PODCAST - Grit & Glory, Songs & Stories

Don't Mess With The Devil

In this first episode, singer/songwriter, Mark Alewine, introduces himself and the podcast, explaining his passion for telling God-stories and encouraging you with a story of his own. Leave inspired to resist letting fear keep you from something amazing.

Why Grit & Glory, Songs & Stories-Ep 001

Transcript: Today let’s talk about the song What Are We Gonna Do? How many times have you asked yourself that question? When I finally quit asking the question rhetorically and really wanted to know, I found some helpful answers that I’d like to share with you in today’s podcast. The 2020 election insanity and the pandemic topped off by the divisiveness, violence, looting and burning in Mpls/St Paul put me over the edge. Even as a follower of Jesus, I had my moments of fear and I let fear get the best of me. Panic could easily take over if I let it. I knew if I didn’t keep my hope and faith anchored on what God says about who He is and what is yet to come, I would completely freak out or probably do something really stupid. So I did a lot of soul searching and questioning God that ultimately led to the writing of this song, What are We Gonna Do? You can hear the instrumental playing underneath this right now. First, we have to start with the right framework, with what God says about this life on earth (See footnote at end of the show notes for specific Bible references). The Bible says that the world lies in the power of the evil one1 and that our struggle is NOT against flesh and blood but against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the HEAVENLY places2. Jesus said in this world we would have tribulation3. Yep, I can believe that! The Bible also says we need to be prepared so we can resist4 and that God in us is greater than he who is in the world (talking about the devil).5&nbsp; It says, Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good6. Surely this must be possible if the Bible states it so clearly, right? I’m still asking God to help me believe, not just with my head, but with my heart and to be ready to act like I believe it! I believe this life is a test. A test of our faith and our ability to allow God to speak into our lives. I believe we, more than ever, have the ability to be the light of the world that is needed so desperately! So when the world is on fire, what is our response? What do we say or do that reflects the work that Jesus has done in our lives as believers, as HIS followers. Should we be angry at some of the things that we are seeing? Absolutely! Should we rile each other up as well? No…we are called to strongly encourage each other to do the right thing, living to the glory of God! That is truly loving one another! Should we speak the first thing that comes to our mind in response to those things? I’ve done that and usually those words weren’t reflective of the work that Jesus has done in my life. The Bible says “words kill or words give life, they’re either poison or fruit, you choose”7. That is incredibly powerful and hugely important. Throughout a lifetime of failures and apologies, I’ve come up with a process that I want to share with you that can help. You see, we have this super computer in our head that can play out scenarios with the words that we say and what that story is going to look like at the end. So this happens very quickly if we allow it. You can see the end of this particular moment and you can change your words based on that predicted outcome. Whether it’s to someone’s face or a text to someone or something on social media, you can see the end of that story pretty clearly and change what you are going to say or do. The real test is do we care enough about what pleases God to choose our response accordingly or do we give in to “feeling” justified in our words and actions regardless of how much pain it could cause; pain to ourselves, to others and to God Himself. I believe the more time we spend praying and the less time we spend giving our own personal commentary to people on what’s going on, the more the Holy Spirit works and the more receptive people are to God’s truth.&nbsp; I also believe that the more time we spend praying and the less time we spend worrying helps to bring peace to our own lives. Which would you rather spread?...

What are We Gonna Do-002

Do you ever wonder if personal peace is even possible in today’s world? For the next few minutes let’s stop, breathe and take a sweet little sip of peace. There’s something about coffee that takes me back. Something about it that helps me to stop and enjoy the moment. I don’t drink enough coffee to get addicted, but I do look forward to my morning coffee every day. I make it the night before and have it set so it comes on early and it’s nice and hot when we wake up. There’s just something about it. Coffee with friends is a huge part of my life. I love going into coffee shops and smelling what’s going on and even the noise of the coffee shop is pleasant for me. When I was worship pastor, I set up most of my meetings in coffee shops. I’ve been going to northern Minnesota every year for about 34 years fishing with my son and some friends. It’s a small group of about four of us. We stay in a very simple resort in a town called Orr Minnesota, a town of about 175 people. The north side of town is about a minute from the south side of town, meaning it’s pretty small. We fish on a lake called Pelican Lake, which is a huge lake. And the fishing is incredible. There’s this train. The train used to be a huge annoyance as we would get up there and the train would run through anywhere from 10 to probably 15 times a day all through the night and all through the day. The place we stay at is across the bay so as the crow flies probably a little over half a mile. The train would be very loud and you could hear it coming for what feels like miles away. It used to be very very frustrating. Somewhere along the way, my perspective changed. Now, I so look forward to hearing that train all through the night and all through the day. It’s a peaceful sound from a distance and echoes through those northern woods. It’s just part of the overall experience up there. It really is incredible. And now when I hear a train anywhere else, it takes me back to northern Minnesota. Each morning we wake up in our very primitive cabin and head on over to the TPatton Café for coffee and breakfast. I suppose we are considered regulars because we are there every year and sometimes twice a year. We know the owner, Tara, very well. She and her staff are wonderful people that know how to take care of their customers. They have a simple menu in a beautiful unique setting. The restaurant is an old train depot and when you walk in you take a few steps down to the dining area. The food is cooked upstairs. There’s about 15 to 18 steps to get upstairs so the servers really get a work out!&nbsp; The real workout is When the delivery truck comes and he has to make about eight trips with his two wheel dolly loaded up with Food going up the steps. One of the simplest things they serve is coffee. It’s not really a special kind of coffee. Nothing you would find in a coffee shop per se. Coffee shops as I said earlier, are a big deal for me and I have to show much restraint to not run into a coffee shop every day and buy coffee. But there’s something about coffee in northern Minnesota at T Patton Café.&nbsp; Believe it or not I still remember the first cup of coffee that I had there. And it’s something that I look forward to every year as we get ready to go. I even start thinking about this at the beginning of the year even though the trip happens around Memorial Day for a week. I’m sure it has something to do with getting away from the stress of the city life and enjoying the wild north of Minnesota with great friends over a cup of coffee (or 6 cups). I have a friend in Nashville and he and I discuss coffee and even though we can’t have a cup of coffee in the same room, we slow down and just chat as we sip coffee together sometimes, separately. Sometimes we were just chat and cut up. Other times we’ll talk about life’s deep struggles together. One day, the conversation was particularly pain filled. As we wrapped things up, I felt inspired,...

May Your Coffee Taste Much Sweeter-Ep 003

This week’s story is meant to help you anticipate the sweetness of life if you just keep hanging in there, giving God time and space to work in your life and relationships. I’ll also introduce you to my wife, Cindy, and the song she inspired called, My Lady. First let’s start with guitars. I own 2 Taylor guitars. The thing about owning a really nice guitar is after you’ve had them for some time, they seem to get sweeter and sweeter and their sound gets warmer, richer and more inviting. This is also true of other instruments. &nbsp;I’ve had one of my Taylor guitars for about 22 years now. I absolutely love it.&nbsp; And the sound has gotten more incredible as the years go by. That’s been the way it has been with me and Cindy. As the years go by, she just gets sweeter and sweeter. And I’m blown away to think that I have been married to this incredible woman for going on 41 years this June. As I share the story of today’s featured song, My Lady, I hope you’ll be inspired to take a different look at your life, your spouse (if you have one) and what sweetness God has for you as you keep on growing. Cindy and I got married when we were 19 and 21 years old. Needless to say, we both were quite immature and sometimes fought over very silly things. Thankfully we both loved Jesus and had great peer pressure to work things out. It wasn’t long before we had kids, grown up jobs and big life decisions. We didn’t know what we didn’t know - which was - that we both had hurts and hang-ups that impacted our relationship and that would knock us down in the near future. We loved each other as best we knew how and continued to grow little by little. Even as believers who loved God, we experienced disappointments, betrayals, heartbreaks, mental and physical breakdowns, financial challenges, trouble with kids, uncertainties with parents and so many “normal” but horrible things that seemed to push us apart but pull us together all at the same time. We loved each other as best we knew how and continued to grow a little at a time. I’ve always appreciated Cindy and her support but one night, while sitting at her father’s deathbed, I had a moment of amazing clarity and sweetness which inspired the song, My Lady. She left the room to take a break for a few minutes. As I watched her, I was suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude for her as my wife and for her selfless acts of kindness for her dad and for me and for anybody she comes in contact with. Words came to me very very quickly so I started to talk-texting as fast as I could. There was no melody yet, just words. It was as if the years flashed before me and these words were the culmination of years of struggle and growth together, sweeter than anything we’d experienced so far in our marriage. Aside from my relationship with Jesus, she is truly the most remarkable relationship that I have ever had in my life! I’m so so grateful. There’s nothing she wouldn’t do for me and honestly, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her. We are doing something together now that we did NOT do early on in marriage and I want to share it with you so you don’t miss out. We make the time virtually every morning just to talk about what God is doing in our lives and to pray together for the day. That has been one of the most impacting things that we have ever done. This has brought us even closer and closer together. This next part is no judgment on anybody else, no condemnation whatsoever. I realize that there are many people, many couples out there, that don’t pray together on a regular basis. I realize it may feel awkward. I would say just start with a quick prayer in the morning and then build on that. This is something that you will never regret and you’ll be surprised at how much you grow together as a couple. Remember that “music makes stuff stick”! So guys, use songs like My Lady to help you appreciate your wife, to soften your heart towards her. And gals, use songs...

Introducing "My Lady"-004

(Mark) Last week I introduced you to “My Lady”, Cindy Alewine who inspired the song “My Lady”. I promised to let you hear from her this week. Today’s story is how God took an unthinking comment Cindy made at a very low point in her life and brought about a powerful battle cry and victory song. I’ll let her tell you all about it. (Cindy) Hi everybody! I’m so glad you’re here and I’m excited to share this story with you. First of all, I’m an only child (and no I wasn’t spoiled). My mom passed away when I was 35 years old so my dad was on his own for many years.&nbsp; Since he lived in Georgia, It was challenging trying to help him when he started having all sorts of issues. Finally the time came for a change. He had undiagnosed Parkinson’s Disease and some other problems that made it impossible to continue to live on his own. So we moved him to Minnesota into our home. I quit my job to stay home with him full-time. Dad and I loved each other but I had lots of buttons for him to push and sometimes our relationship felt like oil and water. Still, I felt satisfied and even a bit noble. Mark here was a great help and we believed this was God’s will. Others helped us as well and Dad truly appreciated our love and care. Things were going great. After a while, though, over the next five and a half years, I let the mundane tasks, the hours of noisy TV and the 24/7 responsibility get to me. I often felt weary, sometimes I felt trapped. I definitely felt like a hostage to negative thoughts and feelings. My body was affected also and I had quite a bit of pain. Despite being loved and supported, I struggled with depression and felt hopeless. Out of necessity, I dug into to my relationship with God. So many beautiful things came when I would be still, listen and accept the opportunity to grow. I began recognizing the underlying choices I faced each day. Choices between easy, convenient and comfortable OR becoming like Jesus. If trials were a gift like the Bible says and if they could help me become mature in faith, then I wanted to accept them and embrace the growth. Of course, this was much easier said than done! I know this is a spiritual “DUH!” but I felt like God was prompting me to “start with praise”. Usually first thing in the morning I’d barge into His presence asking for this or that and sometimes leaving without really listening for a response. I started picking out one praise song to sing before I said anything else. That made a surprising difference! I still do that to this day and sometimes I wake up with a song I hadn’t thought of for years. I also made a 4 song playlist of high octane praise songs that I listened to over and over throughout the day using my headphones to help drown out the TV blaring in the background. Just hearing the first few measures of a song would often trigger a reset for me mentally. Wow! I know it’s true and it makes sense, but I still marvel how differently God’s presence, comfort, love and power are experienced when we settle into praise. I was staying close to God but my thoughts and feelings were very uncooperative!&nbsp; I found a sermon series by Craig Groeschel of Life Church called Winning the War in Your Mind. I listened and re-listened and re-listened to it, applying God‘s truth and finding hope. We also went through a series called Free Indeed by Robert Morris of Gateway Church and discovered some strongholds in my life that kept me spinning in some areas. (I highly recommend checking out these resources for yourself and you can find links at GGSSPodcast.com) Marinating in scripture was critical during this time. There’s a number of verses that I clung to. One of them was “Take every though captive to the obedience of Christ” from 2 Corinthians 10:5. I learned that the meaning was to take every thought captive as if by spear point. What a great mental picture! I had to choose whether to tolerate the loud, repetitive negative thoughts...

Unshaken-005

Have you ever been baited into an argument and you end up saying the wrong thing? Or perhaps you were the “baiter” saying the right thing but in the wrong way? Me too! Today I’ll share some tips I’ve learned in this area and I invite you to share your best tips with me!   &nbsp;  Whether it’s saying something destructive in the heat of an argument or saying the right thing but in the wrong way, we have to recognize “the bait”.&nbsp; We also need a plan to use God’s power to speak words that are fruit rather than poison like Proverbs 18:21 says so well:&nbsp;“Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit – you choose.” Our choice of words is so important for the sake of others but also for our own sake and for the sake of the Kingdom. I’ve been in Christian ministry full-time and part-time for over 40 years and I have seen the consequences of taking the bait in my life and others again and again and again. It happens to everybody. We get caught up&nbsp; making sure that people know exactly where we stand rather than being patient and helping them want to listen to us because we show them love, respect and kindness. It’s on the phone or face-to-face or even worse, on social media! The first tip is BE WISE ON SOCIAL MEDIA!!!!! It’s really tough to win an argument on there.&nbsp; Basically what we have are very loud voices screaming their opinions and hurling insults at others based on their opinions. It’s sad, it happens in the Christian world as well. I’m not sure how this benefits the kingdom. I think we can say with confidence that, really, it doesn’t. One particular friend of mine has been the inspiration for a few of my songs. He’s part of the music industry and lives in Nashville.&nbsp; He was experiencing scathing fallout from “taking the bait” on social media. The impact on him personally, emotionally and professionally was significant as well as needless.&nbsp;He wanted to get my feedback on his next steps. I pondered it for a little bit because deep down, I believed his opinion was valid, even correct and helpful, but I was trying to think of the possible consequences of further “conversation” aka argument. And as I started thinking about it a little bit more, it really didn’t have a lot of value because I think ultimately nobody wanted their mind changed. They only wanted the other person’s mind changed. In other words, “my way is the right way and your way is the wrong way, and that’s all there is to it.” As we discussed this a bit further, the words “don’t take the bait!” came out of my mouth,”. The power of these words stuck in my mind. And yes, a song was born. Around that same time, conversations were taking place with another friend on the verge of losing their marriage because of a war of words that got out of hand.&nbsp;Because their conversation made its way to friends on social media, a number of their friendships were destroyed as well. I think more times than not we are baited into an argument. Sometimes we are the baiter! Maybe we even baited someone else into an argument feeling that it was justified or righteous even. We’ve all seen families divided, really divided. Divided in such a way that a son or a daughter won’t even speak to their parents or the parents won’t speak to their children because they refused (or forgot) to think!; to think through their choice of words and the possible outcomes. That’s another basic but often overlooked tip, THINK it through; what will the benefit or consequences be of the words I choose to speak. Do I really want THAT outcome? Why is this important? Because the Bible says we will be held accountable for the words we speak. Even if we’re willing to apologize later for our poor reactions, is that really how we want to represent? Why not choose to think and respond rather than unthinkingly react. Our brains are super-computers. We can think through the scenarios and pretty well...

Don't Take the Bait-011

something right

Hi I'm Mark, a Jesus-loving, singer/songwriter and podcaster. I release fun, relatable Jesus-music to inspire and encourage whoever will listen. The Grit & Glory, Songs & Stories Podcast features God-stories behind the lyrics of these songs.  I hope the music and the podcast will inspire and encourage you in your relationship with God!

Don't Take the Bait-011

Mark Alewine Music/GGSS Podcast

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