Two plugs for things that have been impacting me spiritually lately:

Thanks to one of the fine fellows on Bwack’s Forum, I found out that Phil Wickham released a free acoustic album entitled "singalong". I’m really enjoying it.

above: my intricately hand lettered CD-R for listening to in the car and kitchen.

Also, thanks to a different fellow Bwack’s Forum member, Chris Sayburn, I came across this video by Francis Chan:

http://www.worshipcentral.org/video/francis-chan-12jul08

Francis is a delight to watch, and his message really challenged and motivated me. It pushed me out of my comfort zone, and brought me back to the time when I first started to follow Jesus. It reminded me of what it is to follow Him, to really live your life and give things up, make hard decisions, trust God’s goodness.

I subscribe to a daily RSS feed of short quotes from Scripture offeredy by biblegateway.com, and this morning the quote was particularly meaningful. This is my story, the same as it was the Apostle Paul’s:

“At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:3-7 NIV”.

Have a blessed Holy Week.

At some point soon, I’ll post an actual update here, but for now I just wanted to say this:

Merry Christmas to all!

May this holy season be a time of peace, love, and wonder, for you and your family.

I just found out that the Nooma project, the short films featuring Rob Bell, has a MySpace page with a very cool inline video player. Here’s the first film from the series as a full-length piece.

I really like Rob Bell’s teaching, and the Nooma series is a well-produced cinematic series of films that really hit some great metaphors and stories about faith.