Finally Back to Blogging? Random Thoughts...

You'll have to forgive me for my lack of posts lately. I've gotten 121 emails, 3 voice messages, 2 text messages, and even 1 hand-written letter about my lack of posts lately! I didn't know that many people read this thing. Oh, wait a minute...I'd be lucky to get 127 people to read this blog in my lifetime! Yeah, so I totally made up something to kick off my latest post. Why haven't I posted lately? Not really sure. I guess I've been pretty busy lately and therefore pretty tired, and therefore my late night activities seem to get pushed aside.

The JJ Heller CD give away was a success. The package was mailed and received. Crazy thing is, they accidentally sent me two of the CD I wanted in the first place, so I got to give yet another JJ Heller CD away, this one the "Songs That I Know" album, and my sister was the beneficiary. Anyway, I sort of ran into a blog rut over the last few weeks, and I was tempted to quit, but I don't want to be a quitter, and I know that I get a lot out of writing all this stuff down and keeping a record of it. Hopefully, I can encourage someone every now and then as well.

There seems to be a lot going on with friends of mine lately. In the past 2 or 3 weeks, I've had a friend lose her father, a friend lose his grandfather, a friend about to have her first baby, a friend who found out his wife has been cheating on him, a friend who is going to alcohol/drug rehab, a friend who asked for prayer with his job situation, another friend started a new job, and a friend who just got back from China. Wow. Lots of things to pray about -- crazy part is that I'm actually remembering to pray for these people! Thanks be to God.

Yeah I know this whole post is totally random, but here's another thought. The folks from Red Mountain Church in Birmingham, AL, are coming to my church to lead worship on March 11th. After several emails back and forth with their piano player, it's a done deal it seems. I'm pretty excited about this, and my wife and I are going to try and get out of greeter duty for that day so we don't have to miss the first song. I can only hope that they sing at least one of my top 30 hymns. Big ups to my church for busting out two of my top 30 hymns last Sunday, "And Can it Be" and "Come, Ye Sinners."

I'm thinking about writing letters to my friend going to rehab for the next three months. It could be a good way to share the good news with him. If I end up doing this, I may in fact post the letters on here for some feedback.

Any Directv users out there notice the great stuff coming on channel 378 lately? Sure, there is still a lot of junk on that channel, but lately I've found R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur, and Ravi Zacharias all on the TV. What's next, John Piper? Gotta love it.

January is almost gone, and I'm still going through "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. Short readings everyday but great in content. I really hope I can keep this up all year. It's so easy but rewarding at the same time.

I'm sort of in a sports depression right now. It may be hard for anyone to understand this. But I follow my teams very passionately. My Minnesota Vikings looked terrible to end the season and have lost their defensive coordinator. My Illinois Fighting Illini basketball team is one of the worst teams they've put together in a long time. They won tonight, but it's sad watching them play sometimes. I think this sports depression is giving me some good perspective though. I made it through 3 straight Vikings losses and 4 straight Illini losses without yelling. That is monumental. Is it because I've stopped caring or because God is finally giving me the grace to calm my useless unrighteous anger?

I guess I shouldn't leave without a fresh spiritual thought. These are fun. I'm going to find a random book on the shelf and get something useful for you and for me....and wow, did I just find a gem! From "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners" by John Bunyan after several pages of talking about his terrible life of sin --

But one day, as I was passing in the field, and that too with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, Thy righteousness is in heaven; and methought withal, I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ was at God's right hand, there, I say, as my righteousness, so that wherever I was, or whatever I was a doing, God could not say of me, He wants my righteousness, for that was just before him. I also saw moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, not yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse: for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever (Heb. 13:8).