Track 2 Devotional: Chaos Theory

About the song

Sometimes inspiration can come from unexpected places. It just so happened I got stuck on a major Jurassic Park kick. I watched all the movies, and for some reason I was still unsatisfied. I had never read the book before, so I checked it out from the library. The book contains detailed information about Chaos Theory, and its briefly mentioned in the movie.
The book is wonderful, and all the Chaos Theory stuff really intrigued me. Halfway though reading the book, I get this idea. I thought about how Chaos Theory could be applied to sin nature. I sent Josh a text explaining this idea, and how we should write a song about it. He’s also a Jurassic fan, so he loved the idea.
My understanding of Chaos Theory is fairly basic. Let’s face it, I’m no Scientist. I do know that it’s used in stories about time travel. Basically, one little thing can be changed in the past, and it can lead to a many disastrous changes in the future. Jurassic Park not a story about time travel, but that idea of Chaos Theory is still evident. Basically, a small effect can lead to a catastrophic cause.
In our lives sin can be like this. A small sin, leads to a bigger one, then a bigger one and so on. Sometimes it seems like one little mistake can lead our lives to complete ruin. If those little mistakes go uncorrected they surely can. The more we get caught into a sinful pattern, the harder it can become to get out of it.
Luckily for us, Jesus came to bring order in the midst of this chaos that sin can produces in our lives. We don’t have to be a slave to sin anymore. Our lives don’t have to be caught in a web of chaos. We can obtain peace and freedom in Jesus Christ.


The Biblical “King” of Chaos Theory

“One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace, from the roof he saw a woman bathing – a very beautiful woman.”
2 Samuel 11:2

From scripture, we learn that David is a man after God’s own heart, but the event in 2 Samuel 11:2 is the beginning of an escalating sin cycle. This is the story of David’s adultery with Bathsheba. Of course, many of us have heard this story before, but how well do we really know it? How does a man after God’s own heart get so caught up in this kind of cycle?
We may have to back up to verse one for a minute, “In the Spring when the kings march out to war, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but DAVID REMAINED IN JERUSALEM.” Wait a minute, he did what?! Is this not the same guy that fought and killed a giant when he was just a youth? Now he’s sending his men out to war, while he’s just sitting back in his palace playing big man on the throne. Maybe the status of being king is getting to his head a little, in other words, its pride.
  After pride started to set in, then he saw Bathsheba bathing from the roof. That’s when lust set in. Because he’s the king, he has a way of getting what he wants. Then his lust becomes adultery. Can you see the cycle? Pride leads to lust. Lust leads to adultery. The cycle has started, and it will get much worse.
Bathsheba gets pregnant, and then David tries to cover it up. First, he sends for her husband, Uriah, and tried to give him a “break from the war” and told him to spend a night at home. However, Uriah was a man of principle. He wouldn’t spend a night with his wife because his comrades were off at war. So then, David arranges Uriah’s death. Pride leads to lust, Lust leads to adultery. Adultery leads deceit. Deceit leads to murder. One small step can lead to disaster.
Eventually David would repent, but not before things spiraled out of control. Often we can get caught in similar cycles like this. Make no mistake, David was a man God. That only serves to show us, that even the best of us can fall prey to “Chaos Theory” Our only hope is to remain in Christ. In Luke 9:23 Jesus said, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Me.” Everyday we must turn away from our old selves, and follow him. The blood of Christ is the only cure for the chaos that is sin.
 - Casey Davis

FOOD FOR THOUGHT.

1. What cycle of Chaos are you currently feeling trapped in?

2. In what areas of life are you neglecting to allow God room to direct your path?

Devotional #1 Lambs & Wolves

Track 1 Devotional: Lambs and Wolves

     You push through the tall grass and back onto the dirt path, heart pounding in your chest. Stabbing pain clenches your side and the burning in your legs is agony, but you don't dare to stop running. Behind you, the cold silence of the night is broken by a howl, and then another. Suddenly the howls seem to be rising from all around. The wolves have you surrounded. Exhausted you stumble and fall to the pebbly ground scraping flesh from your knees and outstretched hands. As you rise slowly to your feet, the choir of howling rises in intensity. You see the eyes of the wolves glowing like embers in the darkened belly of the forest. The largest of the beasts steps into the pale moonlight, its lips drawn up over its yellowed fangs in a snarl. The thick black fur of its back bristles as it anticipates pouncing upon its prey. Other wolves advance from all sides sniffing the air, smelling blood. The big wolf is staring right into your eyes. With a low growl it lunges.

Luke 10:3 - "Go your ways: Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves."
     To many people this verse may sound like nonsense, but to those who are saved by the blood of Jesus, this symbolizes what Christians come up against when they go into the world to spread the Gospel. The Wolves of this scripture represent a world that does not want to hear the Word of God. It does not want to know a savior by the name of Jesus Christ. Throughout history the world has sought to wipe out every trace of Christianity. The Romans fed Christians to lions. Even today Christians all over the earth are being imprisoned or even executed for standing on the truth of God's Word. The lesson in this particular scripture is that Jesus never promised his followers that they would experience anything other than absolute opposition in the world they had been sent to reach. He explained to them that he was sending them as innocent and powerless lambs into a world that hungered for their blood. In John 15:18 Christ explains : "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." The wolves are cunning, they are cruel, but why do they hate Christians? Why do they hate Jesus Christ? The answer is that there is another wolf that leads the pack. Satan comes to kill, steal, and to destroy; just as a wolf would do to an innocent lamb. His goal is to devour as many souls as he can before his time runs out. His best chance of doing that is to so fiercely attack the church that christians cower in fear. Satan isn't worried about Christians as long as he can keep us corralled inside our churches, afraid to step out into the world. He has the modern Christian so afraid of phrases like "political correctness" that we dare not enter the dark woods.
     The lambs of Luke 10:3 of course represent Christians. As followers of Christ we are not the most popular people in today's society. Due to our beliefs, we are hated by a lot of people. Most of them have never heard the name of Jesus or heard His Word, but refuse to let it minister to their hearts. They push aside the idea of scripture as no more than "imaginary nonsense" or a "crutch for weak and naive minds". It is these, along with countless others, who we Christians have been sent into the world to seek and to save(Luke 19:10). It is for those lost souls that we brave the darkness of this world. It is for them that we face the wolves.
     The idea for this song was born when Toni Lawrimore visited Hemingway First Baptist Church to share photos and testimony from her mission work in Delhi, India. There she worked directly with women and children pulled from lives of slavery and forced prostitution. She pulled the curtain back revealing just a glimpse of the horror of human trafficking and the fact that much of that crime can be traced back to our very own country even our home state of South Carolina. Her focus verse was Luke 10:3. She challenged us to be unafraid to step out into the dark corners of the world where the wolves are howling and grasp the hands of those who desperately need saving. The lost will not be reached by the wearing of suits and ties or by cute catchphrases on church signs. Our great commission awaits us outside the safe walls of the church, far from the protective shadow of its steeple. 
     As stated the world hates us. The wolves in the Supreme Court and in the media are howling against us. They aim to destroy us, but we have something they don't have. We have something more powerful than their false doctrines or all their arguments against us. We have an almighty God that has blessed His children and has saved millions upon millions of souls. We serve a  MERCIFUL, LOVING, GRACEFUL God that died for us. Yes, He sent as lambs in the midst of wolves, but He did not send us alone. Matthew 28:20b "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
- Brody Pope and Joshua Adams

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
1) In what ways have you faced opposition in spreading the Gospel or simply living a God-focused life?

2) When faced with opposition how should a Christian respond?

devotional

The new songs on the upcoming cd mean a lot to us personally, and as such we want to see that we do all we can to communicate our hearts to you. We have decided to work together as a band to provide you with devotionals to accompany each song on the new album. We will be sharing scripture that correlates with the song messages as well as commentary and personal testimony so that you can understand where theses songs come from and what God has done in our lives and can do in yours. Check our facebook page and the blog (http://crosscovenantnews.blogspot.com/) in the very near future for these devotionals.

CD Finished!

Well, it has already been a busy but amazing summer for Cross Covenant! We have finished recording the new album Learning To Fight, and we have filmed a music video for the new song Through Your Eyes which is currently being edited.  The new cd and video will be released either the end of July or very early August and we will be hosting a music video viewing/CD release party when that happens that ALL of you will be invited to join us for!
We have a pre-buy special package for the new cd.

Deadline for prebuy and payment is JULY 24TH.
We can't express to you how excited we are about this release. It has been a long process but it is finally here and we are incredibly happy with the songs we will be sharing with you very soon!

The tracklist for the album will be:

1. Lambs & Wolves
2. Chaos Theory
3. Where The Angels Cry
4. Devil In A Bottle
5. Rat Race
6. Learning To Fight
7. Through Your Eyes
8. Last Son
9. 2 Fisted Gospel
10. The Otherside
11. Last Shot
12. All Things

Thanks as always for all of the support and love.
oh yeah... and we get to open for these guys!!!!!!!!

Where We Are Now

PRAISE GOD FOR ALL HE HAS DONE AND IS GOING TO DO! We are thrilled to announce that after much prayer God has blessed us with our new drummer. Brody Pope has just joined the cross covenant family and already God is moving in powerful ways. We also want to take this opportunity to thank Christian Love for all of his hard work during his time in the band. We love him and pray that God opens doors in his life and will richly bless him and his fiancee Stacy in their future together. We greatly appreciate the support of all our fans through the years and eagerly look forward to all that is to come. The new cd will arrive this summer Lord-willing and the new music video as well. God bless you all and we will see you onstage soon!

We will be playing at Crossover Church in Johnsonville on Saturday night March 30th as part of their first Soul'd Out Revolution night, We hope to see all of you there. It has been awhile since we have gotten to play in our hometown area so we look forward to spending a great night with our fans and supporters and most of all we look forward to lifting high the name of JESUS CHRIST!

New show

We are so excited to be playing at the Ultimate Praisefest at the Plex in Columbia, SC!
Get your tickets at https://www.trinitytickets.com/ultimate-praise-fest.

Updated Finally!!!

 Sorry we haven't updated the blog in awhile... okay in a really looooong while. Things have been interesting for us since the last time we posted on this site. First off our singer Josh Adams spent several weeks battling some serious health issues throughout the summer but we are thankful for the power of prayer and the healing hand of God in his life. Since then we have played a few small shows here and there but have been primarily focused on writing and recording new material for the next cd. We currently have 6 tracks recorded for the new album and will be going in the studio this month to work on a couple more. We also are excited to be filming a music video for the song 2fisted gospel in the new year. As for what you can expect from the new album: the heavy songs are heavier, the softer tracks are emotional and deep and throughout all of the songs we have tried to bare our hearts before you and most of all before our Heavenly Father. We can't wait to see all of you at some more shows very soon. If you would like to have Cross Covenant play at your church or venue, contact us at crosscovenantband@gmail.com. Oh yeah, almost forgot, we are preparing a Christmas gift to all of you awesome fans. Check our page at www.reverbnation.com/crosscovenant on Christmas day to hear a brand new track from the new cd! God bless all of you!