The Tale of Desperaux

I loved the trailer for The Tale for Desperaux when I first saw it. And I am happy to report that it looks like a pretty good movie! (Actually, word has it that the book is even better! I'm interested in reading it.) John Seel has a hearty recommendation and some interesting discussion questions.

Want better quiet times?

Need help with your quiet times? This post was pretty helpful for me!

Horton giveaway

Now Christianity Today is having a drawing for copies of the Horton Hears a Who! DVD. You can enter online for free if you are at least 13 years old.

No clean-up this Friday

By the way, there will be no clean-up this Friday, so you can come a little before 7 pm instead of at 6:15 pm. Just remember to invite your friends!

Don't forget to invite friends to this Friday's outreach!

Need I say more? By the way, Shihong and Nat are going to emcee. It should be a very interesting night. :)

Prince Caspian DVD giveaway

You can enter to win a free copy of the Prince Caspian DVD from Christianity Today, if you're at least 13 years old.

Twilight book reviews

I haven't read any of the books in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, but I did reserve a copy of the first book from the library. I was #341 on the list. It still hasn't come in yet.

Well, Tim Challies just reviewed the book Twilight, and Beth Felker Jones posted on dangers that this series poses especially for young women. I trust both of them to speak as intelligent book-lovers with wisdom and an eye to God's glory.

[Warning: Jones' review (and the postscript from Challies' review) contains major plot points from Breaking Dawn. But I'd encourage you to read Jones' review, even though it might spoil some of the surprises.]

Based on these reviews, I don't think I'd recommend that teen girls get wrapped up in the literary world of Edward and Bella.

Hebrews 13:15 Scripture song

Stephen Altrogge just posted another Scripture song for free download, this time from Hebrews 13:15.

Free Chipotle tomorrow night!

If you wear tin foil...

Kirk Cameron witnessing to gang members

This is an awesome video of Kirk Cameron witnessing. To gang members. Really! I was thinking about showing this video at TIGS on Friday.

May this video encourage and inspire you. God's great gospel is for clean-cut suburban kids who've never cussed in their lives, and it's also for gang members who commit felonies more often than they shave.

Listen up, ladies!

Gavin's message on Friday on Titus 2 reminded me of two websites:

1) girl talk
2) Radical Womanhood.

Paul teaches that older women should train younger women in certain ways:

"Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled" (Titus 2:3-5).

So as you grow into a woman, take care that you grow into a Biblical one. These two sites won't replace having personal relationships with older, godly women, but these sites should provide some help.

You don't have to read everything on there. Just skim through and start with the things that look interesting to you. Or look there when you have questions about beauty (see GT's section on beauty or RW's "Bodies and Beauty" section). Or about modesty. Or Biblical Womanhood or Biblical Femininity. And so on.

So don't ignore these sites! If you don't believe me (and I know you do believe me, but I'm just saying), ask Kim--she'd wholeheartedly agree with me on these sites.

Religulous reviews

Bill Maher's new documentary Religulous mocks religious people and tries to convince people that "religion must die for mankind to live." Obviously, this isn't the worldview that God holds (though it would be more biblically accurate to say that false religion must die for mankind to live*--in other words, false religion will keep men in spiritual death).

I haven't yet found a review that I totally loved, but here are two that may be useful (in descending order of usefulness):
Plugged In
Christianity Today

* Please don't misconstrue this to mean that we must violently force Christianity on others. I do mean that we ought to lovingly and patiently urge Christ's claims on our friends, though.

TIGS TP job

Two Sundays ago, this mysteriously appeared on Steven's car as he ate lunch at Round Table:




Here he is getting into his car:



Don't ask me (or Greg P) how I know about this and have pictures. :)

Prepare for heaven: enjoy and think about Christ's glory now

I just read this quote from John Owen:

The revelation...of Christ...deserves the severest of our thoughts, the best of our meditations and our utmost diligence in them.... [W]hat better preparation can there be for [our future enjoyment of the glory of Christ] than in a constant previous contemplation of that glory in the revelation that is made in the Gospel. (Works, I, p. 275)

In other words,

What God has shown us about Christ deserves our most intense thoughts and our best diligence in them. What better way can we prepare to enjoy Christ's glory forever than by constantly thinking about His glory, which we find revealed in the Gospel?

Yes, Jesus Loves You!

Back in college, some of my friends and I recorded a rap music video all in one night (we wrote verses about some of our friends who were graduating), and we showed the video less than 24 hours later at our end of the year celebration. Yes, that's right. Michael Chen and his friends RAPPING. :) I crack up every time I watch this video.

I uploaded it not only to amuse you but also to point out the last verse (about 4:15 in this video):

It's God's grace that brought our friends, and He takes away
And He is still good, and He has never changed
He saved us from wrath and works all for our good
And at the end look back--by His grace You've always stood!

So in these days of going to new schools, saying goodbye to good old friends (and sponsors) and saying hello to new friends and new challenges, remember this.

God's love for you is MASSIVE, my beloved TIGers in Christ. Do not forget!

Free Phil Wickham CD

Speaking of free music, Phil Wickham recently put his live CD Singalong up online for free download at his website. I haven't listened to this one either, but it looks pretty cool!

Theological rap?

Voice may be the most theologically-oriented rapper you've ever heard (interesting, huh?)! You can download two of his songs for free at his PureVolume page.

Steven Curtis Chapman on Larry King tomorrow

I love and admire Steven Curtis Chapman, so I was shocked and saddened to hear about the recent tragedy in his family (his daughter Maria was killed in May when one of his teenage sons accidentally backed into her in their driveway).

The Chapmans were on "Good Morning America" recently (watch the interview here) talking about the tragedy, and he will be on Larry King Live tomorrow at 6 pm on CNN. I haven't seen either show yet, but from what I hear and expect, these will probably be pretty honest, moving examples of how we can grieve with hope through God's great gospel.

From SCC's news page:

"Initially Steven talked about never doing any concerts or media ever again," comments Jim Houser, Chapman's manager. "But quickly God began to show Steven that if he ever believed the songs he was writing, singing and recording before May 21st and Maria's loss, that they must still be true now. It's the family's hope that these appearances with serve as a chance to proclaim to a watching world what they know and are deeply convinced of even in these difficult days, the Gospel is true and faith in Christ is our Hope."

Mike's Psalm 23 sushi ninjas

Sensei Mike took several of his Psalm 23-memorizing young charges to Mizu just now. And we picked up a few extra people, too!

***

Kim came with her family, and Shihong blessed us with his words of wisdom :). Actually, it was great to hang out with Shihong and get to know him a little bit more and to hear how God has been growing him! And he really did pass on some words of wisdom to us about being in TIGS vs. CY, being a high school student, etc. ...

*

Got some straws stuck...I hate it when that happens. Thankfully, Joseph was there with the shell crackers to help! :)

Kim's Psalm 23 sushi junkies

Today I had the privilege of grabbing sushi with Kim and her Psalm 23-memorizing small group. We had a great time at Daruma Sushi House in West Sacramento! (That is, after I arrived with the guys, having made just about every wrong turn possible on the way to this West Sacramentan restaurant ;).)

Below are our group pictures.

***

While the rest of us take the group picture, Daniel suddenly remembers the 457th digit of Pi!

*

Meredith gets HAPPY, Chris gets violent, Daniel gets the munchies, and everybody else is just plain WEIRD.

:)
heee

***

Can you think of any better captions for these photos? If so, please post them in the comments!

Worship team testimony, part 3

I recently started posting installments of a testimony that I wrote several months ago at the request of the worship team. Below is the third part. (You can also read the first and second parts.)

***

A second “trauma”: sovereign love

Another “trauma” I suffered that year: Our pastor preached on Romans 8:28-29, which reads, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.” That's when I saw that God controls every single molecule (Eph 1:11, 1 Corinthians 8:6)! He does this every minute and nanosecond! He does this and never sins! And He works all things for our good!

Thus, in every trouble I go through, I know that God is ultimately behind it, and He works all things for my good. It is never hopeless; it is bottomlessly optimistic, even in the worst tragedies.

The extent of God's control amazed me, and His love impresses me. It is very practical and hope-giving. These verses amazed me.

"Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you"

Something that's been floating around my head recently in relation to welcoming the new incoming seventh graders:

"Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God." (Romans 15:7)

As I drove to church yesterday, I was struck by the need to pray for these incoming seventh graders. Join with me in praying that they become mature, stalwart men and women who love Jesus above all things!

It was an honor

The other night I was talking with Kim's brother Chris, and I started yabbering on about
how much fun I was having serving with VBS this year
and how honored I was to serve
and how much time and heart CGBC pours into VBS
and how much I liked the curriculum
and how Greg presented the gospel
and on and on...

I'm glad that I got to serve alongside you guys and see you also serving on the worship band and in games and in drama and in dancing and in everything else you did. Auntie Margie told me that the TIGers were very faithful in keeping your commitments to VBS and in serving your teams. Way to go!

And for those of you who couldn't make it, consider joining VBS next year! It's a great chance to have fun serving God together, partnering in the gospel together, and developing our skills so that we can be more useful servants in the future.

Junior High School Musical

Jumping for joy over the baptisms Sunday! :)

Worship team testimony, part 2

A few weeks ago I posted the first part of a testimony that I wrote several months ago at the request of the worship team. Here's the second part (of approximately five parts).

By the way, it is especially fitting to post this section now, since I'm going to be teaching about the precious cross this Friday in TIGS.

***

Can theology “traumatize” you?

The first “trauma”: the cross

One particularly “traumatic” event: I was walking around campus reading a book listing fifty reasons why Jesus came to die (for some reason, it is now titled Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came To Die :) Coincidence? I think not. :) ). The first chapter blew me away. It explained that God could not let sin go unpunished—not even one! God does not sweep sin under the carpet of the universe. God must punish all sin. As the Bible says, “God is a righteous judge,” and “the wages of sin is death.”

But we know that God saves people—sinful people! How does God do this without being unjust? He cannot let the guilty go unpunished!

The answer: He put Jesus on the cross, and Jesus absorbed all of the punishment that we deserve. He took all of the hell that we deserve, and He swallowed it up. God did not spare the punishment one bit. He meted it out fully on Him Who knew no sin, and thus He saved His people. (If you want to see this for yourself, read through Romans 3:25-26 [try to read around this reference to get the context], then think through it, and then treasure it.)

When I saw the justice and mercy of God in this, I saw God as bigger and scarier and more beautiful than I had before. I can't get the cross out of my mind, my theology. It is too big and too precious.

I don't stand before God on the basis of what I do—my pitiful attempts at obeying my conscience or doing quiet times or at being a good son and student and employee and friend. I remember failing my conscience so often in college but then coming back to the cross—staring at what I could see of God's love. I remember riding on the BART soaking in this medicine for the soul, holding my little Gideon's Bible close and whispering to myself passages like Romans 3 and Romans 8 and Hebrews 10 (“we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all...by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified”).

My “good works” did not endear me to God, nor did my evil deeds take away the justification that Jesus secured for me. I only stand before God on the basis of what Jesus did. He did it perfectly, and nothing can shake this. Nothing can shake God's love for or hold on me.

Happy Father's Day!

I just received a Father's Day e-card from my good friend Jeremy, whom I'd told about the "Daddy" joke a few days ago. Pretty funny! :)

No, that's not blood....

I sent the links to the lock-in haircut videos to several friends, and many of them sent back pretty entertaining comments. But let me clarify a few things that I didn't clarify in the previous post:

1) See that red coloration on my scalp? That is dry erase marker, not blood. They used the marker to delineate the places that they wanted to leave on my head.

So, no, my TIGers didn't draw any blood. Aren't they talented? :)


2) For those of you who weren't there at the lock-in last week, here's the background story: I gave the TIGers 400 paper butterflies and their antennae to cut out for the Ecuador short-term missions trip, and just for fun, I told them that if they cut out all 400 butterlies and antennae, they would get to cut my hair, and I would wear it to church on Sunday.

So I had a very interesting haircut when I went to church this past Sunday! :)

TIGS Lock In 2008 haircut videos

Update 6/5/08: Is that blood on my head? And why did this happen? See more details in the next post.

In the wee hours of May 31, 2008, I got a very unique haircut! :)

You can see some of the haircut in progress:



And here's a grand tour of the top of my head after most of the haircutting was over:

Worship team testimony, part 1

Back in October, the worship team had all of the worship team members write out a testimony. It may be a bit complex for some students to understand, but I thought you guys might find this interesting and helpful.

The following is the first part (of approximately five parts) of what I wrote:

***

I fell in love

Growing up in Ohio

I grew up in a Christian family going to church in Ohio. I'm thankful that I grew up in that environment. I heard about Jesus and His cross, and I gave my life to Christ there. I served in our local church in many ways, and I had a soft heart for God. After I graduated from high school, my family moved out to California, and I went to college out in the Bay Area.

Going to school in California

My spiritual life took a serious turn in my second year of college. That's when I settled down in a church, and I fell in love with it. The pastor was preaching through the book of Romans, and I came to love it. I loved seeing how our pastor would show how the text meant one thing and not another. He taught me new things. Because they were new, I stubbornly resolved not to believe anything that he (or anyone else) taught me unless I could see it in Scripture. But the sermons were academically sound; they were Biblical; and they blew my world apart.

I loved the church's appreciation for the Bible. Truth was revealed in a Book; Truth was to be academically found; these truths were Biblical and precious. God had revealed Himself in a Book, and He could not lie; these words were so solid you could rest your whole weight on them. This was so precious.

I loved listening to the deacons pray. They prayed to such a great God, and we were so small. Their God was bigger than I knew Him to be; their God was as big as (bigger than, actually) anything I'd known.

I loved singing the songs. They were songs about God's greatness. Songs about the punishment we deserve and the punishment that Jesus absorbed. Songs about God's justice and mercy. Songs that knew my sinfulness but reminded me that I don't stand before God by my own righteousness; God's given me a perfect righteousness that gives me a right relationship with Him. I cannot add to this. I was so aware of my sinfulness those days in college. But greater still was God's mercy and grace that triumphed over my sinfulness.

Grand Theft Auto IV: guard your soul

Grand Theft Auto IV just released, and it's supposed to be a "better" (technically, not morally), more impressive game than any of its GTA predecessors.

Apparently Grand Theft Auto is the most popular game among boys age 12 to 14 and the second most popular game among girls age 12 to 14. That's scary, considering the spiritual dangers of playing the game.

Is theft, violence, and sexual immorality with your fingers really so far removed from theft, violence, and sexual immorality with your heart?

Let's have Spring Celebration every week!

Last night I said that we want every week to be Spring Celebration. What did I mean when I said that?

As I said last night, I don't mean that we're going to give away free iPods every week. We're not going to have a ridiculous amount of chow mein every week and have #2 Pencil Man and the Ballistic Bubble Girl show up every week [although that would be pretty neat...maybe that's something to bring up in the next sponsors' meeting ;). Actually, maybe we should bring the Dynamic Dimsum Woman to the sponsors' meetings! Then we would have something to snack on :). I liked Tape Boy, too. Slick move, taping the pooper scooper. ;)].

What I do mean is that every week we want our friends to become worshipers of Jesus. Every week we want our friends to hear the gospel. Every week we want to bring our friends into the goodness and the growth and the fun that we have at TIGS. This is God's glory, and this is our friends' good.

So let's let every week be Spring Celebration. Keep on inviting your friends to TIGS!

(By the way, it has been encouraging to see you guys invite your friends out to TIGS/Spring Celebration. Keep up the good work!)

SC08 bulletin concept art

I'm finishing up the Spring Celebration 2008 (SC08) bulletin tonight. Here's some concept art for it. Feel free to add comments or suggestions!

*

Draft 1:

Draft 1, front

Draft 1, back

*

Draft 2

Draft 2, front

Draft 2, back

SC08 flyer

Spring Celebration is coming up in only eight days! Please pray that God would bring many people to this event and that many would come to love and trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior through this night!

Here's a digital copy of the flyer. You can click on the image to see it at a bigger size.

TIGS meeting schedule is online!

Want to see what we're doing in a few weeks? Want to see what we've done in the past year? I've uploaded the spreadsheet, so you can look at it at any time.

By the way, if any parents from last night's meeting are reading this, the schedule that I handed out last night was (unbeknownst to myself at the time) incorrect. This spreadsheet should be up-to-date, though.

Expelled--Do you want to watch it with us?

The new documentary "Expelled" opened last weekend. It has drawn much praise from Christians and much ire from non-Christians.

Why? Because its basic message is that if you teach/mention Intelligent Design, people will try to silence you and maybe fire you.

The official "Expelled" site has some trailers up; if you watch just one, I'd recommend the "Super Trailer."

Some of the sponsors were talking about going to see it, so if you want to see it with us, let us know!

True story

Sunday morning, April 20:

"Okay, Daddy," the junior high student said.

The woman had been walking past them, but she suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway and turned around. "Did I hear that right?"

"Uhh.....Uhh...."

:) Hilarious!

Vince and Byron, YouTube stars

I finally unloaded the TIGS Winter Outing stuff from my digicam onto my computer. Here's a sneak peek:

"You Are Good" free download

Per the rules of getting the CD for free, I'm currently (slowly) reviewing the new SGM album You and You Alone. SGM is offering the song "You Are Good," which is probably one of the better tracks on the album, as a free download.

By the way, I'll be introducing a new song from this album this Friday called "Lord, You Are Gracious." It's my favorite track from the album, and it juxtaposes God's declaration of His character in Exodus 34:6-7 with Jesus' death. The first time I heard the song, I immediately thought it beautiful and wanted to sing along.

I think the song will fit in well with our "Loving Others Unconditionally" series.

A secret gift for the TIGers!

This past Friday on my way home from TIGS, I thought of a gift that I want to give all of you to take home. I'm not telling you in advance what it is! :) I think I'll probably distribute these at TIGS next Friday (April 11).

Hint: It's not very hip, but I think you'll like it! :)

1 John 3;2-3 Scripture song

Stephen Altrogge has posted another helpful (and free) Scripture song. This one's from 1 John 3:2-3.

Do Hard Things

Alex and Brett Harris are two teenagers who are trying to radically change the world for Jesus. They operate from their site The Rebelution, and they just released their first book, Do Hard Things. It's #5 on Amazon right now.

It's supposed to be fantastic. Here's what some people are saying:

This book is a refreshing wake up call to our generation. We CAN do hard things; and give ourselves to something huge for the Kingdom of God!

-Leeland Mooring, Grammy-nominated recording artist, 19

I read countless books but this is one of the most unique, defining and important ones I've ever seen. It is paradigm-shifting, revolutionary, liberating and hope-instilling. While I'd love for every teenager to read Do Hard Things, I'm just as eager for every parent, church leader and educator to read it.

-Randy Alcorn, best-selling author of Heaven and The Treasure Principle

For too long our expectations of teens, and their expectations of themselves, have been far too low. In Do Hard Things Alex and Brett Harris rebel against low expectations and encourage their peers to meet the challenge of doing tough things for God's sake and for God's glory.

I wish I could have read this book when I was a teen. I'm glad that my children will have the opportunity. I pray it will stir them and stir a whole generation of young people, to use their teen years to do the hard things God calls them to do.

-Tim Challies, author of The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment, blogger (challies.com)

Is Horton pro-life?

"A person's a person, no matter how small." - Horton Hears a Who!

I've neither read the book nor seen the movie, but apparently some pro-lifers feel that the above mantra enunciates the pro-life position in a simple, clear way. Could it be that God has put inklings of His truth in Dr. Seuss' mind, even though Dr. Seuss may have been neither Christian nor pro-life*? I think so...


*I don't know whether or not Dr. Seuss was a Christian or pro-life.

The wrath of God, the death of Christ

Last night I gave a message about a terrifying subject: the wrath of God. But its aim was to show (among other things)

• how terrifying God's wrath is
• how great is what Jesus accomplished on the cross!
• how thankful we should be for Jesus' death
• how we should fear God
  
• the dreadful fate of those who do not trust Jesus
• how urgent it is for them to come to Jesus
• how compassionate we should be toward them
  
• how we should hate our sin, which God hates and which Jesus died for
  

At the beginning of my talk, I made a blanket statement about how the sermons and books of John Piper have deeply influenced me and this talk (and how I got permission to "copy" him as long as I acknowledged it at the appropriate spots).

Well, here of John Piper's works that I "copied" last night:

"God's Wrath: 'Vengeance Is Mine, I will Repay,' Says the Lord"
I got most of my points about God's wrath from here.

The Passion of Jesus Christ
This is the book that I was giving away last night. The author put the book online so people can read it for free.

I remember walking around on my college campus reading the short, two-page first chapter of this book. It blew me away when I saw the mercy and justice of God in the cross like this. I began to see God as bigger and scarier and more beautiful than I had before. (By the way, this chapter greatly influenced my song "Screaming," which I performed last night.)

Submit your Panel Night questions!

On March 28 we'll have Panel Night with our four lovely sponsors! We'll be answering (or, at least, trying to answer) questions you have about God, life, the Bible, school, death, friends, girls, etc.

If you have a question that you want us to address at Panel Night, please either leave it as a comment here, email it to one of the sponsors, or give it to us in some other way (e.g. a secret note written in invisible ink, Morse Code, etc. :) ).

Please get the questions in by March 21 so that your sponsors have time to find good answers! You can still ask questions after March 21, but we'll prioritize questions that we get earlier.

Update March 15:
If you don't want other people to see your question, you can't submit it here on the blog (you need a Google account to leave a comment, so you can't leave anonymous comments). In that case, you could tell the question to one of the sponsors in person, give it to us as a note, email it to us, etc.

My email address is MichaelTungmanChen [at] yahoo.com.

Favorite Winter Outing 2008 memories

We just got back from Winter Outing 2008 last night, and those of you who missed it really missed out! We learned about God's love for us and had a lot of fun together. And I came away from the retreat thinking, "Wow, I love my kids!"

Some of my favorite memories:

• The "Daddy"/TIGS adults-as-family inside joke (and the awkwardness that came when parents came to pick up their kids).
• The two historic Byron-going-down the snow slide moments with me and Vince, respectively. Hmm, maybe I should post that on YouTube... :)
  
• "Apples to Apples": I never knew Chicken McNuggets could be so "magical"! :)
• Grossing Cliff out with my synergistic, vitamin-filled orange juice/Honey Nut Cheerios combination. Arica's ingenious suggestion for making "orange chicken." (Maybe I can try that on the next outing. :) )
  
• Connie's adventures with a roll of duct tape.
  
• Teaching others about how God used the awkwardness and loneliness of my middle school years and worked His good designs through it. Teaching about God's powerful, wise love from the last part of Romans 8.

Do you have other favorite memories? Feel free to post them in the comments!

Ebony and Ivory

Back at the beginning of the year, my sister and I were walking around Old Sacramento, and all of a sudden, I saw this shop and immediately thought of Chris and Gideon (because of the song they love to sing, not because it says, "International Beauty Palace" or "Beautiful Hands & Feet" :) ).

I told my sister we had to stop and take a picture. So Chris and Gideon, these are for you. :) Pretty funny! :)

"Ten Thousand Miles" free mp3

Sandra McCracken's song "Ten Thousand Miles" is available for free download at her website.

Your sponsors love you!

Hee. :)

Valentine's Day cards for those who didn't pick them up on Friday are going out in the mail soon.

Two little tangents:
1) I got all the sponsors to wear red at our sponsors' meeting the day we took this picture, but when we actually took the picture, I was the one who forgot to take my blue sweatshirt off to show my red undershirt! Ironic. Oh well.

2) This picture is on my desktop at work. It's a GREAT photo! :) You too can download it and put it on your computers by clicking on the picture above.

Free 1 Cor. 2:1-2 Scripture song!

Over the past few months, the Altrogges have been giving away some of their Scripture songs. Well, today they released 1 Corinthians 2:1-2 as a free Scripture song, too!

Speaking of these Scripture songs, I love them! They've been a great encouragement to me this past week. I've come to know and love God's promises better through them.

For example, I had an opportunity to share the gospel with a group of people at work recently. Some people weren't very happy with me because of that.

But the Scripture in the 1 Corinthians 1:18 song (available here) encouraged me: "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18-30 was a comfort to me.

Have these songs helped you, too? Feel free to leave a comment as to how they have! (If these songs have helped you, it would be nice for you to also leave a comment on the Altrogges' blog The Blazing Center to encourage them.)*

*I don't feel the need to leave a comment on their blog because I think Stephen Altrogge will see this. Hi, Stephen! :) :) Thanks for your partnership in the gospel and for your service to us! :)

Happy birthday, Abraham Lincoln!

Today I don't have work, so I'm blogging during the daytime! Thank God for Abraham Lincoln's birthday! :)

Speaking of Abraham Lincoln, World Magazine recently posted an article about the relationship between Lincoln's changing attitude toward God and Lincoln's actions as a politician and President. It may read somewhat scholarly, but I found it to be a moving story of redemption.

(FYI, the last paragraph of the article sums it up pretty well.)

Piper's "How To Drink Orange Juice to the Glory of God"

On Friday we learned about how God wants us to honor Him in everything we do, and we learned more about how to do this.

So how do we honor God in drinking orange juice? John Piper's article "How To Drink Orange Juice to the Glory of God" can help.

"Let Your Kingdom Come" free mp3

We introduced the song "Let Your Kingdom Come" at TIGS tonight.

The songwriter, Bob Kauflin, uploaded it for free download, and he also posted the lyrics and some of his thoughts on the song.

We really hope that as you sing it, you long for Jesus to be known and honored all over the world. As we read in Psalm 67 tonight, God wants all the ends of the earth to praise Him: "Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!"

So we hope that from the bottom of your heart, you would be able to pray along with the Puritans:

I adore Thee that Thou art God,
and long that others should know it, feel it,
and rejoice in it.

Tips on watching the Superbowl to the glory of God

I must confess, I'm not too much of a sports person (although playing sports and watching friends playing sports is fun). But if you're watching the Superbowl tomorrow, C.J. Mahaney has a very helpful post about how to honor God as you watch the Superbowl.

Josh Harris gives a nice summary.

How to tie your shoes to the glory of God

The Bible commands us to honor God in everything we do. So how do we honor God in everything we do--tying our shoes, doing homework, saying hi to friends? Good question, huh?

Well, Kim will be giving a talk on it this coming Friday (February 8). I'm looking forward to it! I think it'll be practical, helpful talk that'll aim for the glory of God in all our lives.

"I actually heard, 'hey, dave!'" :)

I shared the content from the previous blog post with Alicia, and this is an excerpt from her response:

you know, it's funny. I actually heard, "hey, dave!"

i was surprised too. i thought that someone called me by accident.

you can put that on your blog too.

kind of funny. :)

"Hey, babe"

Here's something I wrote for some friends after I came back from the TIGS San Francisco community service day back in November:

*****

"Hey, babe."

That's what one of my junior high boys from church said to Alicia yesterday. Let me back up.

My junior highers and I were in San Francisco yesterday for a community service day, and on the way back, one thing led to another, and...well, we ended up trying to prank-call some of my college friends using my cell phone. :) (Since Caller ID would have displayed my name, and the recipient would have heard a bunch of silly and/or giggling junior highers, I think my college friends would have taken it all in fun.)

Most of the people whom we tried to call didn't pick up, but finally, Alicia picked up the phone. One of the junior high boys had dialed and was holding the phone, and the first thing he said when she picked up was, "Hey, babe."

I started freaking out.

My junior highers started cracking up. Loudly.

After a few seconds, he-who-held-the-phone passed it back to me, and I explained the situation to Alicia. "We were prank calling some of my friends, but I wasn't expecting him to say that!!!!" The junior highers started cracking up again when they heard that.

*

Why did I start freaking out? My junior highers didn't ask me, but if they'd asked me, I might have said something that they might understand more fully as they grow older. I might have said something like this:

Hearts are like dynamite; don't play with them. Saying, "Hey, babe" to one of my friends is a very minor infraction, to be sure; all the same, I don't want you doing that to any of my friends.

(Have I always thought this way? No.
Have I always acted this way? No.
But do I want to protect my sisters' hearts? Yes.)

Update: Alicia responds. :)

Free Scripture song downloads

This looks like a fantastic way to memorize and think about Scripture!

Through Mark and Stephen Altrogge's blog, you can download three free Scripture songs from Forever Grateful Music. (Mark runs Forever Grateful Music.)

Also, through the ESV Blog, you can also download two more free Scripture songs from Mark Altrogge.

Why memorize Scripture? The Bethlehem Baptist Church gives some good reasons (under "Why Memorize the Bible?")

Visit Abort73.com, weep, and pray

This Tuesday (January 22) in 1973, something very sad happened in America. Our judges said that killing babies before they get out of their mothers' wombs is legal. So it was illegal to kill people who were healthy and could defend themselves, but it was legal to kill small babies who couldn't defend themselves.

Do unborn children matter to God? Very much. They are made in His image, and when you kill an unborn child, you greatly offend God.

Want to find out more about abortion? Want to see an end to this bloodshed? Then visit Abort73.com and learn about abortion, weep over the evil, and pray that the God of mercy would rescue these children.

Letters to the Editor, Vol. 1

Thought you guys might enjoy this--Andrew Osenga is offering his acoustic EP Letters To The Editor, Vol. 1 as a free download, and I sing on the last track! (You can't really tell which one is my voice, and it's not for very long. But all the same, kind of cool!)

Who is Andrew Osenga? He's a singer-songwriter, producer, current lead guitarist/occassional vocalist for Caedmon's Call, and former lead singer/main singer for the critically-acclaimed but commercially, um, not-so-successful band The Normals. (I listened to The Normals a LOT in high school. :))

The Triple-Greg threat

This coming Friday may set a record in TIGS history: it may very well be the first time that we've ever had

Greg F. and Greg P. are going to be emceeing, and
Greg G. will be speaking.

Oh my. :) It's the triple-Greg threat! :)

On a more serious note, I'm pretty jazzed about this. We're kicking off our TIGS worship series with the subject of why we should worship God. This strikes at the very heart of Christianity, so if you only come to TIGS one night this year, come this Friday!

The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything

The latest Veggie Tales movie, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, just released yesterday, and from what I read, it's artistically a better movie than the first one (Jonah), which, by the way, I have on VHS, if anybody wants to borrow it.

According to Christianity Today's review of the movie, it's not just another Disney movie. To see what this more clearly, if you see the movie, you can ask some of the questions suggested at the end of the review:

If Elliot, Sedgewick and George are supposed to be normal people like us in the story, who does the King represent? Why do you think that?

Could the pirates have been victorious without the King? Why or why not? List the ways the King helps them throughout the movie. What do you think this movie says about your ability to do good things without God?

The review also hints at the answers to these questions in the third from last paragraph (the one beginning, "Will kids realize . . . ?") of the review.

Good new books

These new books look pretty good:

Leepike Ridge by N.D. Wilson

The author is a Christian, but the reviews (even from non-Christians) have been very good. Looks like an exciting, intelligent book.

This book is available through the Sacramento library system.

Eyes to See, edited by Bret Lott

This is a collection of classic short stories with introductions written by a Christian author. Note: this reading is likely more difficult than middle school-level.

Why I like media

I like media a lot. It's part of how God made me and gifted me. And media can help you to see

• true things as true,
• beautiful things as beautiful, and
• good things as good.
  

And this pleases God.

(It can also do the opposite--help you to see

• false things as true,
• ugly things as beautiful, and
• wicked things as good.
  

And that's one reason why you and I need the Bible to keep us anchored!)

God is the source of truth and beauty and goodness, and you can find God's truth and beauty and goodness shining through even books and movies and music that non-Christians make.

Pretty cool, huh?

More coming soon, I promise! :)

Sorry guys, I meant to update this site a bit more often (my goal is at least once per week; we'll see how that goes), but I've been pretty busy with other things. Much thanks for all the suggestions, though! I'll play around with the site a bit more when I get a chance to breathe a bit more.

I'll try to post some more stuff this weekend.