…just stumbled across this great video of Brennan Manning - had to share it! It’s got me inspired to do a short series of articles related to the ridiculous extravagance of God’s love for us. I believe receiving and resting in God’s love could be our most important pursuit ever, because whatever actions we take or obedience we display to God has to come from a realization of being LOVED, or it’s empty, you know?

There’s several things in my life that have helped me grasp a little bit of this idea, and I hope to post them individually every few weeks or so for a bit.

Join me for the ride! Here’s STOP ONE:

It may be hard to find me this weekend at Spirit West Coast, and it’d sure be nice to see a familiar face, so…

Here’s where I’ll be:

Saturday, May 24

1:50 pm - Worship before seminar speaker

3:00 pm - w/Jon Pritikin on the VeggieLand stage

Sunday, May 25

2:00 pm - w/Jon Pritikin on the VeggieLand stage

10:30 pm - opening for comedian Rich Praytor

For more info. on the festival, visit http://www.spiritwestcoast.org/

Hope to see you there!!!

ANNOUNCING…

The first-ever Spiritual Retreat, put on and hosted by……ME!!!

THE ASCENT ‘08!

I have secured four sites at one of my favorite places on Earth: Upper Pines Campground in the jaw-dropping Yosemite Valley, September 18-20, 2008.

This will be a life-changing weekend to relax, refresh, and renew, caught in the beauty of God’s majestic handiwork. John Muir once said that God speaks to us in nature all the time, but that in Yosemite, He uses CAPITALS. Psalm 145 says it like this:

“Creation and creatures applaud you, God;
your holy people bless you.
They talk about the glories of your rule,
they exclaim over your splendor…”

Let’s take a few days to pull away and add our voices to the choir!

This retreat is open to ANYONE with a desire to get away and recharge…

THURSDAY night will include an amazing dinner, prepared with passion and artistry by our on-site chef, a devotional, an interactive worship experience, S’mores and guitars around the bonfire, and an un-plugged concert of requests and debut songs from the forthcoming album!

On FRIDAY, we will get up early and attempt the summit of one of the most famous mountains of all time: Half Dome! This is the perfect time of year for this, with the cables still up, the weather optimal, and the crowds minimal.
Here’s a link describing the adventure: Half Dome

Folks who aren’t up for this craziness have many options throughout the day at Yosemite.
For a link to some alternate things to do, click HERE

The entire weekend will be accompanied by a pre-trip suggested reading list, raves, advice, and tips on enjoying Yosemite, along with prayerfully prepared, self-guided spiritual exercises – cool opportunities for you to connect with the Creator of it all. My prayer is that it will also be a great time to listen, share, encourage and support each other. Friday night will include another incredible dinner followed by Inspirational Campfire Session #2!

SATUDAY, we’ll conclude our retreat with an awesome breakfast and a time of sharing, worship, reflection and response. I will be making my coveted Pete’s coffee for all…

(for those wishing to stay over Saturday night, other accommodations may be available)

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We’ll be tent-camping, so it’s kind of rustic, but I think that’s where all the fun is! (I can help supply some needed tents, if we’re short)

This will be an intimate journey, in that there are only

20 SPOTS AVAILABLE

It is a first-come/first-serve basis, and the registration has OFFICIALLY BEGUN!

The cost is $150 per person, which is a tax-deductible donation that will cover food and your campsite, and support our ongoing music ministry efforts. You can secure your spot with a $100 deposit or, of course, pay the whole amount.

To pay by check:
Send to “Justin Fox Ministries”
3007 Donnybrook
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

By credit card:
We can take your number over the phone at 714-432-8335

With PayPal:
Simply send a payment to “justin@justinfox.com”, or click on the PayPal button on the right of this site.

This is a big leap of faith for us…

THANK YOU for considering supporting and joining me in THE ASCENT!

Justin

I’m having some down-time on this Florida tour today, so I’ve uploaded two new videos!

The first one is “Beautiful” from the Live DVD. I love the crowd participation on this one - Lynette Janzen doing the “Sprinkler”! Priceless. Also, the band is just really rockin’ it here…with Joe Servia’s one and only bass solo! You can view it on our YouTube page or the Video Page on this site.

The second one is a bonus feature on the DVD; a brand new song I’ve been sharing a lot in concert lately called “Whisper”. I wrote it for the orphans at the Iris Children’s Center in Mozambique, Africa. Our friend; Laura Anderson is serving so faithfully there, and we wanted to encourage and raise awareness about her work. It features a slide-show of photos that my wife took on a visit a couple years back. I pray it stirs our hearts to reach out beyond ourselves a bit more…

I had an amazing time partnering with my brother Josh (and my mom!), leading the services at Vintage Faith in Santa Cruz. Josh shared a message, which I intertwined with songs and stories, and our mom led an interactive art experience where people come forward and placed a piece of broken pottery into a new mosaic. God was felt in awesome, unique ways in all three services. It was an honor to be a part!

To see more of what Josh is up to at Vintage Faith, visit www.vintagechurch.org

We also took the time that afternoon to sit down for a two hour recorded discussion on the services, how God’s led us here, and how art, music, and the venue play a major role in our faith gatherings. I’m hoping to make it available as podcast episodes soon…

Our guitarist/singer Pete Dawson had a baby!

He and his wife Nina are so stoked! We’re stoked for ‘em!

Welcome, Chris!!!

Man, that’s crazy…
I didn’t know I had 26 comments awaiting “moderation”…
Glad I found ‘em…and now I REALLY have a reason to get out of bed!

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CONGRATULATIONS to Andrew for the right answer; homemade granola. Nice work, my friend.

Thanks for joining us on the journey!

Free DVD on the way…

Wheeeeewwww - we did it! Cupertino was awesome! Thanks, Shane, for a great night, and a cool chance to partner in reaching students!

I’ve actually got in the habit of calling pretty much every engagement lately a “DVD Release Party”…why not, you know?! That thing took so long to do, that we need parties celebrating it for maybe a few months… So, off to the next!

This DVD project was so huge for us, that we need…count ‘em…3 RELEASE CONCERTS (haha), and the first two are now behind us…

We were able to hold these two shows at Newport Mesa Church and Pathway; two main student communities that infused our DVD audience with such energy and personality…inspired of course by their amazing leaders; Lynette Janzen and Ron Young… THANKS, YOU GUYS!!! I was personally, totally blown away by the support and encouragements of both groups.

Tuesday started off with a bang at NMC, with Joe Morgan rockin’ the leads with us, and me cracking up on the mic as the crowd took over during my brother Josh Fox’s hit “Sister Grace”. What was so funny to me was just seeing these massive guys completely invade the stage (we were just set up on the ground, and they’re all taller than us) in a frenzy of crazy moshing, crowd surfing, and interpretive dancing…yah, that’s right; interpretive dancing…amazingly hilarious! They were all about 12 years old when I first performed for this group, so my laughter was mixed with tears of gratitude and pride, too!

I’ve been sharing our story in concert, of faith and surrender, and when we hit “Take Me Over” it amazed me that after 10 years of doing that song, it still moves and communicates with poignancy. We closed the show with another classic request…from 1993!…“Keep on Shinin’”…complete with Side 1-Side 2 Contest and Sweet Home Alabama breakdown…

The next night at Pathway, we rocked “Beautiful” and “Hallelujah” to close it out. We were floored at their awesome DVD Release Party decorations; surfboards, hula dolls, a scuba diver floating near the ceiling!, and their generous hospitality! …each band member’s OWN iced bucket of water bottles??? (usually we’re all drawing straws for ONE water bottle) We left with a giant pickle jar of money. It’s humbling to see God lead people to support us financially…just out of nowhere…we got some amazing gifts this week, and I’m left with an overwhelming sense of God’s Favor and Provision…

THANK YOU ALL!!!

Hey gang,

There are some songs from the DVD now posted on YouTube…

To go our our video page at the YouTube site and see them all, just click

HERE

ENJOY!