I have ALWAYS struggled with my weight. Even as a 5 year old child, I was chubby.

I hated it then and I hate it now.

But THEN I hated ME because of it.

NOW I accept ME but I still hate the weight problem.

As an overweight kid I was the brunt of jokes because I was FAT. Remember the “Fatty, Fatty, two by four-can’t get through the kitchen door” rhyme? I heard it directed at ME from the 1st grade through the 10th grade. It bothered me a LOT. Hurt my feelings more than I cared to admit. I even started making fat jokes about myself when I was growing up just to beat others to the punch!

SOMEWHERE along the way I developed an emotional attachment to food. If I got picked at about being fat at school I would come home and EAT because food became my emotional comfort. I never had a girlfriend in school. NOT because of my weight- but because of poor self esteem. The weight just made it worse.

Today my self esteem is fine. But I still struggle with my weight. It is SO easy for me to gain pounds, and it takes a change of my mindset, eating habits, and an EXCEPTIONALLY DISCIPLINED strenuous workout routine for me to be anywhere close to “Normal”.

Obviously in the last couple of years I haven’t been that disciplined. Because here I am again, heavier than I want to be, trying to find that disciplined mindset to shed the poundage. Of course nobody calls me “Fatty” anymore. After all, we are all adults now. Still, I get the occasional friend or fan who sees me an autograph line and says,

“MAN JEFF!! You’ve been eating GOOD! What happened?”

And I just smile and pat my tummy and answer,

“Yeah, I’ve been standing too close to the stove when Mama’s cooking!” or something like that. I know they don’t mean anything by it so I’m not offended.

But later that night when I lay down their words come back to me and I almost feel like that little chubby teenager again and I feel a twinge of that old painful shame.

And it bothers me. And to tell the truth, it messes with my confidence. It’s been bothering me for quite some

time now. And I’m ready to do something about it.

The difference between now and all the other other times I’ve literally worked my rear end off is: I’m gonna share it with you. And hopefully get a few of you making that decision with me and maybe we can support one another as well.

See, I’m tired of being overweight. And I want to be around for my daughter as long as God will let me. That means I need to be healthier. But I also want to be able to walk out on stage and sing and feel my best for YOU. And I want to be the best ME I can be.

Love,

Jeff

I saw this picture…And I remember feeling this way a few times in my life.

I didn’t like me with that much pride.

Nobody else did either.

Today I cry and laugh and feel thousands of other emotions freely, thanks to God.

See, Freedom is why I do what I do.

Freedom to make the music I want to make, freedom to FEEL what I need to feel without judgement, freedom to cry or laugh without worrying about what others think, freedom to live and be happy-just the way God planned.

I’m not a preacher, not a pastor, not minister, not an evangelist.

I’m just a singer with a truth to tell in music and testimony about what God has done in my life.

And I would LOVE the opportunity to come to YOUR TOWN, and YOUR CHURCH and share my story with you!

Contact Melissa at 615-410-1782 if you are interested or email her at jbtours2012@gmail.com.

Thank you!

Peace,

Jeff

THE BIBLE on the History Channel!!!

13.1 MILLION VIEWERS!!!!!

Hollywood is STUNNED! The critics are bashing it! The far left leaning liberals have been blindsided! You mean to tell me that it had more viewers than the pretentious American Idol and the scripted reality TV shows combined??

Main stream media is ignoring it mostly, other than a few over-opinionated journalists who for some reason believe they are smarter than the rest of us and feel compelled to tell us what it REALLY means! For example, one journalist spun it to say that “There is definitely a market for this kind of stuff in the Christian Minority groups in this country that Hollywood has been ignoring”!

Christian MINORITY?!?

When did Christians become a minority?

REALLY?? 247 MILLION people in a country of 315 MILLION Americans is a MINORITY?!?

(Ok, this is good place to pause and laugh)

Why is everyone so surprised? We live in a country where the Main Stream Media can’t be trusted to even do something as simple as report the truth without spinning it to support some special interest leeches higher up the political food chain, where politicians from BOTH political parties work harder at telling us lies and blaming the other party for our problems than they actually work at SOLVING our problems, where greed, corruption, and dishonesty are the new “NORM” and the loud minority complain about everything decent and good to the point that the SILENT MAJORITY of Us Christians end up letting them take God out of Schools, off Main Street, and out of public sight in the spirit of being tolerant when we really just don’t want to be bothered and we justify this by saying we’re turning the other cheek.

I’m sorry but COMPLACENCY does NOT classify as turning the other cheek!

As Christians many of us have become the tight lipped, judgmental, arm crossed guardians of the status-quo in our churches, protecting our precious RELIGIOUS traditions against the savage ravages of a younger generation who would worship in a more free way than we are comfortable with. We hold our pastors hostage with economic chains of control so we can have our ears tickled and our toes massaged instead of having them STEPPED on- then we wonder why no one is showing up for church on Sunday.

If a church in our community decides to get out of the boat and walk on the water by stepping outside their cozy church and having food drives and feeding and clothing the hungry and needy and taking care of the elderly and serving the sick then the rest of the churches in the community begin questioning their teaching and verbally crucifying the pastor and leaders of that church and tearing down their work in order to divert attention away from their own inadequacies as Christians in an increasingly Godless and lost society.

And we allow curriculum in our schools and universities that teaches religious tolerance of everything BUT Christianity and Jesus!

And while all this is going on people are hurting, confused, bewildered, unhappy and dissatisfied with their lives and longing for and actually crying out for REAL love, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, and TRUTH!!!!

Communities are dying out and Cities are being over run by crime and people are tired of it! Sick of it! AND it SCARES US!

To put it simply: people are looking for HOPE in a world of increasing hopelessness. And the ONE CONSISTENT source of that hope they seek is in a message that has not changed in over 2000 YEARS! That’s the message of Salvation and redemption through faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the hope and promise of a better life here and in God’s kingdom in The Bible.

Sadly, many of us will never realize that God is all we need- until God is all we have left.

The Bible. Check it out!

Good Mini-series on The History channel.

And the BOOK is OUT OF THIS WORLD!

And before I tell you how I see it let me explain my method of seeing: I know the stats, I READ A LOT and watch very little television, meaning I don’t get my news from MSNBC or CNN or ANYBODY that’s far left or far right. I get my news from several internet sources and I always cross reference them for accuracy and spin.

THEN I simplify. Some will even say I OVER simplify.

“SOME” can think what they want. It’s ok with me! LOL! I want to know what happened, who did it and what the underlying basic reason was. I don’t need it “SPUN” for me, I don’t need a “Talking head” on TV telling me what to think, I am perfectly capable of thinking for myself.

Having said all that, here is what I see:

When the current Democratic White House administration has a problem they blame either current or past Republican leadership.

When the Democratic Party as a whole has a problem they blame current or past Republican leadership.

When The Republican leadership has a problem they blame the current or past Democratic leadership.

When the Republican Party as a whole has a problem they blame the OLD GUARD Republicans or The NEW YOUNG REPUBLICANS (ok, Neo Conservatives).

What do I get from this?

1-We have no true leadership on either side

2-It’s always somebody else’s fault

3-The Buck doesn’t stop ANYWHERE- It just keeps getting passed around

4-Accountability in our current government (both parties) is non-existent

5-The ruling Democratic Party (yes I said RULING, maybe I should’ve said REIGNING) are all working TOGETHER as a whole

6- The current Republican Party is DIVIDED and POLARIZED to the point of incapacitation.

7- Points 5 and 6 have divided our COUNTRY to the point of being incapacitated as a nation.

BOTTOM LINE: IF there is a USA left to save after we all get through pointing fingers at one another, It’s going to take ALL OF US doing what Washington CAN’T and WON’T DO to solve our problems: COME TOGETHER AND WORK TOGETHER -SELFLESSLY-As a NATION- not as individuals with a selfish agenda.

I know, I know, that means we’ll actually have to start caring about each other just as much as we care about ourselves.

But believe it or not we HAVE done that before!

- Jeff

See, if you lived in the rural community of Bunker Hill where I grew up, trips to the small town of Columbia, (11 miles away) were a weekly occurrence but a trip to a city like Hattiesburg almost NEVER happened!

To ME, Hattiesburg was HUGE! and that was before there was a Turtle Creek Mall and all the other retail stores that have expanded the west side of the city.

About 4 weeks ago a tornado ripped through Hattiesburg, destroying homes and part of the USM campus. The videos of the tornado shocked and scared me and I prayed that no one lost their lives.

God is good, and not a single person died because of the tornado, which I consider a blessing and a miracle, but it did do quite a bit of damage.

On my way back home from Moss Point MS 2 weeks ago I drove through Hattiesburg, got out of my truck and walked around and surveyed the damage to USM and the area behind the campus which was hit the hardest and even talked to some residents there. I WAS AMAZED!!!!

And PROUD all over again!!

Here’s why:

When Katrina tore up New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf coast and the National News Focused so heavily on the atrocities of looting and rape and murder in New Orleans I was SO PROUD of my home state of Mississippi!! Sure there were bad people doing bad things there too- but for the most part people went into immediate action cleaning up and rebuilding the gulf coast. Yes it took HEAVY damage and sadly, people lost their lives, their homes, their belongings, and even their property.

But what I saw then was the SPIRIT of my Home State, the RESOLVE to rebuild, repair, clean up, WITHOUT so much of the OMG WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO!!!!

People helped people, they banded together, they WORKED HARD, families took strangers into their homes and fed them and shared what they had to help them get back on their feet, and they cleaned up and REBUILT, thankful to God that there was still something left to rebuild. I was there, I helped, I SAW!!!!

The National News Media didn’t report the good things going on in Mississippi. They preferred to sensationalize the terrible things going on in the next state over, in New Orleans, often ignoring the INCREDIBLE GOOD things and people THERE as well! See, BAD NEWS equals ratings! Good news goes unnoticed!

BUT I NOTICED!!! Mississippi!!! What an incredible state and what an AMAZING PEOPLE!

I saw this same spirit at work in Hattiesburg last week! Crews working EVERYWHERE, rebuilding, repairing, cleaning up. To drive down the middle of Hardy Street where USM is accessed, I had to look closer than I thought I would to find signs of the tornadic disaster, because the cleanup done by the citizens and city had happened fast and effectively.

The homes destroyed and the damaged buildings were already being repaired, the damaged power lines and poles already going back up, and the twisted and shredded trees being removed.

As I walked around looking at people helping people I was filled with the same PRIDE as felt during the aftermath of Katrina.

WOW!

HATTIESBURG, I LOVE YOUR HEART

I LOVE YOUR SPIRIT!!

I AM PROUD OF YOU!!

Having said that, I am really struggling with a few simple things and need your help understanding them.

1: If I give up my guns to you to protect my children, WHO protects my children from YOU?

2: Please explain the difference in killing children with a gun and killing children by abortion? I am at a loss here!

3: If I pay more taxes to help cover YOUR debt… WHO covers MY debt?

4: If I own a small business and you increase the taxes on it to the extent that it can’t survive and I have to close the doors- Who’s going to cover YOUR debt AND your Salaries?

5: If I managed MY finances the way you manage The Federal Government’s finances WOULDN’T I GO TO JAIL??

6: If the rules and laws are different for you than the rest of us how is that different than a Monarchy or Dictatorship?

or….

Why are you exempt from your own healthcare plan if it’s so great and why do you get to keep your second amendment rights but the rest of us don’t?

And finally…

7: If you take God out of EVERYTHING why would He want to stick around and bless ANYTHING?

Ladies and gentlemen of the government, your jobs are at stake here, but, more importantly, my FAMILY and my COUNTRY’s FUTURE is at stake here as well! I appreciate your consideration and prompt attention and answers to these questions so I can decide how I need to vote in the next election.

Sincerely,

Jeff Bates

- American Citizen

I met Jesse’s Mom and Dad and his girlfriend Brianna and was AMAZED and BLESSED by Jesse’s story.

He and his family and Brianna had gone to his cabin to go bird hunting on New Year’s Day and it was cold. Jesse was trying to light the propane wall heater in the cabin when suddenly it had EXPLODED, propelling Jesse through the air about 12 feet across the room and catching everything in the cabin on fire.

In Jesse’s words, ” I stood up and saw Brianna and my Mom and all I could think of was getting them out of the house!”

Jesse ran and literally shoved and pushed his mother and then his girlfriend out of the burning cabin to safety, not realizing that he himself was on fire and badly burnt.

His mother was badly burned on her leg and Brianna had taken a deep cut on her foot, but Jesse bore the brunt of the blast.

His hands, arms and face were terribly burned PLUS he had inhaled a lot of the smoke and propane fueled fire and his lungs were toasted.

His mother cried as she recalled the incident, saying,

“He is our Hero!”

Jesse was in the hospital in ICU in Missouri, unable to breathe on his own for many days due to the severity of the damage to his lungs, and was comatose for several days.

When he woke up he kept waving his hands and they finally figured out that he wanted to communicate and the first words he wrote were “GOD BLESSED US!”

He spent 53 days in the hospital, and I met him the day after he was released. He is healing nicely, and after he showed me a picture of his face taken immediately after the burn I began to understand why Jesse felt and STILL FEELS blessed.

He said, “I NEVER thought I would have my face again!”

But to see him, you would never know his face took a full frontal gas explosion, and his hands and arms, while still covered in compression bandages are healing nicely too.

But to Jesse, his own slow, painful journey to a scarred recovery is STILL secondary to the thankfulness he feels at still having his family alive and well with him.

He is SUCH a selfless young man!! His cabin had no insurance since it was in a flood zone, so he lost everything! But to him, that’s all just STUFF! He still has his loved ones, and according to him, “They can’t be replaced! Everything else can!”

As I said a prayer with everyone, with my arm around his back, Jesse wept in thankfulness to our Heavenly Father for sparing him and his family and I understood that it may be true that Jesse is a fan of my music… BUT I AM A FAN OF HIM!!!

Then I realized, That’s just Jesse.

Her beautiful innocent children left behind… SUCH A TRAGEDY!!!

There will be those who say horrible things about her, those who remember her happier days, those who want to point the finger of blame at her, at others, even at themselves.

But she was somebody’s daughter, somebody’s Mother, somebody’s friend, and her loss will leave an emptiness in THEIR hearts and lives forever.

Unless you have been there though, it is IMPOSSIBLE to understand addiction, depression, and the debilitating, suffocating, IMPENETRABLE DARKNESS that comes with it!

I have been there and it can be SO blinding and overwhelming that you just want OUT. For it to be over. to just close your eyes and never have to open them again. It is truly a disease of mind, and of spirit.

My heart breaks for her and her family!

And I pray that God, in His infinite wisdom and understanding and compassion will help this incredibly talented yet tortured young woman finally find peace.

Ok, I’ll admit it- I got scared- and I ran!!! LOL! Sort of…

First, let me say THANK YOU to MIKE THOMPSON at SKYDANCER MUSIC, JOHN GUSTY, MELISSA WYATT,and BARRY SENTER at TEAM BATES for your belief, faith, commitment, and countless hours of work to get the new jeffbates.net up and running! You guys are awesome!! And THANK YOU to ALL OF YOU who have gone to the new www.jeffbates.net site and downloaded the new song, “Love Don’t Care” and for the hundreds of POSITIVE reviews about the song!

I was really nervous about it! I wrote it from my heart and and arranged and recorded it in my home studio, played all the instruments myself, and mixed it myself! That took a LOT of man hours and I’m CERTAIN that Brianna and Kelly and Yogi are sick of hearing the song by now. My studio is NOT soundproof yet! So it was heard all over my house for hours and days! LOL!

I DID NOT want it to sound like typical Nashville music, I wanted it to be unique and, well…ME! BUT, that comes with a price! See, I’ve been very open and honest about my past mistakes from day one, drugs, jail, too many marriages, redemption, what Jesus has done in my life, in the hopes that it would help people overcome their own problems in their own lives.

But I have NEVER been so completely vulnerable and emotionally naked as I have with this song. So when I finished the final mix of “Love Don’t Care” and got Mike’s and John’s stamp of approval, I emailed John the final mix and literally packed my bags and left the COUNTRY! We took our first real vacation since Brianna was born, and while on the ship in the ocean I practiced what I teach- and somewhere in the middle of the nail biting and pacing and small anxiety attacks over wondering and hoping and praying you all would like the song, I managed to LET GO of it and give it to God!! He IS in charge after all!

We docked yesterday morning in Jacksonville, Florida and my phone had service again and as the positive reviews started coming about the song, I cried like a baby!

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! This song IS MY BABY!! They ALL are!! Every one I write!! But THIS one, “Love Don’t Care” is SPECIAL, because NO ONE helped write it, or produce it, or ANYTHING except ME, and the creative spirit that comes from God.

Because of all of YOU, I AINT SCARED anymore and I PROMISE I won’t run again!

I am EXCITED about this new direction for 2013 and I hope you will join TEAM BATES this year in our quest to bring you new music with the Jeff Bates Songwriter series through Skydancer Music, to bring you a new CD/Album entitled “Me and Conway” through Skydancer Entertainment, and above all, to continue to share a message of Christ’s love and hope through Jeff Bates Ministries!

I love you all and appreciate you more than you can imagine!

God’s Peace, and Grace to you all!

Jeff Bates

Ok, it’s killing me!

Should I say it?

Or should I NOT?

I GOTTA say it!

Here it goes!

In my opinion, The immediate problem, (if I understand my government correctly) is that AR15s and like made weapons are suddenly taking control of people’s minds and hearts and forcing them to pick up these weapons and locking and loading the 30 round magazines in them and go on shooting sprees, killing innocent children and adults!!

These dangerous assault weapons seem to be capable of taking over their operators’ minds to SUCH a degree that the operators are then turning the weapons on themselves and pulling the trigger until they drop dead!!!!

If I understand the proposals of our federal government, the ONLY way to save these people from being possessed by these evil firearms and the ensuing related deaths of our children caused by these uncontrollable guns is to completely BAN these guns from American soil and from those who can be possessed by them, along with the accompanying high capacity magazines and ammo.

That should solve our problems!

* Pertaining to the above post – It’s SARCASM