One More Year...

Yes, it's my birthday, I turned sixteen today. DUN-DUN-DUH!

The Lord has done a lot in my life during the past year. He's taught me a lot of lessons,
and He's made me do some hard stuff, but I know that every thing that happens to me is
worked out by Him to make me more like Christ, so I rejoice! I know that I've got some
growing up to do, more lessons to learn, and more hard stuff to do, but I also know that
God is watching over me and guiding my steps with His Holy Spirit. By the way, here's
a good ol' proverb that really applies:

Braving the Perils of Guitar Maintenance

So, I've been telling myself forever that I needed to clean up my acoustic, but today I
finally did it! HAHA!! Actually, it started out as adjusting the truss rod in order to
lower the string height, but I started reading online and found out that a better way to
do that would be to remove the saddle from the bridge and file down the bottom,
thereby lowering the strings. As I did that, I went ahead and cleaned it up while the
strings were off.
  First, I took the strings off and pulled the saddle out:

Some Acoustic Goodness

These guys are regulars on my "Phil Keaggy" Pandora radio station... 

Anybody feel inadequate yet?  B)

Just in case you haven't been impressed yet, try this video on Dan Philips' 

great blog, Biblical Christianity.

If It's Broke, Don't Try to Fix It...

Well, I was shooting my air rifle earlier, and all of a sudden, the bolt started cocking
weird and the BB wouldn't come out when I shot it. Once inside, we took the side off
and looked around, and it seemed fine, so we put it back together. We tested the bolt,
and it cocked normally, but when I took it outside and pumped it with a BB in it, the
very same thing as before happened.
   Right now, it's sitting up on my shelf, waiting for us to find out what's wrong with it.
Why am I writing about this? You see, I've been asking God to give me something to
write about, and KABAM, there it is! Isn't it just awesome how He works stuff out?

Am I Glorifying God?

         "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit
          within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
          for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."
           - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

In this world it's easy to forget that I am not my own. It's easy to brush off the Holy

Spirit's warnings (at least for a little while!) and explain away things which are known

to me as not only inglorious to God, but even as sin.

The Cataloochee Buglers

Yesterday, we all got to go with the Blevins to Cataloochee to see the elks bugling and

perhaps fighting (because it's mating season), though none fought while we were there.
Anyway, We all had a great time just talking and watching the elks. Well, here's some
pictures...

We had plenty of food!

Faith in the Valley

"Saline Valley" by Kirk Kittell on Flickr

Lots of times, I think we Christians have a tendency to, how shall I say it, cling to
our "mountaintop experiences" and despair when those lofty feelings leave and
we find ourselves right smack dab in the middle of everyday life, with all its cares
and, often, just plain blandness. We may wonder how in the world God can use
us in such an ordinary and sometimes dark place.