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I realize that my having an iPhone may make some people cringe. Simply because it’s this ultra-hip piece of equipment that allows me to do everything from listen to music, to checking maps, weather and stocks, to even being able to make a phone call. It’s quite impressive and has definitely up’d my “coolness” just by owning it, especially in the eyes of some YL kids. It’s really made my life easier with calendars, and being able to get my gmail, but as of late I’ve realized how the iPhone can and is, in many cases, be used to benefit my spiritual life. Here are just the first few ways that the iPhone is lending me a hand.

1) iPhone – ESV Bible: ESV has an iPhone button for your home page on the iPhone. It’s awesome. You just go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/mobile on your iPhone and then “add to Home Screen”. It gives you a pretty little button that can live on your main home page, so that when you have a free moment (in traffic, potty time, waiting for coffee to brew, etc etc) you can check out God’s word, right on your trusty iPhone. You can also use it when your pastor says “If you have your bible, let’s go to…” since now you always have YOUR bible with you Warning: other people around you will most likely think that you’re a slacker and making calls during the sermon.

2) LifeChurch.TV – I found out a little be about LifeChurch.TV through RagamuffinSoul’s blog…this is a great new resource for my iPhone because LifeChurch.TV has a free video podcast available on iTunes. Basically, each week, they post their sermon for download. Yesterday, I downloaded last Sunday’s service and watched the sermon while I ran on the treadmill during my recently renovated lunchtime workout. The sermon was 35 minutes, so after it was through I just went on to #3 below. The key here is that the iPhone gives me access to content that can have a positive effect on my life. Sure, the flip side is true, but that’s true with the Internet in general.

3) The iPhone has this thing on it, you may have heard of, called an iPod – instead of finishing my video sermon and using the last 5 minutes of my jog to listen to “Death Rows Greatest Hits” (which is a great album I must say, although not necessarily edifying, I pumped up some Phil Wickham to push me through my workout.

So, those are my current 3 uses for the iPhone to help me out a bit in my spiritual journey. Hopefully, I’ll continue to find new ways to use the iPhone for good, as opposed to evil (like using “note” for memory verses or something), but it has been cool to see how God can use something like an iPhone to speak truth to me. Sure, I still like having the iPhone for all it’s regular bells and whistles, but it’s just neat to have a couple new ways to connect to our Heavenly Father.

HELP me out by going to vote for the pic below. Thanks!

can you be cuter than this?, originally uploaded by Stevo28andgrowing.

This is my BOY…I’m so in love with this little guy. I could never explain how proud I am of him.

Our good friends the Preselys had their second son Emerson a couple weeks ago. Just a couple pics from the hospital. Be on he lookout for some new shots soon!
Later!

A blog world friend of my Aaron Ivey posted a cool blog with lyrics from a song he wrote. It was great to see music in type because the poetry really comes accross. Some of you know that I write songs from time to time, and have even probably listened to a couple on my random postings through the site, but I thought I would write down some lyrics that are from one of my newer songs….

It’s this air I breathe
But I don’t even say thanks
Or it’s her lips you made
For only my lips to taste

It’s this cold outside
That lets me know I’m alive
Or it’s this starry night
and my sweet baby’s cry

Pre-Chorus:
For there is hope in all of this I think
Where bright light shines through everything

Chorus:
For this is good
Where I am
It’s why I was made
To be here where I stand
Right here with you
under painted sky
My dreams aren’t this good
This is why, I’m alive

It’s these leaves that fall
Bright orange like your sun
Or it’s the smell of her neck
Where my kiss comes to rest

Pre-Chorus
Chorus

The End
Anyway, I’ve just been reminded so MUCH lately of God’s involvement in my life’s entirety. Not just the big things that I’d typically lean on, but every facet of my life…easy, hard, fun, sad, simple, difficult, real…He is there, and more than that, He wants me to know Him in all of those moments and to lean on Him in them. Easier said than done…especially in the simple times where things flow in the direction my life is pointed. It’s so much easier to lean on God in the hard times, but I’m seeing more and more that God will truly bless me if I take notice and praise Him in the everyday.

Thought I’d post my YL talk from last night. It’s funny to me how scripted I get prior to the talk, but then I kinda improvise along the way. Anyhow…the talk went well. It was fun to play the song for Kristine.  There’s a video of me playing the song from a different show… at http://thehuntons.blogspot.com/2008/01/stephens-show-baby-i-love-way.html

Ephesians 2:4-5
 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

Layin it down, originally uploaded by Stevo28andgrowing.

The last couple weeks have been pretty crazy. 4 shoots in 7 days + some free shots for my friends The Presleys who had their second son Emerson last week = a crap load of pictures to edit. Don’t get me wrong. I have had a blast doing the editing and coming up with some shots that I’m really proud of. I just hope that the “Clients” all like ‘em.

I finally finished 3 of the 4 projects, with only about 150 pics left to edit, so I can finally see the end in sight…anyway, this is one of the last pictures from the Buckhead Church shoot. You can see a bunch more at my flickr page by clicking on the photo.