Home is where the Lord is!

Ok, for the record... We LOVE Oakdale CA. It's like the the town that my boys were born in, only bigger. 17K people. AKA "Cowboy Capital of the World". Every other house has a big 4X4 truck in the driveway. And when I say big, I mean BIG. I've never seen so many big trucks in all my life. This is an agricultural community that produces Almonds, Tomatoes, Strawberries, Beef and Dairy. Our neighborhood's smell depends on the direction of the wind. There is a Con Agra food plant up the street so some mornings the air smells like Pizza. And who doesn't like Pizza for Breakfast?

Modesto is about 10 minutes away and it's about 180K peeps. so we get the small town life with all the amenities of a big city.

The church here has really welcomed us. We are on what looks like the 3rd of twelve days of Christmas. For the past three mornings we have waken up to a gift on our front porch. A pillow, two candles and 3 different brownie mixes. Oh my, i just figured out that the gifts are adding up according to the day. Nice! :) I can just hear it now... "Five Car Wash Coupons!" Ba dum dum dum. :)

Leading worship at River Oak Grace has truly been an experience for me. I went from leading behind a pulpit to leading behind a keyboard or dancing around on stage (just a little bit). It is a lot more work though. I don't mind it at all. The volunteers that serve with me are awesome.

Making friends here has been quite easy. People here are quite sociable and we have a lot in common. We've had that experience before, but you never know what might happen when you move.

The boys are doing great in school. James and Joey are in one school and Joshua is in another. There wasn't enough room in James and Joey's school for Josh this year, but next year should be different. Jacob spends the day with a mom who has two adopted little girls. She and her husband love Jake to death and we are falling in love with their family as well. :)

Well, that's it for now. I'm going to try and blog more as the new year starts. (me and how many others?)

God Bless!

Consumed!

Psalm 69:9 "The zeal of your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall one me."

Wow! Is that true or what? Well, is it?

First, does the zeal of the house of God consume us? I would have to say that that idea isn’t totally clear in my head. Does “house” mean sanctuary, auditorium, my heart… ? Also, would I classify myself as a “zealot”? There are too many times when I am “on fire” for God only to find myself fizzled out shortly thereafter. I imagine that I’m not the only one. J Remember also that this verse not only says that David is zealous for God’s house, but that his zeal “consumes” him. He can’t think of anything but God’s house. The obvious question is “can we say the same of ourselves?” I’m ashamed to answer.

God has made “His home” in my heart. He has a home in the hearts of my wife and kids. When we get together on Sunday morning to worship together, our collective hearts make up one big ole house for God. God inhabits the praise of his church and has a home there! He is at home at Vaughn Park Church because our hearts are there. He is at home in my house because our hearts are there. He has a home wherever two or more are gathered… because “home is where the heart is” as far as God is concerned. Isn’t that good news? Surely that’s something worth being zealous about!

Second, the verse goes on to say “and the insults of those who insult you fall on me”. There are those in the world who throw insults at God. There are a number of books (and iTunes calls them “religious books”) that mock God and Christianity, and are making their way up the best sellers list. People are reading these books and are jumping on the bandwagon of mocking God. Folks, these people are not coming to our churches! However, sometimes I think that it feels like they are. Are we spiritually paranoid? Why is it that the vast majority of Christians feel that if we were to worship with a consuming zeal, that we will be insulted beyond comfort? Do we really believe that our fellow Christians despise our worship to the point of insulting us? We have to realize that this is just Satan trying to keep up from what we were meant to do. Which is, of course, worshipping He who Satan hates more than anything.

Bad Theology is a Super Magnet

What is it about bad theology that sucks us in? We all have certain beliefs within ourselves that are wrong, and yet we fight to keep them.

Worship, for example. We know intellectually that worship isn't about style, tempo, or lyric... or even music at all. Yet we continue to call those things worship and place an emphasis on music. Worship is not a place. It is not what you did last year. It is nothing more than honoring God by living out His designed purpose in your life. Rick Warren sold a lot of books about that very subject and I think it's title should have been "How to Really Worship God".

Here's the problem that I find with making worship all about a song style or church service format. Let's say we put an emphasis on singing. We have plenty of New Testament scripture telling us that God wants us to sing. Let's say you have two people. One of them sings well enough to make a living at it and the other sings so bad that it makes people uncomfortable. When we put an emphasis on anything other than sacrifice, there is a chance that someone will go away feeling that their "gift" was unacceptable. You have one person who will be lifted up and another who thinks that they are not recognized.

It's not right for either to feel this way, but it happens. So let's change the way that we talk. Let's be specific about what we mean when we talk about singing, music, or worship. The last thing that we want is for our "reasonable acts of service" to be uninviting to others. :) Oh, and let's put more of an emphasis on worship by serving others... not just singing new songs and using cool videos.

New Music!!!!!!!!

Well, I haven't recorded anything in a while. However, I have been listening to a ton of new music over the last six months that I'd like to share.

First off let me introduce L.E.O. . Not E.L.O.

An artist from the Boston area named Bleu, the bass player for Chicago, and Hanson (that's right) have formed a temporary group that sounds a lot like E.L.O. and/or the Traveling Wilbury's. Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/bleuleo I was raised on ELO and the Beatles, so this is right up my alley. Also, a great PFR alternative. :)

Second, check out Starfield. Here is their myspace page. http://www.myspace.com/starfieldace.com/starfield Good writing and tons of falsetto! And hey! You gotta be pretty good if you can get Chris Tomlin to sing backup for you. (check out "Son of God" on iTunes)

Ok, next is my all time favorite worship project ever. New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado has put a CD/DVD called "My Savior Lives". It's awesome to put it mildly. The songs are great, the vocals are all edited tastefully so repeated listening is easy, and the DVD (sold seperately) has a guy in his forties jumping up and down while he leads worship.

You've got Ross Parsley, Jared Anderson, Jon Egan, and Glenn Packiam's songs. You've got the Desperation Band jammin' in the back. You got 10 buxx and you've got yourself a taste of heaven. http://www.myspace.com/newlifeworshipexperience

What else.... Oh yeah. Lincoln Brewster's "All to you...Live" is good stuff yall. I saw Lincoln on my honeymoon while he was playing guitar for Michael W. Smith. Smitty introduced him and said that he would be awesome but, well... some people think Hasselhoff is awesome so I don't just take everyone's word about things. :) Check the CD out. It's got a remake of "Hallelujah" from the movie Shrek. Pretty good stuff. http://www.myspace.com/lincolnbrewster

I sat through a class that he taught during a worship conference last week and I got a kick out of his approach to being a worship leader on staff at a church. Two things stuck with me. First he said that he prefers the slow songs but his church really would rather "rock their faces off". Seconde he told us that if anyone ever complains about the worship service, he calls the office to check and see if that person tithes and if they don't he just diregards their comments. Hmmmph.

Well, check them out. They're sooooo worth it.

Cynical Pinnacle

Ok, I had started blogging again just to end up forcing myself to refrain from blogging. Reason being... I'm fighting cynisism. I will say that I'm doing a lot better at this than I used to.

Well, I'll just let this pass and see what happens next. I just pray that I keep my mouth shut while I go through with this phase. :)

Not the "i" but the "You" in me

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV) “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Consider some of the character qualities of Jesus Christ-Comfort, Compassion, Faithfulness, Love, Victory, Hope, our Guide. When you sit down and really contemplate your existence and your accomplishments and failures, hopefully you will see that you are truly nothing without Christ.

His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses, our limitations and our failures. We are supposed to be weak because that is the way that God shows Himself and is glorified. We shouldn’t fight and deny our weaknesses, for through them we are given the opportunity for deepening our understanding of grace and developing our relationship with Him. Our weaknesses should drive us to total dependency on Christ.

What are your weaknesses and difficulties in life? Are you trying to fix all of your problems on your own, by your own earthly means? Does the stress and anxiety of life rest heavily upon your shoulders or is the power of Christ resting on you? Let Him be your all in all, not just your all when all is going well.

Gut-Update

OK, it's been six weeks now of running and eating less. I'm now running 1.6 miles on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings (around 5:30) and I'm TRYING to stay under 1750 calories a day. I've never played sports, so exercising this much is a HUGE deal for me. I'm so surprised that I'm still doing it, and my biggest motivation to keep at it is that I don't want to throw away the last 6 weeks. I just hope my knees can keep up. They are always uncomfortable but never really "hurt".

I'm posting this to keep track of my progress and the hope that someone will pray that I keep this up for the rest of my life. (I have to keep up with four boys and it's not been getting any easier) So far I've lost 13-14 pounds. But I've plateaued. I think I'm going to start doing sit-ups or crunches. Reason: I can't suck in my love handles. :)

Oh yeah, I'm also drinking a ton of Diet Coke. I tried the new Diet Coke plus but I have a hard time with the taste difference. "It's not you Diet Coke Plus, it's me." :) It's kind of like Sweet Potato Pie and Pumpkin Pie. The tastes are just too close for me. I have to pick one and ditch the other. So I'm stickin with the sweet nectar of the old reliable Silver Bullet.

However, I can't figure out what the apostle Paul meant by "buffet my body". http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%209:27;&version=45;
All the buffets I know of only make me fatter!

We'll see what happens. I hope to be down to 145 soon. I'm keeping my fat cells crossed!

Oh No! It's PIANO!!

Ok, for those who may not know, I was born and bred in the Church of Christ. What that means is that I'm not supposed to listen to women talk about the bible, and Piano is a four letter word with "o" as an accessory vowel. I come from a church where women can pass communion trays side-to-side, but not from front to back. These churches are autonomous, until one of them does something that the others disagree with. Clapping your hands in the worship service is permitted when someone places membership, but not when trying to keep rhythm during singing. Oh, did I mention that "Mechanical Instruments" (also known by some as "IM's", don't ask... i have no idea how that got that one backwards) are not allowed during Sunday morning worship. Yeah, I'm not clued in on that one either.

How did we get in the business of telling people what they "can't" do? The Old Testament started with the 10 commandments. Ten. That's it. Now I know that there were many things implied in those ten, but there were just ten. Then the Levites came along and added stuff about bodily discharges and mildew. *yuck!* What happened to the ten? I'll tell you what happened. Jesus came and whittled them down to two commandments.

Mark 12:28-34 (New International Version)

The Greatest Commandment

28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" 29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'[b] 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[c]There is no commandment greater than these." 32"Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." 34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

So, Jesus comes to earth and brings us down to two commands and we start adding our own again. I think the part of this that amazes me the most is that we are only making things harder for ourselves. ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

A runner I am not!

Jogging is working though. :) This week I've started dieting and exercising. I've never done this before, I never needed to. I used to have the metabolism of a 12 yr. old. (and the height) However, as soon as I hit 31 it all came to a screeching halt! In the last 2 years I have gained 25 pounds at least. Needless to say, I can name a few more salad dressings now.

I've also started running (half jogging/half walking) 3 mornings a week. What is it about being awake at 5:30? Why do I automatically feel like I'm cooler than the rest of the neighborhood? Suddenly everyone else is a slacker. I'm reminded of a friend of mine in upstate NY. He was raised on a pig farm and found it rather easy to get up early. This wasn't a problem until he bought a snow-blower and decided to clear his driveway at 6 in the morning. I now know why he wanted the rest of us to be "morning-people". It's lonely. I mean, I'm sure that there are people awake, but most of them are still in their undies.

Anywho, I found it strange that as I try to better my life I'm consumed with others following in my footsteps. Why am I drawn to try and make others share my convictions. What I need to do is live my own life and let others do the same for themselves. Like when I quit smoking. Man, I wanted the world to know. And when I met someone who still smoked, I would tell them that they needed to do exactly as I did. However, they are not me. And just because something works for me doesn't mean that it will work for everyone else.

I'm not Jesus (duh). I shouldn't be in the business of trying to get people to act like me. (and neither should you) I need to be showing people what Jesus did and stop trying to get others to pat me on the back. I mean come on, even though getting up and running around the neighborhood is a huge accomplishment for me...

it's no miracle. :)

*listening to: "Boy Like Me, Man Like You" - Rich Mullins*

In the case of an emergency...

Ok, so I've flown many times in my life. My father was in the Navy for 23 years, and the Navy never moved us to the next town over. We went from Hawaii to Florida for our first move. Talk about a flight! In my entire life, I'd say that I've been on at least 50 flights.

On to my point... During all of my trips, the airplane crew goes through a ritual. They spend a good 5 minutes telling the passengers of their possible doom. They actually talk about the plane crashing in a couple of different ways. They actually call one of the a "water" landing. Please! Landing? More like death plunge.

On my last trip back from Portland Oregon I was forced to pay attention to their little speil. The put it on a screen on the back of the seat in front of me. (I have a hard time ignoring TVs) :) Then it hit me. What if we got the "danger" talk everywhere we went? What if you went to your friends house for dinner and before you began eating his wife said, "in case of poisioning...". There's no way that you would eat her food. Or what if whenever you got in the car with your friend he said, "in the case of a head on collision, kiss you butt goodbye!". Man, I'd never get in the car with them again.

Can we really be this inconsistent? Why do we ignore the threat of an airplane crash, but value a warning of a car crash. How many warnings do ignore? There are many warning signs in our daily lives. A two-year-old's rebellion can be seen as cute to their parents. However, I would imagine that there are a lot of parents who would go back and make some major adjustments in their childs attitude.

Proverbs 22:3A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.

I recently noticed that the underside of my child’s car seat had a warning that reads, “Do not use this seat after December”. “Which December?” I blurted. What an obscure notice. I tried to find out if there was a date printed anywhere on the seat, but found nothing that gave me any help. I looked at the other seat that looks identical, and found no such notice. This confused me even more and left me wondering what to do. Well, I placed the seat back in the van and made plans to use it until our youngest grew out of it.

You may be thinking, “are you serious?”. “What if you get in an accident and some unforeseen event causes the seat to crumble and leave your child unprotected?” I mean, come on…what could go wrong? It’s a solid piece of plastic, right? Am I as strange as it might seem? Consider this; How many times has a fire-alarm gone off in a department store and we continue to shop with no regard for our safety? How often do we see warning signs in our relationships with our spouses and our children, and put off action until the timing is better or when we’ve got less on our plate? I would have not seen the warning sign on the seat had I not looked for it. But what good is the warning if I don’t follow it.

Look for the Danger signs in your life. God is faithful and if we look for His direction and remain in His shelter; He will hold to His promises and keep us safe and secure.