Recently, I have done a fair amount of traveling.  I have been leading worship at various churches in central Florida before beginning my final Spring semester at Southeastern.  It has been great to see different churches and different styles of ministry in action.  As anyone in ministry knows, culture is very important in a thriving spiritual community.  Many churches have branched into bilingual services for various reasons, but here in Florida not the least of these reasons would be neccessity.  That is why I was particularly impressed with the efforts of an area Nazarene church that has taken the initiative to host a “spainish” class for it’s parishioners.

*Sorry the picture quality is not better.

Ever since I began leading worship from the guitar, I have had a bit of a problem with breaking strings (understatement). Each service almost always involved a broken “G” string (Please, no cheesy g-string comments. That joke is tired.) Lately, I have found myself more often breaking the “D” string. The problem here is that I am moving further away from the already unconventional “G” string break. An “E” or “B” string breaking mid-strum is not all that uncommon, but moving into the woven strings is a whole different level…I am at a loss. I have tried different strings, gages, picks, strum patterns, replaced bridges, and saddles. I have even played for some guitar techs so that they could observe my strumming. I really don’t know where to go from here…David Russell, I fully expect you to reply to this post.

con·sist·ent – /kÉ™nˈsɪstÉ™nt/ Pronunciation Key[kuhn-sis-tuhnt] –adjective – constantly adhering to the same principles, course, form, etc.

Lately, I have followed a Bible reading plan as part of my daily devotion. I really like it. I used to hate the idea of any kind of layout that would “restrict” my devotions. There was a part of me that thought it was neccessary to be unplanned and spontaneous in order to “get anything” out of time spent with God. That is not the case, nor is itimportant. It’s not about what I can get in the first place. My main fear was that my Bible reading would become yet another item on my daily checklist and that I would read for the sake of completing the task. However, I believe that God honors faithfulness. Consistence. If you make a commitment to read through a certain book, portion of the Bible, or period of time, God honors that faithfulness. It may seem elementary, but it is something that we all think about. Should my time with God be more spontaneous? Should I be a little less planned? Should I spend more time? Less? All of these are valid questions. I am not saying to abandone spontanaity. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Be spontaneous, but be consistent. Commit to do something and do it. As I thought about this post I realized that spontanaity is romantic. Romance is not love. They are not the same. I am sure there have been many a romantic one night stands. Often when we don’t have a plan for daily devotions, we become inconsistent. We have an occasional “one night stand” with God. True love is built on consistency. Relationships don’t last because of spontanaity. Relationships last because of consistency. “Love never fails”.

My fiance’, Kristin, has some amazing natural talents. Not the least of these is graphic design. One year ago today, she created this beautiful picture for me using the advanced features in the state-of-the-art graphic design program “paint”. I hope it brings you as much joy as it has me.

After nearly three days of deliberation, it appears we have a winner. Rocky Balboa would no doubt beat Carman: The Champion. The final count looks something like this…

ROCkY BALBOA: 6

CARMAN: 1

Thanks to all of you who participated! I wanted to end this brutal fight with a corny joke, so here’s what I came up with:

“Rocky may be a Balboasaurus, but I hear Carman is the Carmanager of a local 7-11.”