Category: News & Entertainment

something beautiful :: 1.3

Just a quick plug for the podcast.
Episode 1.3 went live last night. I spoke with Dave McHam who’s heading up an after school ministry in Waco and has plans/vision to bring a similar ministry to Waxahachie.
I also flew solo this week, so Thomas’ Scottish charm will be noticeably missing – but if you choose to listen, we’ll tell you how you can win Shawn McDonald’s new CD, “Roots.”
So tune in and check it out.

Greed

EMI gave us several of Shawn McDonald’s Roots CD for the Something Beautiful podcast. We’ll be giving 2 away over the next couple episodes.

Really digging this album.

Listening to Greed (click to see a video) while laughing at all the hub-bub over Apple’s WWDC today.

Here are the words… good stuff….

Well take a look around and tell me what you see
We are consuming everything
And I must confess that I fall
Oh, Isn’t this the story of us all?

Falsely advertised
Into believing we need this stuff in our lives

‘Cause what we got is what we need
And everything else is only greed
It’s greener on the other side, Oh why can’t we be satisfied, oh

I’ve seen some with a little
And they seemed to be doing just fine to me
And I’ve seen some with alot
And they don’t seem like they ever want to stop

Falsely advertised
Into believing we need this stuff in our lives

‘Cause what we got is what we need
And everything else is only greed
It’s greener on the other side, Oh why can’t we be satisfied, oh

‘Cause what we got is what we need
And everything else is only greed
It’s greener on the other side, Oh why can’t we be satisfied, oh

Steven Curtis Chapman’s daughter killed

My heart goes out to the Chapman family today. It was announced at their church service last night that their youngest daughter, Maria (adopted from China), was killed yesterday afternoon after she was struck by a vehicle driven by her older brother.

I can’t imagine the pain, the hurt and probably guilt the family is feeling right now.

Lots of questions from folks I’m sure but I know this – God wasn’t surprised by this. Just like he wasn’t surprised by my sister’s death, he wasn’t surprised by Pearl Harbor, he wasn’t surprised by 9-11.
He didn’t turn around in Heaven yesterday and say, “well why is Maria here? I wasn’t expecting her for another 70 years.” He knew and saw this long before any of us came into existence.

Psalm 139

God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
I’m an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I’m never out of your sight.
You know everything I’m going to say
before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you’re there,
then up ahead and you’re there, too—
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
I can’t take it all in!

Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you’re there!
If I go underground, you’re there!
If I flew on morning’s wings
to the far western horizon,
You’d find me in a minute—
you’re already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
At night I’m immersed in the light!”
It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;
night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day.

Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
God, I’ll never comprehend them!
I couldn’t even begin to count them—
any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!
And you murderers—out of here!—
all the men and women who belittle you, God,
infatuated with cheap god-imitations.
See how I hate those who hate you, God,
see how I loathe all this godless arrogance;
I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred.
Your enemies are my enemies!

Investigate my life, O God,
find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
get a clear picture of what I’m about;
See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—
then guide me on the road to eternal life.

HT – Kevin Hendricks

A National Tragedy?!

The Insider – another junk celebrity/entertainment show just said, “ABC News broke into regular programming to report the news… as the country comes to grip with a national tragedy.”

ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Ted Kennedy has a brain tumor and it’s become a national tragedy?!

I feel sorry for him and the family, but a Senator from Massachusetts who’s served since 1962, gets a brain tumor and it’s a national tragedy? Yet 100,000 are dead or dying in China and Burma and more than 3000 soldiers have died in Iraq and a politician getting a brain tumor is a national tragedy?

Am I just too cynical or am I missing something?