I think this is an oxymoron

There’s something about this that just doesn’t seem right….. NLT and study in the same sentence?

Great Artwork

 

Fil is one of my oldest and closest friends. He is a great song writer and overall great artist.

He posted these on his blog the other day. I’d thought I’d share the wealth.

I can really identify with his work. Can you?

 

 

By grace, this really spoke to me

 

To the right of my desk is a poster that says, “Don’t Waste Your Life”. I can’t tell you how much that poster has helped me keep my spending down these past couple months. I must be a good steward of the money God has given me. Why would I even think about rationalizing spending money that I didn’t even deserve in the first place?

John Piper wrote this on the Desiring God blog today.

“I can smell it. It’s like toast or steak or brownies. It doesn’t just draw our desire, it creates desire. Deep drops in the stock market make many people salivate. They know it will rebound. They are sitting on cash. By year’s end their pile could ride the recovery to riches.

For such people I have a word from God. The word is: Don’t desire to be rich. It will kill you. And in a world like ours many will probably perish with you. Paul’s language is more graphic than mine:

There is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.

It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1Timothy 6:6-10) “

Sunday update from 10-5-08

Sorry for the lack of blog posts, I got some stuff in my draft folder I’ll throw up here sooner or later…!

This sunday went really well, my band was:

Carlos: Bass and Vocals
Jimmy: Electric and Vocals
Dylan: Drums
Sherry: Vocals

My song set was:

Never Let Go (B)
Salvation is Here (B)
Your Grace Is Enough (A)
From the Inside out (C)

Over all, I give it a 8 out of 10. We had Dylan fill in for Louis and Dylan did a great job. Dylan used to play drums at Mars Hill Seattle and moved back down here for a little while. I needed a drummer so I gave him a call.

Everyone responded very well. I was surprised given I don’t play “Salvation is Here” or “Your Grace is Enough” very often.

Over all, it was a great service.

Next week, I have a guy trying out for piano and vocals next week, we’ll see how that turns out.

Sunday recap!

 

This Sunday at Oasis NoMi my band was:

Carlos - Bass & Vocals
Me - Electric & Vocals
Louis - Drums
Jodi - Vocals
Bridget - vocals

My songs were:

Holy Is the Lord
Atonement
Everlasting God
Here Is Our King

Over all I thought it went well.

1) Holy Is the Lord - I had my bass player, Carlos, lead the song. He did a great job.

2) Atonement - Did it the way I usually do it,

3) Everlasting God - I never liked this song until I heard a band, Campaign, do a cover of it. I highly recommend listening to them

4) Here Is Our King - I do this song pretty slow. This time I took the music from Death Cab For Cutie’s “Transatlanticism” for the “Majesty, finally, here” part. It sounded really cool and different.

 

Thats the run down!

Blog posts from others who are more gifted than I

There are a couple blogs I read on a usual basis. Most of them, if you scroll down, are on my blog roll.

1) Cool Town Studios writes great posts that gives me hope that people have not totally forgotten about society.

2) Ryan-C is a brother and friend, he writes great posts… especially this one.

3) Fil is a brother and friend… plus we also have been in thousands of bands together. He just posted some of his very talented art work.

4) Kurt Huhn makes pipes for a living. I like pipes…. and his blog

5) C.J. Mahaney is a fantastic teacher/pastor. God has used him to influence my life in many ways. He just wrote a great blog “On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons”.

Go read them!

also, you should get the classic book, “Knowing God” by J.I. Packer. This is a fantastic systematic theology book that is very simple to the reader, and very easy on the wallet.

Life happens

Today, Friday, I’m at the office getting ready to step out for a meeting.

I have a interesting weekend….

1) I’m going to Promise Keepers for a day and a half

2) I’m going with Erin to Ocala for a wedding

3) I’m coming back from Ocala to lead worship Sunday Morning

4) After I lead worship I head to a Host Pastor’s meeting

5) After the Host Pastor’s meeting I go home to write a 6 page fictional short story… and I hate fiction!

 

And there’s my weekend.

Also, why are Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ books so expensive? I’m borrowing his exposition on Romans 5 from Guy, and it costs $180 for the set of 14 volumes of his sermons on Romans. I could name a dozen other ways to spend $180, but anyone want to buy them for me as a wedding present?

Be

Be patient with me and my lack of blogging.

I got some ideas to write about… but finding the time to blog is pretty rough.

However, I feel the need to tell you all that I’m getting married in 11 weeks.

To quote my awesome friend Ben Windle, “awesome!”

I updated my music section… I haven’t bought any new books this month, because I plan on buying some study materials in October and they are expensive. So…. listen to what i’m listening to!

Seeker Sensitive

I know it’s not very popular to you church bashers, but I happen to like seeker sensitive thing….

What better way to be sensitive to seekers than telling them how bad they are and then say how good Jesus is?

After all…. that’s what Jesus and Paul did.

I think also to be an effective seeker sensitive church you HAVE to have to understand what a “seeker” is and how are you being “sensitive” to them.

If a seeker is someone who is coming to church looking for God…. why not give them the gospel? God is the gospel… so they leave getting God.

If a seeker is someone who is feeling convicted about their sin and needs to come to Jesus…. why not give them Jesus? Jesus is the gospel… so they leave getting Jesus.

If a seeker is someone who isn’t a Christian…. preach repentance! After all if they aren’t a Christian… then they need to repent of their sin and follow Jesus.

In my opinion….. I don’t think we should preach “life principles” and then at the end of the sermon show how they go with Jesus. I think we need to preach Jesus…. then, if needed, show how they go along with “life principles”.

Because after all….. where does all life comes from…. what does the “seeker” need most?

Jesus

Tell all the english boys you meet… Sunday recap

 

Well, we didn’t have power Sunday at Oasis NoMi, so I sang 1.5 songs and Jeremy preached a 20 min sermon. The whole service lasted about 35 min long. It was a cool experience.

I was asked to speak to our youth this Thursday night, so I’m about to go to Panera Bread and start writing and studying for that.

I haven’t bought any new books this month yet, I still have some unfinished books from last month and from ebay that I need to finish and study.

I’ll update more later… I’m off to get some coffee!!!

Jesus Is a Friend of Mine

Just when I thought “I am a Friend of God” was bad….

I think this is like early ska music….

How you like them apples?

Erin, my beautiful fiance, bought a camera. But not just any camera, a Nikon D80. She has been saving up for the last 5 or 6 months, and finally bought it. It’s hard to save money, but buying something without going into debt is a great feeling.

Finally, we can take pictures and not wait a month for us to remember to develop them. I’m proud of her!