My friend, Jonathan, taught this morning at Live Oak Vineyard on Psalm 23, and truly trusting in the Lord. It really made me think a lot about my "faith" in God versus my "faith" in my job, my apartment, my family, my country, and myself. And on the average, I honestly think I put most of my faith in temporary things. In America, we have so much "security", or should I say "the feeling of security" in our affluence and resources.

My wife, who is much wiser and more in tune with God than I am, often tells me to "Trust God". It's a theme I hear over and over. I am a worrier. I admit that. It's hard for me not to . And I find that I worry more when the bank account is empty, or the future seems uncertain.

Jonathan's message and the message of Psalm 23 hits home for me today. It challenges me to trust God with everything. I hope to rise to that challenge.

Labels: Christian Life

While Melisa has been out in New Orleans this week, I've done a few projects. As you can see, I changed my blog layout. I was kind of bored with the narrow, minimalist look. Now I'm overloading everyone with info, including my Twitter feed on the right side. I did that especially for my buddy, Steve, who is a huge fan of tweets! Ha, just kidding.

I've kept myself busy working a few late nights at work. Monday I pretty much was worthless after work, and just was a couch potato. Tuesday I gathered up a couple of guys from my home group to hang out, and had some good times talking about "The Vineyard", worship, marriage, not being married, church planting, and stuff like that. We didn't solve anything, but that's ok.

Tonight, a couple from the church took me in and fed me. It was the first time I ate any vegetables in the last 48 hours so that is good.

Melisa called, and she is excited about what God is doing on her trip. She said that her body is tuckered out from all of the hard work. She's been working with pastor Floyd and the team to put in a bunch of flooring in New Orleans at a house that is being remodeled after Katrina. Anyway, I've mentioned her blog, but if you haven't read it yet, go see it at http://melisakeller.tumblr.com.



Big plans for Friday. Three Saints and a Sinner are playing a show at Gem City in Monrovia. Join us!

Labels: Christian Life

This is my beautiful wife, Melisa, installing flooring at a house in the New Orleans area. I'm totally plugging her weblog of her trip and work there.

Check out her blog here.

Check out here photos of the ninth ward here. They are unbelievable. The damage is still not repaired in so many places.

Labels: Christian Life

My beautiful wife, Melisa, will be taking a trip to Kenner, LA to help out with Katrina relief tomorrow. You can follow her blog about the trip at http://melisakeller.tumblr.com.

Labels: Christian Life

I'm doing "small group prep" for our meeting tomorrow night, so I'm digging into some good stuff right now. Since we are quickly approaching Holy Week, the point of discussion this week will be The Cross.

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." - Eph. 2:13

The message of The Cross is so powerful. It was a moment in time with eternal repercussions that defied rational thought, rendered sin powerless, and made it possible for everyone to come near to God. And the message of The Cross has so many facets.

John Piper digs into these facets in his book, "The Passion of Jesus Christ". In his devotional-style book, Piper writes 50 chapters that demonstrate 50 different reasons why "Jesus came to die".

Home group is only supposed to be 90 minutes, so I can't exactly go into all of these reasons, but I tried to come up with my "Top 5" reasons from the Top 50 reasons Jesus went to the cross:

1. To show the wealth of God's love and grace for sinners
2. To show His(Jesus') own love for us
3. To learn obedience and be perfected
4. To create a people passionate for God's works
5. So that we might belong to Him

For some reason, #3 really stood out to me. I had never thought of this one, but it's so true and so powerful to know that because Christ faced temptation, faced hunger, faced horrible pain and death, that he is truly our Savior that can identify with us.


I'd go into this more, but some of you will be there tomorrow evening. If not, dig into the Word and remind yourself how powerful the message of The Cross, and the act of obedience and love that Jesus carried out there.

Labels: Christian Life

"Senior Night means the senior players' parents and family are in the fieldhouse, and it's a night for emotional pre-game recognition and post-game speeches. It's an awesome and touching thing to see. The last play before the last time-out was a long three-pointer by senior Russell Robinson, and the camera cut immediately to his parents in the stands, with their fists in the air and broad smiles on their faces, beaming with pride, joy and love for their son, who is playing his heart out, and clearly having the time of his life.

I couldn't help but think that this is a picture of our Father's love for us when we are doing the thing he made us to do."

-Doug Heacock/Worship Leader Blog

Labels: Christian Life

Labels: Books, Christian Life

Harvard lecturer Tal Ben-Shahar offers some simple steps to being happy....some are new-age-y, but most are right on. What I agree most him on (as he said in later segments) is that the American rat-race is the reason so many of us struggle to find balance and happiness. And as a Christian, I find that the combination of career and the distractions of the American lifestyle are in direct contradiction with a lifestyle of Christian discipline that includes enough quiet meditation.

Labels: Christian Life, Life

No, Diet Coke isn't making me fat, it's all of the pizza, tacos, and ice cream. But the Diet Coke habit I have might actually be doing more harm than good in my fight to control my weight.

Researchers did a study and found that rats who consumed sugar-free sweetners gained more weight than those who consumed real glucose.

The LA Times story said:

The study in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience found that the artificial sweetener appeared to break the physiological connection between sweet tastes and calories, driving the rats to overeat.

Essentially, we diet soda drinkers are training ourselves to constantly crave something sweet. Hmmm, not good.

Maybe I'll fast Diet Coke for Lent?

Labels: Christian Life

Klampert posted his "Ash Wednesday" set-list yesterday, and I realized that we "Vineyard folks" don't generally observe this day in our liturgy. After reading the rest of his post, I wish we would. Klampert posted a message from his Bishop (Charismatic Episcopal) that really speaks into what Ash Wednesday and Lent are all about.

Bishop Craig Bates writes:

The Church calls us on Ash Wednesday to a holy season of prayer and fasting. This prayer and fasting is an ancient tradition of the church. This season will, in light of the love of Christ Jesus, enable us to make a serious self-examination and confess, with the intent of amendment of life, our sins. It is a time to seek the sacrament of reconciliation (confession) for self-examination must always be done with the knowledge of the assurance of forgiveness. This is not a time of accusation and condemnation but a time when we can lament our sins knowing we are loved and forgiven. For as John reminds us, “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is no in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all un-righteousness. (I John 1.8-9) James tells us, “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” (James 5.16)

Read the rest at Klampert's web log......

Labels: Christian Life

For a number of reasons, I decided to sit down at my desk with my guitar and try to write tonite. I've had this thing inside of me about writing lately, so I decided to give it a whirl.

After a couple of hours of banging on my guitar, I've got nothing. I guess it's not like riding a bike. I'll need to take some more time to get back into the swing of things. I realize that I haven't been living life with my "antenna" up, as Matt Redman refers to. Those antenna are constantly listening, seeings, watching for things that can be encapsulated in a song. Perhaps a message, a phrase, or something that is an interesting and new way of saying something about God, or to God.

If any of you out there feel led to pray for me, please do. I've let this gift slide for too long, and I feel like I have to rekindle the flame, so to speak.

Labels: Christian Life, Song Writing

Wow, we just got home from a party for a friend of ours who turned 25 today. I was amazed at how many friends he has after just a short time in Pasadena, and realized how some people just have a gift for gathering people, and developing community.

I'm not really one of those people. My wife is, so I lean on her a lot in this area, but I enjoy the community we seem to encourage as a couple.

---

I tend to stay up a little later than my wife so she can fall asleep before I start sawwing logs (my snoring can wake the dead). So I was lurking around the internet and found some cool sites that list some spoilers for tomorrows anticipated Superbowl ads. You can check out my post at my tumble log, VOX NEWS.

Labels: Christian Life, VOX NEWS

Here's the view from our hotel room in Ft. Collins this morning. The picture doesn't do it justice, but we got a layer of fluffy snow last night and it's just beautiful. The snow is also blanketing out the Rockies in the background, which were just gorgeous when we flew into Denver last night.

Melisa as layered up enough to climb Mt. Everest as she left for her EPX08 staff meeting. She's not used to this cold, having grown up in SoCal. My Midwestern blood is still thicker than hers, but I'm become pretty wimpy after living on the west coast for seven years, too. Right now I'm snug in the hotel room blogging on a pretty nice Wi-Fi connection, and listening to David Crowder Band and reading Psalm 63. We'll head up the mountain at 10:30 to get registration and the sound system all ready to go for the start of the event tonight.


Psalm 63
I've been stuck on one particular Psalm for about two weeks, and I just have been mulling it over and over, and praying it out a lot. I've been in a bit of a dry season, and this Psalm has been an oasis to my soul. Here are some of my notes from my study this morning.

• God you are my God. (v 1a)
  
  --> In our lives we must acknowledge God in our daily routines, our life decisions, in thought, deed, and relationships. And God is a personal God. Not only is he OUR God, he is MY God, and he knows me.....he knows you.
  
  
  
• I search for you. I thirst for you like someone in a dry, empty land where there is now water. (v 1b)
  
  --> In seasons of dryness fruitlessness, hopeless causes, in times of feeling distant from God we must - search, seek, struggle, reach, listen, strain, claw-and-scratch, for Him. We must cast aside all unnecessary weight. When a man is stranded in the desert, about to die from thirst, he cares little about the pack he is carrying, or the treasures he lugs, he only cares to get a drink and casts of the heavy weight that only holds him back from his life-saving water.
  
  
  
• I have seen You in the Temple, and have seen Your stength and glory. (v 2)
  
  --> Remember the things that God has one. Let those things, and the glory of God documented in the Word of God INSPIRE us to seek for God. In remembering the sweet taste of a cool drink of water do we hasten our walk toward the source. Let the remembrance of the sweet taste of God's love and the Holy Spirit quicken our hearts to seek him, to search for him, to not be content with staying in the desert. It's not that the journey out of the desert is easy, nor is it short. But you never get out of what you won't leave.
  
  
• Because you love is better than life, I will praise you. I will praise you as long as I live. I will lift up my hands in prayer to your name. (v 3-4)
  
  --> The words, "...all the days of my life..." come jumping out of the page to me this morning. David was a worshiper in all seasons. Sometimes it was worship in laments, sometimes in anger, sometimes in jubilant praise! But it was "all the days" of David's life, and it should be ours. Can I worship in spirit and in truth when I am in the desert? Am I that mature? Most of the time, no. But I can try, and make more effort, and ask God for his grace that is sufficient (as Paul wrote). Praise is something we should do every day of our life if just to acknowledge that God is God, and we are not. But if we understand the depth of God's love for us, even in the desert, we are compelled to do it in response to that love.

Labels: Christian Life, Mediation, Wonder, Worship Leading

The last several months have been a time of personal growth and change for me. I have been digging myself out of a hole of pessimism for a while now. I have lived as a pessimist for a long time. Part of that is the fact that I a nerd who likes politics, and that arena is full of liars and injustice. I found that spending so much time focusing on the ills of our government and the political world was really taking its toll on my mental attitude.

As we head into an election season, I am going to be challenged to not get emotionally invested in what is happening, and just learn about the candidates I can support and vote for them. Maybe it will be easier this election, because I am not in favor of any of the candidates. It basically is going to come down to voting against Hillary, and I have to just live with that reality.

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. James 1:27/NASB

I'm going to try to stay emotionally divested from politics, and try to redirect my time, my passions, my emotions to things that are far more worthy: my marriage, my community, and trying to somehow break out of my comfort zone and really fight for God's kind of justice. I realized that I was more passionate about being a conservative that being a Christian sometimes. This is a normal pattern of American Evangelicalism, though. But I don't want to be part of the "radical Christian right", I want to be a "radical Christian".

But I'm not a radical. Not yet. But what if I were? How do I change? How do I get there?

Labels: Christian Life, Politics, Social Justice

I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. The football game is on, the turkey is in the oven, and we will be joining family and friends for a wonderful time today. Having said this, it makes me realize what a plentiful life I live here in America.

It's the cheesy thing to say, "What are you thankful for?" on Thanksgiving, but it is nice that we have a yearly reminder. Now if only I lived in "thankful mode" year round, I know that my life and my relationship with God would take on a totally different tone.



Oh, and I'm also thankful for Turkeys. I will be eating plenty of that today. Sorry, buddy.

Labels: Christian Life

Earth's Moon is Rare Oddball
by Dave Mosther
SPACE.COM

The moon formed after a nasty planetary collision with young Earth, yet it looks odd next to its watery orbital neighbor. Turns out it really is odd: Only about one in every 10 to 20 solar systems may harbor a similar moon.

New observations made by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of stellar dust clouds suggest that moons like Earth's are—at most—in only 5 to 10 percent of planetary systems.

"When a moon forms from a violent collision, dust should be blasted everywhere," said Nadya Gorlova, an astronomer at the University of Florida in Gainesville who analyzed the telescope data in a new study. "If there were lots of moons forming, we would have seen dust around lots of stars. But we didn't."

Gorlova and her team detail their findings in today's issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

Violent birth

Shortly after the sun formed about 4.5 billion years ago, scientists think a vagrant planet as big as Mars smacked into infant Earth and ripped off a chunk of our home's smoldering mantle. The rocky, dusty leftovers fell into orbit around our wounded planet, eventually coalescing into the moon we see today.

The scenario is unique among other moons in the solar system, which formed side-by-side with their planet or were captured by its gravity. Gorlova and her colleagues looked for the dusty signs of similar smash-ups around 400 stars, all about 30 million years old—roughly the age of our sun when Earth's moon formed.

Read the rest of the article

The cosmos is beyond my comprehension. It is interesting to hear scientists try to explain the most incredible, incomprehensible things in human terms. I'm not knocking science, because Science gives us insight into the incredible wisdom, creativity, and intelligence of God's creation. But I think God confounds the scientists by doing things they just can't explain. It leaves us in awesome wonder of Him.

Labels: Christian Life, Wonder, Worship Leading

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

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

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

If you were looking for my "other" blog, I'm done with it. I've been thinking about some stuff, and I've realized that I need to focus on better things. I know that I've shut down the "rant" before, but I'm doing it again. Maybe this time for good?

Thanks, AC, for kicking me in the butt and making me realize that life is good, even when it's hard.

And AC, I found an old mini-disc of a song called, "Mr. Bag of Bones".......I should clean it up and send you an mp3, it's pretty cool.

If anybody wants to shout out some prayers for me, that'd be cool. God's definitely dealing with me on some stuff after a long conversation with a mentor of mine today.......it's good.....tough....but good.

God Bless,

Scottie

Labels: Christian Life

Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise..... Ps33:3


I recently pulled out a very old pocket Bible that was given to me when I was in fifth grade. I cracked it open for some reading earlier today and noticed that I had scratched a note in my 11-year-old scribble writing a note that said, "Psalm 33:3 A verse on how to worship".

I thought to myself......Wow, I think that verse must have sunken into me at a young age, because I'm often told that I'm too loud, and that I do too many new songs. The skilfully part....well...I can only say that I do my best. :)

Labels: Christian Life, Worship Leading