Stuff I Believe In

The Last One To Believe In Me

rod.stone — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 14:31:58 +0000

I want to share this song with you. I wrote it for all of us who have feared, who have failed and ultimately who have found life by pursuing the vision that God has place in us from the time we were born. Do you have dreams unexpressed or unfulfilled? Are you afraid of falling, afraid of taking the “chance” to be more than comfortable and safe? Life is not found in our sustained comfort and marginal living, or even in the temporal success we might find on this earth. Life is found when we pursue those things that are eternal. So be bold, spread your wings and fly! just remember Who it is that created the wind.

Click to Hear My Song: “The Last One To Believe In Me”

“Respected” by Rod Stone

Dr. Joseph Peck — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 11:14:53 +0000

Recently I was privileged to have Virginia Morton, author of Marching Through Culpeper, email a song to me written by Rod Stone and sung by his beautiful wife, Carrie.

Rod wrote this song for the upcoming Marching Through Culpeper play and movie. According to Virginia, this song reveals Constance Armstrong. Constance is the heroine of Marching Through Culpeper, “A Novel of Culpeper, Virginia, Crossroads of the Civil War.”

According to Carrie, “Marching Through Culpeper” is the best novel about the Civil War ever written! After you read it, I’m sure you’ll agree!

As I listened to the song “Respected,” my heart was so deeply touched. I have now listened to this song more than ten times. Each time I listen to the words, the Holy Spirit reminds me of my wonderful wife and how she wants to be respected for who God created her to be.

Husbands, let the Holy Spirit speak to you Spirit to spirit.

Blessings to respect women for who God created them to be!

Joseph Peck, M.D.
“Blessed to be a blessing”
THE CONNECTOR and The Journal Guy
Community Transformation Specialist
Changing lives and discipling nations

Newell and Olivia and a Piano Recital

rod.stone — Sun, 30 May 2010 22:44:32 +0000

I have watched my son Newell as he has grown into music over the last 10 years since he was born and I have tried not to push him too much into a love – hate relationship with music. I had come to accept that he was serious when he would say “I don’t really love to play the piano. I would rather learn how to make cool Lego stuff”. Although I know that in our family, music is kind of front and center, I’ve always promised myself that I wouldn’t spend my life displacing my children’s dreams with my own.
Olivia took to the piano quite naturally and astounded us with her seemingly effortless ability to throw her fingers on the keys and hit a group of notes that would fit so well together we had believe that she must have a thousand angels guiding her as she poured out like an endless spring.
Meanwhile, Newell was analyzing his Lego pieces and thinking critically on every new assembly. He was accurately placing each little piece so that we would see every detail of a cohesive whole. Whether it be a space ship, or a building, or some kind of Bionicle creature, he would invest himself into every detail with an amazing ability to see what others didn’t from a bunch of random pieces of plastic. “He is going to be an engineer or do something with science!” I thought. Olivia was destined to be the musician, singer, worship leader, composer. And I still believe that. For her, playing piano and singing and performing are as natural as, well, a flowing spring of healing water! What I didn’t expect was that all of the analytical and critical observations that Newell would make as he assembled his Legos was coming from the same mind that would one day wow an audience as he performed in a piano recital at age ten with the same attention to detail guiding him through some very intricate music! Oh sure, there was the usual nervousness, but what I heard from both of my children was the powerful affirmation that music is here to stay, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for these two gifts from God as they manifest His love through all they do! Newell and Olivia, I’m proud of you!

“Once Upon A Christmas Eve”- Rod Stone

rod.stone — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:05:05 +0000

On behalf of Christmas, I would like share my song with you “Once Upon A Christmas Eve” as sung by Kathy Chiovola.
In the hustle and bustle of this Christmas season where everyone is in a hurry to take advantage of the sales, or to take the family to see the newest Christmas movie that came out, or make sure we get all of the groceries we need to have a banquet on Christmas day, and then start planning for after Christmas sales so that we can save a bundle on clothes, and next year’s Christmas stuff, and whatever else a run on sentence can best describe; are we really taking the time to bring joy to those who are joyless this year? Maybe it’s the shut in who lives down the street. Maybe it’s the homeless family who lost all they had in foreclosure and bankruptcy, or maybe it’s someone who doesn’t know the saving grace of that little Christmas baby who’s birth we hesitantly proclaim with a feeble “Merry Christmas” in the shopping malls and big box stores intimidated by their self imposed bans on “Christmas”.
There is a reason Jesus admonished the people to do for “the least of these”. That’s what he did and does for us! And I definitely count myself in that number of the least of these when it comes to my relationship with Him.
Give, and know that the Lord and His angels are rejoicing over every act of generosity done in His name, that name we’ve celebrated since the very first Christmas when God gave His precious gift to our dark world so that we might be reconciled to Him through that little baby in a manger.
I pray blessings on you this season. Enjoy this song, share it with anyone you wish.

Click to Hear My Song: “Once Upon A Christmas Eve”

Rod Stone: Preaching to The Choir

rod.stone — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:02:14 +0000

I admit I was singing to a very sympathetic crowd at this event, a benefit for the Washington State Family Policy Institute. It was a wonderful night of people sharing their hearts about what it means to be a Christian Conservative in this day and age. My brother in law, Victor Morris and his wife, my sister Jennifer, were responsible for helping to organize the event and asked me to sing. I guess, when God moves I listen! It was truly a great time for everyone there and you could feel the electricity in the room! The highlight of the evening was to hear Tom Minnery speak on how we as Christians can have an impact on our Nation on a grass roots level. We do need to take back America, but we need to do it through love and not hate. I choose love. How about you?

“Four Weeks To Freedom!”

rod.stone — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:52:24 +0000

I want to give all of my subscribers a link to the sign up page for Carrie’s “Four Weeks To Freedom!” Teleseminar. She is excited to be able to offer this powerful class on overcoming the paralysis of fear. Check it out and see if it might be something that would help you to reach your God given potential, so that you
can live out the destiny He has planted within you!

Click Here!

Anyone Would’ve Wanted To

rod.stone — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:22:34 +0000

I want to indulge myself on this blog post and share a song with you that I wrote for my beautiful wife Carrie. I haven’t listened to “Anyone Would’ve Wanted To” for a long time now and decided it might be fun to share with you on our thirteenth wedding anniversary. As I listened to the lyrics it was as if I was listening with new ears.
When I wrote and demoed this song we were investing in real estate and doing quite well. Carrie however was not doing well physically, and we didn’t yet know what was wrong. We came together with that challenge and she was diagnosed with Celiac disease. Now she is a speaker and trainer and her health is excellent even as we struggle to get her career air born.
The “doing quite well” part has turned into a total dependence on God as we struggle to hear his leading through our difficult economic times. He has promised he would never leave or forsake us, just as we promised we would never leave or forsake each other. That just goes without saying. The thing I wasn’t expecting in all of this is how my love for her has deepend through it all! The lyrics in this song set in motion a mindset that has become as natural as breathing in our home, but when I listened again this morning I was overcome by my emotions. We are together forever. I don’t know exactly what it will be like in Heaven but I do know I have tasted Heaven right here on Earth.
I love you Carrie!

Click to Hear My Song: “Anyone Would’ve Wanted To”

New “USA Today” Video

rod.stone — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:50:39 +0000

On the Anniversary of 9-11 I decided to create this video of USA Today as recorded with the vocal help of Ron Hemby in Nashville. I felt it was important to share the original song with you because I feel these lyrics are more timeless than the changes I made in the first verse for Lee Greenwood’s recording of this song. So in the spirit of timelessness, my prayer is that the message in this song will forever resonate with every patriotic American who hears it and that you will be encouraged to continue to fight the good fight, whether it be in the armed forces preserving our freedom and the freedom of the nations you liberate, or in civilian life. Wherever you are and how ever you serve, just know there are a lot of Americans behind you! May God bless you all for your service to our Country, and may God still continue to be with us through these troubled times. You can read my wife Carrie’s recollection of that unforgettable day of 9-11 when our little 18 month old gave a hug as indelible as the event itself at http://carriecstone.com/reflections-of-911/

“USA TODAY”

The Prayer

rod.stone — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 23:07:42 +0000

I have been amazed at how quickly our once Christian nation has descended into moral relativism and Secular Humanism. God’s once tangible covering of protection and prosperity is slowly being taken away and what is left is fear and despair along with the uneasy feeling that we will soon go the way of Rome. We are seeing the rapid dismantling of our free enterprise system into centralized government control. Sound familiar? Just look at Europe. What is worse, is the moral and spiritual poverty that now besets us in this once great land. Can anything be done?

When Jesus is taken out of everything, there is nothing to do but spiral into the morass of darkness that comes when you put man above God. We need to stand as Christians and fight for truth, not from a place of hatred but from a place of conviction and love. This has always been a part of the Christian experience and I pray this song will be a reminder that we are to love and even pray for those who persecute us. Sounds kind of hard doesn’t it? But with out those prayers people will never find the freedom that comes through Christ, and this once great nation will continue to fall into decline.

Evening Clouds

rod.stone — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:42:35 +0000

We live in the land of rain! A long Summer here is oh…about two months. The Northwest is a beautiful area though because the rain keeps everything green. God has blessed this area with spectacular sunsets, and clouds….. oh those magnificent cumulonimbus that reflect every color of the rainbow as they drift in from the Pacific floating on a background of azure blues, crimson reds. They are very soothing to the eyes, and since my eyes need as much soothing as possible after the strabismus surgery I had a few days ago, I have relegated them to observing the clouds. Do you recall as a child, using your imagination to find shapes, faces and animals in those ever changing giants? I do. It was a fun past time for a small kid with a big imagination. I remember believing God lived up there in a big castle and that lightning was his way of getting our attention. I see God differently now although I believe he still wants our attention.

I wrote this song “Evening Clouds” for the “Precious Moments: Lullabies For Little Ones” project produced by David and Bonnie Huntsinger and sung by Tanya Goodman Sykes of the “Gaither Homecoming” fame. I hope you too will let your imagination run wild as you listen to this song.

Click to Hear My Song: “Evening Clouds”

EVENING CLOUDS

Words And Music: Rod Stone

Evening clouds are drifting through the sky
Changing shape as they go passing by
Can you see the distant castles
Floating in the air
I wonder if the angels live up there
And watch from…
Evening clouds that hide the setting sun
Telling you another day is done
Misty kingdoms high above are watching over you
Could it be that God is watching too
From Evening Clouds

Instrumental

Maybe he will send an angel
To teach you how to fly
You won’t know until you close your eyes
And dream of evening clouds