Communion

                                             

          What's happening my friends!!! It's been awhile I know.....but I'm glad to still
 Be able to do this! We should take advantage of every means to get the word out and be an encouragement to someone. I was thinking earlier this week about the reason we were created by God. Many people have different answers for this question. Some think we are on this earth to make as much money as possible...some to have as much sex as possible...some seem like they are only here to eat everyone else out of house and home! All of these things were created by God and used in their proper context are not bad in and of themselves.... But we have made gods of them and we do all we can do to fill those desires and needs that have been created. The first chapter of Romans addresses this as "worshipping the creature more than the creator".....when what we were really created to do was to worship or commune with God! When God created man, he made him in his own image and in his own Likeness and then breathed into man everything that he is.....solely that he would have someone to commune with on his own level! Adam could talk to God and understand what God was talking about when they did so. Adam had the wisdom and intelligence that God had given him and their relationship was intact until Adam thought he would go after something he already had! He already has wisdom...and he already had eternal life...( there was no death yet...only regeneration) when he did this it broke the link that they had and it could not be repaired by saying "I'm sorry!" there had to be blood shed. This is where Jesus comes in......HIS perfect sacrifice repairs that breach when we apply the Blood he shed for us! In order to have communion with God there must be intimacy and agreement....well when we are out of fellowship with God we can't be intimate and we certainly can't agree because we are in the wrong! We can't commune unless we can agree with him....if we don't agree with ALL of the word of God and what He calls right or wrong, we can't commune. Gods greatest desire toward us Is to be able to commune with us...to talk with us in the cool of the day...reason with us...so much so that he gave his only son to restore that communion with man that was lost when Adam fell. From that time to this, that is the true heart of God...restoring the fellowship he once had with man.
On the music Side of things, there is a level of communion that goes on when we're in an ensemble context between the musicians. Our communion with God is primarily vertical, through the blood of Jesus...but one of the often neglected elements is our horizontal ones....the ones With people. We can't expect to have effective communion with God and not even be able to relate to our fellow human beings! Musicians....learn the language of music so you can commune with your fellow musicians and not just "talk at them" when we learn how God thinks and his ways ( through the word) we are learning the language of God ( stuff that Adam knew) now we have to go to school to re-learn all the things Adam forgot after the fall!!!.......learn to read....become proficient on your instrument, study styles and new genres so you can commune with more than just musicians who look like you!...all of this affords you the ability to say more than just a few sentences on your chosen instrument. Its all about an intimate eye to eye, peer to peer level of communication. Do this....you won't regret a deeper relationship with God AND man!....Blessings!!!

Don't eat your own seed!

                   Hello once again! I have a question to ask you.....are you eating your seed?
Let that sink in for a second....just think about it for a minute. God gives us seed to sow...the word says seed to the sower and bread to the eater. The seed is meant to be sown/planted and there should be a crop that is harvested at some point. I have learned something about the feeding of the multitude that I want to share......it may be something you already know so bear with me...it was an eye opener for me. One instance of Jesus feeding a multitude had 5000 men besides the women and children with one person out of them all who had anything to eat at all. The little boy with the 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread (read that seed) was willing to take his seed and place it in Jesus' hand and let him multiply that seed so everyone could eat. He could have eaten his own lunch and been full but he chose to "plant his seed" instead. When we choose to eat our seed instead of plant our seed, we are operating out of, living in a place of selfishness. I'm gonna feed ME by eating MY seed and everyone else will have to get their own! Sound familiar? We live around it everyday....we see it all around us...and now people not only want to eat their seed...they want to eat yours too! Because the little boy chose to "plant"his seed, not only did the 5000 men, the women and children eat, but HE also was able to eat from the multiplication of his seed as well! When I'm willing to plant my seed and not eat it....others benefit from it as well as me.
                  When it comes to music and being a musician, I have to be careful about eating my seed too. What I have gained in the form of knowledge and ability as well as experience needs to be planted in others so that it can grow and new seed can come from that to be planted in other places to keep the reproduction and benefits perpetuating. Younger musicians can learn some things that will help them to maybe avoid pitfalls in their development and reach goals faster and more efficiently. If I keep all that to myself, I am selfish and not concerned about what I have to offer growing and developing. I Amy eat from it...but everyone else will starve.
           Make sure that you're not operating from a place of selfishness and eating your own seed....plant your seed....and not just anywhere....place it in the hands of the ONLY one who can bring increase and sustain the multiplication of what you have been trusted with! 
    Until next time, God Bless you!    Bayce3

Being more God Conscious

           What's good everybody.....(not even sure there is an "everybody" reading this!) anyway....lol....was just here thinking about being God conscious as opposed to being people conscious. I really think that we can spend so much time worried about how someone else perceives us and what we can do to please them and make them happy until the most important things go lacking....like for instance how God perceives us! We can have the entire world thoroughly impressed with our actions and antics and they'll all be patting us on the back and congratulating us, giving us ribbons and little plastic gold trophies with "other fake lil men" on them! And we eat it up and ask for more!.....meanwhile, back at the ranch, God is looking at how deficient we are when it come to the things He cares about which is people being MINISTERED to....not entertained! When I say ministered to, I'm talking about needs being met, hungry being fed, naked being clothed, the bound being loosed, sick ones healed....not always standing in some pulpit and bashing them over the head with a Bible! You don't have to tell an alcoholic he's drunk...he already knows that! We spend the majority of our time "jumping through hoops to please lost people" and less time finding out how to please the one who loved us enough to die for us and bring us back to himself so we could reach those same lost folks we spend so much time trying to please! I'm just as guilty as anybody else but that has to change if I'm going to be effective for God! I LOVE people! I don't always like what they do to themselves and to each other but I love them because that's who God is concerned about and we are HIS hands extended on the earth. If we take some inventory of our lives and switch that around, we'll find that when we are more God conscious than we are people conscious, the people will benefit more from being around us than when we are just "performing" for them! Think about it....
               Now....as a musician this works out the same way. When I'm hired to do a job as a musician...I want to know what I need to do to fulfill the needs of the person hiring me. First and foremost I need to recognize that my gifts and abilities did not originate with me! God is the giver of the gift and the giver must be the one pleased FIRST with what I do with it! If I play/write/compose/produce music I do that as unto the Lord first and if I can please him with my attitude and motives and results then man's standard will not only be met...but exceeded! God's ways are are higher than my ways and His thoughts than my thoughts so therefore his standards are higher as well! If I'm conscious that whatever I do I do in the presence of the Lord....I will do it with more care and attention to detail than if I were just doing it in the presence of say..."Todd the bandleader!" when we place our focus on the giver of the gift and not the beneficiary of the gift, the beneficiary receives more benefits! Savvy?
             Let's become more God conscious than people conscious.....it's really better for the people we deal with when we do this! God Bless and keep you till next time!
                                                Bayce3

Where did it come from?

                                                
         Whats happening people?! Hope this entry finds you all well and prosperous! I was reading in Matthew 25 today and the parable that jumped out at me was the one about the wealthy man who gave out the talents to his servants starting at verse 13...."yeah, so what!" you say? I know we've all heard or read this parable a hundred times but I genuinely love when on that one hundred and first time reading it, you see something you didn't see before! Well I saw this....which is not to say you haven't already so bear with me.....thanks! I noticed that number one, the rich man KNEW his servants and what they were able to handle...."gave to them according to their several abilities..." check out how he gave one servant 5 talents, another servant 2 talents and the last one received just one...the wisdom of the rich man in not giving the "one talent guy" 5 talents is the foreknowledge that he wouldn't be able to handle them and would more than likely lose them instead of make them grow. He also knew that the "two talent guy" might be overwhelmed by the 5 but was capable at the 2 level! The "one talent guy" was given the one because even if he lost it, the loss wouldn't be as great as it would were he to lose 5. His master knew he wasn't able to handle much, so he gave him a little to see how he would do with that. The whole point of all of this is God expects us to be profitable/ bear fruit/ grow/ expand/ multiply/ gain and prosper with whatever HE trusts us with. He wants us to show that we're good stewards over what HE gives us, so He can give us more to work with. Notice also that NONE of the servants had their own talents to work with. They were GIVEN TO THEM BY THEIR MASTER.....He gave to them their "several abilities" as well so he knew who could handle what! It's not your or my job to be concerned about who can handle what and why or why not!.....Thats up to God! I just need to be concerned about taking the little he GIVES ME and using the abilities He gave me to make it grow FOR him...not for me.....the last thing they did when the accounting time came was give a report on their progress and GIVE IT ALL BACK TO HIM. They weren't concerned about being rewarded for what they had done, because it was their "reasonable service" as servants! The rewards came after they had proven themselves FAITHFUL over what He had entrusted them with.
                  Now..........you know I always tie these in with music somehow.......musicians and singers don't focus so much on the size (or lack thereof) of the talent given to you, or the place in which you're planted to carry that out...and forget that it's supposed to grow under your care! I may never be onstage with some of the "so called greats" of the music world but if I'm faithfully serving where I'm planted, my reward for being a good steward will be just as significant if not greater than being mobbed by crowds and constantly patted on the back and congratulated for something I couldn't even give to myself anyway! We cannot fall into the trap of viewing what we do and where we happen to do it as insignificant and small....if that's where God placed you, then that's probably all you could handle at the time! That's not to say He won't ever promote us but we have to prove that we can handle that without it "handling us." Lastly, Going through the motions is just as bad as "burying your talent in the earth" because at the end of the day we're giving Him back the very same thing he gave us with NO fruit to show.....He could've just kept that if that's all He wanted from us when He passed those things out! I may not be onstage with Fred Hammond or Prince or anybody else....but I'm at GCR (Gods City of Refuge) serving faithfully and you better believe when the time of accounting comes....I'm gonna have fruit by way of increase to show for what He's called me to do!.............Now......will you?
                  God Bless you till next time!..........Bayce3

Working as a Team

                        There is an aspect of what we do as Christians that constantly gets overlooked. We are the body of Christ and just like our natural body, different members have different jobs and those jobs have to be done in an orderly fashion for the body to operate effectively and efficiently. There is a certain "flow" to the way the body operates and just like in our own natural body, sometimes things come in to interrupt the flow and things break down....we have to guard against anything that will disrupt the "flow" and cause us to have to stop and "fix stuff!" There is an established order of things in the body and those are set in place by God. Whenever there is a part that rebels and refuses to operate as it was designed, it is cancerous to the rest of the body and must be removed or it will affect the other parts of the body until the body is destroyed or so disabled that is of little or no use at all! We as Christians need to operate in the several measures that we are created to operate in and not try to be something we weren't designed to be. Doing this will insure that the body operates efficiently and effectively.
                     When it comes to music, it's the same principal....knowing our place in the band and what we are supposed to be contributing to the overall "sound" is imperative if the music is going to be "music" and not just noise! As a bassist, my job is to lock in with my rhythm section partner, the drummer/percussionist to create a rock solid foundation. If at any time I feel it's necessary to compete with them rhythmically instead of complimenting each other I am becoming a "cancer" and firing me will restore the flow that makes music music! Know your job, be proficient AT your job and DO your job. If every member focusses on their own responsibility in the band, then every area will be covered and the music won't sound like two trains hauling a load of drunken cats had a head on collision! Know your Job, be good at your job and do your job......let's make the body work and the music sound like music!
                       Until next time, be blessed.........Bayce3

The fruit we bear

                                        The Fruit We Bear

             I was just sitting here thinking about the "fruit" we are to bear and realized, all of a sudden, that the tree does not eat it's own fruit.... John 15 states that Jesus is the true vine and we are the branches and we are supposed to bear fruit as long as we are connected to the vine which is our source! We cannot bear fruit if we disconnect from the vine, no matter the reason why! That same scripture states that if we don't bear fruit, we are cut away/ and cast into the fire to be burned...anything that is separated from it's source will die unless it's reconnected to the source again. The tree that bears the fruit is fulfilled in that its doing it's job bearing that fruit, even though the fruit will not be eaten by the tree that bore it.... That fuit benefits someone else. It is exactly the case with us! The fruit we bear is for the benefit of Someone else...not necessarily for us. The thing we need to learn is that we are here to first of all bring glory to God, and then fulfill the purpose for which we were created, ministering to the needs of a hurting, dying creation.
                When it comes to music, all the practice time, the woodshedding, the disappointments and rejection/ridicule all work together to help us bear food fruit- make good music. Trees go through seasons of cultivation.... fertilizing, pruning and sometimes weathering of storms before they get to a place that they can even begin to bear fruit. Musicians worth their "salt" will NOT skip the process to get to the end result.....you can't anyway.......when we go through the process and deal with all the rough times, the result should be the ability to operate at such a level of proficiency that ANY idea that comes to you should be transferrable to your instrument with little effort....bearing fruit...others then have the opportunity to enjoy what u produce as a musician.
           When we enjoy the fruit form a tree, we can do so without having to partake in the process the tree went through to bear the fruit. People will enjoy the music we produce without having to be in the "shed" with us while we're learning. I guess in short, learn to embrace your process, realizing that the fruit you will bear will be that much sweeter!
            God Bless you till next time.........Bayce3

Rise above offenses

Whas happening brothers and sisters? Just wanted to rehearse this word we heard at God's City over this past weekend, coming from Pastor O'Keefe, Pastor of Kingdom Life Mininstries in Roanoke Va. The word was simply let's learn how to rise above these petty offenses that keep slowing the body of Christ down. We need to focus on building such strong relationships with each other until we KNOW without thinking twice that if there is a confrontation of any type, that I'm coming to you or you're coming to me from a place of love and not malice! We learned that in order to be offended I have to occupy a place of "ego" and I can only be offended if i "allow" myself to be offended! It's amazing that we can spend so much time together and a few little words can destroy literally years of relationship building! We need to get rid of these things or we will never be the effective body that creation is waiting to see manifest in these last days!
Now as it relates to music, a great musician once answered a question about what was the most important thing to him in life.....he responded..."the women children and the rythmn section first!" now obviously as Christians, if you are a believer, God is gonna be before anything else...but as a musician and rythmn section player, I understood exactly what he meant. As a bassist, my relationship with my drummer is THE most important in an ensemble setting. If the rythmn section is weak, so is the rest of the band, because the rythmn section is the "foundation." I have to know him/her and the way they think musically as well as how they respond to life situations! The better I know the person behind the drums, the tighter we are gonna be as a section, then the other instruments have a solid foundation to build on and the music is alive and breathing as a result. I have also been in situations where I have not had the luxury of building that relationship beforehand and had to trust that we would connect musically until we had time to get to know each other. Sometimes we find ourselves in this situation in a non-musical context as well and I need to know that you mean me no harm if you approach me about something that may be hindering you....its all about GROWTH! If I can't say something to you without you getting mad, takin all your "toys" and going home, we won't accomplish very much together....whether musically or otherwise!
Bottom line is I need to know you love me and you know that I love you and mean you no hurt and definitely no offense. I'm just trying to see US grow together and vice versa! God Bless you all, until Next time!. Bayce3