Don Astronaut, Good Blogging, and Halo 3

One of my favorite stories ever - here.

A good article about blogging - here.

And for those who wonder about the violence of video games - here.

Goodnight.

Links

I don't know about you, but I get my fair share of email. Many of the emails that I receive each day contain links. I've decided to share a select variety of today's offerings in the form of a Top Ten List.

Top Ten Links I Received Today

10. Ministry to Older Adults

9. Stephen Colbert From a Rubik's Cube

8. 30 Great Firefox Add Ons

7. Obama and Hilary Go To Church

6. Sex and the Bible (My head is still spinning from this one)

5. Church Free Christianity

4. Rudy Gets a Call From His Wife (the not his cousin one)

3. Coolest Video Ever (Kim actually sent me this a few days back but I did think it was cool)

2. Conserve Water (I read the simple dollar daily)

1. Ron Paul (this guy really makes sense to me)

"FORE!"

1. I got to golf today. To be brutally honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it. It was an afternoon tournament that I was invited to as a last minute replacement. The tourney raised money for Royal Family Kids Camp. My buddy Stephen Bailey has led worship at that camp the past two summers and has nothing but great things to say about it. I was invited by my former roommate and forever friend, Ty Lovell. Ty is a grand mix of Godly and goofy and is as genuine as they come. Anyway, we had a blast! I hit my usual mix of terrible and tour-ready shots. One of the coolest parts of the experience was that the course was next to Carswell Air Force Base and fighter jets were taking off all day long and doing some crazy maneuvers. All in all, it was a great way to spend an afternoon.

2. My friend Alan Phillips (who is also the leader of our missions ministry at Lake Cities) sent me a great article on church planting. I have such a heart for church planting and pray to see the day when Lake Cities births new faith communities. Check out the article here.

3. I am beginning a new series this Sunday called, Fracture. We will spend our time looking at both the repercussions and rescuing in the story of the Fall in Genesis 2 & 3. Specifically, we will be looking at how sin has effected our relationship with God, one another and ourselves. The part that I'm most excited about is the good news that God can, has, and is restoring those relationships! Sin separates but there is hope! If you have any thoughts, ideas, stories, or other input for me as I seek God's heart and message, please feel free to email me. As always, I covet your prayers.

4. And finally, on the 18th hole today I heard someone yell, "FORE!" I didn't really think much about it until I got in the car for the 45 minute, traffic laden drive. And then it consumed me: "Why do we yell 'fore!' when we hit a shot that might hit someone?" So I did what anybody would do, I rushed in, showered, kissed the family, went to a shepherds meeting, packed up, came home, grubbed some killer cajun dirty rice, talked with the family, and then Google'd the answer. If you want to know, click here.

Streaks

I've always been a "streaky" guy. Probably has a lot to do with playing baseball all those years. Whatever the reason, I just tend to be either hot or cold. Over the years, I've tried to develop more of a turtle approach to life as opposed to the hare. I've experienced some success in many areas of life. However one area that I still tend to be really streaky ... you're looking at it: The blog.

But tonight a new streak begins. We will see how it goes. I'm not making any promises.

Today was a wonderful day in so many ways. Our Sunday morning gathering was really encouraging to me for several reasons. I had a brief but beneficial conversation with one of our shepherds, Steve McMindes who was really encouraging. I walked away thinking to myself, "Man, I've got to have more of those." Just seeing everyone is an encouragement to me. I fall deeper in love with my church family every day. Obviously, as a pastor, so much of how I feel about our time together on Sunday mornings is tied up with my self evaluation of my message. That is rarely a good thing, but usually a reality nonetheless. Today was a good message. Wasn't my best and it wasn't my worst. I know Lou Cullum loved it. The reality is that I prayed and prayed that it would be God's words for God's people for God's glory so I just have to trust that I did my part and He did his.

There was one regret I have from my message today and that was forgetting to share the lyrics of a powerful song. I would have loved to play the song but that is not where we are right now. That is the subject of another post for another day. Anyway, the song is called "Madly In Love With You" and is on the Passion CD

Check these lyrics out:

And I'm madly in love with you
And I'm madly in love with you
And I'm madly in love with you
And I'm madly in love with you

Let what we do in here
fill the streets out there
let us dance for you
let us dance for you
let what we do in here
fill the streets out there
let us dance for you
let us dance for you

And I'm madly in love with you
And I'm madly in love with you
And I'm madly in love with you
Yeah I'm madly in love with you

And all of my life and nothing less i offer to you my righteousness
And all of my life and nothing less i offer to you my righteousness
And all of my life and nothing less i offer to you my righteousness
Yeah all of my life and nothing less i offer to you my righteousness

And I'm madly in love with you
Yeah I'm madly in love with you
And I'm madly in love with you
Yeah I'm madly in love with you


Since I was speaking about reaching the lost with our entire lives,
this song was especially appropriate.  My favorite part of the song is:

"Let what we do in here
fill the streets out there"

That is my prayer for Lake Cities.

I closed with a challenge and a story.

The challenge was to pray the following prayer every day this week:

"I'm Yours.
Change Me.
Send Me."

And the story:

On July 4, 1854, Charlie Peace, a well-known criminal in London, was hung.
The Anglican Church, which had a ceremony for everything, even had a
ceremony for hanging people. So when Charlie Peace was marched to the gallows, a priest read these words from the Prayer Book: "Those who die without Christ experience hell, which is the pain of forever dying without the release which death itself can bring."

When these chilling words were read, Charlie Peace stopped in his tracks, turned to the priest, and shouted in his face, "Do you believe that? Do you believe that?"

The priest, taken aback by this verbal assault, stammered for a moment then said, "Well…I…suppose I do."

"Well, I don't," said Charlie. "But if I did, I'd get down on my hands and knees and crawl all over Great Britain, even if it were paved with pieces of broken glass, if I could rescue one person from what you just told me."

Tony Campolo, Let Me Tell You a Story (Word, 2000)


There were many other blessings from today including a nap, time at the driving range, time in the kitchen with Kim, and a delicious homemade Cajun feast (dirty rice, red beans and rice, and shrimp with garlic butter) to name a few. We also had a great parent meeting for our youth group. Matt did a really good job and even debuted the new Refuge website. Check it out here.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. They usually all are. I'm so blessed!