In Psalm 8 , David asks of God, 'Who am I that You are mindful of me?' If you see me and I look puzzled, it's because this same question often keeps me distracted...
There are a TON of great learning resources out there these days.
Andy Stanley at Northpoint is doing a really powerful and convicting series on wealth. You can download or watch the messages for free here
Shaun Groves redesigned his website and keeps a really provocative blog here. He also does a podcast, in which here recently interviewed one of my favorite musicians, Derek Webb. Get that here.
Elevation Church in Charlotte has lots and lots of stuff available for free. Their pastor, Steven Furtick, is very young and very rough around the edges, but he's been really challenging me about what church is/can be. They have a newly tricked-out resource page where you can watch/listen to the sermons here.
I love my wife. A lot. I don't know what I did before God gave her to me.
Lost is a very cool show, and I have come to believe that a pastor could use it as his soul source for illustrations and never run short. Everyone has a story. If you believe that, it will change your life.
I really want to serve Jesus full-time.
That makes me really discontent with computer jobs.
I am now the proud owner of a very funny DMV story/experience/memory. Ask me sometime. And pray for the lady that helped me when I went to get my license renewed.
I've been really, really missing good friends. Y'all come closer!!!!
I have a friend who I spent a good chunk of time with when I was in Central Asia. His name is...
Well, let's call him 'Bob' just to be safe (in the picture above, 'bob' is on the right, and yes, believe it or not, I am on the left).
'Bob' was faithfully discipled for over a year after he gave his life to Christ, and for a while, he was bearing all kinds of fruit.
But when pressure from the oppressive government of his country started to cramp down, he really backed off. He started dating a non-believer, and recently he sent me an email and said that he is now married to her.
Here is the response I received ('Dad' is how we write about God):
Do you remember Manzura?! Is this she whom I got married .
I will send you pics. I am still in '_______'.
I work at Tour Agency. I'm doing well.
Walk with Dad not so well man, ask Him to be better.
Have you heard about Ben Stein's new movie coming out next year? It's called 'Expelled'.
If you go to the website, the flash intro has this quote:
If people think God is interesting, the onus is on them to show that there is anything there to talk about. Otherwise they should just shut up about it.
So I'm sure the first thought through your head is, "Great, another movie bashing the intelligence of those who believe in God."
But it's actually just the opposite.
It's about how people in scientific community who question Darwinism are immediately 'expelled'. Noone is allowed to consider Darwinism.
This guy (I seriously don't know who this is, just a link of a link of a link) has a really interesting, creative post called "Excuse me while I single-handedly neutralize al-quaeda".
Here's a story from Forbes that adds a little perspective on where our hope lies, and gives me yet another reason that I'm so thankful to have been born and raised in America.
Zhang Shuhong ran a toy company in China that sells in America under the name Fisher-Price. Thousands of their toys had to be recalled recently because of huge amounts of lead found in the paint on the toys. The pressure and humiliation that this created for him led him to suicide.
Read the story, and as you do, ask yourself the questions:
Kristian Stanfill has been a lead worshipper at 722 for a long time. It's a general rule that whichever songs he uses during worship will eventually become favorites of mine. But occasionally he leads songs that I've never heard and can't seem to find anywhere... these are usually songs that he's written himself.
When I gave up on finding them on CDs anywhere, I just hijacked the audio from the web streams and wore them out. But now there's a new EP available, and I want to make sure you know about it. It's awesome!
Go to his myspace, listen to 'Beautiful Jesus' and 'Spring of Life', and then go search his name on iTunes and buy his new EP, called 'Hello'.
Wordpress makes it really easy to switch between a lot of nice templates, so I want your opinion! Please go take a look and let me know what you think about the current theme, and in a few days I'll try a new one.
Eventually we'll settle on the one everybody likes the most :0)
I share things with my wife that I don't usually tell people. Recently, I mentioned to her that I was always a little disappointed in college, because I went to tons of fun birthday parties, but everybody was always home for the summer when my birthday rolled around.
Well, apparently she took this information to heart... she started planning a party for me, which happened yesterday. She invited my whole family, cleaned our house from top to bottom, and made my Mom's lasagna recipe for dinner (one of my favorites... and no small undertaking).
Not only did I have an awesome time enjoying my family, but I think I can say that my loot (i.e. gifts) this year were the best ever.
I got two books I really wanted:
The title "Sex God" probably gives you a funny look on your face, and makes you wonder exactly what effect too much Starbucks can have on a soul. But rest assured, it is not a modern version of the Kama Sutra, but a masterful exposition by one of my favorite Bible teachers, Rob Bell, about how everything in life -- including sex -- was designed by God to point us up to Him. Rob's last book, Velvit Elvis, fundamentally changed my life. I read it twice, and then bought the audio book off iTunes and listened to it some more. If this is the first time you've ever heard of Rob, then you also need to know about Nooma. 'Nough said
"Blue Like Jazz", by Donald Miller, is a book I have heard nothing but great things about, and I'm excited that I'm finally going to get to read it!
I started on 'Sex God' last night, and I'll probably finish it in a hurry, but "Soul Cravings", by Erwin McManus, would have been at the top of my list if I hadn't just bought a couple of weeks ago. I'm mentioning it because you need to pick it up too :-)
I also got some new jeans (much needed), and a pair of shoes that I've been lusting over for at least a year.
As if that weren't enough to make a boy very happy, Steph made me a framed scrapbook of sorts, with pictures and articles and memories from our whole first year together, and... oh yeah, she's taking me to New York this weekend.
Y'all... God is good and my wife is the best gift I ever got :0)
"Real Christians are marked by sincerity—the whole truth about themselves and the whole truth about God. Real Christians stand before people the way they stand before God—transparent and vulnerable. Anything less is a dressed-up Gospel."
That's a quote from Piper in his sermon "Where Is God", which is a response to catastrophic occurrences like 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina.
Piper is the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minnesota. They are so close to the bridge that collapsed that you can see the lights of rescue crews from the church.
They sent their video crews out to capture some of what's going on out there, with some audio from the 'Where Is God' sermon spliced in. Here's an excerpt:
Famines, pestilence, persecution -- these happen so that the world will see that followers of Jesus count Christ more precious than everything they've lost -- and discover that He can be that for them, because one day they're going to lose everything. Everybody loses everything on earth, some day.
I don't know if you've read this anywhere, but a couple dozen Korean missionaries to Afghanistan have been held hostage for several days now, and at least two of them have been killed.
The deadline that their kidnappers gave has come and gone, which leaves their fate uncertain (from a worldly perspective).
