It is one thing to sit down and write a song, but another thing to take that song through the process of recording. Recording music can be a grueling and frustrating process at times. Every song you work on goes under a microscope and gets dissected. Every note, string, drum hit, and breath comes under scrutiny and while in this process, you can forget about how you felt when you first wrote the idea down. The excitement of the song writing process gets lost in the mechanics of recording at times. As I sit here tonight, I am being reminded of the big picture. What a privilege to be able to do this!
Sevenglory is blessed to be a part of a church that supports what we do in tangible ways. It is such an amazing thing to have a recording studio right in the building! I can literally write a song in my office and then walk down the hallway into the studio and make it come alive! Calvary Church recognizes the importance of music and the arts and longs to be a place where Christian artists feel welcomed and encouraged to write, record, and foster their talents for the glory of God. How many churches take this approach? Unfortunately, not many. As the Director of Worship and the Arts at Calvary, the church encourages me to write, record, and to travel with Sevenglory. They not only want to be blessed by music but they want to see the larger church blessed as well. We are so fortunate to be able to call Calvary home. These are a few of the things running through my mind tonight.
Tonight I am thanking God for coffee, leather couches, hardwood floors, and instruments on every wall. I am thankful for talented friends, recording equipment and music. I am thankful for Calvary Church, where ideas are being fulfilled tonight!
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Right at the beginning of the book when he was chosen to be in the king's court with other young men we see him long to remain pure in his eating habits. God had given the Hebrew people specifics on how he wanted them to live and this included the types of food He wanted them to eat. Even though he was in a foreign land, Daniel longed to remain pure before his God. He had the best food and drink available to him; yet through wisdom and God's help, he was able to keep the respect of the Babylonians while remaining pure. God was with Daniel and his three friends, who we know as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So much so that they were recognized as being ten times more useful than all of the king's wise men! (Dan 1:20)
I am so challenged when I read about Daniel. I long to be a man of integrity and faithfulness like him! When we look around us today, these virtues are hard to find and that is such a shame. Now, more than ever, we as Christian men and women need to be filled with the Spirit of God and live lives beyond reproach before the audience of One. We should be the best fathers, the best mothers, the best employees, the most diligent students, the most honest people, and the most trustworthy friends. In other words, we should be living our lives with passion. Every waking moment should be lived out as worship unto God. To do that we need the help of His Spirit as Daniel did. So here is my prayer, "God, please make me be a modern day Daniel!"
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"God will speak to the hearts of those who prepare themselves to hear."
~A.W. Tozer-The Root of the Righteous
Sometimes we act or think or act as though we are doing God a favor by gracing Him with our presence on Sundays. There are many things we could be doing or places we could be going but no, WE have come to church! We give God His hour so we can carry on with our busy schedules guilt free. With this outlook it is no wonder that every week we come, we sing, we give and we listen, but we never seem to encounter God in a real and tangible way. It feels like we are going through the motions. The question I want to ask is, - do we come worthy to receive from God?
As flawed people we can never be worthy apart from the work of Christ. I understand this. What I am asking here is something altogether different and is something A.W. Tozer briefly touches on in "The Root of the Righteous". He states that as Christians, we have a responsibility to do something more than just show up on Sunday and consume. I believe this to be true.
The parable of the sower in Matthew 13 clearly indicates that just because the Word goes out, it does not mean that all who hear will be changed. In Acts 28:26 Paul quotes Isaiah when he tells the Jews that they "hear without hearing and see without seeing". Unless God allows our ears to hear and eyes to see, we are lost. However, we need to be worthy to receive God's word and to worship Him, which means singing, giving and hearing on His terms! Tozer states in his book that "Before there can be an inward understanding of divine truth there must be a moral preparation." The question now becomes - how can I be worthy?
Here are a few things I think qualify as moral preparations to receive from God.
1. Ask
-We should ask God every day to attune our senses to Him. Ask Him by His Spirit to open your eyes to see His beauty and to open your ears to hear His voice each day. Ask Him to awaken your spirit to His.
2. Be in His Word.
- Can we really expect God to carry out His will in our life during one hour on Sundays? We have a responsibility to cultivate a knowledge of and a hunger for God's Word so that we can grow spiritually every day.
3. Walk in obedience.
- Living in sin is a sure way to stifle the work of God in our lives and a sure way to stop all spiritual growth. Ask God by His Spirit to reveal areas in your life where you need to change and live out repentance.
If we commit to do these things - living every day as worship to God - then I think we will find that when we gather on Sundays we will be able to sing, give and listen with joy. If we are faithful to follow His ways and seek the power of His Spirit, He is faithful to speak to our hearts and transform us from the inside out. May we be worthy to hear and receive what He says. Not just on Sundays but every day.
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What has been consuming my thoughts these past few weeks is the role of the Holy Spirit in our worship and, more importantly, in our lives. What place DOES He take and what place SHOULD He take in our worship?
The more I thought about peoples' worship on Sunday, the more I was led to think about peoples' everyday lives. If we are not people who follow Christ by walking in the power of His Spirit every day, then can we expect anything but lackluster worship when we gather on Sundays? Churches all over North America hold "worship services" but true worship does not always happen. Could it be that apathetic worship is a result of our failure to let the Spirit of God take His proper place in our lives, in our worship?
Why is it that we are content to think of the Holy Spirit as "a force in the background"? What is it that holds us back and prevents us from giving Him his proper place? Are we scared to yield control to Him? Will God make us uncomfortable? Are we nervous because of the abuses we have seen in the name of the Holy Spirit? We all have seen or know of people that "major" in the Spirit but whose lives are full of sin and unchanged from day to day. Should'nt a Spirit-filled christian be showing fruits?
The truth is that we cannot possibly truly worship God unless it is by the Spirit. (Phil. 3:3) No matter how beautiful our songs are on Sundays or how eloquent the sermon is, these cannot replace the power of the Holy Spirit in people's hearts. Our worship requires so much more than just our heads. True worship must happen at a spiritual level.
I believe that as we look at Scripture, which should always be our starting point, we find that Christians are called to a live in the power of God's Holy Spirit. God has called us to a task that we cannot do alone! (Zech 4:6) Jesus Himself was filled and led by the Holy Spirit, and when he ascended, He gave us this same gift! (Acts 2:33) If we want to see genuine worship then we need to see people living and operating in the power of God's Spirit. If we commit to following Christ and walk in the power of His Spirit, then genuine worship will naturally flow out on Sunday.
I can think of many examples of Godly men and women I know who live in the power of the Spirit of God. It is evident in their daily lives and in their worship. It is a joy for them to follow Christ and their lives bear much fruit. Without exception these people are obediently laying down their selfish ambitions every day and constantly seeking to become more like Christ by the power of the Spirit. What separates these Christ followers from so many others is that they have learned to rely on God's strength and not their own. People that are visibly walking in the Spirit have learned that apart from the Spirit of God there can be no lasting, positive change in their lives. They have learned submission to the One who is above all. Are we willing to simply obey and let go of our own agendas?
What would happen if we constantly began to pray for God to lead us by the Holy Spirit? What if we ask Him to help us to worship by the Spirit before we go to church? What if we ask His Spirit to guide us into truth as we read the Scriptures? What if we let go of our selfish ambitions and allow the Spirit of God to renew our minds and change us into people who worship from the inside out? What if we ask Him daily to fill our lives? If Jesus Himself has given us the Spirit of God, then why not acknowledge the need for His presence in our midst on Sundays and in our lives everyday?
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What do we do when there seems like there is no fresh water to draw from the well? When the tank of ideas seems to be on empty and when nothing comes. Inspiration can be a fickle thing. Some days it seems as though there is not enough ink in the world to support my ideas. Other days for the life of me, I can't bring anything useful or interesting to mind. I would like to be able to write a great song or blog everyday, but it just doesn't work like that. No matter how hard I try, I cannot force an idea. In fact as I sit to write this post I still am wondering what to say.
I am learning the key is to keep fueling myself with material and ideas, even when I can't take them from my head onto the page. I have no great revelation to share today. All I've got is an idea to talk about my lack of an idea! As a Christian artist, I could never be short on inspiration or things to sing about. Especially when it comes to God. The part that I struggle with is HOW to get it down at times. Ideas are just ideas until the moment you communicate them in a fresh, unique way. Therein lies the problem. Sometimes, only time and God's divine inspiration can bring a thought to fruition.
As an example, I recently wrote a song called "Always Hope" that was taken from Psalm 71:14. My wife gave me the verse a month before, and I loved it from the moment I read it. I heard such a resolve in the author's words. The phrase, "I will always hope," captured my thoughts. He was going to hope no matter what because God was worthy of his hope! As much as I loved the verse and the ideas that filled my head, I carried that verse on a small piece of paper in my backpack for weeks. Everywhere I went. I would pull it out from time to time, look at it, and still nothing would come. Then tragedy struck.
As my last post mentioned, a very well loved leader in our church was killed. All of the sudden, this verse that had consumed my thoughts, began to take on new meaning inside and inspired thoughts. I was prompted to write my last blog on the subject. About a week later, I pulled out that tiny scrap of paper with the verse scrawled on it and sat down with my friend and bandmate Gabe. I told him of the idea and we began to write. We had a new reason to write about hope. Hope that is in God and God alone. We have no answers and life is short, but we will always have HOPE. By the next morning the song was done. I can't wait to record it.
This is just an example of how one verse led to one idea that led to one song. They are all different. Some ideas simmer for years and others come together in thirty minutes. What I am finding is that I need to be fueling myself with inspiration and God's Word, even if I don't feel inspired. When the time comes and life happens, I want to be ready! So, let's stop to look around at the beauty and tragedy in this life. Let's be inspired to see God's hand in all things. Let's write, talk and sing about Him. He is our inspiration!
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-Psalm 71:14
I love this verse. My wife recently passed it along to me and I haven't been able to escape it since. It inspires me immensely. There is just something about hope. We all hope for things I guess. We all want things to work out. We all want the future to be bright. We all hope. I guess the question is.....What are we hoping in?Recently, my church has been confronted with tragedy and it has caused me to ponder hope more than ever. We lost a key leader and an incredibly godly man in a tragic accident. His passing has left a huge void in our congregation and has left many of us asking why this could be allowed to happen. Why does God choose to do things the way that he does? Why does he take certian people and not others? We will never understand.
Though we have questions without answers, the thing that we hold on to is hope. Not the hope that is petty or small, like hoping we will get the job, or hoping that we will have sucess. We have a hope that is eternal. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. We have been chosen and called to a life in Him. We have eternity with Him. This is hope like no other. This is hope that gets us through the storms of life. With this hope, we know that one day our questions will have answers, our pain will be gone, our tears will be wiped away, and we will see our God in all His glory! This hope drives us to perservere and fight the good fight.
This hope should bring us to our knees in worship. God has made a way where there was no way. This matchless, infinite, glorious God has showed us His mercy, grace and love. How could we not give our lives to Him in worship and be forever in awe at His faithfulness to us?
"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." - 1 Corinthians 13:12
He is moulding us to be more like Him. We cannot see the outcome. We cannot see what He already knows. As I think about this, I'm am compelled live all of my life in the shadow of this hope. So often we only reflect on this hope in times of sorrow. I believe that this hope should be the thing that drives us everyday. We hope in Christ and in Christ alone, not in the temporary. This life is momentary in the scheme of eternity so may we live, giving all we have as worship to the One who has given us HOPE.
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There was also a great selection of seminars every day for practical teaching on everything from song writing to proper use of video and lighting in the church. It was my first time attending a conference like this and it did not disappoint. It was a great time of recharging and refocusing on what I have been called to do. Also, I was really inspired as a songwriter listening to Matt Redman and Tim Hughes talk about their writing process and giving practical advice on topics like inspiration and creativity.
One of my favorite sessions was with Matt Redman. He talked about his creative process and His outlook on song writing. He told a story of going out side after a new snowfall in England and being caught up with the beauty of it all. Though not a photographer, he began to take pictures with his iPhone and couldn't seem to stop because it was so hard to be satisfied with every shot. He just couldn't seem to capture on camera the beauty he was seeing all around him. All the pictures were just small glimpses of the grand scene.
He began to talk about how we as christian songwriters are in the same situation. The awesome wonder of God could never be captured in song but what we can hope for is that we constantly frame and re-frame glimpses of God so that people can begin to see Him in new ways. We will never run out of things to say or to sing about when it comes to God because he is so far above our understanding. We just take His Word and what He has revealed to us through it and we try to express it in fresh ways and from different vantage points. His glory, His goodness, His faithfulness, His justice, His perfect love............this could go on forever and still we would be in awe! Even what we see in nature is all a reflection of God's creative perfection.
The same principals apply not only to songs. Are we not all engaged in worship every day with all we do? Our lives are lived out of worship to something. We were made for it. We either live to worship ourselves and things that we can tangibly see, or we worship the One who created all of it. Whether we like it or not every human life and every living thing points to God's glory and majesty. He is the author of life.
As Christians, we need to live our lives in such a way that give people insight into who God is. Snapshots of His character and His heart. If we are to be salt and light we need to be proper reflections of God's character. We must ourselves, "press on to know the Lord" so that as we grow in the knowledge and understanding of who God is, though the power of His Spirit, we will become more like Him. Then we can begin to bring this world "Glimpses of Glory".
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The Great Fudge-Off from Kurt Felsman on Vimeo.
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There was one small problem though...........God was doing something that made me uncomfortable. You see, months earlier while leading worship at a small youth retreat he convicted me by His Spirit by pointing out to me that there were areas of my life where I was retaining control. I always felt that God had gifted me to lead His people in worship and to be involved in music but I had all but given up. I tried to be faithful by volunteering at my local church, leading the worship. I wanted to be used, but God would have to use me where I was because I was comfortable with my life.
It was in late March of 2010, after I lead 30 teens in worship, I told God that he had full reign over my life and my families lives and that I would no longer hold on to my geography. "I WILL GO." Looking back now, one of the most significant choices I may have ever made. It wasn't three weeks later that I received a call from Peter Khosla, someone I had only heard about through mutual acquaintance. I knew Peter owned 7Spin records, From The Ground Up management company, and Quick Artist booking agency. I heard from friends, that he was a great christian man and very reputable. I also knew he was incredibly driven and young for all he had accomplished in life. What I didn't know was that he was also on a search committee for a church in Valparaiso, Indiana. Calvary Church had been searching for a Worship Director and through mutual friends, Peter gave my name to the church as a candidate and wanted to know if I would consider moving. WOW!!
I told God I would give Him free reign but this was really fast!! I wasn't prepared to be asked to consider leaving all I knew so quickly. Lyndsye and I thought and prayed for a few days and at the end, felt like we had no choice but to take a step of faith. We filled out an online application for the job and God began to work. Throughout most of last summer I slowly closed up my business, we traveled to Valparaiso once a month to lead worship and we began preparations to immigrate to the U.S. and move from all we had ever know. We said our goodbyes to our families, our friends and our church. We wept when we pulled out of our driveway in a big moving truck. We worried about what we were doing to our kids and how all of this would effect them. We were scared! We couldn't see the future but knew that God was calling us and although it was not easy, we trusted Him.
We officially arrived in Valpo in October of 2010 and I started life as a full time worship leader. There were dark days, I can't lie. We missed home so much. We missed family. It was painful to see our kids struggle to adjust and we repeatedly asked ourselves if we had done the right thing. We had to take it one day at a time. God had not just dumped us though, he was only beginning. We began to build great relationships and develop a great community of friends. The kids slowly began to make friends and find their stride in school and we began to be more comfortable with our role at the church. Pastor Lionel Young made our family feel so welcomed and has developed into such an amazing Godly mentor for my life. Little did I know the things God had placed on his heart. God still, was just beginning...........
We became great friends with some guys who happened to be in the Christian band Sevenglory based out of Valpo and as the months progressed they found themselves without a singer. I told them I could fill in for some shows and one thing lead to another. With full support from Calvary and Pastor Lionel I am now the lead singer for Sevenglory. This was never on our radar. Also, driven by Pastor Lionel, Calvary church now houses 7Spin recording studios of which my office is right next door to. Sevenglory has just recorded an EP there and we hope to have it packaged and in hand within a week. What a year!!
Lyndsye and I have grown in our faith, grown in our relationship with each other and are continually being challenged by amazing friends to live with all our might for the kingdom. Our kids have made great friends and are excelling in school. I am a full time worship leader and front man for a Christian Band. I am being mentored by one of the most brilliant men I have ever met and we are preparing to purchase a home here. These are just a few things God had put together.
Taking a step back and looking at all that has transpired in a year is humbling and makes me stand in awe of the God who has orchestrated my life. He never does things half way and always does more than we could fathom. My prayer is that I continue to have the faith and strength required to keep up! I want to live with all of my might while I do live and to bring God glory with all that I do. He never fails. He makes all things work for my good and His glory and I still can say, "He is just beginning".
Kurt