Christian Living

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Come along with me as my mind wanders here and there. I want to say so much, but don't seem to give myself the time to order my thoughts. There will be an article on bad habits, as well as one on a walk in the moonlight, but not today. Here, you'll get it as I think of it.

Since I usually write on music, I guess I'd better say something about it. I've heard some great stuff, as well as been duped into buying a "wrong" CD. Most of my summer seems to have been wrapped up in mowing. My wife and I managed to escape to see ApologetiX on our state capital grounds. As usual, they were a great concert, and worshipful time. We also got to see As Daylight Fails (modern rock). That was good, since I'd talked to them earlier on MySpace about a concert that never happened. I soon found out that they were going to be playing at my church the next weekend, opening for our hometown rapper, Lyrycyst.

As Daylight Fails and Lyrycyst were fun to see in a smaller venue. It was like hanging out with family. Then a couple weekends later, another family-like event happened: the ninth annual Current Fest in Clinton, Missouri. I met and talked to all sorts of friends and acquaintances. The music was great, too. The Recycled's music had really put on some weight since I last heard them. I like that new heavier sound! That's about all I've got for you regarding live music. A couple new bands got added to the CD collection, too.

The Recycled (classic heavy rock, formerly Empty Tomb), Breaking the Silence, Saving Jane (both modern female vocaled rock), Arcade Fire (eclectic), Nickel Creek (bluegrass), and Dale Thompson and the Kentucky Cadillacs (blues rock) all got added to the collection. Older bands in the collection, but new added works included Audio Adrenaline's final concert CD/DVD, Newsboys' Go: Remixed, and more ApologetiX. All was good stuff, except my attempt to buy a Plain Jane CD.

I knew which Plain Jane album I wanted to buy, but the cheapest one, and used, was over $30! There was another Plain Jane album for under $10. "Anything But Plain" is out of print, hence the price, and "So Much For Anything" was affordable. The trouble with that was that even though the albums had such similar names, they were from two different bands called Plain Jane! Arghh! "So Much For Anything" wasn't even close to what I expected. Oh well. Like I said on my Amazon.com review, if anyone wants to send me a five-dollar bill, I'll send them my once-listened-to copy.

Well, there are bands looking to book their 2008 tour (Check out Eowyn's music and blogs to see if you can get her booked in your town!), an album release party in my home town, and a three-day concert coming up near the end of September, with a trip to Branson the week after that, so I'll be well-musicked up for pretty much the rest of the year.

That music stuff took more space than I thought. Here are some tastes of what's to come. Stuff has happened with my family over the past months to really get me pondering bad habits and how we deal with them. If you're finding that you're having to hide something from family and friends, it's probably wrong. And the walk in the moonlight can be a very pleasant and peaceful thing, but we can get quite used to the reduced light or increased darkness to the point that it hurts to come back to the light.

I'd always heard of spiritual warfare, and believed it to be true, but had never seen anything of it until a week or so ago. OK, you might think me weird, but so be it. I saw a bunch of demons. Yeah, they were in a dream, but it was my first time, and they were really nasty laughing, cackling critters that I can't see myself making up. I learned something through that encounter. Jesus is with us always, even in our sleep, and He will come to our aid when we call on Him.

That was a bit disjointed, but it got me back writing. I'll be back a bit quicker next time. So until then, keep Jesus first, and always let your music help keep your focus on Him!

Paul

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