Swaziland

New documentary that looks like a good wake up call. Dear Francis

The Office

Just quick note to point you towards a site that has all episodes of one of the best shows on TV these days....the Office.

Fun for the whole family

Let the good times roll. Our favorite prosperity pastor Joel Osteen has found another way to make money, board games. Now the whole family can gather round and learn how to think happy thoughts, learn how to be blessed and develop a healthy self image.

Sorry for the sarcasm but this guy gives me the creeps.

United As One

Our pastor is doing a three part sermon series on dealing with conflict, which started last week and continued today. It is based on Matthew 18. When he first mentioned it I have to admit I thought to myself, alright time to check out. I have heard this stuff before and if I am honest, I tend to avoid conflict, so I had little interest. However, unlike other sermons I had heard on this subject, our pastor provided some background on why it is so very important. He provide a number of examples of the tremendous number of splits that have occurred within different denominations and the resulting number of different "types" of Christians there are today. Within the Baptist denomination alone there are 112 different types of Baptists. He mentioned other denominations which have just about as many. Is this what God intended?

"I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." John 17:20

God intends for us to be one. United not divided. When we are united we show the world what God looks like. When we are divided we spend more time fighting about the minor issues and missing our intended purpose. I would argue that there would be far fewer denominations today if, we the church, took this stuff to heart. There is a lot of negative talk these days about the church. By those outside the church and probably even more by those inside the church, particularly in my generation. I think the challenge for us at this time is to stop complaining and to start living lives of grace so that we can live out Christs prayer in John 17.

It Happened

Well what can I say. Do I really need to say anything. I knew it was going to happen and yet I still allowed myself a little glimmer of hope. Thankfully I did not change weekend plans to be able to see the debacle, I only heard how once again we managed to do the impossible and give up a 31 to 14 half time lead. Simply amazing. But you know the same thing will happen next year.

Thankfully there is more to life then Spartan football. A couple weekends ago we went to a nice art festival. It was held at a art garden (art mixed with nature). Couple pictures.

Its Happening

For my regular readers (based on the constant stream of comments there are lots of you) you will remember several weeks ago I talked about Spartan Football. Well it is happening just as planned. First couple games of the year we have taken care of lesser teams, but yesterday we faced a decent Pittsburgh team that was supposed to beat us pretty handily. Well we took care of them without much trouble. If you watched any football yesterday during the recaps of games they kept saying "wow maybe this Spartan team is for real." Where have I heard this before and why do they do this to me, you can feel the expectations start to rise (we may even be ranked this week).

Staying consistent with what always happens, after we get a little excited, we have a big game this next week against a pissed off Notre Dame team on Saturday night. On national TV none the less. Do I allow myself to get excited, could this be the year. Here we go again.......

Too Hot Not To Handle

Keeping with the iTunes theme, you can download a four part series on iTunes for free from HBO Documentary Films. The series is called Too Hot Not To Handle and it is about globe warming, which to be honest I don't spend too much time thinking about but after watching it I think I probably should. It starts out a little bit slow but overall it is pretty good. It is amazing to see what is happening to our glaciers. I don't look forward to a day where there are only a few places on earth where you can enjoy skiing and the like. The iTunes link is here.

iTunes 7

Apple announced today a new version of iTunes with some nice new features, such as coverflow. This version will also add album artwork for you. I would recommend the download when you get a chance. More discussion on the new features here and here. Happy listening.

Pure Pop Pleasure

I had heard one of this bands songs on the radio and thought it was decent but a friend shared the whole ablum with me and I have to say the whole thing is pretty darn good - even if it is very poppy (next thing you know I will be recommending a country band.....to which I say NEVER). Throw Five for Fighting and Train into a blender and you get The Fray. You can preview the ablum on their website.

Pharisees Are Us

I came across this article by John Ortberg pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church and I thought it was pretty good.

John mentions "Ironically, the one human being who was perfectly free from self-righteousness is the only one who was completely righteous. The least exclusive member of the human race is also its most exalted. The only person who has ever been truly free of a messiah complex was the Messiah."

Fantastic.

Free Music

Derek Webb (formally of Cademons Call) is giving away his latest album. You can download it via the image. You need to send a notice to five friends to download it. I have listened to it once and it is not bad. The message, in my opinion, is better than the music. Why is he giving it away...

"my most recent record 'mockingbird' deals with many sensitive issues including poverty, war, and the basic ethics by which we live and deal with others. but i found that music has been an exceptional means by which to get this potentially difficult conversation going. and this is certainly an important moment for dialogue amongst people who disagree about how to best love and take care of people, to get into the nuances of the issues. one of the things that excites me most about the future of our business is how easy it is becoming to deliver music to people who want to hear it. i heard a story once about keith green caring so much that people were able to hear and engage with his music that he gave it away for free, which was a very difficult and expensive thing to do at that time. it's actually never been as simple as it is today to connect music with music fans. and i want people to have a chance to listen to mockingbird and engage in the conversation."

Advertisement

There has been some grumbling about the frequency of posts on this blog. Now we all know that it is quality that counts and not quantity but I have to admit I am feeling the pressure. So I hate to do it but this post is pretty much an advertisement. I have been using this little device with my ipod now for a little while and I have to say it is the best thing since sliced bread. While you are running it tells you how far you have gone, your pace, how many calories you have burned and so on. Done with the run and plug you ipod into the computer and keeps track of all your runs, sets goals, compete against others. Cllick on the pic for a demonstration. So while I hate to advertise I have to say this thing is awesome. By the way if you have a nano, all you have to buy is the little thing to attach to your shoe and ipod which costs $29. You don't have to buy the shoes, thank goodness. Alright now back to your regularly scheduled posting.

Sufjan Stevens

Pretty sure not many songs have been written about Romulus Michigan but I think this one is pretty good. Click on the image for a link to a video for the song. Need to have quicktime to view it (if you don't have quicktime I have no excuse for you, just get it here). Sufjan is from Michigan. Grew up in the UP and went to Hope College. His last album Illinoise was picked by many as the best of 2005. Not your typical stuff but really grows on you.

Here We Go Again

Not sure why I do this to myself but every single year I get excited about a new season of Spartan football. Every single season we win a few games, move up in the polls and I get real excited about some big game, usually Michigan. Then we have to play the big game and the downward spiral begins. After so many years you would think I would learn but I guess there is always that glimmer of hope. So it begins once again. We supposedly have a Heisman candidate for a quarterback. We are supposed to have a good rushing attack. Most importantly we are supposed to have a much improved defense. Here's to hoping....Here's to a new season starting September 2nd.

Communion

We have been attending a new church the last few weeks. A little bit closer to home, a little bit smaller and just seeing what else is out there. This last Sunday we celebrated communion. It was probably one of the best communions I have ever experienced. It went well with the sermon (about when we are weak, He is strong) but it was also just very personal. The pastor mention one thing that I think is a great quote.

"The world says, let us eat and drink, so that we can forget because tomorrow we die, Christ says let us eat and drink and remember for tomorrow we will live forever"

Simply Amazing

Is this guy crazy? Not sure but it is pretty amazing what the human body can do. He has now run 350 miles continuously, makes my 4 mile loop seem pretty sad.

NC Video - First Cut

Sorry about the video quality, second cut coming soon.

RSS Feeds

One web hint that I wanted to pass along. Using RSS feeds is a really easy way to keep up with websites that you like. The only thing you need is a browser that supports them. I would highly recommend firefox if you are not using it already. Once you have firefox or something similar and you go to a website (like mine here) you will notice that up in the address bar there is a symbol all the way to the right (a dot with two half circle lines over it). If you click on this it will open a box, that will have the name of the website and it will say create in: toolbar folder. Hit add and at the top of you browser you will see the name of the website. When you place your mouse over it - it will show you all the recent posts. So now you can quickly check when posts have been added. You can do this for any website that has the symbol in the address bar (like my web albums).

New Music

Zach Braff has a new movie coming out in September The Last Kiss. I have no idea if it will be any good but Zach put together the soundtrack which I am sure will be good. Joshua Radin is on the soundtrack, I had not heard is music but after listening a bit I have to say it is pretty good. You can watch his video single here.

San Antonio

A few pictures from our trip in June. Nice place to visit but a little too much heat for me.

Our Hotel

On the riverwalk

The Alamo