andrew dodson

Josh commented on my post about the new Casting Crowns album.  The comment was off-topic, but he asked, “Should ‘new testament’ churches have altars?”

I pulled out my Zondervan’s Compact Bible Dictionary and found out the following.  Literally translated, altar means “place of slaughter.”  Immediately, it tells me there is no place for an altar in a New Testament church.  After all, Jesus was our once-and-for-all sacrifice on the cross.  We no longer have a need to perform our own sacrifices to atone for our sin.  The dictionary says, “There are no altars recognized in the New Testament Church.”

What about for prayer?  I mean, most churches this day in age use an altar as a place to come forward for prayer, for accepting Christ, etc.  Well, I believe this is just a distortion by the traditional church.  They are using a biblical thing (the altar) in a slightly different way than it was originally intended.  I don’t really see a problem with this, but we can pray anywhere.  We can accept Christ anywhere.  The “come forward” or “walk the aisle” ideas are simply traditional church concepts.  Stated again, I don’t disagree with churches that still use altars, but I don’t think it’s necessary.

Josh - to answer your question - no, not necessarily.

The new Casting Crowns album, The Altar and The Door, hit stores today.  I got it off iTunes and have been listening to it pretty much all day.  I continue to be impressed with their songwriting, both lyrically and musically.  They’re one of the best Christian bands at putting the right music to the right lyrics.  I’ve read before that Mark Hall really strives for that.  This album is no exception.  If you’ve liked their previous albums, do yourself a favor and go get it.

Just a few weeks shy of having the Major League’s worst record and being fourteen games out of first place, the Cincinnati Reds have found a little life.  Thanks to some stumbling by a couple of teams in front of them, and a recent six game winning streak, the Reds find themselves a mere seven games out of first place with a little over a month left in the season.

Since firing Jerry Narron, the Reds have the NL’s best record at 29-19.  The Milwaukee Brewers have successfully stumbled out of first place and given the Chicago Cubs a taste of first place.  Injuries seem to be plaguing the Cubs, so it’s anyone’s guess if they can hold on to the lead.  The St. Louis Cardinals have remained consistent all season, and they sit in third place, just two and a half games out of first.

While it’s not probable the Reds can gain enough momentum to get back in the race, it’s not impossible by any means.  Especially in the league’s worst division.  Last season, the Reds all but gave up in September, only to find themselves three games out with a week left in the season and a series with the eventual World Series champions (St. Louis) in front of them.  They didn’t pull it off, but hopefully learned a valuable lesson - never, ever give up.

It should be an exciting September in the central division.  Anything can happen in baseball, so I wouldn’t rule out a tight, four-team race for the division crown heading into the last week of the season.

A couple of months ago, during a Point worship service, our praise band performed “Enough.” As I played the song, it hit me - there are a lot of times, and a lot of situations in life when God is not enough for me. I couldn’t sing that song truthfully. In turn, I’ve spent the last few weeks thinking about this, journaling about it, and reading about it.

The root of this problem is sin. Usually, before we sin, we’re tempted to sin. It’s hard to realize the temptation isn’t the problem. That’s just our human nature. Jesus was tempted. The catch is not following through on the temptation and committing the sin.

Going back a little more, we have to look at our motivation to sin. I would put the motive before the temptation. We may not even be aware of the motive before the tempation. At the moment we experience this, there is an object in our lives that we think we need, or an action we think we need to commit. Basically, we’re saying the object or action of our sin is more important than God.

Once the temptation becomes action (sin), we’re saying God is not enough. His words and commands aren’t as important as our sin. We become our own lord and take life into our own hands. He can’t satisfy us, so we have to find it other ways.

I’ll end this post with the lyrics to the song that has caused me to think about making God enough for me:

All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough

You are my supply
My breath of life
And still more awesome than I know
You are my reward
worth living for
And still more awesome than I know

All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough

You’re my sacrifice
Of greatest price
And still more awesome than I know
You’re the coming King
You are everything
And still more awesome than I know

More than all I want
More than all I need
You are more than enough for me
More than all I know
More than all I can say
You are more than enough for me

I wanted to post the following video, taken from a recent DMB concert. They have a terrific light and video set up on this year’s tour. Their light show has always been great, but I love their set up this year with the three tall video screens. This is a performance of “#41,” one of my favorites. Enjoy!

[note: for all of the YouTube experts out there, you can also navigate to other DMB videos through this same embedding of this video. I just watched "Idea of You" as well... very cool]

A couple of random blogging items before some more serious posts later today or tomorrow:

• The Point is going through its first phase of renovations.  I haven’t been able to help much yet, so I can’t really take any credit.  When I say “we,” I really mean “they.”  We’ve torn down two rooms that were behind the old stage area.  In their place, we’ve put up a wall/backdrop that encloses the room a little more.  The new setup has allowed us to have over 200 chairs in the seating area, with room for at least 50 more.  There are several more renovation ideas just around the corner.
• My new Edirol R-09 is great!  I used it every day last week for various things.  Mostly to record myself practicing drums, and I used it yesterday to record The Point’s sermon.  I have plans to start doing my podcasts very soon (this week?).  If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to record various things, I highly recommend this.

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Over the next few weeks, I’ll be getting a few days off work.  CLS is closing tomorrow - sort of a last chance to get a break before we get busy this fall.  Next week, I have two days scheduled off as personal vacation days.  After another full week of work, the following week is Labor Day.  Needless to say, I’m looking forward to these days off with anticipation.

I’ve always been an opponent to sleep & rest.  As a kid, whenever mom could see me dozing off, she’d ask if I was tired.  I’d always say no.  If I could avoid sleep in any way, I would do it.  Through college and the few years after college, I could easily get away with 4-6 hours sleep a night and be okay the next day.  I can always think of a thousand things I could do if I didn’t have to sleep.  My reason for staying up late, often times, was because I wanted to get one more thing done before bed, and then another, and then another.

Then I bought a new mattress set.  Unbelievable.  I actually like going to sleep now.  My bed is amazing.  In the past, it’s been rare that I go to bed before midnight or 1 a.m.  Now, I’m lucky to be able to stay awake past 11 or 11:30.  In the morning, it’s more difficult for me to wake up.  I’m sleeping pretty hard these days.

I’m learning how valuable rest is.  Not just sleep.  Relaxation & recreation are important.  Most of this year, Mars Hill pastor Mark Driscoll has been blogging about this after pushing himself to the limit for the past several years.

Most people, myself included, think they don’t need rest.  They don’t feel tired.  Maybe they don’t feel stressed.  They have a thousand vacation days, but never take them.  At the same time, they feel unmotivated, uninspired, and burned out at their jobs.  What I’m learning is that even though I might not feel worn out, I need to take time off here and there.  Driscoll points out that this often re-energizes us once we get back to work.  We’re inspired and motivated again (that is, if we enjoy our job!).  If you’re a workaholic, I encourage you to read through Driscoll’s recent posts about the negative health effects of pushing yourself to the limit, along with his tips on how to better organize your time.  If you have vacation days, take them!

So, I’m really looking forward to having four days off over the next few weeks.  It’s not much, but it’s plenty for me.  Maybe at some point, I’ll take a whole week off, but this’ll be good for now.

Those who know me best know that I like my toys.  Perhaps a little too much.  I blogged about a new handheld recorder that I had purchased a few weeks ago that I plan on using for quick, on-the-spot recordings.  That was the M-Audio MicroTrack.  To date, I’ve yet to receive it.  Yeah - I ordered it a month ago.  To protect the not-so-innocent, I’ll spare the name of the place where I ordered this item.  This is the second time this year that I’ve had trouble ordering from this place, so I decided to cancel my order with them and will not be ordering from them anymore.

I checked another supplier, but they do not carry the MicroTrack.  In turn, I chose the Edirol R-09.  I think I made a good choice.  It has built-in stereo mics, records to SD cards, records in MP3 or WAV format, and is powered by AA batteries.  It should arrive today, and I’ll get to put it to use for the first time tonight.  (side note:  my sales rep from this supplier called me personally to confirm the order, verify method of shipping, price, and just to say hello - great customer service!)

I became more excited about my choice when I came across this website, which has an in-depth review of the recorder, complete with recording samples.

If you see me around recording everything in site, just smile and wave.  I have a feeling I’ll be using this thing a lot.

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I’ve been busy updating my Flickr site the past several days.  You can keep up with any new photos I’ve posted by clicking on the “My Photos” badge to the right.  The main thing I need to do is get them organized on my computer.  I’m using iPhoto to help me with this, and both Flickr & Facebook offer some very-easy-to-use plugins for iPhoto that make uploading them a breeze.

As you can also tell, I’ve switched the look of the site again.  I came across this theme on the Wordpress Theme Viewer and decided to give it a shot.  The only thing I plan on doing is creating a custom header and changing the pictures that are used with the theme - I did not take them.

I also installed a plugin that shows what song(s) I have playing on my computer at the time of the post.  Kinda neat, mostly unimportant.

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Now playing: Blue Merle - Burning In The Sun
via FoxyTunes

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Now playing: Blue Merle - Bittersweet Memory
via FoxyTunes

I’ve been listening to Andy McKee today and wanted to post this video. For those of you that haven’t seen him yet, I hope you enjoy it. At times, a talented musician writes music more to show off their technical ability. This usually results in music that is easily described as weird or off-the-wall. While McKee is an extremely technical player, his music is still very enjoyable.