I'm back

Well, as you may have guessed from the title, I'm back in town. Christmas in ETown was nice, a little hectic, but a lot of fun. We got to spend time with both sides of her family and caught a couple of movies in the evenings. Charlotte's Web was a fantastic movie, every bit as good as the classic 1973 animated film, but The Good Shepherd was quite a disappointment. I'm sure it could've been a lot more enjoyable if I understood the plot of the movie but with so much history in it, I felt lost the entire time. I think Dustin enjoyed it, but then again, he actually enjoys history.
Oh, I guess you all may be slightly intested in the presents that I received this week. I got a few new cds (David Crowder, Chris Tomlin, Andrew Peterson, Derek Webb) and a lot of new books (I'll have to get a lot of reading done this year so I can get some more next Christmas). I'm sure I'll keep you updated with my current reading selections and my own insight on this literature, no matter how meaningless that insight may be. Later

Traveling

Just thought I'd let you all know that Mary Beth and I are about to leave and spend the week in ETown. We'll be back sometime later on this week- not quite sure which day. We're going to spend Christmas with all of her family so I thought I'd tell you so that you don't expect much blogging this week. I'll let you know how the week went whenever we get back. I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and get some much needed peaceful rest.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! May you be blessed today as you celebrate our savior's humble birth and be reminded that He was born to die on a cross so that we may have an atonement for our ugly sin.

Guitar

Here's the guitar I bought a few weeks ago. I love this thing and it has definitely served me well thus far in my own noodleing around the house and in leading worship. For those of you gearheads who care- here are the specs:
solid mahogany back and sides
solid sitka spruce top
rosewood fretboard
mahogany neck
nickel tuners
dovetail neck joint
bone nut
rosewood bridge
open-back sta-tite tuners with 18:1 ratio

Oh, my dad and I went to an audiologist in Louisville today and got our ears injected with some awesome yellow stuff that hardened in about 8 minutes. These nice molds are being sent to sensaphonics so that some custom sleeves can be made for our in-ear monitors. It should take a few weeks for them to get shipped to us and then we have to go back and make sure they fit correctly. Hooray!

Bummer

I tried and tried to post a video last night but the new blogger isn't working well with youtube so I wasn't able to post. I'll keep trying and it may just pop up in a day or two so we'll see how it goes. Oh, and David is getting his hair cut by my dad right now in the kitchen. For those of you who know David, this may come as quite a shock since his hair was much like mine before I cut it- only curlier and longer. Dad cut it into a mullet for him at first and David promptly put on some cut-offs, a tight t-shirt, my old combat boots, and my sunglasses. I'll post a picture on here as soon as I can get it downloaded into my computer. Keep checking back.

Finally...

It took me many hours, but I finally finished my bass pod editing. I'll spare you the boring details (because no one really wants to read those anyway) and I'll just say that it was some very tedious work. However, I did enjoyed it because I rarely get the chance to play bass if it isn't Sunday or a JMB concert. I went through and set all of the levels so they match up, edited about half of the settings for my Rickenbacker, and went through and renamed everything so that I understand it better. I'll be ready to try out some different sounds at the next JMB concert or maybe in church on Sunday- depending on which songs we are playing. I'm about to leave shortly to pick up Mary Beth in E-Town and before that I need to get some food... so I'm going to cut this a little short, post a new video, and head out. I'll see you all later.

Bass Pod

I sat down for about an hour tonight and did something that I've been meaning to do for quite some time- I made a nice chart of all of the factory bass pod settings. I went through all 48 presets in my bass pod and made a chart with columns for the modeled amp, cab, mic, and effects. This will be a great help in my quest for the right tone for each song. I'll be able to look at all of my choices for sounds right in front of me whenever I'm changing settings instead of going through hours of endless scrolling. Tomorrow I am going to wake up early and hook my bass pod up through my computer recording program and regulate the volumes on all of my presets (or at least the useful ones). I've been having a problem in switching sounds during our shows since the volume differences are so noticeable- at times I have almost dropped completely out of the mix from one song to the next. It's been quite frustrating. I'll let you know how it all goes tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm also going to pick up Mary Beth who's been spending the last few days at home doing some cleaning and shopping with her sister. Yessir, tomorrow is going to be a good day- bass pod and Mary Beth... could I ask for anything more?

Proverb of the Day

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs to it and is safe. The rich man's wealth is his strong tower, and like a high wall in his imagination." Proverbs 18:10-11

Christmas Program

Do you ever have a huge moment of reassurance that you're doing exactly what God wants you to do? I had one of those tonight while watching Buck Run's Christmas program. As I listened to the songs and monologues, I felt God telling me that I'm doing just what I'm supposed to be doing. Not in ever aspect of my life, but in the path towards music ministry and becoming a music minister. There have been moments of doubt since God first called me to the music ministry, but He has often used moments just like these to pull me out of the valley of doubts and into His assuring hand. I can't wait to see where God is going to take me in these next few years as I strive to follow His plan and listen to His voice.

Proverb of the Day

"The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a level highway." Proverbs 15:19

It's a no-go

Alright, so the ear thing isn't all worked out yet. Apparently, they were confused over the phone, or perhaps when we went to see them and weren't really sure what we were talking about. Once we explained it to them, they weren't even sure if could do anything like that. So, we shall do a little more research and hopefully get the molds made soon. Mary Beth and I are to leave and head to spend some time with the gang from GSP. I got the chance to see everyone over the summer but Mary Beth hasn't seen everybody since summer of 2005! We're both excited- see you all later.

Proverb of the Day

"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." Proverbs 14:12

Going Home

I just finished my last final a couple hours ago and now I'm finishing up some last minute packing before I head back to the big city of Frankfort. Well, actully, I'm going to go get a mold made of my ears, and then probably do some Christmas shopping, and then go back to Frankfort. I'm looking forward to a nice, relaxing, and peaceful break. I was planning on working at my old job, you know, Kroger, but I've decided that a month of no-work will be nice and give me a chance to catch up on some reading and spending time with family and friends. It should be a nice day for loading and unloading all of my stuff due to the unseasonably warm weather we've been having these past couple days. The mornings have been a little chilly, but once the sun comes out it's nice and warm.
Oh, the JMB DVD planning is still in full force and if anyone has any suggestions, we'd love to hear them. You can head over to our message board or you can post comments on this blog. Josh just started a new thread yesterday about band member interviews. If you guys have any questions and you've been dying for us to shed a little light on the truth and set the record straight, tell us! We really want this DVD to, first off, bring glory to our Creator and, secondly, be an enjoyable experience for all parties involved. We always (well, usually) have fun whenever we play and we really want the fans to have just as much fun whenever they come to the show or watch it on their own tv. Let us know what you think.

Proverb of the Day

"The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death" Proverbs 13:14

Summer Plans

I got my official call from Cedarmore today about working as a bible study leader at Crossings this summer. God has been so amazing through my entire application process and has continually opened and closed doors in His perfect will. My original plans were to play in the band at Jonathan Creek but God has pretty much shut that door off and shown me that He wants me to be at Cedarmore leading bible study. Although I don't really know what's going to happen this summer, I know that God's hand is over everything and nothing will happen outside of His master plan. I'm so excited to see how God is going to work next summer and to see how He might use me. That sounds like such an odd statement. God is going to use me- God is using me. While God is so incredibly holy, we are so unworthy to praise Him, to serve Him, to have anything to do with Him. But, He still chooses to use us to do His will.
"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscutable His ways! 'For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who Has been His counselor?' 'Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid?' For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen." Romans 11:33-36 (ESV)

2 down, 2 to go

I got my "real" finals out of the way today and also finished both of those papers that are due at the end of this week. Tomarrow I'll turn those in. So, today I had my geology final in the morning and then my math final earlier tonight. I think I did pretty well on both of them- well enough to pass the class. The only things I've got left are my two theory finals and a short matching test that will take 15 minutes in my honors class tomorrow morning. So far finals are going quite well.
Thursday, I'm going to go to a hearing-aide place here in town to get molds made of my ears so that I can get custom fitted ear-pieces for my in-ear monitors. I've got some Christmas money that I must spend so I figured this would be a great way to spend it... ok, actually it wasn't my idea... Mary Beth thought of it, thanks babe. But it's still a great idea and I'm very excited about getting this done. That's about all I've got for tonight, I just realized that I'm very tired. Goodnight.

Blogging Bliss

As you may be able to tell, my blog is no longer on the fritz and is now working with new Blogger Beta. I don't really understand what all of this new stuff means, but I do know that it is incredibly easy to edit my blog now. I have control over fonts, colors, and even the layout. The old format was all in HTML (which I know nothing about) so I love that I can actually change my blog now with the greatest of ease.
It's finals week here at ol' U of K and today is our day off. I don't think anyone has any finals today so we're all supposed to use this day for reading and studying... so I'm messing with my blog! I'm a terrible student, I know. Actually, I'm going to go right now and write 1 of 2 papers due on Friday of this week. I should be able to write each of them in about a 2-3 hour time span, so if I split them up and do one today and then maybe one tomorrow or wednesday, I shouldn't be stressed too much. Besides the papers, I have a Geology final tomorrow morning and then a math final tomorrow night, then a Aural theory final wednesday morning, and finally, a Written theory final on thursday morning. I'll keep you posted as I go... wish me luck!

Frustrations and the DVD

I'm a little frustrated right now at blogger because of this format change. They are in the process of switching all of the blogs to a new format that will make publishing posts and editing your blog much easier. However, I suppose they're still getting all of the bugs worked out and I am currently unable to make the switch. I went through all of the steps and set up this new account through google but whenever I go to my dashboard (list of my blogs) my blog doesn't show up. They said once I made the switch, I would be unable to log in the way I usually do and would have to go through the new google account everytime. But, as you can see, I am still very capable of logging in and I can still post through the old format. I hope they get this fixed soon- I was getting excited about the easiness of new blogger beta.
JMB had a meeting last night at Johnny Carinos (thanks for dinner, Cedarmore) to talk about our plans to produce our first live dvd. It will be filmed at Cedarmore on March 31 (as of this moment) and I expect all of you to come. It's going to be a lot of work trying to put everything together and solidifying a set list (which we've never really done before) but I'm really excited about this project. We're hoping that all of our churches will make a good showing (Master's, Buck Run... are you writing this on your calendar? BRING YOUTH GROUPS!) and we're also hoping that the different churches we've played at in this area will come to the show. I'll keep you all posted as more develops.

Awesome Night

Last night was a great night of worship at Master's Church. Marc spoke about God's holiness so I tried to select songs that would really allow us to focus on God's main attribute. Mary Beth came in to sing with me and it was really great to able to sing the split guy/girl chorus on You Are Holy (Prince of Peace). God was really in control the entire night and took us all out of the picture so that we could see His holiness as we've never seen it before. That is especially true in the life of one of the youth. Upon hearing Marc talk about the holiness of God and our unholiness, or more importantly, when the truth was revealed to this young man by the work of the Holy Spirit, God did an amazing work in his heart and made him a new creation. I'm so excited that this youth was saved last night- not simply saved from hell, but saved from his sin. I absolutely love it when God takes us out of the equation and does His work in and around us- all we have to do is sit back and worship Him.
To God be the glory, great things He hath done.

What A Relief

The priest's face in the end is the best part of the whole clip.

Hymns

God has often used hymns to show me more about His amzing omnipotentence and this is a hymn that's been running through my speakers the past week.
Before the Throne of God Above
by Charitie Bancroft (1863)


Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

Behold Him there the risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace,
One in Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God!

Worship

This morning I met with Marc (youth minister) and Alex (pastor) of Master's Church- where you can find me Wednesday nights- and talked about some different possibilities for the future about the music ministry there and the Wednesday night youth services. I was planning on driving back to Frankfort after that to get my tire replaced (I ran over a nail the other day and I'm on my spare at the moment) but I ended up just going down the road to the nearest S&S. They kept my tire and said it may be fixable but they aren't sure until they can see how deep the nail goes. (I'll have to check back on Monday.) So, not having to travel to Frankfort really opened up my schedule today and has allowed me to spend more time in prayer, especially in the area of my own personal worship.
God has really been convicting me these past few days of focusing so much on the music and forgetting why I play and sing in the first place. He's showing me that my singing and playing isn't worship at all if it's only an end in itself. If His glory isn't the ultimate goal of my music than it's all in vain. It's become so easy for me to get up on the stage and concentrate so much on sounding good, playing the right chords, and singing the right words (in the right order) and completely forget about the God to whom I'm singing. I can't even count the times that we've finished a concert or a worship service and I've messed up some notes or words and that is the only thing I remember about the night. I was so out of tune with the Holy Spirit working that I completely missed everything important that happened. I'm sure that all worship leaders have gone through this problem and I'm sure this isn't the last time this will ever happen- it will be constant battle that I fight for the rest of my life to forget about everything and focus on God. I pray for your support as I repent.

Now I've seen everything

I finally found it. I've been wanting to write about this for a few months now but I knew I couldn't fully appreciate it or be able to properly inform you of this absurdity until I found it for myself. When I first heard about this new addition to the student center, I thought that there was no way it could be real- surely it was just an urban myth as false as the exploding pop-rocks and coke or Walt Disney being buried under the Pirates of the Carribean ride. But after I saw it, I knew it was true and such things cold really exist. UK has an iPod vending machine. Yes, you heard me right. An iPod vending machine. It sells iPods in all different sizes, chargers, earbuds, and even bluetooth earpieces for cell phones. Being the broke college student that I am, I cannot afford to partake of the wonderous offerings of this machine but I would love to say "Yes, I bought my iPod from a vending machine." You know, I'm sure this says something about society today... I'm just not sure what that statement is.