MOVED!!!!!!

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my birthday

this past weekend I enjoyed a celebration of my birthday. I turned 24 years old and celebrated my birthday at a kids play place called amazing jakes. we ate all you can eat pizza and played video games. it was a complete surprise becuase I told malora not to throw me a party (but I am glad that she did). David, John, Craig, Robert, Tanner, Joel, Ian, Andrea, and Atticus all came and we had a blast. I got a signed baseball and drawing of my favorite baseball player Travis Lee (i think thats his name...i keep forgetting who he is). Saturday night we went over to my parents house and ate burgers as a family. My parents gave me a $100 bill and John and me played frisbee. So, basically I had the same birthday I would have had when I was 12 years old. Malora got me a book about the spiritual journey of Johnny Cash and a subscription to Relevant Magazine. It was a fun birthday and I am glad that it is over. I thank God that I made it this far and I look forward to all of the wonderful years to come.

Canadian Pro Wrestling

this is my friend seth stimpson. he is not a wrestler but he looks like one and these pictures are amazing.

i bought a hug

This has been a really great weekend. Friday night Malora and I watched Cinderella Man starring Russell Crow. It was a really great film about overcoming your circumstances and keeping integrity throughout hardships. It blows my mind how many hardships people have endured throughout history. The great depression, wars, plagues, and the non-exsistence of IPODs. We are definatelly to spoiled in our generation. If you have not seen Cinderella Man yet, go out and rent it tonight. Saturday we slept in and played with Noah in the morning. I went around to some garage sales in the morning while Malora slept. I went to one that was across the street from the house I grew up in, but I didnt know the people. In the afternoon we went to Mill Ave. and the Arizona Mills Mall. I got some clothes and a hat that I had been searching for, for months. Also, when we were on Mill Ave. there were some hippies on the corner with a sign that read Hugs... 50 cents, so of course I bought a couple for Malora and me. I went home and watched the Denver Broncos destroy the New England Patriots...I think that they might go all the way! GO BRONCS! We also stayed up and watched SNL which always makes us laugh. Sunday we are going to church and my dad is going to meet us there. We are going to go out to lunch afterwords. Hopefully this afternoon I will take a nap and go for a hike with the family. All of this to say...I have had a really great weekend.

I am happier now then two days ago I think it has something to do with the lack of distance between Malora and me it makes me happy when I get to hold my wife and kiss my little boy. life is enjoyable

happy new year of 2006

scrooge

sometimes I am a bit of a scrooge at christmas time. I dont really like christmas music, decorating, or have much holiday spirit. maybe that is becuase it is 80' on christmas and I am wearing shorts and flip flops. I am trying to get more into the holiday spirit, but somethings about christmas just drive me insane. Like the commercials and all of the commercialism surounding the holidays. hopefully I dont get any visits from ghosts tonight. I love to celebrate the birth of our Lord and that is the reason for the season! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JESUS!

Teens ditch inauthentic friend

LEXINGTON Three college-age friends have stopped hanging out with a fourth friend who quit relating to them in a genuine way, they say. "He wasn't letting his heart out," says one friend. "He was obviously going through stuff he wasn't sharing with us." But the banished friend, Tommy, remains clueless why his friends suddenly withdrew from him. "I didn't quit being real with them," he says. "I just wanted space to process some things going on in my life. I didn't realize they'd ditch me for it." The foursome has been inseparable since high school, and even attended the same Christian college together. Their relationship is based on complete honesty, they say. "Sharing your personal garbage is part of the deal," says one friend. "That's what friendship is about. Apparently Tommy didn't value that as much as we do." Tommy now bums around the dorms alone, hoping to strike up conversations. The other three have agreed to meet with him to determine if Tommy has "quit wearing a mask." If Tommy gets the nod, they plan to spend five or more hours talking about how they all felt during the recent schism. "I hope they let me back into their lives," Tommy says. "I feel authentically lousy." from the Christian Satire website LarkNews.com

do you ever stop and look around at things and think to yourself, "you have got to be kidding me"

do you hear what I hear

I have often struggled in my devotional life. It is hard to carve out time to sit down, in a quiet time, and spend time in Gods word. The reality of my life is that there are days that go by in which I simply do not have the time to sit alone and read Gods word. I know that everything we experience around us needs to be founded in scripture and that it is essential to spend time studying scripture so that we can translate the world around us through the lens of the Bible. But I still have days when I forget to read Gods word or just run out of time. This inconsistency of quiet times has lead to a feeling of guilt, like I am not spending enough time with God. I pray every single morning when I take buster out for a walk and these walks with God are always refreshing and a crucial part of my day. I try to read the bible as often as possible and when I do find the time to sit down and read it is always rejuvenating. Last night it occurred to me that there is something that I did not even realize that has been like water to my soul. I listen to music all day long at work. All types of music, from every genre, and all types of artists. It has been God speaking to me through the music which has filled me with hope during times of turmoil and doubt, and it is the music that has spoke to my soul and has had the ability to drench my tired and thirsty heart. Songs like Coldplays Fix You or PODs Alive have both awakened my soul when it has been asleep and put it at rest when it has been troubled. Of course, you can not build your life around the music you listen to, but the music in your ears has the power to bring life to a weary soul. God speaks to me through the music I listen to and reminds me of his promises and love. It is very important to be discerning about the music that you listen to because music can have such a huge impact on our lives and our hearts. I am thankful for the beautiful music that God has put in the hearts of the artists that I listen to and I am thankful for an open ear and open heart. I will keep listening and I pray that the music will rush into my soul and will provide a platform for God to speak to me.

pouch people

i think that it would be really cool if God would have made us with pouches like kangaroos. then we could put stuff in them and when our babies are crying they could be put in the pouch all nice and warm like. clothes would have to be altered accordingly with extra fabric that would go in the pouch. we would have to take more care in cleaning out the pouch and be careful not to puncture it with sharp objects, but overall it would be an improvement on the human race. i know that i would like to have a pouch becuase i would fill it with a lot of useful things like string, cards, toys, ipods, money, diamonds, basset hounds, and powdered sugar. this is an artist's rendition of what a handsome man like me might look like with a pouch.

halloweenie

nobody come to our house to trick or treat. we bought a whole bunch of candy for the little kids to eat but nobody came. i put out a sign telling the kids to knock of treats but that didnt work either. it stinks living in an apartment complex because no kids come to your house on halloween. the upside is that now we get to keep the candy; still it would have been nice to give some of it away we did however have a visit from a little puppy dog who was sniffing out some candy. noah dressed up like buster the basset hound and even ate some of his food to really commit to the part (what a trooper). he gave uncle john some candy and had dinner with grandma...what a great first halloween.

my son noah has plagiocephaly which means that he has a flat spot in the back of his head because he slept too soundly at night when he was an infant (thank God). because of that he has an abnormaly shaped head. this would not be a problem except that his forehead is slanted and his ears are crooked. we decided to get him a DOC helmet on the suggestion of the world renown brain surgeon who developed them and is a family friend. God blessed us with the funding and insurance to get (they cost about $3000) and so noah gets to wear one for the next 4 months. its good though becuase he is pulling himself up and standing and soon will be walking around so a little extra padding in the head might help him from ending up like his dad...too many head bangs. noah is growing up so fast and i can't believe that he already said his first word: "buba" refering to Buster Brown the basset hound...noah's best friend. he chases him around saying buba and when buster is on the patio noah pounds on the glass saying "bubabbubbbbabbbubbba" it is such a blessing to have a wonderful wife and such a great son...God is good

i still think the polyphonic spree is one of the coolest bands in the world. they are beautiful genius music.

two quilting ladies

malora had a friend named jill out this past weekend. jill is from canada, but she married and american guy named nathan and lives in california. jill and her husband work at a christian camp near santa cruz called camp hammer, and it sounds like they have a very happy life in the mountains. it was cool hanging out with her becuase she is a lot of fun and has a lot of good energy. it was refreshing to spend time with her and see how happy malora was to be with her, and i know it was really good for malora to spend time with one of her best friends. the girls spent most of the time making quilt crafts like cards, coasters, and slippers. they spent the weekend hooked to the sewing machine; they are such crafty little ladies. we also got zoo passes so we gonna peep to the zoo soon. thanks for coming and playing with us jill and we cant wait to come to the hammer and camp.

i got a new job at the company i work for. half of the company got fired last week because the company is moving to Iowa. i was offered a job working in product development and designing and editing the cirriculum using xml (a computer programming language).

it is very exciting becuase i will get to use some creativity and learn a little bit about programming for the web. i got fired, hired, and turned down for a ministry position all in the same day. what a jam packed day...but God provides.

we went to sedona

sitting in some wild flowers. what a happy little family father/son sitting experience. i know it is not too manly to sit in wildflowers; don't worry we went and squished some things later like real men. poopa and meema- noah's canadian grandparents. dont ask me about their nicknames...they picked 'em themselves. weather beaten man. the face of an actual sedona woodcarving of an indian holding cigars. why do all of the wooden native carvings have cigars?

Connectedness and creativity

I think that the more connected to God that we are the more creative we become. I have come to this conclusion because when we are in a spiritual dry spell we often find ourselves dry. All of our juices get dried up when our streams of living water are being quenched either by sin, laziness, or anything else that takes our focus off of God. This is the way I have been feeling lately. I have felt like all of my juices (creative, physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual) have been drying up leaving me with a barren heart. Most of the reason for that is because of my present circumstances and partly because I have been trying to do things on my own strength. It is a lot easier to try and make things work on my own rather than allowing God to work out every aspect of my life. I have seen this especially in my ministry search. I have been praying and asking God to open the doors for Malora and me to get back into full time ministry, but I have been taking control of the plan making and the scheming. Every time I take control I take the control away from God. Lord, work you will out in my life as you desire not as I desire. I also see the barrenness in my creativity. I love to create, but lately it feels like there is no creativity in me. I have a desire to create things that are beautiful, whether that be music, art, design, web, or anything else that reflects beauty, but nothing comes out. I have been reading the Bible more, praying more, and recounting myself to spending more time with God devotionally. I think that the renewal of connectedness is renewing my creativity as well. I am starting to think about how I want to express my self creatively and I look forward to creating beauty once again. When we are connected to the Source of creativity and beauty we cannot help but reflect that connectedness in what ever way we can. I am filled with joy that my juices are starting to flow. If you have been feeling sort of dry lately I urge you to look at your relationship with God and consider how connected you are to the source of living water that will fill you up and flow out of you to impact this world. When we are connected to God daily we will be filled up again and there will be no way that we can be dry.

noah and buster truly are best friends. noah follows buster all around the house and buster loves to lick noah's face. they play all day and buster is really good with noah. buster sleeps in a dog bed that his cousins jessi and ginger gave him. he is too big for it but that does not bother him. like a little puppy fetus. see we still love buster too.

ipod nano

this is the brand new ipod nano. It is 60% lighter and smaller, costs $199, and holds 500 songs (2 gb). I think it is awesome and I hope santa clause is checking my blog becuase this would be the perfect christmas present (or thanksgiving present). Apple you've done it again. two cheers for apple!

this is a really good article from relevant about the latest trend in Christianity. Christian Hipsters who rebel from traditional Christianity, which is viewed as irrelevant, and create a hip new faith that is concerned with image and blending in with culture. This is just as irrelevant as the contemporary church they are trying to distance themselves from because we are called to be Christ like, not "cool". One of the largest hurdles that the emerging church will have to get over is this hipster Christianity. Mark Driscoll talks about the fact that neither sectarianism (Christian fundamentalism) nor syncretism (Christian hipsters) are going to impact this generation. Only people who completely sold out to Christ and are willing to be used by him with humble hearts. Hipster Christianity is just as ridiculous as purpose driven living or Left Behind eschatology. Its not about being cool, its about being broken. I hope that the emergent church jumps this hurdle quick and drops the judgmental and pharasaical attitudes they've held onto for a while now. Stop judging the church and start running with freedom. As Driscoll puts it. "sectarianism loves God but ignores their neighbor, syncretism loves their neighbor but ignores God...We are called to love both"

Jesus Christ light of the world burning bright within our hearts forever Freedom mean love without condition without a beginning or an end Here's my heart let it be forever Yours only You can make every new day seem so new -five iron frenzy

t-shirt christian

I am thinking about restarting up my Christian clothing company that I started a few years ago (well…it started up in my mind). I originally thought up the idea of starting a Christian clothing because I got frustrated with the selection of faith based apparel in the Christian market. Either they are a rip off of a company like Coca-Cola , or they are just plain stupid and offensive. There is no thought put into the designs and I had a hard time buying a shirt that says, BRAIN WASHED: Rom. 12:2; like a non-Christian is going to know what that means. So, I started working on some designs in photoshop. I have about 20 designs or so that are still in the working phase. The name for the company was going to be SPARROW CLOTHING, relating back to Jesus talking about taking care of his children and how even the sparrows or the sky are under his care. The problem now is that there is another company coming out with that exact name. I don’t want to be the same as them. A name is important because it directs the path that you follow. Why do we need Christian clothing? I would rather wear clothing that has a spiritual message or a faith foundation than one that doesn’t. If I am going to spend $15 on a shirt I would rather wear one that has a message and looks good, then one that looks good. It is not a witnessing tool, but it is another way to start conversation. This is the dilemma because I want faith based apreal but I wont wear it if it is lame, just like I wouldn’t wear anything that’s lame…right…I’m cool right?! I need your help. I need a new name. So help me by choosing a name from the list below and commenting on it in the comments section. thanks. antithesis antioch entheos sparrow zoa turbulence emergent journey thursday morning grounded three one ephesus visio dei (image of god) veritas (truth)

texas is green

I am in the great state of texas right now, and it struck me that texas is green. I always thought of texas as being more of a dry tumbleweedy type state, but it is full of big green trees. I could not believe how lush it was. Tanner you held out on me you little punk. Anyways, I am in The Woodlands, TX for a homeschool convention for the weekend. Malora leaves on Saturday for a week becuase she is going to Colorado with John, Stacy, Noah, Jamie, and my parents. David and I are going to be bachelors for the week. How sad. Well, Texas is nice....now I just gotta find me a Taco Villa and an armadillo to pet.

rained so hard the day i left / the weather it was dry / Oh, Susanna...

life church dot tee vee

This morning I went to lifechurch.tv with jaime, malora, noah, and some other people. It was very interesting to see how they "do" church. When we walked into the gymnasium there were a couple hundred people worshipping along with a really good band on stage. They had elaborate lighting, staging, multimedia screens, and it didnt even feel like we were in a high school gymnasium. The band was very good and they played along with music tracks so it sounded like there was a choir singing; it had an ashlee simpson feel to it because one of the songs started before the band did. The music was very good and the sound system was amazing. The pastor got up and prayed when the music was over and instead of staying on the stage to preach the screens showed a guy from Oklahoma who preached. In case you have never heard of Lifechurch it is one church with multiple locations meaning that the pastor at the Oklahoma church (main church) broadcasts his sermons via satellite to the different campuses. That way he can be in seven different places at once. It was interesting going to church to watch TV. I personally feel that lifechurch.tv (thats how they refer to themselves) would not be the right place for me becuase I like the interaction that a senior pastor can have with his congregation. Also, all of the lighting and "theatrics" didnt impress me or draw me into worship. I just kept thinking, "dang, it must take forever to set this place up". I thought it was cool that there main goal is to: make fully devoted followers of Christ (which they made us repeat over and over again). I think that this church will definitely reach a certain group of people and I thank God that they are in the valley. If they reach a few people with the gospel (and they are definitely doing that) then who am I to judge their methodology, becuase I dont see anywhere in scripture where God tells us to judge a church by its methods and structure. If that structure is immoral or evil than it should not continue, but I do not feel that Lifechurch is a bad place, they just have a different way of doing things. Is that bad? no. Is it right for me and my family? no. Do they refer to themselves by their domain name? yes All in all it was an interesting experience going to Lifechurch.tv today. I dont think we will go back but it is important to see how the body of christ is working throughout the world...the only difference it that the finger is not present at on the hand becuase it is broadcasting from the nose (i think oklahoma can best be described as a nose). I pray that God blesses the people who attend the church and I hope that the achieve their vision of making fully devoted followers of Christ becuase after all that should be all of our visions for the church...right?

I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out; plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for

When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I'll listen.

When you come looking for me, you'll find me.

Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed.

-God

Here is Noah, our little hairy man. 

pigeon knows best

Deception Well hello my little friends and look at them runI'm still at home with no ends and look at them runHopping in a tricked out Benz and look at them runWhile I'm clocking in as a temp boy look at them runIt is too late now to affect the whole world, or is it just dated now?They could care less who invaded now.Really am I silly with the dreams of the milli'?Top billing with a big fat record deal-lyFirst I buy a house way up on the hill-lyThen I get a girly dressed like Mr. FurleyMet her in Nashville or was it Philly?Her hair so curly and look at me burlyBut my dream deferred, I felt the same words that Langston heardI watched them pass and it seemed absurd.A decade of dreaming and it seeming that theyJust run away with my verbs. And its: Deception. Look at them dancing in the field goal Deception. I look at me and Im getting old. Deception. How many records have I really sold?Deception. Whoops I did it again boy. Ten years ago I woke up with a dream in my handRan for a couple of yards, but tripped and fell to my handsAnd then got up because the Lord Almighty told me He canRan for a couple of more, and tripped and fumbled againAnd people asking what you getting up for go get a jobbut I gotta carry out this dream or my life I robAnd when Im gonna work for 45 years up in the mallAnd when I'm old and gray wondering where's my calling?And I'd rather die now than never wonder how.Never ever try now coulda' woulda' shoulda' will beAll I sigh how can I live a mediocreLife and not ever ask You why.Are we hear specifically not mundaneBut a gifted people.We must shine and it must be equal.Live your life cause there is no sequel.Oh it's a reception Hey, Hey, wait I'm called to do something. I don't know exactly what it is but I'm hunting.Getting lost in this record biz and I'm fumbling. Oops I did it again boy

I was reading the book of Ecclesiastes this morning and I kept running into something interesting. If you have never read Ecclesiastes you should because it is an amazing book. It starts off with the proclamation, "Everything is meaningless!", and goes on to describe that everything we try to do to find meaning in life ends up being meaningless. Whether its a money, women, wisdom, possessions, fame, etc... It is all meaningless. I love the understanding of the human nature that the Bible has because it was inspired by God and written by men. Anyways, I ran across a statement that the author wrote a couple of times that got me thinking about work and my calling in life. Of course the book ends with the proclamation that the ultimate goal in life is to fear God, but I also think it is ultimately important to love what you do. To enjoy your job and enjoy your life. I think that I focus on the downsides of my present situation more than I focus on enjoying what I do and where I am now. I am thankful for all that God has blessed me with, but instead of hoping for what is to come in the future I need to start finding satisfaction in where I am and what I am doing now. We always look to the future but I think that we need to keep our eyes on the here and now. Read the words from the book of Ecclesiastes: A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God. Eccl. 2:24

My life is a cup of sugar I borrowed before time began and forgot to return -mewithoutyou

I had one of these new crunch wrap supremes for lunch thinking, "burritto...good, beef...good, crunchy taco...good, grilled...good, compact and convenient...good!" no good, very bad. I feel sick because all of those things on their own are good but you shouldn't mix things just becuase you can. I feel like I ate a brick that was on fire and filled with push pins. Don't fall for the trick that mixing all of the classic taco bell tastes into one item is a good idea.

sport coat and kidd nasty

sportcoat

the crew: dj chip, fly mewstach, david crowder, sportcoat, shades, maj-esty, uncle rick, kidd nasty