who'd have guessed?

so we were watching the trailer for the desiring God national pastor's conference (i wish i could be there, but we'll just watch the videos when they're on the web :)). i'm particularly excited for sinclair ferguson and mark driscoll. the irony? as we watched the trailer, i said, "hey, you know what that background music is, don't you?" sadly, neither matt nor mike could tell. matt has the excuse of being just a wee lad who's perhaps too young to remember... mike, however, he was at a bunch of the concerts with me!!! i guess i'm on the cusp of popular culture...



can you tell what it is? here's a beautiful bootleg that brings back so many memories...

you've got alot of nothing to say
you've got alot of hate to spray
you've got alot of nothing to say
yet your life is the meaning of temporary

on the significance of names...

so last wednesday was that annual occurrence when i say to my quiz team... "alright guys, saturday's the first quiz and we've gotta come up with a name!"

everybody started flippin' through luke and we came up with a few interesting ideas... but finally settled on one we were pleased with "sawdust in your brother's eye." now is the time to put that name to good use - the marketing, the quality quizzing, the application...

since allison's already started on the artwork portion, i've been kinda meditating on the application part (since that's the part that's my strength... ok - i like doing the artwork, too) - and i was just thinking back on last year's team and the way it turned out...

onesiphorus. yeah, we settled on that one cause daniel was learning 2 timothy 1, and he said "that sounds like a refreshing dinosaur." real deep. but definitely the kind of logic that could not be defeated at the annual naming conference! (yeah, we all have a kinda warped sense of humor). so throughout the year, our team graffiti tended to be a picture of a poorly drawn dinosaur taking a shower (remember, i had two years of college in an art related field! - and somehow the hand gesture became a sort of shower head motion with the arm and hand). the shirts we made came out pretty sweet and unique, and the shower caps that we wore for the tournament and championship quiz DEFINITELY caused us to sweat!

still, my favorite part was the application... and how'd it come about? bad language skills! onesiphorus... not necessarily easy to say, even tougher to spell... so to help out scorekeepers, i started to pronounce it (wun see for us)... well, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that there are two numbers in there... 1 & 4... and that si is "yes" in spanish... and us, well, that's a plural pronoun. so one day in our team devotion time i shared this verse:

"for all the promises of God find their Yes in Him [Jesus Christ]. that is why through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory." 2 corinthians 1:20

there's only 1 si 4 us! it's Jesus! He is the Yes to all the promises of God :) so cool - such a big thought sparked by our wackiness.

hopefully, the sawdust'll take us in a meaningful direction as well!




well, time to get to studying luke...

i like lists (and alliteration)...

our pastor began a series on sunday entitled "back to basics" - about practical things that we do as christians to grow in a life of godliness. well, sunday's messages were about worship - and the real thinker for me came from the statement, "your worship determines your witness" - ie. what i value, treasure, esteem is what i talk about the most... (chew on that one)

the Scripture for the morning message was 1 chronicles 16:23-30 which is part of david's song of thanks when the ark was brought back to jerusalem... what really grabbed me in that passage was the idea of God being praised in "all the earth" and "among the nations" (see previous post "praying for the nations") - how do the nations come to worship Him? through our witness... what is the source of our witness? OUR WORSHIP!

as i glanced back through the entire song of thanks... i noticed that i had numbered stuff at the beginning of it (i like to number lists), 14 imperatives (fancy english class word for commands) that i have spent the last couple of days meditating on:

oh give thanks to the LORD;
call upon His name;
make known His deeds among the peoples!
sing to Him;
sing praises to Him;
tell of all His wondrous works!
glory in His holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!
seek the LORD
and [seek] His strength;
seek His presence continually!
remember the wondrous works that He has done,
[remember] His miracles
and [remember] the judgments He uttered,
2 Chronicles 16:8-12

teach me, O Lord, to worship You aright that the nations may know of Your name! (beginning with my neighborhood)

i walked down the street...

so last november, i moved to my own place (next to my grandparents - to be closer to them when they need stuff and to help them out). of course, this new place is in town, which is quite a change for me... i'm used to my neighbors being pretty much all relatives or cows!

now, it would probably surprise some people just how much of an introvert i am... cause i can totally come out of my shell in situations where i'm comfortable or in ministry situations where i sort of "force outgoing."

anyway, sunday morning was a first for me... i got up early before sunday school and church and just walked down my street. (which was pretty cool cause the river was covered with fog - did i mention that i live right on the river? - and i saw a great blue heron sitting on a rock down by the shore) - but honestly - i was a little nervous about taking that walk. why? there were PEOPLE in those houses... who might SEE me!

so i sit back now and think "wow, what a chicken" (not the first time i've thought of myself in that manner... lol) - and praying "God give me opportunities to reach out to those PEOPLE... my neighbors..."

"for God did not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power, of love and of self-discipline." 2 tim. 1:7

oh, and by the way, who came to speak in sunday school and church... a young missionary serving in east berlin... who shared how much he and his wife have been stretched out of their comfort zones there - but amazed at the opportunities that God has opened up! :)

gotta love our thematic God!