Musings from TwOpOiNt

we had good services yesterday.  i felt good about the music.  i wish we could have gotten recordings, but it’s not about the recordings, it’s about how people respond to the Lord.

i got to sit in on a really great lesson Thursday that Sion Alford taught at the worship leader luncheon.

Here are some of the notes i took

The purpose of Praise

Psalms 8:2 says

from the lips of children and infants You have ordained praise because of Your enemies to silence the foe and the avenger.

ordained means to establish for a specific purpose.  The purpose of Praise is warfare.

Praise is a weapon

Praise releases Power

hey there is so much here, i can’t possibly type it all.  it was a great study into how we use our mind, will and emotions to tell our body or flesh to express spiritual truths in the earthly place.

oh and musical instruments are simply extensions of our body.  Satan hates it when we use our “flesh” to praise because it is a weapon against him…ever wonder why you get complaints about the drums and the guitars being “too loud”.

have a good one

chuck

it’s really kind of silly, but every year about this time a magazine comes out.  it’s a once a year deal, and i always succumb and buy it.  the cover price this year went up a dollar to $9.95, but i couldn’t help myself because there are finally Red Raiders on the cover.  the magazine is Dave Campbells Texas Football. 

i love college and high school football.  i don’t care too much for the pros.  i would go to a game if someone gave me tickets.  i kindof root for the Cowboys, but it doesn’t make a huge difference if they are good or not.

Texas Tech football on the other hand is a whole other story.  if the Raiders don’t have a good season, well then i’m just sad. (a good season is if we beat A&M and Texas in the same year)  Dave Campbell’s magazine thinks we have a chance this year to win the Big 12 south.  i’m not holding my breath, but at least we are getting some respect this year.

so there you have it my guilty pleasure which i will devour from cover to cover in the next few days.

chuck

“you cannot even begin to live the dream God has for you until you stop caring about only yourself.  And the smaller your span of concern, the smaller your dream will be and the smaller your life will become….Your dreams create space for the dreams of others”

Erwin McManus from Wide Awake

i started my summer reading last week at camp by finishing up a book i had started.  tearing through “Peppermint Filled Pinatas” and starting “Vintage Jesus”.  I love to read!!!  let me say that again.  I love to read!!!  how many of you pick up a book and you want to start reading it right then, but something in you tells you to wait for just the right moment to crack open the cover and begin to devour the pages? 

on my desk…staring me in the eyes (i’m not kidding, there is a big eye on the cover of this book) is Erwin McManus’ new book called “Wide Awake”  i so want to just dig in, but i really want to set aside some time when i’m not playing catch up to really devote to this book.  as i read the description on the back, i can tell this will speak to me.  it describes where i am.  Erwin has never dissappointed me with any of his books, i think it’s because he is so God soaked that he can’t help but write the truth.

also on my desk is Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel “The Road”.  it is on my list as well.

so what’s on your summer reading list?  and what books would you recommend that i read?

i’m waiting for “Chasing Francis” to come in at the Library.

(oh, and i know you are supposed to underline book titles, but i hate to toggle the underline thing.  call me lazy)

you may say i’m a dreamer….

this post is part of Water Cooler Wednesday over at Randy Elrod’s blog Ethos

a few years ago, my sister-in-law bought me a subscription to Relevant for a year.  i have since continued that subscription.  it only comes every other month, so you get 6 sometimes 7 issues a year.  i find their book, cd, and movie reviews amazing, and their general take on culture is a no holds barred approach.  they will interview cultural icons and it doesn’t matter if they are believers.  they however seek to find the spiritual in everything.  this month there are great articles about Morgan Spurlock  and 4 other “visionary” filmmakers.  there is a summer reading guide, and an awesome article about breaking our fixation with fame.

go check out Relevant

have a great day

chuck

i left camp at 9:00 pm on Friday night and rolled into my bed at 1:15 am.  i then proceeded to get up at 6:00 am, sortof repack my suitcase and roll out the door at 7:00 on my way to Hobbs, NM.  i got there about 1:00 pm MST and hung out with my sister and her friends.  my parents got there about 3:00 with my girls and we all headed up to Artesia.  we went to my sister’s in-laws house and hung out until the wedding. 

it was a nice wedding in the park on a gazebo.  i officiated and it was short and sweet (the way weddings should be).  then we had some cake and punch, got in the cars and drove back to Hobbs. 

Sunday morning the girls and i got up and drove to Carlsbad Caverns.  i figured while we were out there, they needed to see that really big hole in the ground.  after our tour we hit the road back to Dallas.  we drove from the caverns to Pecos, TX and then hit I-20 across.  did you know that the speed limit out there is 80 mph?  we stopped to get food and gas in Monahans, and then didn’t stop again until Eastland to get gas again.

we pulled into our driveway at 10:45 pm and then stayed up and talked to Amy for about another hour.  crashed in my own bed.  woke up and saw the boys and then came on into work.

Whew.  i put roughly 1000 miles on the Aveo in a matter of 8 days.  most of that in 2 of the 8.  i want to stay home for a while.

have a good one

chuck

i’m gonna give a shout out to a new friend named Jeremy Flanagan.  He is the pastor at a church plant called Pathway Baptist in Fayetville Arkansas, so if you are a Razorback go check out the church.

i told you i would post something from Peppermint Filled Pinatas.  I was reading this passage yesterday.

“At first, no sound came out of my mouth.  I worked harder, fighting through my own tears and emotion to share my deepest need.  The words came stumbling out of my mouth louder than I had imagined they would:’God, I desperately need you.  I don’t love people.  I don’t care about people who don’t know you.  All I care about is myself.  Help me to love people, no matter who they are or what they do.  Help me to love people the way you do.’”

as i read that, i put the book down and began to weep.  i was so broken because that’s exactly how i feel.  i was convicted that my ability to “connect” with people doesn’t always have the right motive.  i’m sometimes more interested in my agenda and motives than i am in them as a person.  if i’ve ever treated you in a way less than you deserve would you please forgive me.  i know the Lord has.  now it’s a matter of me “connecting” for the right reasons.  no more “networking”  i want to be your friend because i want to be your friend.

have a great day

chuck

i had not until i came to Bogg Springs Camp in Arkansas last year.

basically it’s a game.  it’s played on a custom made table that looks like this

so the table has lowered ends and  you use pool balls to play.  You set up the balls either in a pattern or along the sides.

so you take the cue ball and try to knock your opponents balls into the recessed area.  it’s a bit like shuffle board.  it’s insanely fun.  some of the kids get a bit rambunctious and the balls escape the carpetball enclosure and go flying then bouncing across the floor.

I have plans for a carpet ball table and plan to eventually build one, then set it out in my front yard and invite my neighbors to play.  it would be a great form of “party theology”

this post is part of water cooler wednesdays over at Ethos.

actually about 3 miles from the Oklahoma border at Boggs Springs Camp.  it is a camp that i led worship at for the first time last year.  it’s neater to come back the second year having some relationships made that you can now begin to speak truth and life into people.

i’ve had two amazing conversations with people even today.  i’m hoping to have an encouraging week where i can be refreshed as well as lead and minister to people. 

i started a book by Eric Bryant called “Peppermint Filled Pinatas”  so i may post a little bit about that, maybe for water cooler wednesday.

short blog today.  low bandwidth

have a good one

chuck

about how the church is quick to attack it’s own…

if we don’t agree with someone well then they just must be a heretic.  they are leading people down the road to perdition.  and while i don’t agree with ear tickling, i do agree with the truth.  are people speaking the truth…in love!  it seems like we reserve our harshest “truths” for pastors and staffs that are just trying to do what they feel God called them to do.  i’ve been guilty of this so many times.  i do realize that sometimes love has to be tough, but it still needs to be love.  i think often we write off harsh words as truth.  i do think that “pharisees” need tough love every now and then, me included.  but I often wonder how Jesus responded to people.  i mean he had tough words for the “religious” people, but i’ve often wondered how he delivered them? 

just some things that i was streaming through my brain today.  pray for me as i go to camp tomorrow.  pray for Amy as she is home with our two boys….

have a good one

chuck