“Although God lives in the souls in men who are unconscious of Him, how can I say that I have found Him and found myself in Him if I never know Him or think of Him, never take any interest in Him or seek Him or desire His presence in my soul? What good does it do to say a few formal prayers to Him and then turn away and give all my mind and all my will to created things, desiring only ends that fall far short of Him? Even though my soul may be justified, yet if my mind does not belong to Him then I do not belong to Him either. If my love does not reach out toward Him but scatters itself in His creation, it is because I have reduced His life in me to the level of a formality, forbidding it to move me with a truly vital influence.

“Justify my soul, O God, but also from Your fountain fill my will with fire. Shine in my mind, although perhaps this means “be darkness to my experience,” but occupy my heart with Your tremendous Life. Let my eyes see nothing in the world but Your glory, and let my hands touch nothing that is not for Your service. Let my tongue taste no bread that does not strengthen me to praise Your great mercy. I will hear Your voice and I will hear all harmonies You have created, singing Your hymns. Sheep’s wool and cotton from the field shall warm me enough that I may live in Your service; I will give the rest to Your poor. Let me use all things for one sole reason: to find my joy in giving You glory.

“Therefore keep me, above all things, from sin. Keep me from the death of deadly sin which puts hell in my soul. Keep me from the murder of lust that blinds and poisons my heart. Keep me from the sins that eat at man’s flesh with irresistible fire until he is devoured. Keep me from loving money in which is hatred, from avarice and ambition that suffocate my life. Keep me from the dead works of vanity and the thankless labor in which artists destroy themselves for pride and money and reputation, and saints are smothered under the avalanche of their own importunate zeal. Stanch in me the rank wound of covetousness and the hungers that exhaust my nature with their bleeding. Stamp out the serpent envy that stings love with poison and kills all joy.

“Untie my hands and deliver my heart form sloth. Set me free from the laziness that goes about disguised as activity when activity is not required of me, and from the cowardice that does what is not demanded, in order to escape sacrifice.

“But give me the strength that waits upon You in silence and peace. Give me humility in which alone is rest, and deliver me from pride which is the heaviest of burdens. And possess my whole heart and soul with the simplicity of love. Occupy my whole life with the one thought and the one desire of love, that I may love not for the sake of merit, not for the sake of perfection, not for the sake of virtue, not for the sake of sanctity, but for You alone.

“For there is only one thing that can satisfy love and reward it, and that is You alone.

“This then is what it means to seek God perfectly: to withdraw from illusion and pleasure, from worldly anxieties and desires, from the works that God does not want, from a glory that is only human display; to keep my mind free from confusion in order that my liberty may be always at the disposal of His will; to entertain silence in my heart and listen for the voice of God; to cultivate an intellectual freedom from the images of created things in order to receive the secret contact of God in obscure love; to love all men as myself; to rest in humility and to find peace in withdrawal from conflict and competition with other men; to turn aside from controversy and put away heavy loads of judgment and censorship and criticism and the whole burden of opinions that I have no obligation to carry; to have a will that is always ready to fold back within itself and draw all the powers of the soul down from its deepest center to rest in silent expectancy for the coming of God, poised in tranquil and effortless concentration upon the point of my dependence on Him; to gather all that I am, and have all that I can possibly suffer or do or be, and abandon them all to God in the resignation of a perfect love and blind faith and pure trust in God , to do His will.

“And then to wait in peace and emptiness and oblivion of all things.

“Bonum est praestolari cum silentio salutare Dei. (”It is good to wait in silence for the salvation of God.”)”

– Thomas Merton, ch. 6, “Pray for Your Own Discovery” in New Seeds of Contemplation

DELUXE EDITION ($24.99 + S/H)

-The Light Meets The Dark CD AUTOGRAPHED

-The Light Meets The Dark T-shirt in S, M, L or XL

-Exclusive 32-page music journal with words by and pictures of Tenth Avenue North

-FREE instant download of the new single, “Healing Begins”

-FREE instant download of 2 unreleased acoustic tracks (”By Your Side” & “Hold My Heart”)

-FREE instant download of 2 audio blogs (”Over and Underneath” & “The Light Meets The Dark”) by Tenth Avenue North lead singer, Mike Donehey

STANDARD EDITION ($9.99 + S/H)

-The Light Meets The Dark CD AUTOGRAPHED

-FREE instant download of the new single, “Healing Begins”

The Light Meets The Dark
May 11, 2010

01. Healing Begins
02. Strong Enough To Save
03. You Are More
04. The Truth Is Who You Are
05. All The Pretty Things
06. Any Other Way
07. On And On
08. Hearts Safe (A Better Way)
09. House Of Mirrors
10. Empty My Hands
11. Oh My Dear

iTunes

Amazonmp3.com

We will also have pre-order options available VERY SOON where you will be able to get an instant download of “Healing Begins” with CD purchase if you’d prefer to wait. We’re working as hard as we can to get these options up and ready for you guys ASAP. Thanks for your patience!

Also, “Healing Begins” officially goes for adds at Christian radio this Friday, March 5th, so hopefully you will start hearing the song soon. If not, let your local station know you want to start hearing it! As always, we appreciate all of you and your overwhelming support. We hope “Healing Begins” resonates with you, as well as the rest of the new album, which you will get to hear soon!

Martin Luther once said that we must beat the gospel into people’s heads incessantly, for it’s the one thing that we are most prone to forget. Funny, because that’s a huge reason why we wrote most of the songs on our last record, Over and Underneath. Not that we wanted to beat people up, necessarily, but our hope was definitely what Luther spoke of, in that, we wanted those who heard our songs to hear the gospel, that is, that we don’t earn grace, grace was earned for us. And we wanted to beat it into the heads of those listening, starting with our own. That’s what the title was all about: Over and Underneath. At the heights of our purity, Christ has gone higher; at the depths of our depravity, Christ has gone lower, bearing our sins on the cross. No matter how pure we are, we need Him still, and no matter how far we’ve fallen, we’re not too far gone.

This is what we feel the gospel is, and it’s what we hope to continue to communicate with our sophomore release, The Light Meets The Dark. Our desire for this record is simply to be the next step. It’s a call not only to believe the gospel but to let it so saturate our minds and hearts that we actually begin to live like we believe it. But of course, that might be a little different than you think. This record isn’t a call for better living and high achieving, more commitments and greater successes. It’s a cry for confession, exposure, and the laying down of our pride. It’s a cry for honesty, for truth, and for an encounter with the One who is truth, and having that encounter change the way we see the world. You see, when we believe this thing we call the gospel, it allows us to be honest about who we really are. Or should I say, it forces us to come to terms with who we are. It frees us to not only be exposed but to be ok about being exposed; to speak our pain and fears out into the open. It frees us to be poor in spirit. Which, isn’t that the goal after all?

I heard it said once that the best thing that could ever happen to any of us is if all of our sins were broadcast on the five o’clock news. And yeah, that can be a fairly disturbing thought, I suppose, but think about it for a moment. Think of how scary that is, and yet somehow, so incredibly freeing, too. If everyone knew all your junk, all your fears, all your questions, you wouldn’t have to hide anymore. No more masks.  No more pretending. Just you, and hopefully, the grace that comes when we step into the light. Sure, it can be the most terrifying step you’ll ever have to take, but when we do, when we lay our souls out naked and bare for all to see, it forces us out of the shadows and into a place where life begins. It’s where the light meets the dark, and it’s where we want to be. Hope to meet you there.
-Mike Donehey

Check out some of the photos submitted via e-mail:

Also, check out all the great pics submitted through the Flickr Tenth Avenue North Photos group!

Mike D’s word of the day, as featured in this video: tempestuous

A BIG thanks to all who support this band and their ministry. Last year, they couldn’t have won New Artist of the Year without you and the same goes for this year’s nominations! Feel free to leave your congratulatory messages for the band.

Note: Mike also received a nomination in the Special Event Album of the Year category for his work on Glory Revealed II: The Word of God in Worship.

Tune into http://www.hearitfirst.com/live beginning at 6:15pm ET/5:15pm CT to watch Tenth Avenue North, Third Day, Newsboys, Fireflight, and more! While you can watch for free, a $5 donation to benefit Hands and Feet Project is encouraged. For more information, visit JamTour.com.