Sacred Digital: Chuckk Gerwig

I am a Scooter Evangelist - Here's the latest  offering in my continuing ministry of spreading the Chopper Gospel:  Check out the wild rolling sculpture of bike builder Cyril Huze

Ahhhhh vacation is at hand.  Andrea and the girls and I leave tomorrow for 9 days of R & R in wonderful Southern California.  Andrea and the girls will be traveling south in the family truckster, I will leave before them for an 8 hour ride down the awesome Pacific Coast Highway  all alone on my big blue Harley.  Riding the PCH through Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, San Simeon and the other cliff and coast towns is the best thing I can think of doing tomorrow, unless of course I crash, wad up my scooter and am dismembered, dented or drowned.  (In the event of dismemberment, deadly dent-ation or drowning - goodbye and thanks for the fish everyone)

We're looking forward to hanging out (and riding motorsickles)  with our best buddies, spending time with our wonderful family, coloring Easter eggs and then spending a day at Disneyland.  BTW, have you ever seen the retro Disneyland site?

Public Service Announcement: if you are a burglar don't come rob us, our dog has rabies and is in heat and our friend Lee is staying at our house and he has rabies too, and is packing a slow gun filled with dull bullets.

Life is good, and Jesus is better. -chuckk

On the iPod: Moby - Ambient

24 = the number of years I have prayed for the salvation of my dear old amigo Mike - he was my best friend from late high school till my early 30's.  24 is a long time to ask for the same thing from God; at times I grew weary of the prayers.  I love Mike, we have ridden Harley's all over the West, we've played in a bunch of bands together, we've shared all our young men's secrets, failures and successes.  This year after 24  years of asking God... I was blessed with some cool news - Mike got Life. 

Yesterday a few of my very best pals and I went out riding our bikes around our favorite roads in So Cal.  Yesterday my Ol' Pal Mike laid his hand on the back of my leather jacket right before we ate a big Mexican lunch in Ojai and asked if he could bless the food and then he thanked God for our many prayers for his salvation.  Yesterday I almost wept in front of my bike-pals.  Yesterday was a good day.

Keep praying for your friends and loved ones.  Prayer works.

The Sun is finally out today after 3 days and of cold fog.  That's the true weather report in So Cal, and also a metaphor for the Resurrection Season we are in.

We installed a new server at my church 10 days ago and our email is a mess - we have Microsoft products with Satan Inside.  

If you have sent me email and not got a response your email may have gone to Email Hell, a place that resides inside our new Microsoft Exchange server :::  it will never be seen again.  If you need to reach me, use my personal email address for now chuckk@sacreddigital.com.

Before Marilyn Manson there was...Alice. 

Little known fact: when I was in high school my very favorite band was Alice Cooper.  I saw his live show several times, I owned all his albums (even the first 2) and had posters of him all over my room.  Here's a fascinating interview with the now Christ-following Alice.  Read the Alice Cooper Article Here  .... who woulda thunk it?  - Alice loves Jesus.

On The iPod: Pink Floyd- Animals

 ---Breaking news: ...my boyhood hero (other than Alice Cooper) was Speed Racer and finally there will be a big time Hollywood movie made in Speed's honor.  That's right, Speed Racer the film is coming May 2008.  Ah, nostalgia. 

God is doing great things at Grace Children's Home in Baja.  Big news: God is still in the miracle  Agua biz.

If you don't read the Palau's blog check it out!

On The iPod: The Cure - Greatest Hits

"Sanjaya goodbya"

...perhaps tonight...  but then again, we do live in a fallen world...

God is on the Throne!!!!  It's 9:52pm Wednesday and Sanjaya just got the boot.  Thank you Jesus.

See the previous post.

=== Our server just got a holy blessing; Barracuda's spam filter.  It is an app from Heaven.  I was getting 150+ spams a day advertising such treasures as Viagra, fake Rolexes, Britney pix, and sketchy stock deals.  Barracuda has gotten me down to about 2 slices of spam a day.  If you are experiencing a daily spam-a-thon check Barracuda's service out!

On The iPod: NOT Sanjaya

The Catholic Church has finally jettisoned the concept of Limbo.  In the past, Catholic Doctrine has stated that there was a place that unbaptized babies go if they die, this place was called Limbo.  This extra-biblical concept was held by the Catholic Church from medieval times to today. 

I imagine a steamy tropical locale with rockin Island music, swaggering babies holding shapely cocktail glasses with fruit on the rim and maybe even infant coconut bowling; perhaps Limbo wouldn't be so bad a place...

Limbo is now theological history  read about the new decision.  It is encouraging when theologians do good work to separate church traditions from true Biblical Theology.  What might be some of our  extra-biblical traditions?

On The iPod: Minus The Bear - Menos El Oso

If you download my Sunday Morning Messages from my iTunes area you've probably noticed that there's been no new messages uploaded in a while.  We're having some probs uploading but we should have it all fixed very soon.  When we get it back up and running we have a two part series ready and waiting called One Life Revolution : a Christian response to poverty and the African aids crisis" and a three part series called "El Moola"  :a guilt -free look at managing the money our good God places in our wallets.  Sorry for the slowdown.

On The iPod: Porcupine Tree - Staircase Infinities

If you are taking a short term mission trip this summer you might be interested in this site; it's called TravelPod.  TravelPod will host a mission trip blog where you can upload pictures and text about what's happening on your trip as it unfolds.  Guess what, it's free too. 

We did a mission trip blog last year from the Czech Republic and had GREAT response from parents, supporters and others who said it helped them to pray more effectively and helped them feel like they were really part of the mission effort.   If you are going somewhere that has 'net access this is worth doing. 

ht: Thud Gudnason

The Anchor Bible Dictionary (3:328). New York: Doubleday.

One of my favorite bands, Porcupine Tree has just released a new album called Fear of A Blank Planet. 

The album 's theme revolves around a dark vision of paralyzed hyper-medicated youth brought into a state of consistent oblivion by the mood altering chemicals they are fed by doctors who diagnose them with all manner of hyperactivity, depression and a.d.d type disorders.   The album has a brooding sinister vibe that speaks of flaccid minds bored in front of the tv, stoned in the mall and verging on destruction.

As a person who has worked with teenagers for the last 23 years, I too fear a blank planet of young people zombie-fied more from legal mood-alteration prescriptions than from street X, Acid  or Weed.  We all know people who are truly needful of medication, but my experience tells me masses of young people are being misdiagnosed and medicated into a grey stupor.  Better living through chemicals is crap-think.

You can hear samples of the new album on P-tree's MySpace.

To balance out the dark audio - also on the iPod this week ---  Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach - Painted from Memory - a great album of crooning.