Is anybody out there?  Man I hope someone is reading.  My wife has 36000 hits on her blog I have maybe 1000.  Man I need to step it up. 

Anyway I’ve been thinking lately about the amazing effectiveness of the internet as a communication tool.  Seriously, Facebook is responsible for getting me in contact with people I haven’t seen in years, and also with family I’ve never seen (my little brother in MN).  Along with that ability to communicate comes some strange feelings though.  First, renewing relationships with family you haven’t seen in years can bring back alot of varied memories about the past:  good and bad.  Second, its a little strange when an ex-girlfriend sends you an email.  Not there’s anything wrong with saying hi and exchanging stories about marriage, kids, Church, etc. But it is a little weird.  How about finding out a friend from high school got married to his high school sweet heart (whom you once dated) and she disappeared a year or so ago.  Even stranger that they found her in her car almost a year later at the bottom of the river.  I can’t imagine the hurt he must be feeling.

Yeah, the internet is great but wow who knew it meant all of this.

A couple days ago I stopped by to see my aforementioned friend John and found out that he was storing a set of drums in his attic.  I asked him if I could take them home and let my kids use them.  I know your probably thinking:  “Isn’t this the guy with six kids, he must be crazy!”   Well maybe just a little, but I have a couple of these kids that have some real natural talent on the drums.  My eldest had never played the drums and one day picked up the sticks at church and just rolled.  He has even played during band practice when our usual drummer was out and during childrens worship.  One day he was playing during childrens worship and added a great little improve roll and I almost fell off the stage I was smiling (and crying) so big.

The 8 year old is also quite good he was practicing at church a little and then went home and listened to a little Toby Mac.  He came back the next week and proceeded to start playing that new loop.  I am totally psyched for these guys and the others too.  The 17 month old also has some ryhthm.  I have wanted to get them drums for two years and just couldn’t come up with the extra.  Again, John doesn’t know how much of a blessing he is to me.

So now were working on the Family band.  Three guitars, Drums, Keys..wow.

God called me from darkness to light about 16 years ago.  Then he called me to share his word and work in ministry.  Things have been wild along the way.  I went to bible college and then a little seminary.  The thing is that I had not pastored a church since 1996.  A few years ago God began to transform my thinking about church and put a desire in my heart to be a part of church planting.  That is what I am doing now.  I am one of the elders at Seven Springs Church.  Here’s the deal though, I have six kids and spend a lot of time at work to the point that I think I’m losing a grip on reality.  I want more than anything to be the best pastor I can be-to my family and my church.  I am becoming increasingly convinced that God wants me to focus on the church work and the family, but that would require me to give up a lot of the time I spend working at other employment to focus on them.  Do you see the predicament?  There is a step of faith here that reminds me of when I was first married and we wanted to have kids, but I could not figure out how we could afford it, so I did the only thing I knew to do and asked my pastor.  He asked us if we wanted to have a family.  We said yes.  He said, “How big is your God?”  We now have six kids and most people wonder and even ask how we do it. 

The truth is that we Have A BIG GOD!

By the way if anyone has 30k or anything they want to invest in kingdom work drop me a line

I have been so busy lately with things at church and with work hours picking up. For those who don’t know my regular daily job is being a pool dude.  Not generally the clean your pool with his shirt off pool dude, but the “oh no my pool is draining because something is broken” pool dude.  Anyway, here in Bama things start ramping up a little sooner than in Ken-Tuck where we used to live (thankfully.)  So as we are starting to rock and roll a little I have been rather lacs in posting.

Our little church is doing pretty well.  We have had some great visitors lately and it looks like we are adding a couple of families to the mix.  I plan on doing better with this blog thing.  I know you’ve heard it before, but hey I’m still actually doing this after over a year that is more than I ever thought I would do.  Hang in there and keep reading and you may get something worth the price you pay to read this blog!

Its free!  You get what you pay for:)

So here I am out in the woods blogging. I really like technology sometimes. You I struggle sometimes being disciplined enough to do this blog thing, but being able to do this anywhere and anytime has really started to help me.

Not that there is much to be said sometimes, but whatever. This morning I am about 30 feet up in waiting on any four footed cervid to walk by. That’s a deer if your from Ky:)
I find that when I am out here my soul is often pleased to consider God. This morning I have experienced a full moon, warmth, cold, rain, and a sunrise. All of these at the design of and in the presence of God. I guess it just makes me think that He didn’t have to make it or us or our capacity to enjoy it to his glory.

Just a thought.

I think that the new year is a great time to sort of evaluate things.  I do resist the infamous “new years resolution,”  but as the years of life tick by one by one it does provide an opportunity to change some things.  For instance, I signed up for Facebook just before the new year and find that it is a sweet little tool for connecting with people.  Just the other day I found my little sister on it and spoke to her for the first time in 17 years.  Its not like there was any rift or anything, but I moved away from Minnesota when I was 18 and she was 5.  The last thing I remember was giving her hug and telling her goodbye on the deck outside my Dad’s house.  Things were a little rocky between my stepmother and me when I was a teen.  

My stepmom was generally a good lady and I appreciate what she did for me when I lived there, but she didn’t bargain for a 14 year old boy moving in when she had just begun her family.  We had a falling out my senior year of high school, and when I graduated I moved to Illinois to live with my mom.  Hence the leaving Minnesota.  I have thought over the years about what would have happened if I had stayed in Minnesota.  Even more so if I had but made one different decision.  See I had lived with a friend the last two months of my senior year and decided to move to Illinois at the invitation of my mom, but there were some personal effects still at my dad’s house so I called to see if I could come and pick them up.  I explained to my stepmom what was going on, and she hugged me and was genuinely sorry for the way things had gone.  I told her that I was catching a bus in Grand Forks, North Dakota to go to my mom’s, then I left.

When I was in the bus station the clerk called my name for a phone call and it was my stepmom calling to tell me that she and my dad did not want me to go and dad had a job for me if I wanted to stay.  I said that my mind was made up and the rest is history.  I wish that I could say that we had stayed close and in touch over these years, but we haven’t.  Even though this is sad the best thing that ever happened to me happened when I lived in Illinois; I became a follower of Jesus Christ.  Christ changed my life forever.  I also met my totally awesome hot wife in Illinois with whom I have 6 kids(thats what happens with a hot wife).  So that one moment of decision in a bus station altered my life in a way I could never imagined.  How many of those single decisions in a bus station have changed people’s lives forever?  

Here’s the thing though… I still love my dad.  I have very fond memories of my time with him as a kid.  Sure there are things I wish could have been different.  Yes, I wish he had been more involved in my life, but can say that in many ways he was a very fine dad and taught me some very valuable lessons.  I have often spoken to my own boys of the things I used to to with my dad.  I would give anything to take my sons deer hunting with him.  He taught me everything I know.  I guess maybe this year I will make a real effort to re-establish a meaningful relationship with him.

God the father is my perfect father and he makes it possible to have relationships with imperfect fathers.

I know that it sounds completely insane to be thanking God for what is one of the most feared procedures in the annals of medical history. Well, I am totally thanking God. As a matter of fact as I anxiously raced across town yesterday to get squeezed into the schedule of the endodontist I prayed a thanksgiving prayer for the advance of medicine to the point that I could get relief from the incredible discomfort I was in. Not only could I get relief, but it could be done relatively painlessly. I prayed this as I thought about this scene from Castaway. Sorry about the quality of the video, but it pretty well shows the alternative to modern medicine. The actual meat of the vid is at about 1:45 to the end.
This vid would make anyone grateful to God, huh?

So here it is. My first blog post from my iPhone. Maybe this will be the convient tool to help me stay on top of this whole blogging thing…we shall see, but in the mean time it is totally cool. More to come.

Ok, here is a little confession…or two.  First, I have to confess that my foray into blogging is so hit and miss sometimes that I totally have to ask that the two of you who actually read my blog to forgive me for my uselessness.  Secondly, I have to confess that I did something this weekend that ended up blowing up in my face.  Yeah, I know, those of you who know me are probably not surprised.  I am the kind of guy who is black and white; on or off; go or stop;  you get the point.  Well, unfortunately it was on like Donkey Kong this weekend.  Oh, did I mention that I don’t deal with clutter well? 

So here it is.  Our church rents space from our local middle school for worship and Bible study.  For the last 3-4 weeks there have been assorted paper props kind of piled everywhere from a little production that I “thought” had taken place.  Yeah, the key word is “thought” the items in question along with various other trash from another production in May of this year were scattered everywhere on the stage along with trash from some remodeling the school had done.  This clutter had become nearly unbearable and I just couldn’t figure out why the janitorial staff hadn’t done anything with the mess, but I tend to be a doer and did not want to complain to the school (trying to be patient) so I just picked up all the trash and cleaned and swept, and cleaned and swept, and cleaned….. you get the point.  Guess What?

Yep, the very next day a lady called from the school looking for the “trash” I had thrown away.  Talk about humiliated.  So one of our Elders called the lady back and smoothed it over explaining my desire to be helpful, and offered to do whatever we could to help.  I haven’t heard anything else yet, but am still trying to get over it to some extent.

I guess maybe I was a little to precocious, and probably should have checked with someone, but its over now and another lesson is learned….Always complain it will save you a lot of headaches….  JUST KIDDING…the real lesson…Communication, the principal hadn’t informed the teacher of our meeting every weekend, nor had he informed us of the need to work around the props, and of course I made an assumption and you know what they say about assumptions?   The longer I live and the more things I do the more I realize that good communication is the absolutely best way to avoid trouble and preserve vital relationships.  So forgive me God, and forgive me school lady.

Have you ever thought about how music has the ability to provoke strong affections of the soul?  The great thinker Jonathon Edwards wrote a whole book on human affections and the worship of God entitled A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections.  This writing was not primarily concerning music, but all human affections and how those affections are aroused within the heart of a worshiper.  Edwards showed how that true worship of God was bound up in the affections (emotions).  At the heart of the matter for Edwards was that it really was impossible to deny that when the human soul is met with the greatness of God revealed in the truth of His word the response is invariably emotional.  

Emotions are the viceral reaction to things that happen to us or in us, a sort of response to stimulus, though there is some level of physical control we have none the less the affections are there.  Music seems to be by its nature an amazing stimulus of the affections.  Even without words music is highly effective at illiciting a kind of primal response.  When coupled with words ,especially godly truth, there is little in life that can provoke such a tendency to emotion.  Think about how sometimes your listening to the radio and you hear a song from high school, sometimes the sound will bring you back to a particular party or football game or dance.  Even years removed from an event the emotions brought from some song or piece of music can be overwhelming prompting tears, joy, sadness, anger, regret..you name it…few things in life can do this like music.  

I really enjoy music of many different genre’s.  Many Christians sell short the musical ability of those who may not be believers.  I tend to enjoy country, rock, classical, christian, even hip hop.  The truth is that music in all of its forms speaks to the human soul and should be enjoyed and employed in reaching human souls.