 from the great body. Tell us about Risen to Save. Oh my goodness we're kicking off the program you know with Risen to Save and they are having a fun and exciting time you know they're a contemporary Christian band from western Pennsylvania but coming up in just a few minutes you'll get to see an exclusive interview Anna did with Curt and Marcy from the band. You'll hear about Marcy's incredible miraculous healing you're not going to want to miss it. They'll also be performing another uplifting worship song. I can't think of a better way to get your Monday started. It's awesome. I love that. I love when we hear the testimonies of just what God has done in people's lives and you know we just want to encourage you. It's like happy Monday. We're so excited that you're joining us on Hope Today and I just feel such a joy in my spirit is just that God is just really drawing us in this season and in this time to repent to draw closer to him so he can empty us out so he can fill us on the inside with that resurrection power because we know greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world Tom and speaking about being in the world you had celebrated a birthday. I did. July 2nd was my 67th birthday. If you've watched the show for a while you know that I usually ride my whatever that many miles on my bike and people think we are a crazy person but I just it challenges me gets me in shape. You know I like have to get in shape because you can't just ride 67 miles without getting in shape. So I did that not on my birthday since if you were around July 2nd it puts me it rained like all day long. So July 5th I did it and I've got a picture of me after I finished the 67 miles I lifted my bike up over my head. It's kind of a traditional end of the race kind of thing that bicyclists do but what doesn't show is I practically dropped it on the ground right after that like a lot lost hold of it. Gene got it at just the right time but I did that 67 mile ride and it was pretty brutal. It was hot that day and Gene joined me for the last half of it but it was fun. Get out there girlfriend. Oh my well our family we've been in preparation mode. We're so excited our airman is coming home for a visit. You know but with that in mind like the Lord just really dropped in my spirit about how excited he is for the homecoming of the Saints and just all over again feeling that importance of spreading the good news of the gospel so we can take as many with us for that reunion. You know if me as an earthly parent feel this excited about the homecoming of my child I can't really imagine the anticipation that God has and that preparation of our heavenly home for every one of us. You know I just think it's like all creation is groaning for the revelation of the revealing of the sons and daughters of God and something that I even just think about I mean I know we see a lot of like sometimes it seems like nature's going a little crazy right now the animals and all coming up but what if they're just like there's an anticipation for us to just draw so nigh to Jesus so close to our Savior to understand who we are our identity in him and so that we can walk in that and being the bride like I even think of just you know summertime and there's lots of weddings happening like he's calling for the bride to come and so it what an invitation that we have Tom to just be joined with Jesus. You know I love that Sydney and I love that the fact that God wants to do something intimate something personal with each one of us you know I'm glad we go to church I'm glad we read our Bibles I'm glad we have times of prayer but God is moving us through those things into this relationship with him into this he has a desire for you that is strong and passionate just like you know you mentioned a wedding you know the groom for the bride that kind of passion or a son coming home you and Gary are welcome your son home after being away for several months that passion that joy those things he desires that for you today don't let this time of history go by don't let this moment in your life go by without having that kind of experience with God because I'll tell you what he's ready on his end. That's right well don't go anywhere because when we return in 60 seconds you're going to hear Anna's sit down interview with Curt and Marcy from risen to save and you're going to hear how their band is spreading God's love and his word through the power of music we'll be right back. Remember your childhood joy and excitement when being invited to a party you felt valued included wanted and ready to have a good time bestselling author Bob golf believes that every day of life can be lived with the same child like enthusiasm and sense of humor inside love does you'll learn that love is a verb not just a feeling his insights and joyful reflections will help you discover what it means to live fully alive even as you serve others prepare to encounter remarkable stories from Bob golf's life as he shares how living and loving to the fullest is the best way to make Jesus known in this world request your copy of love does when you give your best gift this month your gift today will help cornerstone television show the life changing love of Jesus through Christ-centered TV programs call us at 888-665-4483 or give at ctvn.org slash donate risen to save is a contemporary Christian band from the Pittsburgh area and they have answered the Lord's calling to spread his love and word through the power of music Kurt Merino and Marcy Covey Leo are both lead singers for the band and they join us now to share how the band's mission is to praise God and touch lives in a positive way. So Kurt and Marcy welcome to hope today. Thank you for happy to be here. So Kurt tell us a little bit about when risen to save came together and how you all came together. It was early in 2015 where the good Lord was working in our hearts and turning us more towards a Christian type of music. We were in other bands separate bands and we ended up on the same stage performed a show together and from then on by the end of 2015 we had split with our other bands we have created risen to save and we started this journey which is about eight years old now and it's it's been quite a blessing for all of us. Wow. Okay. So the members of the band you were all part of separate bands and it didn't know each other previously and then connected through that very cool. And so you guys have had a lot of opportunities to perform in front of live audiences. You've been doing this for a little while now. Share with me Marcy what has been the most impactful moment during a live performance. I would say when we are when we're singing when I'm singing I feel like the Holy Spirit is just wrapped around me and when I look out and I see people of all ages with their hands in the air and they are singing. They know the words to all these songs. We you know we do a lot of Caleb cover songs and these people are listening to that they're listening to word of them and they recognize what we're doing and they are completely engaged with us and it is a blessing. Just mentoring in the Lord's presence. Absolutely. Yeah. How about you? Well really to talk to some of the some of the people who come out to hear us at the end of the show and even to get some messages through Facebook on a regular basis and and just how they relay to us how it was uplifting for them and how they really needed that or they really need a risen to save fix you know I hear that on a regular basis and it's such a blessing to us to be his vessel to be able to to spread his word his love and his light into a dark world and really to see the smile on their faces the joy and and just hopefully we're lifting them out of a dark place that they may have been you know prior to coming to the show and and making things better. Absolutely. Like what a privilege it is for us to use the gifts that God has given us to build up the church. And so Marcy I understand that you have a powerful testimony of being healed from MS. Can you share a little bit? I'm sure. I was probably 18 years ago. I was diagnosed with MS. I couldn't run the sweeper without going blind in my right eye. You know I had a lot of lesions on my brain on the when you see the MRI and I went to work one day I was working at a Union Presbyterian Church and I went in and the preacher said we're going to do a healing service at the Presbyterian meeting and I want you to come in. I said I can't come in there. I have to I have to answer the phone like I'm the secretary and I take it very seriously and he said no come in and there was a woman standing there and with two elders and I chose to go to her. There were several stations and she just prayed through the power of the spirit and I went home and I prayed I read in the Bible every where it said to pray through the power of the spirit which is something I had not done in my life. I prayed to Jesus and I prayed to God and I took my next injection on Sunday. I was sick for four days instead of 24 hours. I was sick for days. So I called the neurologist. He said go get another MRI and get in here. So I did all of that and I went in and he said here's the MRI from last week. Here's the MRI from last year and last year's had scars all over the brain and the new one had none. The scars were gone and I went to the eye doctor and he looked in my eye and he said if he didn't know that I had had scars all through that eye he would never have believed it. It was completely gone and the doctor said to me what did you do? Like I need to know what new things you're taking at home. Like are you taking supplements and what are you doing? I said I went to a prayer meeting and I was healed through the power of prayer and he said well I think your MS is benign. Like you're never going to get sicker. Like where you're at is where you're at. Forget the walker. Forget the wheelchair. It's done. So it's been 15 years and here I am doing all this for God. Yes. That's incredible. Praise God. We celebrate that miracle. We sure do. So I'm thinking about the person who's watching at home that has a chronic illness that they've been praying for that healing to come. Can you just look into the camera and speak into their heart and give them some encouragement today? Sure. Sure. I know it can be a dark place and a frightening place and exhausting. I've been where you are and don't give up your faith in God's ability to do for you. He is the God of possible. There is nothing impossible for God. I know that the bottom line is whatever God's will is for our lives, that is what will happen. So stay faithful, pray and I'll pray with you now. Heavenly Father look into the heart and the soul of that person out there today who is suffering with an auto immune disease so often unseen but felt so deeply. Lord be with them. Forgive us our sins Lord so that you can hear what we are asking for. Heal them. If it's your will, if it be your will Lord, let them have an easier day. Let them know that they are loved and that they are never alone. In the name of Jesus Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you for sharing and thank you for praying. So you have a summer schedule ahead of you to be able to continue doing what the Lord has called risen to save to do. What are you most looking forward to about the the concerts ahead? Meeting new friends and and helping to lift them out of the darkness into the light and it's we just get a chance to meet new friends every time we go out and it's just quite a blessing for us. Yeah, I bet it is. I bet you guys all have a really good time together off stage too. Yes, we do. Uh-huh. Good. Good family. All right. So, we are getting ready to listen to one of your band's favorite songs called We Believe. Can you just share a little bit about why that means so much? It's like our anthem and we've been we've been doing it for since we started and and very seldom a song hangs on that long. You know, we're usually working on replacing one or replacing a couple and this one has continued to to stay with us and become our anthem and and all our our fans. They know that we're usually going to do it at the end of the at the end of the set and usually they're standing up and they're praising with us and it's just a very special special time for all of us. Gosh, I just love that so much. Well, thank you both of you and to your entire band for following through what the Lord has called you to. It's awesome to see how he's blessing your work. Desperation, all we know is doubt and fear. There is only one foundation. We believe, we believe in this broken genus. All is dark is only one salvation. We believe. And so listen to Risen to say the fact that they're making for the kingdom of God and as we were just listening to Marcy share her testimony, I know it impacted all of us. Tom, Amanda and I as we were just listening about her miraculous healing testimony just reminds me of something I heard recently about how in the Bible talks about the people are the signs and the wonders that God uses our situations. He uses the things that we're walking through and we're going through so that his glory can be revealed through us. And you know, no matter what you're walking through, maybe you're dealing with MS, maybe you're dealing with a diagnosis. Just know that he is Jehovah Rafa. Just know that he is our God, our healer. And you know, one thing that I like to do as I'm in the midst of affliction or I'm walking through a hard situation is I like to sing. I like to sing praises and adorations to God and just reverence him and honor him because no matter what I'm going through, I'm like, God, you're still good despite my circumstance. And we have a scripture that goes along with that today and it comes from Ephesians 519 and it's simple and it says sing and make music from your heart to the Lord. And so today we just want to encourage you just to take a moment to sing. I know there's times I'm in my kitchen, Amanda. There's times I'm in my prayer closet wherever I am. I'll just start making up my own song to the Lord. I have a lot of fun. I make my own music. That's great. I think the most important moments of worship in my own life have been when I was in a valley season and it might look odd to the people who are observing your life like why would you worship at that time? Like how can you turn and praise God through that time? But that's actually our remedy. It is like our praises. He inhabits. He lives in. So if you desire to have the presence of God, which we kind of opened the program just talking about being in that presence and what he means to us, the worship is what invites him into our mess. And so I encourage you, no matter what it is that you're walking through, do what Sidney does. Turn on the worship. Enter into a time of praise. Let that what's in your spirit flow out of your mouth. I mean, you might be amazed at how God will use that worship to lift you to a higher place like above the storm. I remember our pastor in Oklahoma, he would say about soaring above life's storms and that's where God has called for the body of Christ to be. And we can do that when we begin to worship because you're not flying on your own wind. You're getting on the wind of the Holy Spirit and you're letting him take you to places that, you know, this natural man just can't get there. You know, when you talk about that, some people have called it a sacrifice of praise. In fact, I think of Jonah. It says that he brought the sacrifice of praise from the bully of the fish. So I don't know what you're going through, but you're probably not in the belly of a great fish, okay? So Jonah was in a pretty bad shape, pretty bad situation. And he was able to praise the Lord and lift him up. But no matter what you're going through, I love this verse that you read, Sidney, in the Passion Translation. It says, And your hearts will overflow with a joyful song to the Lord. Keep speaking to each other with words of scripture, singing the Psalms with praises and spontaneous songs given by the Spirit. I love that because it's directed upward. It's also directed to encourage each other in what situation we're going through, singing and making melody in our hearts with the Lord. I love that. Oh, I love it too. You know, there's one song and I really, I feel like God's calling me to sing this song right now, but it's just been, if you look it up, it's like one of the song that I have on repeat right now and it's with Nathaniel Bassey and William McDowell. And there was the presence conference just a couple weeks ago. William McDowell, like, sang this song. He was there and it just says like, Ha, hallelujah, ha, hallelujah, praise the Lord, worthy is the Lamb. I know I'm probably so off-key and I know it's messing everything up, but I just felt like the Holy Spirit told me to sing that. If you look it up, it's called Hallelujah, William Bassey. I mean, excuse me, it's Nathaniel Bassey and William McDowell. But that song, there's something on it. When you begin to sing praises of who he is, when you begin to focus your mind that hallelujah, so be it, that all glory, all honor, all adoration, all praise is due to your name, because what you've done for us, Jesus on the cross through the power of the Holy Spirit, it just does something to our spirits where it just uplifts us and takes us to a new place. So we just encourage you today, sing your own song. It might just be you in Jesus' living room. Put on some worship music, whatever it may be, and just sing out to God because there is nothing like worshiping our Savior. Amen. Praise is becoming to the saints, and so you're a saint. You're a saint of God if you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and so it is a good thing to praise and give honor to God just by itself. If God didn't do anything for us, praise is the most perfect thing that can happen in the whole universe. But what's great about it is he meets us in that place. He's going to meet you in that place as you praise him today. On tomorrow's Hope Today, learn how to break out of the familiar and embrace the spirit filled life. Internationally renowned biblical scholar and author Jack Levison reveals the seven secrets to a fuller, deeper, and more powerful relationship with the Holy Spirit. Don't miss tomorrow's Hope Today. Cornerstone television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.