little drummer boy

ok...i don't exactly know where this song came from, but there's a line in it that is encouraging :)

..."Mary looked at me and nodded (pa rum pa pum pum)
the ox and lamb kept time (pa rum pa pum pum)
I played my drum for him (pa rum pa pum pum)"

ok. marry was bobbing her head. the ox and lamb kept time.
what? the ox. and lamb. they kept the time. like the 2 and 4 beat?
like...there are human beings in rhythm groups and choirs that can
barely clap and sing at the same time, much less clap on the correct beat.

so there was groove even back then :)

turn up the drums :)

it's hard to believe

lots of things are hard to believe at this time of year, i guess.

1. seniors are graduating and moving on in life. some of them never thought that they would be at this point in life. Many of them find it hard to believe that their college careers are ending.

2. whattomsays is back on the blog host thingie. that means i can check it daily (several times a day actually) to read witty blog entries.

3. people will spend lots of money on toys, and never celebrate the fact that Jesus was born as a baby, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and rose from the grave. Now it's possible to be forgiven by believing in His work.

4. the gospel. for a more "in-depth" look, read this book that Pri (very graciously) let me borrow.

Qdoba vs. Moe's....coming soon

this post has been needed for a long time.

*the following comments were added 12-13-05*

after much thought and consideration i have decided, for the sake of unity in a blogging circles, as well as in the Body (as Chip used a moe's illustration in his sermon on Sunday) to no longer cause any divisions based on the differences between moe's and qdoba.

I will instead focus my attention and energy on getting support to bring back the whattomsays blog.

Our Hope, Our Promise

It's a story as old as time itself, one that tells of God's relentless love for His people. This Christmas, come experience God's story of salvation through music and drama.

From God's first words at creation…

"Let there be light."
Genesis 1:3

To the fall of man and his continual rebellion…

"The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become…"
Genesis 6:5

To the promise of redemption…

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light…"
Isaiah 9:2

To the birth of Christ…

"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you;
He is Christ the Lord."
Luke 2:11

To His crucifixion and resurrection …

"He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification."
Romans 4:25

I can't think of a better title for a Christmas Musical event. Our Hope, Our Promise is such a sweeping view of our life in Christ, and our trust and faith in Him to be who He says He is.

Every one of the 5 shows are sold out! We're so excited to see how God uses this event. Pray for us as we prepare - (and let me know if need a ticket...i have a few for sunday night)

today i turned old

today i'm as old as my older brother. it's true. for a few weeks every year we are the same age.
(i understand that this is only in terms of whole numbers, and that i'm not literally the same age as him...so resist the desire to clarify that fact for me :)

rather than keep the past hidden, here is a link to a few pictures that my mom keeps posting on her blog.

passaro8.blogspot.com


*check out the one with us all playing music - what's going on with my brother chris's shirt??? *

smart people go to Qdoba

it's true. today i went to Qdoba to get my chicken taco salad, with mild, hot, and extra hot salsa and this truth was confirmed. here is a clip of a conversation that i overheard:

guy #1:
"...blah..blah...unless they're polytonic increasing electrodes which of course would change everything...blah..blah..."

guy #2:
nods in agreement...


???

Does anyone even know what polytonic increasing electrodes are? well...this might help...
click here to find out what those guys were talking about...

When is the last time you heard people talking about that stuff at Moe's?

Pasta and Things

Last night we had "Pasta with the Renstroms"...
we = the h20 praise team
renstroms = daniel (danielle was gone)

we decided to let the theme of the night be "family style"...so for part of the evening we gave our highs and lows of the week. This was working for a little while until Daniel shared a low that was pretty low, so we decided to change to the "highs" and "not as highs".

i realized that i never shared mine last night, so to my 8 readers :)...here are my highs and not as highs...

one high comes from last night while we were playing this game:
we divided girls (and james) vs. the guys, and because we had uneven numbers i played for both teams, which basically meant i got to answer for everyone and not really care if i lost :) So after the girls (and James) won several games in a row, and daniel lost two points in a row (never having the game thingie leave his hands because his clues were so bad...) Daniel got really into the game and began yelling at the game board! At the end, when the guys finally beat the girls (and James) in 1 game, Daniel screams at the board:

"Say it little man! Say it"

and the little man in the game board says:

"team 1 gets 1 point, and wins!"

then we quit playing...the final score was girls (and james) 2 games to guys 1 game...but daniel was ok with that...

other highs:
talking with ben about new AD project
looking at macs :)
christmas concert preview ( i love the way the music team bonds during these prep times)
finally getting through Luke in my QT

Luke 15:3-7

3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

NC State Football

Now I know that this is a sensative topic, especially among my 7 readers, but NC State is not good at football right now. There's lots of talk about whether it's the coaches or the players...and I guess the jury is still out.

So, to maybe help us figure that out, here's a quote from one of the NC State coaches:

"When you look back at the last three or four games, and I just don't think we have gotten any better in terms of getting a dynamic football team in terms of what we are doing."

?

I have altered my weekend schedule as of late, to ensure that I will be busy at whatever time the football team is playing so that I won't have to struggle with sins of impatience, anger, fits of rage, etc. If anyone needs to join me for knitting on Saturday afternoons let me know. We can make a Christmas quilt or something.

Ephesians 4:32

"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."

This verse in Ephesians is a verse that I've been praying through and meditating on for a while now. I share it in hopes that you (my devoted readers...eh em, all 6 of you) will meditate and pray through this verse. tenderhearted...Lord make that true of me


UPDATE:
Praise the Lord for His goodness! Today was my first day on staff at Providence and I'm so excited to be serving there! The team of people that God as assembled there is incredible. I look forward to ministering with them -

Matthew 13:44

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."

This was a verse that I read in a quiet time not long ago, and I've been meditating on it for a while now. I encourage you to do the same (the 1 other person that reads this...travis, you know who you are). Pray through this verse. wow.

If you're like me the "in his joy" part is the part where you say to yourself "in my joy?" is that the way I view the kingdom of heaven?

"when Thou, and Thou alone, Lord Jesus art my Treasure!"
-What is the World to Me

i'm not smart

so today I had a bunch of letters to mail that needed stamps. lots of letters. lots of stamps. so I go to the post office to buy about 50 of those things (which are now stickers...which is great because you don't have to get that taste on your tongue) AND this really nice lady at the counter asks me if she can help, and I'm thinking, boy I hope so because if you can't, I don't know who can...

I ask the lady for 50 stamps and she says "would you like any particular type of stamp"...and i'm thinking..."no, the ones that go on envelopes will do just fine" So I purchase said stamps and leave the post office and walk to the parking lot to get into my car. i reach for my keys and i don't have them. so i'm thinking, i've never locked myself out of my car before...this is interesting, but it's a good thing that i left my windows down.

I look in through the windows to see where i left them...ingnition? nope. cup holder? nope. did i drop them on the seat? nope. At this point I'm thinking, "ok, i must have left them in the Post Office, so I walk towards the building and this customer leaves as I'm entering. In her hands I could see a Beyond Fitness pass, and what I thought was a drum key...both of which are on my key ring, but this customer keeps walking. I stopped at the door and kind of turned to address her, but she had kept walking.

Turns out she doesn't speak english. AND she didn't take to kindly to me trying to take "her" keys from her...as she rushed to her car and tried to get in real fast...so I just stood there with a half grin on my face while she "figured it out"...

canadia

In honor of hockey season starting again, I've decided to share a song with you all that's very near to my heart. I saw the Penguins play the Hurricanes and it's safe to say that the hockey bug is bitting hard. Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, Marc-Andre Fleury...they're all Candian...

Canada Song

Welcome to Canada it's the maple leaf state
Canada O Canada It's great
The people are nice and they speak French too
If you don't like it man you sniff glue
The great white north their kilts are plaid
Hosers take off it's not half bad
I want to be where Her yaks can run free
Where the Royal Mounties can arrest me

Let's go to Canada
Let's leave today
Canada O Canada
El se vous ple

They've got trees and mooses and sled dogs
Lots of lumber and lumber jacks and logs
We all thinks that it's kind of a drag
That you have to go there to get milk in a bag
They say "eh" instead of "what" or "duh"
That's the mighty power of Canada
I want to be where lemmings run into the sea
Where the marmasets can attack me

chorus

Please, Please explain to me
How this all has come to be
We forgot to mention something here
Did we say that William Shatner is a Native citizen
And Slurpees made from venesin that's deer

chorus

It's raining

Sometimes it feels like this is where I work...

and this is my office...


it's times like these when I remind myself that I'm blessed by the Lord to even have a job. Praise Him - He's so faithful to provide for my every need!

A Few Good Verses

I've been doing the read through the Bible in a year plan and it's been amazing. I'm finding promises in books of the Bible that I wouldn't normally read, so I thought I'd share a few of those verses...

Hosea 2:7
7 She shall pursue her loversbut not overtake them, and she shall seek thembut shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’

Hosea 2:14-15
“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.15 And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor [1] a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt."

Hosea 6:1-3
“Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”

Joel 2:25-27
25 I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. 26 “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame.

Jonah 1:17-2:10
*this is a lot to paste in here...so go look it up...*:)
2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, 2 saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress,and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice...9 Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

Micah 6:6-8
6 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?7 Will the Lord be pleased with [1] thousands of rams,with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of youbut to do justice, and to love kindness, [2]and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 7:7
But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.

Micah 7:18-20
18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquityand passing over transgressionfor the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.19 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our [1] sinsinto the depths of the sea. 20 You will show faithfulness to Jacoband steadfast love to Abraham,as you have sworn to our fathersfrom the days of old.

Nahum 1:7
7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.


Be encouraged today by God's word...

one of my favorites from Dallas


joel cameron makes even this junk sound good...


i play guitar sometimes 

What comes into your mind when you think about God?

"We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree we are capable of. God's holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered. We know nothing like the divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God's power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine."
The Knowledge of the Holy, 111.

This book encourages us to elevate our concept of God, not just think higher of him, but to see Him as He truly is...and thus, worhship Him as we should.

More quotes from this book later -

dear diary

it's been such a long time since i've written, so to all of my fans, I apologize. It seems that at times my life can be so busy that I can't remember the specifics. Now is one of those times.

Rather than waste a whole lot of time on me, I think I'll just give you the opportunity to pray for a few things:

1) Patti - most of you know by now the situation with her, so just continue to pray for her. Pray for a quick and accurate diagnosis of the condition that she is suffering from so that she can begin taking the best medication.

2) Pray for the Providence family as we go through the Stewardship series. Pray that Pastor Horner would speak with wisdom and clarity on where he and the leadership team see God leading us as a church. Pray that we would respond.

3) I am currently praying about attending seminary. As it stands now, I'm going through the application process, so pray that I would be open to where the Lord leads.

4) Pray for all that are affected by hurricane Katrina. Pray that we, as believers, would be open to how we can show the love of Christ by helping.

That's all for now...maybe I'll steal some pictures from someone's blog and i'll post them soon.

they will know we are Christians by our blogs

it's true. the watching, reading, internet surfing world will know that we are Christians by our blogs. so let me encourage you to write something meaty...

in all seriousness, i think my blog would go to "the next level" if i started including digital photographs. Or, as I was advised yesterday, I could just "borrow" pictures from other blogs...

so...update your blog already. your readers are waiting. clicking the little refresh button. hoping. and write something good for your readers...

hey everyone...i read a book

So I finally did it. yep. I read a book. The entire thing from beginning to end. I think that this is a major step in getting over my "fear of commitment"...actually I don't think I've ever had a fear of commitment, but if I did, reading this book might have helped.

What's more is that I jumped on the Blue Like Jazz Bandwagon, and I really enjoyed the ride. Miller is a pretty funny guy with so many stories that you would think he was 100 years old, or something close. If you haven't read this book, you probably should, it will at least make you laugh, but will probably reveal much more about how we approach living out our faith, and how lots of other people interpret "us" living out our faith.

wasn't i just here?

last week, shelly and I lead worship at a youth camp for a week in Hilliard, FL. You know...Hilliard? it's one of those places that you have to "go through the stop light..." to get there. so after a week of leading worship (3 days of which shelly had no voice), and trying to finish the Vaunted Pleasures worship CD we returned to Raleigh.

Next up was the 242 retreat with Providence. I was only there for a few hours, then left to go back to Raleigh to leave the next morning for a friend's wedding in...FL. So after a great night of sleep in the hotel, I'm here in Florida updating a blog of all things.

The wedding is today at 4:30 with a reception following at 6:00p.m. Shelly and I are leaving directly after the reception to drive back to Raleigh so that we can be at Providence in the morning. So, if my math is correct...and it's been a while since I've done math...if we leave at 8 tonight, we should get in at 6 am. Just enough time to shower and head over to church! :)

oh, and I can't wait to hear the final version of the CD.

youth camp: round 2

after a few scheduling issues, shelly and i made it to the 2nd of the 4 camps that we're leading worship for this summer. this one was different than any other than we've ever done though. we were a part of this same camp last year, so we knew a lot of the youth. we knew their issues. we knew what they made pledges to do at the camp last year.

on the last night of camp, this group has the tradition of sitting in a circle, passing a candle around, and sharing what they learned or enjoyed most about camp. i sat midway through the group of 60 and listened to 30 students before me talk about how they just were glad that they got to come because they felt closer to God this week than they had in the past year...

wow...that's great right? isn't that what we as leaders on the trip want? well yes, and no. I asked the kids to compare their lives during camp to their lives at home and the contrast is stark. tv & video games vs. the bible.....sleeping til noon vs. worshiping God early in the morning....hanging with the wrong crowd vs. encouraging fellowship...

is it any wonder that when we leave the tv off and read the bible, or put down the video game controllers and pray...or instead of just watching movies, we encourage each other with the Word of God that God uses that to draw us closer to himself?

I guess I wasn't as surprised at the results of the camp as most of the students were...

"We put down the Bible and pick up the play station, And we can’t defend our faith ’cause we don’t even know it, We say we love his word but pick a funny way to show it."
-OC Supertones
Return of the Revolution

fca on three

this past week, shelly and I (with a little help from our friends), got to spend a week at the anual FCA leadership camp at Campbell University. Attending the camp were high school and middle school students from the southeast. They came fired up, and left even more a blaze.

I have a problem with being too critical. Most of the time I come up with a reason about what problems these kids have, or what they need to fix about their faith, etc. You know, the typical "i'm mature in my faith, and you students have a lot to learn...from me..."

One story stands out - a student requested a song all week long that I don't particularly like. I told him that if he could find the verse that it was from we would play that song. To make a long story short, the next day the kid brought me a Bible, opened it to the OT passage and read me the verse. I asked him to explain it to me ... and he did! He explained how david was praising God because the ark of the covenent was finally brought back, and how no matter what he was going to praise God. See, that was this kid's story. He was so excited that God had saved him that he was bent on praising no matter who watched and made fun of him, or told him he looked foolish...

oh to have that kind of mature faith...

more later -

Ephesians 1:1

"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus"

I used to try to set personal goals, ministry goals, academic goals, etc. so that I could see if I was making progress. I would write things down in my journal like "by the end of the year I will be in full-time music ministry", or "I will go to the gym at least three times a week..." Maybe this sounds a little like you as well. I resolved to do everything it took to be in ministry. I committed firmly to working out consistently. My will, however, is fickle. It is constantly wavering and changing. In fact, most of the time I don't even know what I want.

I find myself amazed at how often I've read the Bible, but how rarely I've actually studied it. Maybe you're like me and you've read things a thousand times, only to come across a verse and your reaction is "have I ever read this verse before?!" So, stare at the verse at the top of the blog and make note of what you see. See it yet?

...by the will of God

Paul realized and believed something essential to the Christian life. He realized that he was only who he was because of the will of God. But why does this matter? What real difference does it make? In fact, could he not have just left out that small phrase? Moreover, why is it important that we understand why Paul would include that phrase?

Acts 17:28 says that in Him (Christ) we live and move and have our being! Why was Paul an apostle, writing letters to the saints in Ephesus? Because of the firm, resolved, unwavering, unchanging will of the only God. Indeed, you and I also should recognize our place in the Sovereign will of a Holy God.

How sweet is the peace that is found in the will of a gracious God.

matthew 5:14-16

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

Two things you should know about me: I was a Communication major in college, where I specialized in how to read people. I play music quite often. It would seem logical then that while I'm on stage my mind is trying to process the reactions of the audience. Head nods are good. Amens every now and then are good as well. These are the reactions that we've received the most. Which is why tonight was so very different.

We were added, last minute, to a hard core band's show. They are friends of ours, playing the club scene. When we started playing, I felt this immediate pressure to "water down" the stories behind our songs. To just play. Don't talk. And definitely don't share the gospel...

What conviction these verses brought to my heart! I have been light with a fire in my heart that should "shine before men" and why? that they may what? "see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

Yes, that's it. That they may know the One who is heaven. Be bold then, stand as lights on a hill, validating the truth of the gospel in all situations.

smb_bubbles 

psalm 30:11-12

"You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever"

The Lord is good, amen?! I love His Word. He reveals Himself through His never changing Word. I'm challenged daily to read it, to know it, to study it, to apply it, to share it with others. Beginning to study His Word is sometimes overwhelming. Where do we start? Well...we start with the text. What does it say?

I love the Psalms. In them we see the heart of God, as well as the heart of those seeking to follow Him. In Psalm 30, we see several things, but mainly I see the mercy and graciousness of a loving, hearing God. The text says that God has "turned for me my mourning into dancing". Mourning for what? Should I be mourning? Christ says in the gospels, "blessed are those who mourn"...ok so that seems to answer the question of "Should we?"...but why should we mourn? I mourn because of my sinful condition, my lack of goodness, my lack of righteousness, my inability to please God. I mourn over the sins of others as well, that they don't have an understanding of a Just and Forgiving God.

I'm sure we can all remember when we were young and our parents told us to stop crying. Or maybe when a friend told us "not to be so sad" I think sometimes that mindset hinders us from seeing what the text says. It doesn't say that God took merely took away our mourning, it says that he turned our mourning into dancing. What a glorious exchange! Therefore, our response is Psalm 30:12. We sing. We praise. We do not remain silent, but instead we give thanks!

That my friends is the gospel.