I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas! Sharon and I certainly did. So did Rocky - our pitbull. I don't think I've ever mentioned him. He is about 6 years old, 80 pounds, white with tan spots. He's adorable.

Anyway, Sharon gave me an acoustic guitar! I'm so excited about it. I'm going to learn how to play it and then I'll be like Michael W. Smith and Israel Houghton - I'll be able to play both piano and guitar when I lead worship or perform a concert. Now, that's HOT!

For those of you that don't know - I was playing football with some kids in my neighborhood about 8 weeks ago and ruptured my achilles tendon. The following week we held the release party and then took a promotional trip to South Carolina. When we returned I had surgery done to repair the tendon. Well, I'm healing up pretty well. I'm out of the cast and back in the brace for another 2 weeks. After that I will begin my rehabilitation. I never knew how weak muscles get when they are not used. My calf muscle shrunk tremendously. I'm slowly working on strengthening it so that my rehab won't be so long. The doctor said 4-6 months. I'm praying that I'll be back at full swing in 2 months. Please pray with me.

Today during my devotion time I was reading Exodus chapter 20 when God gave the 10 commandments. I grew up reading the King James Version of the Bible and always took everything at face value. When I got to the 3rd Commandment (verse 7) I had to re-evaluate my way of talking. It all became pretty convicting as I read it in other translations: "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God..." (NIV); "No using the name of GOD, your God, in curses or silly banter..." (The Message); "You shall not use the name of Jehovah your God irreverently..." (TLB).

So often people use Jesus' name so casually - like it isn't something special. I've been very guilty, myself. Today, I had to repent. His name is holy. His name is powerful. I will not behave as though my salvation gives me license to use the name of my saviour casually. I will respect His name. That's my conviction.

You see, I've been the victim of my own biblical laziness. I've been the person sitting blindly in the pew - not able to discern whether the person in the pulpit was preaching accurately or not. But after having my life negatively impacted by non-biblical doctrine a few times, I am now committed to studying the bible for my self and ensuring that I am living according to what the bible says.

One of my friends once said to me that he believes that, when he goes to church, the role of the minister is to confirm the word of God that he has been reading all week. I believe that God will hold each of us responsible for our lives being lived according to His word. Since I am responsible for living it, I'm going to study it for myself. I have 8 bible translations, a concordance, bible dictionaries and other study aids. Why? Because I really need to know what this book says to Michael. I really want to make it to Heaven when this life is over. Since the bible is my roadmap - I need to study it. I can't just trust someone else at the wheel. I need to read the map myself. And, by the way, I have a wonderful pastor who does confirm the word of God to me every week. He's accurate - and I can say that because I study what he preaches.

Okay - I've gone on long enough for one day. Very little said about the CD, huh? Well, track #10 - "I'm Saved" - has been on WXEZ (Star 94.1) Star 5 @ 5 list for about 16 of the last 20 days. That means it is within the top 5 requested songs each of those days. Hallelujah! God is really blessing this project.

Hey, Dale Murray - thanks!