Raleigh in August is not supposed to be this beautiful.  

I was able to get home a few minutes early yesterday so we could go for a walk.

Hope this lasts.

One of the highlights of my year is the leadership retreat that we go on every August.  I promise that I’m not exaggerating when I say that we have been blessed at PCM with some amazing leaders.  We spent the last couple of days at a camp in Asheboro NC planning out the next year…praying together…singing together.

This is going to be a great year.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.

I know Brody asked you to come by and tell me that you like the song, but it was pretty cool to hear from so many of you. Thanks for your encouragement….

My friends Brody and Randy are working on something right now that requires a test of giving away some music.  So they asked if i would be interested in giving away “At the Cross”, which I was totally happy to do.  Actually I think the link below here will allow you to download the song as well.

We thought it might be cool if I posted something on my blog about the song today, so here’s a little bit about “At the Cross”….

I started writing music for our college ministry (Providence Baptist in Raleigh) about 4 years ago.  Until this point in life I was not a song-writer. I just enjoyed playing music and listening to it. But, our college ministry would go through these studies together and I would have a huge desire to take what we had learned and write a song about it….to help us internalize what we were learning.  

One of those topics was the doctrine of the Substitution.  This doctrine has been so precious to me over the last few years.  It’s been an amazing comfort to me to think that Christ took the wrath of God, which I justly deserved, and, in exchange, God sees and treats me as having the righteousness of Christ.  

A few summers ago I was reading Pilgrims Progress, and loved the vivid image of Christian’s burden being taken away.  So I started forming the song around that idea… that Christ lifts this burden of sin and separation from God, and we get Christ’s righteousness in return.

So, these were my thoughts while writing “At the Cross”…. hope it’s an encouragement.

I was cleaning out my office yesterday and came across these vinyl records that were propped up against my desk.  I have such a bad memory that I can’t remember who gave them to me.  I think it was a family member that was cleaning out their house….but I could be wrong. 

I need to go find my record player and give-em a listen.

Three things about this video.

1. I’m sure this is the video equivalent of me telling some story about my children that I think is hilarious, but other people are bored by it….but it’s my blog.

2. My wife is a freaking metronome.

3. I’m not sure why Bennett licks her fingers when she gets excited.

Danielle, Bennett, Eden and I are all at Camp Junaluska in the mountains of NC this week.  We’re with a group called The Christian Business Men that have a family camp here every year.  They asked Dave O to come run the college students side of things and I’m helping Dave O out with music.  Its been fun to have Danielle and the kids along.  And also to be away for a week before fall hits.  I’ll try and get some pictures up tonight or tomorrow of the scenery….it’s amazing. 

It’s been fun to be in the car so much this week…I’ve missed spending time listening to music.  I think I’ve listen to the Crowder Band, Can You Hear Us 7 times already this week.  I know allot of people think that A Collision is their best work, but I really think the song-writing/musicianship/production on Can You Hear Us, is their best stuff.  

Have any of you heard this CD?  It’s their first CD on a label…I think…I could be wrong.  It’s funny how many things they have hidden throughout this CD.  Like an obsession with the number 7.   Actually, I think everything hidden revolves around the number 7.  I’ll see if I can put a list together of what I find.   

Anyways, just thought I would share.

Hope your week goes well.

Yesterday morning I was able to get out of the house pretty early and spend some time at Starbucks reading.  I’m sure all of you parents will agree that reading time is hard to come by once there are kids around….so this was really nice. 

I’m reading a book right now called A Long Obedience In The Same Direction by Eugene Peterson…the guy that wrote the Message Bible.  I actually bought this book for my Dad a few months ago, and he has loved it so much that I thought I would start reading it myself.  So far it’s been really good. 

The book is a bunch of extended meditations of the Psalms of Assent…Psalm 121-134.

Here’s a quote from chapter 2 on Psalm 121. 

The only Serious mistake we can make when illness comes, when anxiety threatens, when conflict disturbs our relationships with other is to conclude that God has gotten bored looking after us and has shifted his attentions to more exciting Christians, or that God has become disgusted with our meandering obedience and decided to let us fend for ourselves for a while, or that God has gotten too busy fulfilling prophecy in the Middle East to take time now to sort our the complicated mess we have gotten ourselves into.  That is the only serious mistake we can make.  It is the mistake that Psalm 121 prevents: the mistake of supposing that God’s interest in us waxes and wanes in response to our spiritual temperature.

I love the part about fulfilling prophecy in the Middle East….isn’t that funny. 

Hope you all have a great day.  The college minisitry is going to a minor league baseball game tonight…I’ll try and get some good pics/video.

Every summer our church has a baptism service at a lake in the area.  This year Danielle stayed home with Eden since it was wicked hot out.  So Bennett and I went out to the lake, eat some hot dogs, and had a fantastic time.  Love those ordinances.  

By the way, being a single parent for 2 hours about killed me.  That’s hard stuff.

If you’re short on time skip to 1:38….proof that I have the cutest kid in the world.