I am not repeating myself

I am not repeating myself, oh man, I'm repeating myself. I can't remember what movie that was in, but whatever it is, it's a good one. Just letting you know, I'm not going crazy with the last two posts, blogger is just having a problem and I didn't think the first post went through. Or maybe I am going crazy. You never can know.

Worship Practice

I have now become one of those guys that sits in the coffee shop working on my computer, surfing the net, etc. Except I don't drink coffee. And if I am drinking something, it's usually a cold drink that barely tastes like coffee. I like the smell, just can't stand the taste.

Tonight was my first time leading worship practice with a real team. By the grace of God it went really well. There is one guy who sings on the team who is just an amazing vocalist and makes everything related to vocals so easy. I also planned three hymns. I think that might be a record for our church. Lord willing, everything will go as smoothly on Sunday as it did tonight. But that usually isn't the case. But in the end, it isn't about me or about how I do or how the team does on Sunday. As a worship team our highest desire is to be invisible and to just get out of the way. Ironically, that means plenty of work needs to be put in in order to not be noticed. Pray that God would humble us and prepare us for Sunday and that He would work through us to impact the congregation.

Also, it's been over a week since I got my first Sandra McCracken cd and I have yet to replace it in my car with anything other than some songs that I needed to listen to for worship. That means that I haven't even been listening to as much Shane and Shane recently. That is pretty impressive. Her other cd that I got, "Gravity," is also really good. My new old S&S cd, "Rocks Won't Cry," is also really good. I highly recommend it. My mom needs to get on the computer now, so I better log off. Until the next time, God bless.

More Piper

I am now the guy at the coffee shop with a computer doing stuff on the internet or writing papers, or whatnot. I am now that guy. Except I'm not drinking coffee. If I am drinking something, it would have to be a cold drink that doesn't taste much like coffee. Just can't stand it. Today, I am about to lead my first worship practice in about 2 hours. Keep me and the rest of the team in prayer as we prepare to lead the people of God in praise of our God. Especially pray for humility for me, because I know how susceptible I am to pride in my life. Speaking of pride, I listened to another couple of Piper sermons today at work and in the second of the two he dealt with I John 2:15-17. Tons of good stuff, but I'll just talk a little bit about "the pride of life." He explained that the pride John was talking about wasn't pride in having life, but looking at the greek word and examining its other uses, he demonstrated that the pride we have is pride in goods or our livlihood. As he explained, the two major catagories of our sin, into which all sin falls, is the desire for what we do not have and pride over what we do have. As the verses go on, we see that these are of the world and the world is passing away. We also have a command from John to abstain from these and love/obey God. Here again, we don't have some command that just limits our fun and happiness. We have a loving command that exhorts us to seek that which is eternal and not what is temporal. He also did a fantastic job of showing that when John talks about faith it is linked completely to our love and obedience of God. Basically, John cannot imagine a saving faith that isn't centered around the love of God, and if we truly love God then we must have saving faith. You can't have one without the other. There is no separation of faith and the love of God which must result in good works otherwise our faith wasn't real. I know I can't do justice to the way Piper said it, but it was really good. It's sermons like that that make me wonder why I aspire to be a preacher. I know I don't have his gift. But, God has commanded us (lovingly) to be faithful in what He has given us no matter how much He has given us. Instead of being jealous, I need to rejoice in what God has given to us through Piper and continually seek the growth of the talents He has given me through the grace of God.

Also, Piper's new book just came out, "What God Commands of the World." It looks really good. Add another book to the list.

A few thing of note continued

Just watching the start of Monday Night Football, and I'm wondering why Bono looks like Justin Timberlake...

I have some big news. I am actually moving out. In fact, Lord willing, I'm moving out this week. Some friends of mine bought a house that has a mother-in-law apartment. They are going to live in the downstairs apartment and I'm going to rent out the top from them. It's pretty exciting. I'm going to be a lot closer to both church and work (although I think it would be hard to get farther away). I'm going to have to get some furniture for the living room, but the kitchen has all the major appliances. I guess maybe I should get a table too, or something. Anyway, I think it will be fun. I'll get to see how well I manage my money when I have to pay rent :) Check back in for pleas for food.

A few things of note

I found out last week that at work I was going to be moved within my own unit to a different area. I wasn't too excited about it. I'm not trying to complain, but my job is pretty boring already and it just got a little more boring. I really wanted to just be mad at my managers and let them all know what I thought about moving me. But, by the grace of God, I didn't and instead really focused on Colossians 3:23 and applied it to my life last week. I found that focusing on God allowed me to be content in the midst of a less than perfect situation. Imagine that! When I lay down my pride and find my joy in humbly obeying the loving commands of God, I really am joyful and I can respond in a godly manner and not destroy my witness. I also found out today that even though the job is more boring, the fact that it doesn't require much mental activity (read: mindless) allowed me to listen to two Piper sermons today. I'm listening to his series on I John. So far, it is really good. In the sermon I listened to today, he said that the reason why we don't obey God's commands is because we are seeking our own happiness away from the will of God. We don't believe or understand that God's commands flow from His love for us and if we really want to be happy and experience the love of God, then we will obey Him. This is the sign of being a true believer: finding your joy and happiness in the loving commands of God. It was a convicting sermon, to say the least, especially in light of my recent struggles at work. All that to say, God is using for good what I thought was a horrible situation. Why is it that being a Calvinist I seem to have less faith in God than most of the Christians I meet? Shouldn't my belief in an absolutely sovereign God have more of an affect on my daily life? My faith is so weak. Praise God, for He is a merciful and patient God that has chosen to use me despite and through my weak faith. To Him be the glory.

More about music?

I wanted you all to know that I have now become the proud owner of all cds that could reasonably be called shane and shane cds. I've owned Carried Away, Psalms, Upstairs, Clean, and An Evening with Shane & Shane for a while now, but I just got the new sampler with them doing bluegrass with the Peasall Sisters and the first Shane Barnard cd, Rocks Won't Cry. RWC has Shane Everett doing some back-up vocals so it can be called an S&S cd. I highly recommend...all of them. Can you really choose between them? They're all amazing. I also highly recommend seeing them in concert if you can. It is a truly worshipful time. Unfortunately, they aren't coming back to Utah anytime soon. I guess if I want to see them I better just move to Texas. I think they've done about a half-dozen concerts there over the last few months. Texas is so lucky.

Also, I'm leading worship at my church Sunday after next. No, I'm not playing any S&S songs (I wish I was good enough). Our worship leader is going to be out of town that day and he asked me to step in. I'm really looking forward to it. I just hope that I'll get out of the way and God will be shown glorious and exalted through me and the rest of the team.

More new music!

For those who don't know, I bought a couple of cds by Sandra McCracken. I just got "The Architect and the Builder" in the mail yesterday and I have listened to it about half a dozen times since then. It is a great cd. This cannot be overstated. Most of the songs are old hymns and she wrote new music for them. Naturally, the lyrics are great and the music is awesome. Her voice is beautiful. I highly recommend it.

Have to go.

A Thought on Paper

A quick thought:
I was talking about the brightness of white paper with Tim today (don't worry it was in jest, we weren't seriously talking about paper brightness) and a thought struck me as I drove home. What defines the brightness of the paper isn't anything intrinsic about the paper itself. In other words, the brightness of the paper doesn't eminate from the paper like it would from a light bulb. Instead the brightness of paper is measured by how much light it reflects. The more light it reflects, the brighter it is considered. This is like us. We are not holy or righteous intrinsically. We have none on our own. The depth of our holiness and righteousness can only be measured by how much and how accurately we reflect the Light. Our righteousness is not our own, it comes from an outside Source. "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Christ is the source of our righteousness. The depth to which the world sees this righteousness depends on how well we reflect Christ. Now, I'm assuming some things here, but I think that one of the things that would reduce the brightness of paper would be impurities in it. If I'm right, then the analogy becomes even more vivid. What reduces our ability to reflect the Light is our impurities. The more pure we are, the more capable we are of reflecting Christ. This brightness must also be seen. When light strikes a piece of paper that light reflects back to our eyes and it is there that we see the brightness. As Christians, we receive our brightness from Christ, but that brightness doesn't stop with us, it reflects back to the eyes of the world. We are witnesses to the glory of God and God has chosen us to reveal Him to the world. We need to be an accurate representation of the Light and be bright. Our impurities must be removed so that we can be sine cere and demonstrate Christ to the world.

Fall's Back!

After a brief hiatus, Fall is back in town. The weather has warmed up a little bit, although I still have to scrape the ice off of my car every morning. The sun is shining, the breeze is cool, but not too cold, the colors are vibrant and the air is fresh. It's wonderful. I love it. Especially since I'm not in class or doing homework right now. It's great. A quick update on my paper on relativism. I've written about five pages so far but I'm not very happy with the last couple pages. I think it will be easier to just delete them and rewrite them rather than try to edit them into something workable. Hopefully I'll have it done sometime soon, though. Also, I hope to post on something more serious in the next few days, but lately I haven't wanted to post on what I've been thinking about. We'll see what happens over the next few days.

Talk to you later and God bless.

The end of fall?

Yes ladies and gentlemen, that white substance on the mountains is indeed snow. In fact, we even got some of that white stuff at my house, which is at about 5,000 feet. But, I don't think this is the end of fall yet. It's supposed to get up to 75 in the middle of the week and I'm looking forward to some good fall weather. Even so, I heard that this is the earliest it has snowed here in 70 years! That's incredible to me.

Other than that, pretty good day. I went to a friend's wedding. It was a good wedding and my family and I spent a lot of time with some friends at the reception. We had a really good time. It's getting a little late so I think I'll keep this short tonight. May God grant you all a blessed Sunday.

Update

If you've been reading this, then you know that I posted a while ago about calling a person that had something against me. I got a call back from that person last Saturday. Unfortunately I was in the middle of moving Kellen and Jen and didn't have the time to really talk about the situation, but I made sure that he wanted to talk about it and I told him I would call him back early the next week. By the grace of God I followed through and called him back Monday afternoon. Again, I didn't reach him, but I left a message. This time he called back within a couple hours. We ended up talking about 45 minutes. Unfortunately, there was no reconciliation at the end of the conversation. It brings me a great deal of sadness that the situation is what it is. I believe that throughout the conversation, by the grace of God, I was humble and loving toward him. But, in the end, we were still on opposite sides of a very personal issue. After analyzing the issue again, and through much prayer, I cannot change my position. I believe that it would be sacrificing truth on the alter of peace to change my stance. I am deeply sorrowful over the situation and long for our fellowship and friendship to be restored. I leave it in God's hands. He will do what He will in this situation and in our hearts. I only ask that you pray for humility in me to see the truth and will of God and the faith to follow wherever that will might lead. Praise our Lord and Savior! He is indeed over and above all situations and can turn the hearts of men like rivers of water! There is none like Him! He will have His way, I cannot thwart it! He gives and He takes away. Praise the Lord, O my soul!

Fall

There are few things better than the smell of the beginning of a storm and the rain hitting dry dirt? Or the freshness just after the rain. The feeling of a cool breeze can't be beat either. I love fall. The hills are on fire with reds and oranges and yellows. It's getting cooler and the weather is beginning to change. I think this is my favorite time of the year.

Cut Capo

A couple nights ago, I made a cut capo for myself! I know, I know. You're all incrediblely excited for me. It's absolutely amazing. Seriously, though, I am pretty excited about it. If you don't know what a capo is, it basically makes it easier to play in certain keys by covering all the strings across a fret. The cut capo only covers three strings making an Esus chord. Basically, it makes it possible to play one-finger chords and do some cool things. Plus, Shane Bernard (or is Barnard) uses one on some of his songs. I'm pretty excited about it.

Bittersweet Farewell

I now know what that phrase means. We left Salmon today at 3 p.m. and got home about an hour ago. It was really hard to say goodbye. But, we know that it isn't forever. We'll talk a lot and I might even go back up there in a month. But our lives won't be the same and we won't get to see them nearly as much as we want to. But it was sweet in that we know that they are doing what God desires of them and they are embracing it with joy. We rejoice with them, but we are sad to see them leave. But, as Kellen's mom said, we will have forever, this life is just a vapor. I can't wait for heaven. To see my savior, to worship Him perfectly, to enjoy perfect fellowship with all the saints as we worship God. It's going to be awesome. I can't wait!

Our time in Salmon was really good. I got to ride up with Kellen in his old, beat-up car and we had a good time. We didn't have A/C but the weather was just about perfect. We rolled the windows down and just cruised. Unloading all their stuff went pretty easy. Bill, Kellen's step-dad, cooked some great meals (ham the first night, salmon and elk steaks today). It was a really good weekend. But I am exhausted physically and emotionally. I'm glad I took tomorrow off.

I hope that you all had great Sundays. God Bless.

The Soul's Delight

Be still, my soul
Find rest, my soul
You have been led by still waters
Drink deep, my soul
Be restored

Shout joyfully, my soul
Sing praise, my soul
To the King of all ages
Rejoice, my soul
And be glad

Why cast down, my soul?
Hope in God, my soul
Send out Your light and truth
Praise Him, my soul
Be overjoyed

I will seek You, O God
I see Your glory, O God
Your steadfast love is better than life
I will praise You, O God
O God, my God

Greekfest!!

Today was the Salt Lake City Greekfest! The Greekfest is awesome! This is the third or fourth straight year I've been to it. Or something like that. Anyway, we try to go every year. Tonight was also Kellen and Jen's last day in Utah. We leave tomorrow morning. They love the Greekfest so much that they planned their departure date so that they could still go to it. We went with some friends, had some great food, had some great desert, toured the Greek Orthodox Church, and talked to Father Matthew about Greek Orthodoxy. To boil it down, I basically found out that Greek Orthodoxics (Orthodoxians, Orthodoxites? who knows?) don't believe that Christ paid the full penalty for our sins. They believe that it simply bought the opportunity for salvation for all of us and we have to work (although they wouldn't use that term) the rest of the way. In other words, it's basically the same as infused grace as opposed to imputed grace. It was a very interesting conversation. We were encouraged to e-mail our questions to him and I think I'll take him up on that. Anyway, we ate tons of food and had a really good time together. I'm looking forward to next year. Jen and Kellen are already planning on being back in town for it.

I think there was someting I wanted to post about but now I've forgotten it. Don't you hate it when that happens? I'm really enjoying reading "A Case for Amillenialism." It's challenging and very interesting. Looking forward to getting more in depth on the subject.

Well, I'll be travelling to Salmon, Idaho tomorrow so I won't be posting for a few days (what else is new?). May God bless you and be near to you. His nearness is our good.

New Beginnings

I just started that paper I mentioned earlier. I really enjoyed writing an introduction to a paper like that. I can't believe that I'm actually missing that. Inconceivable! Anyway, I haven't written anything past the intro but its a start. Starting is usually the hardest part for me. Now we'll just see how long it takes to finish it.

I also just started "A Case for Amillenialism" by Kim Riddlebarger a couple days ago. I'm only two chapters in, but I can tell that it is definitely going to challenge almost everything I grew up believing about the tribulation, rapture, and millenium. It might be hard, but I'm submitted to the word of God and will go where He leads me. You can pray for understanding for me and humility to continue to submit to the word and will of God.

Today was also Cordell's first worship practice. It will be different without Kellen leading us, but I think God is teaching me that it isn't about the person leading music, but the God we worship. He is the center of our worship. I think I get caught up too much in the physical and temporal, especially in areas like this. It certainly is a time of submitting to God in all things right now.

The Last Sunday

Yesterday was Jen and Kellen's last Sunday at CCC. It's hard to even write about it without tearing up. Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy for them. But it's sad to see them go at the same time. Plenty of tears were shed by me and my family. I think I'll be spending a lot more time on the phone then I used to. At least I better. I'll be talking to them quite a bit. We will be moving them up to Idaho on Saturday and spending the weekend with them. So this week is going to be really packed. There are two going away parties for them, Bible Study on Wednesday and worship practice with the new leader, Friday is the Greekfest in SLC and Saturday we leave. Definitely busy.

I also ended up in a pretty interesting discussion last night after the college/young adult group meeting. We meet at the pastor's house and I ended up talking with the pastor and a friend of mine about covenantalism and dispensationalism. My friend and I were on the covenental side and my pastor was on more of the dispensational side, although he isn't a hard-liner or anything. We agree on a lot of things. It was a good argument that lasted about two-and-a-half hours. To kind of give some background on me, I wouldn't really call myself a covenantalist or a dispensationalist, although I'm pretty sympathetic to the covenantal side. I grew up not learning much about either side and am just now starting to really dig into it. So, I'm looking for insights and information from those more familiar with the whole debate. Specific verses that either side uses, books, etc. Anything would be helpful. I'm really interested in learning more about covenantalism. I can't believe that I haven't heard more about it until now, especially since I've been a five-pointer since I was a teenager. Anyway, that was my Sunday.

A few random oddities

I just saw the newest Burger King commercial with their mascot "The King" doing a press conference with Drew Rosenhaus, who is Terrell Owens agent. It may not be very funny for non-football fans or those who haven't seen Rosenhaus' press conference last year. But for me, it was hilarious. Those Burger King commericials are kind of hit or miss with me (mostly miss) but this one was pretty funny.

I realized today that even though I don't miss going to school, I do miss parts of it. I was driving home and I thought of a really good topic for a paper. I just finished reading David Wells' Above All Earthly Pow'rs (which is a great book) and was thinking about the postmodern view of relativity and realized that it is definitially impossible. As I thought about it I started putting an argument together and developing an outline. I thought that would be a great topic for a philosophy paper. Maybe I'll write it anyway for the heck of it and for the practice of writing papers. Who would have thought that I, of all people, would miss writing papers? If I do write it, I think I'll send it to one of my philosophy professors and see what his reaction to it is. Maybe it will open up an avenue for talking about God.

Speaking of talking about God, I went out with a few people from my church Wednesday and passed out some tracts in downtown Ogden. John (the lebanese missionary), Don, and I ended up talking to a Catholic guy for about thirty minutes. It was a good conversation. We talked about Mary and Purgatory and Mass and a bunch of other topics. We gave him the word of God and presented the truth to him. He said he would try to come to our church, but that's because he considers himself open-minded, not because he was convicted. Either way, I hope to see him on Sunday and talk to him some more. We're also going to try to go out on a regular basis to pass out tracts and evangelize. We'll see what the Lord does with it.