a few cool quotes

i just read MacArthur's little book 'Follow Me'. I got it for free, so i gave it a quick read and he did a good job with mini biogrophies about each disciple and how they weren't the popular pick to follow Jesus and what was their hang up. He also mixed in a few cool quotes that we shouldn't forget about:

"Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason- I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other- my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen."
-Martin Luther

"I am not what I ought to be.
I am not what I wish to be.
I am not even what I hope to be.
But by the cross of Christ,
I am not what I was."
- John Newton

"The real measure of our wealth is how much we would be worth if we lost all our money."
- J.H. Jowett

There's Only One- Caedmon's Call

This song has become one of my favorites and i can often seen cruising around belting this out at the top of my lungs. here's the lyrics and at the end i'll put something from a Caedmon's site about the song.



Left his seamless robe behind
Woke up in a stable crying
Lived and died and rose again
Savior for a guilty land


It's a story like a children's tune
And it's grown familiar as the moon
So now I ride my camel high
And I'm aiming for the needle's eye


I chased the wind, but I chased in vain
I chased the earth, but it would not sustain


There's only one who never fails
To beckon the morning light
There's only one who sets loose the gales
And ties the trees down tight
When all around my soul gives way
He is all my hope and stay
There's only one, only one Holy One


Lord, You are my Prince of Peace
But this war brings me to my knees
See there's a table You've prepared
And all my enemies are there
But where my Shepherd leads
Where else can I go
Who else fills my cup till it overflows


There's only one who never fails
To beckon the morning light
There's only one who sets loose the gales
And ties the trees down tight
When all around my soul gives way
He is all my hope and stay
There's only one, only one Holy One


There's only one who never fails
To beckon the morning light
There's only one who sets loose the gales
And ties the trees down tight
To the Solid Rock I fly
Though He bids me come and die
There's only one, only one Holy One


There's only one who never fails
To beckon the morning light
There's only one who sets loose the gales
And ties the trees down tight
When all around my soul gives way
He is all my hope and stay
And there's only one, only one Holy One



"This song came directly out of conversations I had with Danielle about the struggle to live a life that always trusts in Jesus. She had been studying Psalm 23---seeing it in a new light---but reaffirming that no matter how you look at it, only God is God. And at the end of the day, if we believe that, it brings comfort and peace and rest, because the burden of this life is not ours to bear. The music was born out of a Brazillian drum groove that Garett had given me a copy of."

the never ending circle

so a lady at my church is moving and said she might be able to give me a book case and file cabinet. this is good, because i had run out of room and had been wedging books in every which way and had had to bring books into work to store in my office. so we just bought another bookcase, but i have a feeling that room will go quickly. that brought to my mind the evil cycle that books cause. first, you buy books. then you need a bookcase to put them on. Then you see the empty space on the bookcase and have to fill it in by buying more books. but then you run out of space and have to buy another bookcase. its just a never ending cycle that is great, but partly evil.

CORE Week 2005

at my church we do a thing every summer called CORE Week, which is like VBS on steroids for the youth. We totally decorate the youth center into whatever the theme is and put a whole program together. in the past we've done a Noah theme, which was a beach/surfer theme. then we did a PETRA theme which was like Indiana Jones. This year the theme is OUTLAW, and the youth center will be turned into a main street you'd see in the old west. i've seen the plans and they're awesome. if you want to check out the trailer for the movie we're making you can check it out on the youth site! also, www.coreweek.com will have a lot of cool stuff on it.

surviving the lock-in

another lock-in has come and gone, and we can proudly say that there were no hospital visits or rushes for towels and ice to stop bleeding jr highers. while some may say that this would qualify as a failure, i'd accept it as a subtle victory. there's nothing like getting a phone call about a girl going to the doctors and maybe having a detatched retna from being hit in the head in glow-in-the-dark dodgeball.

we rented a bounce-house obstacle course like we always do, but this year we got one that was brand new. it had this big section the kids would race through, going through a tunnel, diving above and below inflated tubes, diving through a hole, scaling a wall, and finally sliding down a big inflatable slide. It was awesome to see the look on the kids faces as they walked into the youth center and saw this enormous inflatable thing filling the whole sanctuary. it was absolutely massive, and the slide part went almost to the ceiling.

the rest of the evening we played games like dodgeball, crab soccer with a large, rubber inflated ball. we played human foosball, had a treasure hunt were i got to run around and hit kids who weren't linked with their team with one of those pool noodles we cut in half. we played capture the flag, socks (a SGUC original where we wrap socks in duct tape and throw them at each other), and played Off With Your Head, which is a game where we rented these suits with big cylander shaped heads velcroed onto these suits and the kids had to knock the opponents head off with their jousting stick. we played Kijabe-kan-kan, where the kids form a circle around a bucket holding ropes and try to pull each other into it. we had a leader round and i cut off the circulation in my pinkie, and the tip of my pinky is still numb from it.

so much fun was had. we had 70 jr highers and they all heard the gospel and pretty much all of them had a great time. as far as the leaders go, we're still recovering from the night, and i have realized that i am now old and can't do anything without being sore in the morning.


if you want to check out the video from the night, go onto the link for the youth site to the right and go to the jr high page!