Drop The F-bomb In Church!

Apparently it is now ok to drop the F-bomb in church. Really!?

Monday Is For Music - Who Is KB

Today’s recommendation is an album that I got about a week ago and it’s been on non-stop repeat since than. It’s from ReachRecords newest artist KB and it introduces KB to the world. The album is called “Who is KB?” ReachRecords is giving the album away in the second heat of their MARCH MUSIC MADNESS event.

To learn more about KB go here.

Visit the MARCH MUSIC MADNESS homepage to download or click here to for an alternative download.

 

"Recaptured" Grace-Driven Effort

I was listening to a little Flame today & the song Recaptured came on. As I listened to the lyrics of the song I was convicted. Check out some of these lyrics:

Jesus died, He did more than just give us some help
So help me understand why we still living for self
We live for our families, For our money and cars
We live for our happiness, cause our pleasure is lord
But ain’t we seen yet, that that just doesn’t work
Living for self can only lead to dozens of hurts
We’re taking steps towards death, but looking for hope
Because we were captured by sin
We were seized, now we need to be captured again
That’s why we need to pick them scriptures up
Start praying and fasting, And ask the Father to forgive us of
Forgive us for laziness, Forgive us Lord for our pride
Forgive us for worldliness, Forgive us cleanse us inside
Cleanse us Lord from telling lies, Cleanse us from our selfishness
Cleanse us from our fear of man; We need more than help from this
We confess our lack of love, We confess selfish ambition
We confess to You our lust, Oh Lord bring us to repentance...

"A key piece to anyone recovering from a broken and sinful world is an understanding of what the problem is. Everyone knows there is something wrong with the world, but what you think the problem is will determine how you try and solve it. Unfortunately, most people spend all their efforts on symptoms rather than the disease that’s causing those symptoms." -Matt Chandler

This statement is true in my own life and in the lives of so many others. We need to not put a bandage on the symptoms, but attack the disease before it kills us. God may be using lyrics like this, piercing scriptures, or your own community of friends to convict you of sin. Recognize that sin, don't sit in self-pity and use grace-driven effort to fight it.

01_Recaptured.mp3 Listen on Posterous

It's Friday, Friday Gettin' down on Friday

It’s Friday!!! Just incase you forgot here is Rebecca Black to remind you along with what days follow Friday.

Need It Daily

Tedashii is one of my favorite Christian rappers. His new album “Blacklight” drops on April 26, 2011. It’s going to be awesome. ReachRecords has release two singles off this new album. Here is the newest one.

Need It Daily Ft. Pro

I love that the ReachRecords artists rap straight up theology. You can download this new single on iTunes now and the whole album on April 26th.

The G.O.S.P.E.L. In 5 Minutes.

This is one of the best spoken word representations of the Gospel I have ever heard. I just keep listening to it. I pray it sinks into all our souls.

A Special Free Audiobook

The last several weeks have generated significant amounts of discussion and debate regarding the release of Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived by Rob Bell. The Resurgence has a great post called "A Chronology of Rob Bell on Hell" that lays out a ton of different reviews and interviews on the subject.

While there are many great resources available on christianaudio that discuss this topic, none is more timely or informative than Jesus: The Only Way to God by John Piper. This powerful & short audiobook illustrates clear biblical doctrines of salvation, the gospel, faith, and hell, and is imperative for thinking rightly about the eternal purposes of God.

This free download expires on March 31st at midnight PDT!

Monday Is For Music - Songs for Lent

I wanted to let you know about a new hymn project featuring many of the producers and artists associated with Red Mountain Music.  Brian T. Murphy, who produced all of the Red Mountain records, recently started a new project called "New York Hymns". You can learn more about the new project at www.newyorkhymns.com. New York Hymns just released a new record featuring many of our favorite Red Mountain artists, plus many new artists. The new record is now available as a completely FREE download from Noisetrade.

The theme of the new record is on the Season of Lent, focusing on the Stations of the Cross. Brian asked songwriters and producers from all over the country to write songs and contribute. The result is a haunting, lovely, 20 song album for Lent; which really runs the course from grief to hope. To learn more about New York Hymns, and to download this new record for free, you can visit www.newyorkhymns.com.

iPhoneography: Coffee With Erik Raymond

So Joe Thorn posts random photos taken from his iphone. They are awesome looking. I am no photographer but I love the idea and I am going to totally plagiarize it from him. Shhh don't tell him. Just kidding, go check his photos out and as long as you are on his blog, look around and read some posts. 

Here is my first picture. I hit a local coffee shop to do a little studying & catch up on some of my favorite blogs. You can find Erik Raymond's blog here.

Photo above taken with the iPhone 4, and processed with the Camera+ app.

 

Man To Spend Lent As Monks Did, With Beer

As someone who enjoys God, the occasional beer, and its history, this story caught my eye when it came on the local news last night. Having read The Search For God And Guinness by Stephen Mansfield (review later) this winter I can understand what J. Wilson is taking about in his study of the monks and the nutritional value a good brew had hundreds of years ago. This is in an interesting story and one that will certainly tick off a lot of fundamentalist Christians. Beer has a deep history in the Church. Most people are just too closed minded to it to even learn of all the good that came to the Church because of beer. A quote from Wilson’s KCCI interview that I thought was awesome was “I want to educate beer people about God & God people about beer.” My hope is that J. Wilson does not loose the real meaning of Lent on his study of monks and their brew. What say you about this?

Find J. Wilson Online

• KCCI Story
• Des Moines Register Article
• His Blog

The adventure that J. Wilson is embarking upon relates to monks from Germany, but it’s going to get a lot of attention by Easter, so here’s the press release:

“Working to nourish their bodies through during the lengthy 46-day fast during Lent, the Paulaner monks of Neudeck ob der Au in Munich are credited with developing the doppelbock style of beer in the 17th century. Packed with carbohydrates, calories and vitamins, this unfiltered ‘liquid bread’ sustained the monks from Ash Wednesday to Easter, and over 300 years later, the rich history and quality of this beer is well-known throughout the world. With this in mind, blogger J. Wilson is embarking on a historical study, fasting on doppelbock for the same 46-day stretch that the storied German monks once endured — and live to tell the tale.”

“This will be no small undertaking,’ Wilson said. ‘I will be working with both a doctor and a spiritual advisor as I attempt to tell the story of this facet of the monks’ livelihood.”

“While the end product of the project will be a book, Wilson has set up a separate blog (Diary of a Part-time Monk) to chronicle elements of the fast as it unfolds. ‘The goal is to post short, daily tidbits on how the fast is proceeding, with occasional clips uploaded to brewvana’s YouTube channel,’ Wilson said.”

Monday Is For Music - Folk Rock

Today's musical suggestions are two of my favorite bands in the Folk/Rock genre. They are “The Avett Brothers” and “Mumford and Sons” respectfully. These bands were an acquired taste for me. The Avett Brothers were first introduced to me by my brother a few years ago; I have to say that I really didn’t care for The Avett Brothers at first. It wasn’t until the album “I And Love And You” came out that I really got into them. It was a “gateway” album, it awoke my inner hillbilly. I would categorize Mumford and Avett as two different genres even if Amazon doesn’t. Mumford’s music is more folk sounding to me while Avett is has more of a bluegrass sound to it. However you label it, it is pure awesomeness in my ears and two of my top listened to bands in my iTunes library. Below are a few links to my favorite albums and some other resources.

Mumford and Sons

• Sigh No More - Favorite album, but they only have one available in the US.

The Avett Brothers

• I And Love And You - Favorite album
• Emotionalism - Second favorite album

Check out The Avett Brothers full album catalog here.

The Avett Brothers - Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise Video

 

Westminster Catechism Rap

Have you ever heard D.A. Carson rap? Curtis Allen put together a rap about the Westminster Catechism with D.A. Carson. Hey Piper isn’t the only one with mad rap skills. Enjoy!

voice-westminster.mp3 Listen on Posterous

“Westminster Catechism” (lyrics)

Verse 1

We non-stop hey we non-stop hey we in the Lord and we going to the top hey. We got the catechism and we won't flop hey, we nonstop hey we nonstop hey we on top. Of our history, reformation chivalry, Westminster Catechism teaching on divinity. Dealing with the trinity, the Westminster longer is a monster so today we dealing with its mini me. 1647 let's go back and visit the, year it was completed to edify the community. Believers live in unity was part of the purpose, to train lay persons in matters of what was worth it. Doctrine and belief, believe in the doctrine we own our sin we not looking for Johnny Cochran's. Now we don't idolize with idol eyes we know that Scripture is where the Lord has epitomized the Father so why bother with the catechisms? Because they simplify for you and I'm glad they did them. We get a vision of this comprehensive document, one of the most important in the church and it’s opulent. They didn't know I know that word, we gonna get into the Q & A next verse. 107 questions we won't do all of them, you probably think it's wild I'm rocking with Dr. Carson.

Hook

Do you know what the chief end of man is?
And how the Father, Son and Spirit do manage?
Do you know if you want you could know this?
The catechism hey the catechism hey

Verse 2

Let's get into some questions 107 of ’em broken down into sections. The first 12 of ’em deal with God as creator, the manner of his decrees, and trinitarian nature. 13–20 is dealing with humanity our sin and it's cause we should all be God's enemy. 21–38 is getting real meaty, the nature of Christ, his office, and how he redeemed we. All of these are solid but personal homage is paid I been affected by 27 and 28. Christ’s humiliation, his exaltation, 4:4 of Galatians, Psalm 110 are stating. 39–84 filling out commandments, 85–97’s dealing with the sacraments. 98–107, what you will find there, is some good instruction on the Lord’s prayer. Yeah, now I ain’t saying it’s the best right I know it ain’t the Scriptures but we riding with the “Westside.” Question 3 what do the Scriptures principally teach, concerning God and his duties for those who believe. Sweet, 92 what is a sacrament, a holy ordinance by Christ was instituted as a means of grace man get that catechism out, while you bobbin’ your head go read what I am talking bout.

Curtis Allen also put a song together about the Heidelberg Catechism. You can read about it here and download it here.

When Prayer Becomes Easy

Jonathan Dodson had a great guest post on his blog recently on prayer. This is a subject that I struggle with as I am sure a lot of you do as well. I thought this was a good statement from the post: “Prayer becomes easy, enjoyable, necessary, & satisfying when we become aware of our frailty and emptiness.” You can read the whole blog post on Jonathan’s blog here.

The Holiness of God by Dr. R.C. Sproul - Free Download

Now celebrating 25 years of publication, this classic can help you better understand the biblical picture of God’s awesome holiness and why it is so foundational to God-centered, God-honoring theology and Christian living. In The Holiness of God , R.C. Sproul demonstrates that encountering God’s holy presence is a terrifying experience. Dr. Sproul argues that this struggle is nonetheless necessary because it is the only way to cure our propensity to trust in ourselves and our own righteousness for salvation. (cited from Ligonier)

Now Ligonier in partnership with ChristianAudio is making The Holiness of God available for download as their free audiobook of the month. You can go grab it here and while you are there check out the large catalog of audiobooks that ChristianAudio has available.

Men Are In A Restless Pursuit After Satisfaction.

“Men are in a restless pursuit after satisfaction in earthly things. They will exhaust themselves in the deceitful delights of sin, and, finding them all to be vanity and emptiness, they will become very perplexed and disappointed. But they will continue their fruitless search. Though wearied, they still stagger forward under the influence of spiritual madness, and though there is no result to be reached except that of everlasting disappointment, yet they press forward. They have no forethought for their eternal state; the present hour absorbs them. They turn to another and another of earth’s broken cisterns, hoping to find water where not a drop was ever discovered yet.”
— Charles Spurgeon