What Pachelbel meant

This is really good. . . to me.  Enjoy.

Filthy Rags

Below is this morning’s (August 29) devotional from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening.  I won’t dilute the message by trying to comment on it.

“Have mercy upon me, O God.”—Psalm 51:1.

When Dr. Carey was suffering from a dangerous illness, the enquiry was made, “If this sickness should prove fatal, what passage would you select as the text for your funeral sermon?” He replied, “Oh, I feel that such a poor sinful creature is unworthy to have anything said about him; but if a funeral sermon must be preached, let it be from the words, ‘Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness; according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.’” In the same spirit of humility he directed in his will that the following inscription and nothing more should be cut on his gravestone:

overdressed

Overdressed, The new album by Caedmon’s Call (reunited with Derek Webb) is coming soon.  We received our pre-ordered copy today and i already love it.  Their first release from that album, “There Is A Reason” kind of goes along with a couple of my posts from several days ago regarding the Lord reigning and stuff. 

 By the way, Caedmon’s Call has long been my favorite band.  In my mind they are incredible lyrically and really good musically.  Hope you enjoy.  You can also pre-order it here if you do it fast.  You get two CDs for $12 in case one of them doesn’t work.

Train, Train

We’ve been in our house for 6 1/2 years and have been feeling this itch to leave for something newer, bigger and better for about 6 of those. Circumstances – also known as bad decisions graciously permitted by Providence – have disallowed a move and I now have a very disconcerting notion to stay longer than we must. I want to make our house OUR home, to sow at least a small seed of who we are into it. Part of that is my desire to be different than i’ve ever been and actually complete something. Part of it is to, in the process, figure out what that seed might look like once cultivated. 

We Love Charleston, SC

My wife and I love Charleston, SC for multiple reasons. We love the fact that we began dating there, were engaged there, lived there our first year and a half of marriage, and had our first child there. But we also love it because of the water and because of the history of the place. I took this picture while we were on a water taxi taking us from the Charleston Harbor near the SC Aquarium to Patriot’s Point where the USS Yorktown (a retired aircraft carrier) is docked. We then took a small cruise ship around the Harbor and learned about the various Civil War area military forts: Moultrie, Johnson and Sumter, the latter of which absorbed the cannon shot which effectively began the War Between the States. Before this, we were privileged to visit the house of a prominent early 19^th century merchant, Nathaniel Russell, whose family lived at 51 Meeting Street. Surrounding all of this, we stayed in the Andrew Pinckney Inn (don’t really know who he is), which is one block from the Historic Market Street. And the great thing is, there is so much more for us to see the next time we go. We’re hoping we can talk some of our friends into going with us. We can take a stroll down King Street, eat at 82 Queen, walk through the graveyard where John C. Calhoun is buried and take a horse drawn carriage tour around the historic city. I can’t wait until the kids are old enough to really get what a great place this is!

Remembering J-Rhythm. . not b/c he’s dead, just because

Here’s to my roommates when we used to live in Charleston, SC (before Steph and I married).  For others, this is the video that one of my roommates, J-Rhythm, said we had to show to everyone who came in our apartment (at least that’s how i remember it).  Somewhat of a rite of passage.  Enjoy!

Diving In. . . .

 If you’ve read a post of mine in the past, you know my affinity for Charles Spurgeon. This one in particular is in keeping with the theme from my last post on Psalm 97, “The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice”. By the grace of God which was with me, over the past four days I have had the privilege to meditate on that phrase over and over again. I have heard an illustration before that when you first begin to dive into the greatness of God, it feels overwhelming, but as you continuing pushing on you begin to realize that at the beginning stages you were merely in a small creek which sweeps you into a much larger stream which becomes a raging river which flows into a vast ocean. (You can listen to our pastor’s sermon from this past Sunday on why we aren’t as overwhelmed as we should be at this point). The more time I have spent meditating on “The Lord reigns”, the more I get the feeling that I have merely been stepping on rocks trying not to fall in the creek. There’s something scary about being swept away.

The Lord Reigns, Let the earth rejoice!

The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice!  Tucked away at the beginning of the 97^th Psalm is the key ingredient to authentic worship.  The Lord reigns.  True, authentic worship cannot be attained without a real and experiential understanding of this truth.  The Lord reigns.  He reigns when the cancer comes back for the fourth and final time and all the hours in prayer have not yielded the results we had hoped for.  He reigns when our hearts are broken yet again by a womb that will not bear a child.  He reigns when thousands die at the hands of men who are dependent on their own sacrifice and the accompanying deaths to secure a place for themselves and their relatives in the presence of the god of Ishmael and Mohammed.  My wife and I have never been through anything like that personally,