I’m two weeks into a series on spirituality that I’ve been teaching at our youth group. The umbrella title is ‘Everything Is Spiritual’ and each week we’ve been talking about the decisions we make physically and how there is also a spiritual implication to those decisions.

This last week we talked about addictions, how they happen, the chain they become, and the only lasting way to break them. As I sit and type this out I’m sipping on a cup of coffee of which I have a couple of every morning. The reality is that addictions are far more than just drugs and alcohol. Anything we let consume us, we crave incessantly, or become dependent on….like, um coffee. I periodically will not drink coffee for a week to see how it affects me. If I ever get a headache or start to really crave it then I’ll stay away from it for longer.

This last week was eye opening as we had those students who have formed addictions and want to turn from them respond. They did. It’s pretty huge when a 15 or 16 year old kid who depends on drugs, alcohol, pornography, etc. to enjoy life realizes that a change is needed. If they can make the choice to break these hidden addictions now it will literally change the course of their life. So instead of becoming a closet porn addict or alcoholic with a family and a white picket fence, these guys can break that chain now.

Big stuff.

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I had a random dream last night that I was kicking it at a coffee house with Obama and some other peeps.

He was pretty cool.

If i would have had this dream before November I might have voted for him. If only I could remember what we were talking about.

It’s been an awesome week.

The stock market sucks, the economy sucks, the housing market sucks, and we’re pretty much in a financial Armageddon. Things are so bad that I’ve begun to research how to make squirrel and rock soup. So to add onto the misery the latest headline I see on CNN.com is that the DOW has stumbled to a…6 Year Low!

A what?! Things were this crappy 6 years ago? I thought we were moments away from the great depression and you’re telling me back in 2002 the DOW looked the same as it does now!

I’m gonna go buy an SUV.

Even thought it’s one of my favorite genre’s of music, I haven’t been listening to much Hip Hop these days. I’ve even begun to wonder if Hip Hop as I used to know it is long gone. The last couple of days I’ve been hunting around on Rhapsody checking out what’s new in the Christian Hip Hop circle. Once of my favorite groups - The Cross Movement- from about 10 years ago has expanded to having their own label and now has a decent crew of artists signed. When they first came out The Cross Movement was among just a handful of groups that could hold their own as a ‘Christian’ rap crew that was as good as anything on the charts. One member of the group recently dropped a single that you can check out below.

I’ve found myself entering back into reading mode recently. I really love to read but sometimes find myself reading more snippets of things online as opposed to a whole book. Right now I’m reading ‘Epicenter’ by Joel Rosenberg. Report coming soon.

I’m sure most of you have seen the Frozen Grand Central Video or the Musical Food Court. Just in case you haven’t and you need to waste some time, then head over to Improv Everywhere and check out some of the awesomely creative pranks that they’ve pulled off. One of my favorites is below.

I just finished reading an interesting book called Counterfeit Revival, by Hank Hanegraff. The book was written at the height of what Charismatic/Pentecostals were calling a fresh renewal or revival in North America. You may remember this time (starting around 1994 and ending in 2001) as a church in Pensacola, Brownsville, and one in Toronto were getting some media attention due to strange things happening in their meetings. Hundreds of Christians were flocking to these towns to ‘catch the fire’ and bring it back to their local churches. My home church was no exception.

As I read the book which recounts tales of people falling down, shaking, and laughing uncontrollably, I couldn’t help but think how impressionable I was back then and how easily people buy into wacko stuff. This renewal ended up signaling the beginning of the end of our church. Within a few years of buying into hyper-charismania our church shrunk dramatically in size with many people falling away from the faith and many more still disenfranchised because the truth of who God was had been exchanged for an experience that couldn’t last.

Unfortunately emotional experience dealers like Benny Hinn still have a stage and many charismatic churches still focus more on the experience than the truth. Even recently, people like Todd Bentley managed to rally and deceive people into coming to a ’spiritual’ experience, while cheating on his wife behind the scenes.

Back to the book. I’d recommend anyone that has grown up or experienced hyper-charasmatic doctrine to read it. It’s a very truthful examination of some very unfortunate practices in the Christian culture. For me, reading some of the stories was a blast from the past.

Just got back from a combined youth church meeting tonight with around 800 students. Loud rocking music, good times…now I go to bed.

Apparently the economy isn’t so bad that restaurants can’t give away free food.

Tomorrow from 6 AM - 2 PM Denny’s is giving free Grand Slam’s (2 eggs, 2 sausage, 2 bacon, 2 cakes) to the Nation. Yes, the Nation! What’s lesser known is that you can also say, “Slam It Up” and add up to two additional menu items for .99.

Oh, you know I’m going to ‘Slam It Up’ tomorrow.

Also, on February 24th IHOP is giving out free ‘Short Stacks’ to their customers.

Regardless of the dumb groundhog February is going to be an awesome month!