ramblings of a wannabe rockstar

The sermon at Genesis Metro and subsequent “response” time on May 31 was pretty astounding. Some would say life-changing. I’d agree with that. The sermon subject pertained to us setting down the things that hinder us from moving forward in the Christian life. The text was from Revelation 3. To illustrate the point there was a door frame set up. Click the play button on the audio player below to hear a 3-minute story about some recent changes in the Russell home.

We are still trying to raise funding to go on this trip next month. If you feel so led, would you check out the donate section at the top of the margin on the right? We thank you humbly.

A couple weeks ago, I blogged, tweeted, and Facebooked about my return to Honduras. I have received word that several people have already participated in my trip by sending donations. If you are among that number, I humbly thank you. I wanted to take a moment to let you know about another fund raising opportunity, in case you’d like to participate.

On Saturday, June 6, I will be participating in the Red River Ride. It is a 50-mile bicycle ride from the Dallas area to the Red River (the border between Texas and Oklahoma). I—along with several of my friends—am riding to raise money for Promise Home Orphanage; the project I wrote about in my letter a few weeks ago. This is doubly exciting for me considering it will be my first major physical event since losing 75 pounds last year.

We have the opportunity by going, giving, and praying to change the lives of literally thousands of children, and quite possibly an entire country. Last year in just one week in Honduras, we saw just over one thousand children enter into a life-saving relationship with Jesus Christ. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life! Imagine what could be done day after day, week after week.

This is where you come in. I have a simple request: Will you consider donating at least $0.10 a mile for my ride? That is just $5.00. Some of you will likely spend more than that on a single trip to Starbucks this week! If you are feeling even more generous, maybe you would consider $0.20 or $0.30 or even $1.00 a mile? Every little bit can make a huge difference among those children who have nothing at all.

You can donate online here. This donation (handled securely through Google Checkout) goes directly to support Promise Home (and is handled through my church, Genesis Metro). Your donation is tax deductible.

If you would rather use PayPal, you can send your support directly to me at patrick@patrickrussell.org (this comes directly to me and is not tax deductible).

And of course, more than anything, I covet your prayers. The upcoming ride and subsequent trip (as well as preparations) will be physically, emotionally, and spiritually challenging. I am sure the Lord will bless me through your prayers.

By the way, if you’re local to the DFW area, and you want to join us and help us with our fundraising, let me know. I can give you details.

Friends, I’m headed back to Honduras in July. To learn more about this trip and how can help, read this letter: http://is.gd/xkzB. Many thanks!

While I’m here, I might as well point out that I will be resuming regular blogging before too long. Thanks for checking in.

It’s been a while. Not intentional…just haven’t been moved to post anything. Until now.

There’s a blog I like to peruse from time to time just because of its thought provoking nature. It’s called iMonk. I don’t necessarily see eye to eye with a lot of the stuff he writes about, but I really like the place he’s coming from.

I read a recent post this morning, entitled Twenty-Five Sortof Random Things I Do and Don’t Believe and I thought some of it bears reposting. Some of it doesn’t (in fact, there are a few with which I completely disagree), but some of it does.

Read the whole thing here, if you’re interested.

1. I don’t believe gay marriage is the biggest threat to the family. Not by anything approaching a long shot. I’ve worked with thousands of students in my life, and the messed up kids were messed up by divorce, absentee parents, sex, substance abuse and greed. I’ve met maybe 10 students in my life who were affected by anyone’s homosexuality.

18. I believe in creation by God, but I’m not a young earth creationist. I’d really rather you try to sell me Amway or insurance than try to change my mind on that one.

19. I believe that while Protestants are right on the issue of grace in salvation, at the level of how we practice the faith we’re actually far more sympathetic to the other team than we admit, and if we actually advertised what the reformers cooked up in the Reformation, a lot of Protestants would take the bus back to Rome in the morning. The grace of God in the Gospel is radical, revolutionary and not at all compatible with entrenched religious interests and power plays. If its control of a system you want, Gospel grace is going to blow up your lab.

20. I believe the Biblical position is the pro-life position, but endless proclamations of abortion rhetoric make me wonder what’s actually going on here? Without backing off my pro-life convictions at all, I can’t honestly say that evangelicals are consistently and practically pro-life on all the issues where the sacredness of life is at stake. If pro-life is the Word, then be a doer, not just a hearer, writer or talker.

A couple nights ago we were sitting around waiting for the ball to drop in NYC for NYE and someone on the TV broadcast asked about three words to describe 2008. Of course they were dealing with morons and the person responded with only two words and then an entire phrase and screamed, “Woohoooo!” in a ridiculous high-pitched voice. It really was quite comical.

But that got us to talking about it. What were our three words? We didn’t get to far into the conversation but I’ve been thinking about it since we talked and have arrived at my three words (which is difficult to do…just three words?):

Mission
Discovery
Calling

(An interesting side note: I interrupted the writing of this entry to peruse entries from this time last year and I manged to pick only one word. Interesting.)

There’s something about that that’s a bit broken-record-ish to me, now that I look at it written out…only because I spent the large portion of my late ‘08 bloggings covering this, but while there were some significant moments this past year that were life-changing (reunion with my daughter for the first time in 7 years, personally participated in the salvation of a couple brothers), the realization of my calling and subsequent events and roles are what the defining moments of the year were for me.

I didn’t intend for this to be my 2008 “year in review post” but I think it is now. I wrote the following last year:

I guess that I can just say this: the last 12 months (and still counting) — as a collective — has been pretty much the single best time of my life. I’ve never experienced the greatness and grandeur of how huge my God is like I did in 2007 and continue to in these beginning days of 2008.

The things I was writing about at this time last year seem like child’s play by comparison, but I still would echo the sentiment above.

I. Love. My life.

What are your three words?

This helped me catch up on that which I didn’t really miss anyhow, but for what it is, it’s pretty cool.

From Lifehacker:

DJ Earworm’s mashup of Billboard’s top 25 tunes of 2008—called The United State of Pop 2008—will catch you up on the biggest pop hits of this past year in under five minutes.

Songs in the mashup include:

• Flo Rida Featuring T-Pain - Low
• Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
• Alicia Keys - No One
• Lil Wayne Featuring Static Major - Lollipop
• Timbaland Featuring OneRepublic - Apologize
• Jordin Sparks Duet With Chris Brown - No Air
• Sara Bareilles - Love Song
• Usher Featuring Young Jeezy - Love in This Club
• Chris Brown - With You
• Chris Brown - Forever
• Ray J & Yung Berg - Sexy Can I
• Rihanna - Take a Bow
• Coldplay - Viva La Vida
• Katy Perry - I Kissed a Girl
• T.I. - Whatever You Like
• Rihanna - Disturbia
• Rihanna - Don’t Stop the Music
• Natasha Bedingfield - Pocketful of Sunshine
• Chris Brown Featuring T-Pain - Kiss Kiss
• Ne-Yo - Closer
• Colbie Caillat - Bubbly
• Mariah Carey - Touch My Body
• Madonna Featuring Justin Timberlake - 4 Minutes
• Pink - So What
• Finger Eleven - Paralyzer

…and is totally awesome!

Yes, I realize that I haven’t “checked in” for a few weeks. It’s been busy. I’m still here.

Consider this my Monday Morning Check-In for this week. Be inspired. And laugh a little.

So, Joe Satrani is suing Coldplay for plagiarism. He’s gonna win.

You make the call.

My good friend and former Next 6 Exits bandmate, Ryan Hopkins, will be joining the Genesis Metro worship team on Sunday morning for the 9:30 and 11:00 services. Judging from last night’s rehearsal, this will be an amazing time. If you’re not doing anything, come worship with us.