On the evils of money.

“It makes monkeys lie!”
-Lauren S.

Example.

Also Google or Wiki search for Chantek the Orangutan for more fascinating stories.

Follow the leader.

Here’s a little nugget of wisdom from Brad Cooper, Student Pastor at NewSpring Church.

“You cant lead people to where you aren’t going…. (that’d be called ‘telling’ not ‘leading’)… I learned how to play ‘follow the leader‘ at a young age…  i get frustrated when im asked to play ‘follow the teller‘…. “

Wow.  That really extends a sharp tongue to all leaders and would-be leaders out there.  Being a leader is just that, leading; taking the first steps and treading the ground before anyone else.  It’s the leaders’ responsibility to gauge the situation, via observation and experience, and bring his followers in behind him, boldly and with confidence.

Get yo’ Muxtape on.

I finally decided to add songs to my Muxtape™.

If you don’t know what that is, go check it out. It’s an online mixtape that you create and can listen to anywhere! Pretty neat.

Here’s mine.

Share your Muxtape™ link by commenting here.

Dream a bigger dream.

I always want what I can’t have. I want the impossible.

And, when I realize that there’s nothing I can say or do to get it, I generally give up.

There’s a big problem in that, and I don’t think I am alone here.  I think here lately that God is showing me, day-in and day-out, that I’ll never be able to work my way toward things I want. Wanting impossible things, I feel, is exactly what God wants me to want for.

It’s in those things that God can show out. He can part the seas. He can bring down the wall. He can conquer the grave.

If I give up on my pursuits, having never taken my wants and desires to God – what does that say about my view of God? I’m glad that I’ve realized this and taken everything to Him, even selfish things. If He can create a universe, He can sort out my needs and wants along with my motives and His will.

How big is your God?

2008 Book Journal – Update

I decided in mid-February that I didn’t read enough and that had to change.Here’s a list of what I’ve read so far in 2008. I’ll update this each time I finish a new book.

1. Crowded Skies: Letters to Manhattan – Tara Leigh Cobble
2. Blue Like Jazz – Donald Miller
3. Cows – Matthew Stokoe
4. The Screwtape Letters – C.S. Lewis
5. House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski (3/21)
6. Outer Dark – Cormac McCarthy (3/22)
7. A Dozen Black Roses – Nancy A. Collins (3/25)

I’m starting a Joe R. Landsdale novel today or tomorrow.

Does anyone have any “must read” fiction, classical or modern, it really doesn’t make a difference.  I’m considering some Philip K. Dick or maybe even Franz Kafka next, but I’d love to hear what books you loved so much everyone should read them.

Christian responsibilty

“Christian work can actually be a means of diverting a person’s focus away from Jesus Christ. Instead of being friends “of the bridegroom,” we may become amateur providences of God to someone else, working against Him while we use His weapons.“

-Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, March 25
Also available in book form.

“Pardon me while I burst into flames,”

Not just a line from an Incubus song, but also what many Christians believe is the result of simply asking questions like the ones I’m about to.

Does God not speak anymore?

Is the Bible simply God’s way of saying, “I’ve said my piece. There’s nothing more to say.”?

Is not God’s Word “living and active” as Paul wrote? Did Paul not also write that God’s Word “is at work in you who believe.“?

I’m just curious as to when God’s Word became bound in leather and black and white. When did God’s Word become ink and paper instead of life?

It just seems to me that there are way too many people consumed in knowing what the Bible says, and holding that to be the only thing God ever said. What then of the Holy Spirit? Of the Helper Jesus promised on several occasions?

Does the Holy Spirit not reveal Truth?

If it’s not in the pages of the Bible, then what? Does God stand silent today? I think the actions of many may give a life and truth to Nietzsche’s quote here:

“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it? “

Freidrich Nietzsche – The Gay Science

To confine God to your idea of God would, in fact, require you to be God. Do you not agree?

I think it’s best if we all just let God be God. I’m far too busy being a sinner to handle His affairs, but maybe you’re better at time management than I.

2008 Book Journal

I decided in mid-February that I didn’t read enough and that had to change.Here’s a list of what I’ve read so far in 2008. I’ll update this each time I finish a new book.

1. Crowded Skies: Letters to Manhattan – Tara Leigh Cobble
2. Blue Like Jazz – Donald Miller
3. Cows – Matthew Stokoe
4. The Screwtape Letters – C.S. Lewis
5. House of Leaves – Mark Z. Danielewski (3/21)
6. Outer Dark – Cormac McCarthy (3/22)

If you have any books or authors you would suggest, please, comment here and let me know. I’m planning to read more Cormac McCarthy, some Faulkner and Palahniuk, and C.S. Lewis.

Finally, Lee McD has come to iTunes!

Yes! Friend and NewSpring Worship Leader, Lee McDerment’s album, A Matchlight In The Dark is finally available for download at iTunes.

A Matchligt In The Dark is also the number one selling CD at Digstation.

You can also purchase the CD at CDBaby.com or the Resource Center at NewSpring Church.

Yes, it is a worship CD, but it’s heavy and good! Seriously, what other “Jesus” music have you heard played in tunings like C#? Check it out – it’s freakin’ awesome!

Forming your own opinion…

…based upon your actual experience and/or application.

This seems to be a common thread lately.

Perry just posted a blog – 13 Reasons to Show Up at NewSpring On Easter… You can view all 13 by following the link; however, I wanted to point out this one:

#11 – To finally form your own opinion of what happens at NewSpring instead of adopting those of others who have never darkened the doors.

A little application of the ol’ Scientific Method may just help some folks stand above the wave of morons who’ve simply subscribed to hear-say.