Thank you for your prayers, Tuesday was a great day to see God’s power displayed. It was one of those days where I hardly got a chance to breathe or take a restroom break until about 9:30PM…but I could see all throughout the day how the Lord was guiding our rehearsals and preparations. Thank you for praying! God worked and His glory and power were evident to me! MPC+O practice was awesome! There was an intern from the San Diego Chamber of Commerce who observed almost our entire concert because their group is responsible for the Winter Walk in La Jolla where we will be preforming on Dec 10th at 7PM. She thought we were awesome! She really raved about us, which was nice of her! Thanks…

speaking of the concert, here’s a list with my descriptions…

1) Overture: Sing We Now of Christmas- Arranged David Hamilton. Very film-score-ish with some wonderful stuff in it. A great opener while choir is walking on stage…obviously, it’s an instrumental…

2) Christmas Fantasia- also Arr. David Hamilton. I love this arrangement. I sang it probably 7-8 years ago in a small church but have never tackled it with a choir of my own until now…the coda of this song is one of my favorite parts of anything ever…I love the ending…

3) Spirit of the Season- yes, the same that UCO is doing, and a soon to be xmas classic..it’s like the quiintessential Christmas song. I didn’t like the first time I heard it, but then it REALLY grew on me. Now I love it…also arr. David Hamilton (I love that guy).

4) Silent Night- Arr. Shakleton. Most definately the best version I’ve EVER heard in my life. Kudos to Shack.

5) Carol of the Bells- the traditional 4-part version. Love it. (A Capella)

6) Festival of Carols- Arr. Lari Goss, definately a sing-a-long type.

7) First Noel- Arr. David T. Clydesdale. A cool version with, yes, many many parallel 4ths in the song (Debussy style). I was immediately drawn to this arrangement. Good stuff…

8) Night of Miracles- of course the UCO one…this one just has something that is exciting about it. I love it. Also notice how the beginning of that one is a tidbit from the First Noel, and we’re just coming out of a 1st Noel song…oooooo…

9) Mary Did You Know- yes, also the classic UCO one (Arr. Bruce Greer), I mean, are there any other arrangements out there?? Just kidding, yes there are a thousand…

10) Gloria- yes, Michael W. Smith. What else is there to say. It’s only the best song EVER! And the hardest to memorize…

11) We Three Kings- another David Hamilton. Needs timpani. But is still incredible without them. Very late 19th century sounding, with a middle-eastern/russian sound to it. Again, a favorite of mine…

12) Winter Medley- our closer. Also arr. Lari Goss. This has Sleigh Ride, and Kay Thompson’s Jingle Bells, it’s fantastic. It is by far our strongest, most fun song! Audience will leave with a great taste in their mouths with this one. Definately an audience pleaser…

Wow- that was from memory…awesome…It’s gonna be a great show. I’m really excited about it now.

Another hard day ahead! Another dress rehearsal tonight! Will it all come together? Please pray that it does! OH- and a shout out to Val for finding more ties for me AND praise the Lord that Pastor Baize picked them up in Carlsbad on his way back from LA so no one had to drive all the way up there to get them! Hallelujah! Thank you Lord!

PRAY!!!

God’s power. Hm. I feel like I’ve seen God’s power displayed a lot in my life. As I was walking yesterday, I was thinking about the answer to my own question in the previous post…

How has God, or more specifically, the power of God changed my (your) life?

There really is so much…my first thought is the parable of talents. I live my life understanding that God has given me gifts, and that I should invest them for His glory. However, in anything I do, I also understand that God is the power behind me, driving me, guiding me. I also know that what I do won’t succeed unless God is in it. So the power of God has been displayed for me in the sucessess that I’ve had, and the failures. In my successes, I’ve seen God work amazingly through the circumstances and events that take place surrounding that event or events. In addition, I’ve seen how powerful God is when His blessing is missing from my life–because when that happens, my failure is so evident and so transparant to me. When I fail, I look back and say to myself, “oh man, I wish I would have done what God wanted instead of what I wanted, so His power would’ve been displayed…”

hmm…I wonder if all of that makes sense. Anyway-a good point to ponder if you haven’t already…
God’s power on display…it really is all around us…

pray for this week! rehearsals!! Shows!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!

Thanks for all of your comments in my last entry. Wow. I got like, half as many as Mike gets on a usual basis. Does that mean I’m half as cool as Mike, no. It means that Mike is a comment hog. He hogs all the comments for himself…meanie!!

I’m reading about God’s power in my devo today, and I’m reflecting on how God’s power has changed my life. I have to go, so I’ll have to amend this post a little later with a story of my own, but I’m curious to know i (in two or three sentances) how God, or specifically, the power of God has changed your life. Anybody?
(Take a break from commenting on Mike-the-comment-hog’s blog and comment on mine.)

We browsed at some apartments in Covina on our way up to Twain Harte, and I think we found a winner! Yahoo!

I have to confess that the past few weeks have been quite a test for me. It’s hard to know what God wants you to do, but not know how in the world you’re gonna do it. It’s like God is plopping me at the bottom of El Capitan (for you slackers, that’s a HUGE bolder/mountain/rock thingy in Yosemite–see pic below) and telling me “I want you to go to the top”
and that’s it.
I’m like, sitting here going, “I believe you, but what’s next? How do I start? What’s the best place to start climbing? Where’s my gear? Don’t I need a helmet?” etc, etc, etc…
All along, people are walking by and saying a mix of things, like “Can’t wait to see you make it to the top!” or “You really shouldn’t try this, it’s not smart.” or “Why in the world do you want to climb El Capitan, anyways? No one in the Bible climbed El Capitan!” Leaving me reeling, thinking, “Yes, but God told me that I’m going to the top. so why’s it your business anyways?”

All along, God is sitting back, waiting for my faith to kick in. ‘Cause even though I believe that He wants me to go to the top, that’s not enough. I also have to believe that He’s going to provide the strength and the means to do so, and that, my friends, is where I have been failing.
I mean, I believe it, right? But faith requires not just belief, but ACTION upon the belief–that’s the *IN FAITH* part. Abraham was WALKING UP THE MOUNTAIN TO KILL HIS KID-IN FAITH that God would provide another sacrifice. At the last possible second, God provided the ram for him to sacrifice instead of his son…but there was some serious action on Abraham’s part. He didn’t just wait there…he acted on his faith.

So now I’m at the bottom of El Capitan, and after looking all around the bottom of the rock to find a good place to start climbing, I’m feeling a little more like I have some direction. I feel a little more like I may have a good trail to start on, and maybe even some climbing gear on. But my faith has not been what it should be, and for that, I need forgiveness.
Oh, and where’s my helmet?!?!?

===
DANIEL YELLING AT THE WORLD
===
For the most part, people that are pretty close to us and in our ministry have been great about supporting us in our new adventures. But it’s really confusing to me how so many other people are trying to convince me to GO AGAINST what I believe is God’s will for my family. I mean, I can’t tell you how many people are like “I don’t think you’ve prayed about this enough” or “Are you sure this is what you’re supposed to do” or “Why in the world would you leave such a great place?” or “You’re going to write music for commercials????”. And I’m just like, YES, this IS a great place- I LOVE MIDWAY. Let me make that clear. This is so hard for us, to leave the comfortable, steady, secure job and fruitful ministry that I have at Midway. But when did God say Christianity is comfortable OR finanically secure? This isn’t about me, it’s about what GOD WANTS for me and my family. And when someone who has been seeking the Lord’s wisdom with all their heart says that God tells them something, don’t try and convince them otherwise…unless YOU have been fasting and praying for a long time… ’cause that’s just stupid–and quite unwise.
Fair enough?
===
THIS HAS BEEN A SPECIAL EDITION OF DANIEL YELLING AT THE WORLD
===

So I’m thankful for all of God’s provision in our times of transition. I can’t tell you how much God has done for our family in, like, the last 24 hours. It’s incredible. And blogworthy–just maybe for tomorrow…
I love you all!

Happy Thanksgiving.

(El Capitan)

The word is out, kinda. We will be coming down on weekends to lead worship/choir/orchestra, etc…for an undisclosed and undetermined amount of time (hopefullly until the new guy comes in). Be praying for us. Be praying that the driving doesn’t get old or that it doesn’t become a huge burden because we’d really like to keep the programs going until we can literally hand off the torch to the next person God has for this position.
Please pray. This whole time is really scary and trying for us. Noah is a basket-case most of the time (’cause of the autism) and it’s really hard to not know exactly what job I’m going to have, etc… when I move to LA. God totally has it in His hands, but for the first time in my life I’m having a hard time accepting that. Argh. Growing up is hard to do…seems like I had an easier time trusting God when I was younger. Maybe now I have more responsibility with my family and all, but it sure seemed easier back then…back a whole two years ago when I was young (oh, I’m soooo funny)…

EDIT ADD: So I’m here at Kids Choir and Christy is talking about Candy-Cane etiquette (for the super-large plastic candy-canes they are all dancing around with). Ha. Kids… Ok, back to the track-playing. That’s my job. I’m the track-player. Don’t be a player-hater.

Good job to all the choir and band, etc…for a great worship service today. You guys rock!

===============
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life–your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life–and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

Romans 12:1 (msg)

Stupid Harry Potter. I’m so tired right now. You know it takes 24hrs for any change in sleep (like loss of sleep) to catch up with you. For instance, I went to bed on THU night at 3AM, I was not tired on Friday, but I’m STINKY tired today. Argh.
I can tell you this right now, I’m NOT seeing Narnia at Midnight. Forget it. NO MORE!! Plus, the last movie REALLY worth seeing at 12:01AM was Star Wars Episode III. I’m good. I’m good.

EDIT ADD: Bought the Carrie Underwood album for Christy. Yuck. Although I like CU’s voice, I hate country music. ‘Nuff said.
=========
OK-
Saw HP IV last night w/Mike in Mission Valley. We got there at about 11PM for the 12:01AM showing, and we were probably in the last 10% of people that were in line and got into the theatre. Yeah, there were a few people behind us, but my friend Mark (a Starbucks friend) was the first in line at 5PM with some of his friends. Wow. He definately had a good seat. We went to the theatre # that we had on our tickets, and it was COMPLETELY full. I mean, not a seat to spare, they couldn’t spare a square-not even a ply. So we had to go to a different theatre (across the hall) and found a seat where I scored a popcorn from the lady next to me. Sweet!
I was dozing off a little bit during those times where the action was not happening (during the talking…) so I really have a slight idea what the movie was about, but should definately see it again to get the full effect. I mean, I’m 26 now, and far too old for these things. As far as HP movies go, it is possible that I didn’t get it ’cause I was dozing, but it seemed more disjointed than the others. Keep in mind that this book was TWICE as long as previous ones and that hard or more to adapt to film. Not a dissapointment, though, just not AS good as the others, perhaps. I’ll need another time to see it though…

Stay tuned for more moving/Midway updates…just not today…

EDIT ADD: I’m going to see HP III tonight at 12:01 AM. Booyaw!!
=====

OK- Great Job Orchestra! Practice last night was BY FAR the best the MPO has ever sounded! Yippee! I mean, honestly, I was worried. Our concert is, like, two weeks away (basically) and I just didn’t think it was going to happen. But thank you for your hard work. We went through about half of the tunes and they were really great! I was really pleased.

Thank you, Lord!

Oh yeah, Melody’s blog is hilarious. Gotta read it…

LOST was incredible. But really, when is it not? That extra four minutes? Really? Just cut out a few commercials or something, ’cause that was pretty rediculous….

Side note: Nathaniel has been coming into our room at about 6AM every day the last 3 or 4 days to jump into bed and cuddle with us. Do I mind? No way, it’s soooooo cute! Anyways. Thursdays I have an early meeting, and I remembered, but forgot to actually set my alarm for it. Well thank you Nathaniel for waking me up on time!! Otherwise, I would have never made it…

That article was long! Good job for reading it (half of you-other half, this one’s shorter…).

I’m reading this in 7 Minutes w/God:
==============
Romans 5:7-8
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
==============

But it’s in this translation: (msg)

=======
We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.
=======

Wow. That last line really puts a new spin on things for me. But, I guess, here’s the bottom line for me:
We will never be able to fathom God’s love, no matter how hard we try. Although we must seek Him daily, He’s too awesome. God’s love is incomprehensible, and we’re commanded to love like He does. Wow. Do we love with an incomprehensible love? For EVERYBODY?
Man, I know I don’t. Yikes!

Ok! I’m working on it! Help me Lord!