Don't Bury It!

We'll get back to talking about the music later, but I wanted to put this out there.  First of all, let me preface this by saying I KNOW that this was for ME. I thought I'd share it anyway. Matthew 14 - 19 says "For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. " Verse 15 says he gave "to everyman according to his several ability..." God gives us what we can handle - and only what we can handle. He will bless you according to your specific abilities. He will bless you with abilities to accomplish. what only YOU could accomplish. 
When I read this, I heard in my spirit "take what I have given you and go prosper!" You can succeed right now. God has filled you with the one thing (or several things) in life that will cause you to succeed and to prosper. You don't need anything else but the gift he's given you NOW. You don't need miracles or rain from above, just go take what he's given you NOW and go succeed NOW. The story goes on to say that the first two servents prospered with what he gave them and he rewarded them. The one servent was afraid and went and hid his gift in the earth. His fear and lack of action cost him. Not only did he not prosper, he lost even the little bit that he had. The master took his talent and gave it to the one who prospered most. Take what God has given you and go prposper. He hasn't given you something that will fail, so don't be afraid. Go do what he's gifted you to do. Let it shine, let it show. The thing that you simply ARE... could save someone's life. Take what God has given you and go prosper. Just don't bury it. 

Curt

"Living This Dream"

ps. Check me on twitter :)  https://twitter.com/noizlevel 

Discussion on the music - Jesus Loves Me

Continuing with explaining or attempting to explain the music I write.  My favorite song on the Album is "Jesus Loves Me".  Its the first track because I wanted people to pop in the CD and hear the truth about God.  That Jesus loves all of us without condition - even those who don't love him.  We know this to be true because Jesus came and died so that ALL could be saved.  Even if you didn't love him at first, you would still have the opportunity to be saved.
This song is my personal favorite because I didn't even have a pen in my hand when it started in my spirit.  So I just started singing it loud.  Wifey lookin' at me all crazy... LOL.  I sang what I heard.  I got the hook and then the bridge.  After that I just went up stairs to finish.  I wrote the music around the melody line and the lyrics.  It brought tears to my eyes.  God gave me a work so complete that all I had to do was write music around what he gave me.  Granted all my inspiration comes from God, this I know.  But this time it wasn't that he gave me an unction in my spirit to create.  He made a track and gave it to me.  I just sang what I was hearing.  I had even less work to do than I've ever had on a track.  I love this because God wrote it and just gave it to me.  Usually I hear something in my spirit and I try to imitate it as best I can.  This one came gift wrapped.
The audiences respond like CRAZY to this song.  I honestly feel like they feel what I felt as this was being POURED into my spirit.  It seems like we all get transported to the same place every time I do this song.  When I go through my challenges, I pull out this song.  This reminds me that I'm not alone in this.  

I know

There'll be times when I

Will come under attack

'cause the spirit of God lives in me (yeah)

I know

That I will face resistance

Because of my insistence

That Jesus' blood has cleansed me (yeah)

It doesn't matter what anybody says or does

I get stronger from the power of my father's love

Not afraid of anything a man can do to me

I'm standing tall because I know Jesus Loves Me

I know Jesus Loves Me

(day to day and age to age)

I know Jesus Loves Me

(no matter what his loves remains)

I know Jesus Loves Me

(Jesus Blood has made me free)

I know Jesus Loves Me

Loves Me, Loves Me

Understand

That things aren't always rosey

But my father knows me

He can deliver me from anything (yeah)

Any

Predicament I'm placed in

Decision I am facing

My God will always see me through (yeah)

It doesn't matter what anybody says or does

I get stronger from the power of my father's love

Not afraid of anything a man can do to me

I'm standing tall because I know Jesus Loves Me

I know Jesus Loves Me

(day to day and age to age)

I know Jesus Loves Me

(no matter what his loves remains)

I know Jesus Loves Me

(Jesus Blood has made me free)

I know Jesus Loves Me

Loves Me, Loves Me

No matter what the future my bring

And there'll be times when persecution comes to me

And when temptation calls I don't have to fall

Because God will deliver me from all

I know Jesus Loves Me

(day to day and age to age)

I know Jesus Loves Me

(no matter what his loves remains)

I know Jesus Loves Me

(Jesus Blood has made me free)

I know Jesus Loves Me

Loves Me, Loves Me

Loves Me

I'm in this because its the call on my life.  And man do I love doing this.  I absolutely love getting something special from God.  I blows my mind over and over again.  In this... just with this... I know Jesus Loves Me.

Curt

Livin' this Dream!

ps. Check me on twitter :)  https://twitter.com/noizlevel 

Pour it all out

Fayetteville, NC... at Kingdom Connection Ministries this past Saturday and Sunday.  I'm grateful to Pastor Moore and his lovely wife for making me a part of their church's anniversary.  Truly honored... truly.  I was preparing for this past weekend's appearance.  Took myself through my vocal paces... worked on pitch and control... did a little ear training... just making sure that when I got in front of these people I was confident and on point.  The Bible talks a lot about "skilled" musicians.  In order to be "skilled" you have to practice.  The Bible also talks about the anointing.  And in order to be anointed, you have to spend time in the presence of God.  So Thursday morning in my prayer time I heard the words "pour it all out"  I paused because the words hit me hard and just kind of sat in my spirit like a heavy weight.  As I meditated on that I began to understand how I'm supposed to operate as an artist from now on.  First of all, I'm only an "artist" to the music business.  In every other instance, I'm a minister of music - bringing the word in song.  But I understand how I do this now.  I spend time in the presence of God - not just visiting with him, but drinking everything that I can from God.  Pull on the spirit like a mad man.  There are times when you can go to God and ask for things. There are times when you go to God with your mistakes and failures and let him heal all that you are. There are times when you can go to God and just listen to his voice.  There are times when you can go to God and simply love on him.  And then there are times when you can go to God fill up on his spirit.  Where you try to pull so much of God into yourself that there's barely enough room for you.  And that's the direction I got from God.  Fill up with the spirit.  Fill yourself so totally with the spirit of God 'til you're about to explode.  Then get up on that stage and pour it all out!
Pastor Moore told me in front of the congregation that he'd never seen me like this on stage.  He was blown away by what he had just experienced.  My good friends, the Franklins, had just ministered to me that God was going to do new things with me and were blown away by what saw - even after telling me it was going to happen. I get it now.  Yes I pump myself up like always before I go on.  I put on my game face and hit like always.  But now I don't worry about the outcome anymore.  Now I don't give them MY best anymore.  I pour out the anointing that God filled me with.  I pour it all out. Then RUN go fill back up! 

Curt

Livin' this Dream!

ps. Check me on twitter :)  https://twitter.com/noizlevel 

Discussions on the Music - "The Blood"

Sorry sorry so sorry!!! Got wrapped up in promotions and making sure that everything is on point and I need to let the people I work with do their job.  I'm micro-managing... and now I'm going to get out of the way.  Again I apologize for my absence.  

I got an interesting piece of music called "The Blood".  I liked it because it addresses issues that religion  pounded into us for years.  They present God to us as some Angry uninformed being who can see everything, but is SHOCKED by some of the things that we do.  According to Psalm 139: 1-2 

1	O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
2	Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; thou understandest my thought afar off

God KNOWS us.  He knows our thoughts before we know them.  He knows what we're going to to BEFORE we do it.  NEWS FLASH!!! He still loves us.  But what hasn't been shared with us in a lot of ministries is that EVERY sin we'd ever commit has already been covered by the blood of Jesus.  Ephesians 5:8 says - ⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

God wants us to walk as children of light - that actually means live as though you have NEVER sinned... as though you never knew sin!  Because the blood of Jesus doesn't just wash sin away, it washes it clean -  removes it as if you had NEVER sinned.  Think of it this way... God looks at us through the blood of Jesus.  Because of that blood He sees us as perfected.  Without sin... as if we had NEVER sinned.  That's what God sees when he looks at us.  You are free by the Blood of Jesus.  

Take this to heart

God has made you free

Like the Bible says

Romans 6:18

God wants you to reach your goals

To realize the dreams you're pursuing

But there's one thing you have to know

Get there starts with renewing your mind

To the things that the Bible says about you

You're no longer subject to 

The sin that used to own you

Jesus Blood has cleansed you

Your faith in God has saved 

Children of light God gave his life

Its time that we walked in the newness of life (here we go)

I'm free by the blood Christ shed for me

Washed clean by the blood Christ she for me

I'm free by the blood Christ shed for me

Washed clean by the blood Christ she for me

The enemy is gonna try to tell you otherwise

fill your heart with deception and a bunch of lies

But you gotta understand God loves you

He sent Jesus down to earth just to die for you

Don't matter what you said

Don't matter what you did

What matters is God's word

Repent and just start renewing your mind

To the things that the Bible says about you

You're no longer subject to 

The sin that used to own you

Jesus Blood has cleansed you

Your faith in God has saved 

Children of light God gave his life

Its time that we walked in the newness of life (here we go)

I'm free by the blood Christ shed for me

Washed clean by the blood Christ she for me

I'm free by the blood Christ shed for me

Washed clean by the blood Christ she for me

The CD is Done!!! Check it.  Rate it if you feelin' it! http://bit.ly/1aJlTar

Livin' this Dream! 

Curt

'til the end of the earth...

I give Glory to God today.  Milton Dunlap III (Tre) is finally home.  My 18 year old cousin was sitting in his house playing video games, texting his mother and girlfriend, goofing off.  That's what you do when you're 18.  He'd had a steady job for over two years, was enrolled college and due to start next month.  This particular day he noticed the Police swarming the neighborhood.  He even texted his girlfriend something to the effect "police are at my neighbor's house..."  After a while he tried to leave the neighborhood to put gas in his car.  The police had the streets blocked and he couldn't get out, so he went back home.  A few minutes later the police were demanding that he come out.  News footage shows him being ordered to walk backwards slowly toward the police.  He was then thrown to the ground.  They had this boy... no prior record.  No involvement with the police whatsoever...  up on 17 different felonies.
When he was finally released after 3 days in jail, he returned home a little different.  Gone is his trust in our police force.  Two weeks earlier they (the police) killed an unarmed black man who was trying to get help after a car accident.  I know my thoughts are rambling at this point.  I'm trying to stay on task here.  
I was asked to sing at Temple Church International for the Memorial Service for Jonathan Ferrell, the young accident victim who was murdered by the police.  As I ministered in song about the love of Jesus, I kept seeing the faces of pain in the audience.  They smiled because the anointing on the music brings joy.  But when the music stopped, they began to share their pain.  I heard account after account of mothers talking about their children being killed by police.  I heard them refer to the Charlotte Police Department as an organized gang with the ability to do whatever they want to - that they are beyond reproach.  The only thing that seems to scare them is the press getting involved. The possibility of the world knowing what they truly are. With the death of that unarmed FAMU student who was simply trying to get help after and accident, they didn't want the publicity of making ANOTHER mistake that destroys another young man's life.... 
I recalled running down the street as a teenager and shortly thereafter being on my knees surrounded by badges and guns because there had been a robbery.  I remember hearing one of the cops saying "I honestly believe this is the one" like I wasn't even human.  Like I was some lawless, violent creature roaming the planet.  Their job was catch or exterminate as many as they could.  As I think on it now, I could feel the presence of God even then.  The spirit drove one of the officers to call the dispatcher who gave the description.  I didn't match the description, I was just young and black and that was enough.  I won't dwell on the pain of the past.  I'm glad God protected Tre.  I give God glory because he is truly a gifted young man.  He's a light that the devil is trying to extinguish.  I cover him in prayer this night.  I speak to all the mothers and father's now... Lay your hands on your children and rebuke any attack on their lives.  Call forth the spirit of the most high God in Jesus' name to cover them for the rest of their lives.  It may seem silly.  Your kids may not want to hear that mess... do it anyway.  God says "I am with you alway even until the end of the earth..." He'll be with your children.    

Curt

Livin' this Dream!

ps. Check me on twitter :)  https://twitter.com/noizlevel  

Won't Back Down

The first release off of this Album is "Reign" and as I understand it, a few radio stations are already playing it.  (THANK GOD!  And Thank You!!!  LOL...) But the underground release is a track called "Won't Back Down".   Underground because I was initially advised that radio would NEVER play this is.  So we'll take to the internet with it and back it up with a video - currently in the works.  We'll see what they have to say then!

This song grew out of how much we as Christians compromise to fit in or to avoid confrontation or being challenged because of our faith.  Maybe we just don't want to make waves?  I do understand the concept of "go along so we can get along" I get that.  But this world is truly DYING to hear the truth.  All we see around us is hopelessness.  People live anyway they want to because they haven't truly been given a reason to do otherwise.  If we believe what world the says, nothing happens when you die.  You simply cease to exist.  There are no consequences.  There is no reward.  You do whatever and then you outta here.  But God placed in ALL of us a desire for something more than what meets our senses.  That's why we want the better house, the better car, more money for the better life.  We spend years in school trying to reach that intellectual peak and all the while... all we are searching for are the things that can only be found in the presence of God.  The protection, the PURE love, the warmth, the closeness, that acceptance that being a child of God affords us. The world longs for something to take their attention away from all of the dismal tidings that surround us - so we turn to the nearest hero we can find... Athletes, entertainers, Actors - anyone who is seemingly greater than us to give us that experience we seek - if only for a moment.

Its time we stopped judging people for their failings and simply told them the truth.  Its their choice to take it or leave it.  They may not take it, but we have to start telling the truth - and living the truth.  The Bible says if the gospel is hidden, it is hidden from those that are lost.  Stop backing down from what's real.

The Bible says the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence 

And the violent taketh by force

That doesn't mean that the kingdom of heaven is under attack

"Suffers" in this case means "to allow"

Means to allow for YOU to get violent -

Get violent in your faith

Get violent in your worship

Get violent in your praise

This is how we get violent

Not here to judge you condemn you

Do yo' thang

Just know that you're the one who's gotta answer

to God someday

His love, his grace

His mercy has no end

So take care that you're not

Rejecting God and choosing sin

This world is changing 

But God remains the same

The only way we can survive this 

Is through his word in Jesus' name

Not telling you this 

Because I have some beef with you

But Jesus is Lord 

And I won't back down from the truth

Understand the spirit of the living God is in me (and)

I ain't gonna back down, back down

The Blood of Jesus has cleansed me and I'm bold as can be (and)

I ain't gonna back down, back down

Don't worry I'm not here to judge you no-no that ain't my place

I ain't gonna back down, back down

Just know that God has made me righteous and I don't run away now

I ain't gonna back down, back down

Get this straight, please hear this

This is not an attack on you

I'm telling you this in love

But I'm only telling you the truth

Some of us are afraid to stand up

of offending sensibilities

But the Bibles says tell the truth

And the truth will make them free

Understand the spirit of the living God is in me (and)

I ain't gonna back down, back down

The Blood of Jesus has cleansed me and I'm bold as can be (and)

I ain't gonna back down, back down

Don't worry I'm not here to judge you no-no that ain't my place

I ain't gonna back down, back down

Just know that God has made me righteous and I don't run away now

I ain't gonna back down, back down

If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ

Believe with you heart that he gave his life

God raise him from the dead early on the third day

The Bible says no doubt that you will be saved

Let me tell you about the savior, Son of God, Jesus Christ

The one who hung, bled and died for you and I - gave his life

So that we could live abundantly, tell the world God made me free

The Blood of Jesus made me sound I'm righteous now not backing down

Understand the spirit of the living God is in me (and)

I ain't gonna back down, back down

The Blood of Jesus has cleansed me and I'm bold as can be (and)

I ain't gonna back down, back down

Don't worry I'm not here to judge you no-no that ain't my place

I ain't gonna back down, back down

Just know that God has made me righteous and I don't run away now

I ain't gonna back down, back down

I ain't gonna back down, back down

I know we're gonna ruffle a few feathers with this.  I honestly don't mean to attack or offend anyone.  But I am telling you this in love... only telling the truth.  The truth releases people from the lies of bondage.  Its time we all got free.

Curt

Livin' this Dream!

ps. Check me on twitter :)  https://twitter.com/noizlevel

What If

The song "What If' grew out of the Bible's greatest two commandments.  "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these..." What would life be like if we truly chose to consider others more than we did ourselves?  What would happen if we loved each other the way that Jesus loved us? 

I thought about Christmas mainly... that time of year when are supposed to gather close to one another, reflect on the gift God gave us and remember the love we share with friends and family.  There are those who spend that time completely alone, feeling like no one ever cared.  When I finished the words, different images started coming to mind.  I thought about what would happen on this earth if the Love of God was absent.   What happens to marriages when love is there or when it isn't?  What happens in confrontations between people when love is there, or when it isn't.  What happens when tragedy strikes and we haven't received God.  The thing that makes us real is love.  And I don't mean emotional love... I mean the choice to value others above ourselves.  That is what Jesus did.  That's the love he had for us, that he would choose a horrific death rather than allow us to have the punishment we deserve.

 What if we was cool

 What if we was down

you got my back I got yours

 spreading God's love around

What if we was chill

covered each other in prayer

giving God glory when you got yours

knowing mine would soon be there

Instead we hatin' straight up jealous

tearing  each other down like ain't no God around

Instead we angry, straight up cold

better check yo' flow, what kind of love are you showing

 

What if we was cool.  Lovin' like we 'sposed to

thinkin' 'bout you more than I do me

That Jesus kinda love (like it was meant to be)

What if we was cool, Lovin' like we 'sposed to

Prayin' 'bout you more than I do me

That Jesus kinda love

What if we was smooth, showin' God's love is real

Not by the words we speak, but by the way we live

What if we was chill, walkin' in the love of God

Not because we have to, but 'cause its in our hearts

 

Instead we hatin' straight up jealous

tearing  each other down like ain't no God around

Instead we angry, straight up cold

better check yo' flow, what kind of love are you showin'

 

Understand that we're supposed to love each other with the Love of God

 lovin' you like I do myself

Then nobody feels like they're all alone when the times are hard

Like they got nobody else

If you love me like you love you and I'm lovin' you the same

Then we can finally see how love was meant to be

Glory to his name

What if we was cool.  Lovin' like we 'sposed to

thinkin' 'bout you more than I do me

That Jesus kinda love (like it was meant to be)

What if we was cool, Lovin' like we 'sposed to

Prayin' 'bout you more than I do me

That Jesus kinda love

 

Back to the grind as we try to secure radio airplay for the first release "Reign".  Still working the phones and sending the song to everybody. I know the DJays are tired of hearing from me, but I won't give up.  I know that this is my time.  I KNOW that God has the path laid out for me.  I just have to follow his lead. We'll keep at this.

Curt

Livin' this Dream!

ps. Check me on twitter :)  https://twitter.com/noizlevel