Thanks to our friends at TBNN. Take a close look at the Active Ingredients. I think the same stuff can be provided in an extreme energy drink like NOS. Right Pat?
Monthly Archives: February 2008
What do you ask yourself when preparing to preach?
I am not a preacher, nor do I play one on TV. But I think I do 
know something about the subject, having listened to, and spoken with so many talented and God-gifted men in my life. I believe I can recognize good, God-centered, Christ uplifting, scripture breathing preaching when I hear it. I am also a believer in Jesus Christ, He is my Savior and Lord. With that said, I would like to mention the responses by Mark Driscoll to the question above. This comes to us from TheResurgence web site.
1. What does the scripture say?
2. What does this mean?
3. How or why do we resist it?
a. What will be the objections to this truth?
4. How does this apply to our missions?
I would like to focus this writing on point number three. What Driscoll says in his elaboration of this point is that preachers should prepare for the resistance of the heart. He mentions that Romans 1 teaches that:
our heart has a propensity to suppress the truth so that we might continue in the unrighteousness of our deeds
So part of the preparation would include looking at your own heart and how it may wish to resist this biblical truth. This point of preparation or even the consideration of it is very rare in the pulpit of the church today. I have heard many preach as if they are trying to cater to the propensity of the heart, or tickle the proverbial ear. Driscoll shares how the Puritan preachers of old used to prepare with objections to the resistance of the heart and apologetically defend the truth being proclaimed in scripture. This is good stuff. Mark Driscoll elaborates more on these points so I have included the video of his response below.
What do you ask yourself when preparing to preach?
Music Review Tuesday – Chevelle
Do you remember where you were when you first heard the song “Point #1” by Chevelle, this weeks highlight band for 
Music Review Tuesday? I remember where I was. I was sitting in our living room with our kids watching “Ten Most Wanted“, a video request program on TVU. TVU is a 24 hour Christian music video channel on Sky Angel satellite. The song was debuting on “Ten Most Wanted”. My boys and I like their kind of music, so when the song had finished we all looked at each other and kind of head banged and smiled in approval. Chevelle was originally formed in 1995 by three brothers, Pete, Sam, and Joe Loeffler from Grayslake, Illinois. Their musical genre vacillates between alternative metal, hard rock, and post-grunge. The band name was conceived from the name of the boys’ father’s favorite automobile, the Chevrolet Chevelle.
The album I am reviewing is “Vena Sera” which was released on April 3rd of 2007. The album title is latin amd translates to “vein liquid” which, according to Pete Loeffler, represents the blood Chevelle put into making this album. This album is the first one recorded with new bassist and brother-law Dean Bernardini. (For more on the departure of the youngest Loeffler, go to the Wikipedia site.) The album debuted at #12 on the Billboard 200, and sold 62,000 copies in the first week of release. The first track “Antisaint” roars out of the headphones with some neat minor chords, and has a really cool guitar riff with a nice, hard driving bass presence. This bass sound is pronounced throughout the album. The next track is “Brainiac”. This song has a nice, pure driving snare drum beat that drives the song with the signature guitar rhythms of Pete Loeffler. Track number three is “Saferwaters” and the most melodic song on the record which is saying quite a lot because most of the Chevelle songs have an impressive melodic tone. The chorus sings:
That world is calling
So I’m crawling back to sea
Against the surge of waves that
Held us in that ancient grip beneath
Retreat to safer waters
The next song is called “Well Enough Alone“. It is about the events surrounding the departure of former bassist and brother Joe Loeffler. The song begins with a heavy sigh which I believe signifies the frustration experienced by the band through the ordeal. The song is very well done and is your typical hard, melodic Chevelle staple song. It rocks!!
Modern day Nineveh’s
Do you live in a modern day Nineveh? Perhaps you might, 
according to Forbes magazine. Dr. Albert Mohler just posted an interesting article to his blog site on the subject of the most sinful cities in America. I was grateful to see that Omaha and Wahoo didn’t make the list. Although I think Wahoo might give a run at the most bars per population, if they had a category for that. Check out the article and see how the list was derived and see if your city made the list.
Snuff the rooster
Someone once said that there is a song for everything, and for everything there is a song. There could be some truth to that. When I read the following article by Peter Jones over at TheResurgence about how our society, and even the church deal with sin and guilt, the chorus lyrics to this old Alice In Chains song came screaming back:
Here they come to snuff the rooster
Yeah here come the rooster, yeah
You know he ain’t gonna die
No, no, no, ya know he ain’t gonna die
Please link to the article by Peter Jones and let me know what you think about how we try to “kill that rooster”.
Will someone please kill that rooster?
Music Review Tuesday – Matchbox Twenty
Much like the song title to their new single “How Far We’ve Come”, Matchbox Twenty has
been through it’s share of changes and highs and lows. From the release of it’s debut album that sold more than 12 million copies in the U.S. alone to losing friendships and band mates to creative differences. The band has been resilient over the 12 years they have been recording. They have amassed many dedicated fans and wooed many musical critics with their musical diversity. Only the band members themselves know if the band will continue. Two of it’s original members Rob Thomas and Paul Doucette are basically responsible for the making of the first CD and six new original songs on the two CD release that I am reviewing today. Thomas and Doucette got together in New York to iron out how to fix their friendship and not so much worry about the band. About this same time their record label Atlantic Records asked for a greatest hits record. The combination of the friendship reunion and the greatest hits birthed the newest album from Matchbox Twenty.
“Exile On Mainstream” is the name of their new album. It was released on October 7th, 2007. The album is a two CD set with CD one containing six new original songs and CD two containing 11 of their greatest hits. The six new songs kind of vacillate between rock and folk as you progress through them. The band has sort of reinvented themselves with this new release. The first song “How Far We’ve Come” has been getting quite a lot of air play on college and modern hit radio stations. It is definitely a recognizable Matchbox Twenty song. The lyrics to the song are quite reflective:
I think it turned ten o’clock but I don’t really know
And I can’t remember caring for an hour or so
Started crying and I couldn’t stop myself
I started running but there’s no where to run to
I sat down on the street took a look at myself
Said where you going man you know the world is headed for hell
Say your goodbyes if you’ve got someone you can say goodbye to
The Ancient Battle Plan for Sexual Purity
Here is an appropriate posting for Valentine’s Day. This is taken from my notes and the article I wrote from the OBC Winter 2008 Men’s Breakfast.
Saturday February 9th Paul Felix from The Master’s Seminary spoke to the Men’s Breakfast at Omaha Bible Church. The topic of his message was “The Ancient Battle Plan for Sexual Purity” and he used 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 3 thru 8 as the biblical text to support the message. The message is a much needed one for believing men, and a message that should be heeded indeed. I have provided an outline from the message. The reason for the message is out of a concern for the roles men have in our society, and those roles include: Father, husband, teacher, minister…and so on. He referenced a book “Disciplines of a Godly Man. by R. Kent Hughes. Hughes provides three concerns for his focus on purity – and it requires sweat, hard work, and effort for the believer.
1. Our culture sweats sensuality from its pores.
2. The evangelical church is like the world.
3. Sensuality is the biggest challenge in our spiritual life.
Many well respected spiritual leaders have fallen to sexual sin. Our hope rests in “Thus saith the Lord.” In Thessalonica sexual impurity was rampant. There was no stemming of the tide with the churches of truth. So we cannot use the excuse that our culture is worse than it was then. The call to be sexually pure is the same. We have a battle plan. Paul Felix also mentioned I Cor. 6:12-20 as another truth for the battle plan. He challenged the men to memorize and meditate on I Thes. 4:3-8 and presented three hard points in the “Ancient Battle Plan for Sexual Purity”.
Boys to Men
Lately I have been busy and haven’t had the time to listen to the Albert Mohler radio show. This is a show I would recommend to anyone interested in growing spiritually and how our Christian life interacts with our culture. Today as I looked up some of his previous shows I found one that was broadcast over a week ago called “Raising Boys To Be Men“. This one attracted me because my wife and I are parents to now, four adult men. We have struggled over the years to raise them to become godly men. So needless to say these topics often attract me. Especially if they have strong credibility such Dr. Mohler.
The program was broadcast on January 24th, and Dr. Mohler’s guest was Col. Shane Blanton, President of Chamberlain-Hunt Academy. Chamberlain-Hunt Academy is a Christian based military academy for boys in grades 7 through 12. On the show they discuss the transition of boy to manhood and how to teach and train them to be mature and godly. The program is very beneficial to anyone who is trying to raise boys. Especially since we live in a culture that is luring them in the opposite direction. I have included the link above and below.
Music Review Tuesday – Airbourne
It is once again Tuesday and time for another music review. Today I will be reviewing an
album from a band who is “down under”. That’s right, they are from Melbourne, Australia but originally moved from Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia. The band is Airbourne. They are a fairly new band. They released an eight track (visions of square plastic cartridges) EP in 2004 but, the album I am reviewing is their first full length album. The genre of Airbourne is categorized as pub-rock. I can summarize them down to one word, “attitude”, rock n’ roll attitude. They epitomize the attitude of the early to mid 1980’s arena rock bands. It has been said that Australia is a few years behind in pop-culture. But with this band, it’s almost as if they ignored the grunge rock phase America went through in the 1990’s. That grunge phase has effected many hard rock bands of today. The effect has made the lyrics and music darker and more moody. With Airborne, the classic “in your face” rock n’ roll attitude is back, alive and well.
The album title is “Runnin’ Wild” and was released to the U.S. on January 29th, 2008. “Alright people! Welcome to the show!” These are the first words heard as album starts with a guitar explosion in “Stand Up For Rock N’ Roll”. The music and sound are reminiscent of early AC/DC, as it is with many of the tracks on the album. “Runnin’ Wild” is the next track and is the also the album title. The song is definitely about young man angst about breaking up. The following song is the epitome of the “attitude” I spoke of earlier. It is called “Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast”. The chorus lyrics say it all:
Too much, Too young, Too fast
I’m gonna drink it up while it lasts
Too much, Too young, Too fast
I’m gonna tear it up so fill my glass
The next track “Diamond In the Rough” is such a simple rock song with some real good old rock n’ roll guitar. This is followed by “Fat City” which is “juiced up and ready” for a night of rock n’ roll.
Best play from Superbowl 42
NY Giants 17 – New England Patriots 14
Check out an impressive play from the Giants game winning drive to win Superbowl 42.
I will post the embedded video as it becomes available.
Upon This Rawk 