Dad Life

I was scanning my RSS feeds today and found this video. It is hillarious!!! I wish I would have found it before fathers day.

(via Buzzard Blog)

Monday Is For Music - Josh Garrels

Today’s pick is an artist by the name of Josh Garrels. I just started listening to him. There is something so unique about his music and his voice to me that draws me deeper into the album. It is very well produced. You can get it FREE on Noisetrade.com right now or if you are an audiophile you can also download it for FREE on Bandcamp.com in a whole host of different file formats. Enjoy!!!

Moving

I am going to head over to my parent’s house this weekend for the last time. We will all say goodbye. The moving truck will transplant a collection of tangible memories, necessities and furniture to a new home. All of this is bittersweet. This is the home I grew up in and have most of my childhood memories. It is the home where I invented a thousand adventures and the home I rested in for decades. I have spent dozens of Christmases and holidays in this home. I met and proposed to my wife while in this home. My kids love going there and swimming in the pool, playing in the yard and spending the night with grandparents. Bittersweet for sure.

I have a host of great memories, and some difficult in that home. The Lord has stitched together both the good and the bad to make me into what I am today. Regardless of the seasons of life, this home has always been a safe place. It was a certain sign of security for my wandering soul. I could literally always “go home” and just simply “be.” The shape of my life has drastically changed as I am now building a home for my family. I am hoping that they will one day look back on the memories of our home and bless the Lord for the time they had there. It won’t be a perfect place, but I pray it is a place of rest and security and laughter and love.

In the end, with the closing of one season, the building of a new one and the beginning of another, Acts 17 seems to place it all under the right perspective:

“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.” (Acts 17:26-27 ESV)

Monday Is For Music - Songs For #Joplin

Songs for #Joplin started as an idea to help a tragedy-stricken town and quickly became a charity that people were talking about. With acts like Derek Webb, Waterdeep, Sara Swenson and Oil Boom this charity album gained social media attention from all over the country… before it was released. With your help, Songs for #Joplin can be a success and a major blessing to Joplin, MO. Please donate and download the album, and help to rebuild a community. 100% of the profits will be donated to Heart of Missouri, United Way.

If you want to just donate money directly to an organization doing some great things for the people of Joplin, go check out Pastor Steev Inge and Mystery Church. You can donate to the work that they are doing in the community here.

An Interview with Joe Thorn, Author of Note To Self.

Justin Taylor recently asked Joe Thorn to sit down for a video interview to talk about Note to Self. I LOVED this book!!! It is my top pick this year. I highly recommend it. It is available in both paperback and kindle editions.

Sojourn - Death Has Lost Its Sting (Video)

Sojourn has released a video of the song Death Has Lost Its Sting. This video is from the release party for their new album The Water and the Blood. This is one of my favorite songs on the album. I would highly encourage you to pick this album up if you haven’t already.

Kindle Deals: Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission ($2.99)

Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission

Author: Darrin Patrick

Publisher: Crossway Books

Price: $2.99

Much of what is written about church planting aims at methodology and strategy for facing such challenges, but specific strategies do not apply to every context. What lies deeper, at the heart ofevery church plant?

The most critical human component of every church plant is the planter.

Darrin Patrick, vice president of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network, looks at what Scripture teaches about this man’s character, his teaching, and the aim of his church. Offering guidance and wisdom from years of experience, Patrick reminds us that ultimately no church will succeed apart from a man with a message who leads a church on a mission.

This book is for every Christian leader.

Church Planter is an essential resource for those considering planting a church or already in such a plant, and maybe even more important for those leading an established church.  It has wide-ranging application for elders and leadership teams seeking to better understand how the gospel must take root in their church. Avoiding an over-emphasis on particular models or methods, Patrick lays out biblical principles and sound wisdom as he urges the church to return to biblical criteria for determining the man, the message, and the mission God uses to build his church.