I'm reading through the bible with Discipleship Journal's plan. And memorizing the C set of Desiring God's Fighter Verses.

What's your plan?

[ht] reformissionary

New lyrics for "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus," written for a new sermon series here at Harvest.

Come, Thou Lamb of God and Savior,
Come to take our sins away.
In Thy sacrificial favor
Spare us, heal us, cleanse us, we pray.
We, like sheep, had lost direction;
We could not for our shame atone.
From the altar of Thy perfection
Make Thy blameless life our own.

Come, Thou Way of our redemption,
All our wand'rings rectify;
Truth, but not of our own invention,
Jesus, Word of God, reply.
Life, eternal and resurrected,
Thou to our spiritless framework impart;
And, by Thy love to the Father directed,
Way and Truth and Life Thou art!

(c) 2007 Joshua Westerholm

Two generations ago, a couple going through a tough time stayed married because they should.

A generation ago, a couple stayed married because of their kids.

Why will this generation stay married? Because "Divorce Is Bad for The Environment".

PART ONE:
This morning, I told Ethan to get dressed. I left him alone. However, I was afraid that he would get distracted.

Punch. Punch. Punch, Punch, Punch.

Ethan, what's going on it there?

My shirt is having a war, Daddy, between the buttons and the holes.

PART TWO:
Last week, we were sitting at the table. I was eating my dinner, and Ethan was discussing the inter-Trinitarian relationship.

Daddy, do you know who Jesus' boss is?

He doesn't have a boss, Ethan.

Yes, he does, Daddy.

Who is it?

Jesus' boss is ... Jesus.

PART THREE:
Ethan now likes to ask Bible trivia.

Daddy, who was the bad guy . . . who was mean to Jesus . . . in the desert?

Sometimes, I'll hear things and get really confused.

This is one of those things.

Have you heard about these "Document Management" companies? Here's an advertisement:

Do you have documents that need to stay safe? Bring them to Document Managers, and our locked facilities and state of the art security systems will keep your documents absolutely secure!

Or, do you need documents destroyed? Bring them to Document Managers, and where your documents are placed directly into the shredder, which uses a fine cross cut to render your material completely unidentifiable.

Isn't that a little confusing? I'm not a genius, but I'd suggest having two SEPARATE businesses: one for making sure the documents were never destroyed, and another for making sure they were completely destroyed.

I mean, what if you took your documents to the wrong desk? Oops.

All of this to say, I'm committed to keeping our church clear. Come to our church to hear about a God who is great and good; how our disobedience and rebellion has ultimately ruined us; and how this God at great personal cost invites us back.

Want a different message? You'll need to go somewhere else.

An updated post from last year with help from BCL.

On The Prowl for new Christmas Albums?

The classic albums to own are Charlie Brown Christmas, Nat King Cole Christmas, The Carpenters, and (maybe it's just me) Mannheim Steamroller. (In the interest of full disclosure, I grew up in rural Nebraska and saw "the 'mroller" live in concert at least twice.)

In the jazz world, Wynton Marsalis' album is great, while Cyrus Chestnut wins the award for coolest Christian solo piano album. I love it. This Warner brothers album has a lot of modern giants (and is worth the hard effort to track down a copy), but for pure class, you've got to hear the Ellington Nutcracker.

In the gospel world, you might know Israel Houghton's album, but you should really check out Broadway Inspirational Voices for that awesome choir sound. Wowsers. Worship pastors should get the sheet music and do some of the songs, and pianists should go to school on the album.

Let's talk rock. My favorite is Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb. SOO good. Also, Songs for Christmas (Sufjan Stevens) and O Holy Night by Duvall (featuring WORLD-CLASS keyboard parts.

Also, you should really hear Bob Kauflin's album Savior. It's really great.