As I stated in my last post, my two daughters, my wife and myself recently traveled to Doswell, VA for the King’s Fest, a three day Christian Music Festival, at King’s Dominion Amusement Park.  Four tickets, through Ticketmaster, including three days in the park and the concerts, were about $280.  The park is about 350 miles from our home and took about 7 hours for us to travel there.  We stayed at a local Holiday Inn Express for $55/night (Federal Government Employee price) so the accommodations cost about $180.  I’d imagine we spent about $200-250 while there for meals, etc. for a grand total of around $650-700 so I’d say we did fairly good for a four day vacation.  It was the first time that many of us went away for that long for several years, especially with it not being connected to business.  For the next couple of posts I’d like to offer my observations of the various performers.  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 first evening was as follows:

June 24, 2004 (Starting at 6:00PM)
* Relient K

* tobyMac

* Newsboys

My daughters have been big Relient K fans since they’ve come onto the scene, in fact the whole impetus for the trip was their desire to see Relient K again, they having seen them once in Pittsburgh.  I find their music and the wit portrayed within to be quite enjoyable.  They don’t portray themselves as a “worship” band, per say, but I’m sure, as with all the bands represented, their intent is to do what they do as worship.  Their set was enjoyable and the song “Getting Into You” could be construed as very worshipful.  One of the daughters has pressed me to learn it to use in worship in the past and I am now in possession of her CD to try and learn the song to use at church.

Though my daughters have been fans of DC Talk, we decided to skip out of the tobyMac performance due to the direct sun and high humidity.  We needed a break so I can’t express an opinion of his performance.

My children have also been fans of the Newsboys in the past but have drifted away from them the last couple of years.  I purchased their worship album a while back but never really gave it much of a listen to so my intentions were not to attend their concert, but the daughters seemed interested so we returned to the amphitheater to watch them.  I guess I will say up front that out of the three days we were there and the various bands we saw, these guys put on the best performance of them all, hands down.  They started out with a few of their “hits” though most of them I was unfamiliar with.  Then, Peter Furhler, starting solo with guitar, started to sing Matt Redman’s “Blessed Be Your Name.”  He actively encouraged the audience to join him in worshiping God.  At some time or another the entire band joined in and went into “Amazing Love” all the while continuing to encourage worship.  They eventually drifted into “He Reigns.”  I was expecting to be merely entertained by the Newsboys but they turned the experience into one of the best worship times I have experienced for quite a while.  They have a real handle on mixing entertainment with worship and creating an atmosphere for God’s presence, as well as leading people to that place.  They have an effective ministry that you just know has been anointed by God.  Following the intimate worship set they closed with “Shine.”  For their encore they came back with “Breakfast” and then continued with another song or two but by this time it was past 10:00PM and I wanted to get out before the crowd left not only the concert but the park so we departed.

So, I’d rate the first day of concerts as excellent.  (to be cont…)

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 will be away for a few days (Thursday - Sunday) to take my family to King's Dominion (Doswell, VA) for the Kings' Fest.  Will get caught up upon our return.  God Bless you all!

Oh, I am here again (2 days in a row) but don't really have anything to say.  I read through the new blogs since yesterday and did not encounter any sites with music and did see a couple of interesting points made.  One concerned just how hard and unfulfilling it can sometime be to follow after God's will for our lives.  When we allow ourselves to live just for today and don't try and envision the grander plan God has for our lives, we can start to wallow in self-pity, and then lose our faith and trust in Him to be doing what is right in our lives.  Another addressed the way the world  sometimes mocked us and how we can learn something even from that.  No one said it was going to easy and we need to view each circumstance as another chapter in our lessons of life and what it actually entails.  Another said that we can't live life to its fullest until we draw close to God but I contend that even then we can't do it because we don't know what life in its fullest is and the objective of our pursuit of life changes as we grow.  All I know is that God is life in its fullest and no matter how I feel about any random moment, my feelings shouldn't dictate my response to His love and the care He shows by leading me into each and every experience.  The closer we actually come to Him and the True Reality, the more the world's ways are going to seem intimidating and mocking to a point, at which time we then begin to realize just how much those very people we want to dislike need to maybe hear but definitely need to see Christ as reality through our lives.  Keep running the race, have much patience, don't allow the world and its ways get the best of you, and always be ready to give an answer to every question asked, in season and out of season.

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 came, I read, but failed to conquer all your blogs but, alas, I have given up on getting them all read and concentrated on the past week.  I was surprised at how few of my SIRs actually blogged in the past week but I guess evryone is busy.

I also was surprised by the number of sites that have music on them?  Why??  Does anyone stay at a site long enough to listen to music???  Did you know it interferes with the CD I am listening to????  I have made no secret in the past of my dislike for music on a web site, especially on a web log, but I have perfected the art of using the mouse in the right hand with my left hand on the "esc" key to stop the music and the excessive graphics that slow down my browsing.

I have continued to be busy, mostly getting my Sunday School course finished up.  I have the current lesson we are on the finish teaching this Sunday and I need to have the following week finished as I will not be there and I need to pass it off on someone else to teach that week.  It's shaping up quite nicely and though I probably will contnue to tinker with it until the seven weeks are over, it shouldn't be such a drain on me.  The rain has kept my son and I from finishing the ditch and conduit in the back yard, which in turn is keeping me from finishing some work inside the house.  (Yes, I could use some motivation and prayer.)

Well that's about all for now.  It was great to get to some of your sites and read what you've been up to!

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 blame saintmathew for my lack of getting caught up reading your blogs.  I had a few minutes on Saturday and started to read my SIRs but when I got to Mathew’s site he had the song “Facedown” (from the new Matt Redman CD of the same name) linked as well as a link to the words and music.  At that point I went to www.MattRedman.com to download the lead sheet and the mp3 and got started practicing the song and before I knew it, it was time to get ready for church.  Alas, I didn’t get caught up but did learn a great new song.  I’ve been doing a lot of Matt Redman lately at xP (extra Praise, extra Prayer) before the Saturday Night service and the new song should be a great addition!  Thanks Mathew!!

Actually I am a person who gets thoroughly involved in what I do and learn as much as I can but I’m not a great multi-tasker so when another interest comes along, I soon forget about or at least lose my enthusiasm for the preceding task.  For instance I used to go to the Tech Support Guy site everyday to read about other’s computer problems and to try and help some of those having the problems out but just the other day I realized I hadn’t been there for months.  Another example is I might start watching HGTV almost exclusively and then realize one day I hadn’t watched it for weeks.  It happens and I don’t even realize it.  I’m beginning to think that I’ve allowed other things to consume my time and it’s caused me to lose my enthusiasm, not forget about, my xanga sites.  I keep thinking I need to get some serious updating done but it hasn’t seemed to happen much lately.  On the bright side, it may allow me to sit back and think about some meaningful new things to talk about, but besides this post, I haven’t seen it arrive yet!

I have been busy off and on though so I’m not a total slacker.  Right in the middle of writing this after getting home from work my youngest called and told me she was getting into the advisor’s office at Community College earlier than expected and I had to run off and get there as fast as I could.  My youngest (and the last to be home schooled) has graduated and is ready to start her college years.  This fall semester I’ll have one daughter in her first year (full time), my other daughter in her second year (full time), and my son taking one class (to try and finish up his degree) all at the Community College at the same time.  It’s certainly cheaper than the state run college my son attended and a lot of the classes will transfer.  I’d recommend Community College, at least in Pennsylvania, as a good and cheaper way to get some of the classes out of the way before running off to the super expensive public and private colleges.  At any rate, I must be getting old as all my children are out of high school now.

The reduction in force (RIF) at work appears to be a coming reality sometime after the beginning of CY 2005.  My workload is still up and down as it usually is and I’m trying to get a job organized now that will be starting around the 14^th of June.  After that, I’ll probably be involved in assisting another engineer with the electrical portions of one of his jobs.  That should get me to the end of this fiscal year in September.  With the budget problems the government is having, I’m not sure what jobs I’ll be able to do after that.  I do see a lot of worried people around me at work though and pray I might have the opportunity to witness to them in at least some small way.

Well, that’s about all for now.  I stopped at Boston Market on the way home from the College and my wife should be coming soon so I’m going to get it ready.  Be blessed!!

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!

Someone wished me well in the comments and things have been going well and I am doing well, though is another hurried comment before I go out with my wife.  I just finished two days of training at work so I'm off a bit early today.  We've been trying to get my youngest duaghter's home schooling finished (this was her last year) before she went to the evaluators today.  I've also been spending time writing songs for the beatutudes for a series that's being taught on Saturday Night.  I started to write the fourth but ended up doing the first and second but not finishing the fourth yet.  The third is this Saturday but I'm not feeling like I'll get anything done for it.  Others are supposed to contribute also and I pray they come through,

I've also been writing my curriculum for "Experiencing God in Worship" for Sunday School which starts in early June.  It will sort of be a revised version of The Worship Leader's Workshop I did in the fall but I have a lot of cutting down to do to keep it manageable.

The rumors at work about layoffs have been few and far between lately and it looks like it may not come to pass, at least anytime soon.  I also have a project at work I need to really buckle down on as it should be strating sometime in June.  It's another generator installation.

Well, that's about it for now.  I really hope to get some time to read your blogs in the near furture!

God Bless - Dale

Just stopped by to say hi!!  Been very busy with lots of different things but hope to take some time to update soon.  God Bless!!

Once again I have been missing in action and for two weeks which may be a record.  It’s been a combination of things including both being busy and not being motivated to be on the computer other than for email and for some research.  We decided to get my In-laws a new tower for Mom & Dad’s Days so I did some research and came up with a pretty good buy from Dell Small Business.  They doubled the memory for free (to 256M), doubled the hard drive (to 80G), and threw in a CD Writer rather than a regular CD Drive.  It has a Celeron CPU that I wouldn’t normally buy but is plenty for what the In-laws use the computer for.  Total delivered price was $385, which included sales tax.  I spent a couple of days moving files and settings from their old computer and reloading their software onto the new one.  I set it up Monday of last week and haven’t heard anything but praises (for the computer) so it must be doing its job.  I now have their old one on standby for a couple of weeks until they decide we got everything off it and then I’ll take out the components I can keep as spares and then trash the rest of it.

Due to serious budget cuts and other government priorities, the Corps of Engineers is ready to cut the workforce from around 700 people to 500 people in this area.  With 21 years of service I shouldn’t fear losing my job at this point but it may mean having to go into Pittsburgh to work rather than the field office I go to now.  I worked in Pittsburgh for around 1-1/2 years and have no desire to return there, especially when parking is probably around $8 a day which translates to a $80 pay cut over a two week pay period.  God is my source and I’m leaving it all to Him but I feel sorry for all those who will lose their jobs or have to take pay cuts to lower positions.  The general public seems to thrive on the stereotype that government workers have it made and I don’t suppose that will change anytime soon but I do know a government worker or two that read this blog that would disagree with that statement.  I did get out to a couple of field sites last week for a day each and I’m planning another trip out this week as the work continues even if the future doesn’t look all that great.

I should mention that the government is offering cash incentives to leave and/or retire and early retirements to try and soften the blow of the cuts but the cash is being offered to the workers they need while the engineers, whom they need to reduce, are ruled ineligible.  As for early retirement, I’m too young to take a 50% pay cut and I’m not feeling like I should go out and look for another job at this time to try and make up the difference.

I have also been busy trying to write a song or two.  For the series we just completed on Saturday Night we had different artists paint pictures during the service depicting their interpretation of the sermon.  For the new series starting, on the beatitudes, some of us will write songs or poems depicting our take on the weekly beatitude though they will be composed before hand and not during the service.  We have talked of putting them on CD if they turn out well enough for use within our Saturday Night congregation.

Well this is getting kind of long so I will close with the thought from Matthew 5: “Blessed are the poor for they shall see the kingdom of God.”  Those of us who can see just how useless we are without Him and just how weak we are without His strength and will allow ourselves to be emptied that we might allow Him to fill us will see His salvation and will be used by Him to do great and mighty things for His kingdom!!  May we all become “poor” that His richness might flow within us to those who wander around seeking something to satisfy the stirring they feel inside for something bigger and better than the world has been able to offer

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 was thinking the other day that I once read a story about a famous evangelist, who's name escapes me at the moment, and when asked what was the most profound and inspirational thing he had ever heard/read concerning God he stated, "Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so."  What's the most inspirational and/or encouraging thing you've ever read/heard?

This is the Good News, the gospel of grace!

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!

First of all, I apologize profusely for not having read many of your blogs lately.  My time has been consumed by other things and when I read your blogs, I like to sit down with enough time to give them a good reading and not just whiz through them.  The longer I wait, though, the longer it’ll take me to get through them all!

I can’t remember just what’s specifically been consuming my time this past week though I know we did go out shopping one night, I spent time getting the old computer finished up for my nephew, I watched “Bruce Almighty” again, spent three hours one evening getting my In-laws computer back to working condition and then, last night, I spent around four hours setting up the old computer for my nephew and then networking it with their existing computer as well as trying to get their existing computer working efficiently again.  There are still a couple of things I should do to it to really make it rock but it was too late last night to continue with it.  Now I have the old Compaq to get set up and running well again in the spare bedroom.

On top of that, I’ve been thinking about what songs I want to do for XP (eXtra Praise, eXtra Prayer) for this Saturday Night.  We’ve been having a sort of dialogue about the exact elements of the service itself this week and it makes me think that sometimes we just try too hard and overlook the simplicity of God’s message (and work) as well as lack trust in ourselves to hear what God is saying and lack trust in Him to work through us no matter how well or how poorly we pull it all off in our own eyes. 

I was down to Elizabeth, PA twice this week to check on the progress of a couple of jobs I had going on at Lock & Dam 3.  On the way home one day I stopped at the Half-Price Books which is down that direction and found “The Ragamuffin Gospel” (Brennan Manning) for $2.  It’s a book I’ve heard of but never pursued but there it was, I bought it, and now I’ve been reading it.  I’m only in the first chapter but I can already say it is a great book in its simplicity of message.  I suppose you could say I’m biased because it’s preaching my message but I’d rather take it as a confirmation that my thinking is progressing in the direction that God wants it to go.  I have many things underlined in it already and it’s hard to decide what to share with you today so I will take the following:

“If a random sample of one thousand American Christians were taken today, the majority would define faith as belief in the existence of God.  In earlier times it did not take faith to believe that God existed – almost everyone took that for granted.  Rather, faith had to do with one’s relationship to God – whether one trusted in God.  The difference between faith as ‘belief in something that may or may not exist’, and faith as ‘trusting in God’ is enormous.  The first is a matter of the head, the second a matter of the heart.  The first can leave us unchanged, the second intrinsically brings change.” [Marcus S. Borg, Jesus, A New Vision, Spirit, Culture and the Life of Discipleship (New York: Harper & Row, 1987), p. 35 as quoted by Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel (Porland, Oregon: Multinomah Press, 1990), p.24-25]

Here’s another allusion to the head knowledge vs. heart knowledge that I’ve spoken of in past blogs and to which each and every day brings new revelation.  My humanness will never “understand” God to the fullest because He is Spirit and to know Him is to have the law written in our hearts where it becomes our guiding force, not in our heads where it becomes an impossible task to pull off and an impossible burden that we try and heap on unbelievers. 

This is the right time to reevaluate our beliefs and to reaffirm that “the central affirmation of the Reformation stands: through no merit of ours, but by his mercy, we have been restored to a right relationship with God through the life, death, and resurrection of his beloved Son.  This is the Good News, the gospel of grace.” [Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel (Porland, Oregon: Multinomah Press, 1990), p.18]

This is the Good News, the gospel of grace!

Have a great and blessed weekend! 

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!