Vote for Matt Jones!!!

Hey all, do you like good music and real song writers that actually take the time to play thier own instruments and write their own songs, yeah I know that is rare these days, then The Real Matt Jones is for you. He is a friend of mine and a great guy who has a heart for the Lord yet is not a "Christian" musician per se, he is in the culture, living life with others and playing some great music. He is currently a finalist in FameCast an online "American Idol" type contest where the winner gets pub and 10 grand!!!! So click here to vote for Matt Jones help this young talented musician out!!!

Good ole' Dixie?!?!? Confederate flag debate...

"Both Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney made derogatory comments about the Confederate flag, and we don't think people should come to the South and try to get our votes and then wipe their feet on the Confederate flag to kiss up to voters in other parts of the country," he said.

This past week in South Carolina during some speeches Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney made some anti-confederate flag comments. Needless to say this made some people a little upset. Here is the weird thing, this flag by it's very purpose is divisive in nature as this was the symbol of certain states leaving the USA Union. This flag represents to the majority of the population in the USA and the world, slavery and a very embarrassing time for our "Christian" nation. What frustrates me is that this flag is still allowed to fly in certain public squares and we all seem ok with it. What humors and saddens me is that people still find this flag as something to be proud of, proud of what?? Proud of slavery?? Proud of racism?? Proud of internal terrorism where one group tries to tear apart the country literally?? I am actually glad someone stood up for the reality that these flags and this symbol does not serve the public good and does not serve the country in any positive ways.

Click here for whole article.

College Football is fallen

When man fell in the garden, sin corrupted everything, and not one thing has not been tainted by it, College Football not excluded. I am so tired of the BCS and especially this year where I believe the 2 best teams will not be playing for a national championship. I realize the money that rolls in from the bowls, but that is tainting one of the best sports there is, March Madness is special because of the excitement and the true outcome that there will be a undisputed national champion. I like what CNN is doing with this mock tourney, maybe just maybe the BCS people will see this is the way to go and in the longrun will be more profitable...check out the tourney here.

What does Pullman say??

Christians seem to once again in some circles be circling the wagons regarding the upcoming movie "The Golden Compass". It is written by and atheist, they kill God in the movie, it is a book that is a reaction against the Narnia Books of C.S. Lewis. Well it always seems like a smart move to take time to listen to the man behind the novels that are inspiring the movie. FilmChat has a great interview that answers a lot of questions we all have regarding this movie.

My opinion is that a movie is not something that seems to be able to shake the Kingdom of God, even though it seems to shake us up a lot! I think this movie is a great chance to go watch and purposely pursue conversation with people about the truth in the film, about the truth in the gospel. I probably would not let my 12 year old daughter (she is 2 right now but...) go see the movie alone without making sure to invest time in discussing the themes of the movie after. I do think there needs to be a level of discernment upon entering in ANY movie, even ones with "Passion" in their title.

Is it Yes or No??

I think I am going to tell Zach Nielsen our worship leader to look into playing this song this Sunday. I think it is applicable as we are approaching an election year! I realize that if you are an Arminian that there are not a lot of songs that speak of our "free will" and our ability to choose God, maybe cause there are not many verses that allow that...maybe... is it yes or no?

HT (Founders)

SubUrban Jungle

I live in the suburbs and the church I work at an upper middle class church in the suburbs, I am not a fan of the suburbs, I am not a fan of kids who drive around in daddy's BMW. I have grown so much in this church though, where I would be happy and comfortable in the University area of town or downtown ABQ which are a "little rougher" than the Desert Springs Neighborhood, I realize that the Albuquerque suburbs is my Samaria. This is where I would normally avoid going to, the Starbucks with the 14 year old ordering a non-fat, decaf iced Carmel organic latte while the mom is checking how her last botox treatment went. Yeah this is the place I did not want to be, but God has stretched me, has challenged me to see that the gospel is not just for the city, the gospel is for the suburbs and in a lot of ways I am dealing with college students that grew up in a youth group that was all about fun, and stupid games, never hearing the gospel, but yet thinking they are saved. I am growing up around a bunch of Zach Morris's and Kelly Kaposki's and I am learning to be content and learning to love these people. I am not there yet, but I hope some day!! Until then I am going to be hitting up Steve McCoy's blog over at Reformissionary and his new page "Mission to the Suburbia"

Must be a tough year for Hawkeye fans...

So yes we here at UNM are excited for the hire of Coach Steve Alford a man I consider a friend. We are 6-0 right now with wins over not the best of teams, but still all you can do is play who is in front of you right? Well it seems Coach Alford's old school is not doing so well either in basketball or football.... Although I am not sure if God is a Hawkeye fan or not, relating their trials to Job's is a little extreme, living in Iowa must truly truly suck, maybe I will ask former Iowa resident Vitamin Z his opinion...

Thanksgiving.....

I have the extreme pleasure and privilege to be this year's UNM Men's Basketball Team Chaplin. I had previously been the video coordinator before leaving to work full time at my church Desert Springs to lead the college/young adult gathering. As Chaplin my job is not super complicated, I give a 10-15 minute message to the players who wish to stay for it as well as for Coach Steve Alford and his staff. I am leading the team through a fly over of the bible and hoping to connect the reality that all stories in the O.T. all point and are shadows if Jesus Christ.

Today though for their chapel time before their game against Hawaii I read Psalm 100, a Psalm of thanksgiving. I also read these statistics to them:

1. More than 1.5 billion people around the world live on less than a $1 a day.

2. More than one billion people do not have access to clean water.

3. Every year six million children die from malnutrition before their fifth birthday.

4. More than 50 percent of Africans suffer from water-related diseases such as cholera and infant diarrhea.

5. More than 800 million people go to bed hungry every day, 300 million are children.

6. Of these 300 million children, only eight percent are victims of famine or other emergency situations. More than 90 percent are suffering long-term malnourishment and micronutrient deficiency.

7. Declining soil fertility, land degradation, and the AIDS pandemic have led to a 23 percent decrease in food production per capita in the last 25 years even though population has increased dramatically.

8. A woman living in sub-Saharan Africa has a 1 in 16 chance of dying in pregnancy. This compares with a 1 in 3,700 risk for a woman from North America.

These stats were taken from a sermon from Pastor John Piper, here is the manuscript. The reason I wanted to read these was for these players to and myself for that matter to realize that we are blessed, blessed beyond blessed. Most of these players dream of playing for the NBA and probably most will never achieve this, so my hope was that they realize in the larger scheme of things on this planet having a pair of shoes is a blessing, having clean drinking water and food 3 times a day, heck having food 1 time a day is a tremendous blessing given from our Lord.

I hope as the season goes on that they will see that being sponsored by Nike and playing one of the greatest arenas in sports, "The Pit" are great joys, but nothing compared to the blessing that is offered in Christ. The joy of being redeemed and brought into an unbreakable family, given eternal nourishing bread of life, and being able to drink from the fountain of life, that those things found ONLY in Christ would being their and my motivation to get out of bed in the morning!!!

Well I am off to the game, in my SUV with my beautiful wife and daughter to cheer with 15000 fans for the team, and all I can say is......blessed!

Only Thing of Importance...

"The only thing of transcendent importance of human beings is the knowledge of God. This knowledge does not belong to those who endlessly focus on themselves. Those who truly come to know God delight to just know him. He becomes their center. They think of him, delight in him, boast of him. They want to know more and more what kind of God he is. As they learn that he is the God "who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth," naturally they want those same values to prevail- not because their egos are bound up with certain arbitrary notions of, say, "justice," but because their center is God and they take their cues from him and his character. They boast in him."

D.A. Carson "The Cross and Christian Ministry: Leadership Lessons from 1 Corinthians"

Awesome Video

I saw this video this morning and it just reminds me of what I have in Christ alone! Yeah something to be thankful for come Thursday, someOne to share with family and friends!!!




HT: (Life Together)

Thank God We are All Perfect!

Ok this is a bit of a rant, but here it goes. I was on another blog, Between Two World's reading about Mark Driscoll's apology and seeking for Humility and while most people would praise or even be convicted by Mark's words instead they (the commentators) are freaking upset about a joke and T-Shirt. This is what I do not get about reformed people sometimes (and I am one) we are so unbelievably fast to critisize about anything. We take out our magnifying glasses and pick apart every little thing. And it seems like a lot of these reformaniacs seem to think that we should all preach like Jonathan Edwards and speak like John Owen! Are you serious?? I love those two men and love to read them, but that does not mean I preach or I act like either 2, I am a 27 year old hispanic preacher in New Mexico, not an old white dude in London or New England. I have noticed that we are so quick to pick apart a song sung, or a preacher if he ever so slightly slips up. Yeah we sure are a great city on a hill sometimes, we pick each other apart, we get upset when someone makes a freakin joke on stage or if someone talks about loving others in their city more than loving the Puritans. I do not get it, I do not want any part of it.

We need to get off our butts ( would say another word but don't want others to miss the point of the blog cause something off hand was there) get our nose out of theology books for like 5 min and be in the world. We (Calvinists) suck at this, I am not talking about mission trips to China, I am talking about Mission trips to Starbucks tonight!!! We suck at loving those around us, we suck at proclaiming the gospel in a loving way, basically we suck at loving our neighbors.

This is some real frustrations I have, I think they are legit, I do not know the answer, but I think throwing grenades at someone who is confessing is not the best start.

Here are my fav. living preachers, all of which I have heard people critisize for one reason or another, John Piper- he is too friendly to charasmatics, he said ass in a sermon. Matt Chandler-Charasmatic...enough said, Mark Driscoll-Do I even have to go there...

The Golden Compass

I have received a couple email forwards that are warning me about a new movie coming out called "The Golden Compass". These emails come from Christians and have told me not to take my daughter, and to boycott this movie. From what I have read this movie along with the other 2 that will follow are based on books written by an atheist who wrote this series as a reaction against C.S. Lewis's "Chronicles of Narnia". The whole stink about this movie is that it is promoting a atheistic agenda and that we need to avoid it and boycott this movie, one email even told me that "they kill God in the end", kinda dramatic if you ask me.

I do not like mass emails that warn me to boycott this or this because of anti-Christian messages, or avoid so and so because he has this political agenda, and I down right loathe the email messages that tell me if I am not ashamed of Jesus I will forward it on to 10 of my best friends. The truth is that, that email has got me wanting to see this movie, whereas before I probably could have cared less. Why? Why should we not boycott it. Because were are called to be in the world, we are called to understand different worldviews, we are called to love people outside our bubble. Crazy, I know, but we are called to be lights in darkness, which means we need to go to the dark places.

Internet Monk shares a great response to such boycott and warnings and I think he is right on... Check it out here



Here is a thought, go see this movie, use discernment, realize it is a movie enjoy it for what it is. And then maybe engage people who want to discuss the underlying themes that are in it. Remember God's Kingdom is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken!

What do we do tonight???

So today is Halloween a day when mini Harry Potters and Optimus Primes will be coming to the door expecting some candy. Being a Christian what does this mean for us? Do we hide in our home with the lights off, do we go to a church where there is a "Fall Harvest Festival" going on, or do we answer the door, give out good candy, actually maybe for the first time meet our neighbors?

Anthony Bradley a professor at Covenant Seminary and a pretty chill dude has a great article on this, stuff to think about as we approach the question: WWJD tonight??


Also one more rant it is funny to me that we Christians sometimes get so distraught when people call Christmas parties, Winter celebrations, or use another term than Christian, but when we have a party on Halloween that looks like a Halloween party, smells like a Halloween party and feels like a Halloween party we call it a Harvest Festival, that is just funny to me...

Bible Tracks instead of Skittles!!!???

I have been a Christian for almost 5 years now, so that means I have had 4 Halloweens in the "bubble" and something I do not understand is the Christian Festivals or Bible Track instead of candy option. I see churches advertising these festivals all over the place during this time of year, like a somehow healthy alternative or something to skittles or 8 year old power rangers. What I do not understand is that we are called to be Christ's ambassadors right? (2 Cor 5:20). From my public school and private catholic school understanding of this is that we are to represent our King, not ourselves, we are to look at our King as how we should live in the world. I do not see Jesus seeing the "sinners" and telling his disciples "ok fellas let's go and do our own party so we do not get influenced". So how are we the "ambassadors" representing our King when we huddle together, have dark houses with no candy, or if we are at home we hand out bible tracks, how are we representing our King properly?

Are we not representing Him as a legalistic, anti-cuture, anti-neighbor moralist?? I understand that dressing your 7 year old up like Harry Potter can be an invitation to Witchery and the like and that could lead him down a path of debauchery or whatever, but seriously how about we actually look at our King! How about we represent Him by having a light on, maybe even, dare I say it, giving out good candy and loving the people coming to our homes. Maybe start living with others, actually living life with them, getting to know them, their names, their dreams, their faiths, this seems to be what our King did. Maybe start loving people in such a way that when we do share the glorious hope of the gospel it will be genuine love coming across, maybe this Oct. 31 instead of holy huddling it, or doing trick or track (as in bible track) evangelism, we start to know those the Lord has put in our neighborhoods, and just maybe we will see something happen in our hearts and theirs too!!

The Office!!!! It is coming soon!!!!!

3 Years till the 3-0!!!

Yesterday was my birthday, I remember people telling me that once you pass 21 it is all downhill. I could very easily at times agree with that statement. I think though moreso I feel I am more alive than ever, more aware of the present and the things of life seem to have more depth and meaning than when I was 20 or even 24. At this time 6 years ago I was freaking out cause the previous weekend I had been arrested for DWI, I was a week away from being 21, so I was underage to top it off!!! Yeah I was up a creek.. I had lost my license and had the threat of going to jail, and losing a lot of things including my job, my parents trust and my families view of me being a good kid...At that time I remember thinking, my life was over that this crisis would define me forever and that I would never recover from that.

Tonight I type this as my wife is up in Glorieta NM at a women's retreat with our church and place I work Desert Springs Church. My 18 month old daughter is asleep in the other room, and oh yeah did I forget to mention that Lauren my wife is pregnant with kiddo number 2?!? I am paying a mortgage, leading my own family as well as The Well College Gathering at DSC. SO needless to say my life did not end, I did recover from that crisis, but not on my own, only from the work of an outside source.

Between then and now, about 4 years ago I came to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior, as my hope for reconciliation between God and myself. I came to realize by God's grace alone, that I am a sinner, an enemy to the eternal, perfect Judge of the Universe and my trespasses against Him merited a eternal punishment!! I was facing Hell, I was facing what I deserved, But God saved me, by putting my punishment, the punishment I deserve on His only Son Jesus Christ!! and the perfect, holy life that His Son Jesus, who came down and was man and God at the same time, the life He merited was now credited to me, as if I had lived that life, as if I live that life now.

How does all this mesh together, well it is my life for starters, but now, through new eyes through a heart changed and focused on the cross of Christ I see a DWI, a family to lead, a house to pay for, a wife and daughter and baby to love as all things that have shaped me, and are shaping me in a lot of ways. But NONE of these define me, only what Christ has done is what defines me!!! Only His work on the Cross defines me. I am a slave to Christ, not a perfect one, far from that, I suck and still have a lot of crap in my life that does not reflect my new position in Christ, BUT again that is not what defines me, cause my definition of who I am relies on the work of another, it relies on the work of Jesus Christ!!!!

Life is going downhill??? It's just starting in light of eternity!!!!!

Awesome!!!!!

If you have a kid that likes Dora you will like this, if you do not, Thank God for that blessing!!!!!

A taste of old school, YO!

So my first blog in a while, it should be something deep, something that will make you think and really ponder. Maybe I will discuss the implications of the emerging church, or give a review of Michael Moore's new movie Sicko and give my take on the Health Care system here in America. I know I could discuss the upcoming elections and discuss the future of evangelicalism in America if Clinton is elected!!!!!

Or.....

Been Gone for a Minute, Now I'm Back...

New Blogs coming soon...

1 Week!!! The Office will be back!!!

Due to Fox's cancellation of "The O.C.", my family was in search of a new show to watch, so we had been told by many people to watch this show. My wife and I are now addicts of the show "The Office" during the past 4 weeks we have watched seasons 1,2 and caught up on season 3, thanks to Itunes. This show is amazing and painfully funny. Now we must sit and wait out for new episodes to become avaliable, but here is a preview of what awaits!!!