FYI: I don't think I'll be posting a whole heck of a lot between now and when I move into school again (that's August 20th). So, unless Brenda and 'Lissa keep you guys on the edge of your seats, I don't know that there will be a whole lot to tell. Anyways, keep praying for us, and make sure you're at the New City Cafe on August 22nd (that's two days after I move in..............AAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!). Nevermind the hysterics, God has a plan. I just tend to freak out sometimes when I'm flying by faith alone, and that's my stupidity. He's so much more than faithful. So, check up on us every now and then, but if nothing's getting done (haha, it's a pun, it's funny, it's.......oh forget it), then don't give up completely. Just wait a while. By the way, as soon as I see Brenda at school, there will be gratuitous pictures from the Florida trip, a plethora of pics, if you will, an eclectic assortment of photographical pontifications even. All right that's enough. God bless!
Posted by A. Whipple at 4:24 PM
It may seem like things are going slowly here on the website, but they're not going slowly behind the scenes. You're simply going to have to take me at my word on that. God is faithful in bringing about the best things for those who are faithful to Him. I'm glad that He's chosen to make me a part of this group that constantly surrounds me with faithful servants of the Lord (that's Brenda, Elissa, Jonathan, and Katrina). You know, in 'The Great Divorce', CS Lewis portrays Hell as being incredibly small. He says Earth (metaphorically speaking, the universe) could fit into a crack in the ground in Heaven, and Hell is smaller than a pebble on Earth. That is why there is not room enough for the Good in life in Hell. Only Jesus could become small enough to enter Hell for us. If we set our minds on God, and on God as He is and not as we make Him out to be sometimes, we cannot think of other things. These are the physics and mechanics behind my ranting and raving about the uselessness of guilt (you remember those). Guilt, as we speak of the feeling of guilt (the dwelling on of our sins), is nothing more than the lie that the devil uses to fill your mind with the sins of the flesh. It is the same as temptation, though it tends to make one much more miserable, because you know that you have done something horrible, and you still cannot escape it. Guilt, in this respect, is a perversion of the knowledge of forgiveness and grace which makes the grace of God seem impossible to attain (when the grace of God is freely given). Guilt, as it truly stands, is not really a feeling at all, but a condition. One is 'guilty' of sin. I am 'guilty', meaning I have committed sin. But I should not have 'guilt'. I should have the desire to do better, but not out of the desire to do better itself. Desire of this kind makes one haughty (people call it being holier-than-thou) and sort of like Ciaphas (I hope I spelled that right). I should desire to do better out of pure love for my Father. Out of the knowledge that my sins has been atoned for and my guilt no longer stands. Love, it seems, is a far better motivator than guilt. If we fill our minds with the Lord, there is not room for anything else to creep in. You just try it and see. If it doesn't work, then you've got a false idea about God's love in your mind. Read the crucifixion part of the gospel. Lather, rinse, and try again. Lord, help me remember when I have children that love is a better motivator than guilt. Thank you Father, and I praise You alone! Help me always to see only You!
The grace of our Lord be with you all. I love you guys! Thanks for reading.
Posted by A. Whipple at 1:42 AM
I just finished reading 'The Great Divorce' (CS Lewis) and I absolutely loved it! Highly recommended reading to anyone who needs reassurance that we can do nothing without God and that all our efforts to be righteous are in vain. I also read the 4th Harry Potter book (in one day cause Kat thought I couldn't). I actually liked it a whole lot better than the others. It didn't explain the whole plot background again and it took a bit of a darker, more in-depth tone. It also scratched a few spots relating to character interaction which have been itching since the beginning. But enough of being a book critic. Needless to say, I liked it, and I hope I didn't spoil it for those who haven't read it yet.
Anyways, God is absolutely amazing! It's really histerical when you look back at how stupid you were before (at least it's funny when I look at myself, maybe I'm the odd bird out). I went to the climbing center today and got some fun in with Jared and his brother and their friend Zach. Then we went to Panera on the strip, and I went out to Kat's house after (smelling wonderful I'm sure). I've got some leadership meeting tomorrow. You know, if I didn't have God, I would feel like my life was some sort of Ernest Hemingway novel. Looking at it that way really brings a definition to the word 'existentialism' (which no teacher I've ever had has clearly defined). I've always wondered what that really meant.
I'm leaving for Atlanta in a few days (again). I feel like Forrest Gump. 'So I went to the White House again. And I got to meet the President again.' I spend half my life driving, and it all revolves around Atlanta. I'm either in Tennessee, Florida, or Atlanta. I'm sort of getting tired of the 'We Bare All' signs all over southern Georgia. I wonder sometimes what a girl who does that sort of thing had a daughter and her daughter did that sort of thing. If you ever meet Randall Goodgame, ask him about the story about his pastor and the huge guy who kept asking for money and the prostitute who got in the car with him. Cool story having to do with what I just said about the strip places in Georgia. Randall's going to kill me now, because now everyone who reads this will ask him about that. I don't guess that's too many folks though, so no harm done. I'm going to go to bed at a decent hour tonight (I hope). That's definitely a change. God bless you guys!
Posted by A. Whipple at 12:36 AM
You know, there are always those times when life is really great but darkness seems to cover everything like a persistent cloud. It's those times that the thirst for righteousness is most obvious in my life, and I don't know why it seems so hard to answer it during those times. The devil's cocktail of lies is so easy to swallow. Pain is so easy to come by. I suppose it's not difficult to understand that so many people fall for Satan's traps. I look at my own life and I can't pick out a single day when I've not fallen for something that he's thrown at me. That's just more evidence of how much I need God then. You ever have those days, when you think you did things right, and everyone else thinks you did them right, but if you step back and look they just seem to have been wrong from the beginning? Those days when you feel sort of useless and empty. Sometimes it makes me just want to scream just so something will make noise over all the stuff rattling around in my mind. It's almost August and it's really weird. Real life is so much more real than not. And if that statement makes no sense to you then disregard it. It'll make sense to those who have tasted real life more abundant. Sometimes you're standing in the morning wind on the mountaintops and sometimes you're baking under the high noon in the valley of the shadow. But it's good to know that there's always joy that runs so much deeper than our feelings can touch. Joy that springs from the Holy of holies in the temple that is in each of us.
I've discovered that with all that I've gone through in life, before I get married, I've got to sort through those things to be effective as a husband. Otherwise, my selfish heart will blind me to everything that I can experience, and that I should experience spiritually in my marriage. Be forewarned, God will give you what you ask for! God will work in your life if you let Him. And sometimes it's going to hurt. I wish I didn't have to deal with all the blindness of my past (some of you will know what I am talking about), but I would be spiritually blind as a husband if I didn't. Truth is, God's grace is abundant, but the world we live in is created so that actions have consequences. But I'm glad that God used my mistakes in a way that will make me more effective as a Christian. I don't know what they would have done to me had He not, and I don't want to know. I guess I'll quit rambling, but that's why we chose a journal for a website, to let you guys see that we're real people with real problems. Just cause we try to sing and play instruments doesn't make us perfect. It doesn't really make us anything at all. God be praised that we're so small! We might be even more likely to get our heads on backwards with selfishness if we weren't.
Posted by A. Whipple at 9:55 PM
Housekeeping notice: I changed the format so the page only displays a month's worth of posts. For the rest you'll have to go to the archives. Sorry if this is an inconvenience. The page was kinda long though, if your looking for my motivation. Thanks for reading. God bless you!
Posted by A. Whipple at 1:15 PM
I suppose it's time to tell you about the trip to NC (since no one has posted in a few days).
To start off, I was asked if I could lead worship for this retreat. Andy got wind of it (through my big windbag of a mouth) and asked if he could help. He convinced me that I needed his help, which I really did, because he's like a dictionary of praise and worship songs. Who wrote them, all the keys they are in, different versions, you name it. So he went with me. We rode down with Bethany Bull, who is now one of the coolest people I've met. Got her head on straight and really has her eyes on the Father. Despite that, we rode down there in her Volvo that did not have its 'eyes' on the Father. It tended to be a little tempermental. But through prayer and fasti....prayer and begging, the car made it over the hill and through the woods to Euclid house. Yeah, that was the name of the place (I asked Nate if it had anything to do with the famous mathematician/philosopher who invented geometry). Anyways, we had gone on ahead, because Bethany was wanting to meet Eve at a gas station in Maggie Valley. Apparently, as I saw when we got there, this gas station was Maggie Valley. Everything else was road/corn/cows. And I saw no evidence of 'Mile High Ghost Town' or the 'Red Devil Roller Coaster: the only one of its kind in the world'......now there's a commercial I haven't seen in years. So we hung out with Eve because she's leaving Carson-Newman for some college that I think she said is in Ohio. Sad times. After about half an hour, we left the hustle and bustle of Maggie Valley for the quiet of I-40. We ended up getting to Euclid House about an hour early, and none of us had any keys. It was funny, but we hadn't really thought about that before hand (you know college students). So we sat on the rail of the porch playing guitar and singing songs, which was perfectly OK with me. When the rest of the group got there and we went inside, we discovered a bit of a......let's say a 'fault' in the house. Blake, who I will forever call 'Techno' (only people in the group are going to know that one), was sitting on the side of the bed in his and Nate's room, putting on shoes. He hadn't turned on the fan or light or anything, just sat down to put on shoes. Andy and I were in the next room putting our stuff in order and we heard this giant crash. With giant thoughts of 'Oh no' we went through the door joining the two rooms to find Blake on the floor between the beds and the ceiling fan on top of him. The fan had taken towards the random side of life and fallen out of the ceiling onto Blake without any warning at all. So of course we asked if he was alright and looked him over good, and as soon as we found out that he was OK, we all busted out laughing. Cause you gotta admit, that's pretty funny.
Oh, so the weekend went (no more ceiling fans fell though). Three hikes up the trails behind Ridgecrest. The first hike was Friday afternoon and was up the Rattlesnake trail. That's the one I talked about before. It was an awesome hike and I got to do some bouldering at the top. Barry, who is like a kid Steve Irwin, caught a snake while we were there. The snake promptly voided all over Barry's hands and made them smell horrible for the rest of the afternoon. The second hike is another story though. About nine of us, the more hardcore hikers of the group, decided to go on a hike on Saturday afternoon. We hiked a trail that is near Ridgecrest, but is not actually part of the Ridgecrest trail system (so it wasn't on the map). The sign said that something point was 1.5 miles away, and the picnic area was 3.5 miles away. We wanted to hike to the point. So we started off (I got to do a little bouldering in the middle of this trail too) and eventually came to a fork in the trail. There was a sign which said simply 'Picnic Area'. It gave no direction, no mileage, and it was stuck in the middle of the fork in the trail. So we went with logic. One side went up, the other went down. We thought overlook=up, picnic area=down. So we went up. We were wrong. It was actually the picnic trail (that sounds so innocent). And it weren't no 3.5 miles. It was an astonishing 6-8 miles. So after we were all out of water and Bethany and I were at wits end from Michael telling us how much he knew, we arrived at the picnic area. We walked out of the woods and came upon a rather large family having a family reunion meal. They had the KFC buckets and the mac'n'cheese and the baked beans and all that sort of thing. We walked out of the woods and sort of stood there. After a few moments of staring and a few introductions, they asked what we were doing. 'Hiking'. From where? 'Ridgecrest'. This drew a chuckle from the family which told me that they knew something we didn't. Well the something they knew that we didn't was that we were half and hour from Ridgecrest BY CAR. We had hiked completely in the wrong direction for 6 miles! One fella, named Chuck, was gracious enough to give us a ride back. We didn't know what that entailed either. Turns out, a ride back meant that all nine of us crammed in the back of a pickup truck and rode down I-40 at 90mph (no, really, 90mph!) praying that we weren't going to get pulled over. The only other thing in the back of this truck was a cooler. Blake and I, severely dehydrated, decided to open the cooler. We did so only to find a sizable amount of Bud Light. So here we are, nine people from a church youth group in the back of a truck on I-40 with a cooler of beer, going ninety miles an hour. Long story short, we got back, but if you didn't believe that God works in strange ways before, that oughta change your mind.
Now you've heard the story about the night hike, but what you didn't hear is this. While we were up on top of the mountain, Nathan first told everyone to just sit quietly for a little while and pray or think or do whatever, just sit still and be quiet. He told me to time five minutes. So I did, and during that five minutes I went out on the side of the mountain where no one could see me and prayed for sanity and help. On the side of the mountain where I was, you could see the lights from Asheville very clearly. And we could all hear the interstate well. After the quiet time, we started having sort of a share/discussion time. During that, a cloud gathered slowly, almost unnoticably, over the mountaintop, until you could no longer see Asheville, and you could no longer hear the interstate. In fact, you could no longer see off of the mountain. All you could see were the ghostly silhouettes of a couple trees and bushes a few feet away. It was like in Exodus where God is on the mountain with Moses. Call me crazy, but you can't convince me otherwise than that's what it was. And it was the coolest thing too! The trip down was peaches and creme.
Posted by A. Whipple at 12:13 PM
It's ironic, but one of the simplest and most effective tools in communication is silence. Yet it is still one of the rarest. I just got back from leading music for a youth retreat in North Carolina for Magna View Baptist Church. But music, as God seemed to have it, was not all I led. I ended up leading a hike up a mountain at night. The retreat was at a house owned by a church in Bristol. The house was on a mountain across the interstate from Ridgecrest. So Ridgecrest was letting us use their hiking trails and go to the Nibble Nook and stuff. So we took the Rattlesnake trail the first day we got there. And that was the trail we took Saturday night, after an 'interesting' hike with just a few people from the group on Saturday afternoon, but that's another story. Anyways, the plan was to take the group up the mountain after a stop at the Nibble Nook. And all this after dark. So, since I've got a little experience leading hiking groups, and I've got experience night-hiking (and I've got a headlamp which Nathan thought was really cool), Nate said I could lead the group. So I got us started going and I acquired a remarkable amount of knowledge about people going up and down that mountain in three hours.
First of all, I've talked about the mob mentality to folks before. People in groups, whether they be two or three or two- or three-thousand, tend to act dumber than they would just on their own. Here, I discovered a different sort of mob-mentality: what I suppose I could call the 'brawl' mentality. It's still a mob, but everyone is trying desperately and passionately to achieve the ends which they think are right by the means which they think are best. And everyone's is different. When hiking up the mountain, I was in the lead with a headlamp, and there were four flashlights spread out between the twenty other people on the hike. The trail is fairly strenuous and quite rocky, which made it somewhat difficult in the dark. And people shouted all sorts of things.
I can't see with the light pointing that way! No, point it that way! Why doesn't someone warn me about the rocks! I'm tripping! Are there snakes? Are there bears? Slow down! Speed up! I can't hear what you're saying!
I finally did my best to come up with a buddy system to help with folks tripping. We numbered off, and I explained during frequent stops on the way up that hiking in situations like the one we were in (dark and foggy night with lots of people and many potential hazards) requires a high level of concentration, and given the number of people, it requires a high level of efficient communication. In the end, it also requires trust in the leader. You see, everyone wanted to tell me how to do the hike their way. So with twenty people besides myself, and about two thirds of those being 'advisors' to the hike, I was getting about 13 different ways to do the hike. The problem is, though they might have been good ideas, I was the leader, and I knew what I was doing. Therefore, even if they think their way is better, and even if it is, the followers must trust the leader. But the leader cannot assume all responsibility, for he or she can be everywhere at once. The leader must delegate responsibility to a select few others whom the leader trusts to be effective and cooperative. So I had Cindy, her husband Mike, Andy, and Nathan all with flashlights, spread out throughout the group, keeping me informed and keeping the light spread out. I won't tell you the rest of the story now, because I'm tired and the rest is irrelevant to the point (but I'll tell you later, and trust me, it's cool).
Here's another story. I just got back from my friend's house where several people from the youth group were playing Catch Phrase. We tended to make too much noise to know who was saying what or even to play the game. There were times when we would all argue over rules or actions and though tempers didn't rise too much, we still created a great racket and solved nothing.
The point is that silence is more golden than not. When you're trying to communicate, don't be hasty to speak. Don't just choose your words carefully, also choose the amount you say carefully. Often, less is more. I've got to go to bed, so I'll see y'all later. Love!
Posted by A. Whipple at 1:24 AM
Went to the cafe tonight (of course). Hung out with Andy, the Cox brothers, Bethany, Nate, Chris, Lindsey, etc. etc. etc....
Couple of surprises. Elissa Thomas was volunteering in the kitchen, so I've seen her there and she can't escape going later during the semester. Hahaha! Avast ye! (Sorry, I saw Pirates of the Caribbean while in Florida). And Emily Wyatt showed up to hang out with us. She's leaving for MTSU, sad times, so it'll be few and far between getting to see her. Neither of us has worked camp this year. It's like a big bunch of nobody is working at Ba-Yo-Ca this year. God bless Sammo for doing it, he's more patient than I am. Course I want to be back, but I can't deal with the financial side of it. And I suppose that I'm glad to be away from some of the stress of being under the thumb of the directors all the time. But they do their job the way they do it for a reason. But I do miss working with the kids though! I got to help out my youth group with a sort of Bible school thing in the trailer park today. I got to hang around with kids and lead singing and play whiffleball and stuff and I had a blast! Really made me miss camp, but God is supreme in His will, and I'm not supposed to be at camp right now. God other things to do. But it was good seeing Emily before she left. Or seeing her at all for that matter. I want to get a gig down at MTSU for Nothing Done just for an excuse to hang out with her some after she's in school. She and Andy and I sat upstairs at the cafe and just had worship time playing songs and singing. It was absolutely awesome, and like Emily said, long overdue.
More sad news (sort of). Bethany is moving to Nashville. The happy part about that is she's moving there to work on her new album (I've yet to attain the first one). Maybe, if ND ever gets a cd, I can trade her or something. Anyways, tonight was her last night at the cafe for a while. So all the regulars hung out and said their goodbyes. Charles wasn't there (he's the guy that paints icons), I hope he's alright, cause he's always there. George was even there though, so kudos for getting to see him. Lindsey asked about the weird looking picture on Ivy's case (you know, Ivy, my darker colored guitar). And for the record, here's the story. I will forever refer people to this site for that story. Here we go:
For those who are unaware, spina bifida is a birth defect in which the spinal column does not close in the correct stage of pregnancy, leaving the spinal cord exposed. This can cause serious defects in spinal cord function, as well as other complications. With modern technology, doctors can correct this problem before the child is actually born. This procedure was being performed and a photographer from USA Today was present to cover the event. After the surgeon had finished, he was busy closing up the incision and the child's hand slipped out and grasped his finger. The photographer took a picture of this amazing moment. To some, this photograph may appear to be a disgusting medical phenomenon. To others, and to me, it is an outcry against any form of abortion, whether through the medicinal destruction of a zygote or a partial-birth abortion. That is why the picture is on my guitar case.
There are four differences between a so-called 'fetus' and a child who has already been born. The first is size. A child obviously grow very quickly within the first few weeks after birth. But one would not kill someone based on their being smaller than someone else.
The second difference is location. An unborn child makes a journey of approximately eight inches through the birth canal. A journey of eight inches in any other context would change very little about whether someone's life is worth keeping (unless you are diffident enough to be creative and sadistic). But somehow, in the case of unborn children, eight inches is the difference between life and death. There is something wrong with that.
The third difference is the environment. The womb is naturally a very different environment from outside the womb. But this change in environment, though radical, is still not cause for destruction of a life.
The fourth difference is development/dependency. An unborn baby is obviously less developed than one that has already been born. But a three-year old girls reproductive system has not even reached its final resting place inside her body, yet one would think it stupid to kill her over such a thing.
This is why there is an odd-looking picture on my guitar case. I hope that is sufficient to cover anything left unsaid.
Bethany, Emily, hopefully I'll see y'all around. I've got to go get ready for the retreat this weekend. See you guys later.
Posted by A. Whipple at 2:40 AM
I went bowling tonight after church. It seems that the usual Wednesday night after church tradition for the Salem youth has gotten out. Because there were three church vans there tonight, in addition to the crowd that has grown since Nate, Chris, Tucker, and Austin started this whole thing. There used to be nobody there on Wednesday night, but it's dollar night so they went. They're the sort of people to invite others, so other people from Salem eventually caught on. Now it's a full house every time. And we had like 25 people in our group alone. So we left Starlite Lanes to go to Western Plaze lanes, or what we unaffectionately call "Ghetto Bowl". Don't think that it hasn't earned this name by a long shot. It's more of a night club with lanes, but it's still a bowling alley, so it'll do. I think our Wednesday night tradition is going to have to change. But anyways, I went down the strip afterwards on the way home, and I passed O'Charleys. Some guy was out on the stage outside wailing on some song, then it hit me - Nolan was playing at O'Charleys on the strip tonight! So I did a little backtracking and parked, and Andy and Daniel and I walked up to just outside of the porch and watched him for a minute. I wish I'd have gotten to stay longer, but they had to go. I'll have to tell him I was there. I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it anyways except for the fact of maybe hanging around with Nolan afterwards, because it is after all a bar with a lot of drunk and scantily clad college students in it. So, best leave those things to themselves. But it was good to see Nolan again, even if I didn't get to talk to him.
I can't wait until this weekend, I get to help do music for a retreat that the Magna View youth group is doing. I get to see Amanda again, but pity her mom's not going to be there. I wanted to see them both again, but at least I'll get to find out how they're all doing. It'll be cool hanging out in the mountains of North Carolina too. Please keep praying for AJ and her family. And keep praying for Kat as she's on the trip in DC. Also pray for me that I might have a deeper hunger and deeper joy for the Lord and for His word. I suppose that's something we all need. I love you all. See y'all later.
Posted by A. Whipple at 1:15 AM
I had the strangest dream. I dreamt that I was at my old house and there was a war going on in the country. There was a German plane flying around outside the house. But it was an old German bi-plane. With the Iron Cross painted on the wings. I stood on the front porch and watched it get taken down by two modern American attack helicopters and it crashed in my front yard. Trucks arrived at the house and military men got out and arrested the German pilot, who had climbed shakily out of the wreckage of his plane. I asked him as he was led to a truck, "Bist du ein Bruder oder ein Vater?," meaning 'Are you a brother or a father?' He answered yes and was placed in the back of one of the trucks. I remember thinking that it was such a horrible thing that someone's brother and someone's father would be held captive away from his family, even if he was a prisoner of war.
Dreams are strange sometimes.
Posted by A. Whipple at 1:11 PM
It's amazing how the Father provided for us over this trip. Everything from Brenda's class schedule to money to healing of the sunburn. I couldn't even express to you the wonders He has shown us.
I thought I'd say a bit about 'Flower Box' and my motivation for writing it. Let me say that though I did write it and can discuss it, God is the author, I am the pen, and most of you know my approach to that.
Anyways, I feel that there is a huge void in the teaching of the church about a great deal of key issues. The devil has very craftily made these things taboo inside the doctrine of the church. They are subjects limited to beating-around-the-bush references, angrily blushing faces, and eyes full of shame at certain words. And given our rejection of face-to-face scriptural confrontation with these issues, the devil has caused the world to teach children a twisted philosophy about them. Sex is probably the largest one of these issues. Scripture deals with sex on a very serious note, but still maintains that it is a sin outside of marriage. What we don't preach, and often forget to understand, is that any sin, be it extra-marital sex or lust or lying to save face, any and all sin is adultery. It is prostitution against the Lord Jehovah. In Hosea chapter 2 God clearly defines the relationship in verses 19 and 20.
"I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in righteousness
and justice,
in love and compassion.
I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the Lord."
Some have theorized that Song of Solomon is a metaphor for the relationship of God to His people, instead of just a poem about two people in a relationship of Godly romantic love. What you might not have heard, though, is that it is both. The relationship of God to the church is paralleled by the metaphor of the relationship between husband and wife. In Hosea 2:16, God declares through His prophet, "You will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master.' " In Ezekiel 23, we have a story, complete with explicit language, of Samaria and Jerusalem as two sisters who lusted after the ways of other nations. In 1 Samuel 8, we see this evident in Israel's envy after the kings of other nations. It is all compared to prostitution throughout the Old Testament, because that's what it is. We are all prostitutes. Yet we do not speak in the church of the purity of God's design of sex, and we condemn those that dare to confess such sin before their brethren. Thus, guilt prevails upon those who have gotten trapped in the entangling snare of sexual sin. But, as we know, guilt is a handy tool of the devil. It is used to tell us that we can't return to our Father. And further down the pike, it says that we might as well do again what we have done before, since we are guilty of it anyway. And by rejecting the possibility of teaching scriptural doctrine on such things in the church, we leave those who need answers to the council of the world and the devil. This is a fatal error if I've ever seen one. Scripture, whether argued or not, covers every facet of life. Why should we, the bearers of our Father's love and word, not do likewise? What we should do is forgive and love. Only love can draw the sinner out of the sin, because it makes no sense. How? What the sinner is used to is condemnation. I remember condemning myself when there was no one else to condemn me. So when love is given instead, the sinner's curious human nature will eventually drift to it, even through much resistance by the sinner's bitter self. That's what 'Flower Box' deals with. Guilt and it's hopeless repetitiveness, and in the end, the hope given by God's reclamation of us through the blood of Jesus Christ.
If you're still not convinced, remember that the Bible compares the best that we can offer God to menstrual rags. There's a sobering thought to a prideful heart.
Posted by A. Whipple at 1:33 AM
Here's the scoop on Florida and the trip and all that.
Let me start with the ride down here and saying that Brenda is the greatest sport of them all for all that she put up with. But girl you're definitely a whole lot of fun. I think that the most common phrase of the week was 'And it's Brenda out of left field!' She was actually more random than I am! Here's a short list of examples of things we heard:
"They sure do keep the grass mowed on the interstate."
"I was supposed to be a boy."
"Hello microphone."
Oh and that brings up another thing. You know in the movie 'The Princess Bride' where Fezzig says "Hello lady!" at the end to Buttercup who is up in the window, well that phrase followed us around all week. We said hello to everything in our best Fezzig voices. And Jonathan (J-Ho, short for Jonathan Hodge) talked like Brak all week (you just had to be there). This went so far as the girl at Blockbuster setting herself up for the 'hello' response. We were the last people in line, so she was like "It's the back of the line. Hello back of the line." Without missing a beat I popped up with "Hello lady!"
Such was the humor for the week. We're a bunch of geeks and when a bunch of geeks are trapped together in a car for 11 hours at a time, things get sort of weird. But we definitely met some extremely cool people whilst in Florida. Elissa has already told you about Sammi, who is one of the coolest people I've met. She was (so I was told) a fairly new Christian, but you wouldn't have known it if nobody told you. She worked at Busch Gardens and, thanks be to God, got us discounts on EVERYTHING! I didn't even expect it either. We also got to hang out with Liz and her friend Derek, who I sort of hit it off with pretty quickly there. I was disappointed that Liz and Derek didn't get to come to the concert, but it was cool that we got to hang out at Busch Gardens. I also got to go see the Clydesdales at the park. Kat, honey, I still want one (I know I can't have one though). We wore ourselves out all day at Busch Gardens and we went to the beach the next day. Brenda had never been to the beach before, and we stayed all afternoon (most of us with only one sunscreen application). So we got fried, and fried, and fried. Brenda couldn't sit down, Jon and I (being Scotch-Irish) picked up a rather significant lobster-esque hue, and Elissa acquired a nice pink glow, which to our jealousy turned into a tan after just one day. And here I am still peeling like a dry onion in places, but that's a different and much more outside-the-box-of-appropriate story. We all got addicted to aloe lotion after that excursion.
Anyways, here's a funny story. We got to Elissa's house at about 1 in the morning on Thursday morning. So of course her parents had gone to bed. Elissa had waited up for us and when we got there we all crashed for the night. So, being in a somewhat unfamiliar place, I woke up (after getting to bed about 2am) at the smiley hour of 6 in the morning. The night before, Elissa had told me that the coffee pot comes on automatically. So I went looking for coffee (you've heard all about those habits of mine). I dug out a mug and walked aimlessly around the house and yard for about half and hour. Then, while reading in the living room, I saw a light come on in Elissa's parents' room. Melody (her mom) was walking out to the garage in her bathrobe to get something. So I was standing there in the dark with a coffee mug and greeted her with a perky 'Hello!' She jumped about a mile out of her skin and then came to and was cool with everything.
So we finally got to the day of the concert. Got to church early and did sound check with Mr. Russell, God bless him. Hey, I remembered his name. I kept wanting to say Mr. Rogers, but I knew that wasn't right. Anyways, we did "How Deep the Father's Love for Us" for a call to worship and "There's a Stirring" for a benediction. I put both of those on the lyrics page by the way. I spilled coffee on the floor in the youth room and all over my notebook and we went to the College and Career class for sunday school. We actually did the entire service that night. We got tapes of both services too. Listening to those is really going to help us bring the music up to par.
We also met some really cool people at Elissa's church. There was Bubba, a skinny, short-haired, hyperactive guy who is kind of a leader in the youth. Then there was April, a short cute girl with curly red hair. Both of these people absolutely love the Lord! I mean you could see it in their eyes. And while I'm on that subject, let me say that Brenda, Elissa, and Jonathan are the most on-fire people I know! And the kind of faith and joy I long for is the kind of faith and joy that they have on a day-to-day basis! Get to know these people if you don't know 'em already. If you want to meet Jesus, they'll introduce you. Along with Bubba and April. This whole trip was such a humbling and learning experience. I think I can give you a better description of Bubba's personality. After church on Sunday night, we went to Applebee's with a bunch of folks. He was driving April's SUV on the way back, and I was driving Jonathan's Explorer. We all decided to go back to the church youth room/lounge and hang out, but we had to stop and get gas. So at the gas station, Bubba and I spontaneously switched vehicles, so I was driving April's car and he was driving Jon's. Then we did a couple laps around the gas station because I was trying to follow him and I had no idea where he was going. All this with a cop sitting there wondering what sort of 'medication' we were on. But all in all we had tons of fun and took tons of pictures and made some great new friends. Be praying for Katrina as she's in Virginia on a choir tour/mission trip. Be praying for AJ. Be praying for Nothing Done as we approach the hectic time of moving back in to school and the New City concert. And be praying for Andy and I as we get ready to do a retreat this weekend. Trust in the Father and love His word always. I love you all. Grace of our Lord be with you!
Posted by A. Whipple at 12:25 AM
Eat vienna sausages.
That is all.
Posted by A. Whipple at 5:03 PM
So here I am, after so much time away. Oh well, it was only a week or so. Yeah, we had an absolute blast down in 'sunny Florida.' It was actually quite sunny and quite humid (gee, who'd have thought the south was humid). I can't really talk a whole lot tonight though. Just got back and I'm completely beat from traveling. But I put the lyrics to the two new songs we did on the lyrics page (a fitting place) and I'm going to write more tomorrow. Right now, however, it's time to catch some z's. Later y'all.
Posted by A. Whipple at 2:10 AM
I've been reading some old posts on this thing and it's like putting Paul's letters with the book of Acts. It's like getting pieces of a story and discovering what went on. That's really cool to me! But then, I'm a dork anyways (you already knew that). I'm beyond stoked about tomorrow. I get to see Brenda again, and then later I get to see Elissa. Jonathan (or J-Ho) is borrowing his dad's SUV and we're truckin' it down there. Yeah, I'm stoked! But right now, I've got to go finish mowing the yard. I quit for a while because I craved sustainance. So a can of Spaghettios took care of that and now I'm on the way back to the lawnmower (that accursed assortment of plastic, metal, and petroleum products). I'll see you guys later. Thanks for praying for us!
Posted by A. Whipple at 3:42 PM
I spent a late evening at the BSU at UT playing Polish ping-pong. Or nerdball. Or as Ashley calls it, Russian ping-pong. But anyways, loads of fun and minor injuries and hanging out with friends. Everyone should check out Randall Goodgame's cds. Buy a couple. Buy five! Heck, he's gotta make a living off this, buy ten! Anyways, they're great and I highly recommend them to anybody who likes music (cause if you don't like music, you're sort of stuck like that). See you guys later. God's grace unto the brothers and sisters!
Posted by A. Whipple at 1:55 AM
The past two days have been absolutely amazing! Let me start by saying that I've worked the past three nights at New City and it's been unreal!
Thursday night was packed because there were a TON of people in the Old City for a CC Stringband outdoor concert. All the shops were open late and there were gobs of people just everywhere, wandering into places just perusing the streets and shops and cafes. But you can read about that on a former post. Here, I'll tell you about Friday and today.
Friday was loads of fun. There were two families there who were doing the music. Families! And it wasn't just 'Oh well, we're a family that is a band' or 'hey, I taught my kids these instruments so we could be a family band', they were good! No, they were awesome! There was hardly anyone there that night except them and their friends, so it was kind of like a share time between the two groups, which was really cool. So anyways, the first group, which the girl was named Deanna Seals, no idea about the rest, had this tight four part harmony that was really smooth. I ended up giving this guy named Clint a ride, and he was pretty cool, very appreciative. I also had some cool discussion with Sunny and George about a lot of spiritual things (the topic sort of wandered).
Today (or rather, yesterday) was even better! I wish Kat could've been here, but that's another something (and to quote Russell Crowe "That is not your business.") ;) Randall Goodgame was playing tonight, along with Kathryn Ewing. If you don't know Randall's name, check out some song credits on recent Caedmon's Call and maybe Andrew Peterson projects. Randall runs in those circles and is a phenomenal songwriter. His wife Amy sings with him and they have a terrific blend! So I got to the cafe at about 6:15 and Chris and Ashley were just sitting around having dinner with Randall and Amy and their 2-year-old daughter Livi (Olivia), who is a pistol and the most adorable and melodramatic child you've never met. Nathan had given me a heads-up that Randall was looking for a piano. And Randall had already gotten in touch with my dad, who said he'd get back to him on it. Well, dad's in Germany, so I ended up taking Randall to the church after the concert (at about 1am) to look at the pianos there. So here were Nathan and I, wandering the halls of the church piano-shopping at 1am with Randall Goodgame. And we stopped to play two quick games of ping-pong too (he loves ping-pong and is extremely good at it). We took him back to the hotel and I ended up with two cds. Oh, and the concert was phenomenal! Kathryn Ewing played the piano and sang. I didn't get to hear a lot of her stuff, because I was in and out of the main room and the kitchen. But I do remember stopping and going in to the main room when I heard everyone singing with her. She was doing 'Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing' and the audience was blowing the roof off the participation factor. It was awesome. Randall's concert ended the same way, when he and Amy did 'Leave It There' (as in 'Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there'). Cooler still, while we were riding in Nathan's car, we were just sitting there and talking with Randall about all sorts of stuff. I can't even describe to you the coolness of this weekend, if you think I'm a dork for being this stoked, you're right, but I don't care. I had an awesome time! And God has been present and speaking through the whole thing!
Oh, and I got some posters for Nothing Done to Sunny to put up, so those are up around the Cafe. I can't wait until we get to Florida to sing together and hang out some!
I won't say why, but I ask that you please pray for Annjanette and her family. Pray that she would have strong faith and that God would give her great joy in His providence and provision. And please pray for Katrina while she's at MDA camp and in Washington DC on a mission/choir trip. Pray that she would see only the Father in all things (and thus that her vision would be clear). Love y'all. Grace!
Posted by A. Whipple at 3:44 AM
You got it.
Posted by A. Whipple at 3:43 PM
One way to truly count your blessings and see the riches God has given you, is to take everything in your life that could be considered good, and imagine if you were cursed with the opposite instead of having that blessing.
Posted by A. Whipple at 2:02 AM
I spent the afternoon today at the lake with Mike and Kendra and Micah's dad. Katrina would be proud, I learned to love the Wave Runnner (I'm not usually a lake rat). Most of what I did was swim, which is absolutely wonderful with me, I could swim in a lake all day and love it. So after that, I went to the New City Cafe for singer/songwriter night. It was absolutely a mad house, along with the rest of the Old City. Every bar, pub, club, and coffeehouse was packed to the gills with July 4th vacationers. There were still a few people I know there. Brantley and Steven Cox, Bethany, Chris (of course), Charles (doing his usual icon-painting, which is awesome - you'll have to stop by on a Thursday and see him) and even Christy Solly. I saw Sonny as she was leaving and met Steven's girlfriend (I think) Lindsey.
It was so funny, I had my quiet time upstairs because I slacked off and didn't do it this morning. I didn't go to the cafe expecting to sing. I didn't even take a guitar, but after I did my quiet time, God was like yeah, you're singing tonight. So I was sort of confused and then went over to Chris to see if how many people were on the list. He told me he had already sort of put me down on the list anyways, so I took that as a pretty big affirmation and went to ask Brantley if I could borrow his guitar (God bless him for letting me - I guess God ordained that anyways). It was so cool, because there was only a handful of the crowd that had been there when I went up to play. And the only time the audience heard my name was when Chris said, "Ok, Adam's going to play for us now, so you guys help me welcome Adam." The rest of the time, most of what I said (besides singing) was 'Hello' and 'Thanks.' Afterwards, no one said good job or anything, and I just said bye to the Cox brothers and Charles and left. The rest of God's work there, I'll never know or see (as far as I know), and that's the cool thing about it.
Went to find Jonathan after that, and I spent a few minutes at the house of a friend of his. I can't wait to get down to Florida and play the songs again. God showed me this cool thing about the nature of His mercy and His ability to change our hearts when we let go of them. He showed me Numbers 22-24, which is sort of random, but it's the story of Balaam. You remember Balaam, he's the guy that didn't see God's angel standing in the road, but his donkey did. So the donkey, whom he beat repeatedly for stopping, finally opens up and talks to him! He was incredibly blind! But later, when he is speaking his oracles, he is referred to in the Holy Spirit as one who sees clearly. And the process was so cool! In 24:2-4, it says that he heard the words of God, saw a vision from God, fell prostrate, and had his eyes opened. So he heard God, saw the application of God's words, acknowledged the Father's glory and omnipotence, and was unblinded. That was definitely a kick in the butt for me. When Balaam thought he was in the right (but was not) he couldn't see the angel of the Lord. But my hunch is that, deep down, he knew he was wrong, but he tried his best to lie to himself. I tend to be good at that. So anyways, good stuff for me to hear. Maybe it'll help you too if you're in that situation.
I'm going to bed y'all. Grace to you!
Posted by A. Whipple at 1:58 AM
So the sky this evening was absolutely gorgeous! To the southwest were these huge blue and gray thunderheads with cumulus clouds behind them. To the east were some cumulus clouds low on the horizon. And to the west was the sunset spreading thin ribbons of light from in between clouds from the fading storms. Every detail of every cloud was clearly defined in tones of pink, orange, peach, blue, gray, purple, and black. Above all this, right over our heads, the sky was a perfect clear blue. As if all this was not enough, there was a rainbow against the back drop of the enormous thunderheads, which was running through a really skinny cloud and so was bent as if by a prism. It was like looking at a straw in a glass of water is what my friend Daniel said.
Now that I've got all that out, let me tell you what I was doing out in all that. I was with some friends on my way to the bowling alley (it's dollar night every Wednesday). I suppose this replaced free scoop night every Wednesday night at Baskin Robbins.
Mom wrangled me into calling Dad today. He's in Germany on a trip with the Centurymen, which is a singing group composed of Southern Baptist music ministers. They're actually very famous. My mom speaks no German, and she had to call him to tell him about his doctor calling about a perscription. So I got detailed to call the Hotel Ananas (which I believe means pineapple in French, not sure about German) and find him, since I took three semesters of German in high school. Needless to say, it had been a while. I sort of went over in my head what I would say and I said it to the man who answered the phone. After a few minutes of listening to him rattle off in German, I told him "Entschuldigung, ich bin ein Amerikaner." So he's like "Oh, ok." And starts talking in English as if it's the most normal thing in the world. I wish I was that bilingual. Long story short, I didn't find Dad or his zimmernummer, uh, room number. So "ich muss mit herr David Whipple sprechen" did me no good at all, and I got a bit of a headache over the incident. But now I understand where Kat was coming from with the Spanish thing. After just those two or so minutes, I found it hard to go back to English, I started thinking in German and almost answered my mom with "Ja" at one point.
Jeff Nitz played congas tonight at Three Days Later before he took the middle schoolers off to another room. That's sort of new in the program. We're trying to separate the groups to provide more individual attention to the vastly different needs and thought levels of each group. It was so funny, Micah and I were sitting around before hand and Jeff walks up and sits behind the drum set (the other Jeff's drum set) like a kid at Christmas. And he starts playing this swing/jazz style thing. I was speechless (Katrina, make a note, call the press). It was so cool that he just sat down and out of nowhere started playing drums. So he helped us out tonight and did a pretty bang-up job (no pun intended).
Please pray for a friend of Brenda's that has cancer, and pray that we will have worshipful hearts as we get ready for this concert at Elissa's church. Grace!
Posted by A. Whipple at 12:24 AM
Random things are happening again! I just got an email from a relative of Nolan Neal's that works at some auction thing in Nashville. This person (don't know if it's a man or a woman, didn't give me a name) gave me nolan's email address, so I emailed him. Hopefully, he'll email me back soon. If you're wondering who Nolan is, read down a whole lot further about us meeting him at a gas station and him giving us a cd of his sort of out of the blue. On that cd, was a song that really spoke to Elissa that night as we drove back.
I realized this evening, or actually God showed me, the purpose of His silence (or one of the purposes). We wonder sometimes why God doesn't speak through an audible voice, why He speaks in His own way. And we wonder why, even in that way, He is silent at times. Let me offer an illustration.
My roommate from last year watch television and movies a lot. There was nothing wrong with this, he aspires to be a director. Anyways though, he would watch them late at night and end up falling asleep in the middle of the movie. I can't count nor remember the times that I walked in late and found the TV on with a movie going and him sound asleep facing the wall. As for myself, I don't watch TV much, so I can't sleep with the TV on. If there's a TV on, I'm compelled to watch it, no matter if I like or hate what's on. You see, he was used to hearing and seeing the television. He, by mere task of ignoring it, could tune out the television. I could not. I had not heard it often enough. If we heard God speaking constantly, especially in a physically audible voice, we would probably tune Him out more than we do now. As it is, one has to pay attention to hear, and when one hears, one pays attention.
Grace.
Posted by A. Whipple at 12:05 AM
// John 5:30 // we are the pen; God is the author
Miscellaneous apparitions
no concerts
Correspondence
Brenda -
tcshanx@yahoo.com
Elissa - elissakeck@hotmail.com
Adam - adamwhipple@hotmail.com
Accumulated paraphernalia
Caedmon's Call
Derek Webb
Bethany Nobles
Katrina's Website
New City Cafe
Joe Mayfield's Site
Andy Vandergriff's blog
Andrew Peterson
Many
moons
ago
