We’ll still be available to lead worship for retreats, conferences, adoration nights, etc.  A few of us are involved with a new ministry in Tucson called Nameless Ministries that includes a few other youth ministers from around the Diocese (Richard Rivera, Andrew Starbuck, and Adam Eichelberger).  The goal of the ministry is to teach and encourage other youth and young adult ministries in the area with retreats and youth or young adult nights.  Stay in touch with the Emmaus facebook page as we develop the ministry, but most of all we ask for your prayers as we move forward.  If you have any questions, feel free to email me at david@davidmaresmusic.com.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us throughout the years we’ve been together as a band.  Thanks to our parents and families, for getting us started in music in the first place and supporting us through lessons, band concerts, and praying for us.  Thanks to all of our friends back from our respective home towns and at the U of A.  Fr. Bart, thanks for giving us a place to lead worship every week at the Newman Center.  Thanks to everyone around the Diocese who have asked us to lead worship for retreats and conferences, especially Joe Perdreauville, Deacon Ed Sheffer, Michelle Benzenhoefer, Bill Buhs, Richard Rivera, Andrew Starbuck, Adam Eichelberger, and Beto Bojorquez.  We would also like to thank in particular Cristobal Almanza, for his work on the website, logo, and EP design, and Andrew Starbuck, for his work on our tshirts and tour posters.  Thanks to everyone who supported our music by picking up a Never Grow Weary EP, rocking an Emmaus tshirt, or donating to us.  You all were the reason we were able to keep going as a band, and the reason we are able to keep making music from here.

Most of all, we thank God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for giving us this opportunity to lead others to Him through music.  We pray that we will continue to only seek His will above our own and that He will continue to guide us.

God bless,

David

So I asked myself, “Everything has a resonant frequency?  Everything?!?”  What about “things” we can’t necessarily see?  …Like our souls?

God created everything so wonderfully.  And through it all, He designed all of it to point back to Himself, so that all that He created can be reminded of how much He loves us.  I know every time I see a breathtaking mountain view or feel the power of the ocean while at the beach, I can’t help but think about how powerful God is and how powerful His love is for each one of us.  And when we recognize the power of God’s love, we are encouraged to open ourselves up to Him to grow into a deeper relationship with Him.  And when we open up to Him, we experience and share in God’s love, the love that poured from the cross.  Yet something special happens in our hearts, our souls, our entire beings when we open up to His love.  Something that is difficult to explain…without the idea of the resonant frequency.

I think we are created with a resonant frequency, and that frequency is the love of God, which is God Himself since God is love.  When we are shaken by that frequency, by God’s love, our entire being resonates.  It resonates far more than when anything else tries to shake us.  That resonance is worship.  So often we make worship out to be something it’s not.  It’s not about the music, the person singing next to you off-key, the hand motions, the light show or lack-thereof, the awkward smell wafting around the room, etc.  It’s the position of the heart, and if that position is open to God.  It’s about resonating with His love, and that’s it.  If we’re wondering why sometimes we just feel like a time of worship was shallow and meaningless for us, maybe we’re simply not allowing ourselves to resonate with God regardless of any externalities.  Many times we bring a lot on our shoulders to worship moments that shouldn’t even be there in the first place, like preconceived notions about what the worship time should be (and if it lives up to that expectation), things that dampen our ability to resonate.  We need to be conscious of these things, and lay them down before God, because He alone can heal, nourish, and sustain.

Next time we worship, I pray that we can open our hearts fully to Him, so that we can fully resonate with His love the way He created us to.  Let’s pray, Lord, help us when we worship to grow in our love for You, so that we can love like You.

-David

Check out the story behind “At the Foot of the Cross” and a bunch of other great independent Christian artists here:

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Kyle

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Kyle

You’re favorite website destructioneer here.  I just realized that we never shared with you the tracks from David’s acoustic performance on the UofA’s KAMP radio.  “What?!? Emmaus was on THE RADIO!?”.  Yup.  I guess you could say I got the hook up.  Included is a special never before heard track “Caught Up”, which we wrote for the Tucson Diocese Youth Ministers Conference.  Check it out and even download all the tracks for FREE!

http://kamp.arizona.edu/node/799

Kyle

Kyle