Don't Waste Your Kids

Gregg Harris gives a good word at Covenant Life (where his son, Josh, pastors) from Psalm 127 to parents, with a humorous hook: "Train them until you like them."

As I listened to the sermon, it made me think of my brother, Spencer. You see, while Dad has been in the hospital recently, Mom was feeling terribly frustrated with the doctor. He wouldn't spend enough time with them to answer any of their concerns. He is basically a great doctor with no bedside manners. Spence and I knew this was unacceptable. I told Mom to call the cardiologist who actually sent Dad to this doctor. But Spencer took an admirable step, and called the hospital to talk to someone who would make immediate amends. By that afternoon, Mom and Dad had received an visit from the person in charge of hospital/patient relations, a visit from one of the partners in the practice that operated on Dad, and a very patient, helpful phone call from the doctor who did the surgery.

Spencer also canceled a trip to Romania to be with Dad. He has been working non-stop to take care of the things a good son should.

Spencer has definitely been "like an arrow in the hand of a warrior".

Take a listen to this sermon. Whether a child or a parent, you will be ministered to.

Exhausted

When you go to the hospital to see a family member, it's like a family reunion. People you haven't seen in ages come together, sit around, laugh, pray, eat, remember the old times, gasp at how much the kids have grown up, etc. Well, in the 48 hours that I was there, I slept for 5 and did the family reunion-like stuff for the other 43. Needless to say, I was kaput. I slept all the way back to Knoxville, went to bed at 9:30 last night, and woke up at 8 this morning. Loved every minute of it!

The pictures below show that someone else in the Breedlove family is fond of naps too!

Mom's condition

It's been an especially trying time for Mom. But under the Hand of Providence, and beneath the threads of my new HD blanket, she's finding time to rest.

She had a very sweet moment with Dad earlier. There was a 30-minute window that we were allowed to see him, only two at a time. Mom stayed in there the whole time, while my brother and I and our wives took turns seeing him. He was still completely asleep, on oxygen, with only an intermittent twitch here and there. Then, at about 29 minutes into the visit, Dad struggled his eyes open, winked at her, and kissed her on the finger.


She returned a very happy woman, and made us all glad.

Dad is in a better place

...the recovery room.

They ended up only doing a double bypass. And he actually looks quite well. No one passed out.

I asked him if his face hurt, but he couldn't hear me. I told him it was killing me. (It's a funny joke he taught me.)

He'll be awake by tonight.

Thanks be to God.

In Surgery

Dad was wheeled back around 6:30AM.

We had a sweet time last night with him - just Spence, Mom and I.

It's weird to think that they are cracking his sternum open, and cutting and tying arteries to his heart. I'm grateful that it's an "off pump" surgery, meaning, Dad's heart will keep pumping throughout the procedure versus inserting a pump to do the work. During an on-pump surgery,

...the heart is stopped, and blood is rerouted through a separate cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) machine. The heart is filled with a solution to keep it still. Throughout the procedure, the pump takes over the function of the heart and lungs and supplies oxygenated blood to the body. Following placement of the grafts, blood flow is restored and the heart restarted.

So you can see why I'm thankful.

Thanks again for your prayers.

Dad - heart surgery

Well, here I am, in the waiting room outside of the ICU at St. Joe's. It's 12:50AM, and Dad will be heading to the operating room in about 5 hours. I'm comforted to be close to Dad, even though I can't go back to be with him. Mom and Spencer and his wife, Lisa, got a room at the hotel next door thankfully. Mom will need her rest. We are in for a shocker, I'm told.

Thanks to all of you who are praying.

Dad - Triple Bypass Surgery

If you're one of the three people that read my blog regularly (including me), that shows me you are interested into stuff I'm interested into. My Dad is having triple bypass surgery tomorrow (Monday) at 12:00 at St. Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta. I won't keep a play-by-play report on my site probably. But my brother will at his pathetic excuse for a blog, found here: Spencer Breedlove.

My One and Only Week on Facebook (Josh Harris)

After giving a few reasons why the nicest guy in the world only used Facebook for a week, Josh Harris, on his post entitled My One and Only Week on Facebook, said:

The other reason I feel right about making my time with Facebook just a visit is a little harder to explain. How do I put this? I found that it encouraged me to think about me even more than I already do--which is admittedly already quite a bit. Does that make any sense? Without any help from the internet I'm inclined to give way too much time to evaluating myself, thinking about myself and wondering what other people think of me. If that egocentrism is a little flame, than Facebook for me is a gasoline IV feeding the fire. I need to grow in self-forgetfulness. I need to worry more about what God is thinking of me. I need to be preoccupied with what he's written in his word, not what somebody just wrote on my 'wall.'

And, finally, I need to read more. There are so many good books I want to read and so little time. If I added up the few minutes here and there that I spent checking Facebook this past week it wouldn't be an insignificant amount of time. I'd rather give that time to reading.

Anyway, all of the above is totally personal and is in no way an indictment on other Facebookers. This is just where I'm at right now. Who knows...I might be back when the kids are grown and the book is written and I have more self-control. Okay, it might be awhile.

What a thoughtful, careful, discerning use of technology.

A Photomontage by Scott Mutter --

Check out the photographer's website for his thoughts.

Church Matters: The 9Marks Blog

The following thoughts are from Greg Gilberts post at Church Matters: The 9Marks Blog:

There’s a whole generation of young people out there now, though, who aren’t emotionally affected by words, whose fires are only stoked when those words are accompanied by great rhythms, skilled instrumentation, and a certain well-recognizable mood that typically accompanies Christian “praise-and-worship.” And the result is that you have young people church-hopping around town, and one of the main criteria of their shopping is “the worship,” by which more often than not they mean “the music.” You have young Christians feeling discouraged because—despite the fact that they sit under faithful preaching of the word Sunday after Sunday—they say they haven’t “felt close to God” in so long. Maybe there’s something important going on there. But there’s also a good chance, I’d argue, that they just haven’t had a good endorphin rush since the last conference they attended.

I am really afraid that we’ve managed to create a generation of anemic Christians who are spiritually dependent on excellent music. Their sense of spiritual well-being is based on feeling “close to God,” their feeling close to God is based on their “ability to worship,” and being able to worship depends on big crowds singing great music.

I encourage reading this post followed by Bob Kauflin's response.

The kind of email you love to get

Every once in a while, the Lord confirms your work through some needed encouragement. This lady called the church to see what style of music we used in worship. She and her husband decided to come and worship with us. She sent this kind email to tell of her experience:

We could not wait (hubby and I)...we decided to visit CSPC yesterday and really enjoyed the service. We have been hungering for some reverence in worship and found that in every aspect of the worship service yesterday. It seems as if the world has moved towards a culture of corporate worship that is similar to that of a rock concert. We truly do love contemporary worship music, but are sad that a lot of church bodies are moving toward a "comfort Gospel" that makes it all about the the visitor only. We love the balance that CSPC has... that it is not just about attracting newcomers, but also about those who are gathered in His name and who are hungry for good teaching every week. A difficult balance to achieve and CSPC does it so well!

The service yesterday was absolutely BEAUTIFUL in that it was all about the exaltation of the amazing Triune God! It was so moving and so touching that we both felt huge lumps in our throats...it was a wonderful experience!

Thanks for blessing us!

The Rebelution: We Must Be Constant Worshipers

The Rebelution: We Must Be Constant Worshipers

Vikki Beeching's Hallelujah, What A Savior

Here's an unplugged commentary-esque version of Vikki Beeching's Hallelujah, What a Savior. We just did the song Sunday morning.

McCain and Obama at Saddleback Church

Presumed Presidential Nominees McCain and Obama to Make First Joint Campaign Appearance on August 16 at Saddleback Church - Yahoo! News: "Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, respective presumed Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, will end the primary season by making their first joint appearance of the 2008 campaign at Saddleback Church on Saturday, Aug. 16 at the Saddleback Civil Forum on Leadership and Compassion. Dr. Rick Warren, founding pastor of the 22,000-member Orange County, Calif. mega church and moderator for the event, made the announcement today upon confirmation by both campaigns."

Beyond the music wars

A recent post at Theolog, Steve Thorngate suggests,

...“blended” services too often simply juxtapose 19th-century hymns with pop choruses, to jarring, pleasing-none-of-the-people-all-of-the-time effect.

Without a question, this has been the topic of many conversations with my pastor.

But in response to the "traditional" versus "contemporary" church music debate, Thorngate goes on to say,

...some churches reject this stylistic dualism in favor of a blended service that’s more eclectic, organic and liturgically sensitive. They might program newer hymnody with simple chants (e.g., from Taize) and music from the global church, folk traditions and elsewhere. Or perhaps they carve themselves a stylistically hybrid niche. Along with creating a cohesive worship service, these approaches can go a long way toward defusing the worship wars.

First of all, I appreciate what Thorngate is trying to do. It should be the desire of every Gospel-minded pastor to unify the church. And music should not get in the way. However, Scripture is so replete with the command to "sing unto the Lord" that we are left with this family feud on how we will do it.

I don't know what Thorngate means by a "stylistically hybrid niche". And I'm not sure what worship that is "eclectic, organic and liturgically sensitive" would sound like either. But I think he is intimating that we find a sound that is a genuine musical expression of the local church.

The only thing I would add to this is the suggestion that a local body of believers not settle on a worship style that reflects who they presently are, but one that reflects the culture they want to reach.

BibleMemory.us: An email-based Bible memory program.

Looking for some accountability to "hide God's Word in your heart"? Look here: BibleMemory.us. Every day, you will receive a Scripture verse in your email or RSS, with a link back to the site. Like manna, the link is only good for a day. You go and fill in the missing words, with the end result being - by the end of the week you will have learned the verse.

There are a lot of different programs you can use in this service. I chose the New Testament One Year Challenge, which is simply learning a new verse weekly, beginning in Matthew 1, and proceeding through every chapter of every book in the NT. By the end of the year, the goal is to have memorized a verse from every chapter of every NT book.

With my Comprehensive Bible Exam coming up this year, this should be helpful.

Isn't that sweet

God Wants Me to be Rich

Conde Nast Portfolio posted this feature on Megachurch Preacher Joel Osteen. I haven't read it all, but I find it disturbing.

That said, I must say that I love the lead musician at Osteen's church, Israel Houghton.


















You can read his biography here.

This day in history: Atomic Age Begins

July 16, 1945: Trinity Blast Opens Atomic Age: "1945: The first atomic bomb is tested successfully at the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range in a remote section of desert near Los Alamos, New Mexico. The instant the bomb detonated at 5:30 a.m. that Monday, the atomic age was born, and the world changed forever."

Tail of the Dragon - Motorcycle ride pics

Pictures of my ride on the Tail of the Dragon last month, and some free pics of the Tail from www.killboy.com. Killboy (terrible name!) and a few others photographers just hang out on the roadside and take hundreds of pictures every day of the motorcyclists who traverse the Tail. Click on the pictures to see them in all their glory.

Laughter

A great lesson on Humor and Humility at Josh Harris' blog.

Modesty Guidelines

Having to make rules for the girls in our worship band and choir is not easy. It's especially hard to implement. But Pure Fashion has made it easier. They have a great, very specific guideline for their models to follow in order to maintain a fashionable but modest appearance. If you are a worship director, or a pastor in search for a way to communicate this very important Christian principle, I think you'll be pleased.

Check it out on their website here. Or download a PDF version of it: Modesty Guidelines.pdf (application/pdf Object)

~ w

Reformed Praise » By Grace Alone

Please drop by Reformed Praise and listen to their song By Grace Alone. Here's their description of the song:

One of the most precious songs to the Reformed Praise staff, this hymn, based on Psalm 130, was penned by Martin Luther himself. Luther was a Monk in the Roman church who diligently sought peace with God through his holy life. As he studied the Bible, he became confronted with the doctrine of justification and imputed righteousness and understood and accepted the gospel of salvation through faith in Christ alone, apart from the works of the Law.

World's Best Motorcycle Roads

Autopia from Wired.com gives the lowdown on best roads to ride. Cool enough, one of them is in backyard.

The Power Behind 'America The Beautiful'

The Power Behind 'America The Beautiful' : NPR Music: "'America the Beautiful' didn't start out as an American anthem. It was first a poem written in 1893 by a teacher, Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929), after a visit to Pike's Peak in Colorado."

Read the rest HERE.


O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!

O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stem impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!

The Year of Musical Thinking, A Minute At A Time : NPR Music

Morneau, a doctoral candidate in composition at The Ohio State University, has been writing (and posting online) one 60-second piece of music daily during the past 12 months. He tells Robert Siegel that he started what he calls 60x365 to force himself to be creative.

"I kind of hit a creative block with a couple other projects I was working on at the time," he says, "so I was looking for a way to try some new things, and also for a way to sort of develop a little more discipline in my composing life."

The Year of Musical Thinking, A Minute At A Time : NPR Music






Also, check out my friend Chad's attempt to write a song a week: Chad Robison

The Gospel + Art

The Gospel + Art