Austrian Death Machine

this is my old chum Tim Lambesis' side project



every single song is Arnold Schwartzeneggar themed. pretty funny idea i think. This is from their myspace:

Whenever a new band comes out I often hear it said, "that's exactly what you'd expect from a heavy band." I beg to differ. Austrian Death Machine is exactly what you should hear from a heavy band.

- a continuously fast paced tempo you can always circle pit to

- the obvious build up to a breakdown you'll know how to mosh to

- classic sing alongs we to pile up and sing along with

- a guitar solo in every song

And yes... I would never leave out the obvious key component. Cliche vocals that sound really angry! None of this scary screaming with makeup or goofy lows that we can all make under our breath.

Lastly, let move onto lyrical content. I've heard plenty of metal bands steal lyrics from angry fourth graders that hate going to church or don't want to clean their rooms. Now it's time to steal lyrics from the great minds of Hollywood screen writers that at least made it to sixth grade. Don't miss listening to the hit track "Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers."

Bottom line, Austrian Death Machine is fast, pissed, brutal and every song has a guitar solo. You won't find fantasy lyrics or overly poetic personal jargon. There are only forcefully chanted, testosterone drive phrases that our sweet governor Arnold would approve of.

Austrian Death Machine is a tribute to the great Arnold movies. It is a band fronted by Ahhnold with music I wrote and recorded in my free time. But, most importantly, I had so much fun!

I love this stuff

We just finished the book of Genesis at church. we started it in June of last year and finished it a couple days ago. 13 months in that great book. I especially enjoyed looking at the life of Joseph, especially as a foreshadow of the life and ministry of Jesus. Here's some stuff I threw together. (i can't get the formatting right so that it comes out in the nice little chart i made)


Joseph Parallels Jesus
37:2 A shepherd of his father’s sheep John 10:11,27-29
37:3 His father loved him dearly Matthew 3:17
37:4 Hated by his brothers John 7:4,5
37:13,14 Sent by his father to his brothers Hebrews 2:11
37:20 Others plotted to harm him John 11:53
37:23 Robes taken from them John 19:23,24
37:26 Taken to Egypt Matthew 2:14,15
37:28 Sold for the price of a slave Matthew 26:15
39:7 Tempted Matthew 4:1
39:16-18 Falsely accused Matthew 26:59-60
39:20 Bound in chains Matthew 27:2
40:2,3 Placed with two other prisoners, one was saved and the other lost Luke 23:32
41:41 Exalted after sufferings Philippians 2:9-11
42:24, 45:2,14,15, 46:29 both wept John 11:35
45:1-15 Forgave those who wronged them Luke 23:34
45:7 Saved their nation Matthew 1:21
50:20 What men did to hurt them, God used for good 1 Corinthians 2:7,8

Next wednesday night one of the brainy guys in the fellowship is going to do a talk on Sola Scriptura, then after that I'm going to start a 3 week series on God.
week 1. Father.
week 2. Son.
week 3. Holy Spirit.

Then after that we're going to start the book of Exodus. Can anyone recommend a good commentary?

Observations.

Cole Slaw is good for the first couple bites, but there comes a point when it just turns disgusting.

The ESV Journaling Bible is the best spent twenty-five euro of my life. I don't have a single complaint about it. This Easter marked one year of preaching from it. An absolutely amazing Bible. You should buy it.



Someone is buying my new friend Clay a tattoo gun. And I've volunteered to let him practice on me. so I'm going to have some pretty interesting looking legs from this point on.

Some days are so beautiful...

idolatry

Yesterday I made something other than God my god. I sinned and I broke the first of the Ten Commandments. As I was reading today I came across this quote and it really kicked me in the head.

Suppose my god is sex or my physical health or the Democratic Party. If I experience any of these under genuine threat, then I feel myself shaken to the depths. Guilt becomes neurotically intensified to the degree that I have idolized finite values…suppose I value my ability to teach and communicate clearly…if clear communication has become an absolute value for me, a center of value that makes all my other values valuable…then if I [fail in teaching well] I am stricken with neurotic guilt. Bitterness becomes neurotically intensified when someone or something stands between me and something that is my ultimate value.
-Thomas C. Oden, Two Worlds: Notes on the Death of Modernity in America and Russia (IVP,1992), Chapter 6.

What struck me so hard was that in his list of hypothetical idols, the fourth one he listed was the idol that dethroned God in my heart yesterday; namely “my ability to teach and communicate clearly”. From the time I woke up yesterday, my primary thoughts and my goals all had to do with preaching well and communicating clearly at church that morning. I was thinking over my winsome illustrations and relentless logical progression through the text and was so consumed with it that I allowed myself to become rude and snappy to my family. In my mind I needed to be able to drive to the church by a certain time in order to give me the buffer zone that I needed between arriving at church and setting everything up and the time when people started arriving for the service. I felt that if I wasn’t able to get that done then I wouldn’t be able to perform well and speak eloquently to my congregation.

Bitterness becomes neurotically intensified when someone or something stands between me and something that is my ultimate value.

I became neurotically bitter because someone or something was standing between me and my ultimate goal; preaching a good sermon.

And then, surprise, surprise, when it came time for me to get up and teach the scriptures, it totally sucked! In retrospect, it makes a lot of sense (especially in light of 1st Peter 3:7) but for some reason I didn’t see it coming. I hate bad preaching, but not nearly as much as I hate preaching badly. It’s the worst feeling in the world to know that you aren’t doing justice to the text.

…if clear communication has become an absolute value for me, a center of value that makes all my other values valuable…then if I [fail in teaching well] I am stricken with neurotic guilt.

Afterwards, my confidence and my self worth were all but shattered. It’s one thing to fail in private, but another to fail in front of your own congregation. For the rest of the day I just replayed the botched message in my head, wishing I could have done it better, wishing I could have been clearer.

Yesterday was not a nice day for me. Today I had a long talk with my wife about it, and apologized and repented for what I did wrong, then I came upstairs to relax and catch up on my reading, only to get hit by this paragraph that shows me that it’s even deeper than being a little rude and then preaching poorly and feeling crummy about it, but it’s an idolatry problem, where a good thing was turned into an ultimate thing.

Preaching has the definite capacity of becoming an idol for me, and yesterday it did, much to my own and other’s detriment.

I renew my faith today in God alone as my source of joy and fulfillment, reward and satisfaction.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.