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Harvest House Publishers - Ryan Stevenson

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120 pages

English

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How an unexpected lightning storm changed everything Ryan Stevenson's Dove Award-winning breakout hit ';Eye of the Storm' was an overnight success, but his path to releasing that song was decades in the making. Ryan always knew he was called to be a musician, yet it took years of career changes, failed label contracts, and leaps of faith for him to achieve his dream. In his debut book Eye of the Storm, Ryan shares his zig-zagging journey from farm boy to singer and songwriter, and the life events along the way that have shaped his relationship with God. From his insecurity with self-image, to his grief and fear during his mother's lengthy battle with cancer, to his high-stress days working as a paramedic, Ryan describes the many ways his faith was testedand how each trial helped him become more reliant on Christ.Eye of the Storm will inspire, encourage, and challenge you to trust more deeply in God, confident that any struggle you face in life will help mold you into the person He wants you to become.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Memoir

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Publié par	Harvest House Publishers
Date de parution	07 juillet 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780736979788
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0900€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

ENDORSEMENTS
Ryan has a unique and compelling story to tell, and his life has been an adventurous journey! I first got to know Ryan when we wrote Speak Life together. Now I know him as a friend and an artist. I am truly impacted by who he is as a person and thankful we now walk together through this world. Ryan cares deeply about the things that matter, and he lives them out with passion. I am truly blessed to call him friend.
-TobyMac , award-winning artist and producer
Ryan s story is captivating and unique-nothing short of miraculous! I loved reading about his journey and seeing the Lord s hand on his life. This is a beautifully compelling story, and I m excited to see what the future holds for him.
-Bart Millard , lead singer for Mercy Me
Ryan is deeply committed to the honesty of the journey. I am honored to be a witness to his courage and determination and his wholehearted pursuit of authentic truth-telling and creative craft.
-Paul Young , bestselling author of The Shack
Ryan is quite possibly one of the best storytellers I ve ever had the good pleasure to work with. From the moment I met him and we talked for nearly three hours on the couch of my office, he mesmerized me with the tale of his journey. I know we listened to music at some point in that meeting, but it was this story you re about to read that I remember most in that first meeting. Ryan is an amazing musician, songwriter, and performer, but I think God gave him that Mark Twain quality of telling a tale that seems so familiar yet so fantastical that you re not sure if fact is fiction or fiction is fact, but you know that you just can t put the book down.
-Joey Elwood , president and cofounder of Gotee Records
Our family and Ryan s go back many years. His mother and I became best friends, so our families ended up spending a lot of time together. His musical abilities did not start coming out until he left for college, so who could have known that he would end up where he is? Only God! We are proud of him and his success. He will always remain one of our kids.
-Sandy DeJong , owner of Langell Valley Dairy
Ryan Stevenson literally saved my life with his abilities as a paramedic, his value for the sanctity of life itself, and most importantly prayer. Within these pages lie not only stories about Ryan s journey but also messages of hope, persistence, and love that will become a part of your soul. I have a special place in my heart for Ryan, and I believe that once you get to know him through his story, you ll make a place for him in yours as well.
-Lara Eusterman , lightning strike survivor
HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible . Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. ( www.Lockman.org )
Verses marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Verses marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Cover design by Faceout Studio
Interior design by KUHN Design Group
Cover art Bodor Tivadar / Shutterstock
Eye of the Storm
Copyright 2020 by Ryan Stevenson
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97408
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
ISBN 978-0-7369-7977-1 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-7369-7978-8 (eBook)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author s and publisher s rights is strictly prohibited.
CONTENTS
Endorsements
Foreword by Ben Courson
Preface
Prologue: In the Belly of the Blue and White
1. Super Bowl Baby
2. Single-Wide Dreamin
3. Holstein Heaven
4. Hook, Line, and Sinker
5. Jesus Northwest
6. A Season of Shocks
7. Cars, Sports, and Girls
8. The Crowd Goes Wild
9. A Moment of Glory, Days of Pain
10. True Love Waits and Waits
11. Teacher and Student
12. Never Do Anything You Don t Want to Have to Explain to the Paramedic!
13. The Lightning and the Thunder
14. Breakthrough
15. Crossroads
16. Heaven Bound
17. Derailed
18. Whisper in the Wind
19. Follow the Red Brick Road
20. Fresh Start
21. You Remain in Control
Eye of the Storm
Photo Album
Notes
Acknowledgments
Engage with Ryan
About the Publisher
FOREWORD
I t is my pleasure to introduce you to Ryan Stevenson, though for many of you he really needs no introduction. You ll likely remember precisely where you were when you first heard his stomp-and-clap anthem, Eye of the Storm. I was speaking at an event in Klamath Falls, Oregon, when I heard a local choir sing the song, and it sent a few shivers down my spine.
Many of you also know Ryan as a songwriter who has produced a litany of Billboard hit singles and the Grammy-nominated song Speak Life, which he co-wrote. Of course, you likely have seen him perform in a stadium with the Christian pop king, TobyMac, who has anointed him as his heir apparent. Frankly, if you listen to the radio as you drive, you seemingly can t go fifteen minutes without hearing one of his songs.
Accolades apply.
Though Ryan may be known for the breadth of his reach, it is the depth of his reach that I find most staggering. I never told Ryan about this (well, until now!), but I recently spoke in Eugene, Oregon, and afterward a sweet little country girl came forward to be baptized. When the pastor asked her why, she said that she sometimes just sits in her room crying because she loves God so much and that one particular song always brings these tears to her eyes: The Gospel by Ryan Stevenson.
In fact, her eyes filled with tears just thinking about what the song does to her.
Ryan isn t all treble and no bass. He doesn t just skim. He takes you deep. He doesn t just fill arenas. He changes lives. And his uncanny prowess for touching people s hearts comes from the fact that his own has been broken. He has journeyed into the eye of the storm and lived to tell the tale.
Now that Ryan and I have both written books, it strikes me how parallel our journeys have been. Over the last year we ve been on TV and radio together and have shared the stage in front of thousands of people. But when I first met him, I was just a rube from southern Oregon battling suicidal depression, and he was doing shows for 30 kids in the middle of nowhere, trying to keep his head above water.
Ryan was a starving artist who couldn t catch a break. Most people in his sneakers would have given up. But he is made of different stuff. He is from the tiny burg of Bonanza, Oregon, which tells you most of what you need to know. His hard-nosed, stoic, heroic, tempered-steel personality was forged in his seminal years as a paramedic. His regular mode of transportation then was not a tour bus, but an ambulance. He experienced blood, sweat, and tears literally every day. Having survived these experiences, he was prepared for anything that the music business might throw at him.
Most singer-songwriters, though, would have packed up their skinny jeans and gotten a job at Verizon. But though Ryan had bags-well, more like suitcases-under his eyes, he kept on carrying his own when there seemed little hope. He converted situations that were painful into pain fuel, and he kept traveling with his guitar in hand to one little Podunk town after the other.
He kept playing his music, even when it felt like a Herculean task. And now he is beloved for his soulful melodies and happy-clappy vibes.
Ryan is childlike in the very best definition of that word. And it takes a strong person to go through the things he has gone through and not lose the joy in living. He is living proof that the fire doesn t burn you, it forges you. God, the consuming fire, is not about burning you, but about burning away everything that isn t you! Now Ryan is busy carrying buckets of water for those who feel like they are being consumed by the flames of their lives.
Ryan doesn t so much say, Hear my words, as, Touch my wounds.
You ll find his story one you can t easily put down. He shows in these pages that his gift with words extends beyond songwriting. In them you ll discover what he has found to be true: The storm cannot take you where the eye of God cannot see you.
- Ben Courson October 11, 2019
I don t disassociate from that history; I am an expression of it [God] doesn t deny our brokenness or deny our participation in darkness. He takes all of that, and by redeeming it, weaves it into the sound that we now become, and so that it is present with us in the moment [Our past is] too precious to lock it into a memory.
WILLIAM PAUL YOUNG 1
PREFACE
O ver the years, when people have heard my story they ve often told me, You need to write a book. Honestly, I never gave that much thought. Writing a book seemed like an Everest I had very little interest in climbing. It seemed a little scary and would require me to be a lot more vulnerable than I thought I wanted to be.
Sometimes, though, it is good to do something scary, so I ve done it. As I wrote these pages, I remembered wha