Valentine Day Songs

For the previous two years I have written some Valentine Day poems for my bride and a good friend of mine, Michael Middleton, has tweaked the words (even written a chorus for "Once Again") and written the music and helped create two wonderful songs.

A third one has been written and is in the works of becoming the next #1 Billboard song in the nation, but until we finish that I thought I would leave you a link to check out the first two songs.

The first song was called "VDay Poem" and the follow-up smash hit the next year was "Once Again." If you know the history with Stephenie and I, "Once Again" will make more sense, but if you don't, listen to it anyway and let Michael know he can really sing and he plays a mean guitar. He's a stud athlete, too. He has a third song "Valentine Day Curse", which he wrote and produced before I met him, but check out his songs on his site.

Anyhow, I love Stephenie and feel free to check out Michael's site and listen to the jams at Michael's site.

The Gospel Blimp

The Gospel Blimp and other Modern Parables by Joseph Bayly was loaned to me by my good friend Travis Cardwell and it was a treat to read.

The Gospel Blimp shows the journey of some well-intentioned Christians who devise a plan to reach all of their lost neighbors for Christ. The whole idea of creating a blimp to spread the Good News emerged as a group of friends pondered how they could communicate the gospel to the next door neighbors.

The problems begin quickly as this mass-evangelistic campaign seems to do nothing but annoy all the people in the town. (Maybe some people reading this can relate!) The Gospel Blimp is accompanied with a PA system and "firebombs", which are gospel tracts that are dropped all over the town. The Christians on Gospel Blimp Committee become consumed with the means of the Gospel message and in turn do more damage than good. I'll stop summarizing there because I don't want to ruin this for any potential readers.

Anyhow, this parable is stark reminder of how important it is for us to engage in personal evangelism. I have been a part of ministries that have labored to distribute hundreds of gospel tracts and while God does use some of these labors, it would be a grave mistake for us to ignore those God has placed at our places of work and in our neighborhoods. We need to open our eyes to the folks God has placed in our lives and be faithful to the Gospel message. We need to love these people and be conduits of grace and truth.

Go buy The Gospel Blimp and other Modern Parables and let it beat you up for awhile. It will convict and encourage you.

Multiple Choice Prayers

As I was praying this morning I found myself having to make a quick adjustment. My wife and I have a couple of major prayer requests right now and I found myself praying for Option A or Option B. Do you see where I am going with this? God might grant Option A to my wife and I or He may not. Same goes for Option B. But is that it? If I only pray for Option A or Option B we really limit God and neatly package Him in a box. What about Option C or Option D? What about none of the above?

One of our major prayer requests is purchasing our first home. As we make this decision we have been targeting different parts of the greater metropolitan Houston area and my prayer was "God, do you want us in the ABC part or the XYZ part?" (I'll leave the locations anonymous for now because that isn't crucial for this blog, plus you might go make a higher offer on the house we are hoping for!) My point is God may want my wife and I to stay put in our apartment or he may have somewhere for us outside of Houston or outside of Texas or outside of the United States. It may not be either the ABC part or the XYZ part. I want to gladly accept that if that is the case.

My new prayer became "God, do you want us in the ABC part or the XYZ part or somewhere completely different than we are praying or maybe we need to stay put?" We should always echo Christ's prayer before he was crucified on the cross. "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done." (Luke 22:42)

Let us pray in this manner. Not our will, but may God's will be done in ALL our decisions and prayers.