I’m very busy this week. I have to take two finals and write two papers, plus my usual weekly ministry tasks. Also, our staff is reading E.M. Bounds’s “Power Through Prayer” this week, which I’m sure I’ll have some thoughts on later. Add to that the problems I’m having with my Volvo wagon (aka “the grocery getter”) - it won’t start - and it makes for a heck of a week.
I told Lori this morning that the Lord is obviously trying to teach us something - and after Brother Bruce’s message last Sunday on “Blessed are you when you are persecuted,” it is probably this - I have no idea what persecution even remotely feels like, and I should be grateful to even have an ugly station wagon. Until next week.
I’ve been deliberating for some time about getting a motorized scooter. Those of you who know me will find this amusing, as I come from portly stock! Nevertheless, with gas at or near $4.00/gallon, my deliberation has given way to a decision - I’m getting a scooter. I know I will be made fun of by peers, coworkers, and students alike, but thankfully I’ve never cared what anyone thinks about me, which I know can at times be a bad thing!
After hours of online research, I’m pretty sure I’ve decided on a scooter, the Kymco People 200 (pictured below). It tops out at around 75 mph and gets approx. 88 miles per gallon.
Below is the video that won Best of show at the Willow Creek Arts Conference. It’s a parody called “I’m bringing serving back,” and was done by the media team at Comunity Christian Church in Chicago….and its funny.
Shane Trammel posts a boat load of mp3 sermons by Tozer. You can find 10 sermons on the attributes of God here, and 34 sermons on the book of 1 Peter here. As always, enjoy!
“Spiritual exapnsion is expensive and at times excruciating. Are you prepared for vision at this top-price demand - the loss of a friend or a career? There are no reduced rates for revolution of soul. If you only want to be saved, sanctified, and satisfied, then the Lord’s battle hath no need of thee.”
“To be spiritually minded is joy and peace. Yet to be statistically minded in addition can be very disturbing.”
“Let us invite the searching eye of God to locate this corrupted, spotted, stinking Self in us. Let it be torn from us and “crucified in Him, that henceforth we no longer serve sin.”
“It will not do to call sin by some other name, saying, “The other fellow has a devilish temper; mine is just righteous indignation! She is touchy; my irritability is just ‘a case of nerves.’ He is covetous; I am expanding my business. He is stubborn; I have convictions. She is proud; I have superior tastes” There is a cover-up for anything if you want it that way.”
“Today God is bypassing men - not because they are too ignorant, but because they are too self-sufficient. Brethren, our abilities are our handicaps, and our talents our stumbling blocks!”
“If the Church today had as many agonizers as she had advisers, we would have a revival in a year!”
“One place alone will keep the heart in passion and the eyes in vision - the place of prayer.”
I’m in Panama City, FL for a few days (oh, the persecution!), and I brought along “Why Revival Tarries” by Leonard Ravenhill. I’m going to be doing a few posts over the next two or three days with some quotes from Ravenhill that are definitely worth sharing. Here are a few from the first 2 chapters. Enjoy!
“One does not need to be spiritual to preach, that is, to make and deliver sermons of homiletical perfection and exegetical exactitude. By a combination of memory, knowledge, ambition, personality, plus well-lined bookshelves, self-confidence, and a sense of having arrived - brother, the pulpit is yours almost anywhere these days. Preaching of the type mentioned affects men; prayer affects God. Preaching affects time; prayer affects eternity.”
“The tragedy of this late hour is that we have too many dead men in the pulpits giving out too many dead sermons to too many dead people.”
“Brethren, we could well manage to be half as intellectual if we were twice as spiritual.”
“Unction is not a gentle dove beating her wings against the bars outside of the preacher’s soul; rahter, she must be pursued and won.”
“The prayer meeting is dead or dying. By our attitude to prayer, we tell God that what was begun in the Spirit we can finish in the flesh.”
“Preachers who should be fishing for men are now too often fishing for compliments from men. Preachers used to sow seed; now they string intellectual pearls.”
“The two prerequisites to successful Christian living are vision and passion, both of which are born in and maintained by prayer.”
“Spiritual adolescents say, ‘I’ll not go tonight, it’s only the prayer meeting.”
“The world hits the trail for hell with a speed that makes our fastest plane look like a tortoise; yet alas, few of us can remember the last time we missed our bed for a night of waiting upon God for a world-shaking revival.”
Awhile ago, I found the lyrics to an old hymn by John Newton titled “Approach my soul the mercy seat.” I recently got around to setting the words to music, and though we’ve yet to sing this one live, I feel sure its going to become a regular part of our worship sets - not b/c of the arrangement - but because of the biblical richness of the lyrics, which can be found below.
I fancy myself as a connoisseur of energy drinks - as Roger Ebert is to cinema, I am to energy drinks - at least in my head. So you can imagine my intrigue when I spotted “Free Cocaine” in a convenient store whilst searching for the new 16 oz. Starbucks Doubleshot. I haven’t tried Free Cocaine yet, but I intend to. And no its not free - like every other energy drink, its around $2/can.
It wasn’t that long ago that I tried Xenergy just because it was the official energy drink of the UFC, and to my surprise I really liked it. Good marketing is a great way to hook the otherwise uninterested consumer, but to gain devotees (to anything), your product has to be the real deal. Free Cocaine is a great marketing scheme, but if it doesn’t taste good, then I’ll “Just say no.” Stay tuned.
If you’re not down with twitter (I’m not either), read this first.
There’s only a select few people (mostly celebrities) that I would actually care if they twittered. I’m not bashing twitter - heck, I’m a blogger, and some people think its plenty self-aggrandizing w/o any other form of social networking.
But here’s the deal - no one needs to know every time I drop a deuce, or brew a fresh pot of coffee, or whatever. Its blogging gone mad!
Things that are posted online should at least have some significance…wait…uh…dang.
God has blessed our church with some gifted musicians, one of which is Andy Thomaston, who recently wrote a song called “We want to see Jesus.” The FHBC Worship Band will be recording a CD later this year, and this is one of the songs that will be on it - although the recording you are getting here is not the one that’ll be on the CD - we did this one on a Friday afternoon in about two hours on my laptop. You can hear it below…enjoy!
1. I officially confirmed my long-standing hypothesis that taking HWY 5 to HWY 43 from McCalla to go to Mobile/Gulf Shores is faster than taking the I-65. We made it to Mobile in less than three hours travel time (I didn’t include our 13 minute stop in Podunk, AL)…and the entire trip to our hotel was only 272 miles - about 50 less than taking I-65. Total travel time: a shade under 4 hours.
2. Weather is outstanding.
3. Kids actually slept well away from home
4. Gulf Shores Plantation is great - all families - no semblance of an MTV Spring Break special. The only draw back is that, to my knowledge, there is no wireless access. Luckily, I brought my AT&T USBConnect (see left).
5. Okay, this post has satisified my need to constantly be “doing” something. Goodbye.
UPDATE: I was wrong, they do have wireless access here - like you care - I just thought I’d be accurate.
Presently, it is 7am (CST) on Sunday morning…just got to the office and thought I’d bang out a quick post. This afternoon, the fam is heading down to Gulf Shores Plantation for 5 days of R&R…or as my daughter Savannah keeps saying, “We’re going on a field trip” [Neither of us have had the heart to tell her its not a field trip - plus its cute whenever she says it].
So, there’ll be less posting in the coming days, though I’ll prolly throw up a few posts of photos (not pics!) from the beach. “See ya, woot’n wanna be ya” (straight out of class of 96′).
PS - J’Dub is house sitting for me…someone let me know if the cops show up
Tim Challies reviews “Boys Adrift.” The subtitle is basically the thesis - “The Five factors driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men” - looks like a good read.
Here’s one line from Tim’s review that caught my attention:
Regarding video games he believes that boys today are dedicating far too much time to this form of entertainment. As boys play these games they gain false perceptions of power and inadvertently remove themselves from reality until eventually they prefer the world of video games over the real world
iMonk posts a link to five talks given by former Protestant turned Catholic uber-scholar Scott Hahn. The five talks are on five doctrinally controversial topics within Catholicism:
The Pope, Mary, the saints, purgatory, and the Eucharist (Lord’s Supper/Commmunion)
I heard Michael Horton interview another former Protestant turned Catholic named Robert Sungenis awhile back on The White Horse Inn - and both he and Hahn are very smart and learned scholars.
This topic is of particular interest to me, as my brother will be marrying a (lovely!) RC later this year and likely becoming part of the RCC. The fact is, most Protestants that I know (and Baptists in particular) don’t really have much of an idea about what Catholics believe. Many Catholics, no doubt, are evangelistic prospects who are relying on the efficacy of the sacraments and their good standing in the RCC for salvation. I’ll admit, the idea of belonging to the historic Church - or as they say, the “one true Church” - is something that has appeal. However, it seems to me that most of the fundamental doctrines of the faith have to be compromised in order to become Catholic.
At any rate, the aforementioned talks come highly recommended (though not necessarily endorsed) by iMonk, and I’m sure they’ll provide a nice starting point for what Catholics believe…if you’re interested.
The Flint Hill website is down right now. Our host, iPower, transferred our domain to their new and improved platform…gee, thanks. As a result, all the images on my blog are temporarily missing, as I am unable to connect to our FTP.
Don’t worry, though…I’m on it.
Update (June 5th at 8:45pm)
Actually, iPower fixed everything pretty quickly - website, FTP, and email - and my hold time was less than two minutes. Yeah.
I’ve been enjoying some good leadership interviews from the Catalyst podcast. I particularly gleaned some good things from the Patrick Lencioni episode.
The only negative is that you have to wade through about 12 minutes of a seemingly unplanned conversation by the host and co-host littered with shameless name dropping…see comments.
Today, the fam went to Aldridge Gardens…the foliage is picturesque and best of all, admission is free. Below are some photos of the family fun! (Lori was behind the camera)
I’m very busy this week. I have to take two finals and write two papers, plus my usual weekly ministry tasks. Also, our staff is reading E.M. Bounds’s “Power Through Prayer” this week, which I’m sure I’ll have some thoughts on later. Add to that the problems I’m having with my Volvo wagon (aka “the grocery getter”) - [...]
Spiritual exapnsion is expensive and at times excruciating. Are you prepared for vision at this top-price demand - the loss of a friend or a career? There are no reduced rates for revolution of soul. If you only want to be saved, sanctified, and satisfied, then the Lord’s battle hath no need of thee.”
I fancy myself as a connoisseur of energy drinks - as Roger Ebert is to cinema, I am to energy drinks - at least in my head. So you can imagine my intrigue when I spotted “Free Cocaine” in a convenient store whilst searching for 
1. I officially confirmed my long-standing hypothesis that taking HWY 5 to HWY 43 from McCalla to go to Mobile/Gulf Shores is faster than taking the I-65. We made it to Mobile in less than three hours travel time (I didn’t include our 13 minute stop in Podunk, AL)…and the entire trip to our hotel was only 272 miles - about 50 less than taking I-65. Total travel time: a shade under 4 hours.
