Wednesday Devo

Today’s Devotion is a new song that I have written. This song is my way of saying salvation is possible by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. May God grant you eyes to see and ears to hear. Redemption Hymn A holy God, A righteous son Requires of me, A holy love On my own, no gift to bring Where will I gain, such a thing? Dead in my sin, nowhere to go Broken life, without a hope I have no faith deep inside I fall short, His love provides Tears of sorrow, tears of joy Down on my knees a helpless boy In my life your glory known Only by grace, through faith alone Purchased by God, The great exchange He took my sin, I took his name His blood for sins, such a cost And not one drop is ever lost My spirit wills, my flesh is weak A sinful man, can he keep? But for His church, grace proves the way He draws us near and near we’ll stay No firmer grip than in his hand The will of God, now of man He holds us fast within his Grace In him we find our hiding place Josh Martin

Cowboy Up

We had a great time playing at both Cowboy Churches (Centerfield & Brandenburg). I was surprised with the Glad Tidings Christian Center - it's probably become one of my favorite places I've ever played. The room was nice and sounded great. We were also pleased to have Doug Dearinger come out and play with us again. He last played with us on our live recording. He's a phenominal musician. Here's what I like best about the Josh Martin Band: During soundcheck, Doug started messing around with a jazzy version of "White Christmas." One by one, we all joined in and played along for a few minutes. Josh turns around and says, "Yeah, we'll play that tonight." We pulled it out mid-set and it came off without a hitch. The crowd really seemed to enjoy it, and had no clue that we'd hardly rehearsed it! In other news, we had a "band meeting" tonight. We have some great things in store for 2006, including some new t-shirts, our next studio recording, and more stuff that you'll find out about later! In the mean time, we're taking December off to enjoy the holidays with friends and family. Adios! -Andrew

Wednesday Devo

Sick or Dead? I think it is pretty safe to say that none of us enjoy being sick. That is particularly true for me today. I have had a sore throat the past few days but wasn’t too worried until I started to lose my voice yesterday. We have two concerts this weekend so I thought I better not wait to the last minute to go to the doctor. I went to the doctor Tuesday morning and was diagnosed with a virus. All I can really do is go home, rest, drink plenty of liquids, and take it easy. You know, all $50 dollars worth of advice! I really got to thinking last night about being sick and remembered an example that an evangelist once used for a conference. He showed a picture of a man lying in a hospital bed with a respirator, IV, the whole works. He said that this man is the perfect picture of those who are non-believers. He said we are all spiritually sick and will die if we do not come to Christ. At the time it seemed like a pretty neat illustration. But after becoming more familiar with the Word of God I must say, I disagree. I believe the evangelist had good intentions, but bad theology. Ephesians 2:5-9—even when we were dead in our trespasses (God) made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. According to Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus we are dead in our sin, not sick. Sick people can help themselves to a degree. I can go to the doctor. I can pick up my prescriptions. I can take my medicine. I can seek help. Being sick does not mean I am totally unable to take care of myself. It just means I need some help. The bible is very clear that we are not just sick. We are dead!!! A dead man can’t do any of the things I just described. The evangelist I referred to earlier has also come to this conclusion and has since changed his illustration. He now shows a picture of a man in a coffin. You may ask, “If the point is that we all need Christ to be spiritually well, then why get so hung up on whether some folks believe we are sick instead of dead?” If a man were spiritually sick (not dead) and believed on Christ, then this type of salvation would be grounds for the man to boast. He would have assisted Christ in his redemptive work. The efforts required would be divided between the man and Christ—and the glory too. But if a man was spiritually dead (not sick), and raised to life by Christ, then this type of salvation (which is the only type) would not leave any room for man to boast or glory in himself. This is what makes grace so amazing! The fact that we were totally dead in our sin and only the grace of God brought us to life. We played no part in our spiritual resurrection. I can’t save myself and you can’t either. Only God can do that. It is not a result of any work. Dead people can’t do works. It is imperative that God receive all glory in your salvation. If we could do even the smallest of things concerning our salvation, we would have something to boast about. We could say, “With the help of God I was able to save myself.” The fact is if we are saved, it is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. We cannot assist God in saving us. I remember a true story about a guy one time that tried to take glory from God. Now he is commonly referred to as Satan.

Cowboy Church

I am looking forward to next weeks gigs! Cowboy church is always a great place to sing. It's a place where you can just relax and minister. The crowd is used to having good music so we will have to be on our toes. They have some pretty incredible singers and musicians come every month. I hope that the rest of the guys are as excited as I am. This last weekend's concert was very encouraging. Sometimes we have opportunities to sing in some places where people just stare at you and honestly look like no body's home! But that wasn't the case at Ninevah Christian church. Every now and then you will come to a place and feel like you are home. This was exactly the feeling I got from those folks. I asked the pastor, "How long do you want us to play?" He said something like, "Until the lord tells you to quit." Gotta love that! That is a body of believers that the lord is using and will use. Until next time.... Josh

Wednesday Devotion

The Three W’s of Service Ephesians 6:7-8----Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, Because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free. There are three words in this passage that I want us to look at this morning. They conveniently all start with “W” so it makes them easy to remember. These verses are very essential to the way you view your day. Let’s take a look at the first one. Wholeheartedly-- “Serve wholeheartedly…” I am a big fan of college basketball. You see things in college basketball that you don’t see in the pros. When was the last time you saw a professional ball player so overcome with fatigue, that at the final buzzer, he collapsed on the floor? When was the last time you saw a pro player exhausted to tears when losing an overtime tournament game? The sad reality is, that few players play the game wholeheartedly. Even worse, we often serve the Lord as pro basketball players play ball. A professional player plays as one who knows that regardless of the outcome, his paycheck is still going to be there. He’s not worried about the small things or anything else for that matter. He is comfortable and at ease. Sound familiar? Whatever—“whatever good he does” A tornado had ripped through a small rural community leaving trees and debris everywhere. Everyone in the community pitched in to clean up and get things back to normal. While cleaning up one day two brothers, one 15 years old and the other 7, had a conversation. The older brother was picking up large pieces of wood while the younger could only carry simple twigs. The older brother said, “Why do you even try if you can only pick up such a small amount?” The younger brother smiled and said, “Every little bit helps!” Does God take pleasure in seeing you glorify Him in small things as well as big things? Of course He does!! God rewards us for “whatever” good we do. There is nothing that we do that is not seen by the eyes of God. Likewise there is nothing we do in His name for His glory that he will ever forget. Little is much when God is in it. Praise God for the small things! Whether—“Whether he is slave or free” When I was in high school, I had a part-time job as a stock boy at a major supermarket. I can remember when the big bosses would come in and do an inspection of the store to see if things were up to snuff. They would walk past us as if we were invisible. They had no time or interest for us even though four days a week, we were there working as hard as anybody. We were simply seen as a lesser being in the grocery world. The whole time I worked there they never talked to us or acknowledged our existence but I would still receive my check just the same. “Whether” you are a big boss or a stock boy, our lord sees us on the same level. He rewards good work “whether free or slave”. You may feel like you are insignificant because of your position in life, but let me remind you, the lord does not show partiality and He will hold true to every one of His promises. Billy Graham once said during a staff devotion time that he believed that some of his office workers would be ahead of him in line for the Lord’s rewards. They chuckled at that thought but he became very serious and reminded them that God rewards faithfulness over fruitfulness. Pray today that in everything you do, that you do it wholeheartedly, whatever it is, whether big or small, young or old.

Josh Martin

Back from Indiana

We had a great time in Indiana last night at Derek's aunt's church. They were a great audience, and we were blessed to be able to spend the evening glorifying God with them. Not to mention, they fed us! Thanks for the food! On the drive up, I decided to ride with Josh & Kelly. Big mistake. I didn't know it would result in my yearly fill of southern gospel music. I also didn't know that I'd only get to hear 45 seconds of each song before Josh would skip to the next one. (disclaimer: sorry, southern gospel just isn't my style, but I DO appreciate and respect it) The gig went well, considering we hadn't played together in a while. Josh surprised us by going into "Here I Am to Worship" off the cuff. Good thing we know it! The jazz musician in me loves the "flying by the seat of our pants" parts of our shows. On the way back, Josh & me put Kelly to sleep by going into deep, theological discussions about churches and more. It was great. The best part was, I didn't have to listen to any southern gospel! We look forward to going back sometime and playing there again. Adios...

A Little Different Today

This week’s devotion is a little different from the norm. This should possibly just go on the message board but this is something that has been on my heart a while and I had a discussion with a friend on this topic just the other night. There is way too much stuff to put into a couple of paragraphs so this is honestly a horrible attempt to address these things. But anyway, here it is. What affects have “tradition” had on the body of Christ? Now, when I say tradition, I’m not talking about singing hymns or not having a praise band. Jesus tells us that we must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). So it is not a matter of style or taste of music. In fact, those who “must have” one or the other in order to engage in worship seemed to have missed the point completely. And may need to take a look at Matthew 5:17-20 to see where their heart rests. When I say “tradition” I mean things that we have always taken for granted; the things that we have never looked into because everybody seems to agree that it is right or it has just always been done this way. I have spent quite a bit of time in the past few weeks studying and learning about church structure and leadership and have come to this conclusion. Biblically structured churches are hard to find. About 5 years ago, I had some pretty stiff issues staring me in the face and in dealing with them I simply relied on what I had been taught or on the beliefs in which I had grown accustomed. I came to find out just how sharp this “double-edged sword” really was. I knew what I had always done and what I always believed, but in my quiet times I was reading some things in the bible that were contradicting my beliefs. So I began to twist these verses and words to conform to my beliefs (this is the reason I referred to the passage in Matthew). But just like the sword that it is, it cut my reason and logic to shreds. My traditions would have me believe things contrary to God’s word. So, I had a choice to make; will the bible be the authority on which I believe or will I trust in my traditions. Hang on, my point is coming. This mindset changes things. I don’t just believe something because my pastor says it, I read it in a book, or a friend feels strongly in a certain direction. We must do as the Bereans did (Acts 17:11). The bible does not always directly address an issue, but never the less; it is to be the only belief system of the church. Back to the original question; what affects have tradition had on the body of Christ? Have we missed something because of our traditions? Here are some questions to think about. I would love to have your thoughts or comments. Please let me know what you think. Nothing will be replied to negatively. First let me just say that Christ is the head of the church and the bible is totally infallible. Now we can view these questions. Should churches be elder led or led by the congregation? Is there a difference between pastors and elders (overseers)? Who should have the final say in spiritual matters of the church? What is the role of the Deacon? Is it a biblical requirement for churches to meet once a week? Are small group meetings biblical? Can a woman pastor a church and be biblical? These are all church structure questions. Here are a few doctrinal questions. Does man have a free-from-god will? Can you lose your salvation? What is the importance of Jesus’ blood? Did Christ descend into hell and what did he do there if he did? Did Christ come to save all or some? Is the future predetermined? What does “election” mean? Does the “gift” in Ephesians 2:8 refer to faith, grace, salvation, or all three or any combination of two? Many of us know what we believe, we just don’t know why? This is the aim of this morning’s devotional. To get you to examine why you believe what you believe. This is a lot to think about at one time and way too much to discuss or answer on this short devotion page. But the awesome thing is that you have all the answers if you will just open up the bible and search for them. Never once, did any of the apostles say believe without a reason. In fact we are to be ready to give an account for the hope that we have (1 Peter 3:15). May I remind you that the bible was written to ordinary folks just like you and me. Some things may be hard to grasp or may require a lot of study, but who said deep truths are found in shallow water. Be good Bereans. Don’t just take my word for it. Look it up. What you find may surprise you! Put your traditions to the test and see if they pass or fail. Pray for the lord to open your heart to His truth and leave your preconceived notions behind. It is an amazing thing to read scripture with this attitude. It will shake the very foundations of your life. Josh Martin

Everlasting Father

Everlasting Father Our finite minds cannot comprehend the word everlasting. We live in a world where everything comes to an end. Days, minutes, roads, paychecks, mortal life, careers, seasons, chores, and the list could go on for days but even this list would eventually come to an end. Words like everlasting and forever are words that have a simple meaning (never ending) but a complex working out. None of us can fathom forever. There many places in the bible that mention forever and everlasting but they always refer to the work and presence of God. No mortal man will do anything forever. All mortals die. But those who have trusted in Christ for salvation will be able to experience forever. God made an everlasting covenant with Noah (Gen. 9:16). Nebuchadnezzar declared that the kingdom of God is an everlasting kingdom (Dan. 4:3). Isaiah prophesied of the coming of the Everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6). These are all declarations of how great our God is and the fact that He alone can fulfill each of these is a credit to His glory. Even God’s steadfast love will endure forever (Psalm 100:5). His will abides forever (1 John 2:17). His word remains forever (1 Peter 1:25). What I am trying to say is that our God is incredible! God is wholly perfect and completely holy. That will never change because he never changes (Hebrews 13:8). Only God can fulfill his everlasting promises. It is such a comfort to know that our loving Father is an everlasting father. He will never come to an end. He created everything and will see to it that His will is fulfilled in everything. Nothing will ever disrupt or frustrate His everlasting plans. They are as good as done. This is the truth that we must fall on in times of pain and hopelessness. God is everlasting and will always fulfill all that he intends to fulfill. His word is as steadfast as his love. His ultimate will is a sure thing. He alone is the everlasting one. Those who have trusted Christ as savior will endure forever. We have nothing stable without him. Our heart and flesh may fail but God is the strength of our heart and our portion forever (Psalm 73:25,26). Everlasting is an unfathomable truth. Praise the lord of eternal things!