Oh the Party

Psalm 26
Of David

1 Vindicate me, O LORD,
for I have led a blameless life;
I have trusted in the LORD
without wavering.
2 Test me, O LORD, and try me,
examine my heart and my mind;

3 for your love is ever before me,
and I walk continually in your truth.

4 I do not sit with deceitful men,
nor do I consort with hypocrites;

5 I abhor the assembly of evildoers
and refuse to sit with the wicked.

6 I wash my hands in innocence,
and go about your altar, O LORD,

7 proclaiming aloud your praise
and telling of all your wonderful deeds.

8 I love the house where you live, O LORD,
the place where your glory dwells.

9 Do not take away my soul along with sinners,
my life with bloodthirsty men,

10 in whose hands are wicked schemes,
whose right hands are full of bribes.

11 But I lead a blameless life;
redeem me and be merciful to me.

12 My feet stand on level ground;
in the great assembly I will praise the LORD.


I can feel something stirring in my bones. It’s potential energy, like the canon about to be fired. It's breathless waiting... It's what you have been yearning for about to be delivered... Its the ship breaking on the horizon, the sun wiping about the night with beautiful rays of sunshine.

There, then... that day... rights will be wronged... We will be vindicated. True judgment will fall... And those of us washed in the blood will be set free. Oh the party. Oh that day!

The symphony of the earth is tuning their instruments, the choir is warming up. Trees and beast and all forms of being will chant the victory call. I am ready for the party. I am ready for the dance. Oh how wondrous the mosh pit will be on that golden shore as David Crowder leads us in praising in the very shadow of Truth and Glory. WOW!!! I am ready for the party.

Dashboard Confessional
Vindicated

Vindicated
I am selfish
I am wrong
I am right
I swear I'm right
I swear I knew it all along
And I am flawed
But I am cleaning up so well
I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself

Active Worship

You're Worthy Of My Praise
I will give you all my worship
I will give you all my praise
You alone I long to worship
You alone are worthy of my praise

God is the Great Artist. We are the works of His hands. We live to offer Him worship. We are like paintings on the wall. We live to beautify His world with our offerings of praise.

But too often our praise has become stagent. We are like rocks. We sit and listen, we look to be entertained by the smiling man in a suit, be it preistly vestigages, fine armani, a clown costume, or robes and collar. We wait for the performance. We watch worship happen before us. If we take part at all it is by reading along, or perhaps mumbling the words to songs we never think about, we never reflect on, we rarely let seep into our being and permiate our souls. In the current paradigm praise has become a spectator sport. God didn't intend for that to happen. We weren't made for that. We were made to actively worship the Living Lord.

Psalm 66
1 Shout with joy to God, all the earth!
2 Sing the glory of his name;
make his praise glorious!

3 Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power
that your enemies cringe before you.

4 All the earth bows down to you;
they sing praise to you,
they sing praise to your name."
Selah


Active worship is the push to get involved, be engaged, into transforming ones life into the worship service. I wish to address four facets to active worship: participation, movement, intigrating the fine arts into worship, silence and praise habit.

Participation
Active worship seeks to actively engage all those who are present in the worship experience. It challenges the model of performer and audience. No longer is the choir singing for the church to hear. People aren’t at church to be entertained. The whole congregation becomes the choir, present to fully stand and glorify God with voice and instruments and movement. It is no longer acceptable to separate the minister in such a manner that it is clear he or she is doing the worship and the rest are there to watch. Worship leaders cannot function apart from those who are being led. It is not the praise team on this side of the line and the spectators on the other. Church must transform away from the theater model, where people stand outside in line to have a comfortable seat and enjoy the show. The congregation itself becomes the work of art, offering praise to the true audience, the Almighty Himself.

This notion shouldn't seem all that unfamiliar to us. In fact, living praise is our destiny. It is foretold time and time again in the Bible that the day is coming when all of creation becomes living praise. Every tree, every flower, every beast on land and in sea, they all shall rise up and offer praise. A sneak preview of this truth is available to us now as believers.

MaJN2tL
The Flowers of the fields are dying to be heard
The trees of the forest start singing
And all of the mountains with one voice
Are joining the chorus of this world


Worship isn't just something we choose to do on Sundays. In his book God in the Flesh Don Everts says the following:

This is our eternal destiny, after all: to yell about how cool God is. One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, right? And when we praise him now, when we sing about how cool and different and amazing he is, we are practicing. We are actually getting to speak words upon this earth that have no shadows about them. What a rare treat that is! When we praise, we speak utter truth. We breath reality.
p. 62

Movement
I have been in congregations that literally expressed concern for the longevity of the carpeting once elders witnessed free-flowing, active worship in their church. A janitor asked, “Wont all that jumping around wear out the flooring?”

This behavior was seen as too undignified for church. But let us for a moment examine the word UNDIGNIFIED as it appears in the Bible. It appears in the story of King David. He, after much fighting to secure his kingdom, at last feels it is time to bring the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem, this is a big deal, a piece of his life long dream. Here's the text from the bible:


David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might,while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets. As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart."

When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would! David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD's people Israel--I will celebrate before the LORD.

I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.

David's response is one which really makes my heart sing. David is not saying "look at my awesomeness, I am massive... I am a god amungst men!" No, he isn't tearing away at the normal bounds of behavior because he is proud of himself. He is reveling in the glory of the Lord. What David is saying is that he understands that the rules of propriety that govern societal norms are insignificant when compared to the relationship between a man and the Creator. So before God, his heart soared, he leaped and sang and worshipped even at the risk of foolishness becuase he was doing it before God, not his fellow mortal onlookers.

So we may be just as undignified for God, not to impress our neighbors, not to shock onlookers, but in compusion with our heart's yearning to display before God our heart's desire to praise. We will be undignified, even in our own eyes, as we offer ourselves up to God.

David could not contain himself. The praise seeped from his body. He danced and pranced and leaped for joy.

The Arts in Worship
When we bring art and beauty into every facet of our lives, we aren't just honoring God. We reflect back into the world the art and beauty that is the Almighty. This isn't simply just incorporating art into our Sunday religious rituals. Altar Guilds are great. Adding the fine arts into service to engage all the senses is admirable and laudable. But active worship seeks to make the personal creation of art and beauty in your life one's primary meditation. When you do this you unveil or rediscover the states and qualities of the Infinite within oneself as well as outside of self in the world. By living the healing, empowering truth that everyone is creative and is an artist, you are worshiping the Original Artist at an intimate, heart to heart level. You are creating art for God, glorifying Him with your active worship, transforming your life into an offering for Him.

Silence
But Active Worship is more than just sing and jumping around. We can find active worship in an ironic act, sacrificing the voice altogether. Silence is another key to active worship.

The word selah is an ancient word for pause, rest. It's literally a time to stop the music, stop the responsive reading, stop the noise and silently mediate on the message just spoken. It’s a time to take the words and bring them into each person’s heart and intrapersonally internalize them, make them have personal meaning and allow for silent prayers to God. Silence often seems to be the time to space off, to turn off, to vegetate. But silence is vital to the active worship experience. In silence something is to happen actively. Silence, in other words, is a time to do something, to pray, to contemplate, to encounter and to be someone, the creature sill before the creator, the artwork before the artist, the pottery before the potter, It is to interact on the most intimate of levels, to stare the Creator in the face. Ironically, the moments of silence that we build into the emergent worship experience may well become the most engaging, most meaningful and most active participation. In silence, true worship is obtained.


Praise Habit
Ultimately, active worship strives to blur the line between worship and daily life, from religious ritual and daily routine. It is the transforming of one’s daily habits into praise habits, making life a work of art that is pleasing to the Almighty, a life that glorifies Him and honors Him. No longer is our religious obligations met by merely going to a church, sitting in a pew, throwing a few dollars into the offering plate and then watching the moral performance of a few. Life becomes the opportunity to live out the artistic potential woven into each of us, knit into every fiber of our beings by the Artist of Artists, Yahweh Himself.

Conclusion
Active worship is a key element of PEEW. Worship goes so far beyond singing. We aren’t just a choir for the Lord. In fact, active worship isn’t about merely using your voice in worship. The whole body must be engaged in worship. It strives to move beyond passive listen into offering one’s heart as a sacrifice. Engaging the participants at this level ultimately changes their lives. And that is what active worship is all about, becoming a work of art for the Lord, praising Him in new and fantastic ways that draw us up and offer us to Him wholy, where we are ever changed by his radiant grace.

Trust

Psalm 34:15-22

The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their cry;

the face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

A righteous man may have many troubles,
but the LORD delivers him from them all;

he protects all his bones,
not one of them will be broken.

Evil shall slay the wicked;
the foes of the righteous will be condemned.

The LORD randsomes the life of his servants;
none will be condemned who TRUST in him.


I was reading this Psalm outloud during some private devo time and suddenly the last verse jumped out at me. Let me paraphrase...

Bad guys will get what's coming to them, done in by their own evil deeds,
And they will get a nasty verdict handed down...

But the Lord pays the fine for those that follow HIM!!!!
And NO ONE will be punished that TRUST in HIM.


The word TRUST jumps right out at me. None will be punished that TRUST in him. TRUST... What a wonderful word. Think about how we use it today in our daily lives. I get up and trust that my car will start. I trust that the bank keeps track of how much money I have. I trust my friends will my innermost secrets. I trust that tomorrow will be another day. Trust is a good thing.

But how do we get trust? How does it appear? How many of you have had a relationship that struggled with issues with trust. I know I have in my life. It seems especially true with young love that there is this period where you stay on guard. You aren't sure whether to give your heart completely. You are afraid of getting hurt. So you build a relationship... and over days, weeks and perhaps even months your guard comes down, you open up and you learn to trust them completely.

Trust isn't something you just get. It isn't immediate with the first I love you or the first time you commit to a relationship. It is built through the process of being together. Trust is the result of sustained love, layered and layered. It is the by-product of walking faithfully together with common goals, sharing experiences together, enduring.


Now that I've given my heart completely
Do with it what YOU will
I am Your child now
My needs YOU will fufill

I put my heart in my hands and I lift it up to YOU
Gonna do all that I can to live my life for YOU
EVERYDAY!

Friends, where are you now? Are you in the cold? Have you seen the Lord Jesus pass by but now you've lost site of Him? Perhaps you went through confirmation class and felt the tug of the Lord on your heart drawing you near but now you feel lost. It isn't too late. Perhaps you felt the call and knelt at an altar and asked the Lord to enter your heart... but you have slipped back into your old habits and your old lifestyle. The Lord still has a place for you. He is still calling you. He's ready to pay your debts and pull you from the prison cell. He's ready. He's ready to save you from death and your bondage and punishment. But He wants your TRUST. He wants you to walk in His ways. He wants you to come back home and seek His face. He wants your enduring love. He wants your faithfulness. He wants your heart... He wants to plant wonderful seeds that take root in your life and produce fruit over the course of your life. That is what He wants. He wants you to TRUST IN HIM. Reach out. Come home. Start that walk today.

Focus on Jesus

When I was 19 I taught a vacation bible school class. I remember we got the material from one of the big companies that market happy little bible lessons to make kids smile and parents feel warm and fuzzy about church. I remember the ridiculous cartoon Jesus that filled all the pages. He was goofy, always smiling, and inevitably He was giving kids a high five, thumbs up, or the peace sign. Jesus, the buddy, Jesus the birthday clown, Jesus the pacifier.

As a teenage rebel, with long hair and baggy pants, that Jesus wasn’t the vision I had of who I wanted the savior of the world to be. I didn’t want a vanilla flavored happy-go-lucky cartoon character. I wanted radical. I wanted life altering. I wanted a vision of Jesus that I couldn’t look away from, that was engrossing and edifying.

But Happy Jesus did none of those things… and it was easy to look away.

I am reading a new book. It’s entitled God in the Flesh by Don Everts, a campus ministry leader with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. It cuts through the familiar message of Jesus, the important but often washed out familiar Christ of our vacation bible school packages and Sunday school lessons and examines the Jesus that lived between the sermons and miracles.

In this new context we see a fresh new Jesus, a shocking and amazing man that was the living embodiment of the God of all creation. God in the Flesh will challenge your idea of Jesus as a quiet, peaceful teacher and bring the true Christ into focus. Jesus was the revolution. He was awe-inspiring, jaw dropping, stunning, radical, and life altering. His enemies couldn’t take their eyes off Him. His followers dropped everything to follow Him. Everywhere He went, people praised Him and stood in fear of Him.


One amazing section of the book deals with 2 Tim chapter 2 which most of you will remember is some of my favorite readings in the NT. Writing to his former ace student and now leader in the church, Paul pens an amazingly simple verse. He says, “Remember Jesus.” (2 Tim 2:8a) That’s it. That is the meaty verse that Everts spends pages analyzing. Of that verse he says the follow:


I believe this one comment by Paul is either the greatest understatement I’ve ever read or some of the greatest, most sublime theology I’ve ever encountered.
p. 18

So we see both Paul and Mr. Everts compelling us to be focused on Jesus? But what does that mean? What does focus mean? It isn’t enough to merely look. You have to look intently. You have to zero in with clarity and see what is really there. Remember now that art is my first love. Focus in Photography is very important. It’s the difference between an image that is useless and a stunning image that stops people in their tracks. We talk a lot about clarity and depth of field. As a photographer you have to go beyond a mere snapshot and become an observer of the world. You find your subject and you study it. You get all the information and capture a picture that is accurate and informing. That is what Paul wants us to do with Jesus.

Everts continues:

Let there be no mistake: the call to focus on Jesus is a call to life… Though I realize I am young and my experience is limited, I have learned two hard truths during my (campus ministry): (1) the world-including me- is beautiful and broken and confused. (2) In Jesus we have the answer to almost every question or dilemma or opportunity we will ever race on this earth.
p. 20

I am finding a sweet cure to a thirst I have had since those teenage days. I am focusing on the true Jesus. Gone is that cartoonish clown, the smiling buddy giving high fives to little kids. In his stead stands the Powerful Embodiment of YAHWEH, God in the Flesh. I see a Figure just as shocking today as two-thousand years ago. He was anything buy safe and easy. He was anything but passive and peaceful. He challenged everything. He did the opposite of what the establishment wanted. He took His power and used it the reverse of what was easy and what society told Him to do. He was the revolution.

The more I focus on the real Jesus the more clarity I see in my own life and the more fruitful my own ministry becomes. The more Christ-centered I become the more my friends lean on me and look to me for guidance. But when my eye strays to other things, when I focus on the sophisticated or the intellectual, I lose my balance and become unfocused. The more muddled my vision is the more fuzzy my message becomes. That is not a coincidence. Jesus isn’t just the focusing point, He is the goal, the prize, the destination.

Paul honed in on the truth. He was fixed on the essence of life. He saw Jesus. He stared at Jesus. He wouldn’t look away. He called for others to look at Jesus too. So while we ever look for fresh new ways to reach people with the Gospel, let us not forget that the center of our faith isn’t the Church. It isn’t the style of worship and it isn’t the accuracy of our Old Testament hermeneutics. Christianity is about Jesus the CHRIST. It’s about focusing on that amazing person who was God in the Flesh come down to our world. He is alive today and the answer to the crises that are tearing our lives apart and turning our worlds upside-down.

Focus on Jesus. Find him and make Him the axis of your life.

Casting Pearls

I want to take a moment and really endorse a new CD I have been listening to. It is the self-titled effort by mid-westerners Casting Pearls.



These guys have a great sound. The songs range from guitar driven rock numbers like Weighted and Alright to haunting praise ballads like Focus and the Christian Radio hit You Alone. I enjoy the powerful anthem Revolution.

Front man Bryan Olsen flexes his Edge-style guitar chops throughout the CD and his soaring vocals are reminiscent of Freddy Mercury of Queen. They have a real Coldplay or Dashboard quality to them that makes this disk very timely. But more than the sound I enjoyed the message of this disk. It was hopeful without being sappy. It was Christ-centered without being cliche or watered down. They strike the perfect balance.

I highly recommend the purchase of this CD. If you like Crowder or Switchfoot, Coldplay or the Fray, you will love this disk.

For more information on Casting Pearls or to purchase this disk, click here.

-GandP
Bollman

Nov G-squared Poster

Hey friends,

The new poster is availible for download for Nov G-squared. Check it out here:



Grace and peace,

Bollman

Starting something

The Halloween party is history and what a night. Let me thank Carjacklovers for rocking the house. Also, thanks to all those people who came. It was an awesome night. I pray it is the start of a movement.

In life we are always moving. We either move towards truth and light or towards darkness. It seems to me we also move towards peace or towards chaos. We find peace when we are enveloped by the grace and comfort of the light, the Word of God. Chaos is the cold, blank darkness of being separated for God's truth.

Last night I spoke about the lies of the enemy. For centuries the devil tried to destroy the church. But of late he has chosen a much keener strategy. Now he knows that he doesn’t have to destroy the church. Instead, all he must do is make church completely irrelevant to this generation. He whispers that it doesn’t offer anything to us. It isn’t fun. It is for old people. Church becomes nothing but quilting ladies and fancy dress up for snobbish people. He makes it a place that is boring. There is no fun allowed and there is nothing to do but sit and read old creeds and old hymns that mean nothing to you. And sadly, it seems that people are listening to him. Often our churches move more and more towards that image. They are filled with elderly ladies and the snobbish, while the young and disenfranchised move away... move towards the darkness. And the devil wins.

But that isn’t the church. The church, Paul’s church in the book of ACTS, is vibrant and alive. It is a place for like-minded believers to get together and feast and share stories and support each other and give hugs and share wealth and just enjoy the wonderful gift the LIFE that Jesus Christ so freely offers us. Christ offers us abundant life. He offers us fullness and happiness and overflowing joy. He offers it to more than just quilting ladies. He offers it to 15 year old skateboarders and twenty year old college kids and thirty year old guys with guitars. He wants us to live life to the fullest… to suck the marrow from the bone.

You see, the devil has tricked us into thinking that Jesus is locked in this box, this church-shaped box. There is churchy stuff here, and outside that box is all the fun stuff that we do in our normal lives. But that isn’t Jesus. It was through Him that all things were made. This is His work of art. His truth, His logic, His word was there in the beginning and is the matrix by which all things came into being. Nothing can separate us from his truth if we live in Him, if we embrace Him and walk with Him. Christ’s love is everywhere. In all of those things in our ‘real life’ Christ is there. He is there offering us not just salvation, but He offers us fullness and joy and abundant life.

I have never been as happy as I have been in church. Church saved my life. It made me whole. It resuscitated a dying man. I remember golden moments in my life in church. I have taken communion at Church of Hope and felt Christ’s presence so strong that I could have fallen prone on the ground. I have been in a Missionary Baptist church in West Virginia and leaped for joy. I have heard messages that touched my heart in ways I didn’t know existed. But also I am at church when I hang with my brothers and sisters in Christ and enjoy His creation. We toss the Frisbee. We feast on pizza. We sing songs and laugh and goof off. That is our church. We celebrate the gift of abundant life and we do it richly.

Friends, I want to share the joy of the Lord with you. We are moving towards the light. We are rocking for Christ. We rebuke the devil and his lies. Church isn’t boring. Church isn’t just for little old ladies. It’s our place. It’s our time. We reject that notion that Jesus is locked up in a box. Jesus is love. He is the joy of living. I will raise my hands and live for Him. I will enjoy life while praising Him. I will jump and shout how He has set me free. I will bang on my guitar and scream that He is not irrelevant, but no, He is unstoppable, undeniable. He is essential. And He is free. He is here for you today.

November 5th we are back at the Barn for our first Sunday service. It will be an acoustic, candlelight sing along service. I think it will be a crowd pleaser. Come join us sing and worship together... your music, your way.

Let’s move together.

Trick or treat

Well friends, it's here.

Sunday night, pack up your friends and your little costumes and head on over to the Barn south of Exira. Get there at 6:00. Have fun at our little costume party and maybe even win some prizes. They include a gift card to Parables in Omaha, Thrown T-shirts, a cool compilation cd of Christian hits, Carjacklovers shirts and some other cool gear from Cross Trainers, Joel's T-shirt shop in Audubon.


We will start by having some fun and eating some grub. I'm working on my own special "Nooklar Eyeball Punch" recipe. Then at 7:00 CarJackLovers will take the stage. They are very very cool. After we rock with them (moshing is a must) Thrown will take off at 8:00. Be ready for some hard hitting evangelical rock and of course some rocking praise. I'll have a short message about my best friend and worst enemy and why it's cool to do the Halloween thing. I'm sure we will pray and then back to the jamming!

We will rock till people leave.

Tell your friends! Tell your enemies... Tell your grandma to bring her ear plugs.

Grace and peace,

Bollman

What's up with Halloween?

I got a great email from a good friend that addressed a topic that is dear to my heart. I am a Christian. I will not celebrate "the devil's birthday". But I am not held captive by him either. I can celebrate the wonderful things that God has made for me here on earth. I can put on silly costumes and hollar like a fool and play silly games... then bow my head and worship the man on the cross that died for you and me. I am His and He is mine. We aren't seperated by stupid costumes. ROCK THE GOSPEL!!! COME TO THE G-squared costume party on Sunday night at the barn!

What's up with Halloween?
by Jim Liebelt

You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the evil powers of the world. So why do you keep on following rules of the world, such as, “Don’t handle, don’t eat, don’t touch.” Such rules are mere human teaching about things that are gone as soon as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, humility and severe bodily discipline. But they have no effect when it comes to conquering a person’s evil thoughts and desires
Colossians 2:20-23, NLT).

At HomeWord, we receive questions from time to time about Halloween. Should parents allow their kids to “celebrate” or not? To avoid “giving the devil his due,” so to speak, some Christians change the name of their festivities from a Halloween party to a “Harvest Party” (while pretty much everything looks exactly the same!). Churches throughout our country use Halloween as a means for outreach to the community. So what’s up with Halloween?

There is no doubt that Halloween's origins can be traced to pagan beliefs and rituals. Satanic groups have also attached meaning to Halloween, celebrating it as a special holiday. These origins and meanings can be researched pretty easily on the Internet. Christians of good conscience differ on their views of whether or not believers should have any participation in Halloween celebrations. Certainly, Christians should not participate in the "dark side" of Halloween – to in any way approve of the satanic, or the focus on paganism, evil, death, etc.

Yet, the reality of Halloween participation for many - believers and unbelievers alike - is that of exercising a bit of fantasy, dressing up in costumes and having fun trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. To many, this is what Halloween is about, without any connection to occult or pagan practices. I have a hard time saying that there is anything wrong with this.

Let me give an illustration: We know the source and heritage of Christmas. We also know that for many people, Christmas is a very non-religious holiday. People give Christmas their own meaning, regardless of its origins. We would never say that everyone who celebrates Christmas is a follower of Christ or honors God. Halloween, I believe, is similar. People give Halloween their own meaning, regardless of its origins. Consequently, just because people participate in Halloween does not necessarily mean they are promoting or encouraging occult or pagan practices and beliefs.

Whatever conviction you hold about participating in Halloween, live it out for God’s glory! In all these things, a person should follow his or her own convictions, while understanding that Christians may differ in their beliefs about this issue. So, if you run into those fellow believers who differ from your stance on Halloween, give them freedom to live out their own convictions. The Apostle Paul said it this way, “Who are you to condemn God’s servants? They are responsible to the Lord, so let him tell them whether they are right or wrong. The Lord’s power will help them do as they should” (Romans 14:4, NLT).

Going Deeper
Responding to today’s culture can lead to two extremes: either isolating oneself entirely from the culture or immersing oneself totally in the culture without using any discernment. How can either of these extremes be destructive to God’s work your life?

Thrown-Up Spotlight: Amanda Robertson

Amanda Robertson

Amanda Robertson is one of those people around the band that helps make everything happen. She organizes the music, keeps the band calendar and is in charge of the group’s Myspace site. She also frequently leads prayer at G-squared. She is an awesome Christ-follower and we are glad to have her as part of our little group.

Favorite Bible Verses

1 Corinthians Chapter 13- this has been my favorite since I was a little girl

Phil 2:12-18 - Tells you to reach out to everyone

Favorite Bible Story

The Soils
Woman at the Well
Jesus Washing Feet: Once you experience it every time I read it, I feel like I am there.

Musical Influences (Non-Christian)

The Fray, Coldplay, Hinder, Keith Urban, Dashboard, U2. Incubus

Muscial Influences (Christian)

Jeremy Camp, Lifehouse, David Crowder, Chris Tomlin., Falling Up, Shane and Shane, Switchfoot, Shawn McDonald, Building 429

Favorite Quote

“In time, One day, he’ll be here. The next he won’t. But you mustn’t press him. After all, he’s not a tame lion.”
-The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

“It’s like the wind- I can’t see it, but I can feel it.”
-A Walk to Remember

Where have you seen God

Jeremy Camp concert, David Crowder concert, my talk on the Denver mission trip, the bound between Kate and me, Kevin, West Virginia, worshipping at Hope, hanging with the band, footwashing, playing with kids… It’s hard to name every time because everyday of my life I see Him.

Jake the Drake is coming back

Hey friends,

Thrown's good friend Jake the Drake is coming back through our parts of western Iowa. Jake (our west virginia mission friend) has been traveling the world knocking on doors and sharing the Good News that a rescuer is coming. He wants to meet with his supports and share his experiences.

We are meeting Friday night at 9:00 (after the EH-K v. Ar-We-Va game at Calla Johnson's house. We will play some guitar, sing a few songs of worship and then listen to our brother's stories.

If you are around friday, please take an hour or two of your time to see our old friend. He is an inspiration to us all, a supporter in our mission and a good guy. Bring some friends too.

Remember... he is CRAZY FUN!!!

-Bollman

We're One

With the release of the new book by David Kuo, an evangelical Christian conservative and former deputy director of the White House office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, “Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction” there is a lot of talk in the media about politics and religion.

Often times as Christians it’s easy to support political agendas that are hot button issues. We rally behind causes that make good protest signs. We pour our efforts (and our offerings) into certain causes while blindly turning our backs on others. We let people go hungry. We let the sick suffer and we let the poor go without.

I think it's time to examine what we are really called to do as Christians. What does God really want?


If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
1 John 3:17-18

We are blessed in America. We are the "haves". Our brothers and sisters in Africa are going without. They are suffering yet we do nothing. Is this the right path for Christ's church?

In Africa the four horsemen of the Apocalypse have been unleashed. This has been well documented in the media through the past two decades. Famine and drought has crippled parts of the north and east of Africa, from the Sudan and Chad to the northeast horn of Somalia and Ethiopia, thousands have died from malnourishment and contaminated drinking water. There was some spotlight on this in the 1980's with events like Band Aid but after a band aid to the gaping wound, we turned our attentions elsewhere... and our backs on Africa.

Just as prevalent a threat to the continent are the violent and bloody wars raging in many countries across the continent. The Darfur province of western Sudan is the scene of a decade long genocide where Christians continue to face persecution and death for their ethnic background and their beliefs.

West Africa is also the location of many bloody civil wars that often employ foot soldiers as young as twelve whose youths are stolen in an exchange for a Baryshnikov assault riffle.

But perhaps the biggest threat to the land is that of disease. HIV/AIDS has a grip on the future of Africa. The percentage of people with HIV in central and southern Africa is staggering. And entire generation is orphaned by their parents dying from the effects of AIDS. Left unchecked, Africa will suffer great losses from a little virus... which is ironically such a big foe. Can we sit idly by as so many suffer?

Last night I was channel suffering and I caught part of a Larry King Live where one of my life long heroes was discussing this very topic.

Through the years, Bono, lead singer of U2, has evolved from a prancing mullet-hair boy to a scruffy-faced Dylan-esque civil rights crusader.


The Irish rocker spoke eloquently about the crisis in Africa and the moral implications of inaction. He spoke with fire and conviction using the medium of cable news like an evangelist preacher uses a pulpit.

Bono was promoting his new project (RED) concerning AIDS and Africa, and he stated the follow:

You might think (our plan) sounds too simple. But AIDS is no longer a death sentence. Just two pills a day will bring someone who is at death's door back to full health, back to a full life. Doctors call it 'the Lazarus effect'. I’ve seen it myself and I have to say that it’s nothing short of a miracle. These pills are available at any corner drugstore. They cost less than a dollar a day, but the poorest people in Africa earn less than a dollar a day. They can’t afford them, and so they die. It's unnecessary. It's insane.

You might think it’s too difficult to get these drugs to the people who most need them...No. Can we do it? Absolutely. In 2001, there were 50,000 Africans taking ARVs. Now there are over one million people getting these life saving drugs thanks to President Bush's AIDS initiative, and thanks to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

There are though still 4.3 million Africans without drugs, which is why 100% of (RED) money is going directly to the Global Fund to support the work they are doing. (RED) uses the power in your pocket to keep people alive. ONE uses the power of your voice to create a more just world where people can earn their own way out of poverty.

But Bono suggests an amazing solution. It isn't another rock concert or congressional legislation. His new endeavor, called RED employs the American pocketbook to battle AIDS in Africa. Enlisting the help of major businesses like Apple, Gap, and Armani, they have created a special line of merchandise. Each time a RED product is purchased, a percentage of the proceeds goes directly to fighting AIDS in Africa.

It’s a beautiful plan. It takes away the bureaucracy of Washington or the U.N. and puts the power to act right in our own hands. If you really want to help a brother in need… reach into your pocket and support RED today!

Join RED

Learn about the Global AIDS Fund


"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least among you, you did not do for me.'"

-Matthew 25:41-45


This is a matter of life or death, not just for little children in Africa but our charity may save our own lives as well... but perhaps not in the way you might think.



"...This is an emergency. And in these dangerous times, how we in the West respond is an opportunity to show what we stand for, as well as what we stand against. If we're successful, we will not only transform millions of people's lives, we'll transform the way these people see us ... and in turn, the world in which we live."
-Bono

It's not too late. It's too difficult. Saving lives can be as easy as taking a stand and supporting this mission. I highly encourage everyone to take a stand, join Bono's campaign and go RED to help our friends in need.


One
U2

One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other

One...life

One


Learn more about Bono's charitable works here

Bono: Time's person of the year 2005

Letting Go

I think I'm starting to get a little bit about this forgiveness stuff. I have been thinking a lot about Jesus. I have been mulling His last hours in my mind like savoring a fine wine on my tongue. It has really made me ponder what is really important.

"Forgive them, Father. They don't get it... They don't know the consequences of their actions...."

WOW!!! Is it just like Jesus to do something so spectacular? So selfless and so powerful just when He looked so powerless? He lets it go… He wont let the overwhelming burden thrust upon Him bring him down.

Jesus is amazing. Oh, to shine in my darkest hour the way Jesus did.

And Stephen. A man I can identify with. Young and charismatic, he was the hope of the emerging church. And again, as the legalistic scholars took up stones and hurled them, crushing him, breaking his bones, what was his reaction? He prayed that God not judge them for these actions.

As the shadow of death crept in, Stephen was not focused on his own mortality… his own sad demise. He was focused on Jesus and the cross. There, at the scene of his own death, he shone like the son. He radiated with the light of forgiveness.

He didn’t cry out for God to save him… or for angels to swoop in. He prayed for his enemies.

Oh to find that peace and that grace. Oh to see Jesus that clearly now.

I read an article about a nun that was killed by angry Muslims a few weeks ago.

Sister Leonella, an Italian nun that had dedicated her entire life to helping poor and disadvantaged of East Africa, found herself in the focus of racial hatred in the form of two Somali gunmen. Muslim extremists across the globe have been enraged over remarks made by Pope Benedict XVI linking Islam and violence.



Shot by the two men, she was taken to the local hospital where she was overheard saying a final message for the assailants and for the world. "I forgive, I forgive," she whispered in her native Italian just before she died.

Again I see a level of forgiveness that makes me speechless. She reflected the glory of Christ on the cross by her amazing act of forgiveness. Selfless forgiveness.

I look at my own heart. I don't see that reflection of the son yet. I see anger. I see bitterness. I have held on to the bad things that have happened to me. And who is it hurting? Not my enemy? No. It is dragging me down. It is making my heart hard. I need to let it go... not for them. But I need to forgive for me. So I may be set free. So I may be healed.

This isn't going to be easy. But I am starting the process. I am giving up the grip I have on this pain and this anguish, this feeling of loss. I am getting up. I am giving it up to that man on the cross. He rescued me. He forgave me of my sins. He has been building a better me.... now He has a bigger challenge. Help me to let it go.

New Poster Available!

Hi friends,
Download the NEW Thrown Poster for the Halloween Party and Nov G-squared
HERE!!!

Print it, post it... share it. Tell your friends. Have your friends tell their friends. Post it on your Myspace site. Blog it. IM everyone you know... Bring them along. If you need a ride let us know... if your friends need rides them let us know...

What I am getting at is... OCT 22nd. Put on some silly attire and get to G-squard. Let's ROCK THE BARN!

Bollman

Band Member Spotlight: Cody Haner

Cody Haner

Cody Haner is a maintenance worker for a major trucking company in Omaha, NE. When not wrenching on semis, he collects vintage vinyl albums, plays ultimate Frisbee with his friends and spending quality time with his fiancé Allison Rolf. Cody is a gentle giant, known for his generosity, love of food and his awesome tattoos.

Favorite Bible Verses

My favorite bible verse is Ephesians 6: 10-17

A final word: Be strong with the Lord's mighty Power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil. For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.

Use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the sturdy belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared. In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Favorite Bible Story

My favorite bible story is the story of David fights Goliath. Because no matter how big and bad things get it only takes one little stone to bring it all to its knees.

Musical Influences (Non-Christian)

Joe Walsh, ZZ Top, Green Day, Toby Keith, and many more.

Muscial Influences (Christian)

First of all my band mates and also Days of Fire, Jars of Clay, DC Talk, and every day life.

Favorite Quote

People judge by out ward appearance but the Lord looks at a person's thoughts and intentions.
1 Samuel 16:7

Where have you seen God

I have seen God work in my life by giving me my lovely new wife to be.

Ink

The tattoo on my right wrist is there to remind me that God is always there no matter how bad things get. The crown of thorns on my left arm to remind me that he died for my sins.

-Cody

Barn Dance

What is the Barn?

The Barn is the new winter home of Generation Genesis. Located on Bill and Treva Turpins' farm, the Barn is part of their Christian camp called Bethany Farm.

It is a great area for youth groups with space for fun and games and a music stage.

How do you find the Barn?

The Barn is located two miles south of the Exira High School. Directions are below.



Head south on Edgerton (past the bank and high school)

continue 2.0 mi,

turn right at 310 St,

go 0.4 mi, on left side of the road.

Look for a big barn.

Band Member Spotlight: Brant Bollman

Brant Bollman

Brooding poet, power-hopping front man, Brant Bollman's goal in life is to find a deeper well. Of late, he's been tumbling down the rabbit hole of Emergent church theory looking for Paul and Barnabas' mission-minded, relational 1st century church.

When not rocking with the band, he teaches art, writes semi-daily on this blog, and attends Grace University in Omaha. His favorite passtimes are playing "Daddy Slide" and watching Andy Milonakis.

Favorite Bible Verses

Micah 6:6-8
I love this scene. Evil men keep trying to free them selves with rituals.... They are piling mountains of insincere sacrifices up to the sky to try and appease the Lord. But God isn't fooled by heartless offerings. He wants nothing to do with it. Instead He wants them to do something very simple yet very difficult for the hardened-hearted. He calls for them to love people, act justly and walk with Him. This scripture takes away the labor of religion and makes it a relationship with the Lord. WOW!!!!

First Chapter of John
How many of my songs and poems come from this passage? Many. Here is a good explanation of why it means so much to me.

Phil 2:5-11
It will be on my leg forever!!! Its just a great creed to recite every morning... or better yet to place on your heart and live by.

James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. WORD!

Favorite Bible Story

Casting Out Nets

Woman at the well

Both are about looking deeper and not settling for what is right in front of you but searching out a deeper communion with God.

Musical Influences (Non-Christian)

The biggest influence to me musically is the art world. I take a lot from the artists of the Renaissance. I particularly like Michelangelo’s work. I also love German Expressionism. Max Beckmann’s paintings are a lot like my songs. They are abstract and drenched in layers.

But the work of Vincent Van Gogh, a failed minister himself really speaks to my heart. His entire life he was trying to communion richly with God and His creation.

Music-wise, I owe a lot to the alternative bands from the 90’s like Nirvana, Meat Puppets, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains.

But the following bands really favor my musical style: U2, The Who, Bob Marley, the Police, Ramones, Greenday, Sublime, Coldplay, Zeppelin, Incubus, Anchondo, Jane’s Addiction. I could go on and on.

Muscial Influences (Christian)

David Crowder, Casting Pearls, Jeremy Camp, Marian Greer, Switchfoot, Relient K, Shane and Shane

Favorite Quote

Rene Magritte, when speaking about his painting entitled This is not a Pipe, a small realistic rendering of a tobacco pipe, stated, “If I would have entitled the work, This is a Pipe, I would have been lying!”

How richly ironic... Question everything! Even things that seem so straight forward and unquestionable.

Where have you seen God

I see God all over the place, in sunsets, in my daughter’s smile, in the moon and stars. Many times in life I have seen the powerful hand of God at work. For instances, at the Open Door Mission, when Kevin touched our hearts, God’s magic was shining through. I see God’s hand at the zoo. It’s like the testimonial of a fired up black minister. It’s undeniable, irresistible, unstoppable. You see God’s mysteries and you go, “WOW!!! GOD ROCKS!”

I feel closest to God when I am creating things, painting, sculpture, poetry, music, digital imagining. There are great moments where you make something and it’s so cool and you look at it and you remark, “WOW, THAT’S GOOD!” It is at times like that when I feel really close to the Creator. I feel Him working in me. When I turned my creative efforts away from my own pursuits and into the service of the Most High that is when I truly became alive.

-Brant

Buy one Heaven get one earth free!!!

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in.
Aim at earth and you get neither.

C. S. Lewis

Today is another day. It's another chance to live life. Who will you live it for? Will you live life for yourself, for your own selfish pursuits? Or will you live for the Lord?

Will you invest in this life down here on earth? Or will you put away for the Kingdom to come. C. S. Lewis said it best. When we live this life, we get focused on pride and prophet. Like that old song "Cats in the Cradle", we wake up and time has slipped through our fingers. Chasing happiness we never find it. But when we aim for Christ we gain both today and tomorrow. We find a new richness in our relationships. We aren't focus on money... we are focused on finding love in everyone and everything.

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.

Matthew 16:25

We were meant to live for so much more. Live for Him today.

Rocking out in the Robertson garage

You don't need anything fancy to make a church. You don't need elaborate woodwork or an altar trimmed with gold. You don’t need brick walls or a new roof or even a pipe organ. Those things are frosting.

Frosting dresses things up. It is a sweet tasting outer coating. It looks good, it tickles your tooth. But if the insides are rotten... if the cupcake isn't quality stuff... if it is stale or moldy or just plain rotten, it doesn't matter how much frosting you spread on the outside, the cupcake taste tastes terrible.

There is an old saying that's been in my family for a long time. It goes like this, "You can put frosting on a turd but you've still got a turd."

In today's world we seem overly concerned with the shiny outside. We've lost touch with the fact it’s the insides that matter. Someday the facade will fall way and all that's left is that hidden center. So what have we banked on? The beautiful decay? Or the humble outside that hides a shining center?

For me, I'll take a basement church with the Good News over a tabernacle that preaches watery weak fuzz. I'll take a mission-minded soup kitchen over a mansion filled with boats and luxury cars here on this earth. I'll take a shack on a rock over a castle in the sand.

Thank you God for Lori's garage! AMEN.

Band Member Spotlight: Chris Williams

Chris Williams

Chris Williams is a graduate student in computer science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha where he works on a major robotic research project. His hobbies include online gaming and hanging out with his friends.

Favorite Bible Verses

1) All of Psalm 18 - I love the imagery used.

2)1 Corinthians 16:13 "Be watchful, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong." - for inspiration to be the man I want to be.

3) Jeremiah 20:11 "The Lord is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, they will not overcome me." - because it kicks butt

Favorite Bible Story

Samson - There must be a Monty Python skit somewhere about someone using a jawbone as a rediculous weapon. But seriously, it would be Jesus' footwashing in the upper room as I discuss later.

Musical Influences (Non-Christian)

Wolfmother, Third Eye Blind, Dashboard Confessional, Jack Johnson, Greenday, Allman Brothers Band, Beatles, Bob Marley, Cake, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Eat World, Led Zeppelin, Muse, O.A.R., Guster, Dispatch, Ok Go, Our Lady Peace, PLP, Queens of the Stone Age, Sum 41, Taking Back Sunday, The Doors, The Get Up Kids, The Police, The Used, Yellowcard

Muscial Influences (Christian)

Coldplay, Switchfoot, Jars of Clay, Lost and Found, Casting Pearls, Jeremy Camp, Matisyahu, Newsboys

Favorite Quote

"It's sort of a two person pyramid scheme." - Bender
"Yeah, that's marriage for ya." - Fry
- Futurama

Where have you seen God

The service trip footwashing in Denver. I saw friends cry that I never would have guessed would have broken down like that in public. When walls tumble right in front of you and you are taken out of your comfort zone, people are exposed and the heart breaks. It was the most awesome (as in "full of awe" not "man this cake is awesome!") experience I've ever been a part of. Like C.S. Lewis speaks about his youth in "Suprised by Joy", I long for tastes of that joy. I have indeed been suprised by the sources of those reminders: the deft and skill of a crazy tatoo'ed biker's prayers; my envy of a good friend, who some might call "slow", so in touch with that joy, that connection to the Lord - he is a pillar of faith for me; a young girl's courage like a roaring lion and easy embrace like a comforting wisper; a wild man's endless enthusiasm, love of life, and rigorous seeking of Christ wherever he is and in whatever he does.

-Chris

Jesus-like

It is not that passion and love and exhilaration are in one place and Jesus is somewhere else.

Wherever you find those, you are finding God.

-Rob Bell


Do you remember fresh, new love. Like spring it breaks through the cold, dark winter of your heart. Flowers bloom and new music fills the air. Love finds you. Suddenly your blood flows fast and warm. You are alive again. You will do anything for this love. You will climb mountains, siege castles, swim oceans. Love is a gift.

Have you ever loved someone or something so much that you are willing to lay down your life for it? You would sacrifice anything and everything to see it live on? You would climb down into darkness so it might shine on? You are glad to give your sweat and your tears, even your blood so it can prosper... you would sacrifice even to death for it. That kind of love is very special and it is a gift.

Christ's love is all around. He blesses us daily. He pours out favors on us. He blesses us with love. Real love. We often mistake Christ's love as something that only comes from churchiness. We think it's locked in a building or in a book or a special chamber of our lives. What we do the rest of the time isn't related or so we think. Its Christ's love and other times of love... they are different... they cannot be the same.

But God is love. He wants us to live abundantly. He wants us to grow in our relationships and our endeavors. He wants us to find deeper love and respect, not just for HIM but for those special people in our lives. He pours out love... We taste it all the time and we are blind to the giver. We never stop and thank Him for the wondrous gift of His love.

It's time we stop putting Jesus in a box and start opening our eyes to the wonders He is giving us. When you see real love, stop and praise Him. When you feel real love, offer Him your prayers of thanksgiving.

Our God is the God of love. He is the God of sacrifice and tenderness. He is the God of Spring-time love. He pours His blessings on us all.

Thank you Lord for your gift of love.