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!!