Steph Jones… yep, that’s me..

  So we had yet another WONDERFUL night at the Girls’ Group or whatever we’re calling it. Really, it’s just been a place where girls can be real with one another, share advice and experiences, hear teaching from the Word and understand/develop their spiritual giftings. 🙂

  I had a BLAST teaching tonight and I figured I would just put my notes and thoughts up on here for people to read if they wish…

1.    Abide – John 15

             “I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with       me and I with you, when you ABIDE IN THE VINE, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing..”

              Abiding in Him requires us to be like Him.

1John 2:6-“Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk and conduct himself in the same way in which He walked and conducted Himself.”

2.    Adorn (clothe)

·      WE HAVE BEEN WALKING AROUND NAKED (in a sense) for FAR too long. WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN NEW CLOTHES!

·      Just like the routine of putting on our natural clothes every day, we should remind ourselves every morning of the new SPIRITUAL clothes we should be wearing. 

Galatians 3:27 –“for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
Isaiah 61:10 – “I will sing for joy in God, explode in praise from deep in my soul! He dressed me up in a suit of salvation, he outfitted me in a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom who puts on a tuxedo and a bride a jeweled tiara.”
Colossians 3:9 –“You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped them off and put them in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete.”

• We have to take OFF the OLD clothes (old mindsets, fleshly things, etc..) in order to make room for the new. The old ones aren’t right for us anymore, they are ill-fitting. The time of “transition” where we are in between the old and the new is the hardest part because this is when we feel the most “exposed”. We will be tempted to turn back in fear and grab for the old things, but the NEW things the Lord has for us are FAR better.
• This is free and available to us, but we have to make the decision to reach out and grab it. 

3.    Abandon (Live a life of abandonment)

·      Serving the Lord in pure devotion WILL cost you something. We must abandon all the lusts of the flesh. (This is not just sexual impurity. This includes worry, doubt, fear, unbelief…etc..) —> (Gal 5:17 NIV)  For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.  

·      Matthew 16:24 – “[ Discipleship Is Costly ] Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”

·      The woman at Jesus’ feet poured COSTLY perfume. She had to abandon all her pride to be able to come into that place unashamed.

Psalm 45:10-11

“Listen, O daughter, give attention and incline your ear; Forget your people and your father’s house;Then the King will desire your beauty.”

——-

Anywho, A LOT more was said but here’s some general notes. The Lord has just been dealing with me on The Devoted Heart. I don’t believe we can prove to be devoted until that very devotion is tested. We start operating in devotion the moment we feel our flesh not WANTING to do something. (You know, like reading the word, praying, encouraging someone who wronged us days before…) But BECAUSE I’m devoted to Him, I am compelled to do these very things and WALKING IT OUT is devotion. Just like in a relationship, it’s not enough to just TELL someone you love them. You show them. (Acts of service, kind words, going out of your way for them) I mean, my dad DOESN’T always want to go shopping with my step-mom or eat at her favorite restaurant, but because he LOVES her, and is DEVOTED to her, he walks it out.
And with the Lord, when voices from the past rise up, we have a decision to make. Our devotion is tested. Who is our trust really in? The great thing is, the Lord’s not a task-master. His ways are a lot more simple than we make them out to be. He’s good. He delights in doing good. 🙂

Love you all! 

Steph

Last night I had a very productive meeting with my dear friend, Dan who is doing the graphics for my EP! It’s all starting to take shape. The project is getting some skin on it. Some identity. HOW FUN!!!! More to come with all that jazz!…Well, not jazz… but you understand what I mean. 🙂

I have been trying to live my life to be more “REAL” than I ever have before. There’s just a freedom in it. For YOURSELF and every OTHER person you come in contact with! 
I want to be UNAPOLOGETICALLY me. I’m just a girl that loves God, people, family, music, art, being spontaneous, encouraging, and the list goes on and on. We sometimes make things in life so complicated and take the joy out of everything. I’ve found that the best way to relating to people is having the understanding that at the end of the day, everyone is just trying to “make it” in life….ya know, trying to “figure this whole thing out”… I mean, I know I have the answer to life’s questions because He lives IN me, but in the end no matter how different we all are, there are a FEW things we all have in common.

I’ve definitely seen during our Girls Night on Thursdays (or whatever we are calling it this week..haha) that we all learn A LOT more from someone speaking from a place where they’ve failed, and it HURT but they got back up and learned from it. God can do A LOT more with in our weakness then we THINK He can. I mean, it all makes sense. Jesus came to the earth and experienced A LOT of hurtful things during His time here. I love the fact that He came and was tempted but RESISTED. So NOW He can say to us, “I know the situation you’re in looks impossible… but I’ve been there”. It’s just so cool to me that Jesus didn’t come and live without  a single problem in his parents’ mansion all His life. It wasn’t like he just lived in leisure and frequently took the family yacht for a spin with his buddies… I don’t serve a God who is out-of-touch with my struggles. He came and was NUMBERED with the transgressors. It was popular to HATE him and everything He stood for. There are so many times I look at his life in the bible and I think, LORD I would’ve quit right about….there…..and there… and….there… but HE ENDURED.
I think we would see a lot more people set free in areas of their life if we all quit acting like we never fail…Because I know I do on a regular basis. We can’t be the people that act like we have it ALL perfectly together when we don’t, and we shouldn’t be ashamed of our weakness. When we are WEAK…. HE can be shown STRONG in our life. And He’ll show us how to endure and overcome, and THEN we can help someone who gets put in the same place down the road..
I know me not being so heavily involved in the worship department at Destiny has been great for me because it has messed with my HEAD and has taken away any comfort I could find in what I DO. Because it’s just that. It’s WHAT I DO, not WHO I AM. Yes, God has given me gifts in music, in leading people into worship. I see worship leading as a pretty low job on the totem poll, anyway. HAHA. I like to think of worship leaders being spiritual Hosts and Hostesses (like at a restaurant). My job is to just show you the way. Show you to the “table” and then get the HECK OUT OF THE WAY! HAHA:-)
But ANYWAY… We are ALL asked to live as WORSHIPPERS. I am just that whether or not I’m on a stage. And the beauty of it all is that at the end of the day, all I want is to know my Father more than I did the day before. I just want to “figure this thing out” like the rest. What’s great to know is that He doesn’t always hoard all the answers. 

😀

Not sure where a lot of that came from. Just like to sit and type from time to time. I didn’t re-read over all that to make sure it made sense so sorry if I lost ya. But hey, I’m not perfect, right? 😉
love you all.

steph.

So, I don’t know how many of you know this… but I could TECHNICALLY be considered a “country girl”… I lived in Warrenton, Missouri from 5th grade through high school and lived next to horses, chickens and the like! haha. I never used to appreciate it but now that I’ve been away for a couple years, I find myself missing it. I decided to spend last evening there with family and when I got out of my car, I automatically looked up. I forgot how much I miss being able to see the stars SO clearly at night. The quiet. And for some reason, I just love the way it smells in the country. I love the “city”, the fast-paced lifestyle, but sometimes I love spending time in the quiet with great scenery! 🙂

Friday went well in the studio! Just a couple more scratch tracks to go! WOO HOO! Hope you all have a great week.

Steph

So tomorrow, I will be going to the studio (thank you ToneCellar and Keith Harris!) to record the scratch tracks for my Worship EP that I’m working on. For anyone reading this and is thinking, “what the heck is a scratch track?” The best explanation would be:
“an unfinished and unedited sound track used to give a rough idea of the sound of the completed recording.”

I looked that up online because A. I’m dorky like that and B. I KNOW what it means but thought another source would word it more clearly than I would!! 🙂

Anywho, it should be lots of fun! I hope to have it out at the beginning of the year! I’m VERY excited and think it’s ABOUT TIME I do SOMETHING! HAHA
So be looking out for THAT and make sure to snag my friend, TYLER VAUGHN’s album “Restoration” when it comes out in November!!!

LOVE,

Steph

So I thought I’d share a short fun story.

I found out recently that the Creative Arts Pastor (Mike) at church has a son (Judah) that loves to sleep to music at night. For years he has slept to the same Kent Henry cd’s night after night to help him drift into sleepy land, and what really made me laugh is the fact that little Judah has now decided to replace Kent…with a board mix he stumbled upon of a weekend I led worship. So now this little guy comes up to me at church going “Steph Jones! You’re in my music at night and when I have nap time!” I thought it was the cutest thing… There’s nothing like a kid wanting to sleep to something where at the beginning of it, this dorky girl excitedly says something like..” Hey Destiny Church! Aren’t you glad to be in house of God tonight?!?!”

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

STEPH

Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know
Be still
Be.

This thought has been running through my mind (along with a GAJILLION other things.. and YES that is a word in my book..)
The truth is, we can keep DOING, CREATING, and making our life more BUSY filling it with endless and some even USELESS tasks. So much that at the end of these sprints, we were sure busy but what did we really achieve? Am I worse off spiritually, physically, emotionally? If so, in the long run, was it even worth it?…
I still ask the Lord for more clarity on exactly why I’m on this break, why it is so specific and such… and to be honest, part of me wonders if He sits back choosing not to answer me so quickly so that at the end of all my questioning, worrying, doubting, working, striving, begging, and reaching he can sit back, sigh and simply say “are you done yet?” But see, this isn’t the kind of sigh you get when your parents are deeply disappointed in you for missing your curfew….again. There would be no scornful look on his face. Instead, I think it could be more closely compared with the way a husband reacts when his wife is just being “crazy” again. Worrying, crying and being emotional about something that he sees as an easy fix. A sigh of “she keeps going on and on when all she has to do is slow down.. this is really not that big of a deal!”
 Hopefully, all this rambling is making sense. I read this in a new book that I’m reading : “When I am constantly running there is no time for being. When there is no time for being there is no time for listening.”  I know it’s all kind of cliche, but really we all could take a reminder to stop only doing and start listening. I mean, the word says he DELIGHTS in us. That if we were to count just how much He thinks about us, it would outnumber the sand.. And when I read this, all I can think of is how much TIME he spends thinking about us. Delighting in us…and I’m overwhelmed.

😀

Steph