Live Simply
Give Generously
Learn Continuously
Love Without Limits

*~*2008 CHRISTMAS CD INSERT*~*

Welcome to all-friends, family and everyone in between. I wish I were able to deliver this to EVERYONE in person! I’d love to sit, catch up, to laugh & reconnect. As we’ve been fairly nomadic these first 8 years of marriage (officially 8 years on December 30th), there is a good number of you whose company I have not gotten to have the pleasure of for some time-some even nearing a decade!

To all who are receiving this CD for the first time-this is my version of a Christmas greeting. I love music, I love Jesus and I love to write about that which I am passionate about-thus is my (almost) annual Christmas Mix CD. I chose the songs because they had significance in my life this past year or simply because I listened to/liked them a lot. There is a comment section and a link to my email-I would genuinely love hearing back from you all. Sharing music is such a way for me to get to know people better and be known by them. Merry Christmas!!

**For those, such as my mamacita, who don't like to read on their computer-just print this out and there ya go! If you have any problems, email me and I will send you the blog via email to make it easier to print**

**TO HEAR SONGS THAT ALMOST MADE THIS YEAR'S CD, go to:
www.myspace.com/lexianne79

1) All My Loving – Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Our family played this CD a lot this past year. We moved out to Southern California in January of this year when Wayne joined the staff of AV Spinal in Lancaster, CA. We're settling in to the desert climate well as it is now November and we were @ the beach last weekend (about 90minutes away).

Austin (6) is in 1st grade and just got done with soccer season. The jury is out on what he will want to do in the future-what sport or hobby he will truly love-but he does do a mean rendition of All American Rejects' "Move Along" on his Uncle's RockBand video game (and sings along with most songs). He also loves to build castles, cars & Bionicles with the itty-bitty Legos that I know I do not have the patience for.

Ella (3) hangs out with mom at home and is looking forward to doing preschool next year. She likes music, anything princess, the Nick Jr. show Yo Gabba Gabba, and is commonly found running around in her Strawberry Shortcake boots. She is a planner like her mom and always wants to know exactly what the plans are for each day (and how long it takes to get there). Also like her mom, she is all about her "num-nums" (snacks).

2) Stand in the Rain (Symphonic Mix) – Superchick

“Pain sometimes lets us know we have a condition that needs to be healed. Pain inside sometimes lets us know that spiritually we're not quite right...sometimes, pain is the only way that will turn us as kids back to the Father.”
Tony Dungee

My swim instructor used to have us put our hands up out of the water and tread water using only our legs. Until we got stronger, we were all spending half the drill dipping under the surface of the water. That, for me, personifies this song and a variety of moments from this past year: Maintaining my strength and balance at times, living in denial at others, and then ultimately coming to place where I had to comprehend that I am wasting my time if I try to put all my confidence and trust in anyone or anything but God.

As much as I have felt this song deeply this last year, I have some friends who have stood bravely when it would have been easier to check out on life. Divorces, miscarriages, losing jobs, losing loved ones-and on and on…

God is very good at reminding me how there is always someone in a worse situation than I am. No sooner do I throw a pity party for myself over a difficult day as a wife/mom does a commercial for St.Jude or Worldvision come on TV and I am brought back to reality. Nothing stirs up gratitude like a dose of what other moms/families, especially in other countries, deal with on a daily basis.

3) Noticed – Mute Math

“The only time I ever noticed my heart was when I noticed you.”

Whenever I creep into the mindset of pride in any area in my life, it always coincides a time where I am not close with, or am all out ignoring, God. Just as Mute Math does in the majority of their music, this song’s profound truth lies in its simple lyrics.

I don’t encounter-in fact, I can ultimately numb myself to-what my heart looks like(good and bad) if I am not aware of God. It takes time, it takes discipline, and it takes a daily death to reliance on one’s self. It is so much easier to just to skate by being complacent with where I am. Escaping is so much easier (and we, Americans, love comfort and convenience) than letting God bring me to the next level with Him!

I used to think that there is a place I would get to when I really become spiritually mature-when I have arrived as a Christian/disciple of Christ. A place where I’ve conquered all that I struggle with, have learned/memorized so much of the Bible, and served others so much that I would finally be a complete picture of what God wants me to be.

It is almost funny how WRONG I was. The beautiful paradox is that the closer I get to Jesus, the more clearly I see what I look like from his perspective (and the deeper the appreciation I have for his sacrificial love) . The reality becomes then that the more “mature” I get, the more clear my unending need for him (and consequently, his unending faithfulness to meet my needs). Once I got near enough to see Him better, Jesus showed me how he wanted to replace my prideful spirit with a humble heart.

“The alternative to confronting the truth is always some form of self-destruction.”

“The Christian with depth is the person who has failed and who has learned to live with it.”

Ragamuffin Gospel-Brennan Manning

4) Walk on the Ocean – Toad the Wet Sprocket

5) Before the Throne – Shane Barnard & Shane Everett
(Hymn written in 1863)

Hymns and Christmastime have very similar abilities to invoke childhood memories. I love hymns. They are practically all we sang at our church growing up. Many, like this one, make me want to quiet everything else going on and just concentrate on God. There is something so pure and lovely in these songs.

Music is such overwhelming evidence of his creativity and such a huge reminder to me of his constant presence. Pastor Erwin McManus talked about how there is beauty all around us. It is in the mountains, the sunset, and in the music too. It is God saying “I am here with you. I am not far away. I am right here.”

The irony is that God was virtually speaking to me all throughout my childhood through these hymns and I just kind of said-“Not now!” ;)

Another favorite:
“My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!”
"It is Well With My Soul"-Words by Horatio G. Spafford, 1873

6) Chasing Pavements – ADELE

The album the song appeared on was written about her former boyfriend. The song "Chasing Pavements" refers to an incident that occurred after a fight with that person during which Adele was running down the street alone. She thought to herself "What you're chasing is you're chasing an empty pavement." It appears in this mix simply because I like the song (and much of the CD it appears on) and adore a great British accent (See song #1 also ;) ).

7) No One Is to Blame – Emile Millar

8) Divine Romance – Phil Wickham

9) Won’t Back Down- Mat Kearney

“Doesn't matter what comes crashing down
I'm still gonna stand on solid ground.”

1 I waited patiently for the LORD to help me,
and he turned to me and heard my cry.
2 He lifted me out of the pit of despair,
out of the mud and the mire.
He set my feet on solid ground
and steadied me as I walked along.
3 He has given me a new song to sing,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see what he has done and be amazed.
They will put their trust in the LORD.
Psalm 40:1-3 New Living Translation (NLT)

“When all is lost, All is left to gain.”

7”But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”
Philippians 3:7-9 New International Version (NIV)

7-9”The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God's righteousness.”
Philippians 3:7-9 THE MESSAGE

“You found me once and for all
I laid it down in the sinking ground
The hopeless undertow.”

24-25"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
26-27"But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards."
Matthew 7:24-27 THE MESSAGE

The piano-driven ballad, Won't Back Down, was actually inspired by the spiritual journey of one of Mat's personal favorite artists, country legend, Johnny Cash. In my own life, this year marks 10 years since I began getting to know Jesus.

I grew up thinking that church was church and the rest of life was mine. I was baptized as a baby, confirmed at 13, a youth leader throughout high school, and seldom missed a Sunday.

I was preoccupied with looks, buying things, and kissing boys-much like everyone else I knew. The world was there to serve me, make me happy, and just so I tried to be a good person (or better than others around me) I was on track.

Sometime in high school, I began to wish for more. I began to see how meaningless it all was. What was more-I wanted love that no hook-up or teenage relationship was going to give me and it tore me up. Pieces of my heart left behind after every break-up and letdown, I could no longer pretend it didn’t hurt. I was becoming fragile and dissatisfied with life and what the norm was among my friends. Never thought to crack a bible, never discussed God with friends-Jesus wasn’t even on the radar-you could say-even though I attended a church every Sunday.

In college, I would go to my Campus Crusade for Christ meeting or Bible Study and then go out partying until 4am (if I came home). Not to say that partying is the ultimate evil-by any means- but back then, it was an indicator of the state of my heart. Of Jesus not being much more than a magic fairy who grants my wishes or comforts me when afraid or in need.

My life dead-ended with the knowledge of Jesus and had not yet been transformed-or even knew that it was possible. God was a hobby of sorts. As Matt Chandler would put it-“Christianity makes a horrible hobby-you might as well just buy a boat-it would be more fun.” The brand of religion I had encountered thus far was breeding emptiness and I felt wounded from all that I had been through relationally up to that point.

One night at a coffee shop, not long after a traumatic break-up with a boyfriend Freshman year at UT Austin, a good friend challenged me to tell her when I had committed my life to Christ. After giving her a rundown of my spiritual resume’, she repeated the question-not satisfied that I had truly answered her question.

I got quiet (which most of you know is a rarity) and realized I had no answer to that question-and at that point-may have not known how huge this question would impact the trajectory of my life. Up to that point, I was comfortably sitting on the throne in the center of my life. It wasn't until that moment that I realized-I needed to get out of His chair!! That night a new life, new chapter-whatever you want to call it-began. (And, I stress here, that this was ONLY a beginning since praying one prayer to Jesus does not equal a transformed life)

This was a spiritual awakening of which I have been putting one foot in front of the other discovering more as I go-day after day. It has been marked with some phases thus far:

The overzealous new Christian who wanted to use “Christian-ese” all the time (i.e-"being convicted" about something, "quiet time","walking" with the Lord, telling everyone I would pray for them-especially those I knew were not Christians because somehow me saying that to them was going to make them magically want to run to Jesus). (LOL) I tended to insulate myself with other Christians in a nice, happy bubble and become out of touch with the rest of the world.

Then there was the “been there, done that, I know it all” phase where self-righteousness reigned. I had it all figured out and concentrated on pointing fingers at all the problems with "the world." I was characterized by what I did/did not do and was prideful about both. I had so propelled myself into Christian organizations, churches, mission trips, radio, music, books, that I had a over-confidence about all I had learned in such a short time. You could say I had religion-with a little bit of Jesus here and there. Just so I had everything checked off my moral To-Do list, I was like "peas&carrots" with the Lord.

That has (thankfully) morphed into a phase more characterized by the great realization of God’s grace and my desire for more of Him. A phase where I am energized by the thought of being around people of all backgrounds as I imitate Jesus and love everyone no matter who they are or if we agree on everything. The list of the differences (Song#11) between the Gospel and religion illustrates a huge aspect of this shift. God brought this about through the influences of a variety of ordinary people who love Him and several pastors-both of churches we attended and those we listen to their weekly free Podcasts.

If you’ve never heard these guys, you are genuinely missing out. Wherever you are @ with God-these men are worth your time and, I bet, for many of you would be your first encounter with the Gospel (instead of all the religion you’ve steered clear from for so long).

A short list:

Flatirons Community Church- Lafayette, CO
Pastor Jim Burgen

The Village Church- Highland Village, TX
Pastor Matt Chandler

Mars Hill Church- Seattle, WA (several locations)
Pastor Mark Driscoll

Mosaic Church- Los Angeles, CA (several locations)
Pastor Erwin McManus

10) All I Need – OneRepublic

In a world that is so preoccupied with stuff, I have begun to feel a strong pull to re-evaluate what I find important. You hear it coming from all directions: What do we drive? What brand are your clothes and shoes? Does your purse have C all over it? Do we have the latest TV? Is it HD, DLP? How big is the screen? Does it look cool with our HD Blu-Ray Player playing our HD DVDs? What about our cell phone? What kind do we have? Is it an Iphone, a Blackberry-what kind of texting plan? How many minutes? What about our homes? Have we redone the walls, the window treatments, the floors, and gotten new furniture we think we need-b/c if we don't get that new table and collectible knickknack to sit on the table to collect dust-we might not be keeping up with the neighbors who just got one. How about our kids-do they have the latest shoes, toys, gadgets, clothes? They may get made fun of if they don't have an XBOX, Wii, Ipod, Iphone, and HDTV of their own. That baby might not feel loved if he doesn't get 100 presents at Christmas that he can crawl over to play with the curling ribbon and tissue paper. What do we actually need? And, what is more, what philosophy of life are our actions teaching to our kids?

“Faith means you want God and want to want nothing else.”
Oswald Chambers

“The lower the ceiling is on enough, the happier you’re going to be.”
Nancy Ortberg

“All our life's devotion
Has been set in motion
Religions dozen for a dime
Everybody's worshipping something
'Cause that's what we were made to do”
Point of Grace

If you woke up this morning
with more health than illness,
you are more blessed than the
million who won't survive the week.

If you have never experienced
the danger of battle,
the loneliness of imprisonment,
the agony of torture or
the pangs of starvation,
you are ahead of 20 million people
around the world.

If you attend a church meeting
without fear of harassment,
arrest, torture, or death,
you are more blessed than almost
three billion people in the world.

If you have food in your refrigerator,
clothes on your back, a roof over
your head and a place to sleep,
you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank,
in your wallet, and spare change
in a dish someplace, you are among
the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If you can read this message,
you are more blessed than over
two billion people in the world
that cannot read anything at all.
~Anonymous

11) All That Matters – Addison Road

“The story goes that a public sinner was excommunicated and forbidden entry to the church. He took his woes to God.
“They won’t let me in, Lord, because I am a sinner.”
“What are you complaining about?” said God. “They won’t let Me in either.”

The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning

***The beauty of doing an insert online is that I can include excerpts that would have been too long for the printed booklet version I have done in years past. This a lengthy (but fantastic) excerpt from Pastor Matt Chandler’s message entitled, “The Great Gospel.”***

“The gospel of Jesus Christ and religion are nowhere near the same thing, and the great bulk of American Evangelicalism is not gospel driven at all but religiously driven. I’ll try to explain exactly where I’m going here. There are fundamental differences between the teachings of Jesus Christ and how religions works itself out. So if I’m in a scenario where someone goes, “All religions are the same,” I very quickly go, “You’re absolutely right.” Because what I want to do is distinguish the gospel from religion. Because they really are that different. Let me run through nine ways in which they are very, very different.

1) In religion, if there was a mantra, it’s this, “I obey, therefore I’m accepted.” That’s religion. Religion is, “There is this code to be followed, there is this morality to ascribe to, there are these things that I have to do. And if I do them, God will be pleased with me. And if I do not do them, God will not be pleased with me. So I obey, therefore I am accepted. So as long as I can do what’s right and avoid what’s wrong, the God will be pleased with me.” That’s the mantra of religion.

Now, the gospel is completely different. Because at the center of Christian faith is a blood splattered cross. Because at the center of our faith is Jesus Christ going to the cross and having the wrath of God poured out on Him and absorbing it for us. So then, the mantra of religion is, “I obey, therefore I’m accepted.” The mantra of the gospel is, “I’m accepted, therefore I obey.” That’s a fundamental difference in what the gospel is vs. what religion is. We don’t obey to get accepted. We’re justified by the cross of Christ, not by any of our actions.

2) The motivation of religion is almost always fear and insecurity. And this is one of the ways I’ve seen it shape out in a lot of Evangelistic rhetoric. Like when you start going, “Do you want to go to hell? Of course you don’t want to go to hell. You had better come to Jesus.” So you’ve got massive amounts of people who did the mental work of, “Eternal damnation or not? Hmm. I mean I’m only eight years old, but I had better make this decision. I know. I don’t want hell.” And then you come forward. The problem with that is heaven is not a place for those who are afraid of hell, it’s a place for those who love God. So fear-based religion is just that. It’s religion; it’s not the gospel. The motivation behind religion is fear and insecurity. “I had better do these things or God’s going to get me.”

The motivation behind the gospel is grateful joy.

3) In religion, we obey God to get things from God. “If I do this, if I do this, if I do this, then God will do this, God will do this, God will do this. I will obey, and in my obedience, God will bless me.”

In the gospel, we obey to be near Him, to be transformed into His image. We don’t go to God to get things; we go to God to get God. He is the gospel.

4) In religion, when circumstances go wrong (and they’re going to go wrong), I believe you’re forced in this religious framework to either get angry with God or get angry with yourself. Because the reason difficulties have befallen your life in the religious system is either you did not measure up to what you were supposed to or you did but God has betrayed you and not given you what you wanted anyway.

In the gospel, when difficult circumstances fall on us, we still struggle. Somehow there’s been this thing hatched on us that once the Holy Spirit seals on us, we flutter about in Shekinah glory the rest of the days of our lives. There’s never any doubt, there’s never any dark night of the soul, there’s never these moments where we ask why. It just doesn’t happen to us as believers. It’s dumb, ignorant. No, we’ll struggle, but here’s what happens in the struggle. In the struggle, we fully embrace that all of God’s wrath for you and me were poured out on Jesus Christ in the cross, and although He has allowed this thing into our life for training, this is not about His anger towards us or our failure. And He will walk through it with us like a loving Father.

5) In religion, when you’re criticized, your whole world will unravel and you’ll either go violent or you’ll go into self-loathing. And the reason that occurs is because in religion, your whole self-worth is built around your ability to do right and be a good person. So when someone criticizes you and points out that you’re not a good person, your framework for acceptability in front of God collapses around you.

In the gospel, when you’re criticized, you’ll still struggle. I’ve never met a guy who loves criticism. In fact, I always default to the same place. Sixteen years into my relationship with Christ, I still default to the same place. Somebody goes, “Chandler, this is an issue. I’ve seen this in your life.” And I always respond with, “Huh, that’s funny because while you were noticing some stuff, I was noticing some stuff. So since this is the kind of friend we are, since we’ve got that Matthew 18 relationship, let me point out some things too, log boy.” And then later on I’ll be like, “Aw, maybe they were right.” And repent, but that’s always my default. I’ve always got to go, “Is there any truth in this, Lord? Help me.” But when you’re criticized in the gospel, you’re worth as believers in Christ is not in our ability to be moral, upright, fine, outstanding citizens. So when we’re criticized, it doesn’t unravel our world. In fact, if you’ll think about it, it was criticism that brought you to the cross. It was the fact that you knew you failed in an area, you knew you needed a Savior, you knew you had a sinful heart. Those were some of the things that brought you to the cross of Christ.

6) In religion, prayer is almost always about petition. For the religious man, prayer is almost always about controlling his environment. In a life centered on the gospel, prayer becomes long stretches of adoration, long stretches of praise. If you’ll think back to last week, the man centered on the gospel prays, “Hallowed be Your name.” The religious man goes, “Fix this, do this, make this happen.”

When you walk in religion, your self-view swings wildly between two poles. When you’re doing everything right, when you got up and had a quiet time with My Utmost for His Highest, you got in your car and listened to Christian music on the way to work, you did not cuss, you did not watch a rated-R movie while not drinking a beer, when you’ve done everything that you’re supposed to do, what happens is you feel good. You’re doing it. You and God are like this right now. You’re handling it now. Now in that moment, the dark side is you tend to be very unsympathetic to those who are failing.

And then the other pole is when you’re not doing the things that religion says you’re supposed to do, you feel defeated and worthless and like you’re never going to get this thing and that God is frustrated and angry with you. So you’re either walking with a swagger or you’re sniveling.

Those are the two poles that you tend to swing on in religion. Once again, in the gospel, my self-view, my self-worth, my self-esteem is not predicated upon my ability to do anything but on the act of Jesus Christ in the cross. So in that moment, there’s this weird thing that happens because I am bad enough that Jesus had to die for me, but He loved me so much that He was glad to do it. So this produces simultaneously a growing humility because He did it all and a growing confidence because He loved me enough to do it. It’s why I don’t walk with a swagger, but I don’t snivel either.

7) In religion, your self-worth is built entirely on how hard you work and how good you are. So you can’t help but look at with a great deal of disdain those who don’t work as hard as you or those who are more immoral than you are.

In the gospel, you know you have been saved by grace, through faith. And even the faith to believe in that grace was given to you by God, so that you would be unable to boast in anything. If you really get grace, if you really get that you didn’t do anything, that God justified you, that He saved you, it becomes nearly impossible to judge anyone. Any alternative lifestyle. Now we might not agree with them, but you can’t judge them. Because by doing that, you’ve negated the very grace that was given to you. If it wasn’t for that grace, what would be you.

8) If you look to your own pedigree and performance for your spiritual acceptability, then you constantly have to build this religion’s persona that may or may not be what’s actually going on in you.

As a rule when I was growing up, because my home was about as broken as you can imagine, was that you always had to pretend that it wasn’t that way and you had to keep your mouth shut about dark things that lurked in your home. So you went to church, tucked in your shirt (because God got frustrated if you didn’t), wore khakis or a suit and you showed up because God deserved your best. It doesn’t matter what you’re heart’s like; just wear that tie. But you don’t
talk about the fact that this is going on or this is going on or this is where you’re failing or this is where you’re frustrated. You just show up and you protect that religious persona at all cost. So in the end, you’re not after God; you’re after some idol of religiosity that you’ve built.

In the gospel, none of those things are ultimate. Like we’re not even relishing envying good men. In fact, one of the places I think Christianity got off the rails and became American Evangelicalism is when we started saying really ridiculous stuff like, “Christians don’t do this and we don’t do that.” It has been my experience in ten years of pastoring that Christians absolutely do that, whatever that is. So when you build out this idea that we’re moral than everyone else, first of all you’re lying and secondly you’re taking away from the beauty of the cross. Because the beauty of the cross is not that you’re perfect but it’s that you’re not and Christ loved you anyway. That’s what creates worship.

9) Jesus tends to be for people who are really a mess. He tends to speak softly to them, very gently to them. But when people got religious and started to try to lay religion on other people, Jesus got very upset.

People spend so much time building up this religious persona of external perfection that they’ve neglected the state of your heart. So in the end, you’re dead, dry and dirty, and if you would just be honest about where you really are, both would be clean.

Does it sound like pretending you’re okay when you’re not and building a religious persona and spending all the vitality inside of you trying to be good is what God is after in Jesus Christ? You don’t have to be an intellectual to see that Christ is looking at these very religious men and saying, “You’ve missed it."

The essence of the gospel in the Christian faith is not that you’re good, but that you’re not and Christ loves you. That’s where worship starts. The reason why so many of us are just unable to worship, unable to walk in the joy of our salvation is because you haven’t really got salvation, you’ve got religion, and religion is this devastating, devastating thing. It dries up the soul, because you’re tying to accomplish the impossible...when it’s already been freely given.

Think about how much energy you burn, how much vitality you lose when the goal of your life is to protect a persona that isn’t who you really are. It removes your ability to receive love. It removes your ability for intimacy with anyone. It removes your ability to worship God freely. It kills personhood and self. “Brokenness and a contrite spirit I will never despise” is what David wrote about God in the Psalms. Okay, so you struggle. Welcome. Okay, so you’re not there
yet. Me neither.

The difference between religion and the gospel is religion will hide it at all cost, the gospel knows that grace paid the bill. So my prayer is that you would wrestle a little bit with where your heart is. If I had to look at my life and go, “I obey therefore I’m accepted; I’m accepted therefore I obey,”

12) Hold You in My Arms – Ray LaMontagne

13) My Jesus I Love Thee – The Longing
(Hymn written in 1864)

“Would______get me more of Jesus? Do it.”
Matt Chandler

“In essence, there is only one thing God asks of us--that we be men and women of prayer, people who live close to God, people for whom God is everything and for whom God is enough."

Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

14) Typical – Mute Math

“Can I break the spell of the typical?”

“Being as Jesus was does not translate to ritual, routine or conformity.”

“If you are not willing to change, you are not able to bring change.”

Erwin McManus

“Glorious intentions are meaningless without action.”
Anonymous

“..Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing...”
Jesus
John 14:12b New International Version (NIV)

“Don’t fail to do something just because you can’t do everything.”
Bob Pierce

15) The Way You Look Tonight – Frank Sinatra

This past summer, my Grandma Gibb (my mom’s mom) died of cancer. She was a sweet and quirky soul. She called me “Cookie Girls.” Very smart-an avid reader and a master at crossword puzzles. She never wanted anyone worrying over her. I wish I’d known her better. She raised four great, unique and talented children and had a deep, intimate love with her husband, Adam, for 42 years before he died in 1988. They were quite the dashing couple when they met in high school. She loved Frank Sinatra, and so, I found it only fitting to include this one on this year’s mix. I hope they are both dancing now…

16) The Twenty-First Time – Monk&Neagle

“We tend to think that other people will make a difference—Bono will take care of the poor; the president will appropriate money to deal with the AIDS pandemic; my congressman or my senator or my pastor will do something. But if I can get one message across to you, the reader, it is that this is your job—it’s your job and my job.”

Rich Stearns, “The Hole in Our Gospel”

“Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me.”
Matthew 25:40
Jesus Christ

'Freely you have received, freely give.'
Matthew 10:8b
Jesus Christ

“It is not too far a cry
To much to try
To help the least of these
Politics will not decide
If we should rise
And be your hands and feet”
“The Solution”, Hillsong United

“I think my wife said it best. We were watching the incredible crowd in Chicago during Obama’s acceptance speech. I had said something about the moment being so amazing … so many people, so many tears, so much hope. It was like they looked at him like he was a savior. There was a long pause, and then she quietly said, “that is what people want … a savior.” Wow, she’s right. I just don’t think they’ll find it in our next President.”
Rob Strong

17) Question – Rhett Miller

Cheers to 8 years of marriage. I love him more now that I ever have.

18) On a Night Like This – Dave Barnes