Making Himself Nothing . . .

I definitely fall prey to being too familiar with the Christmas story for it to have an impact on me every year. Every year, I have to work to get myself into the proper mindset for worship, and remember the immensity of what actually took place at the Incarnation. This year, I have had some help. I've watched The Nativity Story, the movie about Jesus' birth that came out several years ago. The scene where Mary gives birth to Jesus really struck me. Jesus, the Lord of the universe, was born by the ordinary human way, and that in the poorest possible conditions. God truly became flesh. What amazing humility! If God made Himself nothing for us, how much more should we be humble as we seek to serve Him and those He put in our lives!

 Merry Christmas to you all! Christ is born!

~Mac

On Presents

Why do we give presents to each other on Christmas day?

I am going to try not to turn this into a rant about the commercialization of Christmas. I just want to honestly explore that question.

On our birthdays, people usually give us presents. Why? Usually it's to show us they love us, care about us or appreciate us. So why do we give people presents on someone else's birthday? I can't really find a reason other than to share God's love, but why would we only do that on one day of the year? Why not make the act of sharing God's love through gifts something that we do throughout the year?

If we want to be consistent in our birthday gift giving, we should give Jesus gifts on His birthday. He doesn't need anything we can offer Him, but He asks us to offer Him worship and service. I think we should use this Christmas season to rededicate ourselves to God and to offer worship to Him.

When we have birthdays, the focus is on us. It is a celebration of our life up to this point. When Christmas rolls around, the focus is often on gifts and gift-giving. How many stressed out holiday shoppers are out there, scrambling to buy everything they need to give before the holiday comes? The focus should not be on the gifts; it should be on the ultimate Gift and the Giver.

I am absolutely not judging anyone who gives gifts on Christmas. If you can give and receive gifts without losing focus on the real reason for the season, more power to you! I am also definitely not advocating not celebrating Christmas. I believe that it is a very important and meaningful holiday that deepens our relationship with Christ. I am simply trying to provide some food for thought and hopefully help the body of Christ to become more like Him.

Does anyone have any thoughts on Christmas gift-giving?

~Mac

Cook in the Kitchen #5 + Going Off Gluten Week 2

I figured these two topics are related. This will also help me avoid the egregious sin of posting twice in a day.

I made a family favorite muffin recipe this past week - raisin bran muffins! I prepared the dough on Saturday and we baked a fresh batch for Monday breakfast and this morning's breakfast. They're so much better fresh :-)

The ingredients. A box of raisin bran, eggs, flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda!

And the finished product!

Unfortunately I couldn't have any this go-around. After finishing one week of gluten-free dieting, I have noticed some slight changes that could be seen as improvements. Whatever those changes may signify, I'm going to do at least another week without gluten. Thanks to Mom, I now have some great gluten-free alternatives for breakfast, lunch and snacks: gluten-free nuts and fruit granola and gluten-free pretzels. And to get me through the Christmas treat season, we're going to make a batch of gluten-free brownies. :-)

~Mac

Going off Gluten

As some of you know, I've been experiencing stomach pain, food sensitivites, and other GI-related issues for a few years now. I've had all of the tests run, and they all came back negative. But I'm still having issues! All this is not to complain, just to fill in the background. :-) I am trying a week of removing gluten from my diet. My symptoms do seem to fit celiac disease, and one of Mom's friends just had a false negative for celiac, so I'm going to give it a shot and see what happens! I did feel a little bit better yesterday (day 1), but I'm not feeling good so far today. It's probably just because my body has to adjust to not having that diet element in my system. We shall see :-)

If anyone has tips or recipes or advice about the gluten-free diet, please let me know!

~Mac

Cook in the Kitchen #4

Last Saturday I decided to make pineapple coconut bread.

Chopped walnuts give the bread more texture and heartiness.

They took a while to completely bake, and they may be a bit too brown, but at least they rose this time! :-) We had them for breakfast yesterday. They were OK, but I couldn't really taste the pineapple or coconut :-/ Ah well! You win some and you lose some.

~Mac

Cook in the Kitchen #3: Foiled Again!

Today, since I made muffins last week, I decided to go with bread. I made some simple cinnamon raisin bread.

Cinnamon!

And raisins! Yum yum! :-)

Our trusty Bosch mixer churning up the ingredients!

When I put the dough into the pans, I thought there was something wrong. The bread just didn't rise and get fluffy. When they were done rising and baking, they were still the same height as when they were raw! Then I realized: I had been duped once again by the dreaded gluten-free wheat! :facepalm: We had accidentally bought some a while ago and I ground a bunch of it and put it into my bread, thinking it was hard white wheat (that was the label on the bucket it was in :-P). Ah well, at least there's still the same amount of food in each loaf! We will still enjoy our "power bread" (so-called because of the massive energy in each small slice :-) )

~Mac

Cook in the Kitchen #2

Sorry I'm tardy with (what should have been last week's) post. I won't make any excuses. Anyway, here it is! I made muffins Saturday :-)

 All I remember about the recipe is that you put eggs and liquid stuff in one bowl . . .

. . . and flour and dry stuff in another bowl. (I've slept since I read the recipe, it's long gone :-) If anyone wants recipes from these things, comment and let me know.)

Then you mix 'em!

I made this an apple raisin nut cinnamon variation on the original whole wheat muffin recipe. :-)

I mixed the apple chunks, raisins, and nuts in, then put the batter in muffin pans and baked them for about 10 minutes . . . 

And BINGO! They turned out very well IMO; each one is like a little apple pie! These are definitely going to be made again :-)

~Mac

Blogger Issues . . .

I seem to be experiencing technical difficulties with Blogger, specifically in leaving comments. Apologies to all you people that I've tried to leave comments for on your blogs and this blog! Some of you have been getting my comment notifications but the comments never get to the blog itself :-P I'm trying to figure out what the issue is. If you know what the problem is or are having the same problem, let me know!

EDIT: switching to Firefox for commenting seems to work. I guess it's my Chrome settings, but I don't have time to tinker with them. I guess I'll be using Firefox then!

~Mac

Cook in the Kitchen #1

Well, I tried to start a weekly series so I would be updating my blog at least once a week, but that (Happenings Grab Bag) failed rather miserably :-P Partly because my happenings come in bunches I guess. I still want to be blogging at least once a week, but I couldn't think of anything that I did weekly that would be blog-worthy. That is, until this morning, when I realized that I bake breakfast once a week, and I usually try something new every week. So I thought I'd give my culinary endeavors a chance at being my weekly series. Presenting Cook in the Kitchen! :-)

This week, I tried something I had never done before - making granola. It's actually pretty easy to make, even in large batches (which is a big advantage in my book!).

WI tripled the recipe so I had three sticks of butter and 1 1/2 cups of honey. Yum! :-)

Melting the butter and honey together.

Sticky goodness! I brought it to a boil to caramelize it a bit so that the granola would clump better and added some vanilla for extra flavor.

I poured that mixture over about 12 cups of oats and a few cups of pecan chips while my lovely assistant (Mom :-) ) stirred it in.

I spread the mixture out on several trays to bake. . . 

. . . and after about 8 minutes at 400 degrees, they were done! Some of the tops were a little browner than they probably should have been, but overall it was a successful experiment. It clumped better than I thought it would, so that's good.

Looking forward to breakfast on Monday!

~ Mac

Homecoming!

No, it wasn't my homecoming. I went to visit my brother at college during their homecoming weekend. The main purpose of the visit was to go see Jon Foreman in concert! We got seats in the middle of the venue about four rows back :-)

Brooke Waggoner opened and she was pretty cool. I hadn't heard much of her stuff before, but it's kind of similar in style and lyrics to A Fine Frenzy/Alison Sudol. So mostly light, kind of artsy music. :-) She is also a very good piano player!

And here's Jon Foreman! Along with Keith Tutt (one of the best names EVER!) on cello, and Anne Marie Calhoun on violin/fiddle ("depending on your political views" according to Jon)

This shot was at the end where he played "Your Love is Strong" (inspired by the Lord's Prayer) as an encore and we all stood and sang out! :-)

Here's a video someone took of "Only Hope" during the concert:

~Mac

My Bed Upgrades

I've been having quite a bit of trouble getting a good night's sleep for a few months now and I've been waking up with a sore back and joints, so I got some shnazzy add-ons for my mattress to see if they'll help. I got a Memory Foam mattress topper and a Denali Down Under lamb's wool spread!

Here's my trusty mattress. It's still pretty firm but I'm not sure it's going to cut it by itself anymore.

Here's the Memory Foam topper. It's two inches of open cell foam.

As you can see, it has a nice give to it. But it doesn't stay compressed after you move; it springs right back. I'm hoping it'll give me some more back support and help relieve pressure points.

Here's the lamb's wool sheet thing. It's supposed to be warm in the winter and cool in the summer, which will help me with my temperature control problems.

Mmmm, soft and thick. :-)

Ready to sleep! I've used it for about two nights now and I haven't seen much of a difference yet. I think it's helping my back though. We shall see how I'm doing at the end of the week. Now I'm off to use my souped-up bed! Toodles.

~Mac

Cup O' Joe

We had a cold breakfast this morning - bad planning for such a cold morning! I was wearing two sweatshirts and I was still cold, so decided I would make myself a hot drink to warm me up. For whatever reason, Mom suggested coffee.

Those of you who know me know that I don't drink coffee - I've just never started. Partly because I don't want to become addicted and partly just because I didn't have time to make it or just didn't think about it. But when Mom suggested it today, I thought I'd give it a try. At the very least, it's hot right?

Before all of you coffee drinkers start to get nervous, I didn't hate it! ;-) It wasn't mindblowingly good either (partly because it was just cheap decaf coffee; don't judge me java connoisseurs, it was all we had on hand). But it was hot! And it did its job of warming my insides :-) I had fun experimenting with different stuff; I started black, then added a bit of sugar about halfway down, then added more sugar and some milk with a quarter cup left. I think I liked it straight best, but the jury's still out on that. Maybe I'll try some hot tea tomorrow!

Back to school; l8r.

~Mac

The Thin Red Line

This soundtrack has been my study companion for a week or so now. I really enjoy its quietly majestic string and brass layers. This is one of my favorite cues:




~Mac

Update: Moving On!

Hey everyone! I apologize for letting this blog go untouched for so long. I have been seriously busy the last few weeks! School has picked up a bit; I'm taking a compressed online class - Media Management. There's a written assignment and two responses every week, so that keeps me busy! In addition, I'm studying for the Marketing Communications TECEP. I ran into some time management issues last month that I'm still working through, and had to cope with some distractions, so I've had to cut back on blogging and other social stuff for a time. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to that stuff soon!

An important thing to note: today is the last day I am officially a CollegePlus! student. Looking back, it's been an amazing two years. I've learned a lot, earned lots of credits, and got to take advantage of some unique opportunities and meet some amazing people! I have also grown a lot mentally, spiritually, and relationally. Thanks to my coach, CollegePlus!, and all my friends for making it such an enjoyable and rich experience! Now it's on to TESC to finish my degree! And don't worry my CP! friends - I will stay in touch. Not as regularly maybe, but I will stay in touch :-)

~Mac

Cool Music Site!

I've spent a lot of time on this site during the past few weeks so I thought I would share it with those of you who don't know about it.

It's called NoiseTrade: http://noisetrade.com/

It's a site where artists can put their music up for people to download. All you have to do is enter your email address and ZIP code and you get a free download! (You can also tip the artist whatever amount you desire)

Some of my favorite current downloads:

http://noisetrade.com/AndrewPeterson

http://noisetrade.com/beckahshae

http://noisetrade.com/thehawkinparis

http://noisetrade.com/plumb

http://noisetrade.com/waterdeep

Also you can search by "For Fans Of" to discover lots of free music from very cool artists that are similar to your favorite bands!

~Mac

Remember the Sabbath

I finished reading the book of Nehemiah a few days ago, and I must say, I saw some things in the book that I had never seen before! That's the great thing about the illumination of the Holy Spirit - we continue to find application in God's Word through multiple readings! Anyway, one of the things that struck me was the incident surrounding the profaning of the Sabbath.

¹⁵ In those days I saw people in Judah treading wine presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds ofburdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them about the day on which they were selling provisions. ¹⁶ Men of Tyre dwelt there also, who brought in fish and all kinds of goods, and sold them on the Sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. 

¹⁷ Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said to them, “What evil thing is this that you do, by which you profane the Sabbath day? ¹⁸ Did not your fathers do thus, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Yet you bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.” ¹⁹ So it was, at the gates of Jerusalem, as it began to be dark before the Sabbath, that I commanded the gates to be shut, and charged that they must not be opened till after the Sabbath. Then I posted some of my servants at the gates, so that no burdens would be brought in on the Sabbath day. ²⁰ Now the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. ²¹ Then I warned them, and said to them, “Why do you spend the night around the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you!” From that time on they came no more on the Sabbath. ²² And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves, and that they should go and guard the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath day.

Nehemiah certainly took the Sabbath seriously - more seriously than most of us. He shut the gates in the faces of those who would sell merchandise on God's holy day, and warned those who camped outside the city that he would lay hands on them if they attempted to profane the day by trading. We are not under the law, but the command to keep the Sabbath holy still applies today. Do we treat the Sabbath with the same kind of reverence and do we keep it with the same determination that Nehemiah did? After all, it is a serious thing - we "bring added wrath" on ourselves by profaning the Sabbath. Often, I think of the Sabbath as a day to not do school or work, hang out with family and friends, and just take it easy. While rest is an important part of the Sabbath, the main goal of the Sabbath is to have a day set aside for God - to worship Him, meditate on Him, and cultivate our relationship with Him. That's something that I can definitely improve on.

How do you spend the Sabbath? What kinds of things do you do to set the day apart and make it God's day?

~Mac

Joy in Obedience

I'm reading through the book of Nehemiah for my personal quiet time, and a few days ago I read chapter 8 - the chapter where Ezra reads the Law to the people. It's a very well-known and helpful passage, but the passage in chapter 8 that comes right after it has some insights to impart as well. It chronicles the Israelites' celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths) as prescribed in the Law. One verse in particular stood out to me as I read it:

17 So the whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and sat under the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness.

"And there was great gladness." Isn't that interesting? God's people have been rejoicing because the Law has been made clear to them, and their joy and understanding of the law caused them to obey the commands of the Law. When they obeyed, their obedience produced more gladness. This is the way God has created us! When we do His will, when we obey His commands for us, we are glad and joyful. Obedience should not be a burden to us; it should be fulfilling!

~Mac

Playin' With LEGOs

Over the weekend, I did something I haven't done in a while - I broke out the LEGOs! And this is what took shape:

A LEGO Sako-style sniper rifle!

It's about 42 inches long, with a 23 inch barrel . . .

A removable bipod . . . 

And a scope that you can actually look through! (The field of view isn't great, but you work with what you have)

And for fun, I added an action that really cycles rounds!

It was a lot of fun to make something out of LEGOs again - and it was nice to know that I haven't completely lost my touch over the years :-)

~Mac

Happenings Grab Bag #1

I've decided that one way to make sure I blog relatively frequently is have a weekly post on a certain topic (such as the Thankful Thursdays or Funny Fridays that some of my blogging friends have come up with).

So here's introducing the . . .

:drum roll:

Happenings Grab Bag! :ta ta TUM:

(The title may change; I'm not sure it's the best. If any of you have an idea for a better title, please let me know!)

This will be a post where I can list any fun/crazy/random/wierd things I have done over the past week. So here goes:

This week I have:

1. Worn a pompadour for a day.

2. Fought Spiderman in a church, using only a pair of pencils.

3. Discovered that [a big part of] happiness is freshly trimmed fingernails.

~Mac

Hiding It In Your Heart

So much for blogging once a week. Nothing really stood out as something I should blog on, and I guess I fail at finding blogworthy things on a daily basis. Oh well!

Yesterday evening I was at a book study and the discussion turned briefly to Scripture memorization. I think I got a bit of a wakeup call! I do memorize Bible verses - our whole family memorizes a verse every one to two weeks. I just realized that I could and should be doing a lot more memorization on my own. Even though we have easy access to the Bible (right now), there is no substitute for having the Word in your heart, where it can be easily recalled in a discussion, to fight off a temptation, to meditate on, or to aid in making a decision. I believe the more Scripture we truly have in our hearts, the more our lives will reflect that. Plus, there's no telling when the Bible will not be as readily available in printed form, and when that happens, we will wish we had memorized more!

All that to say, I am trying to figure out a plan for memorizing more Scripture. I think I'll start with some of my favorite passages, but I don't want to approach this in a haphazard unstructured way. If any of you have suggestions, categories or lists of verses, or strategies that you use, please comment :-)

~Mac

A Week of Milestones

So I'm going to keep to my goal of blogging once a week . . . barely :-P And in addition, I'm going to throw you the lame "it was a busy week" excuse. I don't use it very much though, so cut me some slack this once ;-)

Several school-related milestones happened this week. First, I passed Business Ethics & Society, so I now have 90 credits. Yes, I am now officially a college senior! :party: I spent the next day relaxing and taking a study break :-) I also had my advisement call with Thomas Edison, and got my template set up with them so I know all my classes and tests have transferred/will transfer. So the rest of my degree is now mapped out!

Also, I helped my brother move to college, where he is starting his freshman year. I got to check out the campus, meet the roommate I haven't already met, have a picnic with some of the students, and attend an evening worship/consecration service which was great! It's very exciting, and also kind of wierd not having him around anymore. We are very close and I'm going to miss him! Fortunately we still have lots of ways of staying in touch.

So it's been a week of milestones and adjustments! Looking forward to a day of rest tomorrow and then tackling Principles of Marketing on Monday! :-)

~Mac

Doing Penance

It seems so ancient - it conjures up images of ascetics whipping themselves, of pilgrims kneeling and kissing steps. But while physical penance is a thing of the past for most of us here in the 21st century, mental and emotional penance is a very easy trap to fall into.

I know it is for me.

After I commit a sin (especially one of the ones I commit over and over) and the Spirit convicts me, my first feeling is frustration, sadness, and sometimes anger. I quickly ask forgiveness from God. Then I often start doing penance in my mind. If I can only feel bad enough about myself for long enough, my negative feelings about my sin will disappear, and all will be right again. This attitude ruins my day every time.

But there are days - like today - when I really get it. All the penance in the world won't get me feeling right and being right with God. But Jesus performed the ultimate act of penance on the cross in my place, so now, when I receive forgiveness from God for a sin, I am free.

Free to live for Him again. Free to feel close to Him again. Free to experience the lightness of spirit that comes with knowing your sins are take care of.

There doesn't need to be some kind of waiting period, a time where I brush myself off and tidy myself up to be worthy of His affection again. It can begin the moment after I ask for and receive God's grace.

That's a freeing thing!

~Mac

AWOL

The title stands for "Absent WithOut Lettingyouallknow" - I had intended to blog once a week during the summer, but that didn't quite turn out very well :-P

So why was I AWOL for almost three weeks?

1. I starred in a musical! Granted, it was only a children's musical that our church put on, and I was only in one scene, but it still counts ;-) The musical was "Nic@Night", about Nicodemus and his journey from Pharisee to Christian (in the context of the Gospel story). I and my brothers were the Pharisees in one scene (we were the comic relief :-) ) It was quite fun - but all the practices kind of disrupted the schedule a bit.

2. I was studying for Organizational Behavior. Because of the rehearsals, I had limited study time, so I made the most of it - which meant no blogging. I did pass, however, so it was worth it! 78 credits down :-)

Those were the biggies, but I had a lot of other smaller things that I did as well (a party, starting teaching guitar). It's been very busy, but now things are beginning to slow down, so I should be able to blog weekly again! (We'll see how that goes :-P)

TTFN!

~Mac

Media Semi-Fast

Lately I've realized that a lot of my conversation with others is focused on media, i.e., we spent lots of time discussing favorite movies, songs, bands, videos, and quoting lines from movies or funny YouTube videos back and forth. Now how useful is that knowledge and conversation? How edifying or important is it?

So I've decided to do a semi-fast on media for this week (and maybe longer, who knows). With God's help, I will consciously strive to keep my conversations free from references and reliance on media, and I will also strive to avoid viewing visual media, except news videos and movies that I watch while working out. (I will still be listening to music, but I will probably tone down the amount of time I spend doing that as well)

I ask those of you who converse with me to remind me if I slip up this week - and to those who would like to join me, I say the more the merrier! Who's with me? :-)

Day One

I slipped up several times in conversation - I think this is going to be the hardest part :-P I only watched one YouTube video though - and it was during social time with friends who wanted to see it so it wasn't too bad ;-)

Day Two

I did much better in conversations - almost no slipups! I did watch a couple of videos - but they were product reviews for gear I'm thinking about buying so I didn't count them ;-) I'm really having to concentrate on it though - it's amazing how much of my life revolves around media of some kind! :-P

Day Three

Continuous improvement - fewer references in conversation and NO online videos! :-) I still have to work at the conversation part though.

Day Four

Continuing to improve! I'm now getting to the point where I don't have to concentrate as much and I can enjoy my less media-centric conversations and activities :-)

~Mac

RitzBurgers!

I was having leftovers today and I found a hamburger in the fridge. Unfortunately, there were no buns or even bread to put the burger on, and in my opinion, leftover burgers definitely require condiments even more than new burgers. I was debating what to do when my eye fell on the box of Ritz crackers sitting on the table. After some quick thinking, I came up with:

:DRUMROLL:

THE RITZBURGER!

I just tore up the burger into smaller pieces, put a pickle slice (or a dab of relish) and ketchup on the bottom Ritz, put dijon mustard on the top Ritz, and slapped them on either side of the burger piece. They turned out great! :-)

~Mac

Deadlines

Deadlines are part of life. We all face them at some point - in school, in work, in life in general. While they can be stressful, sometimes the pressure is good.

I have been studying for the Human Resources Management DSST recently, and it has been very slow going. I finally just scheduled the test for next week. Now that I have a deadline it is amazing how much more motivated I am to study! :-) That's one way deadlines can actually help us - we can channel the pressure they create to improve our performance. They also help us to prioritize and better schedule our time.

How do you deal with and use deadlines?

~Mac

Too Busy to Live?

This past Sunday's sermon was on resting - both during the Sabbath and during the week. The pastor made the point that our constant busyness - which is often a badge of distinction in our culture - actually detracts from the quality of the life we are seeking to live so busily. He quoted one man who, when asked what his biggest regret in life was, answered "busyness". It really made me think. I am not a person who greatly enjoys busyness for its own sake, but I like to be doing things, accomplishing things, and living life according to my plan. How many times a week am I truly still and meditating on the things of God, worshiping Him? Even my quiet times are often times where I make a goal to "learn lots of things" and spend my time digging for information about God when I could be focused on strengthening my relationship with Him!

Busyness also tends to keep us from deep, meaningful relationships. For me personally, even on a vacation or with a group of friends, I tend to let the activities take over my time and make my thoughts, words, and actions shallow, when I could be using my time in meaningful ways to grow closer to my friends and family. Activities are fun and important in relationship building, don't get me wrong - and I like to have fun and goof off as much as anyone I know. But do we let activities and busyness and "stuff" in general consume our lives when we could be growing closer to God and others in deeper ways? Just something I've been thinking about this week. What do y'all think?

~Mac

Taking a Hiatus

Hey all! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I assure you, I am still here! :-) I will be taking a bit of a break from blogging, and I will probably post sometime later next month. See you then!

~Mac

Training to be Obsessed

ob·sess (b-ss, b-)

v. ob·sessed, ob·sess·ing, ob·sess·es

v.tr.

To preoccupy the mind of excessively.

v.intr.

To have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic.

Obsession is an idea that I have been learning about a lot recently. We have been going through a series on the Fruit of the Spirit in church, and last Sunday, the sermon was on 1 Corinthians 9:19-27, a passage about self-control. The analogy of an athlete training for a competition struck me in a fresh way. Our pastor asked us, "If you decided today that you were going to train for the Olympics, how would your life change during this coming week?" You would make changes in your diet, you would cut out activities that interfered with your training, because your eyes would be fixed on the goal. In the same way, we should have our eyes constantly fixed on the goal of sanctification, eternal life, and living the Christian life. Things that hinder us, even good things that keep us from the best things, must be sacrificed in order to attain the goal.

In my study group, we are going through Francis Chan's book Crazy Love, and the chapter for this session was The Profile of the Obsessed. Chan lists thirteen things that people obsessed with God display in their lives. It is challenging to look through a list like that and realize how little time I actually spend obsessed with God and the things of the Kingdom. However, I know that with the help of the Holy Spirit, I can become more conformed to His image, become more obsessed with him, and exercise self-control to attain the goal which is set before me.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2, ESV)

~Mac

Mothers Day: Let Me Count the Ways

It's Mothers Day again. The day when we remember that very special woman in our lives - the one who has more to do with who we are now than any other. How is my Mom special? Let me count (some of) the (many) ways:

- She brought me into the world. I wouldn't be here without you Mom! Thank you for all of your sacrifices and the discomfort and pain you endured to give me life :-)

- She helped to raise me in the nurture and admonition of the Lord through my formative years. Daily Bible reading and prayer were a part of my life from day one, and during the day it was often Mom who would read Bible stories to me and explain the things of God. Thank you for teaching me to know and serve the King!

- She models the characteristics of a Godly wife and mother. In her everyday life, in her relationship with Dad and with her children, she follows the principles of a helpmeet set down in Scripture. She serves us all - whether it's planning meals, shopping, balancing our expense accounts, resolving disputes, cutting our hair, getting me started on guitar :-) or just showing interest in our activities. She supports Dad in his calling - both in his vocation and as the leader of his household.

- She disciplines us. I know it's hard sometimes Mom, but you don't shy away from administering discipline when it is needed, and I am thankful for that. Without discipline I would definitely not be the person I am.

- She admits and confesses when she sins. Sorry, Mom, I have to be honest - you're not perfect! ;-) But when do you mess up, you make sure to confess and repent to the people you have wronged. That takes courage and humility!

- She counsels us and shares her wisdom. At my time of life, I am so thankful for all the wisdom that you have stored up over the years and willingly share with me. Thank you for being there for me when I have had to make difficult decisions and for giving me the help I need - giving me advice, walking me through options, or just being there so I can talk it out.

I could go on but maybe I'll save some more for later :-)

I love you Mom! And I am truly blessed to have a strong, loving relationship with you at the age where the situation is typically the opposite. I'm thankful that we have a day to remind ourselves of all you do for us and all you are - although you deserve more than just one day! :-)

~Mac

Perspective Check + Update

God's been teaching me quite a bit lately, and also reminding me of some things that I have forgotten. I thought I'd share a few of them:

1. Make God the focus and top priority of my life. It's easy to tell myself that I have many important things to do besides "Christian-y" things - school, work , time with family. All of these things are good, but they cannot be allowed to supersede God as number one. All of them should be done in, with, and through Him. My plans, hopes, and dreams will not ultimately satisfy by themselves; they must be submitted to God's will for me to achieve true contentment, peace, and joy.

2. Develop a hunger and thirst for the Word. I often don't feel like I want to get to know God better, and my Bible and prayer time suffer because I am distracted by other things. I need God to give me the strength to thirst for His Word, to be like the tree in Psalm 1, planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither. Staying in the Word is an act of the will (the new nature's will by the power of the Holy Spirit).

On another note, I passed Prinicples of Supervision DSST last week so I now have 78 credits! By the end of this month I hope to have three more as I am planning to finish my Film and TV Narratives as Public Communication class. I also was accepted at Thomas Edison, so I am planning to enroll sometime in the next few months! Besides school, I am staying involved in the music ministry and the live sound engineering at church and working on A/V installs and recording sessions as they come up.

God bless you all!

~Mac

.: HE IS RISEN! :.

I know this is a little late, but I want to post it anyway:

CHRIST IS RISEN!

55 “O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:55-57 ESV)

Let us celebrate the risen Savior, not just on Easter, but every day we live our lives! Let us live in the light of His triumph over sin and death!

1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6We know that our old self^a was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For one who has died has been set free^b from sin. 8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. (Romans 6:1-13 ESV)

~Mac

God Died

As we prepare to celebrate Easter, we have special Lenten devotions that we go through as a family. During one of these, I was struck by two simple words:

God died.

That is a mind-blowing concept! An infinite, eternal, unchangeable, omnipotent, omniscient, perfect Being "made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." (Phillipians 2:7) That alone is incomprehensible. Jesus, who had never experienced pain, fatigue, aging, or any of the effects of the Fall, came into this world and experienced all of them. Jesus, who had never had anything less than a perfect relationship with His Father, became the Object of His Father's wrath for all of the sins believers have ever committed in history. Jesus, who was with the Father before time, entered time and lived and died. And He did all of this for those He loves, those who have believed and will believe in Him!

Thank you, Jesus, for Your work of redemption on our behalf! Help us to live in light of that sacrifice, and to truly be thankful for Your precious gift of salvation!

~Mac

Working Up A Post + Blog Shout Out!

Well, I've been thinking about various things to post, but I haven't gotten any of them blog-ready yet! Fortunately, I have another blog to point you to: Leaves That Are Green, created by my friend Hattie! You can count on seeing some seriously creative creations, pictures, poetry, and artwork, as well as thoughts on serious and not-so-serious subjects ;-) In addition, she's currently running a contest for all of her followers! Go check out the blog - and maybe by the time you're done reading through all of her posts I'll have figured out something to blog on!

~Mac

23:59 Part 1 Online!

I know many of you have requested a link to "23:59", the movie that I scored recently. Well, the producers have just uploaded the first 12 minutes to YouTube! Enjoy! (the video is pretty low-resolution compared to the DVD)



If you like what you see and hear, I can see about getting you a DVD copy with the movie, a behind the scenes feature, bloopers, and interviews. They're selling for $5 at this point. I am also working on releasing the soundtrack (at this point, it'll be selling for $5 as well), so if you're interested in that please let me know!

~Mac

Siblings' Handiwork Part 1

Well, I haven't had much to blog on lately - at least anything that would make a good post. So instead of blogging about me, I've decided to start a series of posts sharing some of the things that my siblings have created!

First up is one of my brothers, who has really gotten into building plastic models. Here is his latest one, a P-51D Mustang!

^ Some of the beautiful cockpit detailing!

^ More cockpit detail.

^ Gun and magazine detail.

He really did a fantastic job on this one - and it's only his third model he's built! He did the painting, decals, and gluing all by himself too :-)

~Mac