CD Release Party

I want to give a quick heads up to anyone who is reading this from the Albany, GA area. If you are looking for something great to be apart of, you can head over to the CD release party for the TJ Mauldin Band tomorrow, September 9. It starts at 6:30 pm and lasts until 9:30 at the State Theater in Albany. Admission is $10 and that includes a copy of the band's CD that they are releasing "Here and Now." The CD will be available on iTunes on Friday I believe. You can check the band out at http://www.tjmauldinband.com/ or check out YouTube, or TJ's personal website http://www.tjmauldin.com/. This guy rocks. Literally. He has a great heart for Jesus and he and his wife are just good, salt of the Earth people. So head out and support him if you are in the area! Here is what TJ said about his album release on his website (http://www.tjmauldin.com/).

I know if you live in or around the Albany area you may have seen a poster or heard someone speak about the CD Release event. I want to quickly (yea right) unpack the heart behind the night and what we believe God is going to do in, around, and through the event. This is why I want you to get your ticket and join us.

I have been carrying a four point mission statement for months about what I desire the night to be so I’ll just list and expound: Glorify God, Magnify Christ, Spotlight the Cross, and Unite a City.
Glorify God-
We realize as a band/ministry that everything we say and do should be and hopefully is for the glory of God( 1 Corinthians 10:31). Every song is about Him, for Him and given by Him so we want to give honor where it is due and it is surely His. He is the Greatest of all time and we will make it the aim of the night to make much of that. We are trusting and desiring that everyone leaves the release event with the desire to honor God in every area of their life.
Magnify Christ-
John 3:30 says, “He must increase and I must decrease”. We firmly believe for God to be glorified then we must make Jesus the ultimate treasure in our life. He must be the goal and prize that we are pursuing with everything that we have. Jesus is the only eternal answer and refuge so He will be magnified above all. He will be lifted above the music, the “show”, the volunteers, the venue, the cd, the… well you get the picture. He’s the point!
Spotlight the Cross-
I totally understand that preaching the cross is foolishness to some and to want to spotlight it may seem odd so I want to be very clear. The cross was a place of brutality, torture, and death. It was the place where Jesus hung and was nailed for the forgiveness of our sin. He willingly gave his life so that you and I could go free. Why spotlight the cross? Because we need to drink deep from the reminder well that, that was our cross, our judgment, our sin that fixed Jesus securely on it and to abandon any conversation of the cross would be to abandon the dynamic gift given to us by a perfect God. Beyond the cross being the tool in which God crushed Jesus in our place it’s beautiful because Jesus is no longer on it! He is alive…MAN! I AM EXCITED!! EXCLAIMING WITH EXCITEMENT EVEN!!!!
Unite a City-
How incredible is it going to be to have Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Pentacostal, Non- Denominational… and on and on in attendance in the same building lifting up Jesus. I see this event as an opportunity to bring the body of Christ together to worship God and then share. This isn’t about a certain church or at a certain church. This is about Jesus and his name being championed through our city. I firmly believe that God can change a campus, a church, a family and a community. My desire for this event is to see the body of Christ come together for the sake of the kingdom and the advancement of the gospel only to leave encouraged and empowered to share their faith, live their faith and see their faith impact Albany, Ga and ultimately the world.
I want you to know I am crazy excited about releasing this album because this was written from, about and to serve scripture. Therefore, this album is slammed packed with the beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ. I know this is going to be a tool God uses to change lives, to bring the lost home, restore broken relationship, deliver those in spiritual, emotional and mental bondage. The only reason this album is going to be powerful is because it is for and about Jesus. Can’t wait for you to hear it!
So, I would love for you to come. Every last one of you… You can get tickets here
http://www.eventbrite.com/org/1368491853
www.facebook.com/tjmauldinband

And I will post up another one of TJ's posts from his website, because it really spoke to my heart this morning and it may speak to a few other people's hearts as well.

The Problem With Self-love

Unless self-love is abandoned the believer shall forever shrink back when called actually to take up the cross for Christ. - Watchman Nee


I always write from a place of, well, weightiness. I am not trying to be some deep thinker or well worded theologian. In fact, if you know me you know that I am neither. I am simply following Christ, loving his church and occasionally glancing in the mirror at myself as his reflector. I write when something strikes my joy. I write when I want to communicate my heart and point people to Jesus. I write when I don’t like what I see, when I stumble and more often then not when some of my own deficiencies are exposed. I write. Tonight I want to write on self-love. I love myself way too much. I love my wants, my opinions, and things way too much and you know what? That communicates to Christ that my love for him is more like, like and to my wife that my love for her is based on my wants alone. I am not writing from a place of self-pity or condemnation. I am writing from a place of great hope because in all of my selfishness I can hear Jesus speaking, convicting, and prodding me to die to myself. So, am simply sharing with you what I am walking through internally. Self seems to be the subtlest idol we as believers bow down to on a daily basis and I believe it does three things to cripple, chain, and sometimes kill our walk with Christ.


First, self-love keeps us in a place where “we” matter most and when we live in that place we will not forsake it all or even most of it for the sake of the gospel. I am reminded of 1st Corinthians 16:9 that says, “a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” The greatest adversary you and I will ever face as Christians in America are our selves. The fear for our life, persecution, and famine are not the things that keep us from serving Christ from a place of self-less ambition. It’s our self and us thinking that we are owed grace. The bottom line is that we love our things and ourselves and when that love is threatened we retreat into a place of casual Christianity. As if there was such a thing.


Second, self-love keeps us in a place where we can’t love others fully. A sure sign that you are in love with yourself is when you enter relationships thinking, “what am I going to get out of this”, when the attitude should be, “how can I serve, support and surrender to this person for the glory of God”. I am the worlds worst and especially with my wife. I like to do what I want to do too often and that doesn’t glorify God, give security to my wife nor sanctify me as a man who is following Christ. The bottom line is that we love ourselves and our things and when they are number one we neglect Jesus and those he has called us to love.


The last problem with self-love is that it keeps us from taking the gospel where it needs to go. When we are in love with self we will neglect the call on our lives to go, even if it is just across the street or with a colleague at work. Listen, when we fall in love with Jesus and divorce our stinking flesh and it’s desires we will find that Jesus was no respecter of person and that he loved everybody, including us. When we look into the undeserved and powerful love of Jesus our response should be to love everyone with selfless ambition. The bottom line is that if we are in love with ourselves then we haven’t or haven’t often enough looked at the wretchedness of our sin and rebellion towards God and his tender mercy towards us. He loved us when we were and sometimes still are unlovely. Oh, and he said we are suppose to “be like him”.


Love you
tj

Ok, now that I have put you on TJ overload, I will just remind you to check him out on your own. It's always a good thing to support a brother or sister in Christ and lift them up. So if you can't make it or don't live in the area, send up a prayer that TJ's ministry through his music can reach the lost and just glorify Christ.

 

Procrastination at it's finest

Today I have A LOT of stuff to do, but right now I am really putting it off. I had to take a quick break and rest my mind for a minute before getting back to it. Right now I can barely see my desk anymore.

After this short break I will get all this stuff knocked out. And since I included this picture, I figured I would show you a couple of special things in my office. First, this:

This is my going away present from the museum. It is a paper weight. The picture inside is one that I did, so it has sentimental value that they chose to use that picture (It is a rendering of the Lapham-Patterson House in Thomasville that the Historical Society manages). And what girl's office isn't complete with out this?

That's right, ladies and gentlemen. The 2011 SEC Football Helmet Schedule. I love this thing. I print it out every year. I do need to find a pretty frame to put it in though. It just being taped on the wall is pretty tacky. I think I have just the frame at home and it will even match the blue wall in my office. Other than those two things, I haven't done anything to decorate and/or personalize my office. I plan on doing that soon. Maybe you can "Find Nemo" in my top picture above, but I hate to break it to Nemo, he needs to go. So I am on the lookout for some pictures to hang on the wall. Theoretically, it would be nice to hang my diploma on my wall, but it was never framed {hint, mother} but that's ok. Oh- did I mention that I graduated from college SEVEN years ago? I think at this point I should give up on that ever happening. Ok. I have rambled on enough and I realize that this is a really random post, but that is where my head is today. Terribly scatter brained and fried. Back to the grind. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a little more time to think of something more interesting. Happy Wednesday, ya'll!

A Lesson in Forgiveness

Howdy folks! Hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day weekend. Ours was pretty much a rainy holiday, but that's ok. It was a good excuse to stay in and watch movies. :-) I'm thankful to be working at a job that now allows for holidays. At the museum, we were always opened on holidays = you have to work! So it was a nice change of pace to actually enjoy being off. However, I am more than paying for it today. A holiday at the first of the month is never a good idea, especially in the accounting world. So I am super busy closing out books for the month. So I am typing this post very quickly in between wolfing down my pitiful Lean Cuisine I brought for lunch. But I wanted to be sure to post this while it was on my mind and getting distracted by other things. {EDITORS NOTE: It took me 3 hours to write this post! Told you I was busy today...}

The video at the end of this post really spoke to my heart last night. This certain gentleman was brought to my attention by my Sunday School teacher. Apparently all the girls in my Sunday School class have taken it upon themselves to make me the new class project--as in to find me a man. It's super embarrassing and not really something I am interested in doing at the moment, but they are sweet to want to do this for me and you just never know ;) I'm telling you, its like a scene from Fiddler on the Roof. Will Yentil please stand up? Matchmaker, matchmaker make me a match. Find me a find. Catch me a catch.....I'm hardcore into musicals, FYI.  Back to my story, this was a guy that my teacher, Robyn really wanted me to meet. He is the pastor at a local, newly-formed church that has really taken off, especially with the younger crowd. Robyn sent me a link to this video for me to watch regardless of if I ever wanted to meet this guy or not. His testimony is just that good. If you watch it, be prepared for a few tears and to be in awe of the power of Jesus and of forgiveness that comes about through Christ.
 


A Story | Big Picture Faith from Adam Kring on Vimeo.

How awesome is that story? Talk about beauty out of ashes! Praise the Lord. It just got me really thinking about stuff and how forgiveness is forgiveness is forgiveness. Its the same, regardless of what offense you are forgiving for. Big or small. Sure, it seems to be harder to forgive someone who intentionally does something that they know is wrong and that they know will hurt you as opposed to forgiving someone who, like Matthew, did something that was a complete accident. But at the end of the day its forgiveness. We forgive because HE forgave us first. Really makes you want to take account and look at your life to see if there is someone you need to forgive (or ask for someone's forgiveness) and to make peace with. To let Erik be an shining example of Christ and what it truly means to love one another. To be thankful for the valleys and the mountain tops in life because they are all ordained by God for a greater picture.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. ~Colossians 3:12-14

Seasons

Have you ever gone to church and think that the Pastor's message was just for you? This past Sunday, I promise you that God was speaking directly to me through Bro. Dan's message. This past week I had really been thinking about seasons of life. I know that I haven't really talked much about my and Joseph's divorce on here, because frankly, it's depressing and not something that I really like to talk about. But it is a fact of my life right now and something that I am trying to work through, so I might as well talk about it. Back to my topic.... I was thinking about seasons of life this past week or so. I have been reminding myself over and over that this period is just a season in my life. A season full of sadness and grieving over my husband, our marriage, and all the comes with that. I keep reminding myself that I will only be in this season for a while. One day, my season will change. I have no idea how long God needs to keep me in this season, it is really in His hands. I know there is something He needs to show me and for me to learn during this season. The funny thing is that while I have been thinking about all of this stuff this week, Sunday morning's sermon was on what else? Ecclesiastes 3. "Yes, Lord...You have my attention, I am listening!"

1 There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.


9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

Granted, there have been many times that I have felt like Solomon and decided that everything in life is meaningless. He was right, everything in life is meaningless apart from God. I love verse 11 where it states that He has made everything beautiful in its time. I keep reminding myself of that fact. God will make everything beautiful in His time, even if we can't see the beauty in the midst of the storm. No one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. All I can see at the moment is a little piece of the puzzle. God can see the whole picture and how that piece of the puzzle fits into the bigger scheme of His plans for my life and what that picture will ultimately turn out to be. I have learned a lot from the experience. I have experienced God's love, grace, and mercy more fully unlike any other time in my life. I have also experienced how I can be when I allow myself to take my focus off God and let my fleshly, sinful side rule my thoughts and actions. I have decided that I prefer myself taking the lead from the good Lord instead. Apart from God its easy to become full of bitterness and resentment. To throw yourself a pity party and to question God and ask why would He allow something like this to happen. But when you live in the truth and believe that God does love you and He does care, it helps keep things in perspective. Who am I to question anything? Romans 8:28 states: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. God can work any circumstance for His glory, for the good- if we allow Him to do so. I believe that God has protected me and kept me from an even more painful experience down the road. It may not seem like the best scenario to me right now, but in the end I know that God is faithful.

There is a time for everything under the sun. One day my mourning will turn into dancing. One day this season will be over and I will find myself in a season even better than any other season I have ever experienced. I can say that with confidence, because I know that unlike man, God never breaks a promise. So I am very thankful that the Lord spoke to me and reinforced what I was already thinking. He is an awesome God, is all I can say. Right now you may find yourself in a good season. If so, give thanks for God's blessing. Or you may find yourself in a bad season. If so, give thanks to God anyway. There is ALWAYS something to be thankful to God for. There is always hope through Christ. Remember, God makes all things beautiful in His own time.

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. ~Romans 15:4

High Cotton

While I was home Mom, Oscar, and I took some time to go look at daddy's cotton field. This is the first year he has grown cotton in probably a decade, so I think he is happy to be "farming" again. I love cotton when it is in full bloom. It is so very pretty.

Oscar and I ended up having an impromptu photo shoot to capture a few pictures together. He really didn't want to cooperate and I should mention that it was 199.99 degrees outside. It was so hot!!

On the walk back to the house (and to the glorious a/c I might add) we stopped and let Oscar check out the cows.

There are several calves right now and they are so cute running around. These cows spotted us from a mile away and came running. I think they thought we were going to feed them. Oscar could sit and stare at them all day. Not to mention roll around in a few cow patties, if mommy would let him.... I can't wait until the end of next month or so, when the cotton bolls open up and me and the boys can have our Christmas photos taken in the South's version of "snow." I am so thankful that Oscar is feeling better and that we got to get a few photos in together. He is something else!

Poor Brutus...

The dog drama continued this past weekend, only this time it wasn't Oscar, it was Brutus. Poor little guy got stung. All we can figure is that a yellow jacket stung him. At first, we thought he had possibly gotten on a ground rattler or something. But he seemed to recover fairly quickly from the incident, so it had to be a wasp or hornet of some sort.  This guy was pitiful for a bit. Thank goodness for benadryl is all I can say! Brutus is not usually one that likes to be held, he is usually too busy on patrol to be a lap dog. However, when he got stung, all he wanted was to be held and loved on. Oh--and to rest his face on some ice. Poor little man!

These pictures were taken several hours (like 8 hours) after he first got stung. The swelling was still pretty bad and he was sporting quite the double chin for a bit. He had his collar on when all this happened. Mom said he started swelling immediately and if she hadn't gotten his collar off, he would have probably choked to death. Pretty scary. Maybe I need to get an epi-pen for this little guy in case it happens again! By the next morning, he was completely back to normal. Hopefully this will be the end of the dog drama for a while!

School Days

This post will be in honor of the first day of school in my hometown.I have to admit that I am grasping at straws here, but I thought this new little "friend" of mine deserved at least a small shout out and because every day that I use it, I am reminded of school days gone by. Since leaving the Museum (tear) and commuting to Tallahassee every day, I have started bringing my lunch to work every day now that I can't run home for lunch. On my first day, I made the "smart" decision to run right up the road to Chick-fil-a. Biggest.Mistake.Ever! I should have known better than to try and go there, even if it was already 1:30. Cars wrapped around and lined up all the way on Capital Circle. So I decided to go to the next restaurant up the road, Zaxby's. Same thing. Packed. Next on the list Taco Bell. Same thing. So I just gave up. I decided to just run in the gas station where I grabbed a pack of crackers and a candy bar. So not worth the hassle unless I am meeting a friend for lunch to get out in that rat race. So enter this lovely lady:   

Images from www.verabradley.com

This is my new lunch box. It might not be as awesome as some of my previous lunchboxes that i had growing up starting with the lunch box I took to kindergarten:

Or first grade:

That's right I rocked the Care Bears and then She-Ra until my tastes got a little more refined and I switched to just a basic colored zip up lunch box and then finally to a boring paper bag! I still remember my mother being sweet and would take a cookie cutter and cut out special shapes in my pb&j sandwich or write me little special notes. Guess she was ahead of her time. Check out the new Pottery Barn stuff.

 

 Those sandwich cutters are really cool and a step up from the old and trusty cookie cutters!

images from www.potterybarnkids.com

But as you can see my lunch box now is a Vera Bradley. I have been a little out of the Vera Bradley loop these days, so I was unaware that they made lunchboxes until History Camp when the teenage counselors all showed up with their different patterned lunchboxes. Thanks for the heads up kids! I really enjoy packing my lunch every day or going grocery shopping for what I want to take for lunch that day. I realize that probably makes me the biggest dork in the world, but I really don't care. It doesn't take much to make me happy. The lunch box is great. It is a nice size, has pockets on the inside if you wanted to insert an ice pack, has a name card holder, and plus its just cute. I went with the black one as pictured above. When I pack it each day, I still feel like I am in elementary school or something. Although I didn't put coffee in my thermos back in those days :-)

So this is my {random} post about school today. I can almost smell the new school supplies now. And see the pictures of the first day of school of kids wearing their SUPER bright, white tennis shoes. I wish all the students and teachers good luck this year and hope everyone has a wonderful school year!