feet to love

right now, my baby is crying. he has one desire: milk. and soon he'll stop crying, cause he'll get some. he has no idea that the communities around him are crying for much different reasons. this has hit close to home for so many of us. so much destruction. so much displacement. so much uncertainty. so much unbelief. and we are crying with those who have lost homes, pets, and irreplaceable memories.

and through this all we know that God is sovereign over all things. He is ruling as we speak. His vision is bigger than ours. His power conquered sin and death and His grace flows moment by moment. He is active in restoring souls for eternity, and lifting heads for the present. He is beautiful when smoke fills our eyes, or when we can see islands on a clear day. He is the hope-giving, light at the end of every disaster. He never lets his people go, and He is the only giver of infinite gladness, an eternity of joy.

i pray that God would give me and courtney and isaiah and all of us, a heart for those suffering. and hands to lift rubble. and eyes to see need. and arms to hug people. and lips to encourage. and feet to love.

check out gvcfamily.blogspot.com for fire info and ways to help.

hospital days

most isaiah info will be posted on our website, but i'll put a few more posts up.



unreal.
he is beautiful.
God didn't need to make him healthy, but He chose to. our baby did not deserve to be healthy and beautiful. he is already sinful. but God's grace is amazing. already, he is a picture of the grace of God.
i pray that Isaiah would know the saving grace of God intimately at an early age. that he would learn to seek after the face of God and desire to worship Him in everything he does, at an early age

thanks doug and cindy for coming up to see him.


the coming weeks are going to be exciting.
i can't wait

baby outside of stomach

check out our new family website, with photos, blogs, letters to isaiah and more.
web.mac.com/thetoneyfamily

baby in stomach

awesome pictures
check out more: www.jasminestarblog.com

broken hallelujah (reprise)

our voices need to respond to something. we see great baseball plays and we shout. we see great performers and we cheer.
our hearts need to respond to something. we cry at great films. we get choked up when the music rises in intensity. we enjoy giving love when we love someone.
our minds need to respond to something. we get stimulated when a conversation or book interests us.
our hands need to respond to something. we want to help when we find a cause worth helping. we want to work when we realize we need to provide.
but our voices and hearts and minds and hands were ultimately designed to respond to God. His infinate value is the greatest thing we can respond to.
when our heart and mind is broken and God pours His infinate grace over them, our voices respond with hallelujah and our hands respond with "what shall i now do"

i pray that in the wake of any broken hallelujah that we experience, we will respond with open hands.

sunday night was awesome. for many reasons, but mainly because God broke hearts and restored them with His grace. and we wanted to respond.

here was the setlist:
Holy Holy Holy
"My King" audio track
Indescribable
O Praise Him/Here is Our King
His Love is Alive
Prayer Time
All Creatures
This is my Father's World
From the Inside Out/How Great is our God
Desperate for You
Silent Prayer/Confession
Here I am to Worship
Amazing Grace
Group Prayer/Confession
O No, You Never Let Go/Majesty/Shout to the Lord/The Stand
Clap Your Hands Hallelujah
Happy Day/O Happy Day
I Saw the Light
On Our Side

broken hallelujah

september 23rd
6:30 pm
a time to worship God together at night.
awesome.
this will be the first in a series of worship nights titled: broken hallelujah.

broken hallelujah is a representation of the worship that i desire to take place every second of the day.
every second, we ought to be broken before God: confessing that He alone is God and sovereign King and holy and righteous and worthy of praise and satisfying and truly beautiful.
and every second, our hearts ought to be responding with a hallelujah, that we have been forgiven much and brought into a relationship with this holy God. a relationship that we did not deserve, but has brought God joy to give us and has brought us joy to receive.

every sunday is a broken hallelujah as a corporate body of believers.
every week is a broken halleujah as we work and worship God in our day to day activities. glorifying Him in our eating and walking and hanging out.

O God, i pray that every moment our hearts would be broken before You and responding with a joyful Hallelujah.

road trip. houseboats

God is good and real.

from napa valley: i learned again how great my wife is and how much i love traveling with her.
from the redwoods: i saw enormous trees with deep roots, which made me want to be deep and rooted and strong and tall, standing for Jesus with arms high and heart abandoned in awe of the One who gave it all.
from the oregon coast: i learned that i don't have to pump my own gas and that God created a vast ocean with vast rock formations with vast amounts of awe and wonder.
from portland: i saw a city filled with art and a community of believers that take art seriously and take glorifying their supremely artistic God with an artistic passion.
from creekside at courtney's uncle's house: i fell in love with reading. and getting lost in a story from Donald Miller and getting lost in the theology and passion of John Piper
and from houseboating with my old high-school group: i saw a group of kids encountering the real Jesus in a real and passionate way. and i saw the Spirit of God break people's hearts and heal people's hearts and stir in people's hearts as we sang Hosanna in the highest. and i saw a group of kids and leaders decide to stand up and surrender their souls to God and sing, "all i am is yours". and mean it.

it was a good 2 weeks.
i am excited for my ministry at green valley church. and excited to live for God. and excited to have a baby.