Packed with rich Bible-centered text, this CD is the expression of our wrestlings with God in our art, namely the fight to enjoy Christ and fear Him rather than fearing the praises and rewards of man. Together, the music and lyrics challenge and encourage so that we can know God more intimately! Download or buy the album and give it away!

I leave for the Dominican Republic tomorrow! Here's a link to a blog that you can check out to follow along with what's happening over the course of the tour. We'll update it everyday, if not multiple times a day, and we'd love you to share in the experience with us!

www.jasonharmsquintetinthedominican.blogspot.com

I played a gig tonite in Eau Claire, a wedding reception, and I was put in awe by God at what was happening in my heart throughout the course of the night.

I put together a jazz combo and we played a few sets at the reception, just making the best music we knew how to make and giving it 100%. The reactions of everyone at the reception were incredible! Everybody was ecstatic about how much fun they were having and how great we sounded and how much they were enjoying their night. Most importantly, the bride and groom both came up to me and looked me in the eye and told me that what we were doing fit their dream reception that they had visioned - 100%. They said it was more than they could've even hoped for, and I could just see that they were filled with joy at how memorable we had made their wedding day.

In experiencing all of this, here's the conclusion:

How great it was to share my gifts and talents with people and see it produce such joy in them! What an incredible feeling and experience - to give of oneself to, by God's grace, produce joy in them, and, in turn, experience an overwhelming joy in my own heart! I'm reading about this right now in some books, and I'm thinking about this a lot...

"The life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us, that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete." 1 John 1:2-4

this all says something about us as people. It tells us that we miss out on joy when we do not share and give of ourselves, whether it be our gifts, our money, our time, or our treasure (the gospel of Jesus). We only experience the joy we're meant to experience when we not only have what it is that is TRUE JOY (Christ), but when we share it in any way. That's just amazing!

i'm excited to tell you about an amazing opportunity I have coming up at the end of June. I am going to be recording with Jason Harms, a gifted guitarist/singer/songwriter and we will be recording The Land of the Fear of Men, the CD that will accompany Jason's "The Affections of the Heart in Art" - a treatise written urging artists to find their full satisfaction and joy in God and not art or themselves. "Affections" is an absolutely amazing written work, and it has challenged me already in ways that I never have been before - God has definitely been using it to show me there is more to art than art! God is the Creator and Maker of art and of humans, and when we value ourselves or our art above God, we are misplacing the credit and robbing ourselves of the joy we have in God!

Check out Jason's website at www.jasonharms.com for more information. You can also download a free copy of "Affections" and download an invitation to become a supporter of the CD as well. Check it out - it's definitely worth your time!

I just met with my friend Kaleb this week and I'm excited to say that the process for my personal website has begun! We're coming up with some great ideas and I can't WAIT to unveil it sometime later this fall!

Pray that I'd get the right domain and pray for Kaleb and I in designing it - let God be glorified in the art and concepts!

so i just watched this documentary on the media and how they influence us and reflect the lives of teens but then we reflect what they show us and blah blah...wow. The media is such a vicious monster. It just eats us alive, and mainly, it destructs the world. It's like it's Satan's prime tool for reaching young people and filling them with lies and empty hopes and desires that end only in destruction. it's so horrible. it just makes me want to vomit. it's just so bad you guys, can't you see? We're meant for LOVE, for FREEDOM, for FUN, for SEX even...but the media plays it off to us and it kills us...it makes me think of Romans 1 where Paul is talking about the destruction of the world and the people all around us who fall into worldly lives and idols.
ya'll, i'm standing against this. I've decided it tonight. I'm listening to my CD right now, which I haven't done because we got em shipped to us, and all I'm thinking about is how much people need to hear us. Not for fame, not because I'm living this 'rebellious' life or whatever, but because there is frickin TRUTH in here. There is truth in my music, and I want to share it with people. this is ridiculous how our world works, and I want a change. I want JESUS in this place. We are so in need of a savior because we're all searching for love, we're searching for freedom, we're searching for security, for fulfillment, for success, for happiness, for REAL LIFE - IT'S IN JESUS! don't you all see?! It's in Jesus Christ because He is perfect and He loves us so much that He chose to die on the cross with all of our fears and imperfections to ALLOW us to be able to HAVE freedom and love and fun and joy!! It's REAL ya'll! JESUS IS REAL!! He provides real love because He's perfect, He's not a liar, He's holy, He's in control and in authority over EVERYTHING, and He begs us to trust Him because we CAN!!! We can trust God because He is good and He loves us so much! He couldn't stay to be away from us for eternity because He values us more than ANYTHING in the entire world, so He sacrificed His own Son for us, just so that He could love us and provide for us and give us REAL LIFE!!!! AHHHH!
I'm taking a stand in the name of JESUS CHRIST because HE IS LORD and HE IS GOOD. I expect persecution, I expect failure, I expect people to hate me, I expect to be hated, and guess what...BRING IT ON. I've got the LIVING GOD, and He will save me, He will protect me. He will keep me safe and HE ALONE will prosper me.
I had to vent, and I hope you all see the truth - it sets us free.

hey ya'll,
wow...check this band out - Mainstay. They're from the good ole TC and they have incredible hearts and music - check em out...


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so my GIRLFRIEND (woot!) Katie and I were having our amazing valentine's date last night as we road to the Twin Cities on a greyhound (romantic, isn't it?) and we got to talking about ye ole JRP and she helped me conclude: THIS AIN'T NO EP. Extended Play? No way I say! THIS IS A FULL OUT CD. bottom line. it really is. it's like 70-some minutes of music and it's freakin' awesome! anyways...that's pretty much it...and also, tritone subs are really sweet and I like playing them... I love you all, J-rizzle

HOLY COW! We're releasing our EP! This is so much fun ya'll, I can't even tell you! We're so excited to share this with you and just be with you and do LIFE with you. You know, music is so amazing. I was listening to this Japanese piece written for concert band today and I was so humbled at how much WE DON'T KNOW!! It's insane...this is what I've been meditating on lately though, it's just been so on my heart. Music is great and it's fun getting to produce that and share it with people, but it simply is nothing to me. I love it and it's good, but it's not worth my life and my soul. Check out what the apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:7-11: "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." There's nothing that can satisfy us. Everything we try and fill our lives with, no matter how temporarily awesome it might be, is meaningless. In the end, it's like us chasing after the wind, as it says in Ecclesiastes. This EP, this group, music itself - I consider it rubbish and I lose it for the sake of Christ. There is no life apart from Christ, and like Paul says, not the benefits we get from the cross of Christ but Jesus HIMSELF! Just to KNOW God is enough to satisfy us! That's so incredible and uncomprehendable...I try but I can never get it. And that's ok. Because like Paul says, I want to know Christ and become like Him in His death - we're meant to experience this ridiculous, relentless LOVE that He has for us in the form of a cross, some nails, a crown of thorns and a sinless man who was and is the Son of God. Guys...this is life. This is my delight, my treasure, my heart's desire. And it's truth for all people - this is the truth. If any of ya'll need ANYTHING, please let me know. whether it's encouragement, advice, if you wanna bash me, whatever...go ahead. I just can't wait to hear from ya'll!