40 part two

About nine months ago, I blogged about an incredible set of illustrations concerning the 40 days of Jesus in the wilderness. I took those illustrations and used them in a video for a worship service that we did once a month at the church I was at in Ohio called Element. I put an Explosions In The Sky song to the illustrations, and it turned out great. Well, I found out today that there's a devotional book that was put out by Proost (Jonny Baker and Grace's site of music/media and more) and of course I had to get it.

So I bought it and downloaded it. I'm going to print it out and use it for forty days for a devotional. It looks pretty good, and the poem/devotional stuff looks interesting.

Below is the video - I watch it all the time and now I put it up on YouTube.

Free Rice

If you go to the Free Rice website you can play a vocabulary game and at the same donate rice to the world's hungry. I'm a big vocabulary buff, so it's a fun game, and I'm doing something for someone as I'm playing.

Free Rice will donate 20 grains of rice for every word you get right. I try to do about 2000 grains a day. Try it - it's fun!

Virtual Prayer Websites

Over the last six weeks or so, I've prayed quite a bit. I think I've prayed more in the past month and a half than I have in five years. Seriously. A lot of it has to do with me structuring my time in prayer and using a book called The Divine Hours to help direct my prayer.

Anyway, I thought this would be useful to others out there - this is a list of some virtual prayer websites where you can post your prayers online, or do some type of visual reminder of what you prayed about.

Here you can virtually light a candle to pray for someone else (click on number 10 in the labyrinth).

Here you can also light a candle and pray for something in your life.

This is a virtual prayer wall.

A lava lamp prayer site - I've mentioned this one before.

Creepy...yet Funny

Yes, I get creeped out at all these pictures. Seriously. All of them. Just go to the ManBabies website to see what I mean. It's kind of like a car accident, you just can't look away.

Teddy Roosevelt And Memorial Day

"Much of that which is best and highest in national character is made up of glorious memories and traditions. The fight well fought, the life honorably lived, the death bravely met - those count for more in building a high and fine type of temper in a nation than any possible success in the stock market, than any possible prosperity in commerce or manufactures...

Every feat of heroism makes us forever indebted to the man who performed it. All daring and courage, all iron endurance of misfortune, all devotion to the ideal of honor and the glory of the flag, make for a finer and nobler type of manhood. It is not only those who do and dare and endure that are benefited; but also the countless thousands who are not themselves called upon to face the peril, to show the strength, or to win the reward. All of us lift our heads higher because of those of our countrymen whose trade it is to meet danger have met it well and bravely.

All of us are poorer for every base or ignoble deed done by an American, for every instance of selfishness or weakness or folly on the part of the people as a whole. We are all worse off when any of us fails at any point in his duty toward the State in time of peace, or his duty toward the State in time of war. If ever we had to meet defeat at the hands of a foreign foe, or had to submit tamely to wrong or insult, every man among us worthy of the name of American would feel dishonored and debased.

On the other hand, the memory of every triumph won by Americans, by just so much helps to make each American nobler and better. Every man among us is more fit to meet the duties and responsibilities of citizenship because of the perils over which, in the past, the nation has triumphed; because of the blood and sweat and tears, the labor and anguish, through which, in the days that gave gone, our forefathers moved on to triumph. There are higher things in this life than the soft and easy enjoyment of material comfort. It is through strife, or the readiness for strife, that a nation must win greatness."

New Weezer Video

Awesome.

All I have to say is that I'm so excited for their new album to come out. It is AWESOME.

And this video ranks up there with Buddy Holly as best Weezer video. You might want to brush up on your Youtube lore before watching it, you might miss out on some of the jokes.

Memorial Day video

Here's a video we're showing this Sunday. I only added different music to it, I didn't really care for the "I'm Holding Out For A Hero" Top Gun song that was with it.

Prayer For The Chapmans

I went to the Yahoo web page tonight to look at the news, and saw a very sad news story:

The 5 year old daughter of Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife was killed when one of their sons hit her with a SUV at the house, obviously on accident.

Story here.

Be in prayer for the Chapman family, she was only five years old.

Middlesbrough - my adopted Premier Football League team

I haven't really paid attention to football - or soccer, as we call it in the States - for a long time. I played it quite a bit up until high school, and I thought it was boring to watch, until I watched a game on T.V. with an actual soccer fan.

So, I'm going to follow a team. I picked the Premier Football League (U.K.), because I've actually heard of some of the teams - Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal.

But I want to support one of the middle-tier teams: all of the above teams are really popular and really successful.

So, once I found out that one of the teams is nicknamed 'Boro - and since I have recently lived in a cool community in Ohio called Springboro (also nicknamed 'Boro), I was sold.

So I am now officially a fan of Middlesbrough Football Club. Should be interesting.

Funny Prank...

Ken Griffey Jr. paid back his teammate Josh Fogg (who was a Colorado Rockies player last year, known as the Dragon Slayer because he beat a bunch of big name pitchers on the Rockies wild ride to the World Series) a $1500 debt. In pennies.

Pretty funny.

Here's the scoop.

Denver Rescue Mission Thoughts

Were you there tonight Lord?
Were you waiting in line?

Maybe you were the little old black lady dressed up as if she was going to a nice restaurant, yet I could see the street-awareness etched on her face.

Or were you the tall black guy, the funny one who caused a commotion, who asked me if I had a certain Bruce Lee DVD, and who took a couple of extra pieces of bread and an extra bowl of spaghetti on your way out?

Maybe you were the guy who was on his way to Samaritan's House across the street, and had to hurry through the line - get a tray sans spaghetti since they were busy making it to cover the last forty people or so.

Or the tall older gentleman who reminded me of someone famous and who took a long time to eat everything on his plate?

One homeless man, who looked like the tall guy in Run DMC, asked a student to give him an encouraging verse from the Bible. When he couldn't, he gave one of his own. Another one of the homeless men there tonight told one of our students, "We're the least of these. You're helping us, the least of these."

Jesus said, "Whatever you've done for the least of these, you've done it to me."

We served you spaghetti, salad, bread, green beans, and some funky cookies.

And although this morning we got together as a church and sang songs to You, Jesus, the bigger worship service was at the rescue mission tonight.

You were there tonight, Lord.
You were waiting in line.

Interesting Poem

How shall I pray?
Are tears prayers, Lord
Are screams prayers,
or groans
or sighs
or curses?

Can trembling hands be lifted to You,
or clenched fists,
or the cold sweat that trickles down my back
or the cramps that knot my stomach?

Will you accept my prayers, Lord,
my real prayers,
rooted in the muck and mud and rock of my life,
and not just the pretty, cut-flower, gracefully arranged
bouquet of words?

Will you accept me Lord,
as I really am,
messed up mixture of glory and grime?

Interesting Prayer

Even more interesting, that it comes from China...

Help each one of us, gracious Father, to live in such magnanimity and restraint that the Head of the Church may never have cause to say to any one of us, This is my body, broken by you.

- from The Divine Hours.

New (To Me) Worship CDs

So I decided I needed some new (to me) worship music, so I went to iTunes and bought three CDs.


Starfield - I Will Go

- I have the other two CDs by Starfield. The first one I liked a lot, the second not as much. I've heard good things about this CD, however. It does have a remake of the Hillsong United song "Hosanna", which is good because I've wanted to do that song, but I can't sing in a girly voice very well, so hopefully this one is lower.



Desperation Band - Everyone Overcome

- I think this was recommended to me by Rochelle. I've heard they sound like Hillsong United. Interesting thing about this CD - it was written during the time of the whole Ted Haggard scandal (Desperation Band is from New Life Church, Ted Haggard's old church).


Generation Unleashed - Generation Unleashed

- I found out about this CD through Worship Leader Magazine. Then I listened to a couple of songs online, and I really liked their sound. I think everyone is trying to sound like Hillsong United these days. Which is okay with me.

Am I Two-Thirds Of A Man?

Because I can do/have done 50 of the 75 skills that a man needs to know in order to be a man, according to Esquire Magazine.

I don't like cards, and I don't like hard alcohol, so those were all shot out the window. I'm not very good at mechanical things, so those had to go as well.

The Lifestraw

Another example of technology done right.

A Danish company has developed the Lifestraw, which helps filter water in third world countries so that it's safe to drink. It's an amazing product.

You can find out more here.

You can also see a pdf file about it here.