American Idol Gets Their Praise On Re-Mix

Last night on "American Idol" the final 8 contestants sang "Shout to the Lord" like they did the previous night, this time however they did use the correct words. The first night they replaced "Jesus" with "Shepherd", they switched it back and last night was a cool God-Glorifying night. Whether you love the show or not, I am not a fan at all, it is a cool thing to see Jesus being sung to even if for the people it was more of a performance than anything else.

What's next Oprah confesses that Jesus is the only way?!? Yeah probably not.



Props: Think Christian

Lobo Basketball Banquet Prayer Request

I have been hit hard the past 5 days with the flu and have just today made it back to work and still do not feel 100% yet. The show goes on however. Tonight is the Lobo Basketball Banquet where season awards are handed out and boosters get to pretend they made the dunks with J.R. Giddens and the 3pt Shots with Chad Toppert. I am set to give the opening prayer for the dinner, please if you have a few seconds to spare this night, pray for me. I wrote out my prayer, so maybe pray that I do not pass out while praying or during any point of the night. I have been blessed to be part of the team in this small way and look forward to future involvement as well.

Tonight!!! Tonight!!!! It is Back!!!!

Bliss Apologizes

Former UNM Basketball Coach Dave Bliss this past week apologized and discussed his role in the scandal that rocked Baylor University. Bliss had been demonized in college basketball for his role, but as a former employee and still friend of Coach Bliss I saw a different man. I saw a man that loved his players and staff. I was also friends with Patrick Dennehey who was murdered while attending Baylor which then led into the scandal at Baylor and Bliss's dismissal from the university. Bliss could have just disappeared never to be seen again living a quite life. What is beautiful about this ugly mess is that he didn't, he has not swept this under the rug. He has shown some true repentance. This past week Coach Bliss spoke at the Athletes in Action at the Final Four:

"If I was sitting out there, I would say, how can someone who did some of the things I did ever show up at the Final Four, much less speak at it," Bliss said, speaking at a function for Athletes in Action, a Christian sports ministry.

"When you get past denial for a sin, you can cope with just about anything."

Bliss said pride and pressure led him to commit NCAA violations by making illegal payments, then try to cover them up after Carlton Dotson murdered Patrick Dennehy by urging others to portray the murder victim as a drug-dealer.

"The aspect of a cover-up is in so many sins. The aspect of my cover-up was so disgusting," said Bliss, who spoke with a Bible in his lap and cried and halted at points.

Click here for the LA Times Article

Love Darkness Rather Than Light

John 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

This is what this commercial made me think of...

Sup Yo!

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND!!!

Helping the Homeless

So this has been a topic for our church, you can read Zach's blog about this here (Zach is our worship leader), you can read Parker's blog post here (Parker is our Pastoral Intern). Basically it comes down to the question of how do we as a church best serve the homeless and needy of our city? It is a question we have been wrestling with over the past 3 weeks or so as a gentleman has crossed our path in need and we have reached out to him. I think we can all collectively say we have dropped the ball in some areas, and we have done what seems is best in others. It seems though for many of us in Desert Springs Church, especially us younger punks, we are learning daily what it means to love and serve the orphan, widow and poor and needy. Some of what I, being a young punk learned was:

1. It is not black and white, it seems many of us keep coming back to a structure needed, a program or list of rules about what we do with these people. That does not seem biblical or really all that practical, sense every circumstance and person is unique. Structure is needed and just handing out cash and sending someone on their way is not showing biblical love, but there seems to be more gray than anything else.

2. We are inadequate at this task. It seems that a lot of us are beating ourselves up over what we did not do right with this gentleman and maybe it is more the fact that he was not converted and is not saved right now. We need to expect that when we help 10 maybe only 1 will return, much like Jesus healing the lepers. We learn from our mistakes that we made, and I made some with this gentleman, but we press on from there not gazing too long at our navel.

3. Helping people is never a question of whether one deserves the help or not. None of us deserve anything but Hell, and eternal punishment. We all are law breakers and rebels to our Holy King in Heaven, but have been given GRACE by God, not because we deserve, but because He loves. This wipes away our judgment of who is deserving of love. The question is not, do they deserve? The question is rather, how do I best love this person?

All in all I have learned a ton from this gentleman and our interaction with him. I hope to continue to learn for the rest of my life what it means to serve, love and live out the gospel.

What does your church do? What do you do in this task?