December 2006
Monthly Archive
Van, The Band, and Caravan
Posted by Dan on 23 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: music
Thanks to Sean for the link of the funniest and most soulful Van ever.
Recording
Posted by Dan on 23 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: music
Well, we’ve been really busy recording this week at Elm Street Recording. Things are coming along pretty well. Ryan is getting some really good drum tone with his new setup. There have been a few small hitches, but things are sounding good. We are just about done tracking instruments and will probably do vocals, second week in January.
Early Christmas
Posted by Dan on 11 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Family
I had a wonderful time this weekend with my family back in Akron. We celebrated Christmas early since we won’t be around on the 25th. We had mom’s famous Christmas eve dinner, which is Festival Chickan and delish to the max. Then I took my siblings and their spouses to see Anathallo at the Grog Shop in Cleveland. There were three opening bands and I could have done without the first two, then Page France played and I loved them. Musically the voice of the Weakerthans combined with the music of Bright Eyes and Sufjan Stevens. Good stuff. Then Anathallo played and were amazing. You have to see them if they come to your area.
Then saturday we did the whole Christmas thing with the family, went to my sister’s choir program and ate alot. And then I had the opportunity to lead worship at my mom’s church with my brothers on sunday. It was really fun to play with them, they are both really talented. I guess a lot of the people there got teary-eyed becuase it reminded them of my dad. It was weird to again have a Christmas get together without him. I’m sure he’s loving eternal life though.
Porn and Pancakes
Posted by Dan on 07 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Life
I’ve had several conversations with guys lately about their struggles with lust and porn. It’s a serious issue that is hard to talk about for a lot of people. I really appreciate the way xxxchurch.com has brought the topic more out in the open. Some friends of mine were able to attend “porn and pancakes” put on by “xxx church” last week and said it went really well. Hopefully we can have more talks at Riverview to help guys who are struggling with this issue. Until then, here are some tips:
1. Confess To God I really believe that since our relationship with God is in fact a RELATIONSHIP, that it is appropriate to let him know.
2. Confess to Others Find someone with some spiritual maturity who will continue to ask about your struggle.
3. Run Don’t pretend that you are tough enough to stand up to temptation yourself. The model that you see in Proverbs is run. I think Drastic Measures should be taken in many cases. If you need to get rid of the internet, then do it. If you need to relinquish keys to a building, then give them back, if you need to put accountability software on your computer then, go for it.
Here are a couple resources to help:
1. x3watch accountability software from xxxchurch. It’s free and easy.
2. Covenant Eyes which has even more powerful accountability software and many other good resources to help people who struggle.
One last thing that I’ve been thinking about is that wives really need to be cared for and helped to understand, because I think for many women this is a struggle that is somewhat foreign to them. Does anyone know of any good resources for women?
Put Yer’ Money Where Yer’ Mouth is
Posted by Dan on 06 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: Life
Thanks to Brett for the link to this Article about Arthur Brook’s new book Who Really Cares?. It seems that research tracking giving habits of self proclaimed Liberals and Conservatives, we find suprising results.
According to the book:
“People who identify themselves as conservatives donate money to charity more often than people who identify themselves as liberals. They donate more money and a higher percentage of their incomes.
It is not that conservatives have more money. Liberal families average 6 percent higher incomes than conservative families. . . .
Conservatives not only donate more money to charity than liberals do, conservatives volunteer more time as well. More conservatives than liberals also donate blood.
According to Professor Brooks: “If liberals and moderates gave blood at the same rate as conservatives, the blood supply of the United States would jump about 45 percent.”
Professor Brooks admits that the facts he uncovered were the opposite of what he expected to find — so much so that he went back and checked these facts again, to make sure there was no mistake.”
Very interesting. It makes me wonder what would happen if all the “liberals” hoping for political change, who cry out for social action, would just give more time and money to the change itself instead of writing blogs and attending protests and listening to too much talk radio all in the hopes that the GOVERNMENT will do something about it.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t consider myself a conservative. I am vote issue for issue and don’t believe it’s wise to just pick a party without considering all the issues that are included on their platform. I just know that I’ve seen so many people jump on the social justice (read vocal liberal) wagon without actually doing anything to make the world better.
This also begs the question for the Christian. What is our greatest purpose and how does the whole social justice thing fit into this?
I hope you have an answer.
Band Site
Posted by Dan on 01 Dec 2006 | Tagged as: music
Check out our bio page on www.semperreformandarecords.com