Condolences to the Steven Curtis Chapman family… if this story doesn’t make you slow down and take some time to enjoy the fleeting moments in life that we so often take for granted, I don’t know what will.

Musician Steven Curtis Chapman’s daughter killed in accident

“I was trying to give my little girls a bath and rushing and hurrying through it,” Chapman told The Press in an interview last fall. “And I got convicted over how much I rush through moments trying to get to the next one, and God telling me to stop and take the moments as he gives then, and see what he’s trying to teach me.”

Just bought the Josh Wilson CD on iTunes. So far I love it. He has the same kind of pop-rock sound as Dave Barnes, and the same great songwriting, plus great musicianship too. Josh plays every instrument on the songs “3 Minute Song” and “Savior Please” except for drums. He fiddles with acoustic, baritone and electric guitars as well as banjo, mandolin, piano, and keys (which provide the orchestral sounds present on the album). While guitar and piano are his primary instruments, Josh also enjoys the banjitar, which is a banjo with guitar styling, “It’s a neat instrument and it’s kind of a cheat on the banjo.” Sweet!

I’ve been enjoying “3 Minute Song” which compares singing about God’s greatness to “Trying To Fit The Ocean In A Cup” and the rest of the CD doesn’t disappoint. Now I’m trying to restrain from tracking down his two independent projects—a full-length album, Dragonfly (2004), and an EP, Shake the Shadow (2006).

I tried to write a song 
And keep it 3 minutes long 
Get in, get out, nobody gets hurt 
And I tried a thousand times 
To fit God between the lines 
But I’m finding out that doesn’t really work

I just don’t have the words to say 
Cause words only get in my way

I must apologize, I have the hardest time 
Finding something to define a God that I can’t define 
And even if I could, it would take way too long 
If all I’ve got is a 3 minute song

I’ve got a hundred metaphors 
And if I had a million more 
I could never ever seem to sum this up 
Besides, how can some melody 
Communicate eternity 
It’s like trying to fit the ocean in a cup

I’ll never find the words to say 
Cause words only get in my way

I would like to dumb this down to 3 chords or maybe 4 
But I’ve tried and I can’t and I won’t cause there will always be more

So I apologize 
I can’t seem to get it right

I also like the humorous tune “Dear Money,” which talks about a love/hate relationship with cash.

Check out this video of him playing “Amazing Grace”

Larry Norman, THE PIONEER of Christian rock music (a tag he hated) passed away this morning in his home in Salem, Oregon.

Norman became a Christian at the age of five and was raised in a black Pentecostal church. In 1956 he heard Elvis Presley’s music and would later say that he felt Elvis had stolen rock’n'roll from the church and he was determined to steal it back. The roots of the idea of marrying a spiritual message with rock’n'roll music began there and then in his childhood even though it would be more than a decade before he would have the opportunity to begin fulfilling that vision.

I’d be lying if I said I knew all of his music, but growing up in a very legalistic church (where even drums were considered evil) kinda automatically makes Larry Norman your hero, as far a music goes.

“I ain’t knockin’ the hymns, just give me a song that has a beat
I ain’t knockin’ the hymns but give me a song that moves my feet
I don’t like any of ‘em funeral marches, I ain’t dead yet

All I wanna, I wanna, I wanna say
Why should the devil have all the good music?”

What!?!?

After a discussion with Autumn about love being an “action, not words” Sunday morning before church, followed by a great message by Chuck on love, it seems to be the theme of the week. Hey, it is Valentine’s Day right! Check out these awesome posters by the crew at “The Plow“!

“It’s Valentine’s Day… Everyone loves those who love them. So love your husband or your wife.

But realize that the freedom in Christ is so profound it allows you to love the worst, most vile people ever… Because He first loved you, and nothing else matters.”

Can you love your enemies?

Shortly after reading the latest post from Hopper regarding ranting without giving thought to the people we rant about, I stumbled onto this article in the Wall Street Journal… “Banned From Church“. I have to admit, my first reaction was to join the author and tell my personal story of excommunication. Where is the “comments” link? But then I remembered, that won’t help anyone. The truth is, I’m really not sure what will, but I’ve been through a situation like this, so these stories hit close to home for me. Brings back a lot of bad memories, and a lot of hurt. I’m not sure what saddens me more, the stories of kids like I once was…

“Amy Hitt, 43, a mortgage officer in Amissville, Va., was voted out of her Baptist congregation in 2004 for gossiping about her pastor’s plans to buy a bigger house. Her ouster was especially hard on her twin sons, now 12 years old, who had made friends in the church, she says.”

…or the fact that here we are, almost 20 years have gone by since my “excommunication“, and there are still people being put through this hell.

Mark 12: 30-31

And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.

And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Not just the neighbor that lives up to your expectations. I think sometimes we forget that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

I just read a great interview with VeggieTales Founder Phil Vischer who wrote The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything–A VeggieTales Movie ( directed by Mike Nawrocki). Pirates opened Jan. 11, and despite Gabe’s begging and pleading, I haven’t taken him to see it yet. Not because I don’t want to! I love Bob, Larry and the gang. Gabe was given The Wonderful Wizard of Ha’s DVD for Christmas and we all had a few good laughs watching it.

Phil mentioned a topic that’s been discussed on Christopher Hopper’s site before. The “Christian” label. When he was asked “So in your mind, is there such a thing as a Christian business?” he replied…

“Business with Christian ownership, Christian values, Christian goals . . . I think a Christian business needs further definition. We had the same discussion about Christian movies. Is it a movie made by Christians? For Christians? Or a movie that has accepted Jesus as its Savior and is going to heaven when it dies?”

I think I’m going to get a copy of his book. Sounds like a good read.

I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around.We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels.

My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, “This is the Receiving Section Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received.”

I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.

The angel then said to me, “This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them.”

I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. “This is the Acknowledgment Section,” my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed “How is it that there is no work going on here?” I asked.

“So sad,” the angel sighed. “After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments.”

“How does one acknowledge God’s blessings?” I asked.

“Simple,” the angel answered. Just say, “Thank you, Lord.”

“What blessings should they acknowledge?” I asked.

“If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.”

“And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.”

Also “If you woke up this morning with more health than illness …you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day.”

“If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation…you are ahead of 700 million people in the world.”

“If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world.”

“If your parents are still alive and still married… you are very rare.”

“If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you’re unique to all those in doubt and despair.”

Last night we packed up the whole family in the minivan, including my still-nursing-a-broken-leg-fresh-outta-knee-surgery wife and my two foster kids… Mykaila and Darien, and cruised on out to the closing night of Dying 2 Live in Watertown. I totally forgot about Day of Fire playing Friday night, but my kids wouldn’t let me forget about ‘my name is KJ AKA KJ-52‘ on Saturday.

We went early so Trisha could help out at the KJ-52 merchandise table. Everybody was talking about how great Day of Fire, and 33Miles were the night before. I SHOULD’VE GONE!!! I caught the end of Mike Guzzardo, heard a little bit of Infusion (from right here in Beaver Falls, NY) and then listened to “DC Gump” in between chasing the boys around the place.

There was a pretty good crowd of kids there and “five-tweezy” had everybody with their hands in the air… wavin’ em like they just don’t…. *sigh* I can’t stop it now, keep it goin’ now… Anyway, KJ did a bunch of old school stuff to kick it off and get the place movin’. Ha threw in some new tracks from “The Yearbook” and a freestyle jam about 3 random objects picked from the crowd (an empty Tootsie Roll wrapper, a cell phone, and Bill Jepma’s football), the band had the place laughin’ went they went into a rendition of “Jump” by Van Halen, which got them “fired” by KJ, then later they let loose with “Who Let The Dogs Out”, and started some Backstreet Boys before KJ cut ‘em off. Everybody had a blast. Even Gabe was standing on his chair bouncin’ to the beat. Later on after the Pillar concert (which ROCKED… LOUD by the way) KJ hung out and signed anything and everything my kids could get their hands on.

“Whose idea was this, a Christian Floridian rappin’ white kid
whoever did must’ve flipped they lid, he’s bugged out and dances like Taylor Hicks”

Who cares KJ… just keep doin’ yo thang!

I cannot wait to see this movie. I loved Bruce Almighty, it was hilarious, yet there was such a good message behind it, so many things you could take away from it. How many times in your life have you felt like Bruce, kneeling in the middle of the road, at the end of your rope, completely burnt out from trying to do everything you wanted, your own way, having no other way to go but to stop, look up and say…”I give up, I submit to your will, I can’t do this on my own”.

When I first caught wind of Evan Almighty, my first reaction was probably the same as most people.

“What!!?! No Jim Carrey!?!?”

But after seeing the trailer, I was convinced that the movie would be fine without him, my only other concern was that the movie was just being made for the sake of making a sequel. This article confirms that is not the case. Hopefully more people in the arts, be it movies, music, writing, whatever, take the same approach Tom Shadyac does.

In the world of music, artists generally fall into two categories. There are “Christian musicians” who make Christians albums for Christian record labels that are being bought mostly by Christians. And then there are musicians who happen to be Christians. I take it you’re a director who happens to be a Christian, and not a “Christian director.”

Shadyac: Yeah, and I even have a hard time with that label—though you’re not going to meet a bigger Jesus freak. Someone asked me the other day, “What’s the biggest influence on your filmmaking career?” And they started naming filmmakers. I went, “Naw, it’s Jesus actually.”

I haven’t listened to Mindy Smith in a long time… I loved her last CD (One Moment More) and I just never got around to getting this new release last year. Pretty much the same soothing sound, a mix of folk, country, blues, jazz, gospel and pop… and great lyrics. Check her out…

I need peace of mind and a gentle hand/As I try to change the way I am/And hope God forgives me when I can’t/I need peace of mind and a gentle hand.