Doug Van Pelt

The Great Cornerstone Festival Experience.1

Aha!
I'm here and I'm online! Hooray for technology! If anyone reads this (and you're going to be at the fest), come find me at the HM Magazine booth. I have a few goodies to give away ... and I love to talk about God and about music.

I'll do my best to post about what I've seen (the previous night) each morning.

The Great Exodus.20

This is the chapter in Exodus where God tells Moses the Ten Commandments:

Don't have any gods before Me.
Don't make an idol and worship it.
Don't misuse the Name of the Lord.
Remember the Sabbath day and don't work on it.
Honor your mom and dad (and you'll live long in the land).
Don't murder.
Don't have sex with another person's spouse.
Don't steal.
Don't lie.
Don't be jealous and covet your neighbor's stuff.

"When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, 'Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.'"

They somehow thought that Moses could control God!?! That's weird.

I wonder if that's a translation typo, or if they really saw the thunder?! After the people told Moses that, God reminded Moses about one of the commandments -- "Do not make any gods to be alongside Me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold." It's interesting that He pointed that out twice. Maybe He knew what was around the corner...?

The Great Exodus.19

Details, details...
Moses, when writing the book of Exodus (at least that's what scholars say, from 17:14; 24:4; 34:27 and Mark 7:10; 12:26), found it necessary to mention that it was "the third month after the Israelites left Egypt -- on the very day -- they came to the Desert of Sinai." It's always interesting when fine details like that are included in the Bible. I think it adds to the book's authenticity, because these details don't seem necessary (if it were just a PR campaign to invent a deity to worship, etc). Interesting...

Moses went up to God and the Lord spoke to him. He said:
"This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep My covenant, then out of all nations you will be My treasured possession. Although the whole earth is Mine, you will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'"

Wow. Isn't that awesome? I think it's beautiful that God used poetic language, like, "I carried you on eagles' wings..."

God wanted Moses to have the people get ready to see God and Moses interact. This was to fortify a trust from the people in Moses that would last and last. When God's people prepared or "consecrated" themselves God descended upon the mountain with fire and smoke billowed up above it like a furnace. The ground shook. It must've been an awesome experience. God wanted the place secure, like a tight backstage area, forbidding anyone but Moses (and Aaron) to come up on the mountain with Him. He kept telling Moses to make sure that didn't happen. It was almost like a "He didn't want someone breaking through the barricades and touching the lead singer" kind of thing. Like a confident promoter, Moses assured Him that this was taken care of. And God refered to Himself in third person during this conversation, too. He explained that no one should break through to approach the Lord, for He would do such and such if that happened. That's kind of odd, don't you think?

COWBOYS BY A BUS

On the way to work on County Road 424 today, I saw a couple cars parked on the west side of the road and a school bus on the east. I figured it was a class field trip of some sort as I approached ... maybe kids learning about the tall corn plants in that field. As I got closer I noticed that there wasn't any kids to be seen -- just tall farmers with their cowboy hats on, milling around. One was leaning against the bus in the road, talking on his cell phone. This scene would have made a great photo. It was made further surreal for me by the fact that I was listening to "Sweet Dreams" by Marilyn Manson at full volume as I drove by. I'm sure it wouldn't have been surreal if I had been jamming to Johnny Cash, but this was how it was.

Where is my password?

The Editor's Note in the new (July/August) issue of HM says: "...you should have rec'd a password by now..." Well, that was written before the issue went to press and darned if I didn't plan on having the passwords mailed with that issue, but I failed to pull it off. I am trying to get that resolved and ... Lord willing, will have it fixed this week.

WHY I GOT BAPTIZED ... again

So, my church has an outdoor baptism at Emma Long Park in Austin each year. It's a state park along the dammed Colorado river, which becomes like a long and slender lake of sorts. Lots of people camp out there and there's lots of swimming and watercraft. The annual event likens back to the massive baptisms in the Pacific Ocean that Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa still has. Life Magazine documented some of these baptisms, which were like a visual icon of the Jesus Movement here in the West.

Our baptism yesterday was documented by the local paper (Austin American Statesman) and one of the local tv networks.

GOD MUST HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR
It's funny, because my reason for getting baptized is slightly weird or maybe even dumb, so I would have favored keeping it on the downlow. In fact, I have had the privilege of baptizing several people over the years and I wondered if they would freak out or wonder why I was getting baptized again. Those were two reasons why I didn't really want to draw attention to it, but then I was picked as one of several people that the tv news crew interviewed for the segment. That's funny. I guess what I thought might fly unnoticed under the radar wouldn't quite remain so hidden.

I was baptized at age 11, after I placed my faith in the Forgiveness Pact or Everlasting Covenant that God has made with man through His Son's substitutionary and sacrificial death on the cross. As much as an 11 year old could reason, I knew exactly what I was doing at the time and I was serious about following Jesus in the call to be baptized and in a personal relationship with Him. After about six months of that young walk, though, I slowly but surely slid away from that commitment on my end and became like a "Prodigal Son," living life to please myself instead of pleasing the God that created me. When I "came back" to the Lord 9 years later (at age 20), I didn't feel the need to get baptized. I figured the baptism at age 11 counted. I still feel that way. Even after friends got baptized to identify with their adult/rededicated life with Christ, I didn't feel the same need.

Years went by and I always kind of had the same conclusion whenever the subject came up. "What would my friends think? What about the people that I had baptized in the past? Would they think I was unqualified to baptism them back then?" When the topic came up this time, and thoughts like those, I figured they were dumb reasons not to get baptized. A couple years ago, one of the pastoral staff at Calvary Chapel Austin, a guy affectionately known as Bunjee, delivered a sermon about baptism. He said something like, "If you have any doubts or questions about being baptized now as an adult -- even if you had been baptized as a child, I say go for it." That attitude makes sense. Taken to an extreme (like getting baptized all the time) might be kind of dumb, but there's nothing wrong with re-visiting a ritual like that. Jesus told us to "do these things whenever we meet in His Name" (refering to communion and quite possibly foot washing, but that's another topic of conversation right there), so re-identifying with Christ in His death and resurrection certainly is not a bad thing.

It's funny, for me, it was really a "Why not?" kind of thing, which is exactly how that news segment edited my comments. I like to live my life like it's no big deal, because it really isn't. Hearing God's voice (like thoughts during prayer time), obeying Him, and believing that He hears my prayers really are not that big a deal. I really believe that the supernatural life is available to us, and it's really kind of a normal thing to know God and "walk" with Him. If we were created to have this relationship with Him, it shouldn't be a weird, freaky thing when He interacts with us.

Who knows? Maybe my thought of "Why not get baptized" thing was just a setup for God to do something I was not expecting nor had even imagined might happen.

It's fun when we find things out later on that resulted from something that was out of our control. One other funny example of that happened on Friday. I had an unusual dream that morning, where two former employees came over to hang out at the office. I thought it was unusual and I picked up my cell phone on my way out to the office to call both of them. I didn't have one of the guy's number in my address book, but there was another Jason in there -- a manager named Jason Fowler, who is putting together a festival that we are co-sponsoring (Revolution Calling). I called him later, because it made sense to touch base and make sure we both had "all our ducks in a row" for the upcoming festival. I just designed a bunch of postcards for him to get handed out at those tour dates. While talking to him, he told me that my 11-year old had asked him in an Instant Message if he had Hawk Nelson's IM address. That was obviously my daughter, who I let get on my computer while mowing the weeds out at the office. So, in a weird, round-about way, my dream prompted me to call a Jason, who I couldn't call but found another Jason that I should call -- all in order to "bust" my daughter in an action she needed to be lectured about (in just a sentence or two, of course). Ha ha. What are the odds of me calling that guy and finding out about her IM indescretion? That's kinda funny.

In defense of Doug Pinnick -- and rock stars everywhere

A guy I know was relating to me his frustration at being told "I'm too busy" (to listen to the demo you gave me and offer feedback/advise/critique). All apologies to this guy (who's really nice and has good taste in music), but he was venting to me about this frustrating thing, making it sound like Doug Pinnick (the rock star of his choice to give a cd of his music to) was the bad guy.

I'm sorry, anonymous bud, but Doug P (or other rock stars, music industry professionals, or other celebrities) is not at fault here.

The whole scenerio is a set-up against him to make him (the rock star) look bad.

When he's offered a cd, if he says no, he looks like a jerk...
If he's says he's too busy to give feedback on it, he looks like a jerk...

The person giving him the cd has everything to gain and benefits (and, in essence, uses) the rock star recipient (for feedback/advice),
and the rock star recipient has very little to nothing to gain, but only work/effort/favors to do/give out.

It's just not a very positive thing for someone in his position, is it?

So, next time you offer your music to an artist (or other music person with "power" or some degree of prominence or expertise in their field), try to picture it as you going up to a lawyer you barely know (maybe a relative of a friend or something ... or a lawyer you see once every six months when you're at a certain court building) and you hand this lawyer a folder. "This is a case I want to bring to court. Can you read this and give me feedback and advice on what odds you think I have of winning and/or ways I can improve my presentation?" There is no way you would probably do this, because you realize that a lawyer would charge you big bucks to do this kind of service. And even if you were willing to pay this lawyer for his/her advice, it might be the last thing they want to do right now at this point in time (that is, taking on another project or something else to do ... when you approach them in the hallway as they head to lunch or something).

So, for all those people that have done this in the past who might feel really guilty right now for doing it (relax, let it go); but for those of you that might be tempted to do this in the future, think twice (and don't do it) when you have the opportunity to give someone "who could help you" a cd of your music. If you can find someone that offers this service, go to them. But asking for this kind of help from someone who's active (and probably very busy most of the time) is really kind of an imposition.

There, I actually said it.
:?)

Where Have You Been?

I've been on vacation in Florida. I'm excited, because I get to speak at my parent's church tonight. Should be fun. I'm going to break out the Jesus doll to make a point about perspective. It'll be interesting to see how many laughs I get.

The Great Trip To Florida

Going on a week's vacation today. Will visit my wonderful parents in Florida. Have been invited to speak at their church on Wednesday. Should be cool. Our dog was bathed at a grooming place, so the skunk smell will hopefully not travel with us to the Sunshine State.

The interns have some cool shows to see while I'm gone. Nevertheless and Seventh Day Slumber is in Austin tonight and mewithoutYou is playing on Monday. I'm jealous.
:?)

The Great Exodus.18

There was Jethro Pugh, Defensive Tackle for the Dallas Cowboys' "Doomsday Defense." There was Jethro Clampett, one of the Beverly Hillbillies. And there is Jethro -- the father-in-law of Moses. Moses sent his wife and sons to Jethro, where Jethro heard all about what God had done through Moses. Jethro brought Moses' wife and sons back to Moses in the desert. Jethro was delighted to hear all these things and said, "Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for He did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly." Later Moses, Aaron, Jethro and all the elders of Israel ate bread "in the presence of God."

That sure is an interesting detail. I wonder what that was like.

Later Jethro saw Moses sit in the seat of judgment and handles Israel's disputes from morning to night. He told his son-in-law that he shouldn't do all that work by himself, but to appoint trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain to judge the simple cases for smaller groups -- tens, fifties, hundreds, thousands. This would lighten Moses' load, who would only try the harder ones. He took his father-in-law's advice and it worked.

When I look back and think of the problems these guys faced (Israel), it really helps my perspective to look at the time element. The grumbling that the people did might seem justifiable to me to some degree (since mothers will naturally speak up for the sake of their children after a few days of no water); but one can't ignore that this grumbling seemed to displease God (as well as Moses). Travelling around in the desert with over a million people plus livestock and property had to be troublesome, tiring, and take a long. long time. Each event or problem we read about more than likely took place with large chunks of time between each one. It might be sort of like the "year in review" type family newsletter that you might get with some of the Christmas cards that come your way. Someone in the family recaps what went on throughout the year. It might all be on one page and you can read it in a couple of minutes, but those events stretched out over a whole year. When I realize that my problems or obstacles or challenges are temporal, it helps me not feel overwhelmed or too bummed out about it.

God is in control.

You STINK!!!

When I arrived today, I hustled inside, because I was getting to the office five minutes after Amanda was to interview Hayley of Paramore. I had batteries as backup for the micro-cassette recorder. I noticed it smelled skunk bad outside the office -- worse than it's ever smelled.

Once inside and after inserting fresh batteries, I went outside to water the new / old tree I planted yesterday. I decided to let Biscuit go under the building to scout for the skunks. I've done this dozens of times with no results, so I didn't really think about the consequences. I heard him barking. I walked around to try to locate him, then lifted some skirting to see where he was. He was just below the office where Amanda was interviewing Hayley (thru an international phone call to France) ... and Biscuit was barking. He was jumping up towards an opening in the fabric underpinnings of the building. A skunk must've been peeking out through the hole, because Biscuit was madly trying to get at it. I think the critter got more scared and sprayed him a little bit. It doesn't smell like a direct hit, but the entire office is almost gag-reflexing smelly. Oooh, it's bad! Biscuit needs a bath -- maybe in smoke or tomato sauce or shampoo or something. He's going to be in the car with us for a 12-hour trip this Friday. Good thinking, Doug.

sigh.

METAL

I'm THIS close to getting stoned

This is basically what Moses was crying out to the Lord as he asked God for some water for the people to drink. I can relate to that kind of prayer. I was probably thinking something similar when I went out on the back porch of the house I rented with a couple other guys in Austin during my college years. I had "come back home" to the Lord like a prodigal son the previous summer, forsaking my old life of pleasure and hedonism. A couple of the artifacts I had left behind before travelling East for a life-changing summer were part of my pot smoking past -- a giant 2' tall waterpipe made by US Bongs, called "Killer" and a small bud of potent marijuana that had been flattened and stashed in a Yes album in my record collection. I had the bong loaded with a lighter in my hand, yet I was crying out to God to help me stop. I had surrendered my life to him again just a couple months prior and for me part of that meant giving up drugs. I didn't want to get stoned, but I had cravings inside and all the ingredients were there for the using. Even as my mouth was close to the opening of the bong and burning the illegal substance was just a flick of the lighter away, I kept crying out to God, "Help me." Finally, after numerous similar prayers, I just knew I didn't have to and that I could walk away from it. "Splash!" I dumped out the water and got rid of the bong and weed. For me that really felt like the final battle. It was such a powerful struggle, but the release felt like I had withstood the onslaught of the enemy's forces. I could imagine the temptation being like a being that packed up and moved away after that. By God's grace it was over. That was 24 years ago.

Moses, of course, was thinking about a different type of "being stoned," though. The people were grumbling again about the lack of water. "What am I to do with these people?" I bet Moses felt like giving up. The Lord answered him, though: "Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink."

It's cool that Moses had the elders with him, so they could be trained and discipled and learn first-hand how God will provide for their needs. It was simple and practical. I'm sure it helped lead the people with a plurality of leadership to guide and build confidence in the Lord for the people.

The place was then called "Massah" and "Meribah," because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?" What's so lame about this is their memory was so quick to forget the MAJOR unprecedented provision and hand-of-God miracles that were performed among them. How could they so easily doubt that God was among them? One thing we forget, though, is this may have taken place over the course of several months or perhaps even longer. We tend to read the narratives of the Bible and think that each verse is happening in real-time like an episode of 24 or something.

Next we read about the people being attacked by the Amalekites. They went to battle with them and were victorious whenever Moses lifted his staff up in his hands. He was on top of a hill and it was noticed that when his arms got tired and he held it down that the Amalekites gained strength and started winning. I wonder if or how many Israelites died during the "arms down" phase? They brought Moses a rock to sit down on when he was tired and Aaron and Hur held his hands up for him. The Israelites won the battle and Moses built an altar so that they could remember this provision (maybe that would help them not grumble so much -- seing visual and "artistic" representation of God's work amongst them. They called the altar: "The Lord is my banner."

The Great Exodus.16

Do we test God's patience? Should we lighten up on the Israelites that grumbled in the desert? Is Scripture written for our instruction -- that we might learn from the mistakes (even the real big dumb ones) that they made?

In this chapter we hear that the wole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. They said stuff like, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."

I guess if we had any degrees of 'right-ness' in our looking back to judge these guys, it might be based upon the fact that these people had seen the hand of God move mightily, and they were also fresh off another miraculous show of God's provision -- the bitter water being made sweet enough to drink by Moses tossing a piece of wood into it. Surely they could have had faith that God was with them and would provide. But like a bad cold, grumbling and negativity can spread like a fire amongst people. I notice this a lot at large gatherings, how one complaint about the food or the service, for example, can spread from one person to the next. It takes guts and a "devil may care" attitude to stop the bad attitude (curse, maybe?) from spreading any more. To reverse the curse, so to speak, by saying, "Give the wait staff a break! They're obviously over-worked or might be having a bad day." I've tried this a few times. No one likes to be the spoiler or be seen as the "Type A guy," but with a little tact and creativity, the tide can be turned with a compliment or positive idea. This, too, can spread amongst people. You know, when the person next to you says, "This movie stinks! The acting is bad and look at that phony-looking CGI effect! How elementary!" It's hard to disagree with that person sometimes, but it can be done. The people in the desert surely tested God's patience, but like a good leader, they made sure to take care of the group. Maybe God knew they were going to grumble or knew they were going to be served by Him ... but maybe at a later time than the people were comfortable with or expecting.

"I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days."

God sent quails in the evening to settle over the camp, so they could all eat meat every day. Then He sent "manna" in the morning, which settled like dew on the ground. Of course, some people tested the limits and disobeyed the instructions to "only gather what you need -- one mer for each person" and also not to gather any on the sabbath. People who kept too much saw the manna get filled with maggots and stink. This made Moses mad. Some people went out to gather on the sabbath. Moses wasn't happy with this, either.

God also asked them to put some of the manna in a jar to save. It's a miracle that this provision behaved like it did. It rotted after one day, but after the sixth day it lasted for two. And the manna they kept in the jar lasted for years and years and years.

Ever wonder what it tasted like? Verse 31 explains: "It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey." Sounds pretty good.

Going back to the grumbling: Let's just say it's a drag when people grumble against you. Most of the time they have a justified (in their minds, of course) reason to be unhappy, but it's often circumstances that can be overlooked and "gotten over" without the negative comments. It's shows forebearance when a parent, leader, teacher, boss, pastor meets the needs or answers the grumbling of the people. Some leaders have to put up with some petty crap. Some churches hear complaints when they start making announcements at the end of the message instead of between worship and the sermon. Others actually complain about the color of the carpet or the feel of the chairs. Ya gotta have thick skin to lead people. It's no wonder that God refers to us as "sheep." We're pretty stupid sometimes. It's a good thing He loves us (and is a Good Shepherd).

The Cost Of Sin

So, I was at a car dealership on Friday (my check engine light kept coming on and you have to get your car in Texas inspected once a year and they won't even inspect it if this light is coming on) and I noticed this large truck that announced its mobile shredding service. I laughed about this when talking to one of the guys in the service department. He said that they had to attend this one seminar about once a year to learn all about the latest privacy laws and how to stay out of trouble. I thought it was so funny that a business like "mobile shredding" would even be around -- much less make money and be a necessity for some. "We'll bring our giant shredder to you!"

I guess a car dealer has so much private information on customers that they can't just buy a few shredders at Office Depot and be done with it. On the way home, it dawned on me how much companies all over spend on people's thievery and general sin nature bad choices. It's just crazy that so much money and effort is spent just trying to prevent sneaky people from stealing and ripping other people off. If I had to spend hard-earned HM money on crap like that, I would be pretty frustrated and angry.

While this kind of frustration could lead to self-righteous snobbery (which is sin), it is a shame that we have to be careful in so many ways not to be taken advantage of. It's nice when small children can live in confidence inside a "safety zone" that keeps them away from malicious behavior. You hate when that "bubble" is broken and you have to explain to them that there are predators/wolves/"bad people" out there that hurt innocent people.

I've heard that the "barbershop quartet" has origins from the Welsh revivals, where policemen had time on their hands due to many changed lives due to revival and God's Spirit moving upon people and crime being reduced. That would be interesting to investigate.

I had lunch with a friend (we'll call him "Mike" to protect his identity) on Friday and he brought up how he noticed that some churches focus on the identity of believers in Christ as "saints," while other churches seemed to narrow to an extreme focus on an identity as "sinner."

It brings up some interesting topics, like "What happens at the moment of conversion? What does it mean to be a 'new creation?' Does one's heart change at conversion (that moment of being forgiven of sin by God by accepting/adopting/appropriating/receiving the sacrificial/substitutionary death of Jesus in our place)?"