La La La La Live out Loud...
Probably most folks reading this are going to know who Steven Curtis Chapman is, but just in case you don't… He's one of the most popular CCM/Christian Rock artists out there, up in the ranks with Michael W. Smith (Smitty is probably better known since he has done some stuff outside of the Christian genre as well). Anyway, SCC is apparently also the award winningist (is that a word?) Christian artist, nabbing 40+ Dove awards and numerous Grammy's as well.
The concert started out with Nichole Nordman, who I had never heard of before I got the ticket for the event. I'm certainly glad I heard her though - she is extremely talented in both singing and songwriting. This was someone who truly fit well opening an SCC concert. I really liked her songs “Holy” (from the new CD “Woven & Spun”) and “Seasons,” in fact, I now have her newly released CD sitting on my desk waiting to be played.
Things just keep getting better. After about 30 minutes of music from Nordeman, Chapman came literally bouncing out onto the stage singing “Live Out Loud” from his Declaration cd. He went on for about 45 minutes or so, going through “Speechless” (one of my favorite songs of his), Fingerprints of God (which the band “helped” him sing), The Change, and some other great songs. Then he took a small break in the music and talked for a bit. He talked about God, and his family, and adoption - all kinds of stuff, all seasoned with a light touch of humor. SCC is an extremely good showman, and all of the pauses in the music were almost as enjoyable as the music itself.
He did a few more songs, and then there was an intermission half way through the concert. After the intermission, Chapman did some more songs from his new CD, and then did something really different. As part of a tie-in with the new movie Beyond the Gates of Splendor, he told the true story that movie is based on, with music from his new CD.
In short, the spectacular story is that of five young missionaries who venture down to the Amazon to try to make contact with the fierce Auca tribe in the 1950's. No one had ever made friendly contact with the tribe, but after dropping off gifts for a number of days, the band of missionaries successfully established contact. Unfortunately, it was short lived, and a day later radio messages stopped being broadcast by the team. A few days later a U.S. Air Force rescue team dispatched to locate them confirmed all of the missionaries dead - implailed with spears, their bodies tossed in the river or left on the beach. Amazingly, the story doesn't end there - one missionary's sister came down and started to learn the fierce tribe's language. Three years after the original slaughter, the tribe invited her to come talk to them about her message.
The result is nothing short of spectacular: the tribe that has a 60% homicide rate rejected “their bad path” and converted to Christianity or the “good path” as they call it. They renamed themselves “the people,” renounced their former ways, and set out to follow God's carvings (the Bible). And the missionary then remained there, living with the people until her death in 1994. In the mean time, her nephew (Steve Saint) was “adopted” by one of the tribesmen that killed his father, and he too became good friends with the tribe. Fast forward to 2002: Mincaye, the Indian, and Steve Saint (whose father Mincaye murdered) are on the road together with Chapman. After Chapman finished telling the story in song, Steve Saint comes out and talks for a little while, and then Mincaye himself comes out and gives his testimony (which Saint translates to English). Very powerful, and all wrapped up by a moving duet with Chapman singing in English and Mincaye in his native tongue.
Anyway, after that SCC sang a few more songs (including his older Great Adventure and the one he wrote a few weeks ago for the 9/11 rememberance service in NY) and wrapped up the concert with a reprise of Live Out Loud. Then, for the encore, Chapman did three or four more songs, including my favorite - “Dive.” What an amazing scene - thousands of Christians in an arena singing with Chapman about diving into river (God's Holy Spirit). Finally, after a quite ending, Chapman closed the concert with a prayer.
In all, it was WONDERFUL. Barring the fact that my ears rang from the loud music until the next morning, it was fantastic. SCC was great, and both him and Nordeman did a great job of keeping the focus on God. The added testimony of Mincaye added something amazing to the evening. To use the words Chapman said “[the presentation will] make you leave this place different.” It certainly did - seeing the amazing power of God in such a visable way. Certainly Saint had to overcome the fact that he couldn't see the big picture that God could, or as one of the songs put it:God is God and I am not
I can only see a part of the picture He's painting
God is God and I am man
So I'll never understand it all
For only God is God
UPDATE (21 April 2012): I happened to stumble upon this set list for the concert I wrote about just under 10 years ago. Interesting.
SCC Concert
Well, I'm a bit too tired to describe it in length tonight (stay tuned for the full details tomorrow), but I attended Steven Curtis Chapman's “Live Out Loud” concert tonight - and it was GREAT! Anyway, tune in at 11 for the scoop.
Religion and Science
Isn't that the way it is with religion as well? As Christians, we must have faith there is a God. We must have faith that Jesus' death was enough to atone for us. However, just like science, our faith also applies reason. It is reasonable to believe abiogenesis is impossible, and evolution is a simply a device for Secular Humanism to displace religion. Natural revelation reveals a beauty in this earth that can only be from divine orgin.
So, the next time someone suggests that science is much more reasonable than religion…. Remind them that all science requires faith, and most scientists need a lot more faith than one needs to accept the Bible. The burdon of proof is on science - whether they admit it or not. Quite frankly, acceptance of God is the only truly scientific response to the evidence we have.
The Comments of Tired Tim
And, this week, an unexpected task took up a bunch of time. As mentioned previously, I run two mailing lists (with the help of my co-administrators) - ChristianSource FSLUG and OfB-Talk. Well, last week rumblings were going on that another one of my favorite lists - KDE-Cafe - was on the chopping block, since the KDE Project no longer wanted to be associated with it. So, Tink (the list admin) accepted an offer to bring it over to OfB.biz's server. That took some work, but the worst was still to come.
This week this server was upgrades to use suExec, which, among other things, made Mailman get a lot less friendly URL out of the box. So, I compiled a new version of Mailman (a tedious project!), and finally was able to get it going last night. So anyway, while these two list events weren't exactly connected, they both ate up time that should have been devoted elsewhere. Oh well.
Hopefully this next week I'll get more of my todo list done rather than unscheduled tasks…
Nine Eleven
Be still and know that He is God Be still and know that He is faithful
Consider all that he has done
Stand in awe and be amazed
And know that He will never change
Be still
—Steven Curtis Chapman, “Be Still and Know”
I wrote up a small piece on 9/11 at Open for Business. You can find it here.
Odds and Ends...
Let's see, lots of stuff to mention, so lets try a Timback (sorta like a Slashback, but only… well, you get the point):
- My friend Ciaran Hamilton has brought his Journal back online at his theblob.org domain.
- I've done a number of interview on Open for Business you may find interesting. Take a look at the interview section on OfB to find interviews with Gael Duval of MandrakeSoft, Andreas Pour of the KDE League, and more.
- I redesigned Uninetsolutions.com with a dramatically different look. Take a look.
Judging as They Enter the Door
My friend Kevin Hartwig has an insightful piece about judging at his site. I must say he is quite right. I'm certainly guilty of judging… It is so easy to judge, but so hard to “undo” that judgement.
Still here.
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart do? Will I dance for your Jesus, or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence, or at your knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine, I can only imagine…
- mercyme, I can only imagine
It has been awhile since I said anything, so I thought I might as well say something. I feel rather like waxing sentimental, the end of summer always makes me feel that way. The festivities of the summer are over, the brilliant color explosion of autumn are still on their way. Its kind of a time for quiet reflection, considering half the year has now been spent - either for good or bad. Hopefully more good than bad.
For me, its been a busy year. In the last six months, I started CS-FSLUG (with the help of the dedicated team of JW, Jerry Kreps, Ciaran Hamilton, and Jonathan Drews); revamped Open for Business into a mostly original content outlet, and pushed on some behind the scenes work toward getting FreeMoz (f/k/a OpenMoz) going again. LinuxDailyNews also came into existance - after an exhausting few weeks of work - in early July.
I've also spent a great deal of time on consulting work, which is really booming at the moment. I've hit the niche of designing sites for speakers and storytellers, and that seems to promise to continue to keep my company busy for the rest of the year.
On the RnR side of things… I've also taken two wonderful trips to the Missouri Ozarks outside of Branson, MO; and traveled to Indiana for the wedding of my grandfather. Pretty busy travel schedule - at least for me - I usually don't travel much (the amazing communications powers of the Internet prevent the need most of the time).
Anyway, that brings me to the present. Several questions loom ahead. I've tossed around the idea of launching another site, although I fear I may take on too much and live (or maybe not) to regret that. Also, while FaithTree.com has done alright, I would like to think of ways to bring those who have quit visiting back - and to bring in new visitors. Google AdWords are my current idea for bringing new people in - certainly FT hasn't been publicized much since its launch over a year ago. Also in the near future, I'd like to see what I might need to get a press pass for next year's LWCE San Francisco…
Oh well, before I bore you, my dear reader, to death; I guess I ought to wrap up this message. I'll try to keep this updated more frequently in the future…
Revelation on Revelation
Not to sound like a “date setter,” but I really think we should be watching for continued fulfillment of the book of Revelation in the near future. Why? Well, it all started late last year…. Slashdot.org carried a story about human bio-chips. One poster aptly summed up what this sounded like.
Moving that out of sight out of mind mode, I didn't think about it much more - until last month. It was then that a report surfaced about a pontential nationalization of drivers licenses in the U.S., eventually moving toward a card that could do much more. Combine that with the previous biochip link, and you can clearly see what I am suggesting.
Now, a friend of mine on CS-FSLUG sent in a message suggesting that the third temple of Israel may be being built very soon (he didn't have more information for now). Someone else on the list noted that he had heard that Israel may be stockpiling the needed granite to build the temple as well.
The final piece of my prophecy puzzle come in a blog post today by a Pastor, who coincidentally works at the hosting company I am with. He notes a very interesting parallel between Israel's condition and Bible prophecy. While this isn't something that necessarily only fits now, it does round out things quite well.
In summary, while this could be a lot of rumblings from a storm that ends up going somewhere else, I can't help but think something larger is happening right now. With the increasing push toward globalism, and the means to facilitate it - including technology and the UN, as well as an increasing disregard for the Bible, don't be surprised for something to happen. Soon.
Zaurus Survives Fall
I don't recommend this at home, but my poor little Zaurus went with my belt clip case on to hard pavement yesterday, and seems no worse for wear. I was chasing after some soda cans that fell off my cart at the Grocery store when the fateful “trip” took place. phew Nothing like dropping your 1-week old $350 PDA. cough
