December 31, 2011

Realize

So I wrote a song one day kind of on accident and decided to record it super fast.  So I recorded it all in my house in one night and I thought it would be fun to share it with you guys.  The song is extremely short but basically sums up the attitude I am trying to keep through this whole process. Feel free to share this video if you want! I hope you enjoy and I will put the lyrics beneath the video.




I’ve come to realize
Everything I have that I’m leaving behind
Came from you
And It’s still yours
I’ve come to realize
Why you’re asking me to leave my life behind
Because you
You have something new... For me. 

December 27, 2011

Action

Philippians 1 : 19-22

Yes, and I will rejoice, 19for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.

Paul was an amazing person.  He knew what it meant to love God with his whole heart.  Paul loved who God was so much that all he wanted to was go and be with him, to worship him constantly and that is why he said "to die is gain" but he was sold out for God's purposes and knew that there were still people who needed to know God's love in the same way he did. What if we had the mind set of "If I have to be on this earth, then every day, every minute is going to be spent furthering the Kingdom of God"? WHAT IF --- we were to stop asking questions about what could happen and instead; ask for the courage to change our world in a real and relevant way like Paul did?

Prayer---
God empower me with the courage to stand up for you.  Remind me to stop asking "What if?" and start asking "What's next?".  I want everyone to experience your love like I have. Don't let my life be about ME. I want life to count for you and you ALONE.

December 25, 2011

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

So many of you may already know that my band Slaves to Righteousness just recorded our own version of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" (There is a link to the song at the bottom of this blog post).  I absolutely love the way that it turned out but it is also sad for me because I realize that this is the last song I will be releasing with this group of guys.  They have ALL been my best friends for the last few years, and we have gone through and done lots of crazy stuff over the last few years.  I will miss them more than they know; but do know that my life will never be the same because of what God has done in our lives.


Throughout the entire recording process I never really took the time to step back from the busyness,to just read and take to heart what the lyrics have to say in this song.  Finally after it was mixed, mastered and sent to me I decided to look up the lyrics online and read along while listening to the song.  I had a real experience with God in that moment because he gave me peace but most of all he gave me HOPE.  "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" is a song of hope.  


O Come, O Come Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel,
Shall come to thee, O Israel


Right now in my life I don't know exactly what God has in store for me, but I have confidence that He has a specific purpose and plan for my life.  I have confidence because Jesus the Son of God came from his throne to this mess of a world, to save someone like me, and by his sacrifice on the cross I know I am saved and I KNOW he loves me and has a purpose for my life. I have HOPE because of Christmas. Merry Christmas!!

John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel --- Slaves to Righteousness

December 22, 2011

This Weird Selfish Feeling

Recently I just feel ready to go to Florida.  I've lived my whole life in Minnesota and have never really experienced this feeling of leaving everything or extreme change.  If you have ever moved or experienced a lot of change then you probably know what I'm talking about.  Everyday is full of "lasts" like "This is the last time I'm going to hang out with this person, or this is the last time I am going to go to this place I have been to a ton of times".  Not that big of a deal but really WEIRD!  Honestly, I am really ready to go there and, selfishly, it's hard to still be here.
I pray everyday for his peace in this time of transition.  I love everyone here and that is what makes it so hard.  Minnesota is my home and I will miss it a lot but I am SO excited to see what God has for me in Florida.

November 24, 2011

The Trip: Video Blog Day 3

Here is some video from the last full day that we were in Florida. Check it out!


November 22, 2011

The Trip: Video Blog

Hey here is a video from the first two days of our trip in Florida! Check it out.


November 20, 2011

The Trip: Day 1

So today my parents and I are going down to Florida together for the first time since the news about the big move. So far, it’s been a blast! I thank God for the family that He gave me because if it wasn’t for them, this transition time would be a million times harder. They are crazy fun, crazy weird (just like me), and crazy on fire for God. I Love you guys =)

So today is Sunday and we had an awesome church service this morning, in which Jerry Sheveland spoke and I was privileged with chance to lead His people into worship. After church I got to hang out with one of my bests friends for a while and then I went home to pack! By the time I was done packing, my mother was fairly close to being done too, except for that she started an hour or two before me! (I had to pick on here a little bit) Getting to the airport went great and we got through security with a few fun experiences... anyways. (I have been taking video most of the day so I will have to share that with you too!) I am on the plane RIGHT NOW and it is ten at night and we won’t be landing until like one in the morning or so. It is definitely going to be a late night, but tomorrow we are going to check out where I will going to school and I believe we are also going to see where we are going to be living as well!

It’s been a good day of traveling and I look forward to telling you about tomorrow and everything I will be seeing! Goodnight.

Faith: The Power of Prayer

God is so awesome, and He loves to reveal himself in interesting ways. Since knowing about the possibility of my parents (and me) moving to Florida, God has shown up in ways so obvious that I COULD NOT ignore Him. In the process of seeing all these signs I never once considered that maybe, maybe they were meant for me to see. They were only there to affirm my parents right? Yeah well... I guess not! haha The day I started to pray I got NERVOUS. I got nervous because I started getting excited about how God could use me there. I know it sounds weird to be nervous about that but, the conflict I faced was that I was feeling lead to go, but I wanted to stay here where I was comfortable, involved, appreciated.

Appreciated? See what I realized is that I could be way more than just appreciated but I could be used by the living God to further His kingdom! Don’t get me wrong, I know that I can and am called to be a light wherever I am, but there is something miraculous about being in the very center of where God wants you that is energizing, and electrifying. If I could challenge you with one thing it would be this:

Pray for God’s perfect plan in your life. Pray crazy prayers. Pray with a sincere heart. Try to dream as big as God does, because as soon as you give up “normal”, He will use you to do bigger and greater things than YOU could have ever dreamed.

Just REMEMBER: The Power of Prayer can, and probably will change your life in radical ways. But through Him; We can change the world.

November 15, 2011

Faith: Florida?

Let’s get right into this. I am moving to Florida with my parents sometime around the end of December. My dad took a job as The Executive Director of International Ministries for Converge Worldwide. Converge is a denomination made up of right around 1000 churches around the United States and is based out of Orlando, Florida. I never thought in a million years that I would end up in Florida!

One day after school my dad picked me and was driving me to work and when we got there we were a little early... So this is what my dad says to me, “How would you feel about living in Florida?”. Well that really caught me off guard!!! I made him explain and it went like this.

Converge called him and told him that he was a candidate for this new role. At this point they had been looking for someone for about nine months I believe. In the call they asked to him to just pray about applying for the job (now let’s understand that applying does not mean that he is taking the position. There were so many other things that had to happen before it was official.) After praying for a while (this is the short version) he turned in his resume to the board. Long story short, he ended up being the person God has chosen for this position. This is where I start to wrestle with the idea of moving there with them!

NO WAY!... That was my first reaction, and it was actually my reaction for probably 2 months or so. If there is anything to be learned here it’s; don’t shut off your mind to praying about something because it may be God’s perfect plan for you.

Not to long ago my dad challenged me, “Shane, I know you don’t want to move to Florida and I totally understand why but have you actually prayed about possibly going? I will support you no matter what decision you make because I know you will be in the center of God’s plan for you.” Well that put me in a pickle!! So i started to pray. I thought about the idea and eventually I started to feel lead there. But even then my most common prayer went something like this, “Florida? Now?...FLORIDA???”

Faith: The Beginning

About three months ago my family and I started on journey that has now exploded into something amazing, and God has definitely directed us to new and different things. I want to share this with you.

A while back I had tried blogging and I actually really enjoyed it but I had a hard time keeping up with writing for a few different reasons: I was busy, and I didn’t always know what I should write about. Lately my life has been changing majorly and I’m pretty sure there is no way that I will run out of things to write about! Here we go.

I am seventeen and I was born in Minnesota. For sixteen of those years I lived in the same house that I do now. I grew up with my dad as the lead pastor of my church which had it’s own experiences, but most importantly, I grew up in a home that loves and strives after God’s plan for our lives. I really respect my parents for helping me experience God on my own terms. God is not looking for us to follow a bunch of His rules and regulations, but instead to experience Him in a real and relevant way! When Jesus really got a hold of MY heart, I realized that he loves me and that he DOES have a plan for my life working for His purposes. God has blessed me so much with the friends that I have and opportunities He has given me, but recently I opened my heart to God’s plan for me and was forced to come to an extreme realization. My friends, my stuff, and the experiences I have had was not God’s future for my life. That was just The Beginning.