Have you ever had a moment where God's greatness is revealed in something totally ordinary? It's like a light switch goes on inside that "that something" that is so ordinary is actually quite "extraordinary".

Maybe I'm just weird, and I think too much, I don't know. But this morning, I woke up and there was a marine layer of clouds. This is quite normal in Southern California to all of my Midwestern readers. You guys more often get "fog".



Anyhow, for some reason as I was thinking about the weather, and the nuances of clouds, and ocean, and mountains, and the sun, and the earth's axis, and the earth's distance from the sun, I was awestruck. I was awestruck at God's creativity, that he placed that earth in such a perfect place in the Universe, that we can have a cool morning, and a marine layer of clouds. All of the details that go into allowing that to happen just overwhelmed me.

Like I said, maybe I'm just weird. But the more I learn about the Universe, and its vastness, the more I think it speaks about the greatness of my God.

Labels: Wonder

Man, today I feel like I'm going to blow a fuse. I'm not sure how it happens. It sneaks up on me. At my day job, I work in a fast paced environment. Everything is on a schedule, everything is behind schedule, and everybody wants it yesterday.

I had a phone call this morning with a customer who was impatient, rude, and condescending. It set me off, and made me say things about the guy in front my co-workers that I regret. Why did I let him get to me? I hate it when I do that. Better for me to just laugh the miserable dude off and wish him a better day instead of talking bad about him.

I need a deep breath, a diet Coke, and more importantly, Grace. I need grace, and I need to react in grace to others. If, in fact, I call myself a Christian, a "little Christ", I should act more like Him. But I can't do it in my own power.

My prayer today is for His power to work in me, because my strength just isn't enough.

Labels: Christian Life

My wife and I will be leading worship at the Pomona Vineyard this weekend, which is our neighboring church down the 210 freeway. We are looking forward to worshiping together with them. Here is our set list for Sunday.

• Alleluia (Sheri Carr / Stand In Awe / VMUSA)
• Everlasting God (Brenton Brown)
• All I have (Tim Dobbelmann, Gabriel Brennan, Nate Brennan/ Stand In Awe /VMUSA)
• More Than A Friend (Jeremy Riddle / VMUSA / Just Like Heaven)
• Glory In The Highest (Chris Tomlin / See The Morning)
• Ministry: Rescue (Jared Anderson /Vertical Music)

Labels: Set Lists, Worship Leading

Church plans services at Manchester comedy club
By Regine Labossiere, The Hartford Courant | July 7, 2007

MANCHESTER, Conn. --A comedy club is a place to find a few laughs ... and God?

So say the leaders of St. Paul's Collegiate Church, a post-denominational congregation in Storrs. So, starting in August, the church will hold Monday night services at The Hartford Funny Bone, a comedy club in The Shoppes at Buckland Hills.

"Faith just got funnier" reads a press release about the new service. And a church leader is quoted as saying, "We sense that a Monday night service in a comedy club at the mall might be just the thing for people who like Jesus but don't like the church."

Ashley Capozzoli, director of membership and connections for the church, called the idea refreshing.

"A lot of times, churches are off the beaten path for people," she said. "I think it's exciting for it to be in the midst of a really bustling area where people are going anyway."

Read the rest at the Boston Globe

I love this idea! I love the idea of taking church to where the people are.

Labels: Christian Life

Here's the set list for tomorrow at the Live Oak Vineyard. My wifey will be co-leading with Milk. Our buddy, Jerod can't make it tomorrow, so I'll set in on guitar for him.

• Famous One (Jessie Reeves & Chris Tomlin/Sixsteps)
• Holy, Holy (Nathen Fellingham...as done by Tim Hughes)
• More Than A Friend (Jeremy Riddle/VMUSA/Varietal)
• Surrender (Marc James/VMUK)
• All Hail Jesus (James Hellings/VMUK/VMUSA)

Labels: Set Lists, Worship Leading

The Dad-in-law took me to see the Dodgers/Braves game tonite, and it rocked. The Dodgers squeaked out a win, 7-6 in a long and drawn out game! Good times. Tonite they had a special celebration to commemorate the fact that 175,000,000 people have gone to see the Dodgers play baseball.

I guess I'm one-in-one-hundred-and-seventy-five-million.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun Independence Day.

Labels: Leisure, Sports

The iPhone craze is upon us! But I'm not buying in. I never got an iPOD, mostly because I'm a techno-geek and I just can't buy a device for $300 that is destined to have a hard disk failure after 24 months and doesn't have a user serviceable battery. Nope, the Sansdisk Sansa with it's $20 user-serviceable battery is for me!

Now the iPhone is out, and Apple has once again built the thing so that you can't replace the battery easily. C|Net reports that a battery change will cost $85 bucks or so.

How long before Sandisk designs the SansWire? I'll want one.

Labels: Leisure

Have you ever seen the movie, The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? It's a sad indie-like flick that has an interesting, and true message about how memories shape who we are as people. It's interesting, although it is very depressing, too. In the movie, scientists learn how to erase bad memories with special technology, but there is a sinister side to the whole concept of "erasing bad memories" in the movie.

Anyhow, apparently scientists *really are* working on a way to do this. Rawstory.com reports:

Do you have a really bad memory, or past heartache, that you would prefer to forget?

Researchers at Harvard and McGill University (in Montreal) are working on an amnesia drug that blocks or deletes bad memories. The technique seems to allow psychiatrists to disrupt the biochemical pathways that allow a memory to be recalled.

Wow, that is incredible....scary too. It makes me think of that incident in the Bible where Mary comes to Jesus and just dumps an entire bottle of ridiculously expensive perfume on Jesus as an act of love. She remembered her sin, and that remembrance brought about thankfulness in her about the fact that Jesus forgave her of all of her sin. She was redeemed, and the pain of the past is always one memory away, but it was dwarfed by the realization of the redemption she had received from Jesus.

We don't need medication, we need redemption. I need it today.

Labels: Christian Life