How to Pray

Matthew 6: 9-13   This, then, is how you should pray:

1) Praise:  Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

2) Submission:  your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

3) Provision:  Give us today our daily bread.

4) Repentance Forgiveness:  Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.

5) Protection:  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.  Amen.



Pretty cool how easy it is.

Happy Birthday!!

Alas, October is here and in a few short weeks one of the greatest days in human history will be upon us: my birthday.  Now ordinarily I dislike asking/receiving birthday presents.  The whole exchange is awkward to me.  I will throw a few hints at my mother since she seems to enjoy lavishing me with gifts, but I usually don't request anything.

But this year is different.  I have decided that I would like everyone I know to purchase a gift for my birthday.  Notice I said "for my birthday" and not "for me." 

What I would humbly ask everyone to do is pick a charity and donate to it.  Make sure it is for a organization that upholds strong, christian ideals and truly works for the service of others.  Then, when you have contributed, pass this request along to someone else.  We are so fortunate in this country to be blessed with everything that God has given us and we owe it to the less fortunate to help. 

For those of you not sure of where to donate or support, I've done some research and become rather fond of several great organizations doing really great work.  I would highly recommend supporting any of these places.

www.toms.com
Toms shoes work with the one-for-one philosophy.  For every pair of shoes you buy, they donate a pair to a child in a third world country.  How cool is that!  Not only do you get to change the life of child, but you also get a little something in return.

www.miir.com
Miir water bottles work on a very similar premise as Toms shoes.  For every water bottle you buy, they donate $1 towards clean drinking water in countries that don't have it.  That one dollar will provide clean, healthy, safe drinking for someone for an entire year.

www.onedayswages.org
One Days Wages is just how it sounds.  You donate one days worth of your yearly salary, they use it to fight global poverty.  And one day's pay is only 0.4% of your yearly salary. 

www.bloodwatermission.com
Founded by the band Jars of Clay, blood:water mission does awesome fighting Aids and providing clean water to people.  They have lots of ways you can help.  Check out their website.

www.charitywater.org
Another great organization working to provide clean drinking water to people who need it most.  They have lot's of easy ways to donate too.

So in conclusion, yes my birthday really is in a few weeks, but please do not buy me anything.  Don't even donate anything for me.  Donate because you want to share the blessings that you have with others.  And don't be selfish.  Tell others about what you are doing and get them on board as well.

God Bless,

Eddy

Bucket List

Never made one of these before, thought it might be fun.

1. Skydive
2. Bungee Jump
3. Get a tattoo (at least one)
4. Get a motorcycle
5. Own/DJ for a pirate radio station on a boat anchored off shore
6. Play in a professional band
7. Attend Hillsong church in Sydney
8. See Top Secret Drum Corp play live in Basil, Switzerland
9. Visit Brouch, Luxembourg and drink a beer there
10. Go back to Turkana, Kenya
11. Visit all 50 states
12. Get Packers season tickets
13. See the Cubs win a World Series
14. Write a song
15. Write a poem
16. Learn to surf
17. Ride a horse
18. Run a marathon
19. Become nonallergic to cats
20. Backpack across Europe (so cliche)
21. Set a world record
22. Set a Guinness Book of World Record
23. Become a scratch golfer
24. Go on a missions trip
25. Live happily ever after

Hope I didn't miss anything...

Roarin'!!

Let love explode and bring the dead to life
A love so bold to see a revolution come.


Now I'm lost in your freedom this world will over come.

My God's not dead, He's surely alive

And He's living on the inside roarin' like a lion.

Let hope arise and make the darkness hide
My faith is dead I need a resuuection somehow.


Let Heaven roar and fire fall, come shake the ground with the sound of revival.

These lyrics hail from the most recent live DC*B recording on the newest Passion: Awakening CD. Daniel Bashta is the individual who was blessed with these words. The first time I heard these lyrics, my emotions had the same reaction that Miss Shields had to Ralphie's theme during his day dream in A Christmas Story; "shear poetry."

What would love exploding look like, bringing the dead to life, opening people's eyes and ears and hearts to true life. Or hope arising casting out darkness, removing the veil from our eyes and opening out hearts to the glory of God.

My God's not dead, He's surely alive. 

Our God is not dead and he surely is alive. That line is great in itself, but then the chorus gets better.

He's living on the inside

God is living inside of you and me.  Isn't the holy spirit amazing?  That God can come and live inside of us. Then my favorite part.

roarin' like a lion

I love that imagery. God is inside us, roarin' like a lion, wanting to know and rescue all who have fallen and to be known intimately by everyone. We have the God of the universe, inside of us roaring.  This sounds cheesy, but it's so true. We do not worship a silent, passive God. He is active and vocal, and when we allow him to dwell in us, his presence is unmistakable.

You can listen to it here:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmXD52oogRI


What do you think?

Jealousy

Since going to church this morning, there has been something that I've been thinking about all day. The opening line from the song "How He Loves," originally written by John Mark McMillan and most recently recorded by the David Crowder Band. The very first line of the song is as follows:

He is jealous for me

What an amazing thing to think about. The God of the universe, creator of everything, all knowing, all powerful, the one who knows each one of more intimately than we ever could, is jealous for us, for you, for me. He loves us so much, he feels jealously towards the petty things in this world that we fill up our time with rather than spending time with God. We have pushed our savior to jealously and still he loves us unconditionally and wants nothing more than for us to come to him. A simple task, yet we are to scared to leave our comfortable lives that we have built for ourselves instead of pursuing God and living an even greater life than we could imagine.

In case you haven't seen this, here is the link to the David Crowder Band music video for the song. While the video itself is entertaining, pay attention to the words too. I hope they grab your heart like they have grabbed mine.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJyW55AXJAk&feature=related

What do you think?

Motivation

This is some good motivation...


http://www.breakpoint.org/commentaries/14358-preachers-and-podiatrists

What If...

What if the armies of the Lord
Picked up and dusted off their swords
Vowed to set the captive free
And not let satan have one more

What if the Church, for heaven's sake
Finally stepped up to the plate
Took a stand upon God's promise
And stormed hell's rusty gates

What if His people prayed
And those who bear His name
Would humbly seek His faith, yeah
And turn from their old ways

And what would happen if we prayed
For those raised up to lead the way
Then maybe kids in school could pray
And unborn children see light of day

What if the life that we pursue
Came from a hunger for the truth
What if the family turned to Jesus
Stopped asking Oprah what to do

What if His people prayed
And those who bear His name
Would humbly seek His face yeah
And turn from their own way

He said that He would hear
His promise has been made
He'll answer loud and clear, yeah
If only we would pray



From What If His People Prayed by Casting Crowns