Category: Encouragement

Live Music: Nothing Better

Tonight, I attended a long awaited show, to see an artist and I dare say friend, Jess Ray. She was also joint by a few artists that I now am big fans of, Taylor Leonhardt that played alongside Jess, as well as a husband/wife duo, Chris and Jenna. What an amazing night. 
I say all that to intro into the rest of this post to give credit to the ones who inspired these thoughts! If you want to check them out, I recommend them all, 5 star rating!

Something I’ve found to be true every time I’ve heard a band live is what really hooks me is the jenuinness of the artist at hand. I’ve been to a few shows in my life, and some bands I might have even kind of liked before I saw them can turn me off because of their attitude toward their fans or potentials, aka, audience members. 

I feel like most people, if not everyone if they’re honest want to be appreciated and something I’ve loved is the artists, like the four tonight, shared themselves on the stage and off the stage. And that’s a big deal! That’s one reason I love music more then anything else. You get to know a little bit more about the artist you’ve invested in. Also, you get to hear some backstory of some songs if the artist so wishes to share. 

Another thing I love is you might be hearing a song that’s been played before or that you’ve heard, but you get to feel it! You get to delve into the emotion brought by the artist, and you get a performance that can’t be replicated. 

The last thing I’d mention is that you become apart of the piece of music. You become immersed in the middle of a piece of art. Taylor sang her beautiful song Behold, and invited to audience to sing the chorus with her, and what a beautiful sound came from the stage, as well as the people in the seats next to you. At some bigger shows, you might even have a full arena in one voice, unifying, and that really is a magical thing. Music, epecially Live music, brings people together and creates a moment unlike any other! 

Thank you, friends, for sharing your talents tonight. May God bless the rest of your tour stops!(Ps. For real. Buy their music. All of it.)

Something you’re not: personable vs friendly

I’ve found myself, throughout my life, having a hard time being personable. (This is an observation, and it’s not a bad thing. I’ll explain more as I go on.) I’ve seen some people have such a smooth approach and ease with starting conversations, holding conversations, ending conversations and even walking away from a conversation. Unfortunatly, if I just met you or if we’re not really close friends, I will butcher from one to all of these steps.  

This dilemma had and does frustrate me to this day. If I see someone I graduated or went to school with, just picture a train trying to derail as he sees another coming up the tracks. No matter what he tries to do, he either crashes head on and burns, or derails, crashes and burns. Either way, not a good situation. (If you’re one of those people, I sincerely apologize and wish I could have changed the outcome of that conversation and I hope you can look past the awkwardness produced by every syllable produced from my lips.)

If that was a little melodramatic, it wasn’t by much, but my point is, I’ve seen so many people approach the situation and walk away unscathed and with ease. 

This had also caused me frustration in teaching, talking to girls (mostly in high school. I’ve not so recently decided to put that on hold, but that’s for another topic) to meeting new people, etc. 

The thing that’s amazing though is this:
It’s ok to not be personable! It’s definitely a gift, but absolutely not necessary for life. This is what really gets important when the rubber hits the road; are you a good friend?

It’s one thing to be personable, but if you can’t be a good friend, your life will be filled with shallow acquaintances and void of true, reliable, relatable friendships that really have your back. The crazy thing is I’ve been there in a way, because I balanced out my person-ability with acting outlandish and loud and humor in some way, shape or form. 

Being friendly is less of a skill or a gift and more of a mindset in a way that develops into your character. Being a friend in short is the following:

  • Listening
  • Being there when it’s not convenient
  • Not focusing on relationship effort balance
  • Giving thought out and/or prayed through advice 
  • Donating your time
  • Doing all these things, even when you can’t get something back

That’s some really simple, yet externally challenging tasks, but what people need these days are true friends. What our generation needs are true friends. 
Are you personable?

 If yes, don’t hide behind it. Use your gift. Be a friend too!

 If no, don’t worry! Try your best (and prayer never hurts) and if it falls flat, be a friend! People need you. 

Are you a friend?

Readers Appreciation (a thanks to you my readers)


Dear Reader (that’s you),

If you’ve read every one of my posts or this is the first one you’ve ever read, thank you for being here. I believe that each platform can be used as a place to encourage and I pray my writing is doing that for you!

I’ve been blogging for a little while, and I don’t want to leave anyone who takes any moment out of their day to read anything I have to say hanging or feeling as if they’re not important to this project of mine. You are the reason I’m blogging!

I’ve been writing for a while, but I hadn’t really had a place to put all of my thoughts so they would actually make a difference, so I chose this: WordPress and whatmatters.blog

This is where I need YOUR help! If you read or have read or checked out my page before, let me know what you think! For all I know, you all have a million ideas of how I could be more affective or more impactful, but I will never know unless you let me know! 

If this blog has been an encouragement to you or in some way, offensive to you or brought you joy or in some way, confusion or any way, positive or negative, I want to know what’s working and what’s not working! 

I know my point of view is definitely inspired by my faith and relationship with Jesus, but I don’t want it to be so much that it offputs any of you who don’t share the same beliefs. 

I want to give encouragement so that 

  1. you can apply it now and be given hope now, whoever you are or what you believe.
  2. So that I can encourage Christians to really follow Christ and what he said and really letting him and his love transform us instead of letting oneself fall into a lifestyle of a comfortable Christianity that is void of any real freedom or power.
  3. To let you know that you are important, you can make a difference wherever you are, and you can take someone’s day and totally change thier life! 
  4. If you are wondering about Jesus, let you know he really does change live and show a love like you can’t imagine. He’s done it for me and is so excited to poor out his love on you. 

Final thought: Your kindness leads others to freedom; keep it coming! 

Love, 

your friend,

Matthew Baker.

Ps. To contact me best, you can email me at matthew.baker95@hotmail.com and If you’re interested in chatting, we can go from there. Send me your number and I’ll give you a call or we can set up a time to sit down and chat! If you have another way to get ahold of me (my phone, Facebook messenger, face to face conversation, etc) feel free to hit me up there as well!

2 Years Removed


Darkness. I sink so deep into darkness, yet I know about the light. 
I’ve read about and seen and even felt the light. And it only seems fitting that when that’s where my mind is, that I lie awake at night in the dark. 

 I search for happiness through the day. But like Indiana Jones, there’s always obstacle in my way, But I know that that treasure is somewhere to be found, but ’till then, I will find myself alone. 

And love is always one kiss away. But I can’t find that kiss and the pictures don’t say I love you or care if you stay. Just leave you lonely and scarred as they haunt you and say you’ll never find a true love because you’re filthy. You’ll never find a true love because the lovers are few. You’ll never have a true love, look where your loving has you. 

My hope, it hangs by a string, tied to memories and promises I received as a kid. So I’ll hang on tight and I won’t let it fall, because somehow I know it will be worth it all.

Now 2 years removed, so much has changed and so much is gone. So much has grown and things made right that were wrong, and that hope has kept me all along. Now the darkness is all gone away. Sometimes it comes around, but I won’t let him stay. I’ve become a good friends with the creator of light and I’ll cling to his side because he brings joy that’s not dry and that joy is my strength every day I have life. 

And happiness, I don’t seek it any longer. Of corse I want it, but it can not be found. It resides in joy and also in peace, so now I know that happiness is not the prize, but the byproduct of living a full life.
I see love is not found in a kiss, or a picture or a text that your missed. It’s not about sex and it can not be found in the darkness and loathing or the self destructive hours. When love comes about, it’s not always romantic, and in the best times, I didn’t see it coming at all. But it came from the people I’ve come to love the most. My friends on earth that are friends with the one above the earth. 

Love is found in conviction, in laughter, in long nights, in road trips, in prayers, in selfless giving, in inside jokes, in hard times and in memories. Love is not limited to these things, but stretches past our boundaries. Mostly because if i’m in my boundaries, the focus is still on me.

2 years removed from some of the darkest places in my life, I find myself looking back at all the things I thought mattered. I look at how it all led to decay and it all shattered. How what I thought was most important was the right focus with the wrong perspective. 

Hope, joy and love are still what drives me, yet now I know the light and he provides all my needs. His name is Jesus. And I’m no one special. That’s why I need him in every season. No less then anyone else daily needs him. 

Do you need him? He’s waiting for you. 
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” Revelation 3:20
Written July 20, 2016

Itch


Itching, like I just rolled around in fiberglass insolation, I’m itching.

I don’t know what to do so I’m gripping, and grasping for something new to find something that will smooth and set my heart at ease…………………… uhhhhh

It’s not working, ignoring makes me focus more closely to things I so deeply want souring far away from my life and each time I send them off, they just come back like a moth to a damned night and I can’t STAND IT!…………………ohhhhh

Random, am I living life of joy like my tattooed arm proclaims, that quotation, “The joy of the Lord is my strength” I once felt it in my veins, screamed truth through my DNA. Stop and think… yes this phrase is true, because when I’m strongest he is near and when I’m weakest I’m over there……….. ahhhhh

I’m growing, and I see new life out there. There’s so much to be seen, so many lives to hear of God’s glory, and so many still to live fuller lives, and to admit that… it’s friends that see us through. I know I can’t do this on my own… but with friends, we’re not alone.

But friends have dragged me here and there and friends have dragged me high and low. Friendship have come and go and become closer then a brother to a strangers a year later and I cannot go through life with friends like that if I can’t know they have my back. If I can’t know they’ll come at a drop of a hat. With friends like those, I’d be stuck. 

But now a days I’ve no excuse. I have friends who won’t let me fall. Now I can not recluse when I’m feeling of no use. When I’m hurt, or dirty or feel like death, I must turn back to my friends, the young ones for vision, old ones for wisdom and both for love and encouragement. 
I can’t stay here and itch, try to ignore or think anymore without a friend to know. To lead me back to joy. So when they’re here and I am there, I can give love back, so when somebody needs a friend, I’m there and I have back up and even when I itch again, when I try to ignore the pain, they’ll be there, but even so…….. 
I’ll have there backs. Because that’s what friends are for!

Freedom: Found 

Freedom isn’t found in a date. It’s found in His name.

This phrase has repeated in my mind for the past week, and I’ll tell you why:

I’ve grown up in the church, I’ve experienced friends trying to overcome drugs and I’ve heard so many stories of people (including myself) who want freedom from anything if it’s lazieness to porn and they want it now and for good. 

This isn’t a bad thing, but actually, a necessary step into freedom. There’s a very real move that we must step out of something, but often that step is looked at AS the freedom. You hear, “I’ve been clean since ____” (last week, last year, 6/7/16) and I am totally glad for those dates and those stories and testimonies of God’s goodness. What we have to remember through it all is to not put so much stock in a date. That if you slip up and lose that sobriety date, you don’t lose your freedom. 

I’ve seen myself totally forget and forfeit my freedom that I had for years because of shame and walked right back into my struggles and habits INSTEAD of standing on the promises of God, and declaring freedom in the name of Jesus Christ! 

The Bible says who the Son (Jesus) sets free is free indeed. (John 8:36) 

That means freedom isn’t temporary but is attainable for good! And expounding on what that looks like, the psalmist wrote “I will walk in freedom, for I have devoted myself to your commandments.” (‭‭Psalms‬ ‭119:45‬) because he understood this principle:

Freedom is an action word!

Freedom is found through daily surrendering our own motives and wishes to the Lord, becoming a slave to Jesus, because his load is easy and his burden is light, and giving up our slavery to sin, that is always heavy and never easy. 

The most important lesson I’ve learned though this is that:

  1. Sin (anything that separates us from fullness of life and fullness in our relationship with Jesus) is condemning and heavy. Aka, never fun in the end.
  2. Jesus wants me to be free and offers a way to get free!
  3. Freedom comes in a moment, but is acted upon for a life time.
  4. A slip up or backtrack or temptation doesn’t void your freedom. 
  5. Only you can void your freedom and only you can clame it!
  6. Freedom is not found in a date, but is found in following Jesus! It’s found in his name!

We all have the ability to accept the freedom God has offered us. Will you put your stock in your own willpower/date or will you put everything into the promises of God he laid out in his word and through his spirit living in you? 

Free Ride:Ride Free

Free ride, when the open road meets the open air and the result is the feeling of gliding. This feeling is flying through forests without focus on the sides, clarity only in front and shrinking reality behind. 


Ride free, when with friends and family, you talk through struggles and reality. When riding is awesome, but freedom is what we seek! When we seek what is infront, what is good and perfect and just and pure and let what falls to the side, let it fade to the shores. As life shrinks behind us, may we not forget what God has done for us, but may we recognize where He’s brought us and seek together freedom through prayer and encouragement. 

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Today, I spent my afternoon with my dear friends and family, Hunter, Andrew and Stephen. We engaged in an activity together that we all enjoy, and I can only speak for myself, but I would say we experienced freedom through it! I just love biking in general, and the fact of being in nature is always freeing for me, but also, opening up your heart to people you trust, I know, is always a good thing! 

Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. -Psalms 103:1

On Tour: CR


This morning, I woke up in NYC on a couch bed with a dude I just met 6 days ago in a room full of friends new and old on the second floor of an Assemblies of God Ukrainian church. If I wasn’t with the Circuit Riders on tour, this probably would be weird, but for some reason, I wouldn’t rather be anywhere else. I got a bagel, with locks cream cheese, spent some time in my Bible and prayer and came back for band practice. 

I got to this point after nearly a week of meeting and getting to know people, along with my fair share of insecurities and acceptance issues, but each person here is a world changer. 

I joined this team to unify and reach college students on their own campuses and join with them in believing that God can change a heart to his as well as a nation to him. 

What I’ve found in a place like this is it stretches you, because when you’re believing this for someone else, you have to also believe it for yourself. What I’ve seen in myself is that I spend a lot of my energy focusing on myself. The biggest problem with this is that I get so crippled by this because it takes 90% of my focus off of God and putting it on the thought “I can’t focus on God.”

We’re most free when we throw ourself into God’s love and go from that place in radical service. In those places is where I’ve always found myself full of joy! But what does that look like? How do we get out of that funk? That’s kind of an answer I’ve never been able to answer. What I can say though is that when you push through the times you’re not feeling it and focused so much you can’t focus, keep pushing in and push in harder then ever before. 

I’ve heard the term “break through” and when I literally picture that, it’s always through something really tough in life, and it can only be broken through by leaning into the problem with Jesus’ full backing and using the strategies he lays out for us in his scriptures! 

Words that I’ve heard from God that have been helping me overcome.

  • Perseverance will lead to steadfastness.
  • Serventhood takes sacrifice. Serve in ways that are easy, but especially in ways that aren’t.

And these passages from the Bible!

  • Psalms 121
  • Psalms 91
  • The story of Daniel throughout his life.
  • Proverbs 18:21 and the fact that I get to eat of the fruit/experience the benefit of speaking life.

Btw: if your curious about what crew I’m with, check out crmovement.com 👌

Tumbleweed


Overturn, next place, new town.Tangled up, formed together in one ball.

The tumbleweed’s found tumbling past a young lady fumbling through her belongings, trying to come up with another quarter to finish one more load in the laundromat’s washing machine. She overturns her purse to find a single quarter. Be it luck, predestined or prayer, she found it and was thankful to be able to finish her last load before fumbling home.

Overturn, next place, new town. Broken up, Scorched by weather, rolling.

It found itself trapped beneath a farmers wagon. Not much to grow in a drought such as this. If it wasn’t for hope, he’d be drunk half to death, but he holds onto hope like he holds fast to the plow, and will hold on fast until Christ saves him, rains in or takes him. He cannot loose hope. 

Overturned, next place, new town. Broke free, blown by breeze into the city.

Now, near the end of free life, it blew into the the backyard of a boy. If only this boy knew everything he ever learned about his father was a lie, he might not have so much joy. In ignorance and innocence, he pictures his father bringing justice, a cowboy in the wilderness saving woman from distress. So he jumps on the weed, as if it was an enemy from his mothers stories and his own dreams, praying to some day see his daddy who, indeed, he didn’t know he’d never meet. Be it answered prayer or divine destiny, he’d find joy through God the father, trading his dreams for redemption.

Overturned, no new places, three towns. Six feet under, different decades, one with the ground.

Like the tumble weed, these lives ended just the same. Different places, different cultures, different days, but as each passed on, with hope still seeping from their bones, they joined in one hope. Unified on the other side, they would reach the joy found only through their only hope, Jesus Christ.

“Don’t Stop Writing”


This phrase to me has a lot of significance. My friend, Kami made this wood burned plaque for me by request (she is raising money for her missions trips, one way being wood burnings. Let me know if you want her info to support her and get some awesome art!) and I asked for this message because it has become more than an encouragement to me and has become a mandate.

Let me back up some few years ago. I always enjoyed writing, always disliked reading. I don’t understand it either, but it happened! I would as a child sing songs of my own creation and forget them. If only I could go back and write down all those silly and serious songs, I would fill a book. 

I wrote for school and randomly other stuff, but was mostly inspired to write by an artist, Levi the Poet and others that performed their poetry along with musicians or sound tracks. I was also inspired by different bands and song writers, journals from people long dead and some teachers in school, including my mother.

Somewhere around my 10th grade year, I started writing poetry, but always just for girls I liked. I also tried to start a band that was a flop around that time, but it wasn’t until my senior year where I really started to break out in creativity and write music with my banjo and voice and poems that all were more personal and relatable and introspective and outward viewing as well. Much of my work now a days resembles this style, with verious word pictures and such, and it has all grown from a place of growing passion, longing for authenticity, and mostly just drive to write. That drive came from a realization that as I write, I learn more of myself.

Don’t Stop Writing!

For about one year, I was writing and sharing my work. After hearing it for the first time, probably 10-15 people, maybe more said that quote to me before they said anything else. I quickly realized that that wasn’t a normal response since after that year, I haven’t heard it since. The reason I think that it is significant is because I believe God was encouraging me through his people to not stop writing.

Through the past few years, I have found that when I am actively writing, if it be journal, poetry, music or this blog, I have a deeper understanding in everything I do because I am able to process everything through words on a page (or a screen) and it is my outlet and platform I’ve been able to share love, share encouragement, friendship and Jesus. 

What does this mean for you as the reader? 

Don’t Stop ______!

You can’t give up. If it’s writing, don’t Stop Writing. If it’s loving, don’t stop loving. If it’s serving in some way, don’t stop. 

I believe we all have passions and giftings that are from our creator, and when you find them, use them! If you’re already a follower of Jesus, give your desires and gifts to him and he will bless you with pure intentions and purity in your gifts and passions!

Also, if you’re like me, WRITE! You can’t afford not to at least write something. If you can, write down your thoughts, feelings, prayers, etc. as often as you can without going overboard. You will learn more about yourself, more about how your Creator thinks of you and be able to follow the progress as you grow and learn and age. 

If you’re like me, “Don’t stop writing!”