I wrecked my bike this weekend, riding home from the gym. I don’t mean I fell off my bike and got a boo boo, I mean I Wrecked my bike like why is my front tire inside out, and why how did I get here, and has anyone seen my arm? I can’t seem to find it. (just take a look at the photo) Even now three days after I am still body sore and have the most amazing case of road rash I have ever had. After a few mental calculations I figure I left about a good square foot of skin laying on the road somewhere.

As I look back I struck by several thoughts, the first is just how much of a survival instinct that shock is. I wrecked on a road I ride almost everyday and to be honest I have to say that while I know the general area of where I wrecked I really doubt I would be able to go and point at a spot and say yeah here is where I ended up and this is where I sat while I was waiting for my nephew to show up and throw what was left of my bike in the back of his van and take me home.

The next thought is a little hard for me to admit but it is something that I have to say, especially if I want to be honest. First off I am getting really tired of people in cars who act like people on bikes are some kind of nuisance that they are nice enough to tolerate. Then there are the others who like to pass to close and use their horns as they speed by at 50 miles and hour and less than a foot away. I have a name for these people but I won’t use it here, I’m sure you can come up with a name that works just as well. Jerks, for the sake of argument lets just call them jerks, Well I learned something about Jerks today. I learned that when I am exposed to a Jerk I become one as well. Perhaps its some quantum law of seperation, or perhaps they just exude (I really like that word) some kind of infecting jerk particles, or maybe down deep there is a little jerk in all of us. What I’m trying to say is that I ended up wrecking when I tried to catch up to the Jerk that almost caused me to wreck when he sped past me at 50 mph 8 inches away and beeped his horn.

So now I have to deal with the aftermath of this whole thing. Fix my bike, replace the parts that were destroyed. Hope I don’t get an infection from the road rash (which is without a doubt one of the more painful things I have felt.) All because I allowed myself to get upset by the actions of another person. You know Im sure this is a really good lesson to learn but to tell the truth my leg hurts to much for me to figure out what it is. If I had to guess tho I’m thinking it would be

DON’T BE A JERK

Last night I left work a little early and headed on over to Buffalo Blues for the Pittsburgh Tailgating Tour for the book “The Rookie” where I got to meet and hang out with none other than the FDO (that is Future Dark Overlord) himself Scott Sigler. It was a good night and think we had close to 20 people (I wasn’t counting) there. I did video part of the question and answer portion of the night and depending on quality I will probably be posting them here and on blip.tv.

Im not gonna talk to much about the QA session since he actually talked a lot about upcoming projects and things we can expect to see from him in the future and well I’ll just let that be a surprise to everyone who didn’t make it to one of the tours. One thing he did say and something I am very excited about is that for the foreseeable future there will be a Scott Sigler book to pre-order every April (NFL Draft Day) for the Rookie Series.

I know this isn’t my usual Indie Christian Music Fare but gimme a break it is Scott Sigler After all. Fantastic and often Disturbing New York Times Best Selling Author. Not to mention all of his books are done in podiobook form and freely available on his website as well as Podiobooks.com.

Everyone needs a secret weapon these days. We all have them, that thing you use to help you get through the day or just need something to remind you of who you are and what are you doing here. It is times like this that I pull out my Secret Weapon.

Oswald Chambers

Please please don’t ask me “Oswald who…” it actually hurts my soul when people do that. If you have to ask then just head on over to http://www.rbc.org/utmost/index.php and find out for yourself. I am of course talking about the devotional “My Utmost for His Highest” and each day you can go the link above and get a short devotional. For some reason this single devotional has had more effect in my life than just about any other book (Aside from the Bible, and did I really need to add that part). Here is just a small part of today’s Entry. (August 13th)

“The voice of the Spirit of God is as gentle as a summer breeze— so gentle that unless you are living in complete fellowship and oneness with God, you will never hear it. The sense of warning and restraint that the Spirit gives comes to us in the most amazingly gentle ways. And if you are not sensitive enough to detect His voice, you will quench it, and your spiritual life will be impaired.”

Again, these words come to at a time when I am again wondering just what it is I am supposed to be doing, and what it is that God has planned for me. For the past few months I have felt like I am approaching a turning point or intersection and I know that all to soon I am going to have to choose which way I am going to go. This is a choice that can and will effect myself and those around me, so I want to know I am making the right choice, the choice that God wants me to make. I think it is all to easy to see the choice you want to make and decide that it is “what God is telling you to do”. While it is totally possible that the choice I want to make is the choice God wants me to make, I want to be sure of it. As a christian I feel it is important for us to be constanly be changing and moving. Not changing our beliefs but never standing still, always growing and pushing out of the box… Pressing onward. I never want to look back into the past and find out that the exciting part of being a christian is Behind me. Oswald agrees with me (technically I am the one agreeing with him.)

From the same devotional as above:

“If you get out of the light, you become a sentimental Christian, and live only on your memories, and your testimony will have a hard metallic ring to it. Beware of trying to cover up your present refusal to “walk in the light” by recalling your past experiences when you did “walk in the light””

So what I am getting out of all of this is the need to keep on moving, to keep pressing on. Knowing that while I am living in the fellowship of God I can trust in the fact that one way or another I will recognize His guidance in my life. Yeah now I just have to go out and really do it.

Wish me luck

This is the Rough Draft of the Devotional I will be giving at our Synod Meeting this year. I was really surprised to be asked to do since I am the most non Lutheran person in the whole Synod.

We Share Jesus:

Open in Prayer.
God Remind us that we are supposed to be your Body.

Video: We are his Body

The Title of this Devotional is “We Share Jesus” and when the bishop asked me to do this I was wondering just what she was thinking. Of all the people here I am probably the least Lutheran person in here. When people ask me “What I am” I answer that I am a catha-bapta-metha-costa-lyn. However as I thought about it I began to understand since The ONE thing that we all have in common, The one thing that brings us all together, or should be the one thing that brings us all together is that we share Jesus. Or as I would of titled it “It’s all about Jesus… Dummy”

Ephesians 4: 1-8 (NIV)
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit — Just as you were called to one hope when you were called — One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism; One God and Father of all and through all and in all.

But to each one of us grace had been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says:

“When he ascended on high, He led captives in his train and Gave gifts to men.”

The fact of the matter is that we are facing a lot of issues in the near future that have the potential to rip the Church Apart. People on both sides of the Debate are determined that if they don’t get what they want then there just gonna take their ball and go home. And I got to Confess to you I pretty much felt the same way. That was until I met Stephen, or I call him Mini-me. You see Stephen and I are polar opposites on Just about Everything. I am Big, Stephen is tiny, I am a carnivore, Stephen is a Vegetarian, Stephen in a Communist, I am a Capitalist. Stephen is Emotional (he wants to be a Pastor), I am analytical (I Design Machines), At first glance the only thing we have in common is we are both still alive.. We even have differing views on biblical matters,

we disagree on:
Communion,
End Times,
The Gifts of the Spirit
the Use of Liturgy

Pretty much the only thing we have in common is Christ And we have both found out that that is enough. Since then, Stephen has become one of my closest friends and before, during and after church you can’t find one of us without finding the other.

Why, Because we Share Jesus
Awhile back I was reading through my Bible, something I strongly suggest you all do, and I don’t mean the reading through the Bible you do when you’re trying to find that

“one verse that is gonna put those (insert the name of people who upset you) in their place once in for all!”

This is where that Hard Lesson to learn part starts, at least for me it does. This is the Type of Bible Study where you Read the Bible and instead of thinking “What does this verse have to do with (insert hot button topic that has you all riled up)” Instead You Read the Bible and Think “how does this Change ME.”

So I’m going to Read this next Verse and what I want you take just a moment and think about it. Then I am going to ask you all some questions.

1st Corinthians 2:1-2 (NIV)
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Here is Verse 2 in another translation

GOD’S WORD translation
While I was with you, I decided to deal with only one subject-Jesus Christ, who was crucified.

Questions

1.What do these Verses mean to me?
2.What would change in my life if I ‘Knew nothing but Christ and Him Crucified’

All of us here have things we agree on, I would bet I could sit down with each and every one of you and we would find things we had in common. At the same time I would bet that if I sat down with each of you, we would find things we disagreed on, and as long as we share Jesus, then there is Love. After all in John 13:34 Jesus COMMANDS us to Love one another just as he loved us, and if you’re wondering how He loved us (which is sort of like asking ‘who is my neighbor’) then I’ll direct you to Romans 5:8 You can look it up yourself.
Closing Prayer:
Father, as you brought all of us, your children here together. You have given us the purpose of Sharing Jesus with a World that doesn’t know him and we find ourselves unable to share your Son with each other let alone the Dying world. Le us hear your still small voice and leave here with a passion for the Lost and resolved to know only Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.

Amen

[display_podcast]

Well Everyone, I got to tell you all that I have been feeling really down about my weight. I will be honest in saying that I have no idea how much I weigh, but I will say that it is WAY more than I want. So I am going all out honest, and here on this blog you can see everything I eat and whatever I do that I consider to be exercise. Music by Deirdre Flint

Breakfast
Fruit Punch G2 – One Quart
24 Oz Coffee Half and half and loads of yellow sugar

Snack
1/4 of a mango

Lunch
Chef Boyardee lasagna
Chef Boyardee Sketty and Meat.

Exercise
Bike Ride

Snack
1 Caramel
Trail Mix

Dinner
G2
whole mango

[display_podcast]

I got a box from Jen of the Jen and DAVe Show. watch me open it and see what I got

Manic Drive CD Review
Rose McCoy Band
Undying Allegiance

Archangel Novel

Brigitte Dale on Blip.tv

Over the past few weeks I have been really stressed out and really feeling down and depressed. I have had moments of great wonder and joy but over all I have really felt like a funk has been hanging over me and pulling out a lot of the joy of my life. Well this weekend after church on sunday I was hanging at the church, hoping to see my daughter that I haven’t seen in a while. (which I didn’t get to see and I was bummed out about it, adding to the funk) I ended up helping My pastor deliver the hoagies we sold for a fundraiser.

As we went from house to house, pulling the hoagies out of the cooler and running up and down the steps I have to guess that somewhere along the way it seems that the Funk couldn’t keep up and eventually I lost it. I have a feeling that it will find it’s way home but until it does, I am going to enjoy the break.

Well I was talking to DAVe from the Jen and Dave Show the other day on skype and we got on to the subject of Food and I happen to mention going to primanti Bros’ and after looking it up he sounded jealous so I thought I would tease him.

Music by Jive Ass Sleepers from Magnatune

Yeah I twitter, but its not like I twitter all the time… Well most of the time, Ok I twitter all the time. I have been a part of twitter for sometime, and I have always enjoyed it. Lately I have noticed that I seem to have become a target for twitter spammers. Now between last night at midnight and six o’clock this morning I was followed by 22 people who in those 6 hours have had their accounts suspended for being scum sucking bottom feeding spammers.

22 people in six hours that is one every 16 and half minutes. That’s just a little over the top. Now it seems to me that between the spammers trying to use twitter to make money, the social gurus who want to teach you how to use twitter to make money, and people who just want to send out tweet after tweet screaming HEY LOOK AT MY WEBSITE (www.jtindie.com) or GET YOUR FREE RINGTONES HERE AT PRICES SO LOW THEY”RE CRAZY!!!… have always been there but it seems that now they are literally crawling out of the woodwork.

We have a couple special someones to thank for that and I want to thank them personally.

Ashton Kutcher, Oprah, You didn’t let me down, Twitter was a wonderful Beautiful thing and You did just what I knew you would, what celebrities always do with wonderful and beautiful things, crush them like the hopes and dreams of a good-natured but simple-minded child.

Before you ask, yes I have always had to deal with spammers on twitter, never in these numbers but they have always been there. I used to ignore them, then I would just block them. Since the accounts of spammers don’t last that long I wondered about how useful blocking them was but it did make me feel better.

You see, i have had this hate/ridicule relationship with spammers. I have always considered them one of the groups of people it should be legal to water board, not for information just for the fun of it. Still some of the emails I got from them, or should I say from the rich dying lady/Nigerian banker/Google exec who has decided that I am only one worthy enough or lucky enough or gullible enough to receive the millions of dollars that just happen to laying around unclaimed. For awhile I could at least enjoy the humor of it all, and the wonder that in order for these emails to keep appearing in my spam folder that must mean that people are actually falling for them, at least enough people that I get the same email 10 20 sometimes 30 times a day.

I once went a week without deleting the spam in my gmail spam folder so I could add up the amount of money I had reportedly “WON” and well, 250 million dollars would go a long way, as long as I didn’ leave the states. More often than not I would just mass delete the several hundred spams I got every day and not think anymore of it. I think I have started to get a vindictive streak toward twitter spammers now.

Now it seems that I am only satisfied when I don’t just block the twitter Spammers but actually send out a public tweet with there name and the HASHTAG of #spammer, then I block them. As I said earlier this has very little usefulness. since most of the twitter spammers are bots and almost all of them are suspended within hours. But it does make me feel better so I guess its OK. Its not like they are real people anyway.

You can Follow me (if you dare) at twitter.com/jtindiepodcast

Last Friday when I got home from the Star Trek Movie (AWESOME!!!!) I found I had a direct Message from none other than the OJG John Wilkerson. and he asked:

“Been meaning to ask you: what is a ‘Zen Christian’? To me, zen & Christianity are incompatible.”

Now if you mean Zen in the idea of Buddhism then yes they are incompatible, if you mean, as I do a philosophy on living life as I mean it, then no they aren’t incompatible. You see there are Buddhists that practice Zen and there are Buddhist that don’t practice Zen.

If your wondering what he means be that, its simple, On my website at jtindie.com under the WHO IS JT I write “I am a ZEN Christian who has been a part of the local Christian Music Scene in Pittsburgh Area for the past 6 years” Well I got to admit that I didn’t explain it there just so I could see who would ask me about it, over the last year and half I have had a couple people ask me that same question. So here is what I mean when I call myself a ZEN Christian.

Years ago I read the book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” By Robert S Prissig and in the beginning of the book he lets the readers know that the book has very little to do with either Zen or Motorcycle Maintenance. What the book had to with really was life and living. If you study Zen you find that what Zen Emphasizes is Direct experience through meditation and practice. Through the act of letting go, Really letting go. A zen practitioner who studies archery will pull a bow and fire the arrow hundreds perhaps a thousand times in one practice session. He will do this until he no longer exists apart from the bow and arrow. Until , as cheesy as it sounds, he becomes the bow. and it is this idea from ZEN that I bring to my Christianity.

When I first became a Christian I simply existed in God’s love, and floated in His Grace. Then when I went out and actually tried to live a life as a Christian, I found myself constantly wracked by the idea that no matter what I did I always failed in one way or another. (all have sinned and fallen short) I kept trying to do my best and be who I thought God wanted me to be and I kept failing. Each time I failed it became harder and harder for me to go on.

Until I read where Jesus talks about us abiding in him and he abiding in us. That is when I remembered what I had learned about letting Go and just being. So I decided that I was just going to BE a christian, not do anything special, not go out of my way, just BE in Christ and not worry when I fail, not really to do anything but live out what God has given me. I find it a wonderful way to live life. When I fail, when I find sin in my life, I accept that it is part of being broken, ask for forgiveness and go on. I don’t allow it to stop me and crush me like it used to.

When I would practice anything, shooting, martial arts, card tricks, engineering. I found there I get to a point where it has become so natural that it isn’t me shooting the gun, throwing a punch, palming a card, or designing a machine, it is just the skill flowing through me. It is the same for me with Christ now. It isn’t me being a Christian, but Christ flowing through me. My sin is what happens when I try to take control over something that should be natural, or me trying to force something out of its time.

That is my idea of Zen Christian

[display_podcast]
Written by JTindie
Music by
Artist: Shiva in Exile
Song: Desert of Yunus
Album: Nour

Last summer someone posted a sign on the telephone pole near my house.

“I love you Bucky” were the words spray painted on the square of cardboard, nailed to the pole. Several times a week I would find myself riding past that telephone pole and as a running joke I started to exclaim “I love you Bucky!” as we would ride by the sign, Especially when Mike and I would be coming home from church. Well after hanging there for a couple months, the inevitable happened, One day coming home from church I was all prepared to shout out when I noticed the sign was gone.

To my surprise I found myself unable to make the exclamation that was there hanging on my lips. I found the whole thing rather disconcerting. I mean what happened, did Bucky finally find out about the sign and in a fit of anger at whoever it was take the sign down?

Did the love torn person who put the sign there in the first place get tired of their unrequited love and go in the middle of the night and carefully take the sign home to weep over the love that would never be returned.

I even started to wonder if perhaps Bucky found himself at the center of horrible love triangle and a third person who was vying for Bucky’s affection took the sign down in a fit of jealous indignation that another would have the courage to proclaim their love of Bucky.

And Really just who is the Bucky anyway to have someone willing to put up a sign that screams “I love you!” I mean it’s not like I’m bitter about it.. Well ok I’m bitter about it, I’m bitter about the whole thing, if I wasn’t having such a good time making fun of the sign I would have ripped it down myself. Darn you Bucky and your unrequited jealous love triangle that you ignore for months.

Darn you to Heck!!!

[display_podcast]

Just some of the Audio I have been working on. Wanted to put it out there to see if there is any interest.