Healing In Your Hands…

“Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all things we are made more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35 – 39

Several weeks ago I set out on the Glory In The Highest Christmas tour, ready to spend a few weeks of worship with great friends, celebrating the amazing season of Advent. I set out on the journey having just recovered from a terrible stomach virus that 11 of the 15 relatives at my parents house experienced first thing Thanksgiving morning! When I headed out on tour, I was so grateful that all of that was over and I was ready to get well and enjoy my travels…

First night in, we had rehearsals at a church in Florida and the next night would be the first concert. That evening, after dinner, an all too familiar pain in my stomach came over me. For most of the night, I kept my plight to myself, thinking surely this was just my stomach trying to get back to normal and it would be gone by morning. By morning though, I was in the local ER, writhing in pain! I stayed there most of the day and the tour left me behind in a hotel since they were only driving 150 miles or so to the next town. The next day, I arose and was able to rent a car and get to the next concert. Again, thinking, “whew…glad that’s over”…I sang that night, but as the night continued I found myself having to talk myself into staying on stage for the next song. I made it to the end and pretty much ran and collapsed on the bus in pain. This landed me back in the ER that night and the tour had to leave me, this time driving hundreds of miles away.

Long story short, some of us refer to my hospital stay as “The Twilight Zone” and my adventures there were unforgettable in many ways, including my 80 year old roommate… I stayed 3 days, wondering, pouting and pretty much whining…asking God “what sort of purpose do you possibly have in this?” I was away from my family and was supposed to be leading worship several hundred miles away from where I was lying, helpless.

For whatever reason, God took my health from me for about 10 days at the end of 2009, and made me be still before Him so I could hear Him clearly on some things…things I’m convinced were crucial for the health of my heart and my soul. During that time, I remember talking to Jesus a lot. Some of it was “help me Jesus” or “thank you Jesus” when the pain would subside for a little while…but I remember having a very real sense that He was there with me.

I’m in awe and so grateful that we have a great intercessor and His name is Jesus. He sees the stuff of our hearts and He prays for us, even when we have no clue of how deep our need is for Him. I’d love to somehow catch wind of the things that Jesus prays over His own! I can almost picture Him now, standing over me during that time, knowing how much I needed to be laying right where I was…and Him praying over my every need. Eventually the physical healing that would take place in me became much more about a spiritual healing that needed to happen… There is purpose in each peril we encounter and nothing we experience, gain or loss, could separate us from His great love over us. I’m not saying that every physical challenge is because there is a spiritual lesson we must learn…I certainly don’t know the mind of God. I do know though, that His word says “in all things we are MADE more than conquerors.” Jesus is interceding for us at the right hand of the Father and we are being “made” more than conquerors through Him. We are being “made” to overcome…be it sickness, be it sin, sorrow or even death…through Jesus, it has no sting and we have overcome. How beautiful…

There is much sickness around us these days, much hardship and trial, certainly far beyond what I experienced a few weeks ago… Some are suffering from wounding and pain from the past, addictions and secrets kept… It seems that I get a prayer request at least a few times a week from a family that has just received what feels like earth-shattering news about someone they love deeply. We pray for healing, for miracles and beg God to intervene. We pray to that end, yet fully knowing God is sovereign and He will be glorified in any outcome that He permits. What I’m most grateful for is that we can hold on to the great comfort we have in His word…it’s full of His promises! The great Physician, with the best bedside manner out there, has promised that nothing can separate us from His love…period. The best visual I can think of when I hear “nothing can separate us from His love”, is if we can’t be separated from it, it must be true that we’re very much connected to it! We’re linked, we’re bonded, we’re held together, and we’re forever attached to His love. When we walk through fire, the valley of the shadow of death…when we have sickness in our body, if we encounter warfare or even gain the riches of this world…if it can’t separate us from His love, it means we are held together (Colossians 1:15-18) and being “made” more than a conqueror through it, through Jesus our precious Savior.

We are in His hands, body, soul and spirit. John 3:35 says, “The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in His hands”. How blessed are we that we are held fast in such a place of great mercy and healing. Let us believe in Truth today that nothing could tear us apart from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He is with us, in every trial, big and small…holding us through every gain and every loss, interceding to the Father on our behalf. Past, present, future…healing is in His hands.

Christy Nockels
ChristyNockels.com

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NEW today on the FQ site is a video of “Where the Spirit of the Lord Is” with Chris Tomlin and Matt Gilder. It is FREE and accessible by everyone. Check it out!

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Worship Design – Our new Worship Design is our online central planning system for keeping all your worship planning in one place. Try it for free by signing up for the 30 Day Trial of All Access. We have included a calendar, accessibility by your entire team. the ability to have multiple teams, a place to upload your own MP3’s and PDF’s of charts, plus much more. The best way to see if Worship Design is for you is to try it out for a few weeks. Many who are using it are commenting on the time they are saving. Email us at info@fqworship.com if you have questions about Worship Design.

Sunday Set List – We would love for you to share your Sunday Set List with everyone. We have visitors from over 100 countries coming to fqworship.com. Many are worship leaders. Share with everyone on Twitter or Facebook your set list.

We now have a page set up on the FQ site highlighting the songwriters and their songs from our 2009 Worship Songwriting Event. Click on the rotating banner on the home page to go to the page. Each song is available to be heard on the 2009 Songwriter Page. Check it out!

On January 12th an earthquake shook Port-au-Prince leaving thousands dead and many more without food, water, or shelter. Now, more than a month later, Compassion International is still standing with the people of Haiti.

Compassion has been meeting the physical and spiritual needs of Haitians for more than forty years and will continue to serve them in this time of extreme need. Already Compassion International has supplied more than 15,000 families with clean water, food, blankets, temporary shelter, medical supplies and counseling. Go to helphaitilive.com for more information.

Help Haiti February 27th – HelpHaitiLive.com from Compassion International on Vimeo.

Songs will be chosen to be played in one of three weeks on FQ Radio. Listeners will vote to determine the top ten songs. The final ten songs will be judged by Chris Tomlin, Christy Nockels, and Jesse Reeves.

We look forward to hearing many new songs over the coming weeks.

Take time today to read all of Mark 4. Ask God to give you wisdom and discernment as you read his word.

If you lead others…
You must be firmly planted in the word of God.
You must accept his word and live it out.
You must bear fruit.

Verse 28 and following…

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet

THOSE WHO WAIT FOR THE LORD WILL GAIN NEW STRENGTH;
THEY WILL MOUNT UP WITH WINGS LIKE EAGLES,
THEY WILL RUN AND NOT GET TIRED,
THEY WILL WALK AND NOT BECOME WEARY.

Isaiah 40:28-31 (NAS)

Find the song, EVERLASTING GOD. Listen to it several times.
Read Isaiah 40:28-31.
Thank God that he is…
…Everlasting God.
…Creator of the ends of the earth.
…that he does not become weary or tired.
…that he is understanding.
…that he gives strength to the weary, to those who lack might.

Wait on him. Listen to him. Seek him. Search him. Draw near to him.

Amazed / Amazing

DEFINITION
1. surprised and filled with astonishment 2. inspiring or invoking a sense of wonder and awe.

INSIGHT
So many times in the New Testament, the authors of the gospels describe the effect that Jesus had on people as “amazing”. In seven different chapters, Matthew described the people as “amazed by His teachings” and “amazed by his works”. Mark, Luke, and John used the same word, “amazed”, to describe similar encounters between Jesus and the people of Jerusalem. Many people were amazed. For some of them, this was the first step of faith in accepting Jesus as the Christ- their Savior.

It is not a secret that when faced with God and His character, we cannot help but be amazed by Him. John Newton wrote about his experience of encountering God in the well-known song, “Amazing Grace”. Newton was a captain of a slave ship that carried slaves from Africa to America. He did this work for many years before being confronted by the Holy Spirit. Newton made a decision to turn his back on his sin and invited Christ to be His Lord and Savior. He describes his experience in the words of his song:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound!

That saved a wretch like me-

I once was lost, but now I’m found

Was blind but now I see.

-John Newton (1772)

***Interesting Fact: The first recording of Amazing Grace was in 1922!

WORSHIP THE AMAZING GOD
Just being in your presence leaves us in amazement, God. Knowing You and learning more about You leads us to even greater depths of worship. You are the source of goodness and joy and the fact that You desire for us to experience You amazes us. You are amazing, God!

“God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man.”

CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

The second type of pedal I want to focus on is the delay pedal. In my opinion, the two most important types of pedals to have in worship is an overdrive and a delay, so if you’re just starting out, a delay is a good place to start. Delay pedals simply take the original signal from the guitar and delay it so that it sounds like an echo. Sounds simple enough, but like most types of pedals, the choices of delay pedals are almost limitless, and there are several categories of delays as well. We’ll talk about two:

Analog

This includes pedals like the Electro-Harmonix Memory Man, a classic analog delay (one of my favorites) that is probably known best for its prominence in the sound of The Edge from U2, especially the early days. In the simplest terms, an analog delay pedal is a “lo-fi” echo, and are known for their warmth and fullness of sound. This means that they don’t replicate the sound exactly, but distort and trail off like you would expect a natural echo to. Most analog delays don’t incorporate functions like tap tempos or presets, which can make them problematic for players that only want to use one delay pedal and need versatility. They can be relatively expensive (about $315 for a new Memory Man), which represents a problem for the player on a budget. That being said, these pedals can be some of the best sounding pedals you will ever own, as long as you are willing to deal with a little lack of versatility.

Digital

A popular digital delay is the now-discontinued Boss DD-5, or its new counterpart the DD-7. These delays can exactly replicate your signal, which can be a good or bad thing depending on what you’re looking for. One of the biggest complaints about digital delays is the lack of warmth, but can provide much more functionality with tap tempos, presets, and modelers (“modeling” after several types of delays).

When I refer to a “tap tempo”, I am speaking of the ability to “tap” in your tempo to the pedal and therefore change the tempo of the echo.

Some delays to consider (Analog and Digital):
- Electro-Harmonix Memory Man – As stated before, this is one of my favorites in terms of sound, but the lack of a tap tempo is a big minus for me. The modulation on this pedal almost makes the price tag worth it by itself. ($319)
- Boss DD-20 and Line 6 DL4 – These two pedals are very similar and very popular. Both are digital delay modelers, which means they have the ability to model different types of delays, as well as having presets (3 on the DL4, 4 on the DD-20) which makes both of these pedals very versatile. The DL4 comes with an onboard tap tempo, while the DD-20 has the ability for wiring an external tap tempo switch in (The DD-20 has the ability for an onboard tap tempo, but the preset switch has to double as the tap, which lacks in practicality for on-the-fly tapping). (DL4 – $250, DD-20 – $220, Boss FS-5U – $30)
- Boss DD-5 and DD-7 – These are considered an almost necessity amongst many guitar players I know. They have very limited modeling capabilities, don’t have any presets, but they are more compact than the DD-20, also have plug-ins for external tap tempos, and are great for just getting the job done. (The DD-5 has been discontinued but you can still see them on eBay sometimes, DD-7 – $170)
- TC-Electronic Nova Delay – This pedal is the only delay I use right now, because it does everything I need it to do, including acting like two different delays at once! It’s an all-digital delay with up to 9 presets plus a manual mode that can be changed on-the-fly via footswitch, 3 types of modulation, and the ability to stack delays within itself (adding delays together = subdivision). For example, instead of having to choose whether I’m going to run a quarter-note delay or dotted eighth-note delay, I can actually run both at the same time. Worth the price tag to me at exactly the same amount for the DL4 or DD-20 with the footswitch, takes up less room on the board, and has more functionality. ($250)

There’s a ton of delays out there, but as always, take advice from guitar players who have done the homework and spent (wasted) the money already. BUT, that doesn’t mean you have to be like everyone else!

Always remember why/what/who you’re playing for,

Tyler
tyler@fqworship.com

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First, overdrive/distortion pedals.  The term “overdrive” or “distortion” is used to describe the tone of the guitar when the original clean signal begins to break up; the signal is essentially pushing the amp or pedal over the clean amplification levels, or over their “limit”, thus causing the signal to distort.  The two terms are generally interchangeable, but overdrive is usually describing a lower gain pedal, while distortion describes higher gain pedals.  Overdrive pedals are NOT the same as overdriving an amplifier, and are used to create more energy, strength, and volume (or just to ROCK OUT).  Most of the time, these pedals are essential in getting a good guitar tone, and finding the right one can be a costly and time-consuming venture.  Luckily, there are some chumps like me that have spent enough money to hopefully have some decent advice!  Most of the time, I try to stick with the self-labeled “overdrive”, or lower-gain pedals, and chain them together if I need a very distorted signal.

1. My absolute favorite (today, that is), is the Paul Cochrane Tim, a two-stage overdrive that doesn’t change the essence of your guitar (the mark of a great pedal), but adds all the harmonics and tasty overdrive you could want.  Con – Right now the Tim is on a 4 – 7 month waiting list, or you can go to eBay to pay $50-$100 more to have it now.  ($169)
2. One of my favorites is the OCD overdrive, made by Fulltone (a great brand to stick with for pretty much anything), which has a very non-compressed, raw quality that can push a good Fender amp into Marshall-type grind without breaking a sweat.  Has a switch for lower gain British-type crunch or higher gain American crunch.  ($150)
3. My other love is a Robert Keeley-modded Ibanez TS-808.  If you’ve been around guitar players very much, you have seen the 808 (or its counterparts, the TS-9 or 10).  This pedal is famous for its classic bluesy/classic rock sound (and how could a SRV fan not have one of these?), however, the midrange on this pedal gets a little too powerful for me, so I sent it in to Robert Keeley (robertkeeley.com) to mod it for me, which was worth every penny.  Keeley did his more/less mod, giving the pedal the ability for both more gain and less gain, which made it a great volume boost alternative for me.  ($180-reg pedal; $50-Keeley non-true bypass mod; $250-new from Keeley w/True Bypass)
4. Another great pedal is the Fulltone Fulldrive 2, which has become the standard overdrive in many respects.  Another two-stage overdrive, this pedal is based off of the original TS-808s.  Many say that the older versions (black knobs instead of white) sound better, but I suppose that’s mostly preference, and the new ones come with a MOSFET boost option. ($170)

So those are some of my favorites.  Some other great brands are Lovepedal, Keeley, Diamond, and Xotic Effects, among many others.  The great thing about all of these effects pedals is that there are so many available, everyone can find something they like.  However, because there are so many available, I hope this gives you some point of reference for where to start.  In a lot of ways, you can’t replace a good guitar and a good amp, but at least these pedals can be a cheaper alternative for the time being, or an addition to the setup.

Humility first, and always for His glory,

Tyler
tyler@fqworship.com

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