Whatever Makes Him Happy

JadenBasket, originally uploaded by groovingdan.

When I'm In Charge

Dan and Jaden Pillow, originally uploaded by groovingdan.

3 Boys

DanJadenScott, originally uploaded by groovingdan.

Flickr

so i lost my pictures that i had on yesterday. appearently Flickr sucks.

Hot Mission

This is Dan and Andi Hanna. The are leaving for Austria next week. They still need some support raised and the didn't ask me to this or anything, but if anyone wants to support them, go to their blog. They are doing some awesome stuff.

Aren't they, like, the hottest missionaries you've ever seen?

blog fog

I feel like the last few entries have just been thrown up there. I hate careless blogging, but at the same time I want to keep my site current. Oh, well. I'll get some energy here soon and actually put some effort into my writing. In the meanwhile...

The last night in Columbus we had one of the best talks ever with Shane and Erin. We were up 'till three. It was just amazing. I won't try to relive it here, but I hope I change because of that conversation.

Which brings me to the purpose of blogging, the purpose of writing about our lives. I have been thinking about this lately and have come to the conclusion that it gives meaning to our lives. Words do that. Something happens in our lives and we don't really think of it as a story, but then we write it down and becomes more meaningful. We go back to those stories over and over again. And reliving it is sometimes better than the original experience. Any thoughts?

On The Road

So, I finally found a wireless internet spot here in Columbus. We are taking our time coming back, visiting our good friends. Here are a few quick thoughts on the past week and a half.

1. Noel and Tom Short both spoke at LT. I thought this would be weird, because they communicate in completly different ways. But it was really good. They both seemed to tone down the edge of their extremes a bit for the sake of the students. At least that was my impression. It was a very honoring process.

2. On the way down saw Scott and tammy they are leaving for seminary at Regent in Vancouver in a few weeks... We stopped in Virginia and visited Dan and Andrea Hanna (go to hannasojourn.com) they are leaving for Vienna, Austria to do missionary work there, next week. And we are now visiting with Shane and Erin and Andy and Jamie. A + J just moved to Columbus to Virginia this past week. And Shane and Erin just moved from Reynoldsburg to Clintonville. So there is a lot of moving going on. I want to really spend time time and write about each of these people, i might tag-team with suz, but they each mean so much to us, that I really want to get it down in writing.

well, we are heading back wednesday. that's all I have for now.

LT

Well, we made it safely to the beach on thursday after a great time with our friends Scott and Tami and the Silvers. I am just sitting in the Green Room backstage. Kyle and Matt are taking naps. Christine and Sean aren't here yet, sean might not be here until five, so it will be a close call. But I am ready and excited. The only problem i have is an infected toe. It's not green or anything. Just red and puffy. Gross.

monday

here's my to do list for today:
1. Deposit Check
2. Mow Lawn
3. Oil change
4. Clean car
5. Organize LT Music
6. Practice with the LT band
7. Practice the Electric Guitar
8. Call Bobby and Laura for directions
9. Call Scott and tell him when we will be there
10. Find my camera cord
11. buy a new stoller?
12. Buy guitar strings

if you read through this, then you are a loser. just like me.

Was I in your dreams?

Friday I played darts with Travis and Joey at Moriarty's cool little dive pub in Lansing. Santa Clause was there throwing strikes, keeping the tightest groupings.

Saturday we moved Eric and Jen into the commune known as The Kranzo's.

Played my two new songs saturday. Fun. Decent.

Shortstop is my calling.

Prayer with our small group was wonderful.

roadtrip to the southeast starts tuesday @ 6am.

roadtrip and southeast can look like road trip and south east.

out.

Theologians II

The second thing I've been thinking about is evangelism and the law.
I'm actually reading portions of Ray Comfort's book (co-written with kurt cameron) about this topic. It actually has some great points. It talks about how the law is a tool to use to show people that we need God. And for the most part I think that they are loving in their approach, though irrelevant in style. The way of the master website, once entered askes the question "are you a Christian?" Yes or No. If you hit no, they explain the law and God's love, trying to get you to make a decision right there.

The thing that I have a problem with is just using the law and the law alone. This book is almost touted as "a new way to preach the gospel" as if Ray Comfort had written the book of Romans himself. Paul has talked much about the law and it's purpose to show us our need for Christ. I have to also applaud the honesty of motive for including Cameron in the book. They say right out, "we thought that this book is important and knew that if we had his name on it, we would have more potential readers."

The problem is when we are out of balence. 1st Peter talks in many places, exhorting us to "live such good lives among the pagans that though they persecute you, they give thanks to God on the day of his return..." and to live our lives in a way that people would have nothing bad to say about us. Here's the rub. We live in a culture that mocks Chrsitianity. People have an innacurate view of God and of what Christianity should be, partly because of Christianity itself! Our style is old and looks like propaganda. In many places the "war" is with culture and not the devil. We have placed differerent sins as "worse" all the meanwhile allienating those who Christ loved. So our methods are important. We need to, in some instances change the way we talk to people. Maybe it will take years of "living such good lives" before they will be ready to respond to God's law and love. I know that just putting liturature out there, just preaching on the streets, just using media to communicate our message is not authentic to them and is probably turning people away. We need to ask ourselves if we are getting in God's way by being blind to the love aspect and not just preaching the law.

Theologians

Ok, so much to talk about and I can tell you right now, this is going to be snippets of my thought. But it's all about theology.

Two important responses (at least to my face) about my message this week.

1. "thanks, so much I'm going through life changes and have wanted direction on God's will...this has helped me....
2. (from an actual email)
"Hi Dan,
We met after your sermon on God's will on 07/03/04. We then
discussed that one aspect of His will is to hear Him (John 10:3,27)
that is to listen to His voice. If you would like we can setup a time
to meet sometime after July 9th.
If you and others would like to learn how to communicate with the
Lord I would love to meet with you and whoever else is interested. It
would take a few days to teach people. The best option would be to
meet once a week on friday or thursday for an hour, preferably friday.
Most of what will be discussed will be; pertinent Scripture in
learing to discern His voice, so you can actually listen to what Daddy
God has to say about you, His loving and encouraging thoughts;
revelation/interpretation of Scripture; and the application of
Scripture to enable you to do what the Bible tells you to do.
A short analogy (that I gave you on saturday) follows. How would
you grow up and function in society if your parents could not
communicate to you? Take away snail mail, email, sign language, lip
reading, and spoken language. It would be very difficult to function
in society. Since we live in the spiritual realm, how can we do the
Lord's will if you don't communicate with Him? He hears us but it would
be nice to hear His voice on a daily basis. He already speaks to us
all the time but it would be nice if we would listen to and recognize
that it is Him speaking."

not quite on the same page here... when I talked to him after church he was talking about how God's gives him poems songs, words, etc... Basically "channeling" God.

Far, Far Away

Well, I am really excited about LT. Our band should be pretty good, I think. I've been writing some new songs and Sean (and the rest of the band) likes them, so that's good. you want your band to like your songs. We are leaving on tuesday and visiting some of our best friends, Scott and Tammy, in North Carolina, then we will hit LT and on the way back we are going to see Dan and Andie in Virginia and then hopefully Shane and Erin, and Andy and Jami and the Newsong crew in Columbus. Can't wait. I'll be tan.

"Airline To Heaven"

Well, I'm all rested up from speaking this weekend. It went as good as can be expected. Saturday night's delivery was a bit rough, but things went pretty well today. No one stood up and yelled "heratic" or anything like that. So that's good.

Davin and Chey are letting us borrow an air conditioner! No more muggy, hot, sleepless nights. Very happy about that. We installed it and then I took a three and a half hour nap. It felt like ten minutes.

My dad and brothers and I have been setting off roman candles, bottle rockets, screamers and so on with the neighbors. And it's still going on. Nothing like celebrating Independance Day by defing state law.

"Say You Miss Me"

So not much to write about, just been practicing my message and getting the house ready for this weekend. My family is coming into town. I'm so glad. My dad and brothers haven't seen the kid since the day after he was born. He's changed so much now. He snuggles. He laughs. It's cool.