Alice in Wonderland - Looking past the looking glass

Catherine and I finally got around to seeing that new version of Alice in Wonderland and we loved it! I am so glad that the writers and directors of this film shared such a positive message. It was a wonderful reminder to us all to have courage and faith to face your life.

I loved the bit about the sword. It reminded me about the reference in the Bible regarding the “sword of the Spirit”, which is the word of God. Alice was told, “the sword knows what to do. All you need to do is hold on to it.” How true that is in the battle we all fight against our own jaberwokis (be it a sin, failure, depression, etc….)  So hang on to the word of God! It knows what to do!

In my humble opinion, Alice in Wonderland was a cinematic masterpiece and redeemed all the past renditions, animated or otherwise.

So, I’ve been working on a song called “Looking Past the Looking Glass”. My little girl Ellie loves it when I sing it to her:

Looking Past the Looking Glass

Beauty’s what you are, Deep within your heart

It’s simply not what everybody sees

More than just a pretty face,

It’s found in faith and inner grace

For beauty runs far more than surface deep

I am looking past the looking glass

To see you smiling over me

My Creator, my Redeemer,

You look to the heart of me

So Jesus take me as I am,

I’m reaching out for your hand

I’m looking past the looking glass to you

Daily you will grow, one way or another

Closer to or farther from the truth

Under the watching eyes, of a love that fills the skies

Just know your every choice is making you

Thanks for listening,

Daniel

Ps. Have you lost your muchness?

www.reflectworship.com

Gospel of John Update

Thanks to all who responded and took action to my previous post:

Important Ministry Update (<- click to read)

In that post I told of how I was in need of some help supplying large print Gospels of John for my ministry to nursing homes. 

It was amazing how over the next month or two, boxes of Gospels of John would show up at my door just when I needed them. For instance; at one concert I handed out all the remaining Gospel of Johns that I had to whoever wanted one (& I had exactly enough!). Then I came home to find a box of Gospels on my doorstep. How amazing is that?  

At each of my concerts I usually share some highlights from John. It has blessed me so much to 'hang out' in this Gospel for as long as I have now. I will continue to dwell on it and share from it as long as the Lord allows me to. It is so packed with depth and meaning and life, etc... it would take a lifetime to explore. But I always try to remember that the Bible isn't the thing, Jesus is. The Bible just introduces him. Getting to know him, love him and follow him is the point - not become an expert on all things biblical.

Today I had yet another insight from this amazing Gospel. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life."  Jesus said this during a conversation he was having with some Jews right after he had fed the 5,000. I was meditating on this while munching on some leftover bagels from church on Sunday. (Please take a moment and read for yourself what Jesus has to say in John 6.)

(thanks for taking a moment to read what God wrote, now on to my ramblings...)

As I thought about that passage I was remembering reading the story about the manna in Exodus 16.

 I kind of think of 'manna' (and this relates to Jesus too) like the lembas bread that the elves gave the hobbits. Super nutritous, packed with all you need, and best of all, it's yummy! (described as tasting like honey).

(Click if you care to read up on Lembas bread - amazing stuff that! fascinating read too as parallels are made to the Eucharist - which also happens to be a topic in John 6)

The differences I see between Lembas and Manna, however, is that Lembas bread stays fresh for months! Manna (and Jesus) is described as "daily bread". It is only good for a day (except on the Sabbath) and must be gathered and prepared for each new day (except on the Sabbath - see Exodus 16 to read all about it).

At any rate, the important thing about this whole discussion comes with this application:

Did you eat today? 

If you would like to continue to help this ministry, you can go directly to BIBLICA.COM and order a box or two of Large Print Gospels of John and have them sent to this address: 

Adullam Vineyard Church

1234 Main Street

Green Bay, WI  54302.

Thanks for listening and for the support,

Daniel Lovett

www.reflectworship.com

ps. I got some feedback from one man who reads his Gospel of John every night. He says it helps him to sleep better. =0)
Please help make a difference in someone's life by buying a box of Gospels for this ministry

Scripture quotations from the New International Version (NIV)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica

You See Me - Song of the Week

SONG OF THE WEEK:

"You See Me"

This first, "Song of the Week", is the opening track of not only our Reflect Worship Sampler, but also it is the opening track of our soon to be released album: "I Will Bring You Peace".

The message of this song is that God sees you, God knows all about you,  and God cares. It is based on something Jesus says in Matthew:

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (NIV Matthew 10:29-31)

This song dares to ask the hard questions, as many of the Psalms do, that we all at one time or another think regarding this invisible God who created us: "Do you see me? Do you love me?"

Jesus has shown us that indeed God does see us, and he cares for us far more deeply than we could ever know.

YOU SEE ME

Do you hear my prayers tonight?
Can you see the pain inside?
Will you say the things I long to hear?
Wrap your arms around me, calm my fears?

Do you see me? Do you love me?
Will you say that you’re proud of me?
Can you hear me? Will you show me?
That you’ll always be there for me…

I need to know you’re here

Questions I’m afraid to ask,
Like can you wipe away my past?
And if I fail again today,
Will you love me anyway?

Though the world around me’s fallin’
I will still believe
That if you can see the sparrow
Than you can still see me
You can still see me
You see me 

Download & enjoy the Reflect Worship Sampler and please help us by sending it on to a friend. Thank you! Check the Calendar at our website to find out where Daniel & Catherine will be playing in your area. (Contact us and invite us to play at your church!)

Daniel & Catherine Lovett

www.reflectworship.com 

from I Will Bring You Peace, track released 11 September 2010 
Catherine Lovett: lead vocal, piano 
Daniel Lovett: Guitar, vocal 
Esther Shier: vocal 
Jon Sergott: drums 
John Lightbody: bass 

Catherine and Daniel Lovett © 2005 Reflect Worship Music ASCAP 

Scripture is from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® 
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Important Reflect Ministry Update

Hello Friends and Family,

Would you please take a moment to read this important update about this very important ministry to the elderly in Nursing Homes?

As some of you may know, Catherine and I are launching into full-time music ministry. We are delighted to be able to serve God with our music in a variety of ways, leading worship, releasing CDs, playing concerts, and serving the elderly in nursing homes.

I (Daniel) stay very busy with over 30 concerts a month in nursing homes. Sharing the Gospel and Gospel music at Nursing homes has been a very rewarding experience in most every way… except financially.

I am a musicianary (that’s musician and missionary) to those in nursing homes. I use music to share the good news of Jesus that others might come to know him. I have a strong sense of urgency in my ministry to them for two reasons; first, I don’t know how much longer I can work because Jesus could return at any moment, and second, because those I am serving are, to be honest, near death. Nearly every story on my nursing home ministry blog is about people who have already passed away in the three years I have been doing this.

I believe in this ministry! So much so that I have been donating my time, money, and resources into this. The Lord put it on my heart to start passing out Large Print Gospels of John in the nursing homes. The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. Many who have received them were very grateful and at some places they are going to begin doing a bible study out of this Gospel! How exciting!

When they ask me what I charge for them, I tell them that they are a gift from people who have donated toward my ministry and want to bless you. Thank you to all who have given toward this ministry for making this possible! For 85 cents you can put a Large Print Gospel of John into the hands of a grateful someone who will read it and grow closer to Jesus.

I want to be able to provide these Large Print Gospels of John at every ministry concert that I do to everyone who would want them, but as I told my wife, at the rate I have been handing them out (about a hundred a week), we need to raise some funds! Will you help us?

I just need some more of my brothers and sisters in Christ to catch the vision for what the Lord is doing through this ministry and lend a helping hand.

Here are a few things you could do:

• Pray for us! Here is a link to our PRAYER LETTER which expresses the heart and needs of this ministry.
  
• Financially support our ministry! A simple way to do this is download our albums at our WEBSITE (www.reflectworship.com), we raise funds for our ministry and you get some music to enjoy – a win win for the both of us. They are only $6.00 per album to download.
• Or, you could mail a check made out to Adullam Vineyard (write Daniel & Catherine in the memo line) to: 

Adullam Vineyard Church

1234 Main Street

Green Bay, WI  54302

(What we do is now an extension of the ministry of our church Adullam Vineyard in Green Bay. So all gifts are tax deductible)

• Or, if you're really inspired, you can go directly to BIBLICA.COM and order a box or two of Large Print Gospels of John and have them sent to the above address.
  

Please help us with this ministry!

Thank you and God bless you,

Daniel & Catherine Lovett

Next Concert :

Cup O Joy, GB
Friday, August 6th, at 7:30 p.m.
(We will be sharing the stage with our friend and drummer Jon Sergott as he releases his CD "Dust Like Us" - See website for details)

:: Reflect HYMN CD

This album has now been distributed to nearly every Nursing Home facility in Northeast WI! It is being used for the worship time at bible studies, listened to over the dinner hour, and blessing those in their final moments.

My wife and I will be releasing another album soon! (We are so excited about this album!!!) We are giving away samples of our music at our website in order to "find our audience" so we have people to release our new music to.

We now have this free music available right from our front page on our website: www.reflectworship.com

So please download and enjoy and tell your friends!

Our upcoming release will be a mix of message songs
(of God's love and forgiveness) and worship (responding to God's love and forgiveness) and will be entitled: "I Will Bring You Peace".

We want to reach this world with the message of God's grace and redemption! Would you help us?

Would you please pass this news on to a friend - who doesn't love free music?



Thanks for listening,

Daniel,
www.reflectworship.com

Our CD's are available online at our website www.reflectworship.com and also at:

• Lighthouse Christian Books in Green Bay and
  
• Family Christian Stores in Appleton
  

Catherine and I (Daniel) are now going into music ministry full-time!

I have serving in the Nursing Homes for 3+ years now (full time for the last year playing over 200 shows). Now we are both at it and will be expanding our ministry in different ways. This Fall we are looking to release another project that has been simmering on the back burner for awhile now - getting nice and tasty. The problem is, who are we releasing it to? Thus far we have been "going to where the people are" - Nursing Homes, a few Churches, a few concerts a year, but we don't really have much of what you would consider a "fan base".

We need to get the word out about our music!!! This is where we could use your help!

We are giving away some of our music in exchange for email addresses. This is so we actually have some people to tell about the new music we are making and where we will be playing and so forth.

Will you help spread the word by "sharing" these free songs with your friends?

This widget has some options on it that allow you to post it to your facebook, twitter, or email it to people. Please help support our music and our ministry! (notice the "share this" on the bottom right corner?)

About the songs:

You See Me - God sees and He knows and He cares. This song is based on something Jesus says in Matthew:

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:29-31)

This song dares to ask the hard questions, as many of the Psalms do, that we all at one time or another think regarding this invisible God: "Do you see me? Do you love me? Will you say that you're proud of me?"

Jesus has shown us that, yes, God does see us, and he cares for us so deeply.

Come Thou Fount - This beautiful hymn was written by a man in touch with his own weaknesses. "Bind my wandering heart to thee" - how many of us can identify with the struggle to love God with all our heart?

Psalm 139 - This is the first song that my wife and I wrote together based out of Psalm 23... j/k

This Psalm says that God thinks about us more than there is sand on the sea shore! Pretty awesome huh?
The recording really came together on this one, and it is still one of my favorites to perform.

tiny hands - You have got to read to full story behind this last song at our website. It is a miraculous and amazing story of our niece Ava and her mother Stacy.

"Stacy had, in her younger years, suffered from a rare form of cancer of the blood that had been for many years in remission. Not long ago she had been feeling quite ill and went to see the doctor. After many thorough tests it was confirmed. The cancer was back..."

Read more at the following website: www.reflectworship.com

Give Me the Strength - Written as a prayer for the Lord to put his love into my heart. In my own strength, I find it difficult even to love the most loveable people in my life. We NEED God's love in our hearts. Then and only then will we be able to love others as we ought.

You Stir My Soul - I wrote this song originally as a poem after visiting a nursing home and playing a concert. There was a woman there who could only say a few phrases - one of which was "I love you". In a quiet moment right after I finished a song, she says from the back row those 3 simple words and it pierced my heart. It was one of those moments that God's love broke through and I believed it.


We will be starting to release a "song of the week" at our "download" page at our website, so stay tuned for more updates.

If you enjoyed the music, please pass it along to a friend.

thanks for listening!

Daniel Lovett
www.reflectworship.com

All Scripture is from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Elli Girl is Here!

Catherine and I been lying low for a while now, playing a show now and then, serving the elderly at nursing homes, working on an album (releasing later this year), and oh yes... we had a BABY!!!!

We are delighted to announce the arrival of the newest member of the family (and band) Elisabeth Grace. She is a gentle soul and truly a delight. Born on May 5th @ 6:48 am she weighed 8 lbs 3 ounces and was 20 inches long. The first thing we noticed about her is her full head of hair and long fingers (like her mommy and daddy).

At one point while still at the hospital, the doctor came to check her over. He took out his little flashlight and looked into her eyes and said, "perfect". At which point I turned to Catherine and said, "See, even the doctor thinks she's perfect".

You can see some beautiful pictures of our 'perfect' little girl @ our facebook page (you might as well 'friend us' while your there)

Anyway, Catherine and I are excited now to be devoting more of our time and energy, not only to raising our little girl, but also to focus on writing and sharing our music - but I'll save that for a future post. This one is for Ellie.

Daniel n Catherine Lovett
www.reflectworship.com

New Baby on the Way

Catherine and I are about to embark on the greatest adventure of our lives. We are going to be parents.

I remember the day we went in for the ultra sound. After seeing the insides of our baby, it's beating heart inside it's small chest, it's bones and spine all lit up on the screen, it's tiny feet and tiny toes and tiny hands all curled up in front of it's tiny face. We were then told we were looking at our little girl.

Of course Catherine always thought of "it" as a little girl and remarked about how it would have taken the remaining months of pregnancy to cope with "it" being a boy... if it were.

As we were walking out of the hospital I told Catherine, "Well, I suppose I will just have to take my little girl hunting and fishing, camping and canoeing, and teach her how to spear things."

Catherine laughed hysterically as she said, "You don't spear anything!"

Well, it's never too late to start I suppose. I had recently been watching man vs. wild in which Bear Grills teaches you how to survive in the wilderness spearing fish and so forth. In one episode Bear Grilles is slogging through a bog in Ireland to retrieve a dead sheep. After wrestling it free he ate its raw heart and rolled its skin inside out for a bloody sleeping bag.

Twenty minutes later over dinner I had coped. In truth I was a bit concerned about having to teach my little boy a trade to make a living. This concerned me because I don't know if music ministry really qualifies as a trade.

Girls, I realized, need to be taught how to be a good wife, if she decided to marry and this was something Catherine could teach her just fine. But then this got me to thinking about her future husband. I can't believe I'm already worrying about her future husband. When I talked to Catherine about all this, she said to me, "What are you talking about a trade for, were you born in the 1800's?"

Elisabeth Grace is now seven months along. She flips around in mommies belly and enjoys kicking daddy in the face when he tries to listen to her heartbeat. It's hard to believe or even imagine how our lives will change in just a few short months.

Honestly, the world actually seems like a much safer place to me knowing that there are so many other parents out there. It's odd but I already feel a sense of community with other parents.

I think about Ellie alot. I think about all the exciting books we will read together like C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and all the adventures we will have... like spearing things.

Thanks for listening,

Daniel
www.reflectworship.com