My song “Sanctuary of My Heart” from my debut CD by the same title as of yesterday has been released to Christian radio. Please be sure to call your local Christian radio stations and request that they play the song. Thank you all for your support!
God Bless – Rick
I made it to Nashville TN today (only a 9 hour drive – not too bad) for Gospel Music Week. I’m looking forward to all the week’s activities and hopefully meeting others who can help get the music out to even more fans like you.
I’m planning on meeting with a Radio promoter to try to get “Sanctuary of My Heart” playing on radio. It would be helpful if you would contact your local Christian radio stations and request the song to be played.
In the meantime if you want to hear “Sanctuary of My Heart” or any other of the songs on the CD please check it out at www.RickStephensonMusic.com
Have a blessed week!
Rick Stephenson
Here’s a thought:
Light invades darkness – darkness does not invade light. In other words darkness can not change light but light can change the darkness. Think about it this way - darkness is a result of withdrawing the light not the otherway around, you can’t withdraw darkness and have light, you can only add light to remove the darkenss. As light shines forth, the present darkness is slowly transformed to conform to the light. Picture a sunrise, as the sun rises, the surrounding darkness begins to become transformed into visible shades and shadows until all that fills the space is revealed by the light.
This is the way it is with God, when we worship and invite God’s presence into our midst. The longer we wait upon God and the more He rises in our situation, the more we come to the realization of not only who He is but also of who we really are. As we linger in the same arena as the Almighty, the more we become transformed into His image and likeness. However, for those that are unwilling to go through this transformation, they are driven back into a continuous chasing of themselves just as the night revolves behind the sun rise.
Isn’t it time we all stopped running and hiding in the darkness of sin and allow the warmth of God’s light to penetrate our hearts. Then and only then will we begin to see our potential clearly. There’s no more need to retreat – let the light shine!
Alright – I know it’s been a while - Ok - more than a while (you may have thought I had passed on with how long it’s been), but as I promised recently to some of you, I have decided to update my posts and I will try to become a little more timely in the future. So with out further delay I wanted to dive into the all too familiar topic of Potential.
The following thoughts actually hit me several springs ago and since we are only a few days away from spring now I thought I’d pull out this piece and relay it. One spring night I was sitting around our little backyard fire pit entertaining friends and as the night was enclosing and the fire was fading these thoughts came to mind. I hope you will understand what I am trying to say.
When looking at a fire and watching the burning of the wood, I am amazed a how little ash remains of the once great chunk of wood it started out to be. Then I think of how before that wood was burned, it possessedoutstanding potential. That wood could have been used for so many useful things like a doorway, vase, bowl, picture frame, lumber for a house or even some paper for writing on. However, what was the fate of this simple piece of wood? To be spent in a fire in the middle of Spring not simply for heat as if in the dead of Winter for even that would have had it’s productive use. No, this fire was only capitalized for its entertaining value. All of its potential and abundant energy was expelled into a few dancing flames and wisps of smoke.
This wood and fire is like so many of our lives. Many lives are put to good use realizing the potential contained within but unfortunately too many more lives are spent in simple pursuit of pleasure in the here and now. Before one knows it, they turn after countless seasons of expending energies on meaningless things only to find their hopes, dreams, as well as their futures have crumbled into a heap of ashes and their potential is lost in a proverbial puff of smoke.
How do you avoid becoming an ash pile? Intention! Focused intention to be precise. We must constantly reevaluate where we are in our lives and where it is we want to go in order to reach our dreams. Hence, the importance of goal setting should be obvious. Even God said that without a vision (purpose, goal, focused intention) the people perish (Proverbs 29:18). I personally know that even with intention we can still become distracted with the cares of this world. Hence, the need for focused intention. How do we become focused? And on what do we properly focus so as to avoid the distractions? The answer is quite simple but sometimes harder to apply. The answer is God’s word and His purpose for our lives. If we find out from God why we are here then we can live with intention. And by staying in His word we become focused on completing His purpose. By combining both we have focused intention in which the blaze of our lives will give off the heat of purpose and not some entertaining sense of loss to others watching.
God bless and go live with purpose! Develop a focused intention today by getting into God’s word!
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It is my view that things which happen in the natural have something to show us or tell us in the spiritual. Given the current state of our economy and the franticness of the government’s attempts to do something about it there seems to be lessons we can learn spiritually. As we see in the natural, there is much talk these days about bailouts and stimulus packages, and who’s going to get what or how it will affect the average American. One thing that is often missed in the discussions is the question of how did we get in to this mess in the first place. Could it be the fulfillment of the scripture which indicates that the love of money is the root of all evil? If so, then perhaps a love for money caused us to take our eyes off of more important things like caution or practicalities as we pursued instead speculation and risk management. Now we (or someone else) are paying the price for our greed.
It works the same way in the spiritual realm. When we take our eyes off of righteousness and proper living for God taking more “risks” with the world, in the end we (or someone else) must pay the price as a result. If we pay the price we call it judgment and the end result is eternal damnation. If we accept the fact that someone else paid the price for us – as in Christ upon the cross – then we have been bailed out of our situation. If we didn’t know Christ at first and we come to this realization of our bailout, we understand then how salvation works and we are given a fresh start. If we already know Christ and yet we have felt ourselves slipping for what ever reason in our relationship, then what we need is spiritual “stimulus” to get us perked up and back on track. This spiritual “stimulus” can take several forms such as a scripture quote we come across, a friend who gently reminds us, a preacher who gives a message at the right time when we need it, a friendly blog (perhaps like this one) or even natural events that cause us to step back and ask ourselves what’s happening and how does this affect me (both physically and spiritually)? In either case of a bailout or a stimulus they are undeserved and freely given, which is exactly how God has offered them to us. The only thing we need to keep in mind is that a bailout or stimulus is not a licenses for us to keep on doing the same old things, they are to help us learn what got us in the position in the first place and what can we do to live out a change so we don’t get back in to the same position. Therefore, I urge us all: please don’t be afraid to ask God when you need a bailout or His stimulus, be grateful when it comes your way, and do your best to learn from your past while committing your future to a better path by following God’s plan for your life!
