Another classic that has been covered by many people in many different ways. Here are three very different, yet equally awesome versions of Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree.
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One of my favorite things about Carol Of The Bells is that it has been covered in so many ways. You can search YouTube and see a version that fits your particular musical taste. Here are a few of my favorites. For the second song of Christmas, I give to you the best version of Rudolph ever made. Only this time it is performed by the California Raising instead of the Temptations which makes it even better. Enjoy! And I will see you tomorrow. It would be a proper musical series from me if it did not include some bluegrass. Here is Jingle Bells performed by one of the best banjo pickers to ever pick and some of his family and friends. Sometimes one version of a song just isn't enough. How many different versions of Jingle Bells have been recorded? It just wouldn't be right to only share one with you. After you get your bluegrass on with Earl, How about giving Michael Buble a listen! These are a couple of my favorite versions of Jingle Bells. Feel free to share your favorite version with me!
Check back tomorrow for a song for December 2nd. I love Christmas songs. This is evident in the fact that for the past few weeks the only station the radio in my truck has been on is the non stop Christmas station. The only songs I have looked up on YouTube or Spotify have been Christmas songs. I listened to about 10 different versions of Carol of The Bells last night before going to sleep because I wanted to find the best and most unique version. I also find it to be crazy that certain songs are not played after Christmas. I understand not playing Santa Claus Comes Tonight after Christmas, but what about Frosty? Or Let It Snow? These songs are about it being the Winter season, not about Christmas. So I had an idea. Every day in December I am going to post a Christmas song. Even after Christmas. I know it is only another week but those days deserve their time as well. Prepare yourself for some of my favorite Christmas and Winter songs. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. If you don't like a song I post, or I don't post your favorite, feel free to go to YouTube or Spotify and look it up. Kaycee made me promise I would not post my all time favorite song. So I will give you a few clues and you might can figure it out. The artist's initials are DF, and a quote from the song, "We took her groceries to the checkout stand." With those clues you should be able to figure it out. Let me know if you know it. No cheating! You might also be surprised to know that rapper Kanye West has also recorded his own Christmas song. Look for the day one post coming soon and check back every day for your daily dose of Christmas! I am not a Florida Gators fan. Honestly, I have not enjoyed many things college football related as much has I enjoy watching the Gators lose, especially to Alabama. But I have a confession. I really like Tim Tebow. His whole career at Florida I had to not like him, but I was torn. I really liked the idea of someone in the public eye who was strong in their faith and was not ashamed of it in any way. I have heard and read many stories of him being criticized and made fun of for his faith. The reason I like him is that he never let any of that get in the way of it. It seemed that for the last few years, people had come to terms with the fact that Tebow was a Christian. He has not been in the news recently and for the most part, people had left him alone. Until Saturday. Fast forward past what happened to today and read the comments sections on videos or pictures of Him. You will think he must have posted a video condemning everyone to Hell or something super extremely extreme. People have began talking about how ignorant and dumb he must be and cannot believe he is shoving his faith down everyones throat. Apparently, what he has done this time is one of the biggest and worst things he could have ever done. What did he do? He said a prayer. It was not televised and as far as I know, it was not posted on any official social media sites. Someone snapped a picture of him holding hands with the other guys on set of the SEC Network pregame show and leading them in prayer. Simple, right? Why is it that those that demand tolerance seem to be the least tolerant? He should not be allowed to lead a prayer but all of the following would have probably been acceptable: He could have toasted the other guys with a beer, he could have talked about his love for doing illegal drugs and in some states smoked marijuana during the show, he could have stripped down to nothing and balanced a wine glass on his backside, he could have even gone on a profanity filled rant (all of which would have been offensive to many Christians). These things would have been perfectly acceptable by many of those who think what he did was so offensive. So, where is tolerance? Why is there little or no backlash for the example Kim Kardashian and so many others set by posing nude and calling it glamorous, why can rappers, rockers, and most other musicians use such profane lyrics and win awards and make millions for doing it, why can someone make a mockery of Christianity and be glorified for it, but Tim Tebow leads one prayer with the guys and is made out to be a monster? Perhaps those who demand so much tolerance need to learn a little more about tolerance. Thank you, Tim Tebow. Thank you for standing firm in your faith. Thank you for being an example to so many, young and old, of how someone can be a Christian in the media. Thank you for being a light in the world around you. Thank you for not hiding your faith when you know that it might “offend” someone. I hope that Christians everywhere will learn something from Tim. More than likely what we do will never be blown up as big as the things he does, yet he is able to stand strong through it. He is a great example to me and I hope you will learn something from his example as well. P.S. I’m sorry I laughed so much at those pictures of you crying on the sidelines... Midnight Madness III is coming to you Halloween Night! This one is building up to be the maddest of them all! It is Halloween Night so you know there will be some crazy stuff happening. Don't be scared though... Here are the Top 10 things I am excited about for this Midnight Madness:
Here are a few things to keep in mind for #MidMad3.
There is a link at the end of this post where you can register before you get there. If you pre-register, you will only need to check in once you arrive at #MidMad3. There will be a goodie bag waiting on you at the registration table. :) Spread the word about Midnight Madness and help us make this the maddest of them all! Click here to pre-register and guarantee a goodie bag! I have recently began a short series with our Sunday morning high school class. It is called: The Weird Life of The HYM (Hamilton Youth Ministry). I have adapted this series from two great resources. One is Craig Groeschel’s book Weird: Because Normal Isn’t Working and the other is the "Purple Gorilla" series by Philip Jenkins. There is a link to both of these resources at the end if you are interested in them.
This has been one of my favorite series’ I have taught with the kids. It began with a discussion on being weird. When first asked, most people do not want to be weird. We want to fit in and be “normal.” When we think about it though, being normal means that I give in to what the world wants me to do. I don’t stand up for God. When someone doesn’t do what everyone else is doing we often say “that’s weird." The Bible says in Romans 12:2 that we should not be conformed to the world (don’t do what everyone else is doing) but we should be transformed by renewing our minds (be a completely different person than what the world wants us to be). If I do this, I will be weird. People will wonder why I don’t say the things others say and why I don’t act like everyone else. People might look at me as one of those weird people. If they do, I am doing something right! Each week the teens are challenged to do something a little different. Their first challenge was to pray at every meal. For some this was nothing out of the ordinary, but the challenge didn’t end there. Before they said their prayer, there were to ask someone if they had any prayer requests. A simple but sometimes scary challenge. Their second challenge was to carry their Bible with them everywhere. Have it at school, not hidden away in a locker or backpack, but carrying it with them. The second part of the challenge was to read one chapter a day from their Bible. They could choose any chapter they wanted as long as they read something every day. There will be more challenges given but I cannot spoil it for anyone by telling what they will be here. For those in the class, they will be hearing more each week about being weird. If you are not in the class, you will have to find someone who is in the class or talk to me later and I will fill you in. The secret is, we are all weird. It simply means you are different. Christians are supposed to be different. I remind the kids at the end of each class that this is not about being showy. It is about doing things that Christians do, even if it makes you feel a little weird. Will you do something weird today? Check Out Philip’s “Purple Gorilla” Series Here Check Out Craig Groeschel’s Book Here I wonder if anyone is still reading my blog...
I thought this and then realized the answer was probably no since I had not posted anything other than daily pictures in a while. Life has been busy. The Summer was amazing and awesome and I even got pneumonia at one point! Now, it has ended. The kids are starting back to school and I can finally take a break and relax a little. Or not. Not only are the kids going back to school, I am starting back as well. I will begin classes in two weeks working towards a Masters of New Testament degree from Freed-Hardeman University. I am a little scared since my first class is New Testament Greek and it has been 4 or 5 years since I have studied it. It will be fun though. I am not giving up on my blog either. It might have seemed like it but I promise there are still some good things left to come. I really enjoyed writing "Our Story" and I hope that you enjoyed reading it. I have some other ideas and posts in the works now. One that I am really excited about is a parent's guide to social media. I am going to go through the main social media networks and their apps and give parents a heads up on some of them. There might be some you need to encourage your children to stay away from, and others you should probably monitor closely. I am also working on a post about Bible words we don't use anymore, or that we use differently than how they were intended, and another going through some of the different Bibles I have. If you are lucky, or maybe not so lucky, I might even post about some of the Greek I have been learning... If you are still reading this, thank you. I have enjoyed keeping this blog up this year and intend to do even better with it in the future. Maybe someday you will be able to say, "I was reading Steven's blog when it first started!" Thanks for your support :) Steven In case you didn’t know it, God is pretty awesome. I am amazed at how he works and am a true believer that when one door closes, another opens.
I heard about the opening in Hamilton at the perfect time. We came down for our tryout weekend and fell in love with the people. Honestly, we were not excited about the town at first. We both grew up in smaller towns but not near as small as Hamilton. It was November and all of the trees and grass was dead. It was raining and we never saw the sun until we left on Monday. We were full of mixed emotions. On one hand we loved the people. The small town atmosphere was great and we were excited about the possibility of being in a place like that. My first impression was that were in a high school football movie. On the other hand, what would we do in a town this small. The closest big city is 45 minutes away in Tupelo and we really didn’t want to have to drive that far for entertainment. We lived in Pensacola where anything you can imagine is within 5 minutes of you and Cleveland, Tennessee which is much smaller, but still has it all. How would we handle a town this small. Once Sunday morning rolled around all of our worries disappeared. We were gathered together with the greatest group of people we could imagine. I taught the guys and their dads and Kaycee taught the girls and moms. After Bible class we were both smiling. We liked it. Who cares how small this place is if we get to be with this group. I led singing for worship that morning and at the High Rise devotional that afternoon. Then Kaycee and I both met with the elders and some of the deacons and I preached that night. Then we went to the Warner’s house for a devotional. It was one of the longest “tryout” days I cold imagine. I slept great that night. We left Hamilton on Monday feeling great. The sun was shining and we were able to see a little more of the town before we drove back to Tennessee. We talked the whole way back about the kids and parents in Hamilton and how great they were. We loved it. A couple of days later I got the phone call offering me the opportunity to work with them. There was no way to pass up this opportunity. I was going to graduate from Lee University in a couple of weeks and we decided to finish the year in Cleveland and move after the first of January. I made one of the toughest announcements I have had to make and told them that we wold be moving to Hamilton, Alabama. We were overwhelmed with love from our Cleveland family. The last month was tough. We were really excited about the move but also sad to leave so many great people. Add to that the idea of looking for a new place to live and trying to pack your entire house the week of Christmas while also visiting family for the holidays and taking a group to Huntsville for Exposure Youth Camp. We survived! Thanks to some help from some great friends (and three trips to Cracker Barrel in one day) we got everything loaded on the truck and we were ready to go. We didn’t have a house to go to yet but thankfully we had a basement apartment waiting on us. We arrived in Hamilton and had a small army of people there to help unload our stuff into our storage units and my office. We were home. To Be Continued... |
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January 2015
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