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You would think that being that I have my phone on me pretty much at all times that I would update my blog more often.. But as always, I’ll forget to do it once, then it just snowballs till it’s months later.

I miss doing the interviews but that might be part of why I don’t blog, who knows. Since the last time I wrote, I’ve helped get a ministry started. It’s called the Battleground. We host bands and have teens come in to hear the music and the Word. It’s come together quite well. God has put many pieces together to help us to have an amazing ministry in just a few months. Of course the devil is trying to get his hands all over it in any way he can.. He’s such a punk. We continue to press on and make the best of it and keep our armor on and ready for battle.

I’ll try to keep this going this time, it’s not like it’s difficult. I’m paying for this, might as well use it. Haha.

Suit up.. The battle is ON!

Ok. So the title makes it seem like I do all the laundry in the house. Truth be told.. Nope I don’t (I know..big surprise) but what I hate is that somehow our dryer doesn’t work. It worked just fine before we moved. But now.. No dice. The landlord put in a plug for 240 (ie old 220) and we’ve got juice to the back of the dryer, but it won’t turn on. I drives me crazy. Not as much as my wife who has been hanging almost all the clothes up around the house. With three kids and cloth diapers, it’s an every day job.

My wife called an appliance repair man that’s like a block away but he doesn’t make house calls…which makes no sense. I would have to borrow a truck and get help to take it down from our upstairs apartment and then pay him 25 bucks to look at it..then buy a part and try to fix it, or pay him to.. Wait…hahahahahaha NO. So right now this all puts me sitting at the laundromat drying towels cause that’s the one thing of laundry that we can’t have crusty and crispy. Fun fun stuff. Oh and you only get 5 minutes per quarter in the dryers. And you can’t just put more than one in at a time. You still only get your five minutes. Ok so nothing about Jesus in this…well I went to church today..and I can’t think of how to tie this rant into something about Jesus. Sorry. I’ll writ another blog about what’s going on while I wait for this all to dry.

So I keep forgetting to post about a band that I’ve known about for a little while, but have never bought their album..TILL NOW. I’m so sorry that I waited. They have their newest album out called Breaker released on Facedown Records. Here’s the album cover:

You’ll have to really check it out for yourself, but you can see and feel the true Spirit of God just surrounding this album. The lyrics encourage us as Christians to stand up and fight for what we believe in. To show that we have been fully equipped by our Father and Savior Jesus Christ to battle, not against flesh, but against principalities and powers of the spiritual realm. Simply put..to put our foot up Satan’s rear-end so far that he’s chewing on our shoe laces. Here’s some of the lyrics to one of my favorites, Devastator:

Hell, fear me. I am the one that will bring you down. And when you fall, feel me. You’ll see my face on
the battleground.

Let my name be feared at the gates of hell as I exalt the Savior–the one that died to buy my victory, and
gave me a new name. Let my name be feared at the gates of hell as I exalt the Savior. In the name of
the Holy One of God, I will cast you down at the foot of the cross He hung from. I will stand behind my
Savior, as He burns your kingdom down. And I will see you on your knees before the King of Kings. You
will lose your throne to the chosen ones. The chosen ones will rise.

Tear it to the ground! This is the army we’ve been waiting for. Tear it to the ground! We will storm the
gates of hell and we will tear it to the ground! We stand behind the one that conquered death. Tear it to the
ground! And we will stand when there is nothing left. Tear it to the ground!

Justice! God, bring justice! Justice! We will come against the bondage of hell. Justice! And we will take
back what’s taken from us. Justice! This is our right as heirs to dominion.

This war will end.

I am the one that will bring you down. And when you fall, feel me. You’ll see my face on the battleground.
Hell, fear me. I am the one that will bring you down. And when you fall, feel me. You’ll see my face on
the battleground.

The entire album is just a phenomenal masterpiece (in my mind) and shows that it is still possible to speak Christ, pure and unedited, yes maybe in a growling voice, but still very straight-forward. I just hope that this type of sound can spread, like a virus, to not just the hardcore music industry, but to all Christians of all ages, sizes, generations. I get tired of hearing about “well that’s just THEIR generation”. I’ve even said that at times. We’re all CHRISTIANS. Let’s BE the church. So I’ve got a lebret piercing and 2ga. earrings in my ears and a few tattoos..does that make me less of a Christian than the 3-piece-suiters with the prim and proper hair cut? NO..but does it make me BETTER than them, because I’m different and they can’t “accept” me? NOPE. We all have differences, and we all have our ways to worship, but as long as we worship JESUS CHRIST and follow His Holy Word, then I don’t care.

My whole point with this is that yes the music may be aggressive, loud, fast and crazy, but it’s also very powerful and speaks volumes. We are to let others know that Satan is out there to seek, kill, and destroy our lives, our families, everything. If we FIRST submit ourselves to God, then we can resist the Devil and he will flee! We need to take back what God has blessed us with. Including His love, His grace, His mercy. Be reminded of that right now where you’re sitting reading this. God showed His mercy to us by giving us grace through love by sending His son Jesus, who died so that we can have eternal life. He just wants to help you. Let Him.

I realized lately that when I have been posting on here, that it’s been more about business, and less about my FATHER’S business, which isn’t why I started this blog in the first place. Yes, I was writing blogs about bands and such, doing interviews and giveaways where 7 people signed up..but really this is about God and what He’s done in this drummer’s life (hence the title Drum By Faith).

I have come to realize more and more each day how much I need to just fully rely on God for the things that I need in this upside-down world. I need food, clothing, and shelter, plus all the little nit-picky things that are needed for day-to-day life. God has really done a work in my life to show me that He truly is Jehovah Jireh (God the Provider..to be simply put). He stripped most everything away to show me the bare necessities in life. I lost my job almost 2 years ago (1 year and 10 months to the day, today) and I have had everything I needed provided for me, almost just handed to me. I’ve even got to go on a few vacations and even go to a couple shows.

This is not a “prosperity” blog, this is saying that God has provided what I need to get through my daily life. I have fought with Him and argued and whined, only to realize that He was just making me rely more on Him. I didn’t realize that I wasn’t. I always “gave Him credit” for the different CAD jobs that I had and the money that I was making, but inside it was MY skills that were doing it. I never really gave Him credit for the abilities that I have…so he pulled it out from under me.  It got real tough at times with bills and stuff. I had to humble myself, kill my pride at points so that I could ask for help. It was soooo hard to do, but so worth it in the end. It’s amazing to see what God will do when we allow Him to. Not that we by any means have control over God, but we have control over how much we let Him have of our lives.

What has God done for me now? I know you want to know. I now have a small business growing, slowly but surely, and I’m designing websites, and ENJOYING what I do. I work for myself, which can be good and bad. The good is that I’ve got to be near my wife and girls almost every day, seeing my girls grow up. The down side is that sometimes being that close can be crazy while trying to work..but when I want to take off..I’M GONE.

I pray that God just uses me in whatever avenue he needs me. I need to seek HIM out to see what HE wants and have less of ME involved. I will always be me, but every day I desire to be more like Christ.

So you may be wondering what “GO 4 24″ means. I’m guessing that the it means to root for Jeff Gordon, but I believe that God is using it in a different way. Last night Jes and I were on the way home after visiting with some friends. We were about 20 min from home and this guy comes up behind me and has these blinding headlights, so I slowed down to let him pass. I sometimes just look at license plates (aka “tags” here in the south) to see what they say. Well it said “GO 4 24″. I didn’t really think anything of it, Nascar is huge down here (surprise..right?) So we keep going and we get down into Mt. Airy and I look in my rear view mirror again and another set of really bright headlights are behind me again (this is  like 5 minutes later) I’m thinking..SERIOUSLY?  Then the vehicle gets in the left turning lane, and I look and it’s the same guy!  I kinda brushed it off, still didn’t think much about it. I go home, drop off Jes and the kids and went to go pick up my cousin so I could take him to work this morning. I get out on the main road and 2 miles into it realize I’M FOLLOWING THE SAME TRUCK!! There it is again GO 4 24!!  I’m like “ok Lord, WHAT?” So I figure He wants me to look up a scripture. Well there’s no book that is abbreviated GO, so I guess it means go to 4:24, figure it out. So Jes and I looked through all the books of the bible, and here’s what we found. Some are funny, some are amazingly applicable to my life, and some I left out cause they didn’t mean anything unless in other context and were stories. So here you go:

Exodus 4:24 “And it came to pass on the way, at the encampment that the Lord met him and sought to kill him.” (Hoping this one doesn’t apply..)

Leviticus 4:24 “And he shall lay his hand on the head of the goat and kill it at the place where they kill the burnt offering before the Lord. It is a sin offering” (again..hoping this doesn’t apply)

Deuteronomy 4:24 “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”

Joshua 4:24 “that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever”

1 Kings 4:24 “For he had dominion over all the region on this side of the River from Tiphsah even to Gaza, namely over all the kings on this side of the River; and he had PEACE on every side all around him” (emphasis added to peace)

Proverbs 4:24 “Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you” (Ouch..ouch..ouch..ouch)

Jeremiah 4:24 “I beheld the mountains, and indeed they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth” (Amazing)

Matthew 4:24 “Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics and paralytics; and He healed them”

Mark 4:24 “The He said to them “Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to who hear, more will be given”

Luke 4:24 “Then He said “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country”"

John 4:24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (Amen)

Acts 4:24 “So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said:”Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them”"

Ephesians 4:20-24 (sorry, have to put it all) “But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, (vs24:) and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Amen and Amen)

Thanks for taking this journey with me. I really hope that you prospered from it as much as I have (and will) Leave comments as to how God has shown you things like this in your life.

Who knows..this could be something completely different..if it is, let’s all pray that God shows me

Ok, so now I’ve been here in VA for a little while..so where have I been? What have I been doing? I’m so glad you asked. I’ve been building up my business. It’s been going pretty good too. So far (for other people) I’ve done 4 myspace pages, 2 splash page websites, a website renovation for a youth club, a blog, a renovated floor plan, and some Research and Development stuff for some mechanical parts. For myself? A carport business website, a myspace page for my business, and retouched my regular business website.

So you need links to all of these? How bout I send you to my site so you can look at them all? You can go to www.twentypointnine.com right now and go to the “website design” page and go from there!  I’ll try my best to keep it updated with everything that I’m doing, plus maybe do a special blog for each new site..oh yah speaking of here’s the newest creation:

I know..it’s big, but I wanted you to get the full effect of it. Think of it this way, at least I didn’t add all the comments. Anyway, this here is BLOODLINE SEVERED. It’s an amazing band out of the Winston-Salem, NC area. They are brutal metal man. They call their “genre” some other name, but that’s my opinion of it. I’ve known these guys for a few years now, even from previous bands and it’s amazing to see what they’ve done over the years. They are out there keeping Christ’s name alive in the metal scene. They have amazing hearts and a passion to do what they are called to do.

I’m not just saying all of this because I did their myspace. Like I said, I’ve known them for a long time and it’s what I see. I call it as I see it (if you read what I write you should know this by now). They’ll also be playing at the Upper Room in Statesville where I volunteer on the 22nd of May (2010) So if you get the chance, get out there! Support them! You won’t regret it.

Ok, so what am I doing next? I know you were wondering..so I’ll tell you. I’ll be working on a site for a band called Salida7. They’re out of New Jersey. They saw my work on Douglas Solera’s and Oscar Carias’ sites and they emailed me about working with them on revamping their site. I’ll keep you up to date as best I can. It’s really hectic around here, but don’t let that fool you..I STILL NEED MORE WORK. So if you need a website, myspace page, blog, or even some CAD stuff, just let me know! Or if you have anyone you know that needs something..pass my name on!

In Him.

So you may be wondering what the title means. It means that I went to a unbelievably amazing show last thursday. (The letters are abbreviations of the bands) Titled under the name “The Abominable SnowTour” it came out melting my face off. The night started off with a few songs from an amazing local band called Embracing Goodbye. I’ve known at least one of the guys from back in the day, but didn’t really know that much of the band. Wow..I was just blown away by their sound. It was southern hardcore metal or something like that (can’t keep up with all the “genres” now)

Next came The Great Commission. Their music and ministry are second to very few. They a deep sound that even included a female background vocalist that had a pretty deep growl. They took time to share the gospel and boy did they ever! It was great. I do want to mention the next band that played,  Lionheart. They are a secular (non-Christian) band, but I still did like the music. I’m just not big on cussing anymore. To each their own, it’s not my place to judge..that’s God’s job and ONLY God’s job.

So anyway..back to the show..Living Sacrifice! To quote Martin Lawrence from his show: “DANG GINA!!” (anyone remember that one?) They came out with guns a-blazing! I wish I could tell you all the songs they played, but they mixed it up. Little old, Little new, a lot freaking awesome! I did have to make mention of Bruce telling the crowd to come in closer cause there wouldn’t be any of the “kung-fu” dancing going on. Speaking of Bruce:

So anyway, they brought the metal onslaught. It was great. Then came War of Ages. The kung-fu dancing came back again. Dude..let me just tell you blew me away (the music, not so much the dancing..I’ve seen better) WoA brought it down, again they played some new (even brand new) and some old. I stayed safely to the side as to not get knocked out by some of the rather large guys dancing and going nuts. I watched the drummer (Alex) from the side. He proceeded to lick the drum stick as he was playing, and he saw me laugh about it so he was switching out what he was doing here and there while he played the half-time beats. Throwing the stick..etc…you get the hint. So they ended the show and apparently there was an after-party that no one knew about except Alex..while he was tearing his drums down the sound man decided to play some sweet dance music, and Alex decided to have a little fun with it..and I was there to catch it on video (only with his permission of course):

I thought that the HM Magazine contest was over, but boy was I wrong. After a couple of just “not so good” days of my computer crashing, my starter going out on the car, then a full day of rain so that I can’t even work on the car, I checked my email last night..and I won. I had entered their contest promoting the new Living Sacrifice album (which I still don’t have the money to buy) which required me to change my profile pic to their cd cover and add one of their songs to my player..but I went the extra mile.  Here’s a screen shot of what I did:

Well apparently they liked it, and decided that I should be one of 5 winners across the US that wins both 2 tix to the show, plus a t-shirt! I’m so stoked..and I don’t even usually use that word! I’ve been an LS fan since back in 98′ or so, so you get the drift. I was really hoping to get to go the show..but now I KNOW that I’m going to get to go. I love how God will bring in small stuff like this to help pick you up when things go bad in life. Now I just have to figure out who is going with me…

Well it’s been a long long time since I have had much change going on around here.. Jes and I have been praying for what God would have us to be doing next. We felt like we’d be moving, but didn’t know where or when. We had a few choices, but wanted to make sure God was in it. There’s west, back to tennessee, east toward wilmington, or north closer to my family. We were up visiting my family last weekend, which turned out crazy with the foot of snow that we got up there, but before and after the snow, we decided to just take a look around and see what all was up there.

We spent a few days looking around close to town, cause I really didn’t want to live in the “sticks” like both of my sisters do. I’m not one for traveling 20-30 minutes to get to anything. We looked at some mobile homes, but they were so far out that we didn’t even have a signal enough to send a text message..that would be a negative. We looked at an apartment that was amazingly clean and had cable included and everything, but being that it was an apartment, I kept it in my back pocket as back up in case something else didn’t work out.

So then we find an ad for a 3 bedroom, 1 bath HOUSE with a  den! So we called and the lady said that she was in Florida, but there were people still there and that they could possibly show it to us, but it wouldn’t be that day, but that we could drive past and at least take a look at the outside. So yah, WOW, it looked amazing. Plus there was an empty lot on the one side of it! Privacy!! I might get to play my drums! So we called the owner back and told her that we would love to go in and see the inside. We tried not to get our hopes up cause the inside could be total crap, but seeing the outside, it was worth taking the chance.

The following Monday we were able to get in and take a look. It was perfect for us. The den was huge! There’s a huge deck on the back of the house! Hardwood floors in most of it, already painted nice from the current renters, etc..etc..and etc.. So we prayed that if it wasn’t meant to be, then have God close the doors and lock them tight. We waited a bit and called the lady back, and she said it wasn’t taken, so we told her that we’d absolutely be interested. She said she had checked out our one reference person that we gave her, which was my sister’s landlord (in that area, it’s all about “who you know) and come to find out, she went to high school with him! So it was all just playing out and we just knew that we were supposed to be there.  So in a month, we’ll be moving! Oh and I forgot to mention that it’s cheaper rent, plus my wife will be watching my niece and nephew which will pay for most of that rent! I’ll still be able to do the small bit of contract work from there and everything! God is awesome! So that’s what’s going on!