Reconstruction Continues

Hey folks,

Ahhh, so the format revamp isn't going like I wanted it to. I realize the "fix" probably didn't fix anything for those of you who don't have extra-long monitors. So...I'll keep working on it. When I have time, anyway.

Here's what I do have time to work on right now, because I'm getting paid sweet green for it:
http://www.wkusports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=5400&SPID=2259&SPSID=28997
If you're wondering what in the world I'm doing poring over the men's basketball roster for Western Kentucky, well, it's my job. A small part of my job. Hopefully I'll get the chance to explain later.

Anyways, shalom out, and here's a Bible passage Lana and I have been chewing on recently:

Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"; and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile." So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

1 Corinthians 3:18-23 (NIV)

That snorkel's been just like a snorkel to me

OK, so I'm succumbing to the trend and using a quote as my post title. But life's too short to try to actually dream up an original title. Don't try to question that rationale...

Been reading (in very limited spare time) a terrific book called Culture Making by Andy Crouch. It came in on the stock cart at Solid Rock one day and caught my eye (I was working at Solid Rock then, for those who don't know). I picked it up, read a few pages, and immediately knew that it would be one of the most important books I would ever read. Bought it on the spot (with employee discount). Fantabulous book - if you're at all interested in culture, you must read this book. Gives a fresh yet biblical perspective. I haven't finished it yet, but I plan on reading it again many times once I'm done.

Another terrific book is Sinner by Ted Dekker, which released at the beginning of this month. If you haven't read anything this guy has written, you need to, but his stories are not for the faint of heart. His stories depict Darkness, but that just allows the Light to shine through them all the more brilliantly. This guy is one of my storytelling heroes and Sinner is another spectacular tale from him.
If you're interested in reading Dekker, I recommend starting with the Circle Trilogy. Three novels, two worlds, one story. After reading it, you may never look at the Gospel the same ol' way.
Enough about him...

I've been redesigning the blog, and working on getting it so it doesn't cut anything off. I think I've finally fixed that problem; if you're still seeing things cut off, let me know please. I like the wider format as it allows you more flexibility in putting things on the page, but I realize that some people have smaller monitors than I do and can't see it all at once. You SHOULD be able to scroll horizontally now.

Hoping to someday soon use this blog to share my thoughts about theology, "the church in America" (and why that's such a terribly un-useful term), telling stories, and much more. My wife and I have had some stimulating conversations, influenced by the writings of Piper, Dekker, Lewis, Tolkien, and many others; I'd love to share them on my blog. Right now there's just way too much to do.

God has been blowing my mind lately. Again, wish I had time to discuss it here, but since I don't, let me just throw out a word that my Sunday night class is growing to know well: assumptions. How many assumptions fill our minds and dictate the way we live, without us ever thinking about them? Are assumptions part of a godly mindset? What would happen if we (prayerfully) questioned even the most basic assumptions about our lives? about God? about the world?

On Sunday nights we've been looking at assumptions that are often held in Christendom. Stuff like "The Lord helps those who help themselves" and "Jesus looked like us (meaning WASP, that is)" and "We're not supposed to hate." We're taking these assumptions and holding them up to the light of the Bible. The question, ultimately, is not what has man said? or what have I always believed? or what makes sense to me? The question is what does God say? We're digging into the Word and coming up with some interesting and sometimes unexpected answers.

Ehh, I want to just break down and write a long post about assumptions now. But it's bedtime, and my wife and I definitely need the rest. Toodleoo and shalom out, my Hebrew homies, till then.

Stop, hey, what's that sound?

What's goin down, tell me what's goin down
You wanna know just what's goin down?
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's goin down
- TobyMac

You just thought I'd never post again.

You might be right.

Naw, I don't intend to call it quits on the blog just yet, but then again, this is my first post in nearly a month. It's a busy life, and I haven't had much time to be on the Internet, much less writing blog posts.

We have made three filming outings for the most anticipated film of 2007, er, I mean, 2008 (it could even be 2009). The result: We have, in the director's estimation, completed over half of the remaining filming. We still probably have four or five days of filming ahead of us at least; don't even try to make my math match up, just trust that it does.

Three-fourths of the film is edited and I'm dipping my proverbial toes in the water with the score. Once the filming is finished, it's still going to be several months at least before we finally unveil Hunted to the world. But I believe that we will unveil it, and I'm excited about that.

FtF is less than two weeks away, and I'm pumped about what the Lord has for us this year. Pray for our group; there's a spiritual war going on and I pray that God, not Satan, wins this battle. And please come out prayerfully and expectantly on Saturday, August 23, and share this exciting day with us.

I have a new job, and hopefully I'll get a chance to post more about that later. Working on transitioning from The Solid Rock to this new thing. I'm slightly scared and really excited, because I know that it's what God has for me.

So that's a little bit of what's goin down, for now. Shalom out.

Hunted Strikes Back

Tomorrow

July 16

AD 2008

the most anticipated film of the year

2007 --

which has become

the most anticipated film of the year

2008 --

shall resume principal photography

after an eight-month hiatus

and there shall be much rejoicing

HUNTED IS COMING, BABY!!!

hee hee hee....

This is Luke's wife posting for him, before sister Nan starts to remind how wonderful blog posts are :P
And no, he didn't ask me to, but no, I didn't hack in :^D

Well, what's up with Luke: he's busy working 31-39 hours a week, exercising (almost) daily with his wife (at her request) eating a lot of homemade food (and raving about it), and doing various other things that married life involves.
He's learning to be the head of his own household, and doing a marvelous job. He's set up a budget that we're working with this month, he takes good care of his wife and makes sure she drinks lots of water and takes her vitamins and supplements. She needs a lot of reminding. Once this weekend, he cleaned up the mess after his wife gagged on her supplement drink (and it choked it up all over the floor). She nearly cried to see him bent over mopping it up, but then she laughed b/c she felt like a baby who'd spat out her formula.
Oh, I teased him the other day b/c 'we've got a teenager in the house', but he's a really strong, God-fearing man. and I love him a lot.
Other news... Luke got a raise last week! We were very excited. And we celebrated with pound cake, which was wonderful and also exciting :^)
He'll be home in about an hour, and of course we're both looking forward to it.
Miss you, my love!!!
You can delete this post if it bothers you, but I was trying to sign into my own account on your laptop, and it put me to your dashboard, so.... :^P

Married life

First off, got to go to AARON and MEGAN's wedding today!!! Kudos to the new Mr. and Mrs. A-Luv! Just watching his face throughout the ceremony was a fun experience; he looked, as my dad put it later, like a little kid on Christmas morning. He and Megan are such a blessing; it's been so neat to watch them come into our church, pray to receive Christ, grow in the Lord, fall in love, and now start a new life together as husband and wife.

We're kinda just chillin at home right now; Lana's lying on the bed reading Calvin and Hobbes (we got the complete three-volume collection as a wedding present from wonderful Uncle John and Aunt Angie!) while I post. She made the most awesome stuff for dinner tonight. I just asked her what it's called and she bravely made up the title of "Creamy...Rice and...Chicken Bake". Sounds good to me, love. Anyways, it is fantastic; all you cook-type people have got to get the recipe from her. She told me it's an old family recipe, dating back to about 5:00 this afternoon.

Married life is quite fun. I don't want to pretend that it's always easy; things like overflowing garbage and wrinkled pants and black bean soup that didn't turn out just right, do pop up from time to time. But we are so happy; God has blessed us so much, and it is so cool to be together as husband and wife.

So, my final verdict on courtship, now that I have forever left it? I am more convinced than ever that it is absolutely worth it. Wait on the Lord, wait, wait, wait, and He will bless you a hundredfold for it. It may not seem like such a big deal to dabble with that special someone now, to dip your toes in the whirlpool of romance and swirl them around. But I can tell you, after holding back and finally being freed to give my everything to my bride, that doing things God's way is infinitely better than doing what excites us at the time. Do not awaken love until its appropriate time, the Bible says. Do not, DO NOT, DO NOT!! There, I'm done preaching...for now.

As for the wedding, yes, I hope to post some pics at some point. I'm sure you've seen Lana's blog (if not, go check it out, for pete's sake!); she's got a lot of photos there. For now, all I'll say about the wedding is:
"Since the invention of the kiss, there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind."

God bless ya'll, and I hope to post again sooner (and who knows, maybe I'll have some news on that elusive most anticipated film of the year!).

The Return to Narnia (or wherever)

Just a quickie for now as my lovely wife and I are about to depart and (finally) watch The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

I want to thank you guys so much for praying for us and encouraging us through the months of our courtship. It seemed like forever, but now the waiting is over, and we've just begun.

I'll try to provide a more detailed post about the wedding in the next couple of days, because of course I want to talk about it. No pictures yet, sorry, the only one I've seen is on my wonderful mother-in-law's blog (pursuingjoy.blogspot.com). If you have pictures, please please please send them to me (or post them on your blog); my wife and I (and quite a few other people) really want to see them!

Man, there's so much to talk about, but no time now, Narnia is calling us back!

God bless you all; no, we aren't abandoning our blogs; and yes, in case you're wondering (and I'm sure you are), MARRIED LIFE ROCKS MY FACE OFF!!!

Just over a day left...

I'm writing this post from my and Lana's apartment. Sitting on the black couch, listening to the hum of the air conditioner (well, along with Michael W. Smith on my lappytop). It's the home God has provided for us. What an incredible blessing; thank You, Lord!

Just chillin' here (and getting a few things done while I chill, I should add) before I head over to the rehearsal. Ahh...

I love my house. It's not really a house, I know, but I won't be able to stop calling it that. It's just...so crazy, to sit on the couch and see all the stuff we've brought in thus far. And to know that a week from tomorrow, Lana and I will be settling down here -- to live together.

And by that time, we'll have been married for a week -- AHHHHHH!!!!

I want to quote my song, man I do, but I can't, I'm saving it back. The world premiere for it is tomorrow night at 7 pm, if anyone wants to attend.

Wow, I'm getting married in about twenty-seven hours. And I still haven't really gotten nervous yet. I figured I would, I'm still expecting it to hit me at any minute. But so far it's just like, wow, wow, it's really happening and the greatest day of my life really is tomorrow. Wow. Praise God, praise God, praise God.

Thank you all for praying for me and Lana, and please don't stop now. Pray especially for the wedding, not for us (although we'd appreciate it) so much as for those who attend. I believe God wants our wedding to be a powerful testimony of His grace and love. Not everyone who will be there knows Jesus.

A thought just hit me. We do an Easter program every year in our church, and at times I've wondered what it would be like to play Jesus. I so respect Jason, the guy who currently does it; he takes it so seriously and lets God work through him.

But, um, wow, get this, this just occurred to me: Tomorrow night, I'm playing Jesus. Our wedding is a picture, an acting out of the Great Romance between Christ and His people. Lana represents the Church. And as the groom, I will be standing in the place of my Savior. What a thought!

OK, so now I'm a little bit nervous.

I'll try to post tomorrow, but in case I don't have time, God bless you guys, and thanks for the prayers!