Songs of the Luke Warm Church

...from my friend Ray Comfort :)


1. Blest Be The Tie That Doesn't Cramp
My Style

2. Pillow of Ages, Fluffed for Me

3. I Surrender Some

4. I'm Fairly Certain That My Redeemer Lives

5. Sit Up, Sit Up For Jesus

6. Take My Life and Let Me Be

7. What An Acquaintance We Have In Jesus

8. Where He Leads Me, I Will Consider Following

9. He's Quite a Bit To Me

10.Oh, How I Like Jesus

11. Fill My Spoon, Lord

12. It Is My Secret What God Can Do

The last few weeks

Ashley's Wedding

So one of my best friends got married a few weekends ago, Ashley Anderson, now Ashley Jones. This was one of the most fun weddings. Ashley had asked me to drive the photographer around all weekend and kinda be there to video him doing his thing. His name is David Edmonson and this guy was good. It was really neat to be around someone who had such a talent for photography. He has done a lot of the photos for bands like Jars of Clay, Third Day, Mercy Me etc. We had a great time and it was neat to see what happens on the other side of the camera and how he set up shots etc.

Back to the wedding. It was so fun to be around people that I haven't seen in a while. The rehearsal dinner is always my favorite and I just love hearing everyone talk and their stories of fun times and their encouraging words to the couple. I just love it. The reception was another fun part, we danced for hours! It seemed that everyone was dancing, even the old people! We left the reception and went out to dance for a few more hours, I just love fun times. Also you can find Ashley's wedding book here, wow, talk about awesome.

And another one here.

I also went down to Brookgreen Gardens to visit my family for Thanksgiving. We have had our dinner there for the past few years. If you are ever near Myrtle Beach and you enjoy nature, you must stop by! My cousin Mike surprised us with some oysters he went to the ocean to get. MMMM. I love them. Some of the pictures below might disturb you.

Thanksgiving 2006

Fueled Up and Ready to Go

I feel like the rocket is fueled, the food has been stored in a nice little compartment, I'm ready for the trip. I am nice and seat-belted in, but God is up there in the control tower and He has started this extremely long count-down!

Have you ever felt like that? I keep reminding myself that Jesus didn't really start his full-time ministry until he was around 30. He spent many years just being a working man and living among people and was one of them. I am going to give a schedule of what I would like to have one day, this should be fun...

1....wake up, pray with my wife (hint hint God), go read, then head to the airport
2...arrive at airport, buy something fatty and strike up a conversation with someone and share with them.
3...arrive at destination city, speak to a group of people who will leave and go out and share their faith...go have dinner with some of those people, get to know each other, have a good time. Go to sleep.
4...wake up next morning and jump in a cab, do a radio show interview with Todd Friel, and head back to the airport (and hopefully get to share with the cab driver)
5...get to airport, do it all over again, but this time, try a different kinda muffin or fatty doughnut.
6...have a hot wife waiting at the airport who loves me and wants to have about 3-4 kids and maybe adopt 1 :)
7....have dinner with that same hot wife who loves Jesus and see what happened while I was gone. I would also like to end dinner with a fat piece of cheesecake.
8...step 8 has been intentionally left blank. :)

Response to "Bullhorn Guy" Video by NOOMA

I have been a fan of some of the NOOMA videos since I discovered them about a year ago. One problem I have with some of them is the "Jesus Loves You" type of reaching people. Basically, sitting and listening to someone without ever really telling them the truth of the gospel. It's one thing to listen to people and show them that you care, but it's another thing to willingly not share with them for fear that they will not like you.

You just gotta laugh

So last night I went up to Winthrop to speak at their FCA. Beforehand we met at Zaxby's and I actually tried the grilled cheese. I have been against the grilled cheese for a long time, only because it is expensive and I just can't see paying for it! Anyway, FCA insisted paying for my meal and I wasn't that hungry (imagine that) so I had the grilled cheese. It was quite wonderful :)

So we left and went over to FCA. We played ping pong a little while and then I ended up meeting a guy there and we struck up a conversation. We had many things in common, he liked editing videos and doing things with sound, and he also was a magician on the side. So we talked about illusions and fun tricks, it was a good conversation. He needed some voiceover help for his magic show videos and I am very willing to help. So I went up to speak and talked about evangelism, imagine that. I have felt in the past few years to equip believers in evangelism. Most of the church today just seems really inefficient and the whole "invite someone to church" mentality is not Biblical! I just want people to see that they can be the church to the world and it's not about bringing people back into the huddle and assimilating them. After I spoke and FCA was over, the guy I met at the beginning walked up to me smiling. He hadn't realized that I was going to be the speaker that night and said, "there was a reason that you and I bumped into each other and started talking." I laughed and agreed. He ended up pouring his heart out and asking tough questions about Catholicism etc. He had grown up Catholic and then ended up leaving to become a Mormon. After some time there, he started reading the Bible for himself and realized he was in a cult. Now he is a believer and is living for the Lord. He started asking about prayer to Mary and is that right? This guy was realizing that a lot of his friends were not Christians. Something just kinda came over our conversation right in the middle of it, and we both started praying. It might sound a little strange, but it was quite amazing. I just loves those times when you know the Lord is right there with you and is speaking through you. So I got home last night and sent him lots of good information, convenient in God's plan, He had me listening to sermons on prayer to Mary etc the week before, He knows what He is doing!

So I leave FCA and I was pretty much on cloud 9. I really believe I went there last night just to be encouraged by that man and to encourage him. So I'm driving down a long long highway for about an hour with no radio just really being all spiritual you know. haha. You know those times when you just sit there and don't do anything, just sit in silence and awe that you serve a good God! Well right as I'm in this thought, I realize that I'm still on earth and there are speed limits. Yes, blue lights in my rear view. Ouch. He asks me if I was in a hurry and I told him that I was in my own world and didn't even realize I was doing 65 in a 35. He asked where I was coming from, "sir I am embarrassed to tell you that I just got back from speaking at an FCA." He laughed and said "ah man sometimes even police officers speed, but you just know that the state troopers out there will write you a ticket." He also told me that there were many deer on the road, he let me go :)

Of course, I left with that feeling you get and a deeper understanding of Grace! I was speaking with a friend on the telephone and we were talking about picking people up on the side of the road. I just love it. Well I kid you not, as soon as I get off the phone, I pull over to get gas. This guy walks right up to me at the pump and guess what he needs, a RIDE! I just laughed out loud and told him that I just got off the phone with a friend and we were talking about people on the side of the road. I told him to jump in my Jeep and conveniently he lived about 2-3 miles down the road from me in Pendleton. Are you telling me that God doesn't plan things out? Man. We had a good conversation and I dropped him off.

I can't wait for a day when I can have this kinda life on a day to day basis instead of a month to month! Eternity is always around the corner.

A good talk

Lately I have been learning about encouragement and its many forms. I have never really considered myself a great "personal" encourager. I feel like I have the ability to encourage large groups but really fail at encouraging people singular. After becoming a part of a local church, I've met people who are so good at encouragement and I've just learned so much through it. It can come in the form of words directly spoken to encourage or in a good talk. Lee and I talked about 2 hours last night and when I woke up this morning, I thought about how great of a talk it was and how much more encouraged I was. It's funny how when the Lord chooses to teach you something, He just goes for it in multiple cases. For me, He tells me something and then He will confirm it over and over, and over.

I also have just started listening to John MacArthur's Podcast and absolutely love it. He's one of the best teachers I've heard in a while and if you dig great teaching and not so much the "topical" sermons, he is your guy. I feel like when I listen to topical sermons, it seems like you hear the same stuff over and over, just packaged in a different theme or style. Of course there is always debate over that one but I think this sums it up best. "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime." Expository preaching teaches you how to really understand and open the Bible. I will say that topical type teaching is awesome for a new believer but there comes a point as Peter says that you must move on the meat and get away from the milk. I'm going to head up to the big Winthrop to speak at fca tomorrow, I've got lots of things on my heart, we'll see if the thoughts come out.

Booger eater is back!

So many of you will call me disgusting as you should.  But I must share this story.  A few weeks ago, I told a story of a guy eating boogers right in front of me!  So I will give him the benefit of the doubt in that he may not have realized he went straight from his nose to his mouth and then followed up with a finger roll.  A finger roll is what you do after you eat Kentucky Fried Chicken or Zaxby's.  It's when you lick all of your fingers and enjoy every ounce of it.  Well today, the booger eater returned.  There was a different strategy this time though, he didn't eat a booger.  Honestly, I don't know what he was eating.  He would play with his face then proceed to lick his fingers.  Okay, so I couldn't even stop watching him, I really just wanted to interrupt this person, but how do you do that?

"Excuse me sir, I notice that you have been eating boogers and other random things on your body, are you hungry?"  There is no easy way to do this so I will sit idly by and continue to watch this guy enjoy random things that he does.  It's amazing and I am just so wishing there was someone close to me that I could tell so they could see it is true.  Don't call me mean, YOU know you would do the same thing! 

So on to better things that actually mean something.  Church was awesome this morning and usually things go pretty smoothly, not today.  The video died and I couldn't get any of the words to display on the screen, most of the words were about 2 verses behind what they should be, we had some major software problems.  In all of that, I really just sat there kinda laughing outside and on the inside in that, I'm glad the Lord does not depend on everything we do to be perfect.  I'm glad He can use broken video, broken hearts, and really just broken people to do His will.  It's quite amazing.

Father Appointed Consequences

I've never really believed in coincidences. I believe the Lord appoints these times and if coincidences are real, then he created them :) I always feel like I'm changing God's will when I change my seat on an airplane. I am tall and I like to have a seat that is in the emergency exit or aisle. Well today, I changed my seat and I had that thought of...well God what if you really wanted me to sit in 46E? Ha, not really but you get my point.

I ended up sitting beside a woman that was friendly. She invited me to share a armrest with her. I usually try and strike up conversation on the plane but after a long week of work, I was beat. I really just wanted to lay back and sleep. I ended up waking myself up and she told me I had been snoring, then she said, "just kidding." We ended up having a really good conversation about the Lord and probably talked about 45 minutes. It was really neat in that we both shared things with each other that really encouraged both of us. I told her about witnessing and evangelism and she told me about dating, life, and marriage. I left the plane and the conversation just full of joy and felt good about life. It's amazing had I not changed my seat or went to sleep the whole time in the new seat, I would have missed out on a blessing.

Just a little Snack

So I woke up this morning to get ready to head back home.  Well this is where I must confess that I ate a huge piece of bread pudding with a special syrup w/ pecans and BlueBelle Icecream on top.  I'm talking like...right now, I want to eat all of it but it is about the size of a 1/2 acre.  I know that if I do eat all of it, it will cause some havoc in my stomach right in the middle of a flight.  And THAT is the worst feeling.  So I think I am going to throw it away, whew....done.

I also saw a story yesterday about people, like you and me, who eat out the garbage.  They are called Freegans.  They go to grocery stores and dig in their trash for food.  Now they can afford to buy food but they don't want to cause waste and are upset at the people who do.  It was interesting story.  One guy has lived out of the trash for 10 years!  They go and dig it out, take it home, clean it, and then cook it for a meal.  Amazing. 

RightGuard

So something gross happened the other day.  Usually I am not a big "sweater."  I can do a lot of work and I rarely sweat.  Well, the other day something different happened.  I am down in Tampa this week teaching a few classes and for some unknown reason, I was a sweat pit stained guy.  Right in the middle of teaching a class, I happened to see that I was sweating.  Well what does that mean?  That means that I didn't want to raise my arms up the whole time I was teaching.  It was a really strange feeling and I'm sure I looked weird.  I'm not sure what was up with my PH that day but it was bad.  But I didn't smell funny, I just had a lot of sweat.  Well, I finished teaching my class and came back to the hotel and changed.  I added RightGuard onto my grocery list at the hotel.  It was nice, when I came in, my two bottles of RightGuard were waiting on me :)  Is that what it's like to be married?  Send in the list and there it goes :)

More from Halloween

So every year we have to dress up at work and pass out candy to our entire company. This is what we had to do this year :)

Halloween at Work

Before Bed

Lord help me cipher this heart out, I think I have the outer pieces, just can't figure the middle out.

Proverbs 20:5
"The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters,
       but a man of understanding draws them out."