Category: Uncategorized

A King and a Kingdom

From Derek Webb’s latest work, Mockingbird:

who’s your brother, who’s your sister
you just walked passed him
i think you missed her
as we’re all migrating to the place where our father lives
’cause we married in to a family of immigrants

my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
my first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
it’s to a king & a kingdom

there are two great lies that i’ve heard:
“the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die”
and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican
and if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like Him

but nothing unifies like a common enemy
and we’ve got one, sure as hell
but he may be living in your house
he may be raising up your kids
he may be sleeping with your wife
oh no, he may not look like you think

Download the album for free by clicking the banner.

Austin Street update

We had another great time outside the Austin Street shelter yesterday. The rain cleared before we arrived and held off till we were ready to go. Great is our God.
We emptied out three boxes of clothes in a matter of minutes and then also went through a number of Bibles, crackers, water bottles and Christian books.
I hope to post a video from yesterday up later today.
As we talked with those we were ministering to, several needs seemed to be reoccuring:

  • Reading glasses/magnifying glass
  • Warm clothes
  • Long/thermal underwear
  • Coats
  • Blankets
  • Umbrellas (specifically yesterday)
  • Bibles
  • Reading material
  • Bottled water
    We’ll be collecting goods on Nov. 19 at encounter and then we’re hoping to have a trailer to deliver the goods to the needy in downtown around Austin Street.
    If you’re interested in donating, please zip me an email or call me and I can come pick things up or arrange to meet you somewhere.
    Also, we’ll be continuing on even after the coat drive, so if you come across somethign after the drive we can still deliver it, or if you’d like, meet us and help deliver it yourself.

    • Ted Haggard and perfection

    I haven’t followed the Ted Haggard story much, as you can probably tell by my lack of entries on the issue, as Reba Baskett asks, “How do we as a church respond?”

    That is me in the fact that he is part of the body of Christ. Am I happy with that? No, I have a list of Evangelicals that I wish I could put in a boat and send out to an island never to be found. I think they give Christians a bad name, but every time I sin I am giving the body of Christ a bad name.
    Why is sinning such a knock on Christ? I am starting to realize that it has everything to do with the way we, as Christian, have presented ourselves through the years. It is an us and them mentality. We are in the right and if you are not with us, you are wrong. We set this impossible standard for ourselves, one that we can not even keep.

    How should the church respond to “high profile sinninng?”
    Do we ignore it? Do we cast them out to the swine?
    The words of a great friend still ring through my ear after he heard about a fight breaking out at a church softball game here in Waxahachie, “I could rant and rave about how they make the church look bad, but I’m the guy who got a speeding ticket driving the youth home from church camp.”

    Pull up a chair to the corner table

    As one of the many survivors of the UMHB journalism program, who aren’t working in journalism, Brandi and her friends in Nashville have started a new blog community, The Corner Table. Brandi’s first entry gives her review on Studio 60, which I still haven’t seen. Gripes. But she writes a good article and I’m just dying to finally watch the show to see if I really agree with her.

    How time changes things

    I’m about an hour late now… doh… I have a habit of doing that… but four months ago I got this e-mail in my inbox from a beautiful woman I had yet to meet in person:

    …I went to Phoenix last year too and it’s fun there, Hot but fun! That’s cool that you just had to go downstairs to watch the parade. I take it that Matt took down the border because he didn’t like it
    and not because he was standing on the counter top and fell and when we went down he took the border with him. Let’s hope it wasn’t. Waxahachie sounds nice, since it’s pretty quiet after 5pm….it’s never really completely quiet around here, there are usually people driving fast down our street, even at 2 or 3 am. I wouldn’t mind checking it out sometime.
    Would you be up for meeting for lunch or dinner one day? Just let me know. Well, have a great night or day depending on when you get this…I have to get up early for work tomorrow….

    Wow. Four months ago! We’re now planning our wedding and Matt still hasn’t fixed the trim/border in the living room 🙂

    I love you Laurie! I’m still waiting for those wedding gown photos 😉

    Storm Chasers: Week 1

    We started our new series on Storm Chasers this week at encounter. Wow. God is good. Take an hour and listen to the podcast from this week’s service. It will rock your world. Granted, it may have just had a greater impact on me since I’m just recently engaged and we’ve just started planning our wedding, but it’s worth a listen for any and all.
    Here’s a description from the podcast:

    Life is filled with storms. They come mysteriously and without warning. Storm Chasers put themselves in harm’s way in order to learn more abou them. Listen to the story of how one couple at encounter survived the ultimate storm in marriage – an affair. Discover what they found in the storm and how their marriage was restored better than it was before.

    You can click to listen to the file, or visit the encounter podcast page and download the file and other services, or subscribe to the podcast through your favorite podcasting software.