After an exciting 11 days, we’re finally back home from our West Coast tour. “Tour” sounds more important than “trip”! But that’s what bands do when they travel, right?

Anyways! I’ve got a whole lot of pictures here (we all know everyone loves pictures, right? And if a picture is worth a thousand words…this will definitely turn out to be a novel!). Hover over the pictures for a caption and a larger image.

Click on the date to go to read about what happened that day and see pictures. They will open in new windows.

Thursday/Friday, June 19, 20
Saturday, June 21
Sunday, June 22
Monday, June 23
Tuesday, June 24
Wednesday, June 25
Thursday, June 26
Friday, June 27
Saturday, June 28
Sunday, June 29
Monday, June 30

A big thank-you to Grandpa, Grandma Kathy, John, and Paul who opened their home to us; Immanuel Lutheran Church, the West Moreland Manor, and Lacomb Bible Church for inviting us, and all the wonderful people there…and the biggest thank you to the Lord Jesus Christ who made the whole trip possible and provided for us bountifully through His followers! Glory to God! Amen.

Anne McLean

Go west young man! Gone to Oregon June 19-29. We are packing up our 15 passenger van, hooking a U-haul trailer on behind (full of music equipment) and heading to Oregon! We have booked several FREE concerts which everyone is invited to. You can call the numbers on the poster for directions. The Lacomb Baptist Church date is June 29 at 6pm. Follow the kids’ blogs to find out about our adventures (every day with us is an adventure) and to see pictures.

Blogs are in order of the best chance for content…
http://www.Allanne.com
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/emily6m
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/kaitlynn7m
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/bookwormbethy5
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/tessila
http://joe.ajwstudios.com
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/cofeeiv

O God! O Lord Jesus! We, Your church, Your betrothed, Your very bride, are faithless. Worse, we don’t even know what that means. Not only that, we lack belief, and we don’t even know what that means. Furthermore, we have not love, and we don’t even know what that even means. We each devise what we choose and then call it the commands of Christ or the grace of Christ. We determine what we will and call it theology. We separate, we make distinctions, we make self willed determinations on what truth is and then call the separations, denominations, churches! Thus we behave as if You are the faithless husband with many wives and concubines with dissention in the harem. You are not faithless, O Lord, O God! We are! We are the transgressors of Your law. We are in rebellion against your commands. We have by our faithless acts, by our lack of belief, by our SELF LOVE, brought open ridicule to your Holy Name amongst the nations. We love self love! We hate authority! In rebellion against Your authority, we reject all authority, from parents to husbands, to employers to governments to Christ to GOD! We deny Your commands at every opportunity. O Lord Jesus, God, we are guilty of twisting Your transcendent, eternal Truth to compromise with mundane earthly comfort so that we are indistinguishable from the sons of darkness and hell. While we should reside as aliens and strangers passing through on our Father’s business, we instead make ourselves comfortable and excuse our comfort as the will of God. Rather than stand out, we blend in with the sons of destruction except to take every opportunity to bring You open shame by the name “christians” as so called “little Christ’s” because we know nothing of Christ and know nothing of the will of God.

O Lord forgive. O Lord have mercy, have compassion. Make us faithful again. For your sake, O God, let your face shine on us again. O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see the desolation we have heaped on ourselves, Your Church, Your bride. We are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merit of our own, but on account of Your great compassion. O Lord, hear! O Lord, Forgive! Take action on our behalf for Your sake, O my God, because we are Your people and are called by Your great name!

1 Peter 4:17-19
For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? AND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER? Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.

Adaptations from Daniel 9 and from my heartfelt prayer

A stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God. Psalm 78:8

For the rest of us, the answer to these questions will be a comfort.

I have a friend and co-worker named K.C. He is a decorated Marine veteran of the Iraq war in which he served two tours. His decoration is a purple heart, which in my book is a Medal of Honor and Sacrifice. There are scars on K.C.’s body… and on his heart. No one leaves a battlefield unscarred. How can God allow the evil that necessitates sacrifices by young men like K.C. and his family has had to make? As I write this, K.C. is off work to be with his wife and children who are on the west coast, at the children’s hospital. They are with his 4 year old daughter that is going through her second round with cancer. It doesn’t sound like its going very well… Why does God allow bad things to happen to this family and their little daughter?

My wife has a friend who has just lost her baby. Their family waited for, and loved, this baby for the last nine months only to deliver a stillborn. Oh the heartache…. Doesn’t God care even for this pastor and his wife?

These are just recent situations I know of. I could relate events within my own family, and so could you… Doesn’t God see? Doesn’t He care?

In the LORD I will put my trust. Psalm 11:1

These difficult situations are not times to reject God for not making your life comfortable, this is time to hold on tight!

Now wait until the end before you blow me off for what I’m about to say, because the conclusion may surprise you. The reason there is evil, pain and bad circumstances is… sin.

The earth is also defiled by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left. Isaiah 24:5-6

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Romans 3:23

Who, except one Jesus Christ the Righteous, is without sin? Who has ever said, “Enough! I am sick of this I will not perpetuate this anymore!” Right! No one! Although I hate to say it; pain is good. You see, just like God told Adam that the wages of sin is death, we just march along ourselves and keep earning the wages of sin. What if there was no pain? What if during this dying process we call “life” we experienced no pain? There would be quite a bit fewer of us because of doing things that would kill us without realizing it. The rest of us would be horribly disfigured (better not shave) missing limbs, eyesight, hearing etc. So, pain is good, right? While growing up, we learn what hurts, what is painful, and do the best we can to avoid it (sometimes not so successfully). From the moment we are conceived, we begin to die. So, what we call life is really just a painful dying process. In reality, we should all be in hospice! Some just die faster than others. We live in a land of pain, a polluted land of our own making like it says in Isaiah. 24:5-6.

God is gracious to give us pain in the dying process we call life.

What??!! Are you kidding??!! Gracious??!! Yes! Remember Romans 6:23, the wages of sin is death, what we earn for our rebellion against God is eternal separation from God. He is real life. Real life has no part of death. This eternal separation from God is called the second death. Revelation 20:11-15. So what does that have to do with God being gracious to give us pain? Let me put it this way: If you were slowly being fed feet first into a giant meat grinder, would you prefer: A. A painkiller or anesthetic to make your slow and grisly dying easier and less painful? (maybe a blind fold too… yuk!) Or B. Pain, so you could cry out for help and rescue? Aha! So pain IS good! What humankind (us) is rushing headlong into is far worse than a meat grinder…. Hell, forever! Pain reminds us of the reason why we have it. Sin. Sin reminds us that we are hopelessly lost because we fall short of God. Way short. What we need is a rescuer, a Savior. The Saviors says to drop everything (as in EVERYTHING) and grab on and hang on tight to Him as if your life depended on it. It does. Hold on tight. Don’t let go with one hand and try to grab more pain-infested stuff.

And he said to them all, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?” Luke 9:23-25

If you do this, it will put you in sharp contrast with the culture and the world. These belong to satan. Dominion was given to us, then, we gave it to him in Eden. We are not called to change the world or the culture (how can satan be saved?) but we are called to make disciples of individuals. Won by one by one. The followers of Jesus are the Church. The Greek word for Church was coined by Jesus from two separate words; ek-klesia. “Out of” and “the called.” The very definition of Church is; “those who are called out of!” Where are they called out of? The culture. The world. We spend so much time trying to limit the worldly influences in us or changing the world so we feel better about it when we should cut it off and separate from it like a cancer growth that it truly is! You get rid of cancer, period! You don’t play with it as if it can’t get YOU. The Church, as a people, are not world reformers, but culture and world Houdini’s! Against impossible odds they have escaped the inexorable progress to the meat grinder. To make the world or culture seemingly moral is to go back to the pain killers. We still feel the pain because we are still in the world, but those who have called to the Savior for rescue don’t share the same destiny as the world. Now pain is useful for another purpose, and this is my point;

Bad things happen, evil exists, pain happens, sorrow, heartaches and trials exist, are allowed, used, and even mandated by God so that we do not become complacent or contented with this death we call life so that we long for REAL LIFE and the REAL LIFEGIVER and put all our hope, trust, faith, our lives, in Him where it’s safe!

Pain is good. This is not my home. Its black Friday now, but Sunday is coming!! YEAH!!

Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live. Ezekiel 18:30-32

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength. Isaiah 26:3-4

By the way, the pain killers really don’t work. Just ask Bill Gates, Tiger Woods, the Hollywood types. They are obviously all trying to gain existential relevance and not finding it. I can already tell them they will not find peace that way. I am looking forward to the hope that will not fail;

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. IPeter 1:3-5

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11

He will make known to ME the path of LIFE! That’s what I want! In HIS PRESENCE, being WITH HIM is 100% JOY with no room for any other emotion or feeling! At His right hand, that is, with Him, is PLEASURE FOREVER!! There, in that place, is no pain, no death, only joy and pleasure forever! Don’t you want that? Doesn’t that beat this, what we call, “life?”

And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. Revelation 22:1-5

Psalm 11:5 says The Lord tries the righteous. Why? To prove us, to see if we have capitulated with the enemy, to keep us focused on Him. So we don’t want this life, but His Life.

Don’t forget. Pain is good. For the servants of Jesus Christ, it’s only temporary. Temporary is a VERY short time in eternity. I think of that great hymn:

Oft times the day seems long, our trials hard to bear, we’re tempted to complain, to murmur and despair; But Christ will soon appear to catch His Bride away, all tears forever over in God’s eternal day.
It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus, life’s trials will seem so small when we see Christ, one glimpse of His dear face, all sorrows will erase, so bravely run the race, till we see Christ.

Amen

What greater need do we have but of real life? If we keep our eyes fixed on Him, seeking for His kingdom, He will provide our needs; real and eternal LIFE! Happy Hunting!

Did you know?… ahem… THE CD’s ARE OUT???!!! Get them while they are hot! THEY ARE FREE! Can you say FREE? Come on now… F-R-E-E. That’s right, THE CD’s ARE ABSOLUTLY FREE! Zero down. No interest and no monthly payments, just FREE! Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your enemies; Electric Church is giving away FREE CD’s! Just click on the tab on the left that says FREE CD and you can get you’re… (Hang on for a major announcement)… FREE CD! This is a special limited time offer, which expires at the end of time so get one now because we don’t know when the end will come. Any minute… any second… any time… and time will end!

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!
But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. 2 Peter 3:9-13

This Scripture gives us proper perspective. What you do in the “here and now” has eternal ramifications. Are you Stained Glass and a Living Stone being built into a spiritual house that will last for eternity? If you don’t know, maybe you should find out. Eternity is riding on it. Unless the Lord Builds the House, They Labor in Vain Who Build It (see song #8, Build the House, on the FREE CD)!

BTW, no exclamation points were seriously harmed in the making of this blog. If it appears some of them were severely overworked, it was just trick blogerfy.

Dennis (Dad)
Roadie for Jesus I Peter 1:1, 2:11

The first run of 2000 CDs is expected to arrive from the manufacturer anytime this next week. We can’t wait to start distributing them! Did you know they are free? We give them away. Anyone can have one! Yeah, I know, stupid marketing plan for the short term, but we aim at the long term… like eternity. Check out song #9 on the CD to see where we are coming from

Psalm 98:4 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

Fortunately, that Psalm doesn’t say “sing and play perfectly before the Lord”. It says make a joyful NOISE… and brother, did we ever! Forget the music, forget the singing; listen to the message, that’s what is important.

This spot on our front page is dedicated to news and truths, a blog of sorts, if you will. I shall endeavor to occasionally (maybe once per week) post something new here that is pertinent to Electric Church and you. Check out the link for dunamis ekklesia to find out what that has to do with Electric Church.

As you may (or may not) know, our band is expecting another member soon. Judging by the amount of kicking and movement Ruth has “exclaimed” over, we might be getting another drummer or a spastic dancer of some sort! I’ll keep you posted when the new band member arrives in the next several weeks. (Yes, we can count, she’ll be number 12! You know they’re cheaper by the dozen.)

Sign up for the updates to this uh… blog… or whatever… and updates to the rest of the site. We will not sell, misuse or even memorize your personal information; especially memorize!

Tell ten friends about our site and your eggplant will always turn purple. Fail to tell ten friends about our site, and cooked cauliflower (we call them monkey brains) will always be for dinner at your house.

Dennis McLean (Dad),
Roadie for Jesus I Peter 1:1, 2:11