The Ember Days

A friend just contact me describing a difficult season he is going through with his journey with the Lord. I think that this response might be for more than just him. Maybe this is for you today?…

Hey bro, Good to hear from you.

My prayer for you is that you would give up struggling with this. That you would simply come into a place of rest. Knowing that you are loved, knowing that you are a Son that is pleasing to the Lord through the blood of Jesus.
Rather than setting aside time to pray and making it like a thing you do… why don’t you try just talking to the Lord while you are going about your every day life. When you are driving or doing what ever.

Trust that the Lord is strong, that his purposes in your life will be fulfilled by his grace in you and not buy your effort. The world my look like its screwed up, but the Lord is sovereign and his plans for good and ability to achieve it far out way the ability of the enemy to do evil. Trust in the lord, and stop trying to figure things or even God.

Its a time for you to be still and just know… that he is God and that you will never have everything figured out and that is fine. Its time to rest in the character of who God is, knowing that he is good and his love endures through the toughest of seasons. Be blessed!

Jase

The Armor of God

Growing up, I always thought of the armor of God as some vague spiritual thing. I remember being in kids church and being told that every day we need to put on this invisible armor that God has told us to put on. I remember in this class we put out our hands and put an invisible helmet on our heads. In years of touring churches, I have heard continued vague and somewhat mysterious descriptions of the armor of God shared from the pulpit. But a few years ago I kind of stumbled upon a revelation on the reality of the armor of God when I was praying. I realized that the armor is not some bizarre imaginary routine that we are meant to do to ward us from the fiery darts. It is actually quite the opposite.

To start with, what are the fiery darts? Satan is known as a liar and also he is known as “the accuser”. When he is on his daily routine of destroying, robbing, and dividing, his main weapon of choice is know best as…words.

When accusing the saints he will no doubt pull out these darts and fire them our way. Satan is accusing the saints with lies that are designed to cripple us and fill us with a great deal of condemnation. His lies are normally dressed up like truth and look similar to genuine concern, but when it comes down to it, they are designed to misrepresent the character and nature of God, or to somehow disqualify us from being a son or daughter of God.

Here are some examples…
“You’re never going to be a good christian”
“You are filthy”
“You are just like your father”
“How can God bless you when you’re like this”
“How can you change the world, look at you”
“You need to try and please God”

All of these things, some of which are subtle examples, others of which are obvious, are questions or lies that may come along to a lot of believers.

When you actually “take the clothes off” of them it leads you do a deeper question. Who am I?

Jesus said “who do you say that I am”. Some said prophet and others said
teacher, but one said “You are the Lord”. In response, Jesus said “Flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but the Father has revealed this to you”. So for starters, we need to see who Jesus really is, because if we can see who Jesus really is, then we can discover who we are in and through Him.

Satan comes in and tries to see if we know who we really are. For example, when Jesus went in to the wilderness to be tested, I didn’t see Him lining up 17,000 sick people to see if He could pass the test of healing them in 2 minutes. No, that was not the test at all. The test was Satan saying “If you are the Son of God…,” then it would follow with some instruction. Satan was questioning Jesus: “Are you really the Son of God? Prove it!”

Today Satan’s game plan with the Saints has not changed. I suppose if the test was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for us, right?

So, back to the armor of God. Here is a passage from Ephesians 6:

13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

The armor is deeper than just armor. The helmet of salvation is placed on your head for good reason. Your mind is the most common place where the enemy comes to convince you of your lack of eligibility for salvation. When Satan attacks your mind and comes to you saying “You’re not even a christian, there is no way God loves you after that,” you need to remember that you are saved by grace, not by performance. Your salvation is maintained by grace, not by performance. Jesus said “It is finished.” So you need to remind Satan to go take up the fight with Jesus because it’s in Jesus’ authority that you are saved.

They say conviction draws you to God, and condemnation takes you away from him. I totally agree with that statement. God’s staff is comforting. The Holy Spirit is the Teacher, but He is also the comforter. Conviction is always going to make you feel like you will never succeed because already your eyes have shifted from Jesus onto yourself. Conviction will say, “Be healed, be delivered, come to Me with your burdens, go and sin no more”. Condemnation will say stuff either about who you are or who God is:
“I’m filthy”
“I will never have a good relationship with God”
“I feel so useless”
“God cannot possibly use me like this”

Condemnation is like poison for your heart – it creeps in and before you know it you have fortified your heart against the truth of God’s love. Satan all of a sudden seems to be a far more powerful entity than he has the authority to be. All this happens not because Satan is powerful, but because his lies unfortunately are believable to so many.

The breastplate of righteousness is our main protection from the arrows of condemnation. The pieces of armor are placed there for a reason. You need to remind yourself that your righteousness was bought by the blood of Jesus, not by how well you are performing. As a believer, you are the righteousness of Christ Jesus! Wow! What an amazing promise. So even though Satan will try and show you a mirror with dirt smeared all over it, look to Jesus because in Him you are a new creation. Paul said there is neither male nor female in Christ. That is amazing, he was so wrapped up in who he was in Christ that even being a man didn’t matter anymore in the Kingdom.

In history, shields were often used as an offensive weapon and a defensive weapon. I love that faith is the shield. Through faith we not only stand our ground but we take ground. Faith is the gift that God gives us to enable us to be pleasing to Him. The Bible says “without faith it is impossible to please God.” Lots of people take this in weird directions, like, the more faith you get the more pleasing you are. That’s the thing, even a small mustard seed’s worth is enough. This is not about how much faith you have, its simply about how God gives His kids His kingdom. So by faith we receive grace, and through grace we receive the righteousness of Christ. Now wait a minute, the righteousness of Christ! If we are as righteous as Jesus, how pleasing is Jesus to the Father? I remember the Father saying, “This is my Son, in whom I am WELL PLEASED.”

This is why without faith it is impossible to please God: without faith, you don’t receive grace. Without grace, you don’t receive the righteousness of Christ. So this is the way that we get our standing as sons and daughters of the Most High. The revelation of this enables us to take ground, not just stand our ground. Through this process Jesus has given us authority, and this means we can do what he did – take ground.

All of this is walked out wearing the shoes of the readiness that comes with the gospel of peace. Walking in the peace that the Prince of Peace has given us. When fear shows it self, normally dressed up in an outfit looking like “concern, or being worried”, we need to remember who Jesus is, what He has done and His love for us. His love, perfect in every way, destroys every arrow of fear that comes our way. So we can walk without the fear of what might be, and walk instead in the peace of Him Who Was And Is And Is To Come!

I know this was a long blog, but I hope it brings some clarity to this portion of scripture in a practical and applicable way for you. It has helped me a ton over the last couple of years. So remember who Jesus is, and who you are in Him.

Hi Friends,

We haven’t written anything in a while, the whole band has been taking some time off, living a “normal” life, working jobs and spending time with our families. Jase, Janell, and I (Jed) are living in Nashville, Jord is in Vancouver, and Logan is back in New Zealand. It’s been really nice to have some time off from the road and be able to be involved with our churches and friends again. One of the reasons we decided to take some time off was Janell’s pregnancy. During the first few months of her pregnancy, Janell was very sick; now, thankfully, she is doing a lot better. Here’s an update from Jase about Janell and the baby:

“Thanks so much to all of you who have been praying for us and lifting specifically Janell and the baby up in prayer. Janell has been diagnosed with Lupus which is an incurable but most times manageable condition. It can cause complications during pregnancy.

We are going to be having a baby boy. Which we are stoked on.We are gonna name him Judah. It means ‘hands lifted in praise!’ So that’s pretty cool.

Will you continue to lift us up in prayer? We believe that we serve a God that heals, and we are hoping that he will completely heal Janell and keep the baby safe.

The Vanderbilt Hospital staff have been so kind and helpful to Janell and I in this process, and your prayers and support have helped us continue on. The Lord has been providing for us through so many little ways. Thanks again.

Be blessed, and we love you all! Hopefully we can get back out on the road next year. We have to see if Janell’s condition improves, or becomes more manageable after the baby is born.”

We are so excited for Jase, Janell, and Judah. He is going to be born in the end of March. Then if everything goes well, we hope to record another album early next summer, and also get back out on the road again after we finish recording. In the mean time, we’ve been spending a lot of time jamming writing songs for the new album. It’s really a blessing to have so much time to devote to writing songs, and not feeling rushed to get songs ready for recording. We can’t wait for you guys to hear this new material!

One last thing, there is a pretty awesome sale going on at our merch store right now, head over to theemberdays.com/shop to check it out. You can get deals like “buy any of our albums, get one free” and “get our entire discography on cd + Emergency on vinyl for $30.” Awesome, right?!

All of you guys in NZ, be sure to come out to Parachute this year, the lineup is amazing! We’re not going to be playing but Ascend the Hill and Showbread will both be there. Jase will be hanging out as well so be sure to come say hi!

Love you guys,

The Ember Days

The call to love.

Jesus emphasized over and over again that the most important thing or doctrine that we should place over every other (the first and greatest commandment) is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as Christ has loved you”.

We have all heard that our entire lives growing up in church. It seems like a no brainier, most people think they get it. I don’t think we get it at all. This is a call to live out unconditional love. I love that is not held back buy different doctrines or belief systems. Jesus’ love is not based upon your performance or how correct your theology is. He loves because it is who He is and He has called us to do the same to the world around us.

Imagine for a moment that churches loved each other like they love and show kindness to their own denomination. If we are called to love and bless our enemies, surely you would expect that we are meant to bless our own brothers. Jesus said “if you hate your brother you live in death”. Far out! I think there is a lot of people living in a place of death. I think a lot of the body of Christ right now is living in death and proud to have nothing to do with ‘the deceived ones’. And that is the sad thing because Jesus wants everything thing to do with his kids, even if they don’t have it all figured out.

I’m glad Jesus didn’t hold me at arms length until my theology was straightened out. He embraced me at day one, and his love has continued to shape me and mold me for the last 10 years and we are called to do the same.

Why do churches split? Denominations divide?
Theology disagreements, people struggling with human nature (sin) etc. The thing is if we are called to unconditional love and to bless even our enemies. Our love to our brothers should be unchanged even if they have different thoughts on the end times, gay marriage, or whatever. Jase are a postmodernist you may think… nope not true. I believe in absolute truth, and He is Jesus and hes called me to love unconditionally. The responsibility is to love no matter what theology people have. Is truth important. Yes truth is to be pursued, that is Jesus. But at the end of the day, the pursuit of knowledge and truth does not take away from the first and greatest commandment…. To LOVE.

1 Corinthians 13:2 says If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

The Lord is saying that knowledge with out love is meaningless. Even if you fathom all mysteries (if you have the understanding of God himself) and do not love like we have been called to…. If love isn’t our priority. We are nothing…. Harsh? I don’t think so. I think it is just a reflection of God priority to love his creation and for us as believers to do the same..

For so long the church has been focused on being right, fathoming the mysteries, understanding prophecy eg. End times. This has lead to many church splits and much division. Imagine, if the doctrine… the truth that we held closest to us was the one that Jesus told us too….The call and responsibility of the believer to show unconditional love.

How awesome would it be if the Church was known for its love for one another like Jesus prayed. I didn’t see him praying that the church would be known for its correct eschatology, doctrine or theology.

At the end of the the day… pursue Jesus the truth, pursue wisdom, pursue knowledge and the mysteries of the scripture. Make sure to hold unconditional love of people that believe and think differently to you, higher than your own opinions on who God is and how he operates. Love like crazy and that will change the world.

Jase

Hi friends,

Well it has been a very long summer for The Ember Days; it has been a long time since we sent out one of these. We’ve just got back to Nashville after being on the road since the end of June.
First of all, we want to say thank you again to everyone who donated towards helping us buy a new van and trailer. Thanks to your generous contributions, we were able to be a part of the six week long Come&Live! tour along with Showbread, White Collar Side Show, Ascend the Hill, and Levi the Poet. We played somewhere between 30 and 40 shows from northern Minnesota all the way down to San Antonio, TX, across to Florida and then up the east coast to New Hampshire.

In addition to the five of us, we had Colin Carter playing bass, Thaddeus Sparkman mixing and tour managing, Renee Wood from New Zealand helping out with merch and both Chad Johnson and Josh Stump speaking on different parts of the tour. It was definitely a challenge having so many people in the van on some long drives, but it was totally worth it. The Ember Days went somewhere new both musically and spiritually on this tour, and we were able to see a bit of where we are headed in the future.

Here is one of the many testimonies we received during the Come&Live! tour:

“Hey Jason! After your show in St Paul, MN, Renee ended up praying over me and the Lord healed me through her. I played violin for 7 years but I had to stop 2 years ago because I developed some serious hand/wrist problems, and I could barely hold a person’s hand without my thumbs popping and all of that fun stuff. I told Renee that I would update her after about a week and I am SO HAPPY to say that I can actually play my violin for more than 10 minutes now! It seems like my hands get stronger everyday. God has used her in an amazing way and I would love it if you could share this with her Now that I can worship through playing and creating music again, I feel closer to God than I ever have in my entire life!”

We will be heading out on the road again this September for two weeks, and then again for the month of October. We’re excited to see some of you guys we haven’t been in a while and also play Canada for the first time! Keep checking theemberdays.com/tour and our facebook for more information and dates.

Our big news this month is of course our new full-length album “Emergency” is coming out in 6 days, on August 30th! The album will be available for free download from comeandlive.com and for purchase from itunes and other online retailers. Also, the physical copy will be available through our webstore.

Love,

The Ember Days