New Website

I have a new website for my ministry 'Connecting Life' it's an actual website and not a blog. I will still update my blog at least once a week, but this is my ministry site so that y'all can have a link to go to specifically for what's going on in my ministry and on my trip to Africa! Thanks a lot for the prayers and encouragement as I'm raising funds to go Africa! :)


http://connectinglife.webstarts.com/

Just Thinking--

Have y'all ever wanted God to take away an obstacle from your life? I'm sure we all have right? Well, God doesn't think that's the best idea for us! I've been struggling a lot in my life these past couple months.  Just legal issues that should have never occurred, so I've been stressing out a lot lately. So much to the point where it's starting to effect my relationship with God.  But like Berni Demit says in the post below God always shows up in the worst of things. He breaks us so that we'll need Him. Why wouldn't he break us? Because if life was always good why would we need God anyway? Right? So, like I said, my life has been kind of hectic and I have just been going through the motions and not soaking in the wonderful life God gave me. I am only going to learn how to worship God even more through these obstacles.  I wrote a song called "the 60914" - thats the area code to the little town I grew up in and in that song it says "God gave me this obstacle knowing I can handle it"  So, in that, God never gives you more than you can handle.

So when you are in a tough part of your life, don't ask God to take it away, ask him what he's trying to teach you and what you can learn in it.  God has a plan! God says, "“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" Hebrews 13:5b This is true, God has always been by my side..through thick and thin! So, I think we can all say thanks be to God for Him always being there! 

If you would like, you can email me at kevin@kevinmsouthlakeyl.com and I will be happy to go into a deeper discussion with you!! :)

That's Life

Job 30:26   But when I looked for good, evil came; and when I waited for light, darkness came. I can't begin to tell you the number of times in my life when I've been expecting something really good from God - and what happens is that things just take a turn for the worse. It's like - well if God is good, doesn't He want good things to happen to me?  Doesn't He want to bless me? And so you ask Him to help with something. "God I'm really struggling with this and I don't know how to handle it and it's too big" - and you think to yourself - "Well, surely now, God is going to do something really good to bless me."  Sometimes of course He does.

Other times though, things take a nosedive.  And you know - that's often the way it goes.  That's life.  So often, when God is up to something good in my life - and in yours too - He starts doing things in people and situations.  Digging around, changing things - and that upsets everything - and things all of a sudden get worse for a while before God's amazing plan finally unfolds. 

I Pray!

I was lost in the dark, but you came to me. You showed me what I needed to see. God, put me where you need me to be.  This is what i will say to you:

Jesus, I pray, that you'll show me the way of the route in life you want me to take. Lord, I continue to pray to show me the people we can save. I love you so, and I will bring your children to you.

Now you're living the man, you've made me to be. Close in my heart is where you rest so happily.  You're my motions, that people need to see. This is what i will say to you:

Jesus, I pray, that you'll show me the way of the route in life you want me to take. Lord, I continue to pray to show me the people we can save. I love you so, and I will bring your children to you. 

 

So I'm here, Lord, only to worship, the amazing works you've done in my life! The man you made me, I hope you are proud of! Lord, you know I'm living for you.

Jesus, I pray, that you'll show me the way of the route in life you want me to take. Lord, I continue to pray to show me the people we can save. I love you so, and I will bring your children to you.

I will worship you! Even in through the worst; to my God who gave me life. You continue to give and i will worship you! 

Kevin 'On Air'

As some of you may know, God has been presenting me with plenty opportunities to raise money for me to go to Africa. One of them consists of me being  featured on a live internet radio station tomorrow night, November 7th at 6 pm. I am going to be performing 2 singles that I have recorded. They are called 'Chosen One' and 'You Took My Sin'. Tune in to listen. Also, you can send me an email at kevin@kevinmsouthlakeyl.com to get a CD of this radio show with my recordings for $10 after it is produced on air and ready to be distributed.. You can pre order now. All of the money is going to go towards supporting my mission trip to Africa that God has laid in my path to further the Gospel.

To listen live tune into www.live365.com/stations/brotommyp on Sunday, November 7th at 6 pm.

You can also follow my blog which will be updated soon explaining more about the radio show. It will also keep you updated with what is going on in my life and my trip to Africa.

Thank you so much for the prayers and support!!

my first two songs!

Chosen One



You Took My Sin

Copyrighted- "Chosen One" && "You Took My Sin"

- Kevin McCracken

I am Christ's friend

I got my own blog name which means I have a new blog website. The name was changed to kevinmsouthlakeyl to go to the link click here --so, if you can't see my followers you are on the wrong website. Click the one above! Then follow from there! Thanks!

I have a few different topics I'd like to talk about but I am going to throw it all in one post.

In the Bible it says that we are Christ's friend.  John says, "I am Christ's friend. I am chosen by Christ to bear fruit." (John 15:15-16). Which means are called to make disciples. Re-worded in Acts, "I am Christ's personal witness sent out to tell everybody about Him." (Acts 1:8).

Also, this life we are living now is preparation for the life we are going to spend in eternity with God! To be fully prepared we need to find out what our purpose is and to know what your purpose is you need to continually be in prayer and find out what it is. Life on earth is just the dress rehearsal for our life to come. It just depends on where you'll spend it. 

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) && "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) So please don't think that you have done too much bad in your life and that God won't love you, because we love a loving, accepting, forgiving God. 

Now that that was said, do you have a relationship with God the Father? Do you accept the gift of His son Jesus dying on the Cross for our sins and for our shame? If so, you'll spend eternity with Him in Heaven.

If not, send an email to kevin@kevinmsouthlakeyl.com and I will tell you how to get one and pray that prayer with you!

You Took My Sin

This song is kind of easy to understand if you listen to the words. “Once was shameless, taking life for granted, just thinking about tomorrow, not living for today, my sin took over my life.” Before we are saved we are all living ways we aren’t supposed to, right? So that’s how I was. This song basically describes my life without Christ then after I had a relationship with Him. This song isn’t too old, I wrote it maybe 6 weeks ago. So it’s kind of where I was with Christ. He died on the Cross for our sins. Because He loves us!  The love He has for me and for all of us I will never be able to grasp. I explain it in the bridge. “My sin was brought to the Cross. Why did you do all this for me, I’m thirsty for your love! You’re holding me in the palm of our hand.” I love that verse because He did die on the Cross for our shame and that just goes to show how much He really love us. Your Spirit became my life- this is probably my favorite line in the entire song because once you’re saved the Holy Spirit enters your heart and you feel it! When I was saved I was at Windy Gap, a Young Life Camp in Ashville North Carolina, I got to lay under the stars in the mountains and the Holy Spirit entered my heart as I felt a rush of cold wind and a star twinkled and I felt a huge burden off my shoulder! Then the closer I got to Christ, His Spirit became more and more of my life. Now, I am living in His Name!

Our Purpose

Let’s talk about our personal purpose. You were made for God, not the other way around, and life is about letting God use you for His purposes and for what He has in store, not you using Him and His glory for your own personal purpose. You can achieve all of your personal and worldly goals and become a huge success by the world’s standard, but you will completely miss the purpose for which God has created you. You were made by God for God- life will never make sense until you understand that.  The Bible is our owner’s manual. It explains why we are alive and how life works.  It also tells us what to avoid and what to expect of the future.  You wouldn’t buy something completely knew and never heard of and try to figure it out on your own, so why should we take life that way. God is out creator and only He knows what we are to do.

God is not just the starting point in life but the source of life.  To discover your purpose in life you must turn to God’s Word. Not the world’s wisdom.  The Bible states that “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.”

This verse gives us three insights into your purpose.

1)       Discover your identity in Christ through a personal relationship with Him. -If you don’t have one, email me and I will guide you through that process. I will give out my email at the end of the show.

2)     God was thinking of you way before life was created. He created your purpose without your input. You can choose everything you have in life, but never your purpose.

3)     If you mess up your purpose, you are throwing off all of life around you and life to come.

Remember this verse-“Everything started in Him and finds its purpose in Him.” (Colossians 1:16) Ask yourself this everyday- How can I live for God and not myself today.

Chosen One

John talks about the spirit coming down in John 1 and it remains! I take this as God coming into our lives and staying there through thick and thin. The 1^st verse comes from John 1:32 “I saw there spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on Him” That’s John’s testimony, because God was with him and never left Him! He was God’s chosen one. As we are all God’s chosen people. And that ties into our message today.  We are called, as Christians to proclaim that God is in control of our life and our purpose as Christians is to be vulnerable for God and tell as many people as we can about Him and how great He really is! Our purpose is not to save people, but to lead them to Christ because they can only make the decision for them. We don’t have that power! That is between them and God. But we can plant that seed and God will take it from there.

 "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."-Romans 12:12. These are the words of the bridge leading into the last chorus. This is also what we as Christians need to do.
- You need to be joyful in hope- if you’re not then people who aren’t Christian are going to look at you and be like, well, I don’t want to be like that because what’s the point. We want people to see the JOY in Christ in us!
- Patient in affliction- if we let ourselves get mad or stressed we will slowly drift away from Christ. We want to be as close to Christ as we can, Right? Christ doesn’t want us to be angry because if we are angry what does that resemble as a Christian? Christians don’t want to be know as angry then again, what’s the point of being a Christian?
- Faithful in prayer- as Christians we need to pray EVERYDAY more is great! But we need to start and end our day with a conversation with Christ because were else are we going to get our strength and encouragement? Again, if we aren’t in conversation with Him everyday…things will go wrong! And I’m not saying everything is going to go right, because God does test us. But he will never give you more than you can handle!

-Humble King by: Brenton Brown

This song is so good!! Just thought I'd share! :)

You are the God of the broken, The friend of the weak, You wash the feet of the weary, Embrace the ones in need, I want to be like You, Jesus, To have this heart in me, You are the God of the humble, You are the humble King.

-Humble King by: Brenton Brown

YouTube Video - Click Here

God's Plan of Salvation

1 John 5:11-12 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The one who has the Son has this eternal life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this eternal life.

This passage tells us that God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son, Jesus Christ. In other words, the way to possess eternal life is to possess God’s Son.

1) How can a person have the Son of God? - By accepting Him as your father Heavenly and confessing your sins to Him and starting a relationship with Him so you can live just as He did.

2) Do we deserve what He has done for us? -No.

Devotion: How God Made Me is Wonderful!

Bible Verse:
"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."
(Psalm 139:14)

* God makes everyone a special way for a reason.
* God loves everyone no matter what they look like, smell like, or act.

1) Are any of us perfect? - NO, but do we want to be as perfect as a human being can be? -Yes!

We all have something about us that we wish was a little different. But you know something? God wants you to understand that the way he made you is wonderful and great!

2) Why do you think God made you the way he made you? -He made you the way he did for a reason. You may not know exactly why he made you that way. Maybe some day you will understand. But, right now, he just wants you to know that you are very special to him...no matter how different you are. He made us each a little different on purpose. Just think...the world would be pretty boring if we were all exactly the same, wouldn't it? So it doesn't matter that you're not perfect. God loves you anyway! He knows everything about you and still loves you very much.

3) What reason do you you think he made YOU for? -He uses people who are not perfect to help others.  God wants you to praise him for how he made you. So instead of wishing you were different, lets just thank God for making each of us wonderful and amazing. So even if you think you are too big or too small; If you think you are too short or too tall, too skinny or too pudgy, just remember how much God loves you anyway. He loves us all very, very much. He made us all different, and he made us all special. So, the next time you start to wish you were different, just thank the Lord for how he made you so wonderful and amazing!

"I am the way, the truth, and the life: NO MAN cometh unto the Father BUT BY ME."
-- Jesus Christ, John 14:6

Y'all know me and my music..so, this is a song by Hillsong United. Called 'Still'

- ‎"being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

Today I was thinking..God doesn't mess around. Nor does he make junk! I think God must be pretty proud of me. In God's eyes, I am a servant of Him. One that loves and wants to honor Him! This summer I went to many incredible camps with many incredible people and totally fulfilled with His word. 

It was amazing. I can sit here and explain to you just how great he really is! But, that would take all day! So, instead I'll tell you why I think he put me on this very earth! He put me on this earth to guide people to Him. Whether it's singing and playing piano worshiping Him, or being a East Dallas County Young Life leader and taking guys to camp. I feel like God put that in front of me, lingering it around, and it didn't take me but a few months after going to Frontier Ranch in Buena Vista, CO to know that this is what I want to do. Then a few months after that, I decided that being involved in Young Life is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

 

On the other hand, I am very involved in my church, Northrich Baptist Church in Richardson Texas, I am an awana leader for the children and I also am the jr. music minister and I love it! I feel the wrath of God over me, and I've got to tell you. It feels amazing.

"On the days that I feel like I've failed you, the days I feel I've been failed. I need to praise you, for I am yours!" 

Kristy Starling sings these amazing lyrics. She also states in "Something More" that she needs to praise our amazing God because he provides us something more than anyone can offer! You can listen to the song, just follow this link: Something More- Kristy Starling