What a month it has been. Life has been (as they say) crazy for a while at the Coates household.
Within the last month, we've had the regular festivities of Christmas and New Year's (and the various family visits associated with said holidays), as well as a few other things. Let me give you an idea...
In the beginning of December, I played my third year with "Tribute". "Tribute" is a group of three ladies that put on a fantastic show once a year around Christmas. The night is filled with humor, comedy and of course Christmas tunes. Three years ago, I was asked to fill in for their regular guitar player, Bruce. Even though Bruce has been back the last two years, they've still asked me to join the festivities.
The show sold out all 4 nights that it played this year... a great testament to the quality of the show they put on. Its also one of the few events during the year where you will actually see me in dress pants versus my normal jeans. *grin*
December also brought the celebratory return of Parkview Evangelical Free Church back to the building it occupied prior to the Summer floods in Iowa. From June through December, the church met at a local high school... setting up and tearing down the entire church on a weekly basis.
The building is now put back together and is better than ever!! I look forward to many more weekends of worship there at the building!
December also brought on a crisis situation with our house. To make a long story short, half-way through the month we learned that we needed to have our basement complete by the end of December or "suffer the consequences" as they say. We'd been working on the basement for 3 years, but still had a long way to go.
I'm happy to say that by God's grace, the help of several dear friends, the patience of my boss and an inspector that was willing to answer all kinds of questions, we made the deadline!!
The basement still has a few things to be completed before we can actually enjoy the space (carpet etc), but the city is satisfied with the work and the rest of it should hopefully be completed soon.
Last... but certainly not least... this past Friday morning, my wife and I welcomed our *5th* child into the world!! Brooks Joseph Coates was born around 9:25 AM on Friday morning.
We were able to bring him home today and are in the process of spending our first night back in the house.
I'll write more soon, but thought today was an appropriate day for an update.
I hope you all are well and I pray that God will continue to draw us to Him and shape us in this new year.
In Him,
Jim
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Monday, August 4, 2008
Brooke Fraser's Albertine
Ok... so I'm a worship leader. That means that I love all the worship tunes that you would normally hear on the radio or that can be found in most churches on your average Sunday morning, right?
No, not really.
Its usually the case that given any one organization of song writers (Hillsong United, Maranatha Praise, Vineyard Praise, Sovereign Grace, Indelible Grace etc), that I find myself drawn to a small sub-grouping of individual writers. That is to say that while I can say "I like Hillsong United", what I really mean to say is that there are certain songwriters within the Hillsong United family that I enjoy.
Now, don't take me wrong... this is not to say that any of the writers that aren't on my preferred list are less Godly, less talented or not as worthwhile... I am simply stating that given my personal preferences, there are only a few that I really enjoy.
This brings me to Brooke Fraser. Six months ago or so, I was introduced to one of her songs: "Hosanna". It was on some Hillsong project that someone had loaned to me to learn for a worship set. I remember distinctly thinking how great a song it was (and is).
More recently, the other singer for my Sunday night services (Thanks Virginia!!) gave me some music to another one of Brooke's songs entitled "None but Jesus". I'll admit that just reading through the music didn't give me much of a feel for the song, but I thought it would be worth checking out... so I piled it away in my list of "songs I hope to do in the future".
When I finally got around to tracking down the song on iTunes and giving it a listen, I was pleasantly surprised... another great song by Brooke.
Move forward a few more weeks... while reading through one of my trade magazines, there was a mention of the release of Brooke's new CD, "Albertine". Within a day or so of reading that, I also came across a review that Bob Kauflin put on his blog suggesting that people check out this new CD. (While some of you may not know who Bob is, he is well respected in my circle of worship-leading friends.)
I told Virginia about the CD being out and Bob's review and we both talked about how we needed to buy the CD.
Fast-forward to the service last night. While I'm finishing packing up, Virginia comes up to me and says "I got the CD and you're going to borrow it." Its true. She got the CD and I borrowed it. *grin*
I had to take a trip across town today, so I took it with me and popped it into the CD player... and was very surprised with what I heard.
Typically, I jump around CDs. I either get drawn into certain songs or pushed away from certain songs within the first 30 seconds or so. This was not the case with the Albertine CD.
Of the first 10 songs (that's all I had a chance to listen to), there was only one song that almost got the "next" from me. It wasn't necessarily because it was bad, but it was just not as good as the others.
Track for track, I was impressed with the writing and production of the CD.
I will say that many of the songs are similar... in fact, there were a couple vocal lines that were "re-used" from one song to the next... but the production and styling of the CD were impressive enough that it didn't matter.
If you don't know who Brooke is, but like Coldplay, Neil Finn, Sara Groves and a good message - do yourself a favor and check out the CD.
If you don't know who any of the people are I mentioned, STILL do yourself a favor and check out the CD.
I'm not sure Virginia is going to get her CD back. *grin*
In Him,
Jim
No, not really.
Its usually the case that given any one organization of song writers (Hillsong United, Maranatha Praise, Vineyard Praise, Sovereign Grace, Indelible Grace etc), that I find myself drawn to a small sub-grouping of individual writers. That is to say that while I can say "I like Hillsong United", what I really mean to say is that there are certain songwriters within the Hillsong United family that I enjoy.
Now, don't take me wrong... this is not to say that any of the writers that aren't on my preferred list are less Godly, less talented or not as worthwhile... I am simply stating that given my personal preferences, there are only a few that I really enjoy.
This brings me to Brooke Fraser. Six months ago or so, I was introduced to one of her songs: "Hosanna". It was on some Hillsong project that someone had loaned to me to learn for a worship set. I remember distinctly thinking how great a song it was (and is).
More recently, the other singer for my Sunday night services (Thanks Virginia!!) gave me some music to another one of Brooke's songs entitled "None but Jesus". I'll admit that just reading through the music didn't give me much of a feel for the song, but I thought it would be worth checking out... so I piled it away in my list of "songs I hope to do in the future".
When I finally got around to tracking down the song on iTunes and giving it a listen, I was pleasantly surprised... another great song by Brooke.
Move forward a few more weeks... while reading through one of my trade magazines, there was a mention of the release of Brooke's new CD, "Albertine". Within a day or so of reading that, I also came across a review that Bob Kauflin put on his blog suggesting that people check out this new CD. (While some of you may not know who Bob is, he is well respected in my circle of worship-leading friends.)
I told Virginia about the CD being out and Bob's review and we both talked about how we needed to buy the CD.
Fast-forward to the service last night. While I'm finishing packing up, Virginia comes up to me and says "I got the CD and you're going to borrow it." Its true. She got the CD and I borrowed it. *grin*
I had to take a trip across town today, so I took it with me and popped it into the CD player... and was very surprised with what I heard.
Typically, I jump around CDs. I either get drawn into certain songs or pushed away from certain songs within the first 30 seconds or so. This was not the case with the Albertine CD.
Of the first 10 songs (that's all I had a chance to listen to), there was only one song that almost got the "next" from me. It wasn't necessarily because it was bad, but it was just not as good as the others.
Track for track, I was impressed with the writing and production of the CD.
I will say that many of the songs are similar... in fact, there were a couple vocal lines that were "re-used" from one song to the next... but the production and styling of the CD were impressive enough that it didn't matter.
If you don't know who Brooke is, but like Coldplay, Neil Finn, Sara Groves and a good message - do yourself a favor and check out the CD.
If you don't know who any of the people are I mentioned, STILL do yourself a favor and check out the CD.
I'm not sure Virginia is going to get her CD back. *grin*
In Him,
Jim
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Stop Or Go
Recently, God's been teaching me a lesson on perspective. His perspective versus ours. I'll admit it... I'm often one to focus on the rip in the silver lining (*grin*), so this is an interesting, painful and tedious lesson to unravel.
I would be curious to know your thoughts on this. How do we differentiate God teaching us through adversity (while working toward a goal) versus God presenting adversity to steer us away to another path?
Let me present a hypothetical example: You work at Wal-Mart. You enjoy working at Wal-Mart and have peace in feeling like you are meant to be there. You might even say that you feel called to work for Wal-Mart and believe that you are well suited for work at the customer service counter (though you currently work in the warehouse). Of the 5 or 6 people you began your employment with, 4 of them have since moved on to be customer service workers... seemingly with little effort... while you remain in the warehouse having been passed over 4 or 5 times.
Would you say that A) God is protecting you from being in customer service, even though you believe that's where you should be, B) God is refining something in you to better prepare you for your customer service roll, C) God has nothing to do with it... try harder or D) some other answer?
Obviously, this is NOT my situation, nor are the answers I presented the only way of looking at things... I just thought it would be interesting to hear how you all would reconcile the situation.
Let me know your thoughts!
In Him,
Jim
I would be curious to know your thoughts on this. How do we differentiate God teaching us through adversity (while working toward a goal) versus God presenting adversity to steer us away to another path?
Let me present a hypothetical example: You work at Wal-Mart. You enjoy working at Wal-Mart and have peace in feeling like you are meant to be there. You might even say that you feel called to work for Wal-Mart and believe that you are well suited for work at the customer service counter (though you currently work in the warehouse). Of the 5 or 6 people you began your employment with, 4 of them have since moved on to be customer service workers... seemingly with little effort... while you remain in the warehouse having been passed over 4 or 5 times.
Would you say that A) God is protecting you from being in customer service, even though you believe that's where you should be, B) God is refining something in you to better prepare you for your customer service roll, C) God has nothing to do with it... try harder or D) some other answer?
Obviously, this is NOT my situation, nor are the answers I presented the only way of looking at things... I just thought it would be interesting to hear how you all would reconcile the situation.
Let me know your thoughts!
In Him,
Jim
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
You Didn't Let Go - Julie's Song
In yesterday's post, I mentioned a song that my friend Joel had recently written for a friend's funeral.
With Joel's permission, I've posted the song for you to listen to:
In Him,
Jim
With Joel's permission, I've posted the song for you to listen to:
You Didn't Let Go - Julie's Song
In Him,
Jim
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Mortality
This afternoon I emailed my friend Joel about some songs he and I are considering working on together. The response I received was not one that I expected.
He told me that he hasn't been able to listen to the songs yet, because a close friend of his died tragically this past week.
She was apparently trying to rescue a young girl from a river when she was overtaken by the current herself and drown.
My friend wrote a song for the funeral.
I took a listen to it tonight and was struck by the beauty of the words that he had to say about his friend.
It makes me wonder what people would say about me? It makes me wonder what I would say about the people I know? How well do I know them and how well do they know me?
It also makes me realize that your health today doesn't always equate to your life tomorrow. Sometimes God defies all earthly reasoning and keeps people like my friend Jody alive... while taking people like Joel's friend.
It puts into perspective the days that I'm too wrapped up in myself to care for others. Or the times that I bark at the kids because they aren't behaving as I expect.
How well did we use today? How much faith do we put in tomorrow?
Maybe I'll ask Joel if I can post a link to the song here. It truly is a beautiful tribute to his friend.
In Him,
Jim
He told me that he hasn't been able to listen to the songs yet, because a close friend of his died tragically this past week.
She was apparently trying to rescue a young girl from a river when she was overtaken by the current herself and drown.
My friend wrote a song for the funeral.
I took a listen to it tonight and was struck by the beauty of the words that he had to say about his friend.
It makes me wonder what people would say about me? It makes me wonder what I would say about the people I know? How well do I know them and how well do they know me?
It also makes me realize that your health today doesn't always equate to your life tomorrow. Sometimes God defies all earthly reasoning and keeps people like my friend Jody alive... while taking people like Joel's friend.
It puts into perspective the days that I'm too wrapped up in myself to care for others. Or the times that I bark at the kids because they aren't behaving as I expect.
How well did we use today? How much faith do we put in tomorrow?
Maybe I'll ask Joel if I can post a link to the song here. It truly is a beautiful tribute to his friend.
In Him,
Jim
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Flood And The Call
So, if you watch the news at all, you probably know that Iowa has been dealing with some serious flooding. Cedar Rapids (the town I live in) has been experiencing a 500-year flood, which essentially means we've never seen anything like it before.
Life, as we know it, has changed.
In Iowa City, the church I serve at was completely overtaken by water - requiring us to hold our services in a local school auditorium.
This weekend, I left Cedar Rapids at 5:00 am to head for Iowa City. What would have normally been a 40 minute drive on major interstates turned into an hour and 15 minute drive across small highways and gravel back roads. In my 30 some odd years of living in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City areas, I drove through parts that I never even knew existed... hoping and praying that my old Honda with her 202,000 earned miles would safely make the journey.
As I made the trek early yesterday morning, there were hardly any cars out and about. As the sun lazily poked its head up from the east, I was amazed by the landscape that was being revealed. There were ponds of water and swollen rivers all over the countryside, clearly showing why the other routes between the two cities were closed.
As I sit here today contemplating a pretty big mental struggle in my life, I can't help but reflect on how God's call is like my drive through the flood: I often assume God will show up in ways that make sense to me... much like I've always assumed that the interstate would be open for me to travel upon... but sometimes its when God has us on those uncharted back roads, filled with uncertainty, that His light most clearly reveals the dangers He is helping us avoid. Much like the watery landscape that I could see from my back road adventure.
When I arrived in Iowa City yesterday morning I was early, so I turned the engine off , rolled down the window and sat listening to the birds chirping and the cool wind blowing. Amazed at the tranquility at the end of my journey. Not because I was clear of any additional storms, but more so because for that brief moment I could enjoy God's beauty in spite of the storms after a journey of doubt.
The time I spent worshiping with the church that morning was precious.
I guess my prayer in all of this is to be willing to "get in the car and drive". Its easy in a situation such as a flood to hole up and ignore your surroundings. Its easy to say "if I can't get there my way, I won't go at all". I want to allow God to take me on those back roads and reveal to me the dangers that He has helped me avoid. I want God to show me that willingness is stronger than fear. And I want to take the time between the storms to roll down the windows and reflect on the journey.
In Him,
Jim
Life, as we know it, has changed.
In Iowa City, the church I serve at was completely overtaken by water - requiring us to hold our services in a local school auditorium.
This weekend, I left Cedar Rapids at 5:00 am to head for Iowa City. What would have normally been a 40 minute drive on major interstates turned into an hour and 15 minute drive across small highways and gravel back roads. In my 30 some odd years of living in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City areas, I drove through parts that I never even knew existed... hoping and praying that my old Honda with her 202,000 earned miles would safely make the journey.
As I made the trek early yesterday morning, there were hardly any cars out and about. As the sun lazily poked its head up from the east, I was amazed by the landscape that was being revealed. There were ponds of water and swollen rivers all over the countryside, clearly showing why the other routes between the two cities were closed.
As I sit here today contemplating a pretty big mental struggle in my life, I can't help but reflect on how God's call is like my drive through the flood: I often assume God will show up in ways that make sense to me... much like I've always assumed that the interstate would be open for me to travel upon... but sometimes its when God has us on those uncharted back roads, filled with uncertainty, that His light most clearly reveals the dangers He is helping us avoid. Much like the watery landscape that I could see from my back road adventure.
When I arrived in Iowa City yesterday morning I was early, so I turned the engine off , rolled down the window and sat listening to the birds chirping and the cool wind blowing. Amazed at the tranquility at the end of my journey. Not because I was clear of any additional storms, but more so because for that brief moment I could enjoy God's beauty in spite of the storms after a journey of doubt.
The time I spent worshiping with the church that morning was precious.
I guess my prayer in all of this is to be willing to "get in the car and drive". Its easy in a situation such as a flood to hole up and ignore your surroundings. Its easy to say "if I can't get there my way, I won't go at all". I want to allow God to take me on those back roads and reveal to me the dangers that He has helped me avoid. I want God to show me that willingness is stronger than fear. And I want to take the time between the storms to roll down the windows and reflect on the journey.
In Him,
Jim
Monday, May 19, 2008
Conviction, The Holy Spirit And Hot Dogs
This past Friday afternoon, I had the pleasure of lunch with a friend and coworker of mine. Granted, I normally get to eat lunch on Fridays with my coworkers, but this particular Friday it was just me and Jeff... and when its just me and Jeff, we tend to eat less healthy foods than usual. Friday's choice was a favorite of mine - the Flying Wienie in Cedar Rapids.
For those 10 or 20 of you that actually own a Just William CD, we actually featured a cup with the Flying Wienie logo in one of the pictures on the inside of the CD cover.
The food was of course excellent, but the conversation was nice too.
Jeff is a very intelligent man... far smarter than I am. His office is immaculate - mine usually looks like a series of small tornadoes attacked some cross of a music store, a Mt. Dew factory and a home office. His lawn is nicely manicured - mine doesn't need mowing, because the dandelions have such pretty flowers and it would be a shame to cut them all to pieces.
All additional Felix Ungar/Oscar Madison comparisons aside, Jeff and I share a love for the arts and I believe both of us have hearts for being obedient toward God's will.
I appreciated the time of being able to bounce my scattered rants past Jeff and see where that directed the conversation.
To say that life has been crazy lately, would be an understatement. To claim that my heart isn't being torn in two over many situations, would be less than honest. To state that I desire clarity of direction from God, would be far too mild... but in the midst of it all, I praise God for conversations such as the one this past Friday. Conversations where smarter men than I reassure me that my convictions aren't crazy.
I've had several of those lately... this past week with Jeff, a few weeks back when Ashley and I met John and Sharon in Dubuque, a phone call here and there from my friend Paul and several late night talks with my wife, Ashley.
So... why on earth the title of this particular post? Well, its simple: Godly conviction, the work of the Holy Spirit and Flying Wienie hot dogs have all shared a special place in my heart this past week... I also can't seem to get my fill of any of them.. and they all seem better when shared with a friend.
Grab a friend and go down to the Flying Wienie. Order up a "double play" (two dogs Chicago style) and sit back and ask each other what it is God wants to communicate in and through our lives. Trust me, it makes for an enjoyable and thought provoking afternoon.
In Him,
Jim
For those 10 or 20 of you that actually own a Just William CD, we actually featured a cup with the Flying Wienie logo in one of the pictures on the inside of the CD cover.
The food was of course excellent, but the conversation was nice too.
Jeff is a very intelligent man... far smarter than I am. His office is immaculate - mine usually looks like a series of small tornadoes attacked some cross of a music store, a Mt. Dew factory and a home office. His lawn is nicely manicured - mine doesn't need mowing, because the dandelions have such pretty flowers and it would be a shame to cut them all to pieces.
All additional Felix Ungar/Oscar Madison comparisons aside, Jeff and I share a love for the arts and I believe both of us have hearts for being obedient toward God's will.
I appreciated the time of being able to bounce my scattered rants past Jeff and see where that directed the conversation.
To say that life has been crazy lately, would be an understatement. To claim that my heart isn't being torn in two over many situations, would be less than honest. To state that I desire clarity of direction from God, would be far too mild... but in the midst of it all, I praise God for conversations such as the one this past Friday. Conversations where smarter men than I reassure me that my convictions aren't crazy.
I've had several of those lately... this past week with Jeff, a few weeks back when Ashley and I met John and Sharon in Dubuque, a phone call here and there from my friend Paul and several late night talks with my wife, Ashley.
So... why on earth the title of this particular post? Well, its simple: Godly conviction, the work of the Holy Spirit and Flying Wienie hot dogs have all shared a special place in my heart this past week... I also can't seem to get my fill of any of them.. and they all seem better when shared with a friend.
Grab a friend and go down to the Flying Wienie. Order up a "double play" (two dogs Chicago style) and sit back and ask each other what it is God wants to communicate in and through our lives. Trust me, it makes for an enjoyable and thought provoking afternoon.
In Him,
Jim
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