So What’s Been Up??

Once again, I am that guy. Please accept my sincerest apologies for the absurd lack of bloggage lately. It is in this spirit of reconciliation that I offer this humble update…

This weekend I played bass with Josh Via. SUPER COOL. Honestly, this guy is amazingly talented and he is great musical worship leader. If you are reading this and you have not checked out his music do yourself a favor and do it now. We played down in Myrtle Beach with Andy Cherry on guitar, Jordan Leino and drums, Scott Spruill on Keys and Josh’s wife Tasha on violin. Pretty cool stuff. I really hope to work with that crew a lot more in the future.

Here is Josh on stage doing a little sangin’. The kid has pipes….

Summer is here and it is about to get really busy. I am fortunate to have quite a few gigs this summer. And I am also fortunate to get to play in some really cool places. We will be hitting Missouri, Georgia, Florida, Arkansas….that might be it…I am honestly not sure…but I really miss the fellowship of being on the road. You live in constant community and, with the guys who I am lucky enough to travel with, we are constantly engaged in conversations that are really 1) educational and 2) challenging. So I am looking forward to that.

I am not amazingly excited about being gone all the time though. Its hard to hang out with Jessica like that. But she is in summer school and is SUPER busy all the time anyway. So, it should go quickly….

Silver is planing a 3 song EP sometime in the next few months. Should be awesome. I am REALLY stoked about a few of the songs we have been kicking around recently. So look out for that. I will try to keep everyone posted. In case you missed it, Beautiful Things was on the Deep 5 compilation put out by Deep South Records. So that was cool…

Reading – I do tons of reading. Here is a sample of some things I have been into over the last couple months….I am going to leave out any fiction that I have read since…well…you gotta draw the line somewhere…

Christ Centered Worship – Bryan Chapell – absolutely awesome book in terms of thinking about liturgy and how we do church. “Why exactly do we announcements then??”

Crazy Love – Frances Chan – a lot of you guys reading blog will have read this book. As well you should have. It’s pretty awesome.

The Forgotten God – Frances Chan – a lot of you guys reading this blog will have not read this book. And that’s a shame. It’s a really good study on God the Holy Spirit and our dependence (or lack thereof) on Him.

Common Sense – Thomas Paine. Interesting book in terms of early American political theory. Also interesting to read probably the single most influential writing on why America should be free from England. This book changed everything for the first Americans.

The Penguin History of Latin America – Edmund Williamson. If it’s true that the devil is in the details then this is the most evil book I have ever read!! I am pretty fascinated with the continent to our immediate south. Something about my grandfather being from Quito probably drives that. But this book was pretty detailed and pretty good. Not for the faint of heart.

The Venezuelan Revolution: 100 Questions and 100 Answers - Chesa Boudin, Gabriel Gonzalez and Wilmer Rubos. Very interesting. I actually wanted to read something about the revolution that was from the perspective of supporters of it. That’s exactly what this is. The authors are college professors in Caracas and one of them actually works for the revolution now. It was amazingly biased but, informative nonetheless.

CURRENT READINGS: I am currently working on a few things.

The Kingdom of the Sun: a Brief History of Peru – Luis Martin – I love this stuff….I couldnt find a picture of the book so…here is a picture of Macchu Picchu

The Discovery – Josh Via – thats right. The aforementioned worship leader actually wrote this one. Pretty cool..

Untamed – Alan Hirsch – interesting to say the least. The guy has some great points. I think he is swinging the pendulum a little too far in one direction but, man, he really makes you think. And that’s awesome.

Anyway, those are some of the books I have read/am reading. Hope you guys enjoy….

God Moves in Mysterious Ways

God moves in a mysterious way
his wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
and rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs
and works his sovereign will.

You fearful saints, fresh courage take;
the clouds you so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
in blessings on your head.

His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
and scan his work in vain:
God is his own interpreter,
and he will make it plain.

Easter Sunday

Sunday was really good at Visio Dei. I was totally whipped for Sunday morning. Silver had a show on Saturday night in Charlotte. And I Jess and I drove through the night get back to Raleigh for Sunday morning. I was tired but its one of those things that’s really fun and I won’t forget it.

So at Visio Dei on Sunday morning, Jason lead, Ben played electric, I played bass, Katie sang, Kendall played cello, Will played some keys, and Mike McKee played drums. Awesome lineup. We had 4 people singing so it sounded great. Setlist was:

• Happy Day
• Song of Hope
• Glorious Day
• How Great is Our God
• Mighty to Save
• Salvation is Here

Was great to celebrate our risen king with good friends.

Worship

Here is the thing, everyone worships something.

It’s not a Christian thing. It’s not even a religious thing. Worship is a human thing. We are all worshipers. We hold things in places of glory in our lives. And we do that to the exclusion of everything else. We sacrifice for those things. In Old Testament times that meant going to the temple and sacrificing animals. Today, it means we give our time. We give them our talents. We give them our money. We love them. Some of us worship our jobs. Some of us worship our cars; our money; sex; sports. Some of us worship ourselves.

We are all called to worship God. And to have no other Gods before Him. You are called to worship the king of the universe. Our Creator. The Creator of all things. But our temptation is to worship CREATED things in place of the Creator.

Romans 1:24-25 “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!”

The thing is, we subconsciously believe that created things will save us. We think they will make us happy. If you are a guy who believes that only success and money will make you happy, its possible that you will sacrifice everything for it. You will sacrifice your health. You will sacrifice your family. Because you think it will make you happy. If you are a girl who is terrified of being alone your whole life you might sacrifice things to be with someone you shouldn’t be with. You might sacrifice your dignity. You might sacrifice your body. Because being alone is bad and a boy will make you happy. These things are idols. We worship them. We sacrifice for them. We love them.

We become like what we worship. If you worship food you will become a glutton. If you worship alcohol you will become a drunk. If you worship sex you will become a pervert. It’s because we become dedicated to those things. They promise to make you happy but it’s a lie. Remember Romans. They “…exchanged the truth of God for a lie..”. But only God will make you happy.

We have to repent of worshiping things other than God. He is jealous. And to worship anything else is to exchange God’s truth for lies. Lets make sure we worship Creator.

New Blog

So as you might have noticed, I have a new blog up and running here. I am pretty stoked about the new design. A few things are still in the works but I am pleased overall. And I am loving the new header (thanks to Cade and Shelly). Hopefully I can get some good material up here soon. Prep yourselves.

Pictures

I play with lots of people.

TN

I am headed to the volunteer state today. I think that’s what they call it anyway.

Might hit some snow on the way. Hope its not too bad.

Hope everyone is doing OK

I promise I will post some meaningful stuff soon. Got lots to tell.

Snow

So it has been snowing here for the past few days. As is typical in NC when it snows, the whole place is shut down. I think school has still been canceled from snow on Saturday. Pure madness.

Just in case you were worried, Nallers was prepared. She always is.

Listen….

Genesis 49:10 – “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and to him shall the gathering of the people be.”

John 12:32 – Jesus said, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”

Georgetown….

…..South Carolina that is. When I got in the car to come here. Turns out it is on Pawley’s Island. AMAZING. The church we are playing at is awesome. The folks are amazing. And the house we are staying at is amazing. It is huge. And so nice. Loving it.

This picture is over there on the side in the photo stream but its the only one I have so I am putting it in the post. Enjoy.

OTI Picture

A friend of mine sent this over. I think he got it from a friend of his. But its a good picture from an OTI show that we did over the Christmas holiday. Pretty cool.

New Years

Ok – I am finally posting again. wow…its been a while

I am in Charleston for New Years. Down here with Jessica and Brent and Jessie…and Tahoe and Nallers and Sadie and Floyd…and John and Linda…Brents parents…super cool

I have been coming here for a long time and since I joined Brent at NC State, we have been coming down here a few times a semester to hang out an enjoy the sights and enjoy the waves….super cool….

Should be a good New Years….

Next Up……Thanksgiving

I do love Thanksgiving. I will tell you why later….

Silver Practice….again….

 

Also…check out Jess’s post. Its a good one.

Silver Practice

Check it out…..

Hallelujah…..Athletes

Looking forward to next year for the Pack….

 

Silver with 96 Rock

So a few weeks ago Silver had the honour of playing a 96 Rock event in Raleigh. Pretty sweet.

Brent

John

Patrick

Christian the Lion

Also…Sigur Ros…..awesome

Bubbles Don’t Pop….They Rip

Rain Delay Dance Off