Oops I hadn't been looking...

I haven't actually looked at the baseball standings in a while (though I have been following games).  Somewhat to my surprise, the NATIONALS ARE NOT IN LAST PLACE.  Let me repeat that just for the sheer joy of saying so.  THE NATIONALS ARE NOT IN LAST PLACE.

How long did it take?

I don't know why, but lately I've been pondering the fall of man in Genesis
3. I've been wondering how long it took. How long after God said not to
eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did the serpent
show up? Was it immediate? An hour later? Days? Months? Adam had time
to give names to all of the animals, so there must have been some time
elapsed. I suppose it doesn't really make much of a difference, sin still
entered the world, but just how long did it take?

R! I! P!

Growing up as a fan of the Baltimore Orioles, my teen years coinciding with some of there great years of the late 70s and early 80s. Memorial Stadium, "Wild Bill" Hagy, and "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" were all emblematic of the good life at the time. Yesterday, "Wild Bill" Hagy passed away. His passing brings back many fond memories to me (like when the Orioles consistently were winners)...

And also on the death front, I was just reading about the tribute concert to Brad Delp held last weekend in Boston. A reunited Extreme and a Boston featuring appearances of as many former members as Tom Scholz is speaking too... I was somewhat surprised to read that Michael Sweet of Stryper handled a lot of the lead vocals for Boston. As I thought about it a bit, I thought, he could probably pull it off well. And then I wondered which songs he sang, 'cuz there's a few old Boston songs that are a little incongruent shall we say with what I'd expect from the singer from Stryper... just a thought...

Now that's something to pray about

At our church, we're pretty informal. We refer to our pastors by their
first names... Just last night my seven year old son was mentioning the
names of our pastors. "Pastor Jack, Pastor Jim, Pastor Mike, Pastor
Simon..." Of course my 7-year old is the only person in the church named
"Simon." Certainly a noble aspiration for a 7-year old!

Holiness

Tim Challies has started an online book discussion group dedicated to reading and discussing some of the classic Christian Books.
I've decided to try and go along. The first book is J.C. Ryle's Holiness. Details about this can be found here.

Another favorite Bible story

Another of my favorite Bible stories - which definitely is not one that shows up in my kids Bible story books - is from Judges 4:17-22. It is the story of Sisera, fleeing the Israelite army led by Deborah and Barak. He (Sisera) flees to the tent of Jael seeking to hide. She obliges him inviting him in, letting him lie down and covering him up. Then, after he had fallen asleep, she drives a tent peg through his skull, killing him.

Believe it or not, I'm actually working on a song inspired by this passage.

Getting Lost

Years ago, when I worked in Old Town Alexandria, I used to take walks every day at lunch. I pretty much stuck to the same route every day. One day, I turned at a different place and stumbled across a sandwich shop well off the beaten path that I'd never tried before. I ordered one of my "usual" lunches: a steak and cheese sandwich plain, fries and a Coke. It was pretty darn good. A few days later, I went back again (this time deliberately) and ordered the same thing. It was still pretty good. Eventually, I became a regular and if I walked in and there was a line, because they knew me, my order would be ready by the time I got to the counter to place the order!

Fast forward to this past Sunday, right as I got home - before I could even get my guitar out of the trunk of the car - I got a phone call telling me how good worship had been that day. Before too long, I had gotten emails echoing the same thought. As a worship leader, I've pondered what made it so. I've come up with the following:

Worship last Sunday was great...

• in spite of the fact that almost half the team wasn't at Saturday rehearsal
• in spite of the fact that two of the between songs transitions in the opening set of four songs were somewhat awkward
• in spite of the fact that the closing song started (and stayed) too fast and that I forgot that my volume was off when I started playing

Yet, by God's grace and by the movement of His Spirit, it was a great time of worship. I was greatly encouraged by the phone call and emails. I was especially struck by Pastor Jack's comment about being "Lost in worship."

But back to Jack's comment about being "lost in worship." Again my snarky, sarcastic mind went to work, pondering the question...

Q) How do men get lost in worship?
A) They don't stop for directions!

Feel free to laugh... or groan... or wince in pain... but then think about it. When men show up at church there minds may be on other things...

• I wonder how long the sermons going to be today?
• What's for lunch?
• So what if it's preseason, FOOTBALL IS BACK!!!!
• Man, I shouldn't have stayed out so late last night
• Maybe I'll mow the lawn this afternoon

You get the idea. But then something happens during the service. Maybe it's the harmony vocals that sound so good or the bass line holding down the bottom end or person in front of them raising their hands or realizing the Scripture that was just read inspired the song currently being sung or realizing that they were once God's enemy and are now seated at His table... Whatever it is, they've gotten distracted from their agenda or rather drawn away from their agenda. THEY ARE LOST! So what to do? Stop and ask directions? There's no time... Raise your hands because everybody else is raising hands... Sing louder... Begin to personalize the lyrics (I was once your enemy and now I'm seated at Your table)... Sing extra choruses...

Sometimes, getting lost is a good thing!

Song quotations from "Jesus, Thank You" by Pat Sczebel ©2003 Sovereign Grace Worship (ASCAP)

A favorite Bible story

I just read one of my favorite Bible stories (that I keep forgetting about). It's found in I Samuel 5:1-5 and it's the story of what happens when the Philistines put the Ark of the Covenant in a room with an idol to their god Dagon. It's a laugh and it just goes to illustrate Exodus 20:2-3!

With a resounding silence...

I have started blogging again. Let the world stand up and take notice. Or
at least let it passively ignore...

You Are My Refuge

An old song that I wrote...
My soul finds rest in You alone
My salvation comes from You
You alone are my Rock
You are my fortress, I will not be shaken

I will trust in You forevermore
I will pour my heart out to You
You are my refuge

© 1996 Kevin L. Brock
inspired by Psalm 62

The Gospel According to AdvantageEDC

AdvantageEDC is the Electronic Data Capture platform that my company has developed to assist in our efforts in support of a variety of medical clinical trials, registries and other studies. I'm part of the core team that developed and maintains our platform. During a recent weekly meeting, we were discussing the protocol monitoring implications of parent/child questions.

Huh, what? Well, protocol monitoring is when someone other than the research site that owns the data goes in and compares data in the AdvantageEDC system with the source documents. Any differences will be noted as discrepant. Parent/child questions would be a set of questions kind of like the following:

1. Do you smoke? [ ] Yes [ ] No


• If YES, how many cigarettes per day. _____

No response to the second question is necessary if the first is answered "No." Parent/child questions sometimes cause problems in protocol monitoring if the research site had inaccurately answered the parent question "Yes" and supplied some value for the child question. The protocol monitor would label the parent question discrepant and the child question would also be considered discrepant.

We had considerable discussion on how to resolve the discrepancies from the research site's perspective. Ultimately this led to recognizing that if we fix the parent, then we fix the child.. In other words, when the research site goes back and corrects the parent question to "No," the value of the child question automatically gets blanked out. When the protocol monitor looks at the record again, both discrepancies have been resolved!

God, in all His righteousness, looks at my life like a protocol monitor and sees that it is full of discrepancies where I fall short of His perfect standard. [F]or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). There are definately discrepancies too numerous to count in my source documentation!

But if we fix the parent, then we fix the child...

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight (Ephesians 1:3-8)

God, our Heavenly Father, adopted us into His family, making us His children. Through Jesus Christ, we have redemption and forgiveness so that we should be holy and blameless. Jesus used HIS source documentation (His sinless life) as a substitute for ours so that God, the protocol monitor, looks at us and sees NO DISCREPANCIES!