So the new news on what's up is:
- I am now on Red Point Artist Management's Roster.


- I'm doing a concert in CA in a few weeks.
- I'll be putting in a photo gallery soon.
- I'm getting rocked by the book "Irresistible Revolution: living as an ordinary radical" by Shane Claiborne
- I've been eating a lot of fruit lately.

Merry Christmas. This is my 30th Christmas season. It's not exactly the most exciting Christmas season ever, but it's by no means boring. It's quiet, which is a welcome thing. Right now I'm at the International House of Prayer where I work. My wife is worshipping (playing piano and singing) on the stage in the smaller of our locations. It's 12:15am right now and she has about an hour and a half left. The shifts of worship here last for 2 hours each, then a new worship leader or team gets on stage and does it for another 2 hours. When does it stop? It doesn't. I suppose if you want to be picky then I suppose it might stop for a second or two for a transition. Maybe a piece of paper falling to the floor, or the drop of a guitar pick might cause a long pause of silence. But I believe silence can be worship too, so technically it doesn't stop. Why? Well, for a few reasons, but one that is important to me is the simple fact that the industry of this world doesn't stop...so why should the Christian's. There are people getting high right now, and people in all sorts of lusts. There are kids, teens, college students and even some adults who are up right now watching movies or playing video games...they are doing in a little way what they were created for: being fascinated. That goes for the drug-addict too. They are doing, in essence, something that they were created for. The only problem though is that ultimately it won't satisfy them. That's why I'm here. Because, (1) I was created to be fascinated and God is the primary One who fascinates me, and (2) you need it. See, I'm not just sitting here doing nothing. The fact is that while you're (chances are) sleeping, I'm praying for you. I'm praying that God will reveal Himself to you. I'm praying that you will experience His love.

I'm all about listening in the in-betweens. I like thinking about God when I'm bored. Thinking about God constantly isn't something that we have to be monks in order to do, which is good news. Personally, I think that I'd look funny with a little bald spot on top of my head. In the USofA we have a habit of being very Roman-Greco mindsetted. The Roman-Greco mindset is categorized, putting everything into their own little place, apologizing faith on the basis of concept. The Hebrew mindset is all encompasing, free-flowing, faith is something that saturates your life. Christianity when it comes down to it, at its core, is Messianic-Judaism (Jewish belief with faith in Jesus Christ as the messiah). As a Christian I believe that my life is all about Christ, and while I am always at constant friction with being pathetically human, I want my life to be saturated with God. I don't believe in a 2 day a week Christianity. What this means is death, a death of Joel, everyday.

Lately I've been taking breathers. I'm seeing how "taking breathers" are not just escaping to a queit place. You can take them waiting in line at the bank, the post office and in traffic. Places where I normally get driven crazy being a mountain boy in the city, I have been making myself stop. It's so much easier for me to focus on God and be in a sustain conversation with Him when I was frequently around quiet...and lakes, and stars at night, and snow in the winter, and...I could go on. But slowy, and surely, God is giving me grace as He cracks open my heart through the business of an Atlanta pace.

It's turning off the radio in the car and talking to God. "Jesus please help me to somehow share Your love in this sea of humans." It's waiting in line and praying for the person in front of you and behind you. "Jesus somehow reveal Your love to these people, whether it's through me, a family member, a friend or by supernatural means. Through my interaction in this building, let Your love be left here." It's paying attention to expressions on people's faces. It's paying attention to tears. It's opening ourselves to the indwelling Christ, the one alive in us, and asking Him to purify us of selfishness, and all of our human tendencies to try to gain lordship over our own lives when that will lead us to destruction. It's, each moment, abandoning ourselves to the one and only True God and surrending ourselves to His Lordship. The foundation of His throne is righteousness and justice and is from everlasting to everlasting.

Yes, this is the new website.