Where’s My Straightjacket?

 

Alright now folks, I trust you have always known me as a reliable source. If not, hey, I post in vain. But that’s okay. But I have some new music for you, which is why I’m here tonight.

 

You have all heard of Steven Delopoulos. Well he has a new record out. It’s driving me nuts because it’s so good. He got the record out at just the right time. It was released last week and I am confident it is one of the 5 best records of the year. Hands down. I listened to it yesterday… but I hadn’t really heard it, you know what I mean? But so I’ve listened to it three times tonight and it has blown my mind. My goodness. It’s musical and lyrical content is such that it makes me want to fly and makes me want to cry. No lie. I am going to post a song from the record called “Halt.” This is a powerful statement of a song. If you want to call it a song. But please please listen to it. Then go buy the record for only $10 bucks at StevenDelopoulos.com

Halt

Fear has a Face

For all of you who don’t like Batman, this post is not for you.

Joker is revealed. Heath Ledger will be playing the Joker in the new Batman film, The Dark Knight.

I am excited. I really am. You can find a high res image here.

Some Good Reads From the Interweb

I have here, a few links to some blog posts from people or groups in my RSS feed reader that I think are great and worth your time:

Brannon McAllister vents about RELEVANT Magazine. Needless to say, RELEVANT won’t be that Relevant in 10 years .

Andrew Osenga talks about BTLOG and getting schooled by Bebo Norman in some sort of Basketball game.

Curt McLey gives a great review of the first show in Andrew Peterson and friends’ Behold The Lamb of God Christmas tour.

Jonathan Rogers from our favorite corner of the Internet Pub, The Rabbit Room, writes a killer review of one of the years best records: Over The Rhine’s The Trumpet Child. (iTunes)

Good stuff. Thanks for stopping by again.

tk

Concert Postponements

Those of you who live in the state of Washington and who have been following my blog recently, I want you know that this Saturday there will not be a Houseshow concert like I had mentioned before. Jeremy noticed that flights to Seattle during the holiday months are pretty darned expensive, or a lot more than we were expecting. This would’ve required some extra fund raising that he and I both don’t think is possible this close to the date. So we will be postponing the show to a later date, probably in sometime late-January. I am bummed that this didn’t work out like I had hoped, but I think it is for the best and I think next time, I’ll include Jesus in the details.

What I mean by that is that I don’t think that I really brought this opportunity to Jesus with a humble heart. I had put on one of these things before and figured I could do it again on my own. I am at a point in my life right now where I’m finally realizing that I need to be relying on Him for everything. And yet I still try to lean on my own understanding to get things done. This is always disastrous for me.

Anyway, I’m sure you can understand and relate to that. So bottom line, there will be no Jeremy Casella show this weekend. Please keep your eyes peeled for any new news about a future show (which we really want to happen).

Other than that, here are a couple things that I think you should check out.

-The Rabbit Room - Andrew Peterson and Friends’ new blog. “The Rabbit Room” was a corner of a pub (The Eagle and Child) where C.S. Lewis and his friends would meet to smoke pipes and have intellectual discussions. We should have more of those types of things.

Cat Stevens - Peace Train

Stay tuned for updates on the Jeremy Casella concert!

Quickly…

I will briefly explain what’s going on in my life so that you all understand why there might not be too many posts in the days to come (like it really matters anyway).

Firstly, I got a second job. I started at Panera Bread on Monday and it has been interesting. They are starting me at a generous wage so it is a good motivation to work hard. I pray that the Lord will give me a crazy and relentless joy that makes the sad, complainy, unhappy, angry, bitter, and even the happy-yet-lost people I work with to turn a head and see Jesus, not for praise for myself, cause I’m the worst sinner out of all of us. You can pray for this as it also means longer days with little sleep at night.

Second, I am officially involved in a Community Group at Mars Hill Church. I went to my first meeting tonight and it was just wonderful. I had missed the ’small group’ aspect and am realizing how vitally important it is to have this in the life of a believer like me. We studied our Sunday text (Phil 2) and the guys and girls split up for prayer. I was humbled by the openness and honesty of my fellow brothers. I am so stoked to be involved with them.

REMEMBER Nashville musician Jeremy Casella is coming on Dec 1st to do a houseshow at an unnamed home (haven’t found one yet. Volunteer yours if you can!).  Stay posted for updates! Please!!

That’s it. I really need some sleep. I think tomorrow is going to really hurt, though I’m praying that God provides me with some unnatural energy for tomorrow That vitamin C packet (equivalent to 8 oranges) will probably help.

Alright! I love you all.

tk

Loving the Most Sinful of Sinners

I’ve been thinking a lot of how Jesus went right through Samaria, instead of walking around it. I believe this to be one of the most important examples He ever set. And this is what attracts me to Him so much. He showed compassion to the least expected. It’s a rare, relentless grace, friends.

The Televangelists Can Have Him For All I Care.

I seem to be on a Donald Miller train right now.

Any of you who know anything about “Christian Literature” know who Donald Miller is and understand that much of the majority of evangelical Christians do not appreciate what he has to say. In every case, when reading a book, I do not care what kind, we MUST practice discernment. And when I say “discernment” I mean matching up the truth of what we read in Scripture to the “truth” in these books. And I have taken this into account when reading Mr. Miller, and for that matter, C.S. Lewis. And I must say that I have been greatly impacted by what I have read so far. A few posts down, I quoted a bit from Miller’s best seller, Blue Like Jazz. This is a book I recommend to everyone. I just recently picked up another one of his books called Searching For God Knows What.

What I think is great about Don Miller is that he connects with people on such a personal level. He is not in any position of authority such as a pastor or political leader or well-known musician or even a husband, so he is not really caught up in any large responsibilities. He is a people person. He hangs out. What he does for a living is writes and talks. I think this is great, though, for me, would only be awesome for like, a month. But his personal approach has really connected with me. He mainly uses stories to explain his points (that he really wouldn’t call “his points”) that can be related to by anyone. I appreciate his honesty and his understanding that the same sin that binds prostitutes, homosexuals, political leaders, and terrorists has held him so tightly as well.

I also appreciate the fact that Jesus is who he follows and not religion. One thing I get so caught up in is equations. I’m bad at math, but find myself doing multiple equations in my life to get to a certain point. Even with God. He’s like Santa to me sometimes. I do good, I get stuff. I do bad, I don’t get stuff and sometimes get stuff taken away. I think we think that we need to do a certain thing or feel a certain way or show love to a certain extent, that we should read the Bible for steps to a certain happiness. As if to say that God is a problem we can solve. This is something I get so wrapped up in and didn’t really realize it (though I had felt some uncomfortable, subconscious, dissatisfaction with the equations) until I read Blue Like Jazz.

I like Don Miller.

So I am going to quote something from his book Searching For God Knows What:

“If I weren’t a Christian, and I kept seeing Christian leaders on television more concerned with money, fame and power than with grace, love, and social justice, I wouldn’t want to believe in God at all. I really wouldn’t. The whole thing would make me want to walk away from religion altogether because, like I was saying about Santa Claus, their god must be an idiot to see the world in such a one-sided way. The god who cares so much about getting rich must not have treasures stored up in heaven, and the god so concerned about getting even must not have very much patience, and the god who cares so much about the West must really hate the rest of the world, and doesn’t sound like a very good god to me. The televangelists can have him for all I care.”

I like Don Miller.

Yawn

Why you should come visit me at work.

not a real sbux ad… just so you know.

Derek Webb on ‘Grey’s Anatomy’

This little man that I’m holding is going to be having a lot more listeners to his music. He already has thousands of listeners, but having a song on one of America’s top 5 most watched shows tomorrow night is really going to help. I am sad because I don’t think I have talked enough about Derek on this blog. I used to be the biggest Derek Webb fan you’d meet. He was all I would talk about and, in some cases, refer to for spiritual guidance (not condoning that, obviously). The Lord has really done a work in him and through him. Derek’s music is still causing people to think about what they believe to be true Christianity. He has shown me that Christianity is more than talking about loving the people, but loving them. It’s more than talking about loving Jesus, but actually loving Him. It’s more than just talking about following Jesus, but actually following Him. A good majority of who I am has been shaped by listening to Derek. Yes. I am proud to say that I’ve hugged, and shed a tear or two with, this man.

Deep as Wealth and Wide as Fashion

Donald Miller

Originally uploaded by atkevin

An excerpt from the book I recently read:

“My father left my home when I was young, so when I was introduced to the concept of God as Father I imagined Him as a stiff, oily man who wanted to move into our house and share a bed with my mother. I can only remember this as a frightful and threatening idea. We were a poor family who attended a wealthy church, so I imagined God as a man who had a lot of money and drove a big car. At church they told us we were children of God, but I knew God’s family was better than mine, that He had a daughter who was a cheerleader and a son who played football. I was born with a small bladder so I wet the bed till I was ten and later developed a crush on the homecoming queen who was kind to me in a political sort of way, which is something she probably learned from her father, who was the president of a bank. And so from the beginning, the chasm that separated me from God was as deep as wealth and as wide as fashion.”

-Donald Miller