Yours is the Kingdom and the power
and the glory forever is Yours
heaven and earth bow down at the wonder of Your name
Heave is open, death is broken
and the glory forever is Yours
nothing can over come the power of your name

King above kings, all the universe will sing
Everlasting God, You are wonderful
You are Wonderful

the shout of the earth will be Your praise
God forever, and the light unto all will be
Your wonderful name
for the glory, Lord, is Yours
God forever, the glory, Lord, is Yours

Anybody who wants to come to my house for the season premiere of 24 is more than welcome. Just message me or call me (678.524.7372)...they should really make the CTU ring for cellphones.

I won't lie...the past while has just felt...off. It was like my head and heart weren't communicating. Tonight, Anna invited me to a worship service at Johnson's Ferry led by Aaron Keyes. I had heard of him, but I had never actually heard him...wow, what an amazing night. The spirit was really moving and I could just feel God pulling me back into His heart and whispering His love into my ear. Aaron's knowledge of the word and the way the whole thing flowed was great, because it was truly not distracting, but totally free at the same time. They had three separate stations set up in the room; one for communion -- for remembering and thanking God for his faithfulness; a second table had tons of candles -- so that you could pray over people, nations, or whatever God put on your heart and light a candle as a symbol of lifting up the prayer to God; and lastly they had a bunch of stones in a basket, and it was all about surrendering, using the stones as a symbol for sin or idols in our lives, and throwing it into a well that they had set up. The whole night just revolved around surrender in every way, and God really moved through Aaron and wow...I am just so pumped. I don't know what else to say, but God is so faithful even when we are so faithless. He is always there...never changing...whispering His love into our ears.

This was taken from my best friend's xanga (i know, i know)

I am in awe of Jesus' patience with me. He is so totally other from me, so much bigger, and better. Better isn't even the right word because it implies a scale on which we can move up. I can never work up to his level. He's just so different from us in the best way possible. I can't believe His patience. And yet, I know what it is to be caught up and "fallen" for someone. That it doesn't matter what they may do, it just doesn't matter. You think you're angry and have your right to be frustrated. But one subtle smile and your heart melts and it's just all worth it.

To know that Jesus wants my heart, is pursuing and is drawn to me. It's just astounding. I can only continually say, "Rescue me into You and overcome me. You wash over me and flood my defenses. Make me more and more into a lover and knower of You."


Everytime I read his journal, it's just like the breath of God is whispering his love into my ear...if you want to read more of his stuff... Here is Anthony's Journal

The youth retreat was great. It was a lot of fun being able to hang out with the kids and get to know more of their names, because I really haven't been able to so far. I am so excited about being able to devote more time to just being around the youth. More to come...

Yesterday morning, the pastor of David Crowder's church in Waco was electricuted during a baptism. He was reaching out to adjust a mic while standing in the baptismal and got shocked. He passed away shortly thereafter. Wow, how crazy. You can visit ajc.com, ubcwaco.com, or cnn.com for more info.

I think it's really the funny the people who have remarked on my last entry because I didn't notice I did it. Phusebox wasn't working with Safari so I couldn't post...haha, I have lots to say, but that will come soon.

Wow, tonight was so unexpected. Nathan and I were asked to lead worship for the Men's Conference at Belle Aire, and we were not sure at all what to expect. I wasn't really looking forward to it...actually I was looking past it to the three weekends of retreats we have ahead of us, but the night blew me away. We played four songs before Dean and played Salvation is Here before Vance Pitman, who is a pastor from Hope Baptist in Las Vegas...and everything went well, but the cool stuff happened afterwards when Vance talked to Nathan and I about heading out to Vegas to hang out with them and to check out their church. He said something about always looking for young worship leaders to help plant churches and stuff. It's just all so crazy because I have really been praying about wanting to be a part of a church plant, and Vance seems to be an amazing pastor to be under. I don't know what will come of this, but it just seems so crazy. He said something to the effect that he normally doesn't like bands as much as the guys that play at his church, but we were up there. What? God is so Good.

Wow, Catalyst...what an amazing two days. We heard from such amazing speakers as Andy Stanley, Louie Giglio, Don Miller (blue like jazz), Malcolm Gladwell, and Erwin McManus. Everything they said seemed to hit me right where I am at.
Andy talked about integrity in the first session and he talked about how to create and maintain momentum in the last one, and I wish I could just post the whole talk on here, because it is all about focusing our resources to make sure we are doing 2 or 3 things incredibly well rather than 10 or 11 things mediocre. He talked about how anything new creates momentum, so we have to keep things fresh and keep improving them in order to maintain momentum.

Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book a couple years ago called the Tipping Point that went on to be a huge success in the arenas of marketing and publicity and the like, but he was so good...talking about social power, and it doesn't matter how much money or resources you have, but you HAVE to be connected and be able to reach out into other social worlds in order to effectively get the word out.

Don Miller was my favorite. He was stinkin hilarious and talked exactly like he writes. Several things he said had a huge impact on me. He gave an example of something his friend Tony (the beat poet for those of you who have read blue like jazz) did when he walked into their meeting room and wrote city bus on the board and asked everyone to describe the city bus. They went on to say things like: dirty, smelly, utilitarian, crazy, loud, etc. and after that was all through he erased city bus and wrote "people" and said "this is how we think of people, as dirty, smelly, crazy, utilitarian objects, put in life to please us and to serve us. Man, that hit me hard, because how often do I look at every single person that I encounter as more important than me...every single one! We need to stop becoming friends only with people who validate our ideas and beliefs. Where are our non-believing friends? Where is our love for people?

Diversity is easy, Homogeneity takes work. -erwin mcmanus.

Come awake, from sleep arise
You were dead, now come to life
Wake up, Wake up, open your eyes
Reach from the grave into the light
Bring us back to life

-David Crowder*Band "Come Awake"

I just love that...

coldplay is amazing and put on an amazing show. after the disappointment of the b-ham show being postponed, I was able to get lawn seats from my roommate to tonights show at starwood. we had amazing seats. dead center, right behind the seats. they were beautiful and they put on what could very possibly be the best show i have ever been to. i want to be chris martin.

so yeah, coldplay in b-ham postponed...word on the street is that is will be moved the march...what the crap?

why the heck does everything on phusebox run together on my new powerbook!

it is on its way to my house. finally.

Benjamin
Son of the right hand : Hebrew


You have great self-confidence and a charming personality which attracts many friends and admirers. Your innate sense of personal power and ability to lead are ideally suited to positions of authority. Being so versatile and seeing the big picture your ambitions are high and much is usually expected of you. With patience and tenacity you will certainly fulfill the great potential you have for success.

photo from rachael

wow, God is so good. tonight went amazingly well and it was awesome to see the youth finally really getting in to worship and getting excited. it is now 5 in the morning and we just got finished doing the load out, and i am going to go crash. more to come later (including pictures).

so i just finished putting my new ikea bed together, and i found it surprisingly easy to put together, so i figured i would make fun of nathan a bit because he had a lot of trouble with his bed.

yah, well i was on the last step and i realized i had done step 2 backwards, so i went back and turned around the beams and screwed them back in only to realize that i had put one of the beams in the entirely wrong place, so i had to go back again and change everything around. but i did finish it. and it is beautiful.

the moral of the story: never decide to mock your friends until you are completely finished.