A Look Back At The Porch

Maybe it was just me, but man, was The Porch good last night! Here's what went down:

First, I get a call in the afternoon from Putty, one of our SIMYs that helps lead the youth band, telling me that no one showed up for band practice on Sunday, so we wouldn't have a band for that night. Bummer. So I figured, "Well, we'll just punt and play some stupid game or something and do some God Rocked My Face Offs." Then, about 20 minutes before we were supposed to start, while everyone is eating and hanging out, Lauren, one of the singers from the band, came up to me and said, "Is it true that we don't have any music tonight?" I told her yes. She said, "That's bad." I said, "I know." She said, "What about doing those iWorship videos? I could lead with those." So we found them on the server, and she and Jen, one of our SIMYs that used to be in the band, picked out some songs.

The meeting started, and we went ahead and played the stupid game that involved marshmallows, which was quite funny. Marshmallows are just fun in a white, squishy package, anyway. We plowed through our announcements, and got to our One Life Revolution announcement, and discussed the Penny War we have going on to raise money for those suffering from the AIDS crisis in Africa. As I'm making the announcement, one kid stood up, pulled out his wallet, and threw some money in one of the jugs. Then someone else. Then another. And another. And another. Then a SIMY. and another SIMY. And another student. And so on. It was crazy how much money they were just giving away like it was God's or something ;-) .

And then, if that weren't enough, we started singing, and everyone was really into worshipping God. So after Lauren and Jen led us in two or three songs, I felt like we should do more. So I got up and said a few words while they picked out a couple more to do. Then we sang some more, and I said a few words. We sang and I read from a Psalm. By the time it was all said and done, we had sung for 45 minutes! It was awesome to see how pumped everyone was to just take the whole meeting to worship God! I can't say for sure, but I think He was pretty pleased with the offering we brought last night. If you were there, that's what worship is about, and should be about in our everyday lives. God rocked my face off last night! I was stressed about the program, and God showed up and said, "It's not about the program. It's about Me." And it was...

Be Your Own DJ

Do you like music? Check.
Do you like downloading songs that you like? Check.
Do you not have enough money to pay for all the songs you want to hear? Check.

Here might be a good alternative for you. Go to Pandora, where you can enter the name of an artist or song that you like, and it will configure a virtual radio station that plays similar music. I just entered the David Crowder Band, and it brought up such artists as Delirious? and the Robbie Seay Band. Pretty cool...

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

We finally got some snow yesterday. It warmed my heart as it chilled my fingers and toes. This 60 degrees in January is crazy! It's not supposed to be that way. Winter means snow. So, while it is practically gone already, I'm glad we had a little bit at least. A few other thoughts:

• During a prayer meeting, people prayed for our country that it would return to its Christian heritage. I'm not sure exactly what they meant by that. Probably a return to prayer in school and an end to abortion. But what about ending poverty and taking care of the alien, widows, and orphans? And would it really do us good to have our government agree with our Christian heritage, or would it simply add to our complacency? Look at Israel in the Old Testament. When things were going smoothly for them, that was when they turned away from God to other idols. And when I was in high school, the strongest Christians were the ones in the public schools, where they had to fight for their faith daily. And who do you think is stronger, the average American Christian that has life easy, or the Chinese Christian that has to worship underground? (I know I'm going to hear from my brother about this post) Just a thought...
• I was ever-so-glad to hear that U2 cleaned up at the Grammys last night, and that Mariah Carey did not. Granted, I haven't heard any of Mariah's CD at all, but seriously, who is more culturally relevant when you look at the big picture? I think about stories of REM winning Best Alternative Music Grammy with their first mainstream album when going up against Nirvana's Nevermind, which etched grunge into the consciousness of America. Or Jethro Tull beating out Metallica for the first Metal Grammy. And when I do, I say, "The Grammys got it right this time."
• Have you heard what is going on at Asbury College in Wilmore, KY? A revival is breaking out there, and God is driving people to their knees. This is reminiscent of the revival that occurred there in 1970. Go God!
• Fitz, Jr. in 54 days and counting! if you have any name suggestions, I would love to hear them...but I can pretty much guarantee that we won't use them. I'm fairly sure that Marcy wouldn't allow us to name our child from a suggestion submitted on my blog. But it could still be fun. So let's hear your ideas.
  

Super Bowl Ads

OK, so the Pittspuke Stillers won the big game. Big whup. They had the refs' help in that matter. But what really mattered, as it does in every Super Bowl, were the commercials. Advertisers paid $2.5 million for a 30-second time slot this year. And judging by some of their spots, many of them overpaid. Here is my personal list of the top five and bottom five commercials from the 2006 Super Bowl:

Top Five (in no particular order):
1. FedEx: Caveman - hilarious with a great surprise ending (I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen it yet)
2. Bud Light: Man Kitchen - although I don't drink, I love it that you can usually count on Budweiser to come up with some original ads
3. ESPN: Mobile - very effective way of showing how much the product has to offer
4. Emerald Nuts: Druid - just too weird to not include it
5. Ameriquest: Hospital - usng the paddles on a fly: classic - and the liittle girl's reaction: priceless

Bottom Feeders:
1. Ameriquest: Flight - just plain wrong
2. Diet Pepsi: Brown & Bubbly - all the Diet Pepsi ads stunk, but this was the worst of them
3. H3: Little Monster - that was weird, wrong, and just plain stupid
4. Toyota: Camry - maybe I'm just too sensitive, but the implication that someone needs to know English to have a successful future seems remarkably ethnocentric
5. Paramount: MI:3 - as much as I love Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tom Cruise just needs to go away

If you haven't yet seen the comercials or you missed some, you can see them here...

Train up a child...

Oral, the tech guy at our church, did some clean up work on my baby's ultrasound picture from several weeks ago. It revealed something startling, but not so surprising...