Donald Miller Prayer at Democratic Party

Donald Miller closed one of the nights with prayer. I think a lot of Donald Miller, and I love his books. I think it was cool that he had this opportunity. The sound cuts out for a minute though.






Here's the full prayer from his website.

"Father God,

This week, as the world looks on, help the leaders in this room create a civil dialogue about our future.

We need you, God, as individuals and also as a nation.

We need you to protect us from our enemies, but also from ourselves, because we are easily tempted toward apathy.

Give us a passion to advance opportunities for the least of these, for widows and orphans, for single moms and children whose fathers have left.

Give us the eyes to see them, and the ears to hear them, and hands willing to serve them.

Help us serve people, not just causes. And stand up to specific injustices rather than vague notions.

Give those in this room who have power, along with those who will meet next week, the courage to work together to finally provide health care to those who don’t have any, and a living wage so families can thrive rather than struggle.

Hep us figure out how to pay teachers what they deserve and give children an equal opportunity to get a college education.

Help us figure out the balance between economic opportunity and corporate gluttony.

We have tried to solve these problems ourselves but they are still there. We need your help.

Father, will you restore our moral standing in the world.

A lot of people don’t like us but that’s because they don’t know the heart of the average American.

Will you give us favor and forgiveness, along with our allies around the world.

Help us be an example of humility and strength once again.

Lastly, father, unify us.

Even in our diversity help us see how much we have in common.

And unify us not just in our ideas and in our sentiments—but in our actions, as we look around and figure out something we can do to help create an America even greater than the one we have come to cherish.

God we know that you are good.

Thank you for blessing us in so many ways as Americans.

I make these requests in the name of your son, Jesus, who gave his own life against the forces of injustice.

Let Him be our example.

Amen."

Wed. Night Impact

Last night, I feel like we had a great night. It was Jerry's last Wed., and he just went around hanging out with kids. Gideon led worship. He's going to be taking over for good with Jerry leaving. He did a very good job. Michaela was his other singer, and she sounded great. It was the best I've ever heard her.
I spoke about the Fruits of the Spirit. The scripture was Galatians 5:16-26. First, the sinful nature and living by the Spirit have different goals. The sinful nature puts the self first and doesn't think about others. Living by the Spirit goes over what is best for you and what is best for others.
We went through some of the things that you do when living by the sinful nature. Some of them seem like fun. Some of them seem easier. For instance, it's easier to be jealous of somebody than to be happy for somebody. Because being happy for somebody means that you have to put the other person.
Then we went through the fruits of the Spirit. These should be evident in our lives. When we accepted Jesus as savior and made him the Lord of our lives, our sinful nature died. We are no longer slaves to that. We can't use that as an excuse, "well, I'm going to do these things because I'm a sinner." No, God will help us. It doesn't mean that we aren't going to sin. We're never going to be perfect. God knows this. If we were able to be perfect, that's what he would expect from us. If we were able to be perfect, then there was no sense in sending Jesus to die on the cross. He shows us crazy grace, but it's not a license to sin. I think we have a responsibility to try to live out the Fruits of the Spirit.
So, I ended with challenging them to see how they can make these more evident in their lives. How can they be more patient with the teacher who is driving them crazy? How can they show kindness to the kid that treats them bad? How can they show gentleness to the little brother or sister who is going to give them a brain seizure because they are bothering them so much?

Then we played a big game of dodgeball, and the new 6th graders kept getting me out. I was taking it easy on them...NOT ANYMORE!

Random Thoughts

These are just some random thoughts I've been having lately based on some conversations I've been a part of.

First, why do people get so upset when somebody disagrees with them theologically (not something prime, but a secondary theology). People can think 2 separate ways on a specific outlook on God and they can be totally opposites. Both sides can back up their thoughts with Scripture. And instead of getting along, people get so mad and defensive. I know it's because they take their faith in God so seriously, but some things are spelled out word for word in the Bible. Maybe some things that we take so seriously in the Bible aren't in there because God would rather us take the things He did spell out in the Bible more seriously. For instance, that whole loving the orphans and widows thing.

Second, does my one vote really matter. More than likely, my state is going to go for McCain (I'm still not sure which way I'm going to go for this year). When I was in California, the state went for Gore and for Kerry. My vote or Bush really didn't matter. If you know already which way a state is going to go, and you disagree, does your vote really matter at all. It means more I guess in the states where it could go either way like in Ohio or Florida. This came after talking to a friend who said he didn't want to vote because he didn't like either choice.

Why do girls get perfume that smells like flowers. I've never really smelled a perfume fragrance that I liked. If they made perfume smell like rain, freshly mowed grass, or chocolate chip cookies, I think guys would like it better.

When do you get to that age when you don't get to say what you're going to be when you grow up. I have a friend who is 42 and keeps talking about what he's going to do when he grows up. I'm like, dude, you should be there.

I'm excited about college football starting this weekend. I just hope that it's as exciting as last year. Teams I want to win: OU, Cal, Michigan, Oregon, Penn State, Rutgers. Teams I want to lose: Texas, Texas Tech, USC, Missouri, Boise State, LSU, Florida, Notre Dame, Kansas.

13 Best College Team Nicknames

Here is my list of the best team names for colleges. Some have great names, others have common names that are just like everybody else's. Did you know there were 74 different colleges with the nickname Eagles. There are 47 tigers. So, these are unique, funny, or just interesting team names.

13. Tulsa Golden Hurricanes. The reason this team made the list is because there hasn't been a hurricane within 1500 miles of Tulsa. But it all seems to be o.k. because they added "golden" at the front that people forget Tulsa is no where near an ocean. By the way, it's interesting how many schools will add "golden" in front of their team name to make it a little bit better. "We're the Golden Toads." Yeah that makes it a lot better than just being The Toads. ("toads" is another fun word to say)

12. New England Noreasterns. They were going for the regional name. They even used the regional dialect to come up with this team. I think it would be fun to come up with cheers for this team.

11. Presbyterian Blue Hose. I don't know what this means, but I like it.

10. Amherst Lord Jeffs. It was named after some Lord Jeffrey. I wonder what the mascot looks like. The cheers for this school's team must be great too.

9. Lincoln Memorial Railsplitters. This is a unique name, and at the same time kinda strikes the fear into the heart of the opponent. They seem mean.

8. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags. I think "stags" is a good name for a team. It's a fun word to say and the ideas for cheers are infinite.

7. Kent State Golden Flashes. Again with the golden. There are 2 things I think of when I think of flash. One involves a camera. The other involves something else. What are they teaching these kids over there at Kent State.

6. St. Bonaventure Bonnies. You'd have to be tough to play for a team called the Bonnies. You'd have to be pretty tough to even suggest the name Bonnies to the group who was coming up with team's name. I would have loved to have seen the football coach's face when he found out that his team's name was the Bonnies.

5. Scottsdale Artichokes. Hey, our team name is something that you put on pizza.

4. Rhode Island School of Design Nads. "Nads" was a word we used for a specific part of our bodies when I was a kid, and these design kids decided to use that as their team name...and they got away with it. Somebody is out there chuckling every time they see the logo.

3. Campbell Fighting Camels. One, this college is named after me. Second, they became the camels because it almost sounds like Campbell. Camels aren't tough, so they added "fighting" in front of it to make them sound vicious.

2. Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys. OK, any team called the Wonder Boys is ok with me. I think it's hilarious.

1. Oklahoma Sooners. This is the best team name, because they are my favorite team. You may disagree with me on this one, but I don't care, you can make up your own list on your own blog.

Runners Up: Bluefield State Big Blues, Brooklyn Bridges, Central Missouri Mules, Delaware Fighting Blue Hens, Gustavus Adolphus Golden Gusties, Lebanon Valley Flying Dutchmen, MIT Engineers,

Sunday Morning Impact

We had a pretty good Sunday Morning. It was a little different though this week. We started with a game, "Toe Fencing," where two people grab hands and they have to step on the other person's toe. The first one to do that wins. When they get going it looks like a fun little dance. We keep going until everybody has been eliminated. Dane was the winner yesterday.
Nathan led worship and did a good job. He did a few new songs that were pretty cool.
Instead of having a message we had the kids who went to Mission Impact give their testimonies. They talked about the fun stuff and how they helped people. Mostly it seemed like the kids enjoyed going to the Baptist Children's Home the most. They also liked playing BINGO at the assisted living facility. It's cool to see how they saw God working through them that week. In High School the kids seemed to like the Food Bank the best, even though they were the ones who had to go through the nasty food with spiders and maggots in it. It's interesting how the kids from different ages liked different things.

I can name all the countries in Asia

I admit I had to get some help with the spelling of a few, so I did it a couple of times to get it this fast because I couldn't remember how to spell kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan.

I can name 49 Asian countries in 1m 54s

Click here to Play

13 Best Rock-n-Roll Band Names

I really like music. There are a million bands out there and I think it's interesting to see how bands come up with their names. Some bands have boring names, like Dave Matthews Band (they're a great band, just a boring name). But others have super creative names, and here is my list of the Top 13.

13. Mark Needs a Chick. This was a punk band out of Dallas. I think the whole idea was to get this Mark guy a girl friend. They were Christians, and actually had a pretty cool sound. But you'd be super lucky to find any music from these guys anymore. They were around about 10 years ago.

12. Stunt Monkey. This is a punk band out of San Jose. Really, I like this name because it has "monkey" in it. They are a good band and have some great songs on their album. (The Arctic Monkeys could go here as well).

11. The Ataris. This name goes great with this band. They sing a lot about nostalgia things from when they were kids, from hooking up at the skating rink to watching Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. So naming themselves after an 80's gaming system goes along with these guys perfectly.

10. ...and they will know us by the trail of dead. I think this is a creative name, because usually you only have 2 or 3 words in a band's name, and this one has 1o. I'm not sure how they came up with it, but I think it's cool.

9. Big Head Todd. Every time I hear this band's name I get a little chuckle. I imagine a guy with an inflated head walking around saying, "Hi, I'm Todd." Todd's a funny name.

8. Weezer. Great name for a great band. These guys are the epitome of nerd rock. Rivers is the biggest nerd in rock-n-roll which makes him one of the coolest guys at the same time.

7. Me First and the Gimmie Gimmes. This is a band that only plays cover songs. All of the members are in other bands and this is their side project. I just think the name is awesome.

6. G Love and the Special Sauce. Doesn't just the name of this band make you want to go and download their album. These guys are a lot of fun, and they have a super fun name.

5. Big D and The Kids Table. Again, they just have a fun name. They have so much fun on stage too. It fits them.

4. Rage Against the Machine. Good name and it fits the band. These guys were always mad about something and tried to make music that helped make change. I didn't agree with them much of the time, but they did have a great band name. If these guys were called Bologna, I don't think anybody would have given them a chance.

3. Hoobastank. I think this is a fun word to say. They're never going to be taken as seriously as bands like U2 or even Green Day because of they're name, but still they chose a super-creative name that kinda actually fits them.

2. Scary Kids Scaring Kids. Another fun name. They're music is pretty similar to most other screamo bands out there, but their name is so great that they're doing pretty good. It makes you want to listen to them.

1. Sloppy Meateaters. This is a very forgettable band with an unforgettable name. I bought their cd just because I liked the name so much. I think this is the most creative name and that's why they get number 1.


Honorable Mentions: Guns-n-Roses, Five Iron Frenzy, Fourth Grade Nothing, Ghoti Hook, Save Ferris, Mad Caddies, Streetlight Manifesto, Nada Surf
I would like to hear from you guys who you think should be on this list. I know some of these bands are local bands many of you haven't heard of, so you can use local bands if you want.

Monday Madness Pictures

Here's some pictures from Monday Madness.

13 Dumbest Professional Sport Team Names

I was watching Sportscenter the other day and I started thinking about how dumb some of the team names were. So I decided to compile a list of the worst names in professional sports. I chose from NFL, NBA, NHL, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer. Here is what I came up with

13. Toronto Raptors. when I was a kid and they were teaching us about dinosaurs, we never learned about the raptors. We learned about brontosaurus, stegosaurus, triceratops, and tyrannosaurus rex, but never about raptors. Then Jurassic Park came out and suddenly everybody think the Raptor is the scariest dinosaur ever. Anyways, Toronto is not scary and they could have chosen a better name that wasn't so...Jurassic Park.

12. Nashville Predators. This is a group of animals that eat other animals. It's not specific. I think they were trying to think of something dangerous and came up with this. As far as dangerous things from Nashville, they could have come up with a better name, like the Nashville Dixie Chicks.

11. New Orleans Saints. I've been to New Orleans, and it seems to me that they took pride on being anything but saintly. Maybe they were going for ironic.

10. Philadelphia Phillies. Lets take the first few letters of our city's name and see if we can find another word that matches. If we did that with more cities, we could have the New York Newlyweds. We could have the Chicago Chinks. We could have the Seattle Searchers. I'm sure this could go on and on.

9. Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Reds. Let's just name our team after a color. I think these are the 2 least creative names in sports. "Ok, we gotta come up with a team name. What do you think we should name them?"
"Uh, uh, uh...how about Brown."
"Brilliant!"
(same conversation for Red)
Interesting that both of these teams are in Ohio.

8. LA Clippers. I don't know what a Clipper is. This team is always going to be overshadowed by the Lakers because of their name. They should come out with something like the LA Paparazzi. That's scary, and there will always be pictures.

7. Utah Jazz. What? When I think of Utah I don't think of Jazz. I think of Mormons and salt. I only know of one band that ever came out of Utah (The Used) and they weren't jazz. This would be like calling a team in Oklahoma City the Dolphins. The only dolphins in Oklahoma are made of plastic.

6. Houston Dynamo. This sounds like people were getting around and put in some words into a thesaurus and typed in power and found this word. I just think it sounds dumb. Let's just call them the Wonderboys instead.

5. Columbus Blue Jackets. This is a hockey team, and I'm not quite sure what they were going for. Well, it's hockey and it's cold out there on the ice, so people have to wear jackets. Bill has a blue one on, so let's go with Blue Jackets.

4. Ottawa Senators. This doesn't make sense to me at all. Maybe it's a Canadian thing. But why would there be senators in Ottawa. And even if that is where the government stuff happens, why would you name your team after elected officials. I just think it's a dumb name.

3. Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Why name your team after a kids movie. I know Disney owns the team and they made the movie, but I just think... "wow that's a sell-out name."

2. New York Red Bulls. It's bad enough that all the stadiums are named after corporations now, but now teams are starting to do that. I'm afraid this is going to be a rising trend. Next we'll have the Albuquerque Ex lax.

1. Houston Texans. I mean come on. This is a ridiculous name. If it was a high school team, maybe, but this is the NFL. Come up with a creative, vicious name. Especially when most of your team aren't even Texans. I like the Oilers better. Plus they had cool helmets. If this catches on, think of some of the other team names that will begin to happen. The Little Rock Arkansans. The Montgomery Alabamans. The Atlanta Georgians. The Providence Rhode Islanders. The Helena Montanans (or if Disney owns this team then it'll be the Hannah Montanans).

Runners Up: Green Bay Packers, Washington Nationals, San Antonio Spurs, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Boston Bruins.

This Beautiful Mess

This was a book by Rick McKinley. He's the pastor of Imago Dei in Portland, OR. It's a book about the Kingdom of God. It was cool to see a fresh perspective on what Jesus says about the Kingdom of God. Overall, I would just say that book was o.k. There were some very good chapters. The one about children was great. But there were also some chapters that I didn't like as much. They were still good, but they weren't as interesting. It took me a while to get through this book because I just couldn't get caught in it very easy.

Mission Impact Pictures

Here are some pictures from Mission Impact.