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February 2008 More than Music Inc. Newsletter
Revolutionizing the culture at large, one heart at a time, until everyone on earth knows and lives the love that is in Jesus Christ.
Greetings!
Hi supporters. Sorry this e-mail is so latent. Life for More than Music's President, Stephanie Pauline, has been busy, busy, busy...not with concerts and radio interviews this year, but with lullabyes and baby coos. She is having a blessed time with her now seven-month old daughter, Aria, and of course her son, Trevor, too.

While the ministry is more or less on hold right now, we wanted to keep you up to date and let you know that we are trusting God for more ministry to be done through More than Music, Inc. in the not so distant future. In the meantime we do need your ongoing support to maintain our non-profit status, to continue to distribute our revolutionizing CDs, to work on getting national distribution and radio play, and to pay for certain ongoing MtM costs. We know that God will bless our efforts, and we continue to work, as we can, while keeping family, and Him first.

Highlights/Prayer Requests
 
  • For those of you who are following the work of the Sonflowerz, they are in the studio right now working on a high-level radio-ready CD. We are excited for them and anxiously awaiting its release. Please pray that God will annoint them as they give their best to this project. Pray that God will prepare open doors for the word of God expressed in their songs to go forth and impact many in the months ahead.
  • Stephanie is working on a children's book and slowly developing a devotional as well. She is continuing to write songs as God inspires her to do so. Her "MySpace" page is becoming more and more popular and we invite you to take a look at the link below. Pray that God will bless Stephanie in her work and in her time at home. Pray for a fresh anointing on her heart, her ministry, and her life.
  • MtM is working on a new distribution deal and some radio promotion opportunities. Pray that God will open doors for Stephanie Pauline's two latest CD projects to be used to their potential. God alone knows the hearts of those He wants to touch through the songs represented.
  • Pray that The next steps for More than Music will be clear. In reflecting on last years' 80 date " Rush the Sea Tour", which included 25 detention and recovery center concerts, the board of MtM feels confident that such concerts are vital and central to our ministry. We would love to see more life-changing work in those venues take place, and that part of our ministry expanded to meet the deep, ongoing need of those in such positions of crisis. Please pray fervently with us that God will provide the means, and unity needed for powerful work to be done in the months and years to come.
From the Heart
by Nathan Groninger   Nathan is Stephanie's husband and the man who has served as Vice President for MtM for the past three years.
Hello Friends and Supporters of More than Music, Inc.

When Stephanie asked me to write this month's installment of From the Heart I went through a bunch of options about which to write. I prayed about it and felt impressed that I should just share "from my heart" on what is going on in my life right now.

This week I have thought about the roles in which I find myself. As most of you know, I am now the father of two (one of whom, is a beautiful, amazing, and demanding baby) and the husband of my beautiful, talented, and wonderful wife. On top of that, I am a businessman engaged in strenuous entrepreneurial work, a board member of More than Music, and have numerous other roles to perform.

The above roles are all blessings to me, but they do all carry their own responsiblities and demands. Sometimes it just feels like I am pulled in so many directions and stretched so thin that it is hard to remember that...

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." II Corinthians 4:8-9

I don't know about you, but when I get up in the morning after four hours of sleep because the baby had a hard night, and then I face a stressful situation at work that demands my best, when even functioning at a reasonable level feels nearly impossible... It makes it hard to praise God. It makes it sometimes hard to trust. Sometimes getting out of bed in the morning to face the challenges that await, seems a moment of pure heroism, if you calculate the risk and sometimes how much easier it feels like it would be just to toss it all in at those moments. The vast majority of people I know would easily, in a moment of honesty, confess that they are hard pressed. But how many, in that same moment of honesty, would confess to having the resources necessary to embody the above scripture passage's example of a victorious believer who is still trusting and hopeful in the midst of all of the trials that we face every day.

"Hard Pressed, but Not Crushed":
Instead of "not crushed," I see so many people, including myself at times, let their God-given hopes and dreams, the very things of beauty that God placed in their hearts, the very things that make them who they are (a unique expression of God's Poetry to the world) become dead and lifeless. Sounds crushed to me.

"Perplexed, but not in Despair":
OK, I can buy this one. Sounds like the super spiritual person described here is me. Perplexed, yup, I fit the bill...but wait, it goes on... not in despair. What exactly does that mean? Many people I know would say they are not in despair. They have it all together, but if you look closer at them (and at my own life too) I think that we would find plenty of despair. It may not look like depression, but what is it when we find ourselves straying from the prayer closet (because we just don't functionally believe in a "real world" sense that God will come through for us), find ourselves absorbed in that negative addiction to lessen the pain (too much TV, too much internet, a fantasy life out of control, alcohol, ice cream, video games, shopping, gambling, etc.), and live a life that is carefully engineered to insulate us from most, if not all, activities that God might ask us to if He were to blow our world open with the enormity of His love. It sounds a little like despair to me.

"Persecuted, but Not Abandoned; Struck Down, but Not Destroyed":
Most Christians I know are persecuted for their beliefs in some way or another, but how many sense Christ standing there with them, with His arm around their shoulder as they feel the intense pain of being rejected by those they are trying to reach. As for being struck down and not destroyed, I know some who, through circumstance and sometimes choice, have lost everything... their marriage, their kids, their careers... but how many have emerged from that without a fundamental piece of their identity obliterated.

As a follower of Jesus I believe that there is a way to get from our reality to His reality. How do we do that then?

Mother Teresa had a saying. Loosely paraphrased, it goes like this, "When there is so much pain in loving that I cannot take it anymore, I continue to love. And then I find that there is no more pain... Only love."

It is one of God's greatest mysteries. He who seeks to gain his life will lose it, and he who loses his life will gain it. The great reverse. We, as the people of God, must be willing to suspend ourselves over the abyss of our fear and say in the words of Queen Esther, "If I perish, I perish."

The thing that must perish in us (and me) is our pride, and our self-reliance. It must be replaced with humility and God reliance.

Then as we are hard pressed, we are not crushed. We know that beyond this life and our present earthly reality, love is the ultimate reality. This gives us the hope that makes us uncrushable.

Then as we are perplexed, we are not in despair. Yes, we often have no idea what is going on around us, or even how God is working for our good, but we have so discovered the personal reality of God's love that despair (or despair/distraction) is not an option.

Next, we will be able to see that, as we are persecuted, we are not abandoned. Jesus promised to never leave us or forsake us. He never has, and He never will. When you were crying "by yourself," it never was "by yourself." In the words of the Jewish man who described God's reaction to the holocaust. "He weeps". It makes sense. The shortest verse in the bible is also one of the most powerful, "Jesus wept." A God like that does not abandon His loved ones.

Finally, even though the enemy may strike us down, he will not destroy us. He has no power to take what is most precious... our souls that have been filled with God's love. God is Love. Love always has been and always will be. It is the most powerful and eternal force in the universe, but we must choose (regardless of how hard it may feel in the moment) for it to have its full impact. I will pray for you and I ask for your prayer for me as well. Let's pray that we can all realize this Love together.
In Closing
 
Thank you for taking the time to catch up with us. We hope you are growing closer to the Father's heart day by day.

Even as we struggle and wrestle our way through life...there is a love and peace that can undergird us. It's the same love that Christ carried with Him all the way to the cross for you and me. A love of supernatural origin that can live within us in whatever role we must fill from day to day. May you live out of that love today.
 

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