Ear Candy Saturday with a crazy collection of famous people…

Ear Candy Saturday Morning and how about starting off with a cup of coffee and some music you just haven’t gotten around to listening to yet?

Silversun Pickups – Substitution

Surfer Blood – Take It Easy

Vampire Weekend – Giving Up the Gun

Tame Impala – Solitude is Bliss

Oh Mercy – Can’t Fight It

just talk to him

Just talk to Him…

My life changed when I started to just talk to God.  He listens.  He talks back.  Sounds crazy, but it’s true!

We usually think we have to use big words when we talk to God.  Worse yet – we think we need to be dressed up in our best on a Sunday morning to watch other people talk to God for us.

This is just not true! He wants to hear from you! Read the Bible and you will find this to be true!

Try taking a walk in a place where you won’t be distracted and just talk to Him!

Ear Candy Saturday – The New Frontiers

Ear Candy Saturday Morning and how about starting off with a cup of coffee and some music you just haven’t gotten around to listening to yet???

The New Frontiers – This is My Home

William Fitzsimmons – Goodmorning (Pink Ganter Remix)

The Boxer Rebellion – Evacuate

Throw Me The Statue – The Outer Folds

Delorean – Real Love

God knows everything about me, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Psalm 139

God knows everything about me, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

God still loves me. God doesn’t give up on me. God doesn’t turn away from me. God doesn’t backhand me.

God thinks about me. God still loves me.

Nothing I do or say surprises, my Creator God. God knew me when I was an unborn baby. God knew me when I threw rocks. God knew me when I fell and broke a wrist. God knew me when life dumped on me.

God knows you. God knew how you felt when you lost that job. God cried with you when you lost that relationship. There is nothing you have done or said that God doesn’t know. God loves. God forgives. God is right there with you.

You see, I have found that God will exchange my junk for perfect peace. When I talk to God straight, honest, and without faking it, God listens and He answers.

The inspired words of the Bible help me hear the heartbeat of God. The human writers, who penned God’s thoughts, help me see that I can be forgiven.

So, during this time of prayer, I ask God to search me and pour out anything that offends Him. I ask God to lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Read this and you will see what I mean:

Psalm 139

1 O Lord, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.

2 You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.

3 You see me when I travel
and when I rest at home.
You know everything I do.

4 You know what I am going to say
even before I say it, Lord.

5 You go before me and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too great for me to understand!

7 I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!

8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave,t you are there.

9 If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

10 even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.

11 I could ask the darkness to hide me
and the light around me to become night—

12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

16 You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.

17 How precious are your thoughts about me,t O God.
They cannot be numbered!

18 I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
you are still with me!

19 O God, if only you would destroy the wicked!
Get out of my life, you murderers!

20 They blaspheme you;
your enemies misuse your name.

21 O Lord, shouldn’t I hate those who hate you?
Shouldn’t I despise those who oppose you?

22 Yes, I hate them with total hatred,
for your enemies are my enemies.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

CBCBaltimore gettin’ ready for Sunday Night with our friends CBC NYC!

Sunday Night 6:30pm we get a visit from our friends in NYC!

…click on the link above for location at Roland & W 37th…if you need more info call 410.929.1619.

Pastor Ed Schefter and some of the worship team from City Bible Church NYC will be down for a visit. Most of us go way back with our visitors. So it will be part reunion and part meaningful time to worship our God. We’re really looking forward to a time of prayer, worship, and hearing from Pastor Ed! Come ready!

Please remember that this will take the place of our normal Sunday morning meeting.

Let’s Go Ravens! Beat them Steelers!

Ear Candy Saturdays – Lecrae, Peter Bjorn, John Mark McMillan, & Sister Crayon

Ear Candy Saturdays

Ear Candy Saturday Morning and how about starting off with a cup of coffee and some music you just haven’t gotten around to listening to yet???

Lecrae – Don’t Waste Your Life

This one is definitely worth watch all the way through to the end.

This song is a good example of art that you can take on the surface alone or dig deeper into what the artist is trying to communicate. Listen to this. Pay attention.

Peter Bjorn and John – It Don’t Move Me

If you’ve heard this track it was probably the techno original version. Here’s something rare: this band can play their own techno song completely unplugged and it sounds good.

John Mark McMillan – Skeleton Bones

Perfect example, here, of a good surprise that I would not found without looking for it. This song will really grown on you if you listen to it a few times.

Broken Social Scene – 7/4 (Shoreline)

One of my favorite slices of music today is the use of layers. You can really hear this in the intro’s. But, I don’t know about animal costumes.

Sister Crayon – Souls of Gold

Switchfoot – Mess of Me

Here’s a band that has more depth than people think. The lyrics here run through a problem we all have.

Tonight the Oregon Ducks show the world why speed is important!

Tonight, some of the Malmin Clan (my family) will be at the National Championship Game. Just had to give a shout out for the Ducks. Let’s go! GOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOREGON DUCKS!

Oregon Coach Chip Kelly knows what he’s doing. Any serious college football fan, that has watched the games this year, knows that this game is shaping up to be one of the best National Championship games in recent history!

Coach Chip Kelly understands that a superior system can pull a team together…into a winning tradition.

Here’s 10 reasons Oregon will win tonight: Oregon Wins the National Championship!

Oh yeah, even here in Baltimore, we’ll have a house full of people cheering on the Ducks! If you want to see what a real fan base looks like, check out my previous post.

ESPN’s Sports Science breaks down why the Oregon Ducks speed is important!

Ok. So, maybe you’ve been living under a rock and you haven’t seen what this team looks like. Here’s a few highlights of this season:

ESPN knows the Ducks are legit:

Oregon Ducks love their fight songs:

So you can call me a Duck!

I love my Ducks:

Just put your hands up in the “O” and shout it out “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”

Ear Candy Saturdays – Here’s to a Morning Cup

Ear Candy Saturday Morning and how about starting off with a cup of coffee and some music you just haven’t gotten around to listening to yet???

Joseph Arthur – Morning Cup

Death Cab For Cutie – Cath

Lincoln Brewster – Whom Shall I Fear

Paper Route – Are We All Forgotten

Spoon – Got Nuffin

Tokyo Police Club – Breakneck Speed

Fireflies – Owl City Cover by Kina Grannis

What’s in a name? Learning more about God will be helpful regardless of your road trip.

The Name of God – This is a BIG subject, but here’s a quick brush at covering a little bit of it…just for you.

Where is your focus? What sets your direction?

At the beginning of the year we can set a direction for life. It’s like setting out on a road trip. Pick a destination and head in the right direction. Hopefully we are setting our course, in life, based on what God wants for us. This process may be simpler than you think. See the previous New Year’s post for a suggestion.

Learning more about God will be helpful regardless of your road trip.

So…ask yourself, “What’s in a name?”

When you think about the names Sally Stevens, Brad Wojekowski, or Lisa Smith (insert names from your childhood or teen years here ____) what comes to mind? You probably remember things like them getting their tongue stuck to the frozen flag pole after you dared them. Maybe it was someone who couldn’t stop telling a lie. That’s the stuff you remember when you think about a name. (I don’t know anyone by the names I listed.)

In ancient times, they took the meaning of a name very seriously when they named their babies. Today…not so much. What does “apple” mean as a baby name? You would want to name your baby something meaningful. Hopefully something positive and something that would tell people about who that baby would become.

Our daughter is named Charlotte Esther. Charlotte is from Charles, which means freedom and Esther means star. She’s our little “freedom star”. We believe that she shines a light for people to see the freedom found only in Jesus. We believe that she is full of life, full of joy, and will always reflect the pure light of God.

When you determine the value of anything that you’re going to take the time to read or study – it’s best to evaluate the value God Himself placed on it. If we want to learn more about God…and what a difference that would mean in our daily life…we should learn more about His name.

You may not be aware of this, but God Himself came to earth and spoke His own name. He spoke His name and described Himself in Exodus 34.

After the 10 Commandments and a little incident with a golden calf. There’s some back and forth between God and His guy, Moses. Then Moses says to God, “If you don’t personally go with us, don’t make us leave this place.” God says, “I will do what you have asked, for I look favorably on you, and I know you by name.” Moses responded, “Then show me your glorious presence.”

“Then the Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him; and he called out his own name, Yahweh. The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, ‘Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.’”

Let’s break it down into bite size pieces.

Think about what this tells us about who God is.

Does that line up with what you think?

How does that affect you?

“God of compassion and mercy”

He give us what we don’t deserve (good stuff) and doesn’t give us what we do deserve (bad stuff). This is who God is. When you think about God you cannot substitute who you think He is for who He says that He is.

He said that He is a God of compassion and mercy. He sees where you are at. He hears you. He has compassion on you. He has mercy for you.

“slow to anger”

Have you ever known anyone with a quick temper? Yeah, that’s not our God.

God has seen it all, and yet He is slow to get angry. He does not have a hair trigger on your punishment.

“filled with unfailing love and faithfulness”

Our God is filled to overflowing with a love that will never fail you. Have you ever had someone fail you? Have you ever failed yourself? God won’t do that. He will love you faithfully!

Unfailing means that He won’t let you down. Unfailing means that He won’t give up on you.

Think about that. God has not given up on you.

“to a thousand generations”

Some translations say “thousands of generations”. Look at it this way, Moses could count his ancestors all the way back to Adam. God was saying, “I will give you more love than you can handle…you and generations farther back than you can count and further into the future than you can dream up!”

God is infinite. You cannot wrap your human brain around all that He is. He has loved generations before you and He has not given up. They say that we are in the 14th generation of the US. God shows faithful unfailing love to thousands of generations!

“forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin”

If you dig into the original language here you will hear God saying that he forgives the: one time offense, repeated bad behavior, and the horrible lifestyle. His forgiveness follows you. His mercy overtakes you. Not only with the little stuff that you think He can handle, but also with the big stuff you don’t want to Him to look at.

So what do you have? What do you think that God can’t fix? What is it that you think He can’t heal? There is nothing He can’t Heal!

Wow! Ok, that’s a mouthful…that’s a lot to chew on.

Think about it for a while. Look back over this list. That is how God Himself said His name.

Ask yourself a few good questions. Come on. Try it. Write down your answers:

What do you think about God? What is He like? How do you feel about Him?

How does this change the way that you think and feel?

What does this say about the kind of God that He is?

The truth is that how we think about God determines a whole lot. It weighs heavy in the course we set for the road trip of our life. What you believe about God effects how you look at yourself in the mirror.

Do you believe that He forgave you? Do you really believe that He forgave the stuff you don’t want to admit? Do you believe that He loves you? Do you believe that He has a hope and a future for you? Do you believe that He has a purpose for your life?

If you can come to this place, it is much easier to ask God where He wants you to go and what He wants you to do. Then you will become comfortable in your own skin. You will know real peace. You will be comfortable being yourself, the person you were created to be, no guilt trip, headed the right direction.

You will know where you are going and who is guiding you:

‘Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.’”

How about going deeper for a “Part Two”?

Tomorrow night we will celebrate the life of Pastor Wendell Smith, on line 9pm eastern.

Tomorrow night we will celebrate the life of Pastor Wendell Smith.

…for those of us, not able to be in Seattle, the service will be streamed on line at:

thecity.org and / or pastorwendell.org …tomorrow night, Friday January 7th at 9pm eastern…there will be video of music there for 30 minutes prior.

Pastor Wendell Smith is a child hood hero of mine. A personal friend of our family since I was a little kid. He lived this life as an example of the best kind of person – when life was at its best and when life was at its worst. Previously, I mentioned a couple of the ways he impacted me.

Pastor Wendell lived his life for Jesus. He lived his life serving people. He lived his life out loud. He lived his life on purpose.

For Rebecca and I, our prayers go out to the entire City Church family. We’ve been praying for Pastor Wendell’s family: Pastor Gini Smith – Pastors Judah & Chelsea Smith and Pastors Benny & Wendy Perez. The family would love to hear any memories you have of Pastor Wendell. You can post them at this web site: pastorwendell.org

Here’s a thank you video from Pastor Judah.

(please click on the link above)

Pastor Wendell wrote a number of songs and books. Here’s a few books that had an impact on me:

The Roots of Character

Great Faith

From Zero to Eternity in 60 Seconds

If you haven’t already heard his talk, “We Can Do This”. It’s a must!

Possibly my all time favorite is, “The Glorious Church”! If you are a church leader, or hoping to become one, please take the time to listen to this.

We know that passing the faith, in Jesus, from one generation to the next was a dream that Pastor Wendell worked toward. Here’s a picture of Pastor Judah, his son, holding his hand at the end. It’s easy to see that he was successful! …you can learn more at the city.org or using a web search regarding the church and family members listed above.

“Well done, good and faithful servant,” is something we would all like to hear, when we come to the end of our race. Pastor Wendell has already heard those words.

I look forward to greeting him personally to say my thank you for his impact on my life. Thank you Pastor Wendell for your example, your life choices, your vote of confidence and gift for our church plant, and the legacy you leave us. Thank you for pulling together a great team in P. Aaron Haskins, P. Barbara Wright, P. Jude Fourquier, and my big brother Steve Carpenter.

Thank you for living for Jesus. Thank you for choosing to live for a cause bigger than you. Thank you for taking risks. Thank you for a relentless focus on lost souls.

The Seattle Times did a great obit worth reading. Here’s a short excerpt:

Pastor Wendell Smith could draw thousands to his church on weekends, yet he also delighted in talking one on one about everyday life with church members.

As busy as he was founding, building and colead-pastoring The City Church, one of the area’s largest churches, he also always protected his time with his family.

That mix of the charismatic and humble, the preacher and the family man, is among the things Pastor Smith is being remembered for. After a six-year battle with cancer, he died Sunday at age 60, at a hospital in Las Vegas, surrounded by family and friends.

“My dad was my hero in every way,” said Pastor Judah Smith, Pastor Wendell Smith’s son and the current co-lead pastor of The City Church.

His father had “an incredible sense of humor and a pretty amazing ability to encourage people,” Judah Smith said. “He’d make them feel valuable and appreciated.” – Seattle Times Janet I. Tu