Words are powerful

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:03:30 GMT

Words are powerful.

Life and death resides in our tongues. What do you speak over your own life? Life? Or death? Or perhaps you let others control your life with their words.

I want my words to propel me into my destiny. And I want to speak over my family blessings and life. What about you?

The blessings of Jabez

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 03:34:53 GMT

Most of us have a hard time asking the Creator of the universe to bless us.

I sure do.

And yet it seemed to work for Jabez. He simply asked God to bless him, and God did! So, why don't we understand such a simple concept as this? And if we understand it, why don't we ask to be blessed every day? Every hour? Every minute?

I have watched God bless us with amazing things. And perhaps the biggest blessings that he is giving us only happened when we asked. So whether you believe in a God who blesses you or not, why don't you just ask? Jesus commands us to.

That seems like a good enough reason.

Worship Every Day

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:22:49 GMT

For the past three months, our lives have been turned upside down. Now that our new son is three months old, life is starting to feel normal again.

In the midst of working 50 hour weeks, I haven't focused on worshiping the Lord like I did before Parker was born. I have just been too busy. Or at least that was my excuse.

Then, I was reminded of the life of King David. Even though he was a king and oversaw the nation, he still worshiped seven times a day. Seven times a day! I struggle to worship once the day.

It's time we reevaluate the expectations that we place on ourselves and look back to Jesus and back to our forefathers. They will teach us how to live and how to prosper in this life.

My goal for 2012? Worship three times per day. And I won't be satisfied until my life looks like David's!

Just a word

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:51:02 GMT

There's a story in the Gospels where Jesus casts out a demon with a word. When I first read that this week, I wanted to know what that word was. But I don't think that's the point of this story at all!

The more I get to know Jesus, the more I want my life to be like His. I want to reach a point in my walk with him that I can cast out demons with a word. No long prayers. No long deliverance sessions. Just a word.

And the only way we will ever be able to do this is by walking in intimacy with our father just like Jesus did. So, what are your standards for the Christian life? Do they look like the world? Like the church? Or like Jesus?

Welcome to the World, Parker!

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:36:50 GMT

Our first little boy, Parker Elijah Gibitz, was born two weeks ago today!! He is in my lap as I type this.

We are big fans of him!

It's Time to Lead.

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:46:38 GMT

For those of you I haven't talked with since Christmas, happy new year! Abbie and I are believing that 2012 is going to be the best yet! Our baby is close to being born, so be praying for that! We'll tell you when he/she is here!

I wanted to give you a quick thought to be thinking about. It's something that God has been dealing with me about for a few days now. Think about this:

A leader leads long before ever having followers.

If you don't think you're a leader in anything, don't turn me off just yet! Whether you like it or not, someone is following you.

I have found in my life that I've been waiting to have followers before I lead people in worship or write new music. I'm always looking to see that what I'm doing is satisfactory before I ever do it. That is the wrong way to lead! That gets people nowhere fast. Think about it. If you want to shine in what you're called to do, you will need to lead, and the best leaders don't wait until people are following them to start leading.

Take your eyes off of yourself & off of other people, and get them focused on Jesus.

The only way you are going to walk in your calling and lead those who you are called to influence is by walking in your calling before anyone is ever looking.

Are you a musician? A songwriter?
Write songs!

Are you a worship leader?
Worship in your bedroom!

Are you someone who loves to sit with the elderly?
Go sit with them, and love on them!

Before anyone ever follows your lead--before anyone ever wants to be influenced by you--you need to show them that you are worth following. Are you walking according to the Word? Are you walking in the light as He is in the light? Are you walking in what He is calling you to do?

Start walking. It's time to lead.

Old Fashioned Christmas - Angels We Have Heard On High

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:36:39 GMT

And here's the follow-up video: Angels We Have Heard On High.

Yes, the guitar is way too loud.

Why is that? The only place to put the iPhone was on the stand right next to the guitar. Enjoy anyway!

Old Fashioned Christmas - The First Noel

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:31:45 GMT

I once again had the pleasure of playing at Old Fashioned Christmas this year in our little town of Wilmore. Since all of you can't make it to Wilmore, I figure I'd make my own ghetto video of the whole event. Enjoy! And Merry Christmas!

November House Concert

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 03:13:35 GMT

For years, coffee shops have been the central place for indie artists to share their music. With melodies, harmonies, and a guitar, thousands of musicians have played their music to the masses.

Well, not really to the masses.

It’s more like 20 or 30 people. But you get the point.

Over the past few years, there has been a small minority of musicians who are looking to a new way to share their music—house concerts. When I heard about it, I wish that I would have thought of it sooner. It makes so much sense. House concerts have been around for several years, but what makes them so appealing is the intimate setting of a living room. No longer are you trying to talk and sing over the espresso machine. It’s just you and your audience.

I had the pleasure of performing my first house concert this month. Thanks to a professor at Asbury University (for whom I wrote a song about his deceased fish), I was able to share my heart and my music with 10 college students from Asbury. It was an honor to play for such a great crowd.

For all who were there, it was great to get to know all of you and share my heart. Thanks for listening! And if you didn’t get your free music, hunt me down on Facebook. I’ll make sure you do.

If you’re interested in having me play at your house some night in the next several months, don’t hesitate to contact me. Abbie and I would love to come! We can help you set everything up!

*Image courtesy of Lucian Husac

Global Day of Worship

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:20:00 GMT

Happy 11-11-11!

Surely most of you are aware of the date by now. People all over the world are getting married because of the date. Even women are scheduling c-sections to have their baby born on 11-11-11 (up 20% from the daily average).

Today is also Global Day of Worship!

Check out their website, and worship Jesus today for everything He's given you and given us. Man, He's a good God!

The Dark Art of Mastering

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:56:45 GMT

A recorded song goes through a lot of steps before hitting the ears of its eager listeners. Most of the songs that you hear from me (other than The Psalmist Sessions) are recorded in some kind of studio, mixed, and mastered.

I've been doing a lot of study into mastering lately. A few months ago, God blessed me with a free mastering program called Izotope Ozone. Trust me, it's legit. It's not a bootleg version or anything. I reviewed it for an online film magazine called MicrofilmMaker Magazine, and the review should be coming out in the next few months. As I've gotten into mastering, I've wanted to find the best teachers out there to help me grasp this confusing art. Through Joe Gilder's website, I found Ian Shepherd. He is a mastering engineer and has mastered several number one singles as well as several award-winning albums.

Now, you may be wondering why I put 'Come Home' in this post. Most of you have heard the song before, but I wanted to quickly comment on the mastering of this song. Toward the end of making the album I'll Fly Away (which would make a great Christmas present), we were running out of time and money for the project. So, John Howard and I did a quick master of the song (and the rest of album) so we could send it off to the printers. Because we didn't have much time, we slapped on a mastering EQ along with some loudness maximization and sent it off to the printers. If I had had more time and money, I would have definitely put some multiband compression on the mix to bring the entire song together in a way that can't be achieved in the mixing process.

Ian Shepherd (remember him from two paragraphs ago) now has a book out on multiband compression and how it can drastically help your mixed songs while they are in the mastering process. If you'd like to learn more about multiband compression, check out his book! Also, check out this post from him. He is giving away three free copies of his e-book if you post up a song of yours that you think may need mastering (that's why I'm including 'Come Home' in this blog post).

Do you want to know what mastering really is? Comment on this post, and I'll write some more posts about mastering!

I Love You, Grandpa

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:55:03 GMT

I got the phone call Monday morning.

My dad was on the other end of the line. He was responsible for bearing the bad news that my grandpa had died in the night. He had been fighting cancer for three years—the same cancer that recently took Steve Job’s life. Three years ago, the doctors gave him 6 months to live. In case you missed that last sentence, read it again. Three years ago, the doctors gave him 6 months to live. He shattered all of the predictions and all of the probabilities.

He, like my grandma, enjoyed life until the end. Not once did he take chemo. Without the help of chemicals, Grandpa lived 6 times longer than the doctors’ predictions. And he golfed every week until his final months with us. He fought his battle with cancer with the fortitude that I will honor for the rest of my life.

Grandpa, thanks for all of the great memories.

Thanks for coming to my graduation.
Thanks for watching war movies when we were trying to sleep in your living room.
And thanks for using your ‘underwater voice,’ always acting as if no one had ever heard it before.

I will miss you.
We all will miss you.
I love you.

Give Us A King!

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 03:18:23 GMT

Yesterday, I threw out a comment on Facebook (listn.to/gabegibitz) and Twitter (@GabeGibitz) about a story in 1 Samuel, and I wanted to fill in the comment a bit more with a blog post.

For those who missed the comment, I said this: “The Israelites wanted a king, but God never wanted that. How often do we—out of laziness and idolatry—ask for a king?”

This whole story is found in 1 Samuel 8, and it’s a classic case of idolatry—the failure to worship and trust God by putting something or someone else in His place. Samuel, the prophet and leader of Israel, was getting older, and his two sons, Joel and Abijah, “did not walk in his ways.” There seemed to be no one to lead the nation of Israel.

So, what did the Israelites do?

They, like their forefathers at the foot of Mount Sinai, chose not to trust in God and chose someone else to worship and trust. They asked Samuel to give them a king. Not liking the idea, Samuel went to the Lord in prayer, received a distasteful response from God about the entire situation, and told the people God’s warnings of having a king. In spite of God’s warnings, the people demanded a king to lead them like all the other nations.

How many times have you practiced idolatry in your lifetime? How many times have you wanted to look like the “other nations” around you? How many times have you just wanted a man or woman to lead you instead of God?

I do it all the time.

Here’s the bottom line. The world is looking for someone to lead them. Seth Godin wrote a book (Tribes) on this entire concept. Leadership is not a bad thing, but are you looking to men to tell you how to live or are you looking to God? Are you looking to men to tell you how to worship or are you looking to God? Are you looking to men to tell you what is right and wrong?

Or are you looking to God?

The Israelites were in a legitimate dilemma. Their leader was getting older. But they didn’t run to God. They wanted to follow a man.

If you’re in a bind, don’t run to the world. Run to Jesus and worship Him. And while you’re worshiping, remember to repent of your idolatry. Repentance warms His heart like nothing else.

The Genealogy of Genesis

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 01:10:00 GMT

For all those interested, I did a genealogy a few weeks ago of the first several generations of the human race. Some fun facts from this little endeavor:

Adam was around when Noah's dad (Lamech) was born.
Enoch lived for 365 years.
Noah was 500 years old when he had Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Noah's wife seemed to have had triplets (the three sons mentioned above).
Shem, Ham, and Japheth were 100 when they boarded the ark with their wives.

You can do it, too. Open your Bible and map out the generations! Lots of fun!

Psalm 23:6

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:41:44 GMT

Psalm 23:6 by GabeGibitz

If you missed the Facebook and Twitter updates yesterday, I just finished another raw worship recording for Psalm 23:6.

To give you a bit of background as to what these are, this is simply the Word put to music (music as I hear it). As we speak and sing the Word into our lives, God changes us bit by bit (and sometimes overnight)! And music has a way of piercing our hearts in a way that simple words don't. Enjoy. My goal is to do this 3-5 times per week.

Eyes To See

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:30:00 GMT

Eyes To See by GabeGibitz

I don't have 20/20 vision. Not yet anyway. There's two ways I'm praying for 20/20 vision: physically and spiritually (and they're connected).

Physically, I'm believing that God will give me 20/20 vision. I'm actually praying not just for 20/20 vision but for 20/15 vision because our God is not a God of enough. He's a God of more than enough. I figure that Jesus opened blind eyes, so He can restore my 20/something vision to 20/15--better than I started with. I can't even see the big E on the wall when I go in to get my eyes checked, but I know that Jesus can restore my vision completely.

No more contacts.
No more glasses.
All for His glory.

And...spiritually. God showed me something today. When you're near-sighted like me, all you see is what is in front of you. All that is clear--all that makes sense--is what is in front of you. If I take my contacts out, I can't see who is on the other side of the room clearly at all. That's how we are in our flesh. The eyes we see with in the Spirit are near-sighted. We see our circumstances. We see our problems. We see everything we fear.

What God is asking us to do is die to those eyes--to die to that way of seeing things. He wants us to see Him and stand on what He says. When we start doing that, everything starts to make sense. This is where fear is driven out by perfect love (1 John). This is where we walk in the greater works that Jesus said we would do (John). And this is where our shadows heal people! The Word starts to make sense like never before when we put off our eyes of flesh and see with our eyes of faith.

What are you believing for? I recorded this song in our recording/worship room this morning. Believe Jesus for the unthinkable. When you start doing that, then you're in the realm of faith and not sight.

Jesus is coming soon. Are you ready?

Third Fukushima Plant Worker Dies

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:18:57 GMT

Last week, the third worker at the Fukushima Power Plant in Japan died. He was one of the workers called in to help get things under control. He worked for 46 days three hours a day in the plant.

Revival is coming, Japan.

Downtown Concert Tonight

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 09:16:39 GMT

We just got back from an outside downtown concert. It was a great time!

Check out the video that Abbie took. It was kind of dark...just warning you. :)

Bluegrass UK's Campus!

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 02:59:16 GMT

Well look what I found on UK's campus today! A pleasant September surprise:

2 Reasons That Revival Is Coming to Japan

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 01:02:36 GMT

So...I didn't follow through on my word. I didn't get a blog post up last night...too much going on last night. But have no fear! I'm back with my final post of Japan.

We've looked at Japan's past, but I want to look to the future. What does the future look like for Japan? Several signs will point to the reality that Japan is now set up for the next big revival in their history for two main reasons:

1. Revival comes after disasters.

Revival historically comes when people get on their knees and humble themselves and pray. There's nothing that brings a people to their knees like a natural disaster. Unfortunately, on September 11th, Americans became patriotic than repentant over the sins of our nation. Church attendance rose for a few weeks before dipping back down to normal (possibly even below normal...I can't remember the stats exactly). Even though American did not turn back to God after September 11th, Japan does not have to follow in our footsteps! Revival will come in Japan if we pray for it to be so.

2. Revival has been spoken prophetically over Japan.

Revival has been spoken over Japan by multiple sources. A Japanese woman in the 1990's had a vision of waves of revival coming to Japan. They have been praying this event in for years on end. A prophet here in America, Kim Clement, prophesied that Japan is now poised for a great outbreak of revival. And, while I don't consider myself filling the office of the prophet, God gave me a burden to write a song for revival in Japan.

I was driving down the road one day, and God gave me this chorus:

Hold tight
Your Savior is coming
Don't fight
The revival that's rising
In the midst of confusion and pain
When you just can't fight another day
Your Savior will come
On the wings of the dawn to take you home

In the weeks to come, I'll be releasing some rough cuts of this song.

In the meantime, start praying. Pray for healing--spiritual and physical. Pray for salvation. And pray for revival! God isn't done with America. And God isn't done with Japan!