Eli is much better!

Hey everyone,

Thanks so much for praying for Baby Eli. As you can see on our blog, www.murraysanderson.blogspot.com, he recovered just in time for Halloween! Ha!
He's still finishing up his antibiotic, and the infection on his foot is almost gone. He is clearly feeling much better. He still enjoys being up at night. Last night at 4:00 am, he and I snuggled for a while, then he finally just said, "Dad, I'm getting up and either you or Mommy are as well. This is no time for sleeping, you silly snoozers." Thankfully, it was Jaime's night to take care of him (we alternate nights), so down the stairs she went to the swing, which he loves.

My mom is here and we're having a great visit with her...we went to the Circle City mall downtown last Friday, and the zoo on Saturday. She always helps so much. She heads back to Dallas tomorrow...

Jaime & I are headed to see Chris Tomlin this Sunday night in Evansville. We leave right after church. www.christomlin.com He's a gifted songwriter & worship leader.

Well, all I can say about the Colts & Patriots game is, we'd rather beat them in postseason than in regular season, if we have to pick one. So we'll see them again in January, and it won't come out the same way.

Have a great week everyone!

Great news, Eli came home!

Hey everyone, good news! Praise God, Eli is home!

Thank God, the tide turned quickly this morning as test results came in, and the pediatric infectious disease specialist got a good look at Eli's records and Eli himself. Except for one test that we don't yet have results for, Eli's bloodwork showed no signs of concern.

Bottom line, the infectious disease doc felt that he could send us home with a powerful oral antibiotic that would fight the infection in Eli's foot, which at this time appears to be staph (not MRSA, but some type of staph). He saw no advantage to keeping us in the hospital for observation, and the IV antibiotics did not contribute very well to Eli's rest and/or recovery. (or ours! He had 5 things hooked up to him...)

When the docs examined Eli, they were confounded by the number of health issues he has faced in his 4.5 months; they place their greatest confidence in kids who exude health & energy by outward signs in addition to test results which show no real reason for concern. Thus, even with his history, they really don't feel he has a problem with his immune system or any problem with his blood / bloodstream. Praise God!

We have two follow-up appointments and we will of course be watching Eli closely. For now, he and Faith are resting comfortably here at home with us. God is good, and He is the Great Physician and Healer. We have Him to thank most of all. We also thank you for lifting us up to the Father. We owe a debt of gratitude to the incredible hospital staff (nurses & docs) and the infectious disease guy who "spoke with authority" and let us come home today instead of Thursday.

Thanks for your concern & your prayers. We still need your prayers that Eli will heal from this staph infection, and that he will experience many months / years of good health. As we move forward, we'll keep you posted about Eli's progress, and hopefully it will be a long, long time before he experiences another infection.

Murray & Jaime

Prayers for Baby Eli

Please pray for our infant son, Eli. We don’t want to alarm you, and we’re trying not to be alarmed, so here are the facts.

He was admitted to the “Peyton Manning Hospital for Children at St. Vincent’s” in Indianapolis today for a skin infection in addition to ear infection. The docs are giving him a strong combination of antibiotics intravenously, and they’ve told us Eli will be there at least 48 hours after the first dose, which wasn’t given until late tonight. So we’re thinking he’ll come home on Thursday, but there’s no guarantee.

Here are our specific prayer requests:
Pray that God will heal Eli of this skin infection, and his ear infections.
Pray that that today’s extensive blood tests will reveal that Eli has no other underlying issues with his blood or immune system.
Ask God to keep Faith safe & healthy during this trying time for our little family. (What a blessing to be near Jaime’s family at times like these…and my mom was already headed here for a visit and arrives Wednesday…)
Thank God for the great medical care we have in this country!
For more background, go to our blog www.murraysanderson.blogspot.com


BACKGROUND

Eli had a mild case of pneumonia in August, then a stomach virus earlier this month, followed by a significant ear infection that has lasted 2 weeks. This ear infection wasn’t phased at all by the low grade antibiotic, Amoxicillin. As an aside, I think doctors will soon be giving out Amoxicillin to trick or treaters, as it seems to compare only to candy in its impact on bacteria. After our 2nd trip to the ER this month for a fever spike a week ago, the docs upgraded him to Omnicef, the antibiotic a level up from Amoxicillin.

At this point, with Eli having pneumonia, stomach virus and ear infection all by 3 months of age, our pediatrician set an appointment for us to see an Infectious Disease specialist in mid-November. This caused us alarm, but hey, whatever it takes…

Then just before his bath last Saturday night, we found a quarter-sized red bump on his left ankle…I immediately thought it was a spider bite, but on further investigation, our docs now believe it is a skin infection caused by bacteria of some type, a type that is not eradicated by Omnicef.

Ok, we’re talking about a 4 ½ month old here…what a medical history he has! So our pediatrician advised us this morning that the best course was to admit him to the hospital, and then we would better be able to get an MRI and bloodwork completed, and get evaluation from pediatric specialists and an infectious disease specialist.

The MRI took 60 to 70 minutes, our boy is strong and he kept waking up from the mild sedation and moving around before they could finish the test. It took them awhile, but they finally got what they needed. (They had to administer the maximum amount of sedation, which weren’t crazy about…but you do what you have to do.) Thankfully, the MRI revealed that the infection is not in his bone, and appears to be only in the skin and the underlying tissue.

After the MRI, they took significant amounts of blood from him (don’t get me started on the pain of this process) and we’ll hopefully get those results tomorrow.

All of the docs who examine him just say how adorable he is, and how strong he is. He is very healthy if you’re just looking at him…he’s “chunky” in the words of the supervising pediatrician, and he has great color, a great appetite, smiles a lot, and sings quite loudly in notes just under those which shatter glass. He has lots of wet & dirty diapers (that’s my boy!) and he has a sparkle in his beautiful blue eyes. Because of how he looks and acts, they really don’t feel there’s anything wrong with his immune system, they just think we’ve been really unlucky, and that he’ll improve with this round of treatment and be just fine.

We thank you in advance for your prayers, and we look forward to updating you as soon as possible. Lord willing, the next email you get from us will be on Wednesday or Thursday, saying that we’re headed home and they didn’t find anything more serious.

(When I have time and have gotten more sleep, I'll say more about how cool it is to be in Peyton Manning's hospital and the upcoming Colts game...)

Note from Christian Chronicle Editor

I've posted multiple times about my frustration with the extensive ads placed in the Christian Chronicle boasting that a cappella singing is the only scriptural way to worship God.

Well, the Chronicle recently asked my congregation if we would be making our annual contribution and that gave me a chance to voice my concern, and say NO, we would not be offering them support any longer since they seem to be amenable to running such divisive ads.

I am VERY PLEASED to post this note that I received today from Lynn McMillon, the editor of Christian Chronicle...and I shall resubscribe to the paper, cautious but optimistic about their tone on the subject of instruments in worship. (Please note that I lead worship for an a cappella church, and am so thankful for my a cappella heritage. I just refuse to teach it as the only scriptural way, or the way that God is most pleased with...that is heresy and represents a very divisive way of thinking/acting.)

Dear Murray,
Thank you for your recent note regarding the music ad in the paper. I understand your frustration and wanted you to know that I have decided not to run that type of thing in the future. Please note the editorial this month that explains the change. In the meantime I have attached the new policy and the editorial for you. If you would like to discuss it further please let me know. Be assured that I do understand. I hope that you might give us another chance.

Lynn McMillon, CEO/Editor

Meeting Adam Vinatieri

I just met Adam Vinatieri, kicker for the World Champion Indianapolis Colts, at the Sharp Business Systems Expo at the Colts Center here in Indy.

I got an autographed picture, and I'm trying to figure out how to load my pic with him from my phone to my blog.

We had a nice chat, here's an excerpt (ok, it's the entire text of the chat.)

Murray: You guys are going to kill the Patriots, no problem.

Adam: Hope so, we're gonna stick it to 'em.

I think I'm his new best friend.

You would not believe the size of that Superbowl ring, and then his wedding ring is the biggest man's wedding ring I've ever seen and it was covered with a band of diamonds.

How did I get to do that? We took a field trip as an entire church staff (sans Jason) to learn about new business products from Sharp, and for a free lunch, and to meet an unnamed Colts player. I actually met a guy who could do color banners and other promo stuff for us, and I also found out about other cool products. So it was actually productive as well as fun!

(Nancilynn, thanks for the comment...what's your email? Send it to me at murray@nccoc.org)

Oct 16 - various

Well, we went to Nashville for the ZOE worship conference, but never left our hotel room except for runs to Target for pedialyte, and trips to the Emergency Room. Everyone in our family except me got the stomach bug...Eli ran a high fever so we took him in to Vandy Children's Hosp at 2 am one morning, then the following night, Jaime got dehydrated so we headed back to the ER to get help for her. If you're ever wondering, it's not fun to have 3 people regurgitating in one small hotel room. I do not recommend it.

Thanks to be God, we are all better now! Since we missed being encouraged & inspired at the conference, we are heading down to Evansville, IN for the Chris Tomlin/Matt Redman worship event on November 11th...I can't wait. Thanks to the Elmores & the Beasleys, we already saw this concert once in Fairfax in February of 2007, but we simply must go back. It is such a good one.

We just finished up a fun weekend with our friends the McClures who visited us from Jermantown, MD. Ben & I have been friends since we were 4 years old...who would have known our 1st children would have been born 4 days apart?!!

I wish so badly the Cowboys had beated the Patriots, but it will make the Colts victory over the Patriots that much sweeter when they come to Indy on Nov 4th...

Loving the fall here in Indiana...

My Thoughts Exactly

I've always liked Mike Cope...it all started when he was my preacher for 4 years while I attended Harding University. I this is still true, he's the only one who went through Harding Grad with a 4.0 grade point average. Anyway, he's brilliant, a great orator, a sincere follower of Christ, and the best student of Scripture that I know of.

On Aug 27, I posted about an ad in the Christian Chronicle...well, a similar ad has run again in this month's issue, and it's even worse. Here is Mike's post from a few days ago, and they are my thoughts exactly...and the thoughts of most, if not all, of the church leaders with whom I've worked in the past 15 years.

http://www.preachermike.com/ and go to his post entitled "A Time to Speak".

On a more positive note, we leave tomorrow for the ZOE worship conference in Nashville, and we are SO EXCITED! Besides hearing some awesome speakers and spending lots and lots of time in worship, we'll get to see some of my mom's family as well in our free time.

Words to Live By

The passage I put here yesterday was a bit heavy, especially for a Monday morning. Nonetheless (what a fun word to use), it contains an essential teaching.

Today's message from Jesus is this, from Matthew 7 again (sometimes I go for weeks or months without dwelling in the Sermon on the Mount, what a mistake!):

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.

Ok, now for a few random things that I really like:

1. getting a good night's sleep (last night, 11 pm to 6:30 am, thank you God!)
2. Monday Night Football with Eli, he was actually watching last night. He might just be a budding Titans fan, in honor of his father's birth state, and his cousin Eileen with which he shares the same 1st 3 letters of his name and his middle name.)
3. Faith's hair when she wakes up. I think someday her hair might incorporate.
4. Starbuck's new drip coffee "Joya".
5. Anything at Starbucks.
6. Reading the paper early in the morning.
7. Driving over the new bridge on Westfield.

Have a great day everyone!

Helpful Translation of Matthew 7

We had a great elders/ministers meeting last Saturday morning. Almost 3 hours long...wow. Thank you God for caffeine. (We start at 7:30 am on 2nd & 4th Saturdays of the month...)

We talked about many things, dreamed about how God will use us in His overall mission of loving and reconciling the world...somewhere during the discussion we brought up Matthew 7:21ff...which at the outset is not all that encouraging...but in this version, it really helped us internalize and personalize what Jesus was saying about true obedience to Him.

From Matthew 7, The Message version:

15-20"Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practiced sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don't be impressed with charisma; look for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. These diseased trees with their bad apples are going to be chopped down and burned.
21-23"Knowing the correct password—saying 'Master, Master,' for instance— isn't going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, 'Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.' And do you know what I am going to say? 'You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here.'

Definitely worth pondering....

Go Colts! Go Cowboys! Go Carl Edwards! (what a nasty wreck near the end, huh? Kasey Kahne is one of my favorite drivers, and he took the brunt of it...how cool that they've designed those cars to handle such impact.)

Let's see if the Titans can show up tonight and get a W.

Happy Monday everyone.

Other Worship Recordings

Thanks for the comment, Amy. Didn't like Vicky Beeching so much, huh? Not even "The Wonder of the Cross", track 5? Ok, moving on...her english accent and high-pitched keys are not for everyone. I've already decided my arrangement of that will be pitched lower.

Here are some of my favorites.
Chris Tomlin - His See the Morning cd has worship hit after hit after hit...

Hallal's latest CD Immeasurable is really great...Mostly they cover many great instrumental worship songs, but there are a few originals by Ken that are spectacular (effective, moving, well written, good hook, etc.)

Shane & Shane's new cd Pages is solid.

I'm reserving judgment on Dennis Jernigan's new cd I Cry Holy , but I don't think it contains anything like his monster hits "You are my All in All" or "Thank You, Lord" but I haven't finished listening to all of it yet...he has admitted to not being aware of current worship music / styles, and I think that shows in this newest release. It's great heartfelt stuff, it's just a little obvious and plain for me at "first listen".

Another great resource for up & coming worship artists is www.independentbands.com you could just sample some of their new releases.

Lastly, I'd be interested in hearing some of your favorite worship songs. Kelli B, you might even say "give me the old hymns" and that's great too. If you like fresh covers for them, I could hook you up. Amy Grant's are some of my favorite hymn redux.

Bottom line, just keep on singing!

various

Still loving Vicky Beeching's CD Painting the Invisible. Just go to itunes now and get it. Don't even think twice about it. You'll thank me later. www.vickybeeching.com

Stood in line 30 minutes today, yes 30, for Dunkin Donuts coffee & donuts, the new store in Carmel. I had promised to bring it to the staff, or else I would have blown it off. The parking lot, which was staffed with one Dunkin Donuts attendant, and 2 Dunkin Donuts staffers who were giving out free samples, was a circus. There was a funny sort of community feeling though, as we all stood in line for what was obviously just a luxury and not a need. It was sort of that feeling you get at an amusement park when everyone's standing in line for the best coaster...everyone's chatty, in a good mood, etc.

Eli is now 3 months old and laughs freely & easily. However, I, at 6:30 am this morning, was not the one laughing at his idea of a fountain-imitation. I'm just thankful it wasn't 4:30 am. He's doing great at sleeping from midnight to 6:30 am.

This cooler weather has got me so pumped up! I love it! I was actually cold this morning driving to work! Thank you God for 4 seasons! (Texans don't realize there are actually 4...down there, you just have summer and winter.)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Save the date...Harvest Sunday, October 14th

New insights

Thanks for a great Bible study yesterday morning, Russ! Jaime & I attended the Matthew class yesterday morning, and it was really good, helpful, insightful, encouraging, crowded, and all the things you want a class to be.

Here are just 2 quick insights I gained...

The wise men coming to visit baby Jesus when he was born...I've always thought, how cool, rich foreigners coming to see Jesus, with the little drummer boy in the background ;) It just seemed like a neat story, quaint and a nice rounding out of the nativity scene.

BUT

if you stop & reflect on that...it would be like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Donald Trump traveling to the tip of south America to BOW DOWN And worship a little baby boy born in a hut in a remote village. They would each present him with a million dollar gift and then travel back, completely ignoring the false pretenses of a request from President Bush to tell him where to find the baby.

When you stop & think about it, that is awesome. Everything about Jesus is awesome, to say the least, but even the cute little birth story is filled with mystery and wealth and poverty and prestige and humility and world leaders, etc.

I also just realized this morning after further reflection that those gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, were very helpful to Mary & Joseph to PROVIDE for that little baby on all of their travels and relocations. (They moved 3 times it seems before settling down.)

God is awesome, and His Word has so many levels. As Russ said, the longer you live, the more you learn...and at different stages of your life, you see/learn/observe different things in Scripture.

Have a great week in the Word, blogfriends.

A teachable moment

What an awesome 3 day weekend!

On Saturday, we spent time at Mounds State Park at a reunion with Jaime's mother's father's side of the family. Very cool to meet Jaime's grandfather's close relatives...he passed away before Jaime came along.

On Sunday after church, we enjoyed going to lunch (Babeaux in Broad Ripple, great suggestion PJ) with a friend from Fairfax (Megan C.) who is attending Butler University here in Indy, and a new North Central friend.

Then Jaime's dad and his wife came over to hang out and help us with our guest bath remodel. And yes, I helped him put in the new sink...I can do some things around the house, like get him a diet coke and go next door to borrow "channel locks". Whatever those are. We watched a bit of the NASCAR race as well. You know you're a fan when you yell out, "there's a wreck on pit road!" Jaime was like, don't distract my dad, he's getting a lot done!

Labor Day began perfectly with breakfast at Bob Evans, then there was napping and shopping and time with the family at the pool. (Our neighborhood has a mandatory HOA and part of what you get is pool membership...glad I finally made it on the last day of the year for the pool!) Jaime's dad came back over later and put the finishing touches on the new vanity/sinks/faucets in the kids' bathroom. Amazing what an upgrade a vanity/sinks can be! Thanks Mike! Now for the texture on the walls, and new lights...I'm so thankful to have a wife with great taste and an eye for decorating.

At one point Monday afternoon, the whole family was on the couch playing and wrestling and just hanging out. Faithy was doing something which I didn't want her to do: eating Graham crackers in the den without a plate...spreading crumbs evenly throughout the den...I "called her down" and told her what not to do. Her response was to give me a great big hug...BOTH little arms around my neck, and her cheek right next to mine. It was so precious and sweet. I had a hard time maintaining my "calling her down" tone...

THEN IT HIT ME!

That's how God feels about us when we love Him and worship Him and have all of these great feelings about Him, but we don't do what He says...like take care of the poor and oppressed and shut-ins and imprisoned. He loves us dearly, of course, but He wants us to OBEY Him. Loving Him must also contain a consistent obedience aspect. Without obedience, there really is no love. "If you love me, you will obey what I command." John 14:15

I know Faithy loves me, and she is learning to obey, and she does so regularly. But I just couldn't miss the point when God opened my eyes to her hugs of love in contrast with her desire to continue eating plate-less crumb-creating crackers.

Thanks God, I got it.

All In a Day's Work / New Shane & Shane CD

Most of you know my life's passion is worship ministry and I'm so blessed to be able to use my gifts in a way that puts a roof over our heads & clothes on our backs (and much more, obviously).

But I also love, in a very different way, being a church administrator.

Today I drained the baptistry and refilled it. It's fun to work with water that washes the sins of the world away.

After refilling, I was in the process of adding chlorine when I had an experience slightly similar to that of Former President Bill Clinton. He did not inhale, apparently, but I did today over the bucket of chlorine granules.

I'm fairly sure after that inhalation experience I'll never have pneumonia, and I'll never get lung cancer. I think the insides of my lungs are now pearly white and hospital-sterile. I hope the strong pungent breath-taking odor also whitened my macchiato-stained teeth as it made its way down.

I just feel clean all over and now everything I touch is also instantly santized. (I did not use gloves, but will next time.) I hope when I pick up Faithy tonight when I get home, that I don't bleach out her clothes with my fingertips.

Now, back to worship, the new Shane & Shane CD is out...It's called "Pages" and I'm getting to know it. "We Love you, Jesus" is very powerful and musically interesting. There's a cool song about Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego also, a story for which I wish there were more songs, since it's so many people's favorite O.T. story (mine & Jaime's for sure.) It's called "Burn us up." I love their guitar work and tight duet vocals. But you just have to enjoy the good and skip over a few tracks on all of the CDs, if you ask me. They are rarely in the middle of my musical-taste palette. They're either knocking them out of the park, or should be getting kicked out of a park.

Regardless, I recommend it. I bought mine off www.independentbands.com and they always have low pricing.

Have a great weekend everyone! Walk with Jesus every moment. He's right beside, inside you. How humbling and reassuring and powerful to know.

Reply from Christian Chronicle

Earlier in the week I posted about my frustration with a full-page ad appearing in the current issue of Christian Chronicle.

I shared my frustration with Bobby Ross, editor of the paper. We had a good email exchange that was followed by a good telephone conversation.

To sum it up, the board of Christian Chronicle was already slated to review their policy on "adver-torials" at the October 2007 board meeting. The ad I questioned was not the first one to raise the ire of subscribers. Bobby said they receive numerous complaints throughout the year from people at various places on the long continuum of people in churches of Christ. It seems no one likes advertising or advertorials that bespeak ideas foreign to their own theology.

I like the paper, and I'll continue taking it. In this issue, there's a solid article covering Graham Kervin's mission team in Olomouc, CR...and there are always newsy tidbits of what's going on in other churches across the world. So the good being done by the paper far outweighs the few negative advertorials, to be sure.

And I'm learning to frame my frustration with this a cappella vs. instrumental issue. I'm learning that if I want our movement to move past it (which means many things...remaining happily a cappella as a matter of choice not doctrine, or integrating instruments in a meaningful and encouraging way that never drowns out the voices) , then maybe I should set an example, and do just that...move on.

From time to time, people will assert views such as the ad in the current issue. Or someone may start a discussion about which version is scripturally sound, KJV, NIV or RSV. Or someone may question whether we should use 8 song leaders or one song leader. It's my responsibility as a follower of Christ to expend my energies on issues Christ was passionate about, and to kindly smile and move away from debates and arguments about such things.

More, More About Boz

Hey, please also read my other post from today on this subject...

After ranting about Boz, I remembered that in the videos, when the children are praying to God at night in their joint bedroom with their parents, a CROSS is prominently displayed. So while they do not pray in Jesus' Name, nor mention Him at all, they do display the cross.

And when I further questioned Exclaim Entertainment about their stance, they assured me Jesus would be mentioned in the upcoming Christmas release "It's a Wowee Bozowee Christmas!" As I told Kelli B, they should be congratulated for being bold enough to mention Christ at Christmastime. Oh, the risk involved! They ALSO told me they would consider mentioning him in future releases.

The co-creator of Boz was also a co-creator of the big purple dinosaur "Barney". He has taught values and 1-2-3's for years without any mention of Jesus and I never once protested him. I think it's the marketing aspect of Boz that gets me...Family Christian and churches and other Christian bookstores. Barney never claimed to be a theologian. But Boz is appearing in all Christian circles without mentioning him at all...I'm not asking for "the sermon on the mount", simply a reference to "As Jesus taught us, we should seek to serve one another first..." at mealtimes or something.

Thanks for listening.

In JESUS' Name,
Amen.

Boz doesn't want to mention Jesus / Christian Chronicle reply

This may only be relevant to parents of toddlers/preschoolers, but I am curious to others' feedback as well.

About a year ago, on a flight from Dallas back to Washington, I met a man who worked for Exclaim Entertainment...we chatted, and when he learned I had a toddler, he gave me a promotional DVD of "Boz the Bear" and told me all about it.

I was done with my 3 oz of coke & 4 pretzels, so we chatted quite a bit. It sounded like a great new alternative for teaching my little one basic colors, shapes, numbers, and also about values & faith. (Teaching faith to Faith will strengthen my faith, I'm sure. I just had to say that.)

Well, since then we've purchased 2 DVDs of Boz the Bear (I know, wow!) and Faithy has fallen in love with him. He's a large green Bear who lives next door to the Baxter family, and they have all kinds of fun in their little Utopia, while learning about numbers, letters and values. The songs are quite catchy actually, and I find myself singing them around the house.

3 days ago, however, my infatuation with Boz the Bear came to a sudden halt. I turned to Jaime and asked, "Honey, I don't ever hear Boz mention JESUS...he talks about God's love, but does he ever mention JESUS?" She paused, reflected, and flatly said, "No, he sure doesn't." We were both caught off guard, and I was incensed.

BOZ DOESN'T MENTION JESUS!

It is impossible to talk about God's love and exclude Jesus. It's impossible to teach values and faith without Jesus. I thought, certainly I have overlooked it.

I wrote to the company at their Dallas headquarters.

Sure enough, I got a standard reply from them, stating that they are trying to build bridges with parents, and hopefully at some point later the parents can flesh out what God's love means as they teach their kids. They strategically avoid the name of Jesus to reach a broader market and not offend people.

I am so angry at that reply I can't even think straight. I am still trying to figure out what to do about it, I sure will write people at Exclaim Entertainment who are higher up than the first person who answered my mail. But what do you do about someone who won't mention Jesus' name, but still wants to talk about God? All of their videos are sold at Family Christian (see the CHRIST in the name) and Boz is doing a summer tour of churches in the Christian faith. But he won't mention Christ on screen.

That is wrong, very wrong. He's marketed to Christians like me who are lapping up the product, and only after we've purchased can we determine that Boz won't have anything to do with Jesus.

Thoughts?

Tomorrow or Thursday, I'll post about Bobby Ross' reply to my post yesterday. It really helped me out, and I know it definitely grew my perspective on things.

Please keep praying for Baby Bennett http://www.prayingforbennett.blogspot.com/

And my wife's blog is better http://www.murraysanderson.blogspot.com/

Thoughts and Bad Reaction to ad in Christian Chronicle

Here's a funny saying David shared with us yesterday..."When I was growing up, we couldn't even afford to pay attention." I thought that was hilarious. You may have heard it before, but I never have. That was good.

David's message yesterday entitled "Crossing Over" (yes, from John 5:24) was very convicting and encouraging. Go to http://www.nccoc.org/ to listen if you need a boost. Toward the end of the sermon, he used a seires of contrasts to make his point...with his permission I reprint them here:

This eternal life now can be yours...

"not because you are good, but because God is good.
not because you went to church, but because Jesus went to the cross.
not because you came out of your old habits, but because Jesus came out of the tomb.
not because you shed your irreligious ways, but because Jesus shed his blood."

What a great reminder. Thank you David!

And for those of you who read the Christian Chronicle, if your reaction to the full-page ad on page 10 is anything like mine (sheer revulsion), then I encourage you to let the editor know. Bobby Ross is the editor, he's a great guy; he & his wife did a story on Fairfax in 2005 and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them. But I just hate that they have to run ads like this...
Ok, if you don't have the paper in front of you, go to http://www.foracappella.org/ and just get a taste of it. Then email bobby.ross@christianchronicle.org and ask him to consider NOT running ads that are completely irrelevant and off-point to our mission in the kingdom of God. If they had merely encouraged people to sing without instruments and appreciate the joyful sound of voices singing together, then fine...but they present a cappella format as "the scriptural plan for the church", and I wholeheartedly disagree with that conclusion.

This Weekend

Keep praying for Baby Bennett...
www.prayingforBennett.blogspot.com

I'm looking forward to Sunday...I think the entire song line-up is solid, but there are 2 songs I'm particularly excited about:
We Delight
Beautiful One

We're singing the Zoe arrangements on both songs www.zoegroup.org Wow, am I ever thankful for their resourceful ministry.

At rehearsal last night, the team sounded great on these...tons of energy, excitement, and just plain ole good singin'.

Of course, we're also singing the classic "Be Thou My Vision"... undoubtedly one of my favorite hymns. Great musical movement, great harmonies (hard to find a good arrangement though...we're using a Hallal arrangement with some added verses), and superb prayerful lyrics.

Thanks to God for all of the rain earlier this week...I'll be mowing this weekend which I always enjoy. Really I do. Especially now that I have a riding lawnmower, I'm beyond cool.

Ok, that's all the non-important forgettable stuff I can think of...have a great weekend everyone!

Prayers for Baby Bennett

My friends' Travis & Kelly had a precious baby boy named Bennett yesterday morning. He is currently in NICU for fever and possibly acidosis. I solicit your fervent prayers for him and his family as they go through this difficult time.
Here is a blog that contains updates & other info:

www.prayingforbennett.blogspot.com