Welcome to another new week, so glad you stopped by! I'm sure you'll really enjoy the new music selections on Vision this week.

Burlap To Cashmere: 'The Other Country' from their self-titled CD, Burlap To Cashmere released in 2011.

This band made a huge impact when they first started up in 1998, they had some excellent success and toured extensively and then took a bit of a break in 2001. They had every intention of continuing with their music until ‘the accident’. In 2005, lead guitarist John Philippidis woke up groggy from a month long coma in a hospital room full of people. He shuffled to the bathroom and looked in the mirror to see one closed eye, his head the size of a basketball and his face disfigured beyond what he thought could ever be repaired. He had been beaten to within an inch of his life by 2 ex-marines and a female accomplice in a random act of road rage a few miles from his home. Today his glasses hide a slightly closed eye which will be fixed with one last surgery, he has a C shaped scar on his scalp where Dr’s inserted a tube to alleviate pressure on his brain. He has 13 titanium implants in his face and the doctors replaced his facial orbits, forehead and jawline as well as reconstructing his nose and sinuses.

He and the band refer to this attack as ‘the accident’ because it’s not worth holding onto anything as a grievance and he isn’t angry over what happened to him. He’s playing music with his cousin and friends, he’s alive and he loves the Lord, he’s very grateful to simply still be alive to do what he loves doing. Looking at him today you would never know what he has endured.

Calling Glory: 'Don't Give Up' from their Teach Me To Love CD, released on Soncured Records label 2012.

This song was written from the truth of knowing that in and of ourselves we can’t doing what God calls us today. Sometimes just being a Christian is just too hard let alone fulfilling a specific calling! The guys from Calling Glory found inspiration from the life stories of the Apostles like Peter and Paul and John...they asked the question...”How did those guys do what they did and not quit?” The Scripture Col 1:27 brings clarity, it says, ‘To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ IN you, the hope of glory.’

We are equipped and able to not only live out the Christian life but to fulfil the call God has given to us because Christ lives IN us and He gives us all we need to do what He wants us to do...it’s not that we do it, rather He does it through us. Christ in us is our hope of glory – eternity with Him forever.  

So when we’re tempted to simply throw our hands in the air and walk away because its too hard and beyond our own ability...that’s the perfect time to relearn the lesson that WE don’t have to do it, Christ IN us will do it...our job is to not give up.

Nathan Tasker: 'Give In' from his Home CD, released in 2011.

“Home...and a vegemite sandwich please! Dec 24, 2011: Qantas flight 93, LA to Sydney. As our plane banks and turns for the airport I can see Sydney Harbour and the city buildings sparkling below me. It’s a view I’ve seen countless times, yet it never ceases to stir my emotions. This is my country and my home. Nowhere else am I more welcome or allowed to be. This ‘belonging’ is only compounded as I’m greeted with a “G’day” at the immigration desk and my passport is stamped without question. Then I step out into a clear, bright Sydney morning – even the air smells different. I exhale and relax almost instantly. Ah home.

However, as I switch to driving on the other side of the road and navigate Sydney as if I never left, I still carry Nashville with me. It’s sewn into the fabric of who I am. As much as I am at home in Sydney, I have with me my adopted American home. But for now, I am bound for the beach and all those things I’ve missed most...

Something happens to you when you move away from your home country. Those things that you once took for granted become treasures you can’t wait to watch, taste or hear again! On this most recent trip, fish & chips at the local pub was top of the agenda; I watched a game of cricket on the television for 7 hours (you may be troubled to know that the actual game itself goes for 5 days!); I felt buoyed by colloquial terms in conversations like “no worries mate.” Such things confirm a simple truth: I am an Australian citizen. I am a “true-blue Aussie.” This fact influences the way I think and the way I act.

Fast-forward through 26 hours of travel and I arrive back to my adopted home city of Nashville. I quickly realise all of the things I have missed during my time away: seeing snow in wintertime; our American friends and church community; copious amounts of Mexican food! Even though I obviously don’t cease to be Australian once I land back in Nashville, it feels so much like home to me it causes me to wonder, Can a person have 2 homes? Never fully be in one or the other, but leave a piece of your heart in both? It’s an ongoing, internal tug of war for me. In fact, my latest album, Home, is the result of wrestling with the questions of “where do I belong?” and “where is home?”

Although they faced very different circumstances, the Apostle Paul reminded the Philippians of an important reality – their true citizenship is in heaven (Phil 3:20). This truth is the same for me today. I am no longer looking for a place here to define who I am. My citizenship in heaven trumps my Australian citizenship and it trumps my ‘temporary resident’ status in the US. Furthermore, being a heavenly citizen shapes me in ways that earthly citizenship never will – the way I think; the way I love; the way I seek justice; the way I create. All these things, and more, are defined primarily by my true Home, a better Country, of which my earthly homes are just a glimpse.” – Nathan Tasker

And finally this week, one new track by Ashes Remain called 'On My Own' that will be heard on Saturday nights, this song is from their What I've Become CD released in 2011 on the Fair Trade Services label.

I'll be back next week with more new music news info, till then take good care and have an awesome week.

Shalom

Mandy