I’m FAT!!!!!

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , on January 18, 2010 by Kevin Riner

So I’m not fat. Well… my Nintendo Wii fit would beg to differ. It says I’m obese. But it’s not really all that bad. However, I decided thanks to a lone circumstance that I needed to try to fit into the pants I own rather than having to buy new ones. If I’d just loose a few, then I’d be ok. So I am on it.

My wife and I decided to go to Old Chicago one night and I had to unbutton my pants so I could eat. This seemed to be an eye opener for me so here I am, eating a low calorie diet and doing some cardio to try and burn off some of the extrie fat tissue that seems to have set up camp around my waist. Some have told me I have nice timing trying to loose weight while my wife is pregnant. I’m assuming by their reports is that guys usually put on weight along with their pregnant wife, but I really don’t know why. I’m gonna try not to.

Today, I started and had me a cup of Special K and some milk, turkey bacon and an apple for breakfast. For lunch, I had a turkey sandwhich, and a couple of tweenie snacks being a banana and a bagel with some jelly. Tonight for supper I had wild rice, 1/2 cup of grilled chicken and some green beans.

It really wasn’t bad. But my body is used to eating about two BIG meals a day. Now I’m eating about 6 small meals. So it’s a transition. I just ate an hour ago and I’m already hungry. It’s gonna be tough, but I wanna feel good again, so here we go.

You know I’m fat, I’m fat, you know it
You know I’m fat, I’m fat, come on you know
Don’t you call me pudgy, portly or stout
Just now tell me once again who’s fat

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Friends Are Friends Forever

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , on January 11, 2010 by Kevin Riner

And friends are friends forever
If the Lord’s the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
‘Cause the welcome will not end
Though it’s hard to let you go
In the Father’s hands we know
That a lifetime’s not too long
To live as friends

Michael W. Smith

Yesterday, we buried my wife’s Grandfather. It was very hard to bury someone who meant so much. He lived to be 95 and was married to his wife for 73 years. WOW!!!!!

So while we were at the funeral I was thinking like I always do who all have I made an impact on and who would be at my funeral. No, this is no cheap way to get comments from everyone of my friends to make me feel better. However, if you would like to leave a comment encouraging me, I’ll take it all day long.   :)

I had a few friends show up who know me but do not know my wife’s grandfather and that said alot to Carrie and I about what kind of friends we have. I am truly thankful. I only hope that I am that type of friend and that I have shown it.

One thing I have always preached on was that the foundation of the Christian faith is about relationships. I know I get it honestly from my parents that when work is over, I come home and settle in for the night. Of course if called upon, I would make an effort to do something for someone but to just get out and mingle with no purpose other than to invest into the relationships with my friends is rather effort(ful) and an effort in which I have not been very excited in making.

I hope to change that in 2010. I’m not saying I will. I am saying that I hope to. Forgive me if I have been standoffish. I tend to get lazy. But to all of you have put up with me and have made an effort in investing into our relationship, thank you! Here’s to you!

(These are just a few in the many)

Of course the most important FRIEND that I have…

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To Live is Christ, To Die is Gain

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , on January 9, 2010 by Kevin Riner

I don’t like funerals. Not that I don’t like celebrating the life of a loved one that may have made a huge impact in my life. I just don’t like the idea of viewing a dead body lying in a casket. I always tend to stare at the fingers and 99% of the time, they move. I’m serious. It’s freaky. Of course I have watched way more than a fair share of horror movies in my life.

I don’t like the pleasantries from long-lost relatives you haven’t seen in years talking about how big (fat in nicer terms) you’ve gotten or how good the “dead” body looks so natural. I’m not a big fan of everyone being in such a poor mood. Kinda brings me down. Of course it is a funeral.

I’ve always talked to my wife about my funeral (A.K.A.-PARTY). I think a funeral should be a celebration. Especially for those that are children of God. There’s nothing to be sad about except they are not with you anymore. But to be absent in body is to be present with the Lord. I’m all about shaking my booty for that.

I’ve also told Carrie that I really want to either preach my own funeral or at least sing at it. I know. Morbid right? But oh the miracles of video these days.  I once read a book where the father died and in his last will, he demanded that the funeral was short and sweet with just the immediate family and then the next weekend, that the whole town was to have a celebration in the town park. Now, that’s what I’m talking about. Because Lord knows, I’m gonna be partying in Heaven, why not you as well.

I’m usually not very moved by death unless it was someone close to me or I’m with someone who was very close to the deceased. To me, death is a natural process in the order of life. It happens. Every one will die sometime, so I tend to not get carried away by it. Just yesterday, I was thinking about the circle of life. Carrie is pregnant and her Grandfather just passed away. As one moves on, another comes into the world. And every day, this happens all across the world. As someone passes, another comes in. I think even Solomon talked about this in Ecclesiastes.

I’ve had folks tell me I’m cold-hearted. I’m not. I just understand the process of life. Death happens. Life happens. We move on and others move into our place. Nothing is new under the sun.

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Hello Tom Tuttle

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , on January 7, 2010 by Kevin Riner

Today I had the rare opportunity to stand before a judge in a Civil Court room and take it like a man that I was caught speeding. As I stood there, I kept staring in unbelief at the cop who pulled me over because he reminded me so much of Dennis Valkenheiser in Nothing But Trouble.

Here we are in the small little town of Pleasant View and this guy is standing there with a bullet proof vest on with everything under the sun attached to it including but not limited to; two phones, handcuffs, flash light, and three other things in compartments I couldn’t make out. He has his gun hooked to his belt but hangs down far enough that he has two belts with quick fasten clips around his leg to keep it sturdy. On the back is a big florescent sign reading POLICE. And to top it off, a flat top hair cut.

I look around at the other three police and they look like they just stepped off the set of the Andy Griffith Show. Who is this guy trying to kid, or intimidate for that matter. I was appalled that this guy takes his authority to extreme. While paying for my ticket, the clerk told me that he once pulled over a lady who was headed to the hospital because of a organ run. She needed to get it to another hospital. AND HE TICKETED HER! This guy has no mercy when it comes to the law. He reminds me of another John Candy character. “Hi, I’m Tom Tuttle from Tacoma Washington!”

Do you know a Tom Tuttle?

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Sacrifice of Praise

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , on January 6, 2010 by Kevin Riner

Tonight, I had the great privilege to lead worship at Awaken Church.  When I had sound check, everything sounded just fine. Then it happened. When it was time to begin,everything was fine till we got into the middle of the first song and my guitar started to give out. As I would strum, I would reach back and fiddle with the chord to try to get it to play again. Throughout the first song it kept going in and out, so I turned the volume off (thankful the place is small enough to continue hearing the acoustic guitar) and continued. I tried to get it back in the second song but it just wasn’t having it so I finished the third son with no volume. Just straight acoustic guitar.

I returned after the message to play a couple of more songs for the communion. I replaced my chord before beginning. The first song, Above All, and everything seemed fine till I went into the second song, Agnus Dei, and the microphone started dying. I came close to just stopping everything, unplugging everything, popping a stool right in the middle, circle up and just worship without all the fancy P.A. stuff and overhead screens and such.

You gotta love it when electronics go out and the mics don’t work and nothing seems to go “right”. What exactly constitutes “right” in worship anyhow? Many churches worship musically with JUST their lips (Hebrews 13:15).

I like what David had to say… TWICE! “You do NOT desire an animal sacrifice but a HEART sacrifice! Psalm 40:6, Psalm 51:16. If I was to re-write that to today’s worship leaders standards, it might go something like this:

16 You do not delight in sacrifice of playing music, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in great P.A. systems and Taylor guitars.

17 The sacrifices of God are  a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.

God desires the sacrifice of our hearts. It doesn’t matter to him if the P.A. goes out or batteries stop working or strings break or anything like that. He cares about where your heart is at PERIOD! So if I there is anymore that is said, I would say that God doesn’t care about a list of things: where you meet, what clothes you wear, how you style your hair, what, if any, music you play or style for that matter, how much money your church has, how great of a speaker you are, how great of a singer you are. Oh man, I could keep going.

Bottom line: God cares about where your heart is at. Where is your heart. For where it is, that’s also where your treasure is. Hmmm. I think that’s a scripture about that somewhere!

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Top ten posts for Yahweh’s Song 2009

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on December 31, 2009 by Kevin Riner
Title Views
Learning to smoke a pipe! 220 More stats
Worship Leaders Conferences 216 More stats
Bradley LaShawn Fowler sues bible publis 127 More stats
H.R. 1592 Matthew Shepard National Law E 95 More stats
Doc Pop and Me 70 More stats
Top Ten reasons for Opposing the New Mus 67 More stats
Aggressively Passive Christianity-part I 57 More stats
I hate the lottery 53 More stats
Burn Us Up-Shane and Shane 34 More stats

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Smoker’s Corner

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , on December 31, 2009 by Kevin Riner

Since taking up the pipe, I really enjoy it relaxing with a book or a glass of wine. But now that Carrie is pregnant I can’t smoke around her. Actually, I really only smoke a bowl maybe about once every two days. Which is really not that much, but even still, it’s not good to do it around her. So, I came up with this idea. I created a makeshift smoker’s corner in my office. It’s dainty. Not that elaborate. But it does the job.

So I just whisk away into our office and have a smoke and read and relax. Very nice. Then when we get a house, hopefully it will have room for my studio and then I can have an ideal place to go and smoke my pipe. Care to join?

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I Feel Violated

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , on December 30, 2009 by Kevin Riner

My back has started hurting just recently. I don’t know what I did, but if I sit for too long my back starts to hurt. Good thing my wife works for a chiropractor. It’s so nice to go in and get popped for free. ;) Anyway, I decided to go in today and get “adjusted”. I like that word better than the word she used to use. “Manipulated”!

So I stopped in to her work and one of the back poppers there (that’s what I call em) laid me down on the table. It felt so weird having “her” touching my lower back and partially my bum even with Carrie sitting there with me. She would push and pull and press and on time she even got all her weight on me and jumped. She’s a small woman. It was just so weird I guess, but it popped a few times and felt so good.

Along with the idea of being violated, Carrie went to her first Dr.’s appointment yesterday. We arrived and went into the room and waited on the Dr. to get there. She was running a little late because she was finishing up delivering a baby. As soon as she got there, we met and talked for a moment and then I left the room cause I didn’t want to see her getting “violated” by being prodded and poked and whatever else they do to women in those situations.

They asked me if I wanted to be in there when they done the ultrasound and I said yes. So I went out into the lobby and read a Sporting News magazine while I waited and finally they called me in. When I walked in they told me place was up by her head so I stood there and they told her to lay back and put her feet in the stirrups.

Wait a minute. I wanted to see the ultrasound, not see this. But that’s how they do it when your just eight weeks along. They put a condom on this probe and lubed it up and in it went. WOW!!!!! I’m thinking are you okay? Do I need to be doing something?

They turned the monitor around to us and we could see the baby. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!! She turned and showed us the arm nubs and leg nubs and said the baby looks well and good. Then she asked if we wanted to hear the heartbeat. At eight weeks? I thought. She turned the sound on and WOW! It was just going a hundred miles an hour. I’m thinking, “whoa baby. Slow down. Ain’t no need to get your heart racing like that before your born. You got it made. Just calm down and enjoy the ride in there.”

Sometimes I look at things around me and just ask, “How can there NOT be a God!” It is amazing. I’m still not sure about all this, what we’re getting into, or if I am ready. I will probably never be. But God thinks that I am. This is definitely gonna be interesting.

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Just call me Daddy

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , on December 27, 2009 by Kevin Riner

For years I have said I was not in favor of  having a kid. I had come to the conclusion that I was too selfish. Too selfish with my money, too selfish with my time, to selfish with my resources, just too dang selfish. Over time and through many avenues God has brought me to learn what it means to give of myself and to be a servant instead of  the one to be served. The Lord led me to a job where instead of working to get ahead, I worked to serve my customers. The Lord led me to pastors who taught me that it’s not about becoming the best worship leader but yet serving the ones who serve me spiritually.

After teaching me servant-hood, which by no means have I perfected it yet I have learned of it far more than I ever thought I would, the Lord led me to a city where babies are so prevalent, you can’t walk without tripping over one.

My age is getting no younger, nor is my wife’s. So by this and knowing that many in my family were wanting a child by my wife and I, I began to pray. Praying for something that I didn’t know if I wanted was hard. But I began to pray that God would give me a heart for a child and a heart to love those children around me, to see the joy in a rug rat, to desire to see myself in another person walking around. I prayed. I prayed. I prayed.

Here we are 2 months into a pregnancy and I’m excited. Never did I think I would be excited but I am. To know that God is going to  make me a steward over another person is very thrilling.

How did we break it to our parents? We bought a picture frame and put a poem in it with a picture of a baby as a watermark behind the text and wrapped it up for Christmas and had them open it. This is their reaction.

We are embarking a new chapter in our life. It’s crazy, exciting, wonderful, new, refreshing, and scary! There’s probably more emotions I could add here but I don’t have my thesaurus handy.

You can prepare to call me Daddy. I’m getting the cigars ready. We’re gonna celebrate like it’s 1999!!!!!

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To Santa or Not To Santa-That Is a Question?

Posted in Uncategorized on December 17, 2009 by Kevin Riner
I came across this article on a worship blog. My wife and I have been discussing what we would do when we had kids if we would teach them about Santa or not. We have ultimately decided that it would be best for us to raise our children the truth about who St. Nick was and teach them the reason for the season in our protestant home. Some folks disagree with our decision yet some agree. I think that’s par for the course that my wife and I play on. Keeps life fun that way.
I posted this link on my Facebook and these are a few of the responses I got. I left the last names out to protect the innocent ;) .
_____________________________
Brandon
To not allow a child the excitement Of learning about Jesus and Santa is extremely selfish and robs the child Of important life lessons! Santa is exciting to a child! If the parent says they do not lie to their children, then what do you tell the child when he or she ask What the noises are coming from the bedroom a night! I bet the parents don’t tell the truth!

Kevin

I think that being a selfish thing is opinionated. Of course I asked for you opinion, so thank you. I don’t see what the important life lessons would be. Don’t listen to your parents, there liars? One friend of mine decided to teach their children the real history behind St. Nick rather than the fable of the made up Santa Clause. We won’t be … See More teaching our child about Santa Clause cause I want my child learning the “excitement” of Jesus Christ and why he came. I’ll figure something out about the noises in the bedroom later, lol.

Theresa
I taught my daughter about the reason for the season and when it came up about santa, I told her that santa was just a fun thing that people do at Christmas.

Juli

It’s not always what the parent teaches the child…they learn about Santa from daycare, school, the media, etc… what’s important is for the parent(s) to explain the REAL reason for the season.

Corrie

I taught my kids about St. Nick,and how much he loved Jesus!!!…also I am truthful with my kids about the “noises” coming from the bedroom…I tell them Daddy is loving mommy!!!:)…What a better way to make a child feel he is in a stable home environment than to know his daddy loves his mommy???????????

Sarah

I have always been with you, Kevin. “When my kids find out that Santa is not real, how would they believe me when I told them about Jesus?” But I have to say – in the last few years, reading GK Chesterton and CS Lewis has been adjusting my perspective. They both believed that fairy tales (incl. Santa) paved the way for the Ultimate Fairy Tale that … See More is ingrained in each of us. About a Prince who ransomed his princess by giving his own life and slaying the dragon. As I look around at a culture raised only on scientific intellectualism (believe only what you can see), and I see that culture have a hard time with the idea of faith, I see the importance of raising my children with the capacity for wonder. I personally have met Jesus in many modern fairy tales: The Lord of the Ring, Chronicles of Narnia, even the Matrix. And at some level, I met him more there than I did in Bible School. I read an article recently that summed up my thoughts well: “Christian apologists like Lewis and Chesterton embraced fairy tales, precisely because to embrace Christian dogma is to embrace the extra rational. As a parent, I believe (with the older apologists) that it’s essential to preserve a small, inviolate space in the heart of a child, a space where he is free to believe impossibilities.” I do not teach Juli that Santa is “truth”, however we have begun to explore the magic and mystery of Christmas (and life), much more than we ever did. As you can see, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this! And I don’t feel I have it figured out yet, but my theology has made room for fairy tales.

Robert

You can’t keep your kids from finding out about satan claus but you can hit them with a pre-emptive strike and teach them the truth

William

I know J.C. I do not know santa
______________________________________

Juli mentioned it’s not just the parents that are teaching the kids this. It’s also the teacher at school, daycare, media, and etc. I would also agree that these mediums are not just teaching our kids what I would say is a “fun lie” but these mediums are inundating our kid’s lives with other things that the church teaches to be wrong. So I think it is fair to say that it is our duty as parents to protect our children from the things we as the parents do not want our kids to learn. Thanks Juli for that comment.
Corrie mention that those sounds in the bedroom is just Daddy loving Mommy. PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!! I gotta remember that one.
With Sarah’s post, it is very well thought out as I can see she has been struggling with this very same thing. However, I would argue (if you wanna use a word that strong, maybe debate, or just simply question) the idea of comparing fairy tales with twisted truth. I believe Santa Clause is a twisted version of many ideas incorporated into one. Foundational truth being on St. Nick and stories about shamans and flying reindeer being an additive to create a wonderful fairy tale like illusion. I do however see her stand and appreciate where she’s coming from and right on to her if that’s where her convictions lie. Thanks for the comment.
Robert calls him Satan Clause! Need I say more.
Bottom line is I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer. I was raised on Santa Clause, had Santa all over my presents and my parents asked if I was ready for his visit. I even once thought that I saw Rudolph one night coming home from a Christmas party. The red light was NOT blinking so I didn’t think it was an airplane. However, I knew that the story was that Santa came down the chimney. So either my parents were wrong, left the key out on the porch so he could come through the door or it was all just a big lie, cause we had no fireplace. And the sucker still  ate my cookies that mom made me leave out cause I didn’t want to. I wanted those cookies myself.
So stick to your convictions cause I made it through life ok knowing there really wasn’t one. But I refuse to teach my kids about the “fairy tale” of Christmas. They will know who St. Nick and how St. Nick felt about the real reason which was Jesus Christ.
Thanks for reading!!!!

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