Faith: On a tightrope with God!

I wanted to share something I read recently in LIFE BENEATH THE SURFACE by Mike Pilavachi... It's a simple illustration but it really spoke volumes to me about faith. (I do good with simple!) I hope it will bless, convict and inspire all who read it as it did me.

"Blondin, the famous French tightrope walker, strung a cable across the Niagara Falls. There's a huge crowd watching. And as they watch, he walks across and all the way back like he was out for a Sunday stroll. The crowd goes wild.

He says to them, "Do you believe that I could walk across to the other side with this wheelbarrow? And they all cheer and scream and say, 'Yeah! We believe that you can walk across there with the wheelbarrow.' No problem. They've seen him walk it easily. It shouldn't be too much harder. They believed he could do it.

Blondin then says, 'Okay, you believe I can do it. You've seen me walk across there. Who's going to get in the wheelbarrow and come with me? And there was a deathly hush.

See, it's a different thing altogether isn't it? You can believe that he can do it. But when it comes to believe in him, there's an element of personal commitment being called for...

Face it , most of us wouldn't trust Blondin to give us a ride over Niagara Falls, and similarly most of us get a little shy when we feel one of those 'divine opportunities' coming our way. Our reaction is nothing new: When writing to the Early Church, James pointed out, 'You believe that there is one God. Good! even the demons believe that and shudder.' There's a long line of people who 'believe in God,' but the one that really matters is the line marked"... And Are Prepared to Do Something About It.'

The praise of the spectators 160 feet below meant nothing to Blondin when they refused to trust him. The praise of God is worthless if we are not prepared to hop into His wheelbarrow...

Will we trust Him? Do we truly believe He is able to get us to the other side? More thoughts on faith later...

Blessings! KHJ

Meet Me In St. Louis!

I want to thank ya'll for praying and to give you all an update on the progress of the CD. Well, first of all, thank you so much for praying for my throat. The day we flew out, my throat hurt so bad to talk or to swallow. I was very concerned. But I had a strange peace and a determination to sing anyway- the enemy was not going to shut me up! Kent Henry met us at the airport and we were thinking we'd check into our hotel and relax (I'd been up since 4:00). Well, that was not to be! He took us straight to the studio to begin recording right away. It was an interesting process to watch. Everything is done on a computer program. Cool stuff. Stacey was the first in "the booth". After Stacey sang her song, he took us to dinner and then as we were being dropped off at the hotel (we were so glad to see that hotel- we were exhausted!) he said, "Kayla, you and Stephanie are coming back to the studio with me." Seriously? Well, we went. I grabbed my teabags and threw on a sweatshirt (it was FREEZING!) and off we went. Steph went first since I was busy making tea and it turned out that it was so late by the time he finished with Steph (after 11:00) it was time to go to the hotel. But the next day I was put in the booth (fun!) and my voice was FINE! I was so thankful. It would NOT have been fine had I sung Thursday night when I was scheduled. Whew! Thank You Lord! My voice was totally strong and clear the entire time. I did notice on the plane ride home that it began hurting again! haha. I didn't care at that point!

We had a blast! So much fun and laughter. We went to Destiny Church which is Kent's church (he's one of the worship leaders and his son-in-law Jim Stern is pastor) on Saturday night. What a great church! Dynamic worship and a very friendly congregation. (We especially enjoyed the Starbucks coffee bar in the foyer! ;^).

Kent did amazing things with our songs. Those of you who were at the live recording will be surprised when you hear it. He got creative with our songs (This was the source of much of our amusement! Kent's a character to say the least! And some of the things he comes up with... Mercy!) He made a lot of changes. Although we were usually a bit skeptical at first, once we heard it, we were blown away! He truly knows what he's doing! We all came back encouraged and blessed. My son Max was a particular revelation. My goodness. He was so at home in the studio. There was hardly a dry eye in the studio when he did a duet with Mary on "Yearn". Their vocals together were unbelievable! Kent has now claimed Max for his Revolution School :^)! Yes, Mom was proud!

A perfect end to an exciting weekend--On our way home, in the St. Louis airport, as we were in a gift shop buying souvenirs, we saw Joni Eareckson Tada! (For those of you of my generation, you will know who she is! If not visit her website at
http://www.joniandfriends.org/.) She was very gracious and let us take a picture with her. She asked what type of music we sang and we told her worship music. She said she'd been singing "In Christ Alone" and wondered if we'd sing it with her. So right there in the St. Louis airport we sang "In Christ Alone". It was beautiful, if I do say so myself :^). What a blessing and honor to meet her! How kind and thoughtful of the Lord to do this for us! We were all thrilled!

In closing--Please continue to pray for this project to it's completion. There's so much more to making a CD than I ever realized. You'd think that it'd be done right? Wrong! There's still a lot of work to be done, on the technical side and still some creative decisions to be made. There's also some doubt that it will be finished before Christmas. Please pray for Kent. He's been such a tremendous blessing to give us this opportunity. Pray that he'll be led by the Spirit as he completes this CD for us, and that (if it's God's will) it will be ready by Christmas. We just want this CD to fulfill the Lord's purpose, not ours. We want people to be touched by the presence of God as they hear it. That is our desire. Thanks to you all for your prayers. And we ask that you continue to pray for us.

I am including some photos of our time in St. Louis. First one is me and Kent listening to one of my songs after I'd been "in the booth". Second is Max "in the booth". Third is us with Joni Eareckson Tada in the airport!

God bless. Kayla

Will We Trust Him?

Kind of puts things in perspective doesn't it? How unbelievably, incredibly, indescribly GREAT is our God! And how amazingly GREAT is His love for us! So why won't we trust Him? Why do we fret and worry and rely on our puny little created selves when we have the Creator as our Father! Do we think He is unable? Or do we think He is unwilling? He is neither. David said in Psalms 62-
"11 One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that You, O God, are strong,
12 and that You, O Lord, are loving. Surely You will reward each person according to what he has done."
We cannot worry and trust at the same time!
Father, we choose to trust in You God. We choose to not rely on man or ourselves or our circumstances. We choose to not worry. We will trust in You. You are awesome and frightening, yet You are loving and good. And we are Yours! Yippee!
Be blessed! Kayla

Okay....Who Brought The Cat ????

I had to post this. It cracked me up...! KHJ

For Everything There is a Season...(again!)

Somehow in trying to download a different picture I accidentally deleted this entry. I’m pretty bummed about it. I don’t know how I managed that and I hadn’t saved it. Bummer. In summary of what I said earlier is-

There is a season for work and for vacation (KJV- Kayla Johnson version :^). After all of the hard work on the CD, my family was thankfully able to take a much needed vacation to Gulf Shores. It was a time for us to refocus on each other. We can get so busy with good things like- ministry and serving that we can cease to really “see” those that are really our primary responsibility and who are the closest to us. Distractions can come in all forms… even ministry can become a distraction if we lose our focus on the One who we are serving and the ones He’s given us to serve…

As I watched my children playing in the waves this scripture kept coming to me:

Psalms 42
7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
8 By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.


Thank God for an opportunity to just let our hair down, to just be silly and to have no agenda other than having fun and just being together. It was a great way to come back and to begin homeschooling. We were refreshed and encouraged. I want to encourage everyone who reads this to take time out to spend focused, uninterrupted time with your loved ones. We can’t all take big vacations but we can take time out here and there to give them our undivided attention and to just enjoy being together away from the things that draw our attention away from them. Relationships are eternal. The world will not cease to exist if we get away for a time to just be with our loved ones. It’s an investment that’s invaluable. We can’t afford NOT to spend time together. My goal this coming year, is to take time away, even an evening here and there, with each one… Thank God for family. It’s a blessing from the Lord on high. We only have one special group of people that are our very own, that we can say of “This is my family”… Let’s not neglect them! :^) God bless. KHJ

It's over! Woo Hoo!

I wanted to give those of you who have been faithfully praying for me and our worship team, (thank you SO much!) a report on the CD recording Sunday. Some of you don't know but our worship team did our first live CD recording this past Sunday.

First I have to say this- I was so proud of our team. I have been in many churches and on many teams over the years due to our travels with Keith's military career. They truly are the most humble, friendly, no-agenda, servants-hearted, TALENTED group of musicians, sound technicians and vocalists I've ever been associated with. We truly are a family... I deeply love these guys and am so honored to minister with them! And I have to mention Eileen, our leader. She is the Momma of the family, no doubt. And what a good Momma she is! She truly puts us before herself in every way. She sang only one song for this CD and we had to nearly make her do that! And she was AWESOME! What a blessing she is. What an example. I want to be like Eileen when I grow up! :^)

After all of the weeks of cramming and jamming, crying, praying, time spent away from family- it's OVER! Hallelujah!!!! The anointing was definitely there yesterday. Our precious church body was there, supporting us- dancing, singing, crying, running, shouting, worshipping... It was beautiful. And the best thing was that during altar call, after the morning service- FIVE PEOPLE GOT SAVED! Praise God! The Lord had given me this scripture (from Psalm 40) Sunday morning before the service and was it ever applicable-

"He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord...I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly. I do not seal my lips..."

Praise God! That's exactly what happened. We did not seal our lips (although the enemy was definitely intent on silencing us) and many DID hear, fear and put their trust in the Lord!!! And many more will hear when the CD comes out!

Vocally, several of us singers had sore throats and colds beforehand and asked for prayer (thanks to you all for your prayers for us, they were felt!). Poor Stephanie was the sickest. But when she sang, my goodness- you would have never known it! I felt vocally weak on a couple of my songs, definitely not my best, but not horrible either. However, the anointing was there on all of the songs. In our weakness, HE was strong. And thank the Lord for the wonders of modern technology in recording studios. We are planning to fly to St. Louis in October for over-dubbing. Hooray for overdubbing!

This has personally been a difficult season for me and others. In the process of dealing with this CD, the Lord has been dealing with our hearts. Several of the songs we sang have this theme and these words- Purify our hearts; Purify, consuming flame; Consuming fire of God; Holy fire, consume us all as we fall; We bow; You are holy; I want to burn with passion for You and only You... That's what He's been doing in MY heart along with many of us. We've all been in the fire... But like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, He's been in it with us. He has burned off our bonds and we are coming out without even the smell of smoke- hallelujah- but with a testimony of His love and faithfulness and with a deeper place of fellowship with Him than ever before. Praise God, He IS faithful and HE is worthy.

Again, I want to thank you all for praying for us. And please don't stop even though the live part of the recording is over. Please pray now that in the editing, arranging of the flow of the songs, that in the "capturing" of the worship and anointing that our producer (Kent Henry) will be Spirit-led. We want God's intention for this to be fulfilled more than we want to sell CD's. We want only His will. Please pray for us when we fly up to St. Louis in October, that the over-dubbing will be successful and will still capture what took place on Sunday...Thank you all so much.

This coming weekend my family and I are going to Gulf Shores to chill out, and reconnect... Keith and the children have been so supportive of me during this entire process but it's time to get back to normal. Even though this has been an overwhelming and exciting experience- and I hope and pray that this venture was successful in advancing His kingdom to His glory- home is where the rubber really meets the road. If we are on the stage ministering in the anointing before hundreds or thousands but our home is neglected, I would have to say we missed our higher purpose. This was an awesome season, and I am thankful for it, but now back to REAL life... Back to what may be viewed as "the ordinary". But it is here that the kingdom is advanced most, before His eyes only. This is what is eternal... As awesome as this CD experience was, this CD will one day be forgotten, (although it's results will hopefully be eternal). But relationships are eternal... Our relationship with God and with each other. Yes, the CD was a God thing and an exciting experience, but now let us not look down on what the world would deem as ordinary. For this- our day-to-day lives, serving Him- is what, I believe, excites the Lord the most!

God bless. KHJ

The Uncreated One!

As I've been reading Tozer, I have had this thought mulling about in my head today- the self-existence of God. Have you ever thought of that? Children do, when they ask, “where does God come from?” Whoa! It really staggers me to the core and twists my brain into knots when I think of this. It’s an uncomfortable thought.

Like eternity.

This concept used to scare me as a child. With our human existence dictated by time, by beginnings and ends; the thought of no end, of eternity, was (and still can be) overwhelming and unsettling. No time; no beginning, and no end. Unfathomable!

Yet we are created in His image. In HIS image- the Uncreated, Eternal One. No other creature has this distinction. What an honor. Definitely we are the created and not the Creator since we have a beginning- but what a staggering thought. Those who had the privilege of gazing into heaven and beholding His throne and likeness (Ezekiel, Daniel, Isaiah, John the Revelator, etc), described Him as best they could using words based on their experience… “He was LIKE this or that”, “in the likeness of…” Yet their experience of Him was still so far above anything they'd known in the created realm. Finite human words could not express the exactness of Him. Although He was similar to this or that, still He was not EXACTLY like anything their human senses had ever experienced or could put into words.

A.W. Tozer says in THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY (which I highly recommend), “’What is God like?' If by that question we mean ‘ What is God like in Himself?' There is no answer. If we mean ‘What has God disclosed about Himself that the reverent reason can comprehend?' There is, I believe, an answer both full and satisfying ...That God can be known by the soul in tender personal experience while remaining infinitely aloof from the curious eyes of reason constitutes a paradox best described as, ‘Darkness to the intellect but sunshine to the heart’.”

But back to the self-existence of God… Does that not just take your breath away? Does that not just cause Him to be magnified in your mind? The more I think on this, the more I want to worship Him. Not because I understand it, but because I do not! He is SO far above what I can even imagine. As high as the heavens are above me, His ways and His Being are just so much higher! Who am I to question such a God. He is no god, He is GOD! Who am I to doubt Him, to not trust Him, to not walk in complete confidence and security. He is GOD! He is MY God! And oh the wonder of it, I am His beloved child. Whoa! The Uncreated One…! May we, His children, bow before Him in holy fear; with amazement and gratitude. Wonder of wonders- He, the Uncreated, loves us; and we who have believed on Him, who have called on His name, the created, will live eternally with Him. Unfathomable, unthinkable! Yet gloriously beautiful! God bless. KHJ

-Please keep our friend George Waites in prayer, who has pancreatic cancer. His faith in the Uncreated One keeps a song in his heart, even in this difficult season he and his family are in. They are a blessing to so many.


“Here we are gathered in Your name.
We long for more, to never be the same
Moving towards the Uncreated One

Overwhelmed as You invade our space
Take us in, to that Holy place
Purify, consuming flame
We love Your name

You are awesome and frightening
Beautiful God
Consuming fire and lightning
Holy One
Enthroned, eternal Love
You are Good; and we bow
We bow down”