One of our bands and several people from The Rock were at Gateway Mall last weekend, playing some music, giving away free download cards, and inviting people to church! Here is a glimpse of what happened.

It’s funny to me because the more and more I share with others, the more encouraged I am about God, truth and the coming back of our King Jesus!

Next month will be my four year anniversary of giving my life to Jesus in Steele’s basement. After this I lost my band, my girlfriend, and my house and God tore down the world that I knew within about two weeks. I tried rebuilding it on my own, got a new band, got the house back and convinced the girlfriend to stay.

God was still passionately encouraging me to stop living the way I was, so he stepped in. Came home one night from a sermon Steele had preached on David and Saul. Pride vs humility before God. I had resolved I wanted to be a man like David and headed home to confess my sins to everyone and get my heart clean. When I walked in I found about 100 people in my house I did not know. They were all drunk and most of them underage.

They had ripped the doors off my rooms and were playing beer pong with the doors in my kitchen. When I went down stairs into my room everything had been stolen including all of my music equipment. The walls also had holes punched into them. All that remained was a few t-shirts, my bed and a stolen laptop I had bought for $100.

In this moment like a loud speaker in my hear I heard God say, “Will you be a Saul or David?” I ran upstairs to the other room where my drummer had been and found my girlfriend Laying in bed next to my drummer.

In this moment I had lost my band, my girlfriend and my house all over again. God was desperately trying to pull my heart away from these things that would destroy me and bring me to him.

I moved out that night with what was left, got a job making $9 an hour and drove from layton to salt lake daily for work. A few months later I was on a budget, living with a brother in Christ and met my wife amanda.

Fast forward to now (four years later) I have a wonderful wife, a two month old daughter, a business that’s doing well, and a church family who I love deadly. God has completely flipped my life and given me a new life full of his joys.

All in all what God has been teaching me is that our testimonies are powerful and effective. They genuinely show the grace and power of God!

I encourage you to be bold and share what God has done in your life! Tell the great story of his love and how he too saved you from sin and death!

Your brother,

Kc Kelly

This song The Insider, was written by Caleb Yetton, Steele Croswhite and Paul Porter on the back of our bus while on mission touring Europe.

The song is written from Peter’s perspective of the Messiah. It begins with question and ends with worship.

Please understand that this was an impromptu, live recording in the back of a moving bus while the song was still being finalized.

It captures the emotion of a team, on mission for the King: To preach the Gospel, Make disciples, and baptize in the name of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

God bless you.

Steele

P.S., here are the lyrics.

The Insider
Words: Steele Croswhite
Music: Caleb Yetton Paul Porter

I heard some people talking- about a man on the street, some who called him a liar some people called him a king.

But I have seen them before man- yea I have heard it before – they are all faking prophets, hypocrites to ignore!

(Where is God?)

There were deaf people hearing, I saw blind people see, I watched the lame people running and the mute who could sing.

I saw Pharisees silenced, I saw pure jealousy, Heard hosanna in highest for Jerusalem’s king

(You alone are God)

Chorus

AHHH Wash over me- Hallelujah

AHH Sing over me- amen

And I saw you with Pilate- you were covered with blood- It was more than a lashing, you were blackened as mud,

Than I heard them all scoffing, I heard lies and deceit, and I watched them all laughing as they were nailing your feet.

(Where is God?)

Chorus

AHHH Wash over me- Hallelujah

AHH Sing over me- amen

I saw Mary rejoicing- and she cried you’re alive. And She told of us angels, dressed in robes made of light.

And we ran with all fury, what we found in the tomb, was not a crucified body… but a (blessed) empty room

(You alone are God)

The love of God is greater than anything we can ever possibly imagine. He sweeps His love across the stars with majesty and power. He gives oxygen, sight, delicious burritos, the ability to think, cars, shoes, the ability to enjoy, and on and on and on. People who are not saved, get to experience God’s love for a short time. (Rom 1:19-20, 9:22) The fact that He withholds his perfect wrath every moment this world continues to delve deeper into sin and depravity is in itself an expression of God’s love. The fact that the Church – the Saints of God, the People whom He has redeemed – get to approach Him in prayer, or have the divine revelation to understand Holy Scripture, or to sing praises, or live responsive worship is another expression of God’s love. Not only that, but that His love makes us new! (Ps 119:159)

He loves His Church, you and I: Christians. He shows love to His creation – for whatever time there is left. But He loves His holiness even more, for He is a jealous God (cf. Ex 20:5). And has every right to it – all of it. To submit to His love means the submission of all His attributes. One cannot simply choose to focus on, or hang onto just His love. The same can be said about His justice, or His providential blessings. A solitary focus of one characteristic of God apart from His fullness will create a parochial Christian, which inevitably leads to bad theology or even heresy. It is important to approach God with utmost anticipation of seeing all of Him that is humanly possible to see and understand. To begin to try and understand the love of God, you must take into consideration His other attributes.

That makes everything much more meaningful, and God’s love is experienced in a beauty never seen before.

All that to say, how can learning more of, finding and seeing the fullness of God – in His expressed love to you – intensify and strengthen your relationship with Him? See the old you. Seeing the person He saved you from. Knowing the way you think, or act, or speak, and how much God has spared you; changed you! Knowing that you are fearfully and wonderfully made – as His image bearer. Knowing that He is so massively fierce but so peaceably close to you. Born again isn’t just a contemporary catch phrase, it’s a reality. And it’s only possible by the love of God. (John 6:29)

The lyrics to the song “Your Love” were written with these things in mind. My prayers circled around this: “Your love makes all things new, changes me, is the only thing I need, saved me, gives me the ability to love you back…” And even brought me to a place, to which I still at times wrestle with, to fully submitting to God and believing that his justice and wrath are perfect – and He is Creator.

Realizing the importance of embracing all the attributes of God at this point in your life will make for the fulfillment of having a greater relationship with Him the rest of your life. After all, He created eternity because He saw it fit to be long enough to worship Him. And that is breath taking: to fully experience His love.

Here are the chord sheets tabbed for guitar and piano for “Your Love”.

God often uses one small event as a catalyst for changing lives. What began as a young drummer’s attempt at doing something unique, turned into a booming company, and also led to her life being forever transformed.

Liz Aponte of Respira Drums

Fifteen-year-old Liz Machlitt (Aponte) was a young drummer who wanted a fancy, custom kit.  Not having sufficient funds, however, the tenacious drummer and a friend decided to make their own.  “We took the current drum sets we had completely apart, figured out how to put them back together, and then tried it on our own shells and parts we had purchased,” explains Aponte.  The kits turned out more than sufficient, and Aponte’s ingenuity soon turned into an obsession.  She began her own drum making company while still in high school, which quickly became her life.  “All my satisfaction and worth came from drums and music,” she admits.  But eventually the company “was not going where I wanted it to go,” so Aponte bitterly gave up drum making and went to college instead.

“But,” she muses, “little did I know, my selfishness would lead to God’s faithfulness;” because it was in college, away from her old life of drums, music, and greed, where Aponte heard and received the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This heart change also altered her entire outlook on music.  She still loved music, but began to see it as a tool God uses, rather than a god in and of itself.  As she left behind the desires of the world, she “quickly learned music is not everything and worship is not just music.” While continuing to let God grow her and soften her heart, her two loves came full-circle. During this time, “slowly but surely, God planted the idea of Respira Collective into my head and breathed it into what it is today.” She wanted to fuse her love of Jesus into her passion for music, art, and drumming.  As stated on the Respira Collective website, “We make snare drums built with love and labor.” She is open about her faith and love for community with her clients; seeks personal relationships rather than making big money; and portions of all profits are donated to charities with similar visions.

Matt Greiner of August Burns Red

The Respira Collective began as a grass-roots company. Aponte made her first Respira Collective drum for a friend in 2008, and the word and spirit behind Respira began to spread.  Her clientele includes: Matt Greiner of August Burns Red, Morgan Wright of I, The Breather, Cody Carrier of Fallstar, Kenny Bozich & RK Topper of The Rock Music, Brian Schiedeman of Abandon Kansas, Evan Shubrooks of Free The Fallen, Sammy Vaughan of Forevermore, and so on. “The best part,” explains Aponte, “is that a friendship has grown with each one of these drummers, and they understand Respira is not just about drums.”

It was also during the early phases of Respira where she met her now-husband, who introduced her to The Rock Church, as well as The Rock Music.  A friendship and partnership for life was formed here, as the young couple has joined The Rock Music to continue their mission to “love God, bless the saints, and win the lost,” through the local church.

Kenny Bozich and RK Topper of The Rock Music

“In a world where people take music and use it as a pedestal for their own fame, satisfaction, and worth, I appreciate that The Rock Music does exactly the opposite. Every single musician loves God, and they know music is just a vessel to bless the saints and win the lost.  Using a powerful and emotional thing like music for God’s glory – amazing!”

The name Respira refers to the Spanish verb meaning “to breathe.” Aponte latched onto the idea that God breathes new life into His children once they are saved.  This is certainly true in her life, in the lives of the musicians of The Rock Music, and prayerfully, the lives they touch.

As musicians, we get really excited about writing new riffs, getting perfect tone, and coming up with fresh beats. But really, God created it all and he knows all music before we even play it. He created good tone, he created harmony and he has heard the angles singing since the day he created them. When we write, we are just discovering what God has already created somehow. So, what could we do as musicians to impress the Lord?

First, we can play our best for him. I believe God is honored in our excellence. See Shai Linne’s blog or Tim’s post on craftsmanship for more on this.

Secondly, we must make our hearts humble before the Lord. God looks at the heart of man not the outer appearance! We will never be able to write a melody that is impressive to God. It is however, possible to be pleasing to him in our worship. If our music is rooted in the gospel and centered on bringing God glory rather than ourselves, I believe God will delight in our music.

For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. — (1 Samuel 16:7)

Ultimately, we need to be concerned about how God sees our heart through our music and how the world is introduced to his grace. What a great balance that is! Show God a humble heart, bring the church before the throne of grace, and show the world that not only is our music incredible, it is the truth of the gospel.

From the words of the Little Drummer Boy:

I have no gift to bring, that’s fit to give the King. Shall I play for you, on my drum? Mary nodded. I played my drum for Him, I played my best for Him, Then He smiled at me, me and my drum.

Grace and Peace,

Austin

The Alive cd release was no exception. It really meant a great deal to me because of the amount of prayer that, as a church and musicians, we dedicated to this record. The album was constantly on my prayer list. Everyday my alarm reminded me at 2:08 (based on Psalm 2:8 “Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the whole earth as your possession”) to pray for the Alive record, and that God would do mighty things through the music. This record was a long time in the making: the concept came about in October of 2010, it was recorded on May 21, 2011 and then finally released to the public on November 12, 2011. For more than a year, the many contributing musicians and The Rock Church as a whole bathed this entire project in prayer.

The night of the cd release show was not just an ordinary concert. As musicians, we wanted the night to be a celebration of what Jesus has done with The Rock Music. We stripped the show down to simply an acoustic set including songs from every record that we have released, starting with Anything and ending with Alive. This was a great picture of The Rock Music. Twelve different musicians took the stage, playing their songs and discussing how God led them to write those songs. People connected on a deeper level because of a new understanding of the meaning of the songs. This alone was a huge win.

We turned the lounge of the church into an art gallery, displaying different pieces of artwork, flyers, pictures, and CDs documenting the history of The Rock Music. There was a booth set up with new stickers, buttons, download cards, t-shirts and, of course, the new record.Overall the night was an honor to God, showing what He has done with a few willing musicians who have committed their lives to serving Jesus and the local church!

Check out this little video from the night with the prayer right before we started (below) and click here to a complete set of images from the night! You can also pick up your copy here.

Serving the King –

Tony

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory, for the sake of Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness! – (Psalm 115:1 ESV)

He also showed me something deeply convicting, yet incredibly profound. The question of, “Do you really listen to Me?”

For quite some time now, I have seen a trend change in my relationship with Christ. The change was on my end. The change came from the Lord to correct me. God has revealed to me that He is always answering, always responding, always guiding. This is slight, and is greatly missed by the majority of Christians who aren’t seeking God in this way.

The unique way in his response is a simple “Wait.”

I often would dismiss this as God stepping away from me and leaving me in time out, while I spend hours, tears, breath, years in prayer over something. I conveniently neglected to doctrine of my God’s Sovereignty and Omnipotence. I irrationally chalked Jesus as impersonal or distant for not answering certain prayers; simply feeling isolated.

Three things that went wrong:

1. I was focusing on myself and my needs. My desire to know what God knows and not trusting in Him for my EVERYTHING.

2. I was believing lies from the enemy, as subtle as they were, lies nonetheless. Lies which lead to believing false things about God, about my relationship with Him and that I wasn’t doing the right things/enough things for my prayers to be answered.

3. I was asking God expecting my preferred answer. I prayed things with an intended response. I resulted in praying for God to cater to me.
The most amazing thing that God has done for me is save me on the basis of His unconditional grace. That it’s not on any merit of my worthiness or ability. And I made the bad decision to expect God to answer me how I wanted, in light of that incredible truth. It was a humble awakening, to be sure, when God corrected me of this.

In the last year, God showed me daily that He was answering me. In so many ways, in so vast arenas of life, He revealed His purpose and plan. It sometimes looked like one step at a time, or it looked like yielding to Him, but it’s an answer. A perfect answer. What an incredible miracle it is that He even does answer our prayers, or allow us to pray and commune with Him.

I think of Psalm 138:3 -
“On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased.”

When we call on God, He answers. Yes, No, or Wait. We should rejoice in those things. That He is personal and responds, and that He knows our needs more than we do. Even when it’s against our own desire, we rejoice. Why? “My strength of soul you increased.” It grows our relationship with Him! It nourishes our faith! We become more apt to listen to God, without expecting any predictable answers of our own liking. Our resolve ultimately then becomes the disposition of wanting God’s best. Wanting to want the things of God.

And even Psalm 37:4 -
“Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

When we are delighting ourselves in Yahweh, we are longing for the things of God. We have our utmost desire set on His truth and precepts. And when that becomes our heart’s desire, the rest of that verse He fulfills in our lives. “He WILL give you the desires of your heart.”

I’m so grateful for God’s instruction in my life on the important area of prayer. To expect to listen to God, and not try and listen for what I want to hear. Then, while God grows us in this area of listening to Him, we ask the question, “Am I responding?”

That’s a wild thought!

Soli Deo Gloria

Hayden