My Steak Sauce (A1) List

here are the bands I am really digging currently in no particular order: 

(p.s. i know this is a typical blog thing to do and I am, of course, no exception)

• Green River Ordinance
• Starfield (1st CD)
• Copeland (only first 2 CD’s)
• Marry a Thief
• Skillet
• Waking Ashland
• Jimmy Eat World
• Anberlin
• Downhere (self titled album)
• Lincoln Brewster
• Needtobreathe
• Between the trees
• Paramore
• SR-71
• Building 429
• Kim Walker

Starfield Sunday

Are you who you wanna be? Are you who you wanna be when no ones looking? Are you who you wanna be when everyone is looking? Have you come to terms with the simple fact that you were fearfully and wonderfully made by the God of the Universe who loves you more than you can ever fathom and made you exactly the way you are for a purpose?

Pause. Ask yourself again.

What are you running from? Or better yet, why are you running? What is your need for escape? What are you unwilling to deal with here and now? What is so hard that you would stop at nothing to just not deal with it. Penn State is a party school, yes. I wonder how much more it’s a running-away-from-our-problems-and-we-are-too-scared-to-face-them-so-we-outlet school. All of us have something we don’t want to deal with. All of us tend to have something that is hard and makes us rather run away. 

I’m not very good with emotions, specifically love. I’ve never quite been able to figure it out. The bible attempts to define it in 1 Corinthians 13 that we have all heard at a million weddings. How many times has the bride and groom meant it? or grasped it? It’s a hard concept. The not counting wrongs, and patience and kindess. So i’m gonna forget about that definition of love for a moment. The better example of love, at least the one that i can get closest to understanding, is the one that God acted out himself. No words. Actions instead. I can understand love by the willingness of someone to go to great lengths for someone else. That is the best of real love i know. And God came to earth and took human form. He didn’t stop there. The cross, and let’s remind ourselves that was supposed to be our cross, was the ultimate in going to great lengths for other people example of love. And Jesus was willing to do it for all of us…

and this same God that loves us THAT much is the one that we all find ourselves running from. Christianity is hard a lot. It calls us to perfection and hypocrisy every single day. But, there is also strength and comfort that isn’t found anywhere else. God may convict us sometimes, break us sometimes, but the root of the message always comes back to He loves us. So, why are we running? Do we inherently not grasp love and don’t know how to respond? Do we not like the change that is coming though it is always best for us?

I think Ecclesiastes is a great book and I loved that Aaron shared from there today. It gets a bad rap for being depressing, but there is nothing more powerful than the testimony of a man who tried everything else under the sun to fill his life with happiness and came up short without the love of God. Without God, we have no purpose worth pursuing. That goes for every single human being on the planet including those who foolishly say “Eh, that’s just not for me.”

Are you who you wanna be? Are you ready to stop running? Stop hiding? Stop making excuses? Are you ready to look in the mirror and know that God loves you and has a purpose for you that is bigger than  you thought your life would turn out?

He hopes so…

 

• Filled with your Glory :: 1st CD
• Remain :: 3rd CD
• Unashamed :: 2nd CD
• Over my head :: 1st CD
• Cry in my heart :: 1st CD
• Hosanna :: Arrangement by Starfield, 3rd CD

Are you Satisfied with your life?

Sweet band and sweet song. Don’t know much about them other than Pete Horning introduced me to them and they have played at Young Life conferences or camps.

Obedience

Sometimes you don’t feel like reading your bible. The questions is always should you be obedient even if it might push you further from wanting to read your bible, or do you wait to be passionate about reading it so it is more effective? More often than not, i find the answer is to be obedient, unless there are heart issues stopping you from even wanting to know about Jesus, or harder trying to be like him. 

Discipline and Obedience go hand and hand…i believe. Are you disciplined enough to make the things of God a priority. What about when it is not convenient for you? Are you strongly disciplined in some areas and weak in others? How do you approach God when you need discipline? How do you respond when He demands obedience?

Don’t think i’m not stopping to think about those questions myself…

 

• Everyday :: Joel Houston (arranged by Lincoln Brewster)
• Marvelous Light :: Charlie Hall
• You never let go :: Matt Redman
• None but Jesus :: Brooke Frasier
• Word of God speak :: Mercy Me

“Everyday,  it’s you I live for, everyday, I’ll follow after you, everyday, i’ll walk with you my Lord”

Great song to reflect on more later and see if you mean it. See if its possible. See how well your doing it. See how well other people would notice this about you. Not only is it a great worship song, but a better declaration that somebody else makes about you because of the way you live. Amen to this becoming true in our lives.

Why can’t our worship services be like this?

 

wild. awesome. ridiculously good lyrics. gets me emotional every time. expect to see this at ACF soon. Though she says the word encounter too many time, she is right, numerous of us haven’t fully encountered the love of God. It’s time to open up and let Him in!

Brokenness

Peoples first thought of brokenness is always such a bad thing. and yet, i have found time and time again that it is always what is needed. God uses Brokenness throughout the Bible much more than self-confidence and “together-ness.” It sucks of course. But we as Humans have an emotional connection to here and now and more often than not, struggle to see the big picture until much after the fact. We love to look back and say, “why didn’t I get it? I get it now, i’m dumb, i’ll see it next time.” False. We don’t see it. It sneaks up. If you have taken to cross for granted or your relationship with Christ for granted for a second, then you won’t handle brokenness well. Fact. 

I could waste about nine paragraphs debating the strangeness and debateableness of Gods will, but i won’t. It’s not worth it and misses the point of here and now. Christ is Jealous for me. Straight up, all the time. I heard an awesome quote in a song recently, “If grace is an ocean than we are all sinking.” A-freaking-men. Day to day life is hard no matter what you are committed to. In my case, it is Jesus and in a sense, perfection. Jesus loves me. I struggle with love all the time. how easy is it to say that and never think or reflect on that? How does God work in relationships? Is perfection attainable? How do individuals who are committed to the Lord and in a way to each other, continually put everything under the fire and while being biased, actually figure out what God wants? 

This is my song of the week, It is by Krystal Meyers and it is called “Rescue”, maybe you can resonate with this as well:

Swalloing This Hurt Making It Lie
down I’m My Strongest Ally,
living Life As I Know How I’m
carrying The Weight Of The World
that Sold Me Out I’m Running
with My Eyes Closed Hoping
you Don’t See This Doubt
i’m Lost For Words I’m At
a Loss To Tell You What I
need I Know There’s Somthing More
god, Help Me To Believe

and All This Time I Thought The
fight Was Only Mine I Need To Let You Rescue Me
i’m Taking Fire I’m Feeling Tired Of This
fight I Need To Let You Rescue Me

 

Anybody else ever felt like they were in the battle alone? Like you had to get better before God would take you back? Like you could straighten out your own problems and get on track by yourself? yea…thought so.

Draw close Cody. Hold on. Don’t go. Don’t stop seeking. Don’t stop praying. Don’t stop worshipping or loving. Don’t give up on what you know is your passion, your purpose. Don’t let obstacles bring you down. They are never meant for that. They are meant to be hurdled. Don’t ever feel alone….ever

-God

 

 

Set Lists:

Wednesday-

• Not to us :: Chris Tomlin
• Jesus You Alone :: Tim Hughes
• Forever :: Chris Tomlin
• Only one love :: Yvonne Parks

Sunday-

• King :: Tree63
• Your Name :: Paul Baloche
• Be thou my Vision :: eleanor hull & elizabeth byrne mary
• Here I am to worship :: Tim Hughes
• Grace like Rain :: Todd Agnew
• My redeemer lives :: Reuben Morgan

The Forgotten Blog

Howdy. Let’s pretend i have an audience of like 11 people. I am down to 3 and one is probably my mom after a vacation from blogging for the past month. Everyday was one of those I will blog today kind of days. Unfortunately, everyday was also a “eh, don’t feel like it, i’ll blog tomorrow” kind of days. Not to mention the day i swear i did blog and now am confused cuz i don’t see it posted. So maybe I dreamed it?

break synopsis:

frequent activity- did nothing

best part- road trip to the three C’s of the south: Columbia, Charleston, and Charlotte with Lauren. Stellar

Best part of the best part- i supported local art in Charleston by purchasing a photograph, it feels awesome. now instead of saying i wish i were that guy that bought local art type things, i can be the guy who judges other people for not….after all, how else do they make money?

surprise- Rockband 2 for Christmas…it’s awesome, though you must know a little about drums to do the drums, very tricky. Multiple appendages at the same time is never an easy task.

new fav band to check out: Paramore

number of job applications/ inquiries- 37

number of positive responses- 0

number of scam, shadeball company interviews – 1

Weather difference in one day- Charlotte, 70 degrees, West Chester 27 degrees = 43 degrees of change

Lesson learned, again- laziness and putoffedness, does not mesh well with scripture reading and growth

realization- I have one semester left at Penn State…crazy…time to finish well, love more, learn more about how to be like Christ, absorb all of the good things in ACF as i can because they don’t happen that often out there in the “real world” of churches. Share wisdom, listen to more of it. learn where what i have is not wisdom and mention that to those i “shared wisdom with”. no more new years resolutions. just better attempts to be a human being all the time, not held to a year or one category. Let’s do this…