A New Day, A New Blog: An Idol Heart

25 03 2010

AnIdolHeart.com

I have started blogging again, but have changed addresses.  I am now blogging at AnIdolHeart.com.  There has been, and continues to be, a lot of life change for me, and this new blog is where I will be talking a lot about it.  There will be no more updates to The Gideon Chronicles, so please join me at AnIdolHeart.com.

If you had previously bookmarked or listed me in your blog roll, would you please be so kind to update the listing to AnIdolHeart.com?  Thanks!

See you soon!





is jay-z a biter and a writer?

2 09 2009

jay-z has a famous line from his song “what more can i say” that goes “i’m not a biter / i’m a writer / for myself and others…”  interestingly enough, i just saw the album cover for the jigga man’s long-awaited and must hyped new release “the blueprint 3” and couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps he is a both a writer and a biter.

exhibit a: jay-z “blueprint 3” cover (2009)

Blueprint_3

exhibit b: delirious?’ “kingdom of comfort” cover (2008)

delirious

i’m not exactly saying he bit it… but i’m saying it’s awfully similar.  it’s not a dead ringer, but i’m just sayin…

what do you think?





the rose

19 06 2009

this is so powerful.





megachurch commentary

12 06 2009

i love this commentary from king of the hill from the episode where the hills are trying to find a new church.

peggy: “maybe we should try the new megachuch.”

hank: “i don’t want to change churches.  besides, that place is too big.  what’s it got, 5000 some-odd members…”

peggy: “…and it pampers all of them!  they have their very own coffee shop, florist, mini-mart, bike and a dry cleaner that accepts all competitors coupons!”

hank: “if i wanted to go that route i could just walk around the mall and think about Jesus.”

wow.





a high view of God

9 06 2009

i am totally ripping this from mark batterson’s incredible book, in a pit with a lion on a snowy day.  it is a great piece that i want to share and hopefully challenge you with. as a side note, if you are some one who has found themselves in the middle of a transition, you need this book!

according to a.w. tozer, the most important thing about you is what comes to mind when you think about God.

“… the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at any given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like…  were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, ‘what comes to your mind when you think about God?’ we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man. (a.w. tozer, the knowledge of the holy)

how you think about God will determine who you become.  you aren’t just a byproduct of “nature” and “nurture”.  you are a byproduct of your God-picture.  and that internal picture of God determines how you see everything else.

most of our problems are not circumstantial.  most of our problems are perceptual.  our biggest problems can be traced back to an inadequate understanding of who God is.  our problems seem really big because our God seems really small.  in fact, we reduce God to the size of our biggest problem.

tozer said a “low view of God… is the cause of a hundred lesser evils.”  but a person with a high view of God “is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems.”

“I don’t think the way you think.
The way you work isn’t the way I work.”
God’s Decree.
“For as the sky soars high above earth,
so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
and the way I think is beyond the way you think. – isaiah 55:8-9 (the message)

i can certainly attest this principle to be true in my own life.  i can look back on specific instances when how i approached or walked through a particular situation in my life was in direct correlation to how i perceived God in that season of my life.  i am thankful that seasons change and we grow, thus providing opportunities for our understanding and perception of God in our lives to increase as well.  there are things that happened to me in the past which, were they to play out again today, would not produce the same response from me, primarily because of who i am continually becoming as a direct result of what i continually and increasingly understand about God.

what about you?  how has your approach to life been altered by your perception and understanding of who God is over the years?





a better life?

8 06 2009

i know i’ve been such an inconsistent blogger lately.  my apologies.  trying to get back on track now.

at church yesterday, pastor jamie used this excerpt from larry crabb’s book the pressure’s off.  it was incredibly profound for me and i wanted to share it.

you’ve cheapened the requirements of holiness by assuming you can do enough right things to bring about a “better life.” sometimes that works. sometimes it doesn’t. you therefore live with uncertainty and pressure, and you demand to know the way to live that will make your life work as you want.
you maneuver; you do not trust.
you negotiate; you do not worship.
you analyze and interpret to gain control over what happens; you do not depend.
you seek the “better life of God’s blessings today” over the “better hope of God’s presence.

i came away from that with many thoughts, most of which i am still processing.  what thoughts do you have after reading that?