured this would be a great way to spend it... ok, actually it wasn't my idea... Mary Beth thought of it, thanks babe. But it's still a great idea and I'm very excited about getting this done. That's about all I've got for tonight, I just realized that I'm very tired. Goodnight.

Blogging Bliss

As you may be able to tell, my blog is no longer on the fritz and is now working with new Blogger Beta. I don't really understand what all of this new stuff means, but I do know that it is incredibly easy to edit my blog now. I have control over fonts, colors, and even the layout. The old format was all in HTML (which I know nothing about) so I love that I can actually change my blog now with the greatest of ease.
It's finals week here at ol' U of K and today is our day off. I don't think anyone has any finals today so we're all supposed to use this day for reading and studying... so I'm messing with my blog! I'm a terrible student, I know. Actually, I'm going to go right now and write 1 of 2 papers due on Friday of this week. I should be able to write each of them in about a 2-3 hour time span, so if I split them up and do one today and then maybe one tomorrow or wednesday, I shouldn't be stressed too much. Besides the papers, I have a Geology final tomorrow morning and then a math final tomorrow night, then a Aural theory final wednesday morning, and finally, a Written theory final on thursday morning. I'll keep you posted as I go... wish me luck!

Frustrations and the DVD

I'm a little frustrated right now at blogger because of this format change. They are in the process of switching all of the blogs to a new format that will make publishing posts and editing your blog much easier. However, I suppose they're still getting all of the bugs worked out and I am currently unable to make the switch. I went through all of the steps and set up this new account through google but whenever I go to my dashboard (list of my blogs) my blog doesn't show up. They said once I made the switch, I would be unable to log in the way I usually do and would have to go through the new google account everytime. But, as you can see, I am still very capable of logging in and I can still post through the old format. I hope they get this fixed soon- I was getting excited about the easiness of new blogger beta.
JMB had a meeting last night at Johnny Carinos (thanks for dinner, Cedarmore) to talk about our plans to produce our first live dvd. It will be filmed at Cedarmore on March 31 (as of this moment) and I expect all of you to come. It's going to be a lot of work trying to put everything together and solidifying a set list (which we've never really done before) but I'm really excited about this project. We're hoping that all of our churches will make a good showing (Master's, Buck Run... are you writing this on your calendar? BRING YOUTH GROUPS!) and we're also hoping that the different churches we've played at in this area will come to the show. I'll keep you all posted as more develops.

Awesome Night

Last night was a great night of worship at Master's Church. Marc spoke about God's holiness so I tried to select songs that would really allow us to focus on God's main attribute. Mary Beth came in to sing with me and it was really great to able to sing the split guy/girl chorus on You Are Holy (Prince of Peace). God was really in control the entire night and took us all out of the picture so that we could see His holiness as we've never seen it before. That is especially true in the life of one of the youth. Upon hearing Marc talk about the holiness of God and our unholiness, or more importantly, when the truth was revealed to this young man by the work of the Holy Spirit, God did an amazing work in his heart and made him a new creation. I'm so excited that this youth was saved last night- not simply saved from hell, but saved from his sin. I absolutely love it when God takes us out of the equation and does His work in and around us- all we have to do is sit back and worship Him.
To God be the glory, great things He hath done.

What A Relief

The priest's face in the end is the best part of the whole clip.

Hymns

God has often used hymns to show me more about His amzing omnipotentence and this is a hymn that's been running through my speakers the past week.
Before the Throne of God Above
by Charitie Bancroft (1863)


Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

Behold Him there the risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace,
One in Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God!

Worship

This morning I met with Marc (youth minister) and Alex (pastor) of Master's Church- where you can find me Wednesday nights- and talked about some different possibilities for the future about the music ministry there and the Wednesday night youth services. I was planning on driving back to Frankfort after that to get my tire replaced (I ran over a nail the other day and I'm on my spare at the moment) but I ended up just going down the road to the nearest S&S. They kept my tire and said it may be fixable but they aren't sure until they can see how deep the nail goes. (I'll have to check back on Monday.) So, not having to travel to Frankfort really opened up my schedule today and has allowed me to spend more time in prayer, especially in the area of my own personal worship.
God has really been convicting me these past few days of focusing so much on the music and forgetting why I play and sing in the first place. He's showing me that my singing and playing isn't worship at all if it's only an end in itself. If His glory isn't the ultimate goal of my music than it's all in vain. It's become so easy for me to get up on the stage and concentrate so much on sounding good, playing the right chords, and singing the right words (in the right order) and completely forget about the God to whom I'm singing. I can't even count the times that we've finished a concert or a worship service and I've messed up some notes or words and that is the only thing I remember about the night. I was so out of tune with the Holy Spirit working that I completely missed everything important that happened. I'm sure that all worship leaders have gone through this problem and I'm sure this isn't the last time this will ever happen- it will be constant battle that I fight for the rest of my life to forget about everything and focus on God. I pray for your support as I repent.

Now I've seen everything

I finally found it. I've been wanting to write about this for a few months now but I knew I couldn't fully appreciate it or be able to properly inform you of this absurdity until I found it for myself. When I first heard about this new addition to the student center, I thought that there was no way it could be real- surely it was just an urban myth as false as the exploding pop-rocks and coke or Walt Disney being buried under the Pirates of the Carribean ride. But after I saw it, I knew it was true and such things cold really exist. UK has an iPod vending machine. Yes, you heard me right. An iPod vending machine. It sells iPods in all different sizes, chargers, earbuds, and even bluetooth earpieces for cell phones. Being the broke college student that I am, I cannot afford to partake of the wonderous offerings of this machine but I would love to say "Yes, I bought my iPod from a vending machine." You know, I'm sure this says something about society today... I'm just not sure what that statement is.

Mary Beth Mann

I was just browsing through my pictures and found this gem. Isn't she the most wonderful thing you've ever seen? I don't know why she wants to be with me, but I definitely feel like the luckiest guy in the world.

Two Gigs, One Souncheck

Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving? I know I'm a few days late on the follow-up but it's been pretty stressful these past few days. Mary Beth and I got back from ETown on Friday and then, almost immediately, turned around and traveled to Centerfield for a JMB gig. Yes, yes, the rumors are true the Josh Martin Band is still alive and kicking- we've actually got some pretty big plans in the making right now. I can't say too much sense nothing is set in stone but we are going to have a meeting about it next Thursday and I will say that I don't think you'll be disappointed. But anywho, Friday night we played at Cowboy church in Centerfield. You heard me right... Cowboy church. I could explain it to you but you're just going to have to come see us next year to truly understand. It was a great night. Doug couldn't be there with us but that didn't seem to stop us from playing a fantastic show. I walked off the stage that night feeling more confident about our performance than I ever have before. We pulled out a new one on the crowd- Clumsy Believer, which is sure to become one of our favorite songs. We had practiced it on two separate occasions before Friday night and for the amount of time and energy we put into that song, it turned out to be superb.
Saturday. We sat around at my house for awhile the next day until I called Wilcutt Guitars in Lexington and talked to them about purchasing a new acoustic guitar. The guitar didn't have a pickup in it so they installed one and then I went and bought it. I'll dedicate a whole post to the guitar either tomorrow or the next day when I've had a chance to actually play it on stage. It's an Epiphone Masterbilt and I am absolutely loving it but I don't want to say too much about it in this post. Saturday night we had a concert at another Cowboy church (actually, I think they call it Country Church in Brandenburg) which didn't go quite as well as the previous one. It was just aa hectic night overall. We got there about 2 hours early in order to set up our equipment and get a good sound check... or so we thought. We were all under the impression that Brandenburg was in Central time- right over the border, but apparently they stick with Louisville's time. So, our extra 2 hours magically turned into 1 and we rushed to start 10 minutes late. I never really got in the right mindset to play a concert so both my playing and singing suffered quite a bit. But hey, at least I got the licks in the chorus of Clumsy Believer that night. (Did you hear them Kelly? I'm pretty sure I looked over at you a few times so you would know that I didn't screw them up again). Oh, and for some reason we could never get the bass level settled because I kept messing with my sound and my amp. Pretty soon I'll be saying good bye to my loud on-stage amp, and going with in-ear monitors- as long as I can get everything figured out and my mix right.

Thank you, vandal

The phrase "Jesus is helping me through my struggle" takes on a whole new meaning when someone carves it into the bathroom stall at Wal-Mart.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Althought it's not my absolute favorite holiday, I do love this day. It's always nice to spend the day with my 3 favorite f's- family, friends, and food. Today is going to be a fun-filled day of traveling for Mary Beth and I as we travel to Somerset in just a few hours to eat lunch with my dad's side of the family and then drive to Campbellsville to eat some dessert with my mom's side of the family. After that we will venture into E-Town to eat with her dad's family and then spend the night out at the farm and eat lunch with Bob and his family tomorrow. As soon as lunch is over we have to head back to Frankfort and then to Centerfield for a JMB concert tomorrow evening. Whew! I got tired just telling you all of this stuff. I can't imagine how I'll feel once all of this traveling is underway.
On another note, Mary Beth is continually improving and we both thank you all for your prayers, phone calls, and support. She is walking a lot more and the pain has subsided oh so slightly- hopefully she's ready for today and tomorrow. I guess we'll see shortly. Well, I hope to see some of you at the concert tomorrow night or, if you're in my family, I hope to see you today at one of the meals.

I'm still alive

Well, it's certainly been awhile. I don't have much of an excuse for not blogging within the past couple weeks- just a lot of little things seemed to come up. The biggest news from the past few days would be Mary Beth's hospital stay. She started experiencing large amounts of pain at the Lousiville football game on Saturday and was taken to the hospital before half time. I was already on my way to Lousiville to pick her up from the game when I heard she was on her way to the hospital so we arrived at the same time. After many tests and an overnight stay, they decided that the pain was caused by a ruptured ovarian cyst. Sounds painful, right? I'm not really sure what it feels like but I'd imagine that it's pretty terrible. She's staying at my house right now for the week, recuperating on the couch- actually, thanks to the magic of wireless internet, I'm sitting beside her right now. Say "Hi" Mary Beth. She waved. You'll just have to take my word for it.
I'll try to do better this week with this blog. Be patient, people.

I Love These People

Thy Mercy - Sandra McCracken

Thy Mercy, My God

1. Thy mercy, my God, is the theme of my song,
The joy of my heart. and the boast of my tongue;
Thy free grace alone, from the first to the last,
Hath won my affections, and bound my soul fast.

2. Without Thy sweet mercy I could not live here;
Sin would reduce me to utter despair;
But, through Thy free goodness, my spirits revive,
And He that first made me still keeps me alive.

3. Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart,
Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart;
Dissolved by Thy goodness, I fall to the ground,
And weep to the praise of the mercy I’ve found.

4. Great Father of mercies, Thy goodness I own,
And the covenant love of Thy crucified Son;
All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine
Seals mercy, and pardon, and righteousness mine.
All praise to the Spirit, Whose whisper divine
Seals mercy, and pardon, and righteousness mine.