Jeff Arrandale Blog – Blessed and Amazed

Hello again and thanks for checking in on what’s going on. God continues to bless and amaze. Let me tell you about it.

This summer, a young couple in our church volunteered each Sunday to teach children the meaning of worship. The 3-month session was called All In Worship and not only did they teach the children songs, they taught them the meaning of the songs and the passages in the Bible from where they came. The kids learned to focus on God as they worshiped, to clap along as they sang, and to close their eyes and lift holy hands toward God as well.

I was blessed to be asked to join them in teaching songs and we had a lot of fun together. One thing I taught was that if we, God’s children, don’t worship Him and the one whom He sent, the rocks and hills will. Christ said in Luke 19 when the Pharisees told Him to rebuke His disciples for blessing the king who comes in the name of the Lord, “I tell you…if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

At the end of the session, we gave each child a CD with some of my music so they could play and sing with them when riding in the car with Mom and Dad. I got to know the kids a little and they got to know me. Now we high five in the hall for God!

I had lots of fun at Spirit Midwest last month performing on the first evening with Certainty and it turned out to be a nice night with plenty of music, fellowship with fans and other musicians, good food, and mega amounts of mosquitoes. Ouch! I’m still scratching.

There was a performance at the Granger Praise Fest in Granger, IA , and early in September I played in support of Meals from the Heartland, as thousands of volunteers packaged meals for delivery to starving people around the world.

Plans continue to for the upcoming trip to and performance in the “closed county” I told you about in the last blog. I’m waiting to tell you the name of the place in order to avoid “tipping my hand” to authorities there. Spiritual roadblocks are starting to pop up in a big way, but that just means the evil one is working to thwart what God wants to do in that unreached country.

The spiritual warfare that goes on there reminds me of Frank Peretti’s books This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness. Ephesians 6:12 says that our “struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the authorities of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Battles are fought every day against these forces for the souls of those who don’t know Christ. The only way to overcome them is by putting on the full armor of God and through the power of prayer.

The country where I am going is a dark place spiritually, one where the name of Jesus is rarely uttered and where very few experience the joy of knowing Him. This darkness hates The Light that is Jesus Christ. As I prepare to go, please pray for the spiritual and physical protection of the team that will perform with me and that God would use us to shine His Light there. Can’t wait to see what God’s going to do there through the performances.

Until next time, praise God!

Jeff