Bologna!

When I lie, it hurts my wife and my church, but that’s pretty much it. The guy who lied about why he wrote the song has influence over hundreds of thousands of Christians and is in the spotlight often. This guy’s lie effected thousands of Christians and hundreds of churches (maybe more).

Although I know that *all sin is equal to God, the sin of someone with greater influence has a greater impact on more people, therefore they’re held to a higher accountability with greater responsibility. (Check James 3:1) As for me, I’m now in the situation of having to tell people who are skeptical about Christianity that yet another Christian has lied and the story behind Healer is actually a load of crap and try to convince them that God is, indeed, still in the healing business and that, although the story is a lie, God is capable of healing their marriage, lungs, etc.

So, while forgiveness is needed, by no means should this guy get a pass from the blogging community. Nor should our prayer for him center around reconciliation alone. We should also be praying for healing for his relationships and for the damage done to the international Church.

What do you think?

* Update: Not all sin is “equal” in God’s eyes. I meant to say that all sin is sin, which is pretty redundant, I guess. Read Nate’s comment below for further explanation.

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Am I Not Allowed to Be Mad?

For Erica and I, and probably for you too, it’s important to do these little vacations every once in a while. It’s even more important when life starts coming faster, when it’s harder to make time for it. It’s these times that Erica and I need more time alone than ever.

It’s also during these times that I have to consciously make more time to spend with Jesus in prayer and reading the Bible. During these times, I throw my Bible-reading plan out the window. My prayer strategy gets tossed. All I need is time with God, period.

When life comes fast, how do you stay connected to God and to the people that are most important to you?

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Getting Away After a Crazy Week

* Everlasting God - Chis Tomlin

* Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) - Chris Tomlin

* Healer - Hillsong/Planetshakers

* It Is Well With My Soul - Shane & Shane

I’ve been looking forward to teaching Healer to my church for a while. I thought it would be powerful (and it was), but the song that got most of the positive feedback was It Is Well. Go figure. I guess God will do whatever He wants with whatever song He wants. Fine by me!

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Sunday Set List | 8-10-08

Now that the week is over and Erica is on her way back, I have a to-do list that needs to get checked off before she gets home to make sure she has a wonderful homecoming. And, since my life is an open book (mostly), I thought I’d share that to-do list with you. Plus, it’s Saturday and nobody wants to read something serious on a Saturday.

* Vacuum everything.

* Move plants back into place after having been moved to wrestle with my dog.

* Vacuum again.

* Pick up the piles of clothes.

* Dust, dust, dust.

* Do the dishes from the whole week.

* Change the trash/take out the trash.

* Change the linens on the bed.

* Plug in air-freshener. (very necessary)

* Pick up shoes from foyer.

* Wash the dog. (maybe)

* Take a shower/shave/brush my teeth/floss/mouth wash/etc.

* Put on a happy face and get ready to rub some feet!

How do you welcome a spouse when they’ve been gone for awhile?

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My “Erica’s Coming Home Today!” To-do List

So, when they came to town Wednesday to play at Celebration Church (not my church), I made it a point to go and see for myself what all the hoopla is about. They didn’t disappoint.

It was both an incredible worship experience and an incredible show. Here’s a shot I got from my phone. Blinding, huh? A little blurry, too.

What’s your favorite Hillsong song?

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Hillsong London Comes to Jacksonville

This post is mainly for my church folks to have a resource to listen to some of the music that I worship to throughout the week. This is the guy who wrote a couple of the songs we do on Sunday mornings, so you might recognize the style, if not a particular song. Since I have a vision to be able to lead you in worship beyond just Sunday morning, this is just one little step toward that.

Anyway, here it is. Let me know if you downloaded it by leaving a comment.

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Phil Wickham | Singalong

1. The first thing I do when I open my computer in the morning is refresh my Google Notifier. This wouldn’t be weird except that it automatically refreshes and my manual refresh gets me the info about three seconds faster.

2. The second thing I do is refresh my Hahlo notifier to see the early morning tweets. Again, this happens automatically, but I like to be in control.

3. For every post I publish to my blog, I write four or five posts that get deleted because they’re not worth reading. (C’mon, you know you do this.)

4. I try every new to-do system that comes out as soon as it comes out. Right now, I’m using Toodledo. I was using Gmail and RTM together. Before that I was using a calendar app. I tried Reqall this afternoon and immediately realized how poor it is.

5. I’m obsessive about having a clean inbox and desktop. I don’t throw things away on a whim, they just get archived really fast.

6. I find myself constantly evaluating little events to determine whether they are twitter-worthy or not.

7. I find myself constantly evaluating my thoughts to determine whether they are blog-worthy or not. (This gets exhausting.)

8. When I get bored, I click into Google Reader even when I know it’s empty. Every once in a while I find a surprise gem.

9. I really want to find a use for Backpack, but every time I try it, it lets me down.

Finally

10. I always want to talk about the web, but I have to remind myself that not everyone else cares about it like I do.

So, do you have any tech habits? Care to share?

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10 Tech Habits I Just Can’t Kick

Spending $32 a month doesn’t make me or Erica a saint. It doesn’t even really mean that we’re very “socially responsible.” It just means we have $32 less in our bank account each month. Not a big deal. But it’s pretty huge deal for Jimmy in Nicaragua.

It’s an even bigger deal in Haiti right now. Jump over to Anne’s blog and read her post about the currently detiorating situation among the Haitian population. It’s bad. Really bad.

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It’s bad. Really bad.

Aside from the pure frustration while reading some of the past music we’ve done (Another Soldier’s Coming Home? Seriously?), I’m realizing my own shortcomings, wondering what God was thinking when He brought me here, and trying to guess my way through most of it.

The most difficult part is that I’m not a music guy. I don’t read a single note of music. Not one. How God has brought me this far in this ministry is beyond me. I’ve been here a full year as the worship pastor (albeit the interim) and God has helped me the whole way to not look too much like a fool.

I doubt myself in this ministry on a weekly basis. I’m constantly afraid that no one really knows that I don’t know what I’m doing and that I’ll be caught at any moment. I lead real musicians. How absurd is that? Forget about “the blind leading the blind,” this is “the blind leading the 20/20.”

When was the last time you were out of your league, in a situation that went beyond stretching you, or found yourself being used by God in a way you had never planned?

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The Blind Leading the 20/20

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God Blows My Mind