Getting past a crisis

I hate to admit it but I do watch the news every once in a while but it is getting depressing. The word CRISIS comes up about every minute. I have started being sarcastic and I will just murmur to myself, Here we go again. In one of the speeches this week from President Obama, he used the word crisis 25 times. It al most makes you not want to event leave your home.

This blog is not about politics, but it is about the Crisis. The definition in the dictionary of Crisis is "an unstable situation of extreme danger or difficulty". That word is very strong and to think that it is being used today in our country is so overwhelming. Can you imagine being in a situation of extreme danger, not just regular danger but extreme danger. The max of all dangers.

How many of you have ever heard someone say "I am going through a crisis in my life". When someone says this to you, it is your responsibility to take it seriously especially if that person really knows what crisis really means. They are basically saying that their life is in extreme danger. You probably never thought of it that way because I did not until I started studying the definition of crisis.

We live in a fast-paced world. And with little room for error within the frantic pace of our lives, experiencing a significant personal crisis can quickly become an overwhelming event. In an effort to keep pace, individuals will attempt to bury their problems, so that even while they are achieving great things in their day-to-day lives, it may be coming at a heavy cost.

A personal crisis can popup at any moment when you are not prepared for it. It is often due to a combination of circumstances and a personal conflict. The first step to manage a personal crisis is to acknowledge it. This is a crisis. This first step is important to get over it too. As long as you don't acknowledge it, it may linger on for ever, you feel depressed but you don't understand why.

Personal crisis requires healing. Here are several steps you must take to heal.

Be determined.

Decide right now that you will get through this. Your life may not be the same as it was before. Some of the changes you are going through may indeed be permanent ones. But be determined that you will emerge from these circumstances stronger than ever before. Decide today that you will be a survivor.

Take it one day at a time.

You don't have to have your entire future worked out right now. Just focus on getting through this day. If it helps, break your days into smaller pieces, and focus on getting through just this morning or the next hour.

Stay active.

Keep yourself busy with the normal routines of your life. Also, consider being physically active by taking a brisk walk once a day or incorporating some other form of exercise. This can make a huge difference in the way you emotionally and physically deal with stress. Regular exercise also provides a wonderful built-in time for thinking and reflecting. You may find that after a long walk, you feel more clear-headed and prepared for making important decisions.

Take care of yourself.

It is extremely important that you continue to take care of yourself. This means getting 7-9 hours of sleep each night and eating a balanced diet at this time. You may also need to teach your body to relax again. Do this by taking some time each day to sit for 5-10 minutes and simply breathe. Repeating this technique each day will become easier, and you will notice a real difference in your state of mind and the amount of tension you hold in your body.

Manage what you can.

If you're feeling extremely overwhelmed, focus on one task you can complete that would make you feel more empowered and in control. This could be as simple as doing the dishes or getting a work-related project out of the way. If everything feels out of control, try setting up a calendar system to keep track of your schedule and the kids' events. Seeing the life ahead visually on paper in front of you can help you feel more in control of what's happening.

Learn to recognize your personal strengths.

You already possess much of the personal strength you'll need to get through this. What would help you into tap into that core strength? Make a list the strengths you observe about yourself. Be honest. They're really there! If you have trouble with this exercise, ask a friend who knows you well to articulate your strengths for you. Sometimes others see in us amazing qualities that we have yet to recognize.

Turn to God

The lord has all the answers but we must look for them. You have to read your bible. You have to search God's word for the ultimate solution. You have to pray and not some repeated prayer. You have to talk to God and tell him what you are going through. This is the most important part of overcoming a crisis.

Philip
Samaritan Revival

No More Sweet Tea Please

This story is totally true and it happened January of 2008.

On January 6th of 2008, Aaron and Eliu from Samaritan Revival arrived in the states for the first time. Harold had already visited several states in the past. One of things that we do not have in Honduras is buffets and I know how these guys love to eat so I thought that I would introduce them to the Golden Corral.

We arrived in Douglasville, Ga about 8:00pm and we went directly to the Golden Corral. When we walked in, Aaron wanted to know if we were at a wedding reception or some type of party. I said no Aaron, we are at a restaurant. Once we paid, we got our plates and I told them to go get their food. Aaron and Eliu just looked at me and said "How do we know what we are allowed to eat?" I told them that they could eat anything they wanted. This blew them away. About 15 minutes later, they both came to the table with three plates each that looked liked Mt. Rushmore. I told them that they did not have to get all the food at one time, they could go back as many times as they wanted. They just smiled and started eating.

When they finished eating, Aaron had almost turned blue. You could tell that he was stuffed. The waitress came around and filled everyones tea and we set and talked for a while. Every few minutes, the waitress would come back around and give everyone tea refills. Aaron had a sick feeling on his face and he turned to me and said "Philip, please tell the waitress not to refill my tea anymore, my stomach is about to bust. I am going to be sick. I have drunk 7 glasses of tea and every time I finish my glass, here she comes again. I can't take it anymore." I told Aaron that if he did not want anymore tea, he did not have to drink it. He looked at me with a strange look and said "I know that we can eat what we want but we cannot waste food. Just ask her not to refill my tea anymore, please."

Aaron, Eliu and Harold came from a country where there is no refills. They came from a family that was poor and if food was placed on their plate, they ate every bite. They never had to learn not to waste because they never had enough to waste. Aaron was not going to waste a glass of tea.

How much do we waste each day when there are so many people hungry throughout the world. How many singings have we been to with so much food that no one can eat it all. That day, I was taught an important lesson. I was taught a moral lesson. Just because we have it does not mean that we can abuse it. I love to eat and once you meet me you will see that I am not lying but I have learned not to waste food. When I throw a plate half full with food into the trash, I think about Aaron and his sweet tea.

Always and I mean always thank God for what He has given you. What we have today, we may not have tomorrow.

Philip Tyson
Samaritan Revival
www.samaritanrevival.com

Dealing with the death of my father

Every time I sit down to write, I look at the clock and it is usually after midnight. During the day, I am so busy making phone calls, writing emails and taking care normal business but at night after everything calms down a bit, I feel the urge to write. I guess you can call it "Counseling" for myself.

I had a friend once who was dealing with several emotional issues in his life and a counselor gave him a little book to write in every time he had feelings that made him feel uncomfortable. He told me later how this was really helping him. He said that every time he wrote into this little book, he felt like he was expressing his feelings to someone who was not going to judge him. I guess this tells me that we all need someone to talk to. Someone that will listen. I don't know how many people read what I write but if it is not helping someone, at least it is helping me.

The Bible says in psalms 55:22 to "Cast Thy Burden to the Lord". I have a burden and I want to talk to about it. I know that these feelings that I encounter are shared by millions of people around the world.

I can explain totally how I feel with one sentence. I MISS MY FATHER. I want to see him so bad and I would to be able to talk to him and just put my arms around him. Does everyone feel this way when they lose a parent or do they just go on with their life without thinking twice? I have seen women who have lost a husband after being married for 40 or 50 years and six months later they are married once again. Is this strength or is it a weakness? My father died on May 20, 2007 and I especially at night, I feel a tremendous sadness enter my heart. A need to see him once again. A need to be told what to do because I know that my father always wanted the best for me. He taught me to be a man but am I less of a man because I miss him so much. So many questions and not enough answers.

I look back at the mistakes I made and I wish that I could go back and change many stupid things that I did that I am sure made my father suffer. I wonder how many nights he prayed for me when I was not in the Lord's will. I wonder what he thinks about me now. There is a song that Mercyme sings called "When I finally make it home". This songs talks about many of these same feelings. Here are the words.

I'm gonna wrap my arms around my daddy's neck
and tell him that I've missed him and tell him
all about the man that i became
and hope that it pleased him
there's so much i want to say
there's so much i want you to know.

The best advice I can give is a verse that I read in the Bible. Read and meditate over this passage and then pray.

Psalms 62 - 7-9
6He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.
7In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
8Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.


Here is the video of the song When I finally Make it Home. I hope this is a comfort to your life.



May God Bless You,
Philip Tyson
Samaritan Revival

What do we really sing and Why?

You know, I was uploading some songs and as I was listening, the strangest thought came to my mind. What kind of music do we really sing? There is Gospel, Southern Gospel, Praise, Worship etc. but I don't think that spanish southern gospel is listed anywhere on the internet.

What in the world is spanish southern gospel? I have not quiet figured that out yet but here is what I do know.

We love to sing music that stirs our heart. We love to sing music that will touch the people who are listening. We love to sing music that carries a message of repentance and salvation. We love music that will bring tears to someone's eyes and make them weep with joy. And finally, we love to sing music that brings us closer to our savior Jesus Christ.

You know what is so wonderful? This may come to a surprise to many people but God is bi-lingual or let me say multi-lingual. He understands all languages and no matter what color your skin is or what country you were born in, Jesus loves you just the same.

Aaron, Eliu and Harold were born in Nicaragua during communism. Their mother had to hide them in the mountains when they were only 14 because the communist army was recruiting everyone over 13 into the army to fight in the civil war. They were Christians and they had no other choice but to flee. She marched over the mountains for days with no food or water until she reached Honduras. My parents were missionaries and they took these boys and put them in school. Never in our imagination did we think that God had given them a great talent to sing but God already knew their future.

The Bible says "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

When I put the group together, I asked the guys and my daughter what type of music do you want to sing. Their response was "Whatever brings more people to a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

So I guess the answer to the question of what type of music we sing is "WE SING THE GOSPEL"

Philip Tyson
Samaritan Revival
www.samaritanrevival.com
www.myspace.com/samaritanrevival

Something to think about

Something to think about from Samaritan Revival

As we prepare for our new album, I have been searching for a special song for
Stephany. I wanted something that would send a special message out to people who were discouraged and maybe they were in a season of doubt in their life. I found the song "I know you are there". This song really touched me because it tells me that God loves us and He is not going to forsake His children.

Here are the words

If all I had was one last breath

I'd spend it just to sing Your praise

Just to say Your name

If all I had was one last prayer

I'd pray it 'cause I know You're always listening

If I could live a thousand lives, bind the hands of time

I would spend every moment by Your side


'cause I, I know You're there, I know You see me

You're the air I breathe

You are the ground beneath me

I know You're there, I know You hear me

I can find You anywhere


If all I had was one more song to sing

I would raise my voice to make the heavens ring

If all I had was one last chance, I'd take it

I would stake it all on You


If I could raise up high and catch a glimpse of every eye

I would make them believe

What I feel inside


If I could live a thousand lives and bind the hands of time

If I could rise up high and catch a glimpse of every eye


I know You're there

I know You're there

I know You're there, You're there


We probably all know that God says He’s always with us and He’s always listening to
us. We know that’s true because of verses like: “I am with you always” (Matthew28:20); “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5); But at the same time, all of us have probably had times with God when all of those verses felt like nice—but empty—thoughts. So what do we do when the truth doesn’t feel true?
God gives us both emotions and knowledge of the truth of His Word. When we don’t feel like God is there, we need to rely on what we know to be true: that He really is. When our feelings contradict God’s truth, they always need to be overridden by what we know. We have to make a conscious choice to believe what’s true instead of relying on our feelings.

It’s tough to wrestle that out. It’s easier to trust your feelings, stop talking with God, and walk away. But when you grapple with it, you’re saying to God: “I’m going to stick with You no matter how I feel because we’re in a committed relationship.” That’s living out true, real love. It’s commitment based on gut-level dedication, and God will honor that.

So how do we override our feelings with the truth? We’ll shoot straight here: Sometimes it’s just a flat-out choice. There’s no magic formula or any process to walk through. It’s just mentally deciding, “God, I know You’re here. I don’t feel like You’re here, but You say You are, and I choose to believe that’s true, and I’m going to act on it and spend time with You.” Your feelings that day may never swing in line with the truth. Sometimes you just have to move forward. You have to hang on to the truth, remind yourself of it, and find the backup you need to support it. The backup is in the Bible. When you’re feeling like God’s not there, the Psalms are a great place to visit

There will be times when you feel like God isn’t near. It’s part of living in a fallen world. But when you spend time with God without feeling His presence, your actions will prove that your commitment to God is rooted in something much more solid than emotions. It’s rooted in love.

Philip Tyson
philip@samaritanrevival.com
www.samaritanrevival.com


P.S. We still have a few more dates open if you would like Samaritan Revival to visit your church.

How do you really feel?

I have a question for all of you. How do you really feel?

In todays society, it is so easy to put on our happy face. We meet so many people, we shake many hands and we give many hugs. We see many smiles but as my father said once, "there are many layers to an onion". I was a kid when he said this to me and I had not idea what he was talking about but now I do.

Our outside layer can be shiny, attractive, and beautiful but what is really going on inside our head, inside our heart. Our we really what we try to appear on the outside or once our layers are pealed, how do we really feel on the inside. Who are we really?

The more people I meet, the more I come to realize that we all suffer from pain, depression, sadness and many times in our life we lose hope. I know that we love to be around happy people but sometimes this can really cause us harm. We as humans try to compare ourselves to others and when we cannot live up to the standards of others, we feel like we have failed. Thank God that He looks at our heart and not at our top layer. God has the power to look under every layer of our life and see who we really our and how we really feel.

Let me tell you who I like to be around. I love to hang around people who do not try to be someone there not. I love people to open up and share their feelings. I love people who will express their faults and allow me to express mine without judgment. I love to hear someone say "I am just a sinner saved by grace". That is all we are, a low down sinner with no hope that God had so much love for us that He have his only son to die on the cross to give the hope of salvation.

There is so much that I could talk about in this blog but let me just say this. If you cannot open yourself to someone, you can always open yourself to Jesus. He will never be to busy to listen. Express to him how you really feel. Peel those layers back and tell him where you are hurting. I know that God already knows but He wants to hear it from you. He wants you to come to Him for help. He wants you to need Him.

One other bit of advice that I can give is this. If you are ever in church or let just say at some christian event and you see someone singing or preaching, don't let you mind trick you into convincing yourself that you want to be like that person. What you need to do is to ask the Lord to help live what that person is preaching or singing because if you could peel the layers back of the person you are admiring, who knows what you would find.

Don't get me wrong, there are some great people in this world. I love Charles Stanley. His messages touches me in a great and mighty way but I know that Charles Stanley does not want me to want to be like him. He wants me to take the messages that God gives him and apply them to my life. I love to hear Bart Miller from Mercyme and Mark Hall from Casting Crowns. I know that these guys are touching millions of people with their music but do I want to be like them or should I apply what they do for the Lord to my life. I know that you know the answer to that question.

Be yourself and let God use you. Walking around with two Bibles in your hand and huge cross around your neck is not going to make you more useful to God. Casting Crowns has a song called Lifesong. The words of the song say "Let my lifesong sing to you". In other words, let your life be a testimony to others. Not who you are but how you live.

Just saying.

Philip Tyson
Samaritan Revival

A short Story about how Samaritan Revival started

About a year ago, I was in Honduras where I work for the Good Samaritan Baptist Mission as a missionary and I decided that I wanted to put together a little group to sing for the students in one of our Christian Schools. We have about 4,000 kids in six different schools in Honduras and Nicaragua but in this one town, we have about 1200.

I figured that we could have a Tuesday Night devotional and we would try to get some of the parents to come and hopefully, they would ask Jesus to enter their hearts and they would saved. My daughter was blessed with a beautiful angelic voice so I figured that with two of three more singers, we would put together a singing group to lead the tuesday night services.

I really didn't now what type of music we should sing. The normal spanish christian music just did not feel right because most of it is just repeating the same couple of words 17 thousands times. I wanted our songs to send a messages. My mother came up to me one day and said "You need to sing Midnight Cry". We decided to translate it into spanish to see if we could touch peoples hearts with this type of music. When I say "this type of music", I mean a type of music that these people had never heard before.

Tuesday night came around and my daughter plus three young men stood up to sing. It just happened that we had a mission group from the U.S visiting us that night and when the song was over, you could of heard a pin drop. There was no clapping or shouting, just a calm, silent feeling all over the auditorium.

I went up to the pulpit and spoke for about 10 minutes and gave an invitation. Over 30 people came forward a received Christ as their savior. Some of the americans that was there started crying and they said that they had never felt such a spirit even though everything was in spanish. As the group sung Midnight Cry in spanish, they could hear the english words in their mind.

To make a long story short, we were invited to sing in a church in the Alabama. We did not even have a name for our group. Some would call us the Good Samaritan group, the samaritan singers, Honduras singing group, the samaritan and many more. We really did not care what they called us, we were just happy to be able to sing and minister to a church in the U.S.

This was in March of 2008. Today, we have recorded two albums in Nashville and we have a distribution deal with New Day Christian Distribution. We have traveled to over 60 cities in the U.S and in March we start a 50 city tour. Here is the incredible part of all this, we sing in only english speaking churches. We have sung in a couple of spanish churches but 99 percent of the churches we sing in do not know a word of spanish. We sing in spanish and we put the english words on a screen. Many times, people will come to the altar while we are singing.

Here is what I want all you to understand by this story. God has a purpose and a plan for all of our lives. I have no idea where this is taking us but we have decided to go through every door that God opens. Who would of ever thought that so many english speaking churches would open their doors to a spanish southern gospel group.

Every step that we have taken, we have learned many lessons and we have tried not to sing songs for ourselves but songs that we know will minister to the congregation. Sometimes, we will sing only SGM if that is what the church wants and loves. Other times, we will mix a little bit of Casting Crowns or a song like I can only Imagine if we feel like this is what touches the people more.

We have learned that we are always guest in a church and our main purpose should be to minister to the hurting ones that our listening to us sing.

Keep us in your prayers. Our only desire is to minister and as long as God opens up the doors, we Samaritan Revival will never give up the opportunity to spread the Word of God as long as he gives us strength.

Samaritan Revival