I thought I’d better get on here and update before you all forget whom I am!

 

I have been pretty busy lately but I really can’t remember what it has been that has been keeping me busy.  I guess one thing is playing a lot of backgammon on the computer!  I also spend a few hours each week trying to get my son Matt through his on-line Algebra/Trigonometry course.  He only needs that and one English class to get his Associates Degree in Architectural Technology but he seems to have lost his interest in completing his courses due to the lack of jobs available in his field.  He works in construction right now but makes less than $10 an hour and has a tough time paying his bills.  I’ve asked you to pray for him in the past and would appreciate some more prayer for him so he can figure out who he is and what he needs to be doing with his life.

 

All of my children (Matt plus my two daughters) seem to have a lack of ambition towards achieving any goals in their lives.  The two daughters are both studying for an Associates Degree in Office Administration – Medical but would be content to drop out and work part time at the local Shop & Save.  I am not the most ambitious person in the world but when I was 15 I started working at a gas station and continued there when I started college.  When I dropped out of school I got a full time job in a local steel mill and also, for a while, kept the part time job.  I’ve made my share of mistakes in my life but did finally get my degree when I turned 40 and have been able to achieve some sort of success in my career though I’m behind those who are younger but got their degrees sooner.  That’s why I try and encourage my children to stay with it but it seems that my words of wisdom fall on deaf ears and that, in the end, I guess experience will be the best teacher.  Why are we, as humans, too stupid to listen to the advice of those who suffered before us and have to be doomed to suffer the same mistakes and consequences of those who’d try and help us avoid those very things?  Well I’m getting entirely too philosophical here!

 

I’ve been going through the same thing with the new worship leader I’ve been advising at church.  They always have good reasons for their song selections and though I try and caution them about some things that have been stumbling blocks to myself in the past, they seem to have their minds set on doing things a certain way.  I finally decided that I needed to back off and allow them the freedom to make mistakes as there is no character builder quite like screwing up before a large group of people.  We want it done God’s way and not Dale’s way anyhow so He needs to be the teacher and not I.

 

This upcoming week will also be my last at my present job and the following week will be the start of my new assignment.  I hate to be changing job descriptions and having to move from a filed office to the main office in Pittsburgh (a place I hate to have to go to) but others lost their jobs so I am at the least grateful that I still have a job even though I will now have to drive further and pay for parking.  Pittsburgh also keeps talking about enacting a commuter tax, which will also dip into my earnings.

 

Well, I hope I’m not giving you the impression that my life is not going well because it is going well, all things considered.  God IS good and He is in control and even when I don’t understand what is going on, I do have the hope and faith that He is behind the scenes directing all things that affect me and that they will all work together for my good and the good of His kingdom.  You just never know what plans God has for you.  There may be someone who needs to hear about God in the federal building and all this may just be for that purpose.  God loves you and will manipulate circumstances as much as He needs to reach out to you and do the best for you if you will only allow Him that freedom in your life.  Give Him that chance and be sure to thank Him!!

 

God IS Good!

Go Ahead! Say It! Believe It! Confess It!

You're Invited!!

Go to The Prayer List , don't forget the others in need!

 

"Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior will be, I think, the wonder that I made so little use of the power of prayer." - D.L. Moody

 

Due to some confusion as to where to send prayer requests I want to clarify that you can use the email link at Isaiah56 (The Prayer List). Please include your xanga address so I know who you are!

I was reading a couple of articles similar to one linked below this week and thought I’d post my occasional blog on computer security.

 

Most Home PC Users at Risk for Attack

 

“The bulk of home PC users are largely open to attack through the Internet, with nearly half of all broadband connections running without a firewall, nearly 70 percent without updated antivirus protection, four in five users with spyware or adware on their machines, and nearly 90 percent of those victims unaware of the compromise.”

 

Listed below, in several catagories, are some programs I personally use to protect my computers and some free programs you can use to protect your computer if you are not already using some type of anti-virus, fireall, and spyware removal software.  If you are unsure about any of the listed programs, do a google search and find some user comments to assist you in your evaluation.

 

Free Antivirus:

 

I use Norton Antivirus, which I get free at work, but the following two programs seem to have excellent reputations:

 

AntiVir Personal Edition

“Even though viruses have now grown very numerous, one thing hasn't changed: our commitment to provide you with all-round protection. The reliability of AntiVir is demonstrated in numerous comparison test and references featured in independent trade journals….The AntiVir Personal Edition offers the effective protection against computer viruses for the individual and private use on a single PC-workstation…support is free of charge via AntiVir Bulletin Board .”

 

AVG Anti-Virus FREE Edition

“AVG Anti-Virus FREE Edition is the well-known anti-virus protection tool. AVG Anti-Virus FREE is available free-of-charge to home users for the life of the product! Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high-level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Anti-Virus FREE is easy-to-use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements).

 

(Note: I recently read where they are discontinuing support for some existing versions of AVG Anti-Virus so be sure you download the newest version.  I am not certain if this applies only to the paid version or to the free version as well.)

 

Free Firewall:

 

I use the free version of ZoneAlarm though there are additional features available in their paid versions including anti-virus protection.  Be aware that Windows XP has it’s own firewall built in which, in SP2, appears to have been improved over the original.  (I’ve yet to update to SP2 and have been completely satisfied with ZoneAlarm since its inception years ago and see no reason, at this time, to change.)

 

ZoneAlarm

“ZoneAlarm is free for individual and not-for-profit charitable entity use (excluding governmental entities and educational institutions)….Easy-to-use firewall blocks hackers and other unknown threats….Intrusion Blocking systematically identifies hackers and blocks access attempts….Stealth Mode automatically makes your computer invisible to anyone on the Internet.”

 

Sygate Personal Firewall

“FREE for personal use, Sygate Personal Firewall 5.x provides best of breed security in a user friendly interface, protecting your PC from hackers, trojans and DoS attacks. New features include full-ICS support, protocol driver level protection, enhanced logging, and more. Sygate Personal Firewall is the first FREE personal firewall to offer protection from malicious code intrusions, keeping the information on your PC safe and private.”

 

Free Spyware Removal:

 

I use both of the following programs as it seems that they both will catch items that the other misses.  Be sure you read and understand the instructions before allowing the programs to remove any spyware.  It’s scary the first couple of times you do so But in the years I’ve been using the programs, I’ve never had any problems with them removing anything my computer needs to run.

Spybot - Search & Destroy
“Spybot – Search & Destroy can detect and remove spyware of different kinds from your computer. Spyware is a relatively new kind of threat that common anti-virus applications do not yet cover. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you didn't intentionally install, if your browser crashes, or if you browser start page has changed without your knowing, you most probably have spyware. But even if you don't see anything, you may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging that is silently tracking your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile of you that will be sold to advertisement companies. Spybot-S&D is free, so there's no harm in trying to see if something snooped into your computer, too.”

Ad-Aware

“Ad-Aware is designed to provide advanced protection from known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components. With the release of Ad-Aware SE Personal edition, Lavasoft takes the fight against Spyware to the next level.”

 

Free Web Browser:

 

I’ve included Firefox as it seems to be the new up and coming software fad and offers a good alternative to Internet Explorer.  I’ve been using it, off and on, for several months now as it goes through it’s various beta versions and haven’t had any problems though I still return to I.E. at least half the time, especially when posting here.  Firefox’s greatest attribute is it’s blocking of pop-up windows which comes in handy especially when reading news sites, though I’ve read that XP SP2 also updates IE with a pop-up blocker..

 

“The Firefox Preview Release empowers you to browse faster, more safely, and more efficiently than with any other browser. Join more than 6 million others and make the switch today - Firefox imports your Favorites, settings and other information, so you have nothing to lose.”

 

Free Computer Help:

 

If you do have computer problems, the following two sites are excellent places to ask others for advice.  I’ve included a link to Hijack This which is a program you can download that will give you a list of all operating processes on your computer which you can, in turn, cut and paste into your posting at the help sites.  My only word of caution is that, from experience, you can occasionally come across people on these sites that aren’t as knowledgeable as they’d like you to think but be persistent and someone will, in most cases, be able to help you. 

 

Tech Support Guy

“If you're looking for free technical support, you've come to the right place. This site is run completely by volunteers and paid for completely by donations and sponsors. There is no charge to you (although we do appreciate donations).”

 

TomCoyote
”This site has been created for you, the user, to help with the removal and solution of computer problems….The problems encountered today require skill and experience to remove fully and without damaging the Operating System. This website has been in existence for over two years and many of its staff and members have been in this field for much longer. We have many experienced people working with users to help them remove problems from their computer. The focus is to restore the computer back to normal functioning, without the annoyances of viruses, spyware, malware, browser hijackers and so forth….Many of our methods will use freely available applications that are on the internet and which have been used and approved by the TomCoyote staff.”

 

(Tom and his wife were early xangans!!)

 

“HijackThis examines certain key areas of the Registry and Hard Drive and lists their contents. These are areas which are used by both legitimate programmers and hijackers. It's up to you to decide what should be removed. Some items are perfectly fine. You should not remove them. Never remove everything. Doing that could leave you with missing items needed to run legitimate programs and add-ins. This Page will help you work with the Experts to clean up your system. For those of you needing instructions on how to Copy and Paste the contents of a text file into a Forum Post, please look at the Table of Contents. A link to the instructions is included.”

 

Final Notes:

 

So there, you now have no excuse if your computer is not secure.  I’d again advise you to read the instructions for any of these programs you may intend to use so as not to introduce any new problems into your computer.  Also do a google search for more info if needed.  I’d also remind you regularly empty your browser cache and defragment your harddrive (or PC maintenance) to keep it running efficiently.

 

 God IS Good!

Go Ahead! Say It! Believe It! Confess It!

You're Invited!!

Go to The Prayer List , don't forget the others in need!

 

"Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior will be, I think, the wonder that I made so little use of the power of prayer." - D.L. Moody

 

Due to some confusion as to where to send prayer requests I want to clarify that you can use the email link at Isaiah56 (The Prayer List).  Please include your xanga address so I know who you are!

 

I was reading a few sites today, returning a few comments, and thought I should post something, even if it is short.

Not a whole lot happening on the job front.  I'm still scheduled to start another job (same employer) on the 19th of November in another location.  They haven't told us anything yet and I hold out hope, though slim, that I might get a reprieve.  It's in God's hands and I'll accept whatever happens as His will, even though I might not necessarily be able to like it. Pray for me please.

I was called on Thursday evening to lead worship at an all-night prayer service on Friday evening from around 9:30PM to 10:00PM.  The person who was supposed to do it called to say they were sick. I like to occasionally lead to keep my skills from getting too rusty and we had nothing planned so I decided to do it. I got some material together and grabbed a bunch more in case the Spirit moved me to do something else and went around 8:30PM on Friday along with Kathy.  After the "speaker" gave a talk on the tabernacle, I started to lead worship around 9:45PM.  I was prompted to stop every so often because someone wanted to sing a spontaneous song (I usually played along) or give a prayer or word.  The next thing I knew, it was 12:00AM and I was about to fall asleep on the stool.  I then decided my evening was finished and went home.  It was great to get back into the, for lack of a better description, "full-gospel" type service, as the Saturday Night congregation (or the Sunday morning crowd either) doesn't get that far into the worship service yet.  The day is coming though and I wait patiently.  Thanks God for continuing to inspire me and opening up opportunities to lead others into Your presence!

I got the book listed below at Half-Price Books on Sunday for around $5.  It seems to have alot of great info in it for Pastors and Worship Leaders.

I don't know if I mentioned it before but at the end of August I bought a 2004 Taurus.  With Kathy's discount and the rebates we got it for $13,000 (a $22,000 car).  They had to travel about 100 miles to get the one I wanted but I'm loving it.  I never really bonded with the 2003 ZX2 (that replaced the 2001 that got wrecked) and my daughters wanted the 2003 so it worked out well all the way around.  God IS Good!

Well, that's enough rambling for now.  It is my prayer that the goodness of God become a reality in the lives of all of you, that your lives be living witnesses to His goodness, and that despite the circumstances that come upon you, you will still be able to declare, "God IS Good! 

God IS Good!

Go Ahead! Say It! Believe It! Confess It!

You're Invited!!

Go to The Prayer List , don't forget the others in need!

 

"Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior will be, I think, the wonder that I made so little use of the power of prayer." - D.L. Moody

 

Due to some confusion as to where to send prayer requests I want to clarify that you can use the email link at Isaiah56 (The Prayer List).  Please include your xanga address so I know who you are!

 

An interesting exchange occurred after I read the comments on my last blog and went to a dear friend’s (Claudia) site:

She wrote: (CLAUDIAS) Mike recently checked on all my subscribers for me, since I am terrible at keeping up with that, and he found most of them were no longer blogging at all!!!…Today I must make the effort to say hi to all these faithful friends. 

A commenter at her site said:

(Portia) I find if you don't keep in touch yourself, you do lose touch, but a lot have given up for what reasons they do not say, so i have a lot of new people, not many of the old ones , you of course but you were missing for a  long while ,still i expect you had good reason and we sometimes forget on here that people are living real lives ,not xangan ones. Still i think it helps us keep sane in a crazy world.

 

My response:

 

psalmist149: I, too, have noticed as I go through blogrings and subscription lists, just how many people have come and gone on xanga. …I have become a sometime blogger in the last few months and sometimes wonder if it is just a temporary lull or the passing of another "fad" that I've lost interest in.  I think part of it is the fact that at first I had a few subscribers that I was able to keep track of through both blogging and email and was able to establish some kind of relationship with.  You and Patrick are two examples that are still around, there are several others whom we very seldom hear from.  When my subscribers grew large I attempted to stay in as much contact as I could with each one by at least visiting their blogs each day but at some point the time requirements got completely out of hand and I was just leaving my "signature" but never any substantive comments.  I lost that personal level of attachment that I had had for some of you.  At any rate, I try to post at least once a week (or thereabouts) these days and to answer just those who have taken the time to visit me and respond to my blog.  This isn't the sort of encouragement I was intending to be to others, but it's all I can handle at the moment. 

 

Conclusion: So basically, to have friends, you have to be a friend.  We need to remember that when people aren’t around, it may be because they have things to do in the reality of their lives and xanga, on the surface, isn’t reality until we make the effort to reach out on a more personal level.  I can remember the responses I’ve gotten in the past when I emailed some of those I had a relationship with on xanga that hadn’t posted for a long while.  Some I never heard back from but others were so grateful that I had missed them and would take the time to try and find out how they were.  Most commented that I had been the only one to reach out to them in that way.  So, xangans come and go but those of us that are still around (even part time) need to remember not to stretch ourselves too thin and to not forget those we’ve had the honor to interact with here.

 

God IS Good!

Go Ahead! Say It! Believe It! Confess It!

You're Invited!!

Go to The Prayer List , don't forget the others in need!

 

"Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior will be, I think, the wonder that I made so little use of the power of prayer." - D.L. Moody

 

Due to some confusion as to where to send prayer requests I want to clarify that you can use the email link at Isaiah56 (The Prayer List) or use this link (Click Here).  Please include your xanga address so I know who you are!

 

I just decided that it has been far too long since I have been here so I wanted to stop by and update you on what is happening in my part of the world.  Since the last update we finished most of the deck but decided to leave one side open for now.  My intentions are to place another ground level deck on one side and along the back of the deck we just built to transition to the sidewalk below.  We didn’t get the rail on the one side before the graduation party and we placed our old porch steps, which I had made out of wolmanized lumber, there temporarily.  It seemed that the deck looked more open without the rail on that side so we decided to do the addition next spring, though I may do it before winter if I feel so inclined.  Beyond that, I’m already thinking of doing a stone patio with a fire pit beyond the lower deck (or as I refer to it, “phase three”).  I’m also considering screening the portion of the deck under the old porch roof (“phase four”?).  I saw one done that way on “House Hunters” and it looked pretty good and would certainly be functional in the swampy, damp area I live in.

 

I was off for another week in early September and managed to remove the living room carpet.  The carpet in the living room and dining room is quite old and worn and because of our allergies we have discussed removing them for quite a while.  I need to do some minor repair work on the old pine wood flooring and then we’ll paint it and use a couple of throw rugs on it.  Then it will be on the dining room.  I also used that time to take the front door and frame off and re-hang them.  Last fall we bought a replacement door with a frame that slid inside the existing frame but the directions were pretty pitiful so it never did fit right.  I now have it closing properly but the sweep on the bottom is torn and I need to find a new one to seal out the cold weather which will soon be upon us.

 

We also took a mini-vacation (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) and went to Cleveland, Ohio.  We visited all four Half-Price Books stores that are there and came away with quite a few books and a couple of Rich Mullins CDs.  We also went to the Museum of Natural History and just spent some time hanging out.  I got a good price at the Candlewood Suites (Government rates) and the trip is only about 135 miles from here so we really didn’t spend a lot but had a few days to just get away from home.

 

The Reduction In Force went through at work and my job was eliminated and I will have to travel into Pittsburgh now to work in the Federal Building.  I’ll now have to travel about 15 miles additional each day and pay for parking but I guess I should be glad they had another position for me as some Engineers were let go.  I’m still hoping for a last minute reprieve for my position here, but whatever happens, it is in God’s hands and I’ll accept it as His will.

 

Quite a bit of our little town here got flooded last weekend though my home is up high enough that it is pretty safe from floods.  My neighbors as close as three blocks away got flooded as did most of the main street of town and I suppose some of the little shops there will never reopen.  It was certainly the worst flooding I’ve seen since we moved here in 1990.

 

Well, that’s about the summation of what is going on in my life.  As far as the computer goes, I read my email when I get home from work, check techbargains.com and dailyrotation.com, and then look briefly at this site to see if there are any new comments and then I usually get off and get busy with other things.  I’m completely out of the blogging habit for now and want to get back to reading your blogs and posting more and hope that with winter coming I’ll find more time to do so.  

 

God Bless!

 

 

God IS Good!

Go Ahead! Say It! Believe It! Confess It!

You're Invited!!

Go to The Prayer List , don't forget the others in need!

 

"Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior will be, I think, the wonder that I made so little use of the power of prayer." - D.L. Moody

 

Due to some confusion as to where to send prayer requests I want to clarify that you can use the email link at Isaiah56 (The Prayer List) or use this link (Click Here).  Please include your xanga address so I know who you are!

 

 

**** You can find an update on Deb here: angelsfalldown ****
Deb’s (Dos_Rohos) surgery is scheduled for Friday, the 27^th.  (If
you don’t know what this is about, follow the link to her site.) Please
make an effort to hold her and her family up in prayer and believe that
God’s will be done in their lives.  Deb: do you know the time?  I’m
sure there are those who are available and would spend that time period
in prayer for the surgeons, the assistants, and for the procedure.  Any volunteers?

Update:  I received the following in the comments from Deb: "My surgurey will be at noon on Fri. I have to be there at 8:00am. Everyone again thank you for keeping me in your prayers."

I think it is safe to take a few minutes to update this morning.  I’ve really been wanting to get back to regularly reading your blogs and visiting some new subscribers but have been just too busy with higher priorities.  I’m sorry to say that yesterday I did a bit of reading but it was limited to just those who commented on my last blog.  I never wanted to be that type of person but, for now, that’s what I’ve become!

 

We are still working on finishing the deck on the back of the house.  Besides that I have some work to finish in one room on our upper floor then another to start, as well as intended work on the lower floor.  On top of that is a party for my youngest next Sunday, which is why the deck needs to be finished and the house cleaned.

 

Work has been pretty uneventful.  As I’ve noted before we are going through a major reduction in the number of employees but I have enough time that I don’t have to worry about being laid off.  We are also reorganizing which is shifting people all over the place but it appears, for now, that I will stay put in my dream job.  I haven’t worried much about it, preferring to leave it to God, and it seems to working out for me at least (God IS Good!).  I feel bad for some of the others who have invested so many years in their jobs and then are just being tossed aside because of poor management.  I guess no matter how hard you try, the government just never changes.  Anyways, I have a new project starting up at one of the lakes and will be traveling there the greater part of the next two weeks.

 

I read Deb’s (Dos_Rohos) comment on the last blog with much concern: “had some hard hitting news to my family I found out I have cancer please keep us in your prayers.”  Let’s stand beside her in this and lift her up in prayer that God’s will be done in her life.  Also lift up her family and visit her site (link above) to encourage her and let her know you care.

 

Well, I have other things to do so I’ll close this post for now.  I pray you all have a blessed week ahead and that God’s will for your life becomes more and more evident as each and every day passes.

 

God IS Good!

Go Ahead! Say It! Believe It! Confess It!

You're Invited!!

Go to The Prayer List , don't forget the others in need!

 

"Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior will be, I think, the wonder that I made so little use of the power of prayer." - D.L. Moody

Hi!  Remember me? 

I've been really busy lately and not on the computer much.  This
past week my wife and I were both off and tore off our backporch and
started to put on a new deck.  A couple of gliches occured but we
were mostly on track until yesterday.  I spent this morning
devising a plan to get around the problem holding us up and will get
back to construction tomorrow.  My plan is to be the point where
we can start putting on the joists and flooring by Monday afternoon
when I get home from work.  My son has been helping us in the
evenings but left for Delaware yesterday afternoon and won't be back
until Monday so it should all work out.  We owe our youngest a
graduation party sometime in the next couple of weeks so are anxious to
get this thing finished!

I haven't had a chance to get around to see how you are all doing and I
again apologize for that.  Maybe once winter hits I will have more
time!  I will have another week off
the beginning of September but I also have another big home project I
need to get finished at that time.

Well, that's about all I have time for now.  I need to get ready for band prctice at church.

 

God IS Good!

Go Ahead! Say It! Believe It! Confess It!

You're Invited!!

Go to The Prayer
List , don't forget the others in need!

 

"Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior
will be, I think, the wonder that I made so little use of the power of prayer."
- D.L. Moody

 

Due to some confusion as to where to
send prayer requests I want to clarify that you can use the email link at
Isaiah56 (The
Prayer List) or use this link (Click
Here).  Please include your xanga address so I know
who you are!

Today I am continuing my posts on my observations of the various performers at King’s Fest. Again, I’d like to offer a disclaimer that I do not know what these various people have been called by God to do specifically in ministry and the following comments are merely my opinions and observations as a worship leader and should not be construed as any type of judgment against any of these “performers.”

 

The lineup for the third evening was as follows:

June 26, 2004 (Starting at 4:00PM)
* Jeremy Camp

* Pillar

* Jars of Clay

* Cameron Mills (speaker)

* Audio Adrenaline

 

My original intention had been to see Jars of Clay but I decided I wanted to experience Jeremy Camp.  I purchased his newest CD a while back but as with the Newsboys, I never have given it much of a listen to.  (I tend to listen once to find suitable worship tunes and if nothing jumps out, I may not get back to giving it a second chance.)  His set was received well, though he needs to cut down on the banter with his band and concentrate more on the music.  About the only real “worship” I experienced there was when he sang a Chris Tomlin song.

 

Next was Pillar.  I knew somewhat what they sounded like and wanted to give them a listen as I can tolerate most types of music.  One of the problems I didn’t mention before was that our seats were to the right of the stage about 12 rows back from a huge bank of speakers.  This presented problems in and of itself as the loudness factor would almost distort the music to the point of making it all unintelligible, especially after two previous days of having our ear drums bent out of shape.  The Pillar performance was quite loud and after the first couple of songs, my wife and I took our leave and went out of the amphitheater to sit on a bench.  Being way back from the stage did not prevent us from hearing all that was going on, on the stage.  I’m not going to judge their ministry other than to say that despite my love of rock music and loud music, Pillar did not appeal to me as I could not understand what they were singing or playing at all.  Maybe I’m getting old and also looking back I was beginning to suffer from loud music festival burnout.

 

Next was Jars of Clay who put on a good show but it then started to rain and we had to put on the ponchos.  Couple the beginning of burnout with standing in soggy sandals in the rain and the third day of the “Fest” was beginning to wear on me.  About this time we decided enough was enough and decided to skip not only the speaker but Audio Adrenaline.  My children used to listen to Audio Adrenaline and I have enjoyed some of their music and would have liked to of heard some of their set but by then it was all a bit too much for us so we returned to the motel to get ready to depart the next morning.

 

The last day, due to the various factors mentioned above, was not as enjoyable as the first two. (to be…)

 

God IS Good!

Go Ahead! Say It! Believe It! Confess It!

You're Invited!!

Go to The Prayer List , don't forget the others in need!

 

"Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior will be, I think, the wonder that I made so little use of the power of prayer." - D.L. Moody

 

Due to some confusion as to where to send prayer requests I want to clarify that you can use the email link at Isaiah56 (The Prayer List) or use this link (Click Here).  Please include your xanga address so I know who you are!

 

 

Today I am continuing my posts on my observations of the various performers at King’s Fest. Again, I’d like to offer a disclaimer that I do not know what these various people have been called by God to do specifically in ministry and the following comments are merely my opinions and observations as a worship leader and should not be construed as any type of judgment against any of these “performers.”

 

The lineup for the second evening was advertised as follows:

June 25, 2004 (Starting at 3:00PM)
* Trevor Morgan

* Sarah Kelly

* Kutless

* Sanctus Real

* Delirious?

* David Edwards (the MC and speaker)

* Third Day

 

Today’s big draw for the daughters and I were Sanctus Real and for myself, Delirious and Third Day.  We were also curious to hear Kutless so, due to the length of the concerts, we decided to skip Trevor Morgan and Sarah Kelly, spending our time on the roller coasters instead.  It was also raining in the hours right after lunch so we ducked into a restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner prior to catching Kutless.  Arriving at the amphitheater we heard someone on the stage who turned out to be Trevor Morgan, whom was followed by Sarah Kelly.  The little bit of Trevor Morgan we heard and the Sarah Kelly set were enjoyable (they shared a band) but where was Kutless?  The lady in front of us told us that for some reason Kutless opened the day and we had missed them.  Gee, you’d think they would at least have tried to advertise the fact they were deviating from their posted schedule but it wasn’t to be.  A bit disappointing, but not the end of the world for this day.

 

Sanctus Real took the stage next and presented an entertaining set.  At one point they segued from one song into “Here I Am To Worship” and I thought they might lead a bit of worship but, alas, it was also not to be.  They put on a great show, which my daughters enjoyed, but I thought they missed a big chance to minister to both God and the audience by not pursuing the worship angle more.

 

Following Sanctus real was Delirious.  I’ve been a Delirious fan for sometime but have felt that as each new CD comes out, they have drifted farther and farther away from their worship roots. Martin Smith has composed several of the “standards” of worship being sung in churches today but the last couple of CDs have yielded few new ones.  Needless to say, I did not expect too much out of them and they did not disappoint me.  They did manage to do such songs as “Deeper,” “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever,” and “My Glorious,” but it seemed they were approached more as “songs” without much in the way of encouraging the audience to join in worship.  It is my understanding that they started as a church worship band and I really had hoped they would come off that way in concert but though I’ve heard they have indeed done so in other venues, it didn’t occur this day.  Again, I don’t want to stand in judgment over them but it seemed they missed an opportunity to minister to people and just came off as a rock band going about their business.  (I will also mention that saintmathew, in one of his posts, raved about the worship experience at the Delirious concert he attended.)

 

Next up was the speaker, David Edwards, whom, while MCing the event, tried in vain to be humorous but completely failed at it and lost my interest in what he had to say so we skipped out at this time to take a break before Third Day.  From the small bit I heard of his talk, it seemed like the same old thing but I again don’t want to judge his effectiveness or his intentions and I’m sure God had him there for a reason and I may have very well missed something God had for me by not staying and listening more (but I doubt it).

 

Ending the day was Third Day who put on a very professional performance.  They did quite a bit of new stuff from “Wire” as well as some of the older things from early CDs and the “Offerings” CDs.  It was, in most ways, a worshipful experience, but, again, it did not seem to be approached as a worship type event but rather as worship as performance.  I’m not convinced that was their intention, but it appeared to come off that way.  They returned for an encore of “Your Love Oh Lord” at which time we decided to depart (it was past 10:00PM) so they may have gotten into more worship at that time, I just can’t verify that it happened.

 

So, the second day had its minor disappointments but the music was good and we enjoyed it. (to be…)

 

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"Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior will be, I think, the wonder that I made so little use of the power of prayer." - D.L. Moody

 

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