First Gathering: Confession

It's 12am. I should be working on tomorrow morning's song list and powerpoint, unpacking random gear from this evening's gathering, or more importantly, sleeping. But having a full stomach filled with applebee's goodness and a re-filled soul from tonight's festivities, I just can't do anything but think. So it's blogging time. Perfect.

Tonight was the kickoff to The Gathering, the latest ministry that God's blessed me with being apart of. The Gathering has been in the works for years now, even though I wasn't aware of it. The title of my blog summarizes the heart of The Gathering so perfectly; ...to be authentic. Tonight was a very sweet tasting, genuine, authentic time of fellowship, prayer, and intimacy with the Holy Spirit. Exactly what the vision in my heart has been longing for and seeking.

The topic; confession. And before I go any further, let me confess to my micro-managing problem. This morning I woke up with a pretty intense headache. From there came the nausea. And from there...well, you can take it from here. My first thought while lying in my bed, face into the pillow, not even able to blink my eyes from the painful throbbing, "I'll have to cancel The Gathering. I have too much to setup, too much to finish getting together, too much, too much..." My next thought, "well Thomas, if you would quit micro-managing, you wouldn't be in this predicament, now would you?" Yes, I do argue with myself quite a bit. Don't judge me. From the depths of my pillow came my first confession of the day. When I was finally able to actually focus on my phone and somewhat think, I swallowed my pride and asked for help. Here's another confession; I've been blessed with amazing people, who are capable of amazing things. I recruited help to finish setting up the aesthetics part of the evening. As I'm worrying whether I'll be able to make it at all, I realize that I don't feel anything. No headache. No nausea. Nothing. The second I confessed my shortcomings and laid down my pride (not necessarily in that order), is the second I felt better. Do I believe in healing? Absolutely. Do I believe I was healed? Absolutely. Not only from my physical ailments, but from my spiritual and emotional ones as well. But all because of a simple confession?

Confession is a powerful act. It's also an act that we don't practice, as Christians, enough. Like we talked about tonight, the church (us) would be in such a different state of being if we truly trusted our brothers and sisters and confessed and confided in one another. Because confession isn't just for our benefit, our gain, or our pleasure. I believe there's a larger picture to see. There's a spirit of humbleness that fills the space when we confess. We are all of a sudden on a different playing field. Instead of the stages we stand on, pulpits we stand behind, or pedestals that we live on, we're all of a sudden on the same hard, dirty ground. We are all the same. We become one. And in this we are able to lift our praises as one voice, breathe in the environment as one body, and operate in one mind.

My prayer moving forth into this year of 2010 is that we (the gatherers) continue to practice the lost, ancient art of confession. Not just when we gather, but in every day life. And I pray that in doing so, we are humbled so that we "may be active in sharing [our] faith, so that [we] will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ." - Philemon 1:6.

With love,
---Thomas

snowed...In

Snowed in and disconnected from the world. At least, that's what it has felt like. From nine o'clock this morning until about thirty minutes ago, I've been trying to find things to do to keep myself occupied. I've watched several movies thanks to Netflix, I've shoveled about 800lbs worth of snow, I gave Elizabeth (my guitar) an early Christmas present; new strings, and continue to ask myself, "Ok, what now Thomas?"

So I decided to pick up the acoustic and work on some music, but that quickly lost my attention when a song started playing from Rhapsody. "We Crown You" by Fee. The chorus goes...

"King of Kings and God of grace (we crown You, we crown You)
Our Redeemer strong to save (we crown You, we crown You)
High and holy lifted up, there is none more worthy Lord
We crown You Lord of all"

While the melody is extremely catchy, the part that caught my attention was when the female vocals came in with a soul piercing, "we crown You, we crown You." I sat in awe and amazement at how it took a simple three word refrain to make me realize how complicated I've made things.

My prayer for the past six months has gone something like this; "God, I want to seek You and You alone. I long for a life of authenticity and a heart of purity. I know I will never be a man until I'm the man of God that You created me to be." So I began asking God to help me adjust my schedule, because I knew I needed time for myself and time for us in order for this life and heart to grow. The first few months were good and sweet. The past month, however, has been everything but. I've run upon so many struggles like finances with bills and debt, as well as struggles with my mind and heart. As fast as I ran upon them, I found myself running away from myself and the much prayed for "us time." Why? Because I have more faith in these struggles than I do in myself. I know myself, I really do. I know what I can handle and what I can't. And I knew that I couldn't handle alone time with these problems hanging over my head.

And now I'm back to these lyrics; "we crown You, we crown You". I constantly preach this idea to the congregation, to my band family, and to my friends. And that's where it stays, "we." We crown You, Lord. We find our strength in You. We give our lives to You. And I realized that I have more faith in my struggles than in myself because I've accepted that I can do all these things as long as there's a "we" involved.

So Lord...

"I crown You, I crown You"

---Thomas

THE GATHERING

The Vision...

...to gather as one body of believers, with one voice, in reverence to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We gather as a community, who earnestly seeks the face, the hand, and the will of our Living God.

The What...

...we are coming together, once a month, with the expectation that our place of gathering has been deemed sacred, as we express various forms of individual and corporate worship (prayer, meditation, song, dance, word, art/painting/drawing, etc). The only thing consistent, I pray, besides our God showing up in mighty ways, is the life sacrifice we offer every time we step into our sacred gathering place.

The When...

...from 7pm-9pm on:

Jan. 16
Feb. 27
Mar. 13
Apr. 10
May 22
June 12
July 24
Aug. 14
Sept. 25
Oct. 16
Nov. 20
Dec. 18

The Where...

...Mt. Olive Brethren Church
2977 Pineville Road
McGaheysville, VA 22840

More Info...

...please contact Thomas Carrier - tcarrier8806@gmail.com

Lets say thanks

(click image)

I wanted to pass this along to you all and encourage you to take a few minutes and write a letter to our troops to express your support. Whether you agree with why they're doing what they're doing, they're protecting your freedom nonetheless. So please take a minute to express your support and to encourage them during this holiday season. Thanks.

With love,
---Thomas

New Songs

Hello friends. I just uploaded some nasty recordings of my 3 newest songs, however they are recordings nonetheless. I'll have better quality ones coming soon, so keep your eyes and ears open. I hope you enjoy these and allow God to minister through these words as He did to me.

ReverbNation: Thomas Carrier

With love,
---Thomas

Twloha...

To write love on her arms...

I strongly encourage you to take some time and read what this "movement" is all about. The founder was out at JMU this evening, talking and encouraging this "twloha idea." I'm incredibly hyped right now just to know that there are people out there who truly care and love on people with no strings attached, no questions asked. Please check it out.

With love,
---Thomas

Lets get productive...

I really miss the days when I could sleep until, well pretty much until whenever I wanted. And not just until whenever I wanted, but as long as I possibly could. This morning definitely told me I am getting older and more comfortable with my crazy schedule.

I had some family come in from out of town late last night. I sat up and talked with my uncle until a little after 12 and didn't get to sleep until about 12:45ish. It was such a perfect night/morning to sleep. It was raining, the wind was blowing, and it was cold. But no, Thomas is wide awake by 8:00am. My first thought when I woke up, rolled over and saw the clock was, "Ah man! I'm going to be super late for work!" After jumping out of bed and throwing some dirty work clothes on, I realized that my uncle, aunt and cousin were talking downstairs and then realized that it was in fact Saturday. Bummer, sort of?

But I'm actually excited. E&M is closed on Saturday's for the rest of winter, so having a day off is very nice. But I'm really excited because my goal for today is to be PRODUCTIVE. I hate sitting around and doing nothing. I feel so useless when I don't have a schedule, plan, or purpose. So, first on my list is changing the oil in the old Mitsubishi. Amazing, I've had the car for close to 5 years now and I have never changed the oil in it myself. So being broke and feeling lazy has given me the motivation to change it myself this morning. I have to mention my excitement about my wicked awesome deal on 5 quarts of oil and an oil filter from Advance yesterday though. Except I realized I can't find my oil filter wrench or drip pan, so back in to town I go.

After Emily's got some clean oil in her, I'm off to church to set up and prepare for tomorrow morning. Come out and worship with In August tomorrow morning at Mt. Olive Brethren Church, 11am-12pm!

It's J-mo's birthday today (HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAL!!) so we're all gathering for some food, fellowship, and celebration tonight. Which reminds me, I need to get him a card. Put it on the list!

Alrighty, well I think that's about the extent to my productive day. Now looking back at it, I'm really not doing a whole lot, but that's ok. I'll just keep telling myself I am.

With all my love,
---Thomas