So many amazing things happening in our lives right now. One of our friends gave us a scripture toward the beginning of Olivia’s Biggest Loser journey:
“Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.” -Habakkuk 1:5
That’s exactly the description I would use for this incredible experience. You never know what God is going to do next…
I continue to be utterly amazed!!!
Question: Who do you predict will win season eleven of The Biggest Loser?
Arthur Wornum: Courtney, since day one we have had a connection, she is like my little sister. My sentimental favorite is Courtney but my brain tells me if I had to put money on it, Olivia will win this season of The Biggest Loser. Olivia is one of the toughest competitors, I can’t tell you how strong that woman is.
You can tell me, Arthur…I know!!
Sitting here cold, sleepy, all by myself in the late of the night. This week has been one of not much sleep. It’s been all good stuff, but it can kind of leave you in a haze. Missing my wife Olivia (if you didn’t know she’s a current contestant on NBC’s The Biggest Loser Link) and the simple joy she emanates when I come through the door to find her home. God is doing amazing things in and through her…I’m so excited.
I’m really just checking in before hitting the sack. Sleep will be nice–even if it’s just for a few hours.
Remember today that the Lord hides us in Him. We are hidden with God in Christ. All the battles can rage around us but we are safely resting with Him in that secret place. Find that place. Seek that place.
No one can take it away.
I’m on my back from a family reunion in South Alabama. It’s rainy in Atlanta so I’m delayed a little while.It was a great trip and I’m so glad I was able to come for the reunion and my grandfather’s surprise 80th birthday celebration.
One of my favorite moments was when my grandmother told me her favorite part of the chicken when she was growing up was the feet. She said she doen’t eat them anymore because they’re too dirty. When her Mom cleaned them she know they were clean.
She also told me how she was the worst of her brothers and sisters (10 in all) at ringing a chicken’s neck. “It would just drop to the ground, get up, and walk off.”
Funny stories. Precious.
Granny Spurlock
Just a few hours left of 2009 here in New York City. We’re going to celebrate with friends in Queens. I was thinking today as I drove back from the church in Syosset how many things changed and happened this past year.
When the year began we had only moved to the city a couple months earlier. Neither Olivia nor I had a job yet and our savings were pretty much gone. I had interviewed at on church, but it didn’t work out — all we could say was, “Lord, do what You will.”
Olivia got a job at a doctor’s office almost right away. I interviewed with another church (that one wasn’t it either!) and got ready to do some temp office work. In the meantime I walked pretty much all the neighborhoods in New York just praying and trying to hear what He was saying for us. (This was one of the most wonderful seasons yet in my walk with the Lord:) I finally got a temp job at an office and then another at the NFL.
Olivia found a new opera coach that turned out to be a great help to her as she gets ready to go to the next level in her career.
I went back and forth as to what the Lord wanted from me…did He want me leading worship in a church?…did He want me to go back into songwriting?…did He want me to pursue business at the NFL and lead worship part-time?
Towards the end of 2009 the Lord revealed what He had here for me. I was called as the worship pastor of Shelter Rock Church on Long Island. I started a couple weeks ago and He’s already doing wonderful things.
So, here comes 2010. I’m beginning to see that I need to stop making all these elaborate plans and just follow Jesus. The Spirit will order my steps. He will lead me on a an adventure that I could never come up with on my own.
Lord, I give You 2010. It is Yours, I am Yours. I rejoice in Your presence and Your ways.
(Check out the archives for more details on all our happenings!)
Sent this out to the email list earlier..
Well, tomorrow it’s official: I’m the new worship pastor at Shelter Rock Church in Manhasset and Syosset, NY (Long Island). The Lord has opened this door and Olivia and I are excited about following Him in this next season of our journey.
We’ll continue to live here in Manhattan for the time being and God blessed with a car for the next while so the commute will be a lot easier!
The job at the NFL was an amazing blessing. I’m so grateful to my boss there. Not to mention it was a pretty cool look into what goes on in a pretty popular sport 
.
Thank you to everyone for praying. There’s a new time of hard work and transition starting so I ask you to pray again.
Hopefully, you’ll get lots of new songs and you can also watch the services live here.
Hope you’re having a glorious holiday season so far. God continues to lavish us with His incredible gifts.
I hope everybody’s ready for a great weekend…I am! This has been a long week…
Just wanted to update everybody on what’s going on these days and ask you for your prayers.
If you follow our journey, you know that I have been seeking a new position as a worship leader at a church. While I’ve been waiting on the Lord, I’ve had a temp job at the NFL. It’s been such a blessing and a lot of fun, but it’s coming to an end sometime in November, so I’ve been asking the Lord what’s next.
I’ve interviewed with a church in Long Island and am going to lead worship at one of their campuses this Sunday. In addition to the possibility of the position, I’m also just excited about leading worship in a corporate setting…it’s been awhile.
There are a couple of other possibilities if it’s not the right place, but I would appreciate your prayers!
Olivia and I are also trying to decide whether to move closer to Midtown. It’s a long commute to her current job (in which she was just promoted!!) and, if I get the LI position, I would need to be closer to Penn Station for the train.
This obviously involves moving (which is always a big deal) and paying more in rent. So we’re just laying it all before the Lord.
He knows what we need long before we need it. He knew about these situations before the foundation of the world.
So, thanks for reading (and listening:) and thank you for praying.
This year is the first year Olivia and I have lived in New York City on 9-11. We lived in Boston when it happened in 2001, and came down several times over the next several months, but we’ve never been “New Yorkers” on an anniversary. It was a crazy thought to think as I was getting on the Subway this morning, that that day started out normal for millions as well.
So today, as a new “New Yorker,” I want to offer a prayer for the City:
Lord, thank You for all You’ve done to heal hearts, minds, and bodies in the eight years since the attacks on New York City in 2001. Thank You for Your mercy, Your compassion, and Your power to overcome evil with good. I thank You that many have come to know You as they’ve sought answers to their questions. I thank You that You are the answer to any question. Thank You for bringing back this City to a place of prosperity and influence. Thank You for the gifts You have blessed it with. Thank You for people that recognize and honor those gifts.
God, I ask You to protect this place from another attack. I ask You to foil any plans that the enemy may have. Will You frustrate even the most cunning of masterminds? They hold nothing on You and Your omniscient, omnipresent power. You know everything. Before a thought has been born You know it and I ask You to be the great defender of New York City. David called You a Strong Tower and may the people look to You, and only You, as that refuge.
I pray for the Church of Your Son, Jesus, here in New York. May there be a mighty revival of power here. May the great cathedrals and churches be filled with Your Spirit in even greater portions than at their creation. May they be filled with believers and seekers. May the fire of Your presence consume all who call on Your name. Bring about repentance from our evil ways. May there be genuine sorrow and conviction for things in our lives and City that do not honor You. May that repentance be met with a raining of mercy and forgiveness that only You could bring. Bring revival to Your Church here, Jesus. And bring an awakening to those who have yet to come to know You. May Your workings and movement in this City be a testimony to America and to the world.
Thank You for Your unending, unfathomable love in the person of Jesus in whose name I offer this prayer. Amen.
Wednesday was not a great day. Nothing bad happened. It just wasn’t good. Have you ever had one of those days?
I stayed home from work to wait on the exterminator (another long story…) who never came. I tried to record a new song for the YouTube Sessions on keyboard and I just couldn’t get a good take. At about ten o’clock I decided to pack the recording stuff up (it’s New York – there no room for a dedicated studio) and try again another day. I must’ve spent five hours or so working on that song. Nothing to show for it. I wanted to write a blog – no dice. I even wanted to go for a run…didn’t happen.
It’s been a long time since I tried so many different things and nothing worked out. But I guess it’s just one of those days.
One of those days
One of those days
One of those days
No matter how you say it (write it…whatever!) it just doesn’t give you any more satisfaction.
But just before midnight as I was packing up the gear to shove into my closet I stumbled onto something. I put a vinyl copy of James Taylor’s Sweet Baby James on the turntable and I just enjoyed it.
Didn’t sing along. Didn’t play along. Just enjoyed.
So I did accomplish something after all on one of those days. Something I could have done all day long: Listen to the sounds of some really great songs.
It’s coming up on one year since I went to Beirut, Lebanon and I realized I haven’t done a proper wrap-up post. It’s actually kind of nice to have some time and perspective on the trip. So much has happened since last summer and so much had happened leading up to it. It is really amazing.
I had just left the church in Peoria after a dizzying chain of events that I still can’t quite explain. We saw God do amazing things most notably by selling our two-month-old house in four days for more than we paid for it. He really wanted us out of there! But we didn’t know where to go. No job, no house, no prospects, really. So Olivia’s Dad, Keith Curlee, felt like the Lord wanted him to take me to Beirut on his next trip. He has a ministry there (Triumphant Mercy Lebanon) that partners with local believers. In 2007 they opened a prayer and worship center in a mall called the Tent of Praise, or TOP. We went for a month and stayed with the family that leads the TOP and ministered with the precious people there.
It was great to just be a part of what God is doing in the Middle East. I played bass in the worship times (I had never done that before — they were short a bass player), I spoke at the youth meetings, and conducted some music clinics on songwriting, playing, etc. I was even honored to lead worship one night at the TOP (in English, of course . I got to experience a lot of the Lebanese culture (you can look back at the older posts for stories).
What struck me the most was the power of the Holy Spirit to make vast cultural differences so insignificant. When it came down to it, we were brothers and sisters in the Lord and that made us fast friends. We still keep up with each other on Facebook and I hope I get the opportunity to go back. When I think about Lebanon, I get a strange feeling that I’ve struggled to define. Like any “mission trip,” there is great spiritual fire that happens and you long to be back in that place of seeing God use you and seeing people’s live changed in amazing ways. But this is deeper – the Cedars have a strong effect on you.
New Songs, Nations, Young People
I wrote these down before I left. I felt that these words summed up what God had shown me in Lebanon. In fact, I’ve already seen the fruit of them here in NYC.
Nations – There is no other city in the world that has so many nations represented and living together. The nations are truly represented here. I believe that’s one of the things God has placed on my heart – to reach out to the nations; to minister His power in different cultures. To not only help bring change to the nations, but to be changed by the nations.
New Songs – Since I’ve come to New York I’ve written more songs in a short time than at any other time since I started writing songs. I’ve probably written twenty or thirty this year. Not all of them are keepers, of course, but I have been overwhelmed by the inspiration. Many are spiritual/worship in nature, but many are just about life and relationships. In Lebanon, I feel the Lord cemented the fact that I am a writer of songs by allowing me to teach others how to do it.
Young People – I remember a prophecy I received at IHOP back in 2007. The guy said that the Lord was fascinated at how I loved young people. This struck a chord with me because I do. I feel God has given me a heart for the young. To see them go further in their gifts and further in their relationship with Him. I haven’t seen as much fruition of that yet, but my awareness is surely up. I’m waiting for God to bring opportunities to work with and encourage young people.
So, that’s just a few of the impressions and insights the Lord gave me in Lebanon and since. I’m even more thankful than last year that Triumphant Mercy paid for me to go (not an inexpensive endeavor) and that I got to be a part of something much larger than me: God moving in the Middle East.
