Favorites of 2009

Here are some of my favorites from '09...

Favorite Albums:

1. The Boxer Rebellion - Union
2. Norah Jones - The Fall
3. Phoenix - Wolfang Amadeus Phoenix
4. Metric - Fantasies
5. The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love
6. Jonsi and Alex - Riceboy Sleeps
7. Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
8. Thad Cockrell - To Be Loved
9. The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You
10. Switchfoot - Hello Hurricane

Albums that did not release in '09 but were on steady repeat for me this year:

• Augustana - Can't Love, Can't Hurt
• Hammock - Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow
• Josh Rouse - Country Mouse, City House
• Kings of Leon - Because Of The Times & Only By The Night
• The National - Boxer
• Peter Bradley Adams - Leavetaking

Reading List:

• A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
• Ground Up - Michael Idov
• Luther The Reformer - James M. Kittelson
• The Search for God & Guinness - Stephen Mansfield
• The Holiness of God - R.C. Sproul
  

(Some) Favorite Beers (In No particular order):

• Boulevard Nut Cracker Ale
• Delerium Tremens
• Hoegaarden Wit
• Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat
• New Belgium Mothership Wit
• New Belgium Biere De Mars
• Orval Trappist Ale
• Park Pils
• Sierra Nevada Kellerwies
• Victory Prima Pils

E

The Word Became Flesh and Dwelt Among Us

Merry Christmas!

John 1:1-18 (Emphasis added by me)

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning.

³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of men. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

⁶There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. ⁸He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. ⁹The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

¹⁰He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹²Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³children born not of natural descent,nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

¹⁴The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

¹⁵John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' " ¹⁶From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

We celebrate Him who made God known - who came full of grace and truth. We celebrate the mystery of God in flesh, both fully God and fully man. We celebrate a love so strong that God eternal chose to draw near to us as one of us - to experience all that we experience. We are pointed onward towards Easter when that love was poured out for us on the cross. Merry Christmas!!

Not By Faith That Remains Alone

Here's another excerpt from "The Prodigal God." I think it's a good follow up to yesterdays - a good balance to it.

"In the end, Martin Luther's old formula still sums things up nicely: "We are saved by faith alone [not our works], but not by faith that remains alone." Nothing we do can merit God's grace and favor, we can only believe that he has given it to us in Jesus Christ and receive it by faith. But if we truly believe the one who sacrificially served us, it changes us into people who sacrificially serve God and our neighbors. If we say "I believe in Jesus" but it doesn't affect the way we live, the answer is not that now we need to add hard work to our faith so much as that we haven't truly understood or believe in Jesus at all."

Avoiding Jesus

An excerpt from a book I've been reading called "The Prodigal God" by Tim Keller:

"... Most people think of sin as failing to keep God's rules of conduct, but, while not less than that, Jesus's definition of sin goes beyond it.

In her novel Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor says of her character Hazel Motes that "there was a deep, black, wordless conviction in him that the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin." This is a profound insight. You can avoid Jesus as Savior by keeping all the moral laws. If you do that, then you have "rights." God owes you answered prayers, and a good life, and a ticket to heaven when you die. You don't need a Savior who pardons you by free grace, for you are your own Savior.

... In the same way, religious people commonly live very moral lives, but their goal is to get leverage over God, to control him, to put him in a position where they think he owes them... If... you believe that God ought to bless you and help you because you have worked so hard to obey him and be a good person, then Jesus may be your helper, your example, even your inspiration, but he is not your Savior. You are serving as your own Savior."

I hope this is encouraging and challenging, and I hope we try to avoid Jesus less - I know I hope I do

E

Ancient Prayers & New Tattoos

I've been reading over this ancient prayer lately and thought I'd share it with you all. The prayer is called St. Patrick's Breastplate and has been traditionally attributed to St. Patrick - the patron saint of Ireland. It's called his breastplate because it is a prayer for protection. I have found this to be a good prayer to read in the morning just as the day is beginning.

Also if you've never read the story of St. Patrick it's a pretty interesting story to read.

The closing two stanzas are two of my favorites so I've pasted them below. You can read the entire thing here:

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the name,
The strong name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord.

You may find yourself asking the question - what does this have to do with new tattoos?? The answer is I'm toying with the idea of incorporating pieces of this prayer into a new tattoo for myself. Maybe I'll have it put right across my chest since it is a breastplate after all... no, I could never pull that off. Plus my chest is hairy and that would be gross.

The Boxer Rebellion

So my latest fixation on a band involves The Boxer Rebellion, a British band from London that is preposterously unsigned yet still putting out great music. Their latest release "Union" was self financed and released only digitally, though there is rumor of a plan to release it physically on CD and vinyl, of which I will be buying the latter if true.

There is, at least to me, a marked difference between their debut album "Exits" and "Union". Whether you call it a maturing or simply a shift in songwriting and style, their earlier work is shorter and more aggressive than their newest creations, which revel in soaring melody and soaked guitars. They have a great command of drama, which leads to big choruses and long endings, which I love. Stand out tracks to me are "Move On", "Soviets", "Misplaced" and "Silent Movie". Check them out at www.theboxerrebellion.com and www.myspace.com/theboxerrebellion.

First Post

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