Mark 14:3-9, John 12:1-8

There are times in our lives when our hearts may be convicted to do something radical for our Lord that may be considered absolutley absurd to those around us.  In this passage we see a woman (Martha’s sister Mary) who did not hesitate to break out her most precious purfume imported from India and annoint Jesus’ head with it.  Some sources suggest that this oil (Essence from nard) was equal to a year’s worth of wages!  Let’s try and put that into today’s perspective.  If we reason on the low side of things and say that the average individual’s income is $30k per year, we get a better picture of how large Mary’s sacrifice was.

But then we see Judas’ response to what Mary was doing.  He was very indignant and scolded her for doing it.  He tried to disquise his selfish, greedy motive by saying that she could have sold the perfume and given the money to the poor.  However, we know that Judas was a thief who was in charge of the disciples funds. (John 12:6) 

Where are you right now?  Are you ready to poor out your life onto the crown of Jesus as Mary of Bethany and sacrifice what is most precious to you for the sake of honoring and worshipping Him?  Or are you still pretending to to follow Jesus with selfish motives of what blessings you can get paid back as Judas? 

As the Life Application Study Bible puts it, “The essence of worshipping Christ is to regard him with utmost love, respect, and devotion and to be willing to sacrifice to him what is most precious.”  Our spiritual life and success can not be measured by the world’s standards, but only what God pours through it.

It is obvious that Jesus new what Judas was doing in taking money from the treasury for his own self, but he never did anything about it. (John 12:6, 6:64)  He simply knew that Judas’ judgement would come in due time.  Many times He will allow us to continue doing whatever it is we are doing even though it is against His will.  What we deserve will come.  However, the unfortunate thing is that Judas ended up committing suicide rather than seeking God’s forgiveness. 

We can not ever expect God to do great and marvelous things in our lives if we are constantly robbing blessings from “the treasury”.  What are you doing now?  What are your inner motives and intentions?  Now is the time to poor our hearts and souls out for the sake of gospel of Jesus Christ and stop seeking our own satisfaction.

That’s right folks!  If you refer anyone to us that turns into a booked concert, we will give you $50 the day of the concert!  How easy is that?  So get out there and bring some references to us today!

-House of Thomas

Hello everyone!  I know, its been like forever since the last time I updated this thing.  I only hope I haven’t run everyone off from my lack of activity.  We have been working behind the scenes lately on getting a new CD recorded.  (How long is that overdue?)  We are very excited about getting this thing recorded though so that you all can hear it!  We really feel that you are going to enjoy it.  Hopefully in only a few weeks we will be releasing the title cut song from the project called “Walking On Water”.  So please continue to be on the lookout for this.

Here is where we need your help.  We are about to make available for pre-purchasing the entire album of which we are anticipating to be released this fall.  In showing our appreciation to anyone who pre-purchases this CD, we will personally thank by name in the cover of the CD!  I know, it will probably have to be a very big CD insert.  But hey, that’s ok with us!  We feel it will be worth it.  So again, please be on the lookout as we will be making this available to you shortly!

We love you all!  We hope to see you soon.

In His grip,
Robbie

Robbie ready for skiing

Yesterday the New Vision Youth group and I (along with Christi and the boys) arrived at Snow Shoe Ski Resort in West Virginia.  This place is awesome!  We are on top of the mountain in the resort and it’s like a small village right here on the mountain!  Shops everywhere!

Christopher Lee

This was the first time I have EVER snow skied and I was pretty amazed at how quickly I caught on.  I did quite well if I have to say so myself!  The visibility was very short as we were pretty much in the clouds the entire day.  But that just made it all the more intense.  Within about a half hour I was blasting down the beginner slopes though!  After lunch, pastor Alan says “Come on and follow me!  We’ll only go down the beginner slopes.”  Now keep in mind that the “beginner” slopes here at this place can be pretty steep.  So we’re cruising along and at times I’m thinking, man this is getting pretty steep!  Well, at some point I begin sailing and all of a sudden I find myself soaring past Alan.  By this time I’m getting a little nervous.  I’m trying to continue “s”ing to keep my speed down but it just aint working!  I get all the way to the bottom and see the end, and I guess I got a little too happy I was at the end and lost control.  The next thing I know I am tumbling head over head, ski’s flying in the air, goggles flying in the air, and me hoping I don’t fly off the edge of the slope into the rocks!  He then comes skiing up to me to make sure I’m ok.  Once he confirms I have no broken bones he breaks into hysterics.  “That was an intermediate hill!” Ha ha!  Real funny as I’m picking my shame up off the ground!

Christi, Gabriel, and Christopher Lee

Christopher and Gabriel finally got up enough courage to start trying it after lunch.  I was very proud of them.  They gave it their best for about 45 minutes before the slopes closed for the day.  They just stayed on the flat surface but seemed to conquer the fear.  At the end of the day Christopher said, “That was the funnest day of my life!”

Gabriel Lee

We are now down for the night but have another big and long day of fun awaiting tomorrow.  We’ll meet for a worship service where I’ll lead a few songs on my acoustic guitar and then listen to Alan for a half hour.  Then we are back to the slopes!

Jacksonville, FL - We found out late last night that our dear brother in Christ Ron McClelland was called on to heaven yesterday at the age of 33 after a s sudden collapse while playing basketball.  He went into cardiac arrest and was not able to be revived.

House of Thomas had the wonderful joy of meeting Ron this past summer when we played together with Mercy Me in Valdosta, GA.  I’ll never forget that day.  It was a hot day in south GA and we were the first ones to arrive at the show.  Storyside :B came in shortly after to join us in our “hurry-up-and-wait” mode since none of the production was set up and waiting on us as it was supposed to be. 

All of the guys from SSB were extremely joyous to be arround.  They were always laughing and cutting up together.  Ron and I starting conversing immediately though as he was very inquisitive about our band.  He asked lots of questions and we quickly realized that he knew our producer CR Pendleton well.  We talked about their latest CD and how they had like 40 other song ideas that had been presented for that album.  It seemed that maybe he personally would have liked to see some of the other songs make it to the album, but “hey that’s the music business for you.”

During our performance, Ron specifically made a point to watch our show.  I remember how we had forgotten to bring our intro CD for the show and I was extremely stressed about it.  Thankfully I had an older intro arrangement I had done a while back on my laptop, so I burned it to a CD and it ended up working well.  Afterwards, one of Ron’s compliments was our intro CD.  (Probably because the CD was probably the best sounding part of the show.) LOL.  He went on to compliment our show and our “ministry”. 

We talked more at the end of the evening and he commended us for bringing our families along with us to the show.  He at that time seemed to be wrestling with the whole “touring musician” thing and balancing that with being a devoted husband and hopefully father-to-be.  He loved his wife and was planning to hopefully begin having children soon.

Just before we left, we found Devin’s children in the green room with all the guys from SSB and they were teaching his boys how to make discusting sounds with your armpit.  They were competing with one another to see who could do it the loudest.  Needless to say, mom was not impressed!

Ron was a man devoted to the calling of Jesus Christ.  That part was so obvious in my small time spent with him.  He loved God and that was apparent when you watched his performance.  However for whatever reason, God called his child home with him to live forever in glory. 

We are never promised tomorrow.  Therefore we need to live each day as if it were our last.  Love everyone and do everything you can to bring glory to God in all that you do.

Ron - we will miss you brother.  But we have this hope in knowing we will see you again soon as we wait for the appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:13)

In His loving grip forever,
Robbie