All Around Me

Here is another song I really like. This one is from Flyleaf's self titled album. All Around Me is a great song that illustrates the feeling you get when you accomplish a personal relationship with god. Here are the lyrics:

My hands are searching for you

My arms are outstretched towards you

I feel you on my fingertips

My tongue dances behind my lips for you

This fire rising through my being

Burning I'm not used to seeing you

I'm alive, I'm alive

I can feel you all around me

Thickening the air I'm breathing

Holding on to what I'm feeling

Savoring this heart that's healing

My hands float up above me

And you whisper you love me

And I begin to fade

Into our secret place

The music makes me sway

The angels singing say we are alone with you

I am alone and they are too with you

And so I cry

The light is white

And I see you

Take my hand

I give it to you

Now you owe me

All I am

You said you would never leave me

I believe you

I believe

TOMS Shoes

I ran across this amazing organization the other day. It is called TOMS Shoes. I wanted to tell everyone about it. Then I found a You Tube video. So here it is, check this out.

I want everyone to buy a pair...or four. I am going to buy a pair for everyone in my family. That is right, even Bradley. They make Mens, Womens, and even Tiny Toms. For 40$ you can have an new, comfortable pair of shoes, and give a new comfortable pair of shoes to a child in a third world country that has never had a shoes before.

Putting Church Into Perspective

One of the blogs that I read is called brokenstainedglass.com. On August 20th, Briggs posted a blog that helps us understand just how much we may take our church life for granted. He posted a quote from a pastor in India talking about dedication:

"Because of the extreme cold we often get sick. When the weather is bad and we don't have warm clothing, it is difficult for us to go outdoors for ministry. We wrap ourselves with thick blankets, which we also use for sleeping. We don't have frequent bus transportation, so we have to walk 11 miles a day for outreach. Even the believers walk 7 miles to attend the worship service..."

Briggs goes on to ask one simple question, "If you had to walk seven miles to church every Sunday would you do it?"

Now, before you answer, read the quote again. Now, what would you do?

Plain White T's

This bad has been around for a few years now. Now, if you listen to the radio, I am sure you have heard their song ''Hey There Delilah." A while back, Christy asked me if I had heard it. She tried to explain the song, but I had no idea what she was talking about. I don't listen to the radio, at all. I hate all the overkill and commercials. But, that is for another blog post some time. Anyway, I finally heard the song the other day, only because the guys at work listen to XM Satellite Radio. I didn't think the song was too bad. I looked up the lyrics.

I am going to start doing this a lot. I love music. I listen to wide range in genres. So I thought I would start posting the lyrics. Some of the songs have really good lyrics.

Here are the lyrics to Hey There Delilah:

Hey there Delilah

What's it like in New York City?

I'm a thousand miles away

But girl tonight you look so pretty

Yes you do

Time Square can't shine as bright as you

I swear it's true

Hey there Delilah

Don't you worry about the distance

I'm right there if you get lonely

Give this song another listen

Close your eyes

Listen to my voice it's my disguise

I'm by your side

Oh it's what you do to me

What you do to me

Hey there Delilah

I know times are getting hard

But just believe me girl

Someday I'll pay the bills with this guitar

We'll have it good

We'll have the life knew we would

My word is good

Hey there Delilah

I've got so much left to say

If every simple song I wrote to you

Would take your breath away

I'd write it all

Even more in love with me you'd fall

We'd have it all

A thousand miles seems pretty far

But they've got planes and trains and cars

I'd walk to you if I had no other way

Our friends would all make fun of use

and we'll just laugh along because we know

That none of them have felt this way

Delilah I can promise you

That by the time we get through

The world will never ever be the same

and you're to blame

Hey there Delilah

You be good and don't you miss me

Two years and you'll be done with school

And I'll be making history like I do

You'll know it's all because of you

We can do whatever we want to

Hey there Delilah here's to you

This ones for you

PK 07

What a great weekend. I don't think I could have asked for anything better. Going up to Fresno is not what I would call a lot of fun. However, if you can go up there with a great think in mind. Fresno isn't really that bad. So, after only about hour and half in the car with some guys, we were parking in the Save Mart Center parking lot. The Friday night part of the show went from about 7:30 until 11:30. They had two speakers during that four hour block along with the host of the conference and the Worship band. One of the speakers was a guy named Bob Cornuke. This guy is the original "Indiana Jones". He found the four anchors from the Shipwreck of Paul. I bought a couple of his books and had him sign them. The other speaker was a comedian. His name was Brad Stine. All I can say about this man is phenomenal. He has a very in your face type of comedy. Not something you see normally in a Christian comedian.

Friday night the conference, instead of staying in a hotel, all of the guys from the church brought sleeping bags and we slept in one of the churches there in Fresno. I have to say, the older you get, the harder it is to sleep on the floor. I think I should have taken my dads advise and brought a pad to sleep on.

We got up Saturday morning, had some breakfast, and made our way to the second half of the conference. This half was more of the same. Speakers, and lots of Worship. Brad Stine did another set too. We all left about one o'clock. Everyone seemed to be on cloud nine. All in all the entire weekend was amazing. I when with some great guys and had a blast. I just want to say thank you to Mark and Richard for a great trip. I hope you had as much fun as I did.

Weekend Away!!

I found this picture the other day. That is too funny. I thought I would use it with this post. I am leaving for the Promise Keepers tomorrow morning. I am going with a few guys from the church. I have to say thank you to Mike and Marilyn (Christy's mom dad) for buying my ticket. This should be a great weekend. It does help that I should be at work through the weekend. I will post after I get back with how it turns out.

I also want to add a couple other things. One, I still have not received the final word on school yet. I am getting a bit impatient. Class starts September 3rd and I need to get my books ordered. Have I ever mentioned that I hate to wait. Yeah, really hate to wait.

And the last thing. I have a friend of mine, Damon. He is writing a book, Dark Angel. he posts a new chapter every month. I have been reading along with the posts. I have to say, really good. I think he has something with this little endeavor. Follow that link and check it out. I think you will like it.

Velvet Elvis

I just finished this one. Velvet Elvis is the first book Rob Bell wrote. It is a book about Repainting The Christian Faith. I would recommend it to anyone. If you are trying to find your faith, already have your faith, or just want to read something about faith. This is the book for you.

Rob uses an old painting of Elvis he has in his basement as the inspiration for this book. Here is snippet from the introduction.

I am learning that what seems brand new is often the discovery of something that's been there all along- it just got lost somewhere and it needs to be picked up, dusted off, and reclaimed. I am learning that I come from a tradition that has wrestled with the deepest questions of human existence for thousands of years. I am learning that my tradition includes the rabbis and reformers and revolutionaries and monks and nuns and pastors and writers and philosophers and artists and every person everywhere who has asked big questions of a big God. Welcome to my Velvet Elvis.

The whole book was great. It was a quick read, and that is saying something coming from me. I think a snail could slid its way through a marathon before I could... well, I think you get the point.

I See A Clearing

Well, I know it has been a while sense my last post. Going into the last week, I had six days off coming to me. Lets just say, I didn't get six days off.

The all started on Friday. It was Christys birthday. That afternoon, we sent the kids off to their grandmas and grandpas and went to dinner. Christy wanted to go have a steak. We went to Tahoe Joes and spent more money on dinner than I have ever spent. Just shy of one hundred bucks... for two people. I can't complain, she had fifty of that covered with a gift from her mom and dad. Thanks guys. After dinner, we went to see I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. I have to say, everyone needs to go see that movie. It was one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time.

Saturday morning comes around, and I turn over and kiss my wife and wish her a happy anniversary. That's right, our one year was August 11th. See, I was smart, I made sure that the two most important dates I have to remember right next to each other. Now I can't forget them. For Christy's birthday I got her the movie Hot Fuzz. If you ever saw Shaun of the Dead, you will love this movie. We got up and and went to breakfast, then came home and watched Hot Fuzz. After that, Bradley came home.

Sunday morning, we went to church. Right after church I had to go build a fence. That's right, build a fence. The fence took the rest of Sunday and all day Monday. I didn't get home until ten o'clock Monday night. I does look amazing if I do say so myself. Then, Tuesday and Wednesday Christy had to work, so I stayed home with the kids. Just let me say, I love to be with boys, but after that week I just had, I was so tired I could barley stay awake.

Now that the week is coming to an end, I can see a bit of rest coming. I still have to work through the weekend, but I don't mind. I have Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off next week. I go back to work on Thursday, then I have Friday and Saturday off. I am going to Promise Keepers in Fresno with a group of guys from church. It should be a lot of fun. I will let you know when I get back.

The Bonds Home Run... Sorry, I Had To

There it is, the asterisk. The one think standing in the way of anyone wanting to set a new record in sports. I know, I'm a little late to be jumping on this bandwagon. I am going into this post completely aware of that. I know everyone has been talking about this from the day McGuire hit his big home run.

The other day I was reading through one of my favorite blogs, Burnside Writers Blog. I found a post written by Aaron Donley called The Shrinking of Our Heroes. Here is a little something he wrote.

"frankly, I can’t tell you how incredibly disappointed I am with the whole situation. You see, as a youngster I’m thankful I had the opportunity to have positive role models. Legends you could watch and look up too with admiration, hoping someday to mimic if even a bit of their greatness in your own life. True greats you would watch over and over again in slow motion replays of their glory days with glossy eyed admiration for their personal determination and fortitude. Yet today, I’m afraid my own son will not have the same opportunity I had to view such untainted greatness."

It really got me thinking about this whole asterisk business. After reading Aarons blog, two phrases stand out to me; positive role models and untainted greatness. Let us take the first one for a minute and elaborate. Positive role model means just that, positive. Why would any parent, in there right mind, want to let their kids watch people like Bonds on TV. You are basically sending the message that you think it is okay for people to use steroids to enhance their personal performance. I go out of my way to change the channel when Bonds is on. I don't care if it is a highlight clip, a game, or a commercial. He doesn't get airtime in my house.

I don't care if Bonds said he didn't use enhancement drugs. He did or still does and that is all there is to it. I'm sorry, you don't go from hitting 49 home runs in one season to 72 in the next without a bit of help. Sure, he hasn't hit more that 46 in seasons following 2001. However, if you remember, promptly after his 72 home runs he went under investigation for enhancement drug use. I will just leave it at that.

Which leads me to the other point, untainted greatness. There will never be anyone greater in the history of sports than the Babe Ruths and Hank Aarons'. They achieved their records with what God gave them, not with performance enhancement vitamins, shakes and drugs. No matter how much effort is put into it, greatness will never follow tainted.

So I say, yes, hats off to you Barry Bonds. I am sure you worked very hard for your achievements. But, you will never be the heroic legend of the great Hank Aaron.

He's Three Months

Sex God

Okay, stop! No that is not what this book is about. Now, pick your mind up out of the gutter.

I just finished this book, written by Rob Bell. Exploring the endless connections between sexuality and spirituality is the concept of the book. I must say, this is a great book. I would recommend this book to anyone. With chapters like; God Wears Lipstick; Leather, Whips, and Fruit; and Whoopee Forever, you can see why your mind might run in the direction of the gutter.

And no, it is not that type of book. Here is a definition of the book from the introduction by the author:

"Because this is really about that. It's always about something else. Something deeper. Something behind it all. You can't talk about sexuality without talking about how we were made. And that will inevitably lead you to who made us. At some point you have to talk about God. Sex. God. They're connected. And they can't be separated. Where the one is, you will always find the other. This is a book about how sexuality is the 'this' and spirituality is the 'that'. To make sense of the one, we have to explore the other. And that is what this book is about."

All in all, this is a remarkable book and suggest everyone read it. It has a great deal of scripture that he breaks down rather well. Also, Rob teaches a good deal of Greek work definitions that are used in the bible.

Road Blocks Suck

I tell you what, it never fails. Every time I try getting a bit closer to completing the enrollment process at Grand Canyon, something else comes up. I just want to go back to school. Everything was running along great until I hit a snag. I had been wanting the company to send the money they would send me for tuition reimbursement, directly to the school. Not a bad idea if you ask me, it would cut out the middle man. The company won't do that. All of the money has to come to me, then I have to send it to the school. Okay, that is fine. Not a big problem. Hold it, yes, that is a problem. Seeing that I don't have an extra $1125.00 every two months, I have to take out student loans to cover the tuition. Now, that money from the student loan gets sent to the school. Then after the class, I have to submit my tuition reimbursement so that the company will send the money to me. Then I have to send that money to Sallie Mae to pay off the loan I withdrew two months earlier.

Now I ask this small question. Does that sound logical in any way? I think not.

So, the saga continues in my quest to inch this little butt of mine back to school.

A Great Ethics Question

There is a blog that I like to read written by a guy named Kevin. His blog page is the one that I found the blograte thing on. His post today, asked a very good ethics question. I wanted to share it with you. Here it is:

"One of your best friends has struggled with alcholism, but has been clean for 2 years. He is a Christian, and has just recently starting getting drunk again. Your desire is to once again walk closely with him and try to help him. The elders in your church are asking that you disassociate from him because he is defaming the name of Christ with his behavior (he has been warned of this step if he fell again). What are you going to do? Are you going to follow your heart, and walk with your friend? Doing so will result in willfully defying your spiritual authority under the covering of your leaders. Will you obey your leaders and disassociate from your friend? Doing so will result in breaking your conscious about what you should do for your friend. What do you do?"

So, I post this blog as a question to everyone. What would you do in this situation? Leave me comment and let me know. I will post my decision a bit later.

Okay Then...

Well, I guess this proves my boring factor.

Am I truly this boring or am I imagining it.