Mercy Raining - behind the song

The best way I could describe the song "Mercy Raining" is that it's about being sick and tired of being sick and tired. It's a song about my struggles in life, the one's no one but the Lord and I know about. Struggles inside of me that I was sick and tired of plaguing me. To be more to the point on what these issues are, I was sick of anger and lust.

What most people don't tell their kids or those they mentor is the destructive nature of sex, lust, pornography, and how it all ties in with anger. Maybe it's because most people haven't even figured it out themselves. This is a rather interesting thought especially since Jesus laid it out for us right in the Sermon on the Mound (Matthew 5). The teachings on dealing with lust and anger are the first and foundational of His teachings.

What does this have to do with "Mercy Raining"? Everything. As a young boy I was introduced to pornography. Not just magazines, but just the regular old box office movies and TV Shows. It perverted my sex drive (as it does to any young man that is breathing). Between that and some bad peer pressure pre-marital sex occurred. I hate to be crude, but it truly is a "once you pop, you can't stop" type of thing for a young man. If we can't find a young woman then we just take care of it manually.

These things are done in private. The pictures\images are stuck in a young man's mind and they pop up at the least expected moment and the pressure builds. We literally become slaves to these passions, they run out of control.

Then there is the anger side. It's really a never ending circle of violence. No man wants a woman who's been with another man, no matter what he says. This causes anger, rage, and eventually hatred. The never ending circle comes in when this anger is channeled through lust. If you don't think it happens, just look at the rate of pornography addictions skyrocketing. This isn't just a single man's game, this is happening within marriages too!

So that is what "Mercy Raining" is about. It's about the horrible empty feeling after falling again. Powerlessly being tossed around by these passions that holds me a slave. It's that horrible regret of lashing out at your wife for burnt toast when it's really just the jealousy and anger flaring up. It's about being sick and tired of being sick and tired.

As the lyric says, "Falling down not wanting to get up, but You reach down and fill my cup". I don't pretend to understand the mercy, grace, and compassion of the Lord. The fact that He faces me constantly, helping me. Never getting frustrated, always urging me forward. It's the relational experience of a personal God that a doctrine or teaching can't contain.

"Wipe away the tears from my weary eyes". There's nothing more distressing than doing something that you don't want to do. The feeling of being trapped as these passions press in and begin to define our thoughts, our desires, and even our emotions. It is an addictive passion and it toys with us as we try to run from it.

The only thing keeping us in a realm of sanity in this song is the mercy of God. And such is life, the unfathomable mercy of God and Him being active in my life is the only thing that keeps me sane.

Blessings,

Jeremy

Mercy Raining
by Jeremy Neely

Wipe away the tears from my weary eyes.
So alone it seems You're a million miles away.
Life just haunts me from day to day.

Take my life as a living sacrifice.

Mercy raining on this heart of mine.
Dry and dusty from days gone by.
I love You is this souls cry.
Mercy raining on this heart of mine.

Falling down not wanting to get up.

You reach down and You fill my cup.
Put a new song on this broken heart of mine.I
feel Your love and it's gonna be alright.

Beautiful yet painful...the ice storms

The results of the ice storm that hit the heartland on Monday evening had many results. To walk out and look at the horizon is just breathtaking. As far as the eye can see the earth has been transformed into a crystal palace. The sun's rays dance across the horizon, set ablaze by the crystallized grass. Treetops look like chandeliers glistening in the morning sun. Unfathomable numbers of icicles stranded along miles of power lines and fence. Such a magnificent picture could not be painted by human hands.

However, in the midst of this breathtaking beauty is pain. So many homes are unequipped to heat themselves without electrical service. Many families find themselves without heat, warm food, and even water.

Fortunately we have a fireplace and had prepared by bringing plenty of wood into the garage to keep dry. We also had charcoal and propane for our grills so we could cook. In case of extreme emergencies we even had an inverter that we could plug into our vehicles to create 110 volt electricity.

This was a wonderful lesson for our girls. In our affluent society our children do not know what it is like to go without. Not even power. Even the company that I work for (which is a great company!) has a "no downtime" policy on the computer network.

In a way, I am Thankful for this event taking place. By day I am a Network Engineer (computer geek) and the only thing that I can ever 100% guarantee you about technology is that it will fail. I'm Thankful for this failure of our system. The humility of opening your doors to another family or even accepting the offer to move one's family into another's care.

In a season when one of the truest acts of compassion and mercy was shown on mankind. Our Creator emptied Himself to come down and dwell among us, being tempted in every way so that we know we have a High Priest who sympathizes with us (Phillipians & Hebrews). In this storm we were forced to humble ourselves, to serve others, to work together, and to even live together.

This begs many questions about our heritage, lifestyle, and society. But we are the only one's that can look long and hard inwardly and ask\answer those questions. Will we?

Blessings,

Jeremy & Kaci

The winner of the pre-order iPod is....

Congratulations to Kevin Collings, the winner of the iPod Nano in the Wur'ship Project:LIVE Pre-order contest.

The really cool thing is that Kevin and his wife Adrienne have been huge supporters of Wur'ship Project for years. As a matter of fact, it wasn't long after the music ministry of Jeremy & Kaci took on the name of Wur'ship Project that Kevin and Adrienne began telling everyone they knew about us.

Thanks to all of you that took place in the pre-order of Wur'ship Project:LIVE

Photos from our CD Release Party

We posted some photos from our CD Release Party on our MySpace site. We're going to try to insert the slide show from our MySpace in this post. If it comes out funny, just head over to http://www.myspace.com/wurshipproject to see the pictures.