If there was an author, other than the Holy Spirit, who has had a HUGE impact on my life it is Pastor John Piper out of the Twin Cities. I could go on and on about what Piper books need to be read, here in one and here is another and here is a third! In fact, my friends in college gave me a hard time often saying that I was Pumped for Piper! You would be happy to know that my affection for Piper hasn’t gone to unhealthy lengths, I haven’t even heard him preach in person! But away, through one of the blogs I read I learned that they are doing a new video podcast. here are the details:

Starting this week and over the next 12 months we will be releasing short video podcasts designed to be a weekly encouragement and challenge to not waste our lives. As the Lord provides, our plan is to produce at least 100 hundred episodes. Every episode will take a theme from the book, Don’t Waste Your Life, and challenge us to think about what we are doing with the lives the Lord has given us. We are encouraging everyone with a website, blog, etc. to use any of these episodes to spread the message around the world. We are praying that many who would never read the book may be impacted in a significant way by watching one of these podcasts.

Subscribe to the video podcast. (You can also subscribe in iTunes.)

Please go and czech these out! I wanted to post them within this post, but they won’t work from google video. But follow the linkc above and PLEASE watch these and if you haven’t seen the amazing resource Piper has you need to czech out his site! Be a revolution for the nations!

So I realize that when I get sick or am about to travel my music library expands! But I still have these iTunes gift cards (yes they didn’t burn a whole in my pocket since Christmas! Hard to believe for those who know me well, huh?) and I love them. I really love them! Did I say I love iTunes gift cards? Ok, I know I’m fishing… Sorry. I hope you are still reading because I have a musical treat for you! His name is Josh Garrels and you can download his first alblum free, I’m serious czech it out, click here. I’ve enjoyed his music for about 6 months now, and it was a blessing to stumble across it. I love storytellers and acoustic guitars! His lyrics are real and hit home with a lot of the things that I’ve and am kicking around my head. I looked for lyrics from his newest album, Over Oceans, but I had no luck so here are some lyrics from one the songs you can download for free. I hope you enjoy it! Have a blessed night!

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This weekend was filled with fever, lots of pills, chicken noodle soup and lots of blind stares at the TV, but at some point during the weekend I used a Christmas iTunes gift card and bought the newest album from Canadian hip-hop artist, K-OS. And it rocks! I love it. I’ve listened to it over and over again. K-OS is really refreshing to me because his lyrics aren’t filled with the same old thing that you hear coming from the majority people in the hip-hop world. In fact, in K-OS’ earlier album, Joyful Rebellion, he is even critical of the hip-hop world in his song Emcee Murder. Case in point:
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streptococcal pharyngitis - a.k.a - strep throat = NO FUN!

There you have what has been going on in my life the last oh 36 hours! I don’t know what is up but I’ve been sick more times in the past year since I’ve moved here than I did throughout my two years living overseas and college combined! Needless to say it is a bit frustrating. I was at the doctor’s for two hours and I got a big shot to the “hip” and now I have some drugs that should knock this thing out! But I realized that these drugs don’t provide immediate relief. Case in point, last night was the worst night of sleep ever! I woke up freezing, but I didn’t want to get out of bed. An hour later my sheets were soaked with my own sweat. This vicious cycle continued throughout the night and now I have the zombie gaze at the NFL Network on my tv. I’d appreciate some prayers that God would knock this out quick, because if things work out, Lord-willing, my days here in Ohio and the guys I work with our limited and I want to take advantage of the days I have left. Oh, last night at 9:00 pm the initial evaluator of my international application with Campus Crusade’s International Human Resources called to interview me. I wasn’t in the best state of mind, but I pray that I said what was needed. Pray also for this application I should know next week as the final evaluator gets my application. Okay, I need to go pass out. Thanks…

One of my frequent reads each day is the Prague Post, the English newspaper in Prague. I read it to keep up with life and culture in Czech, at least as much as I can being here in the States. Today as I logged on my heart was broken to read one of the headlines, “Law sought to ban child porn”. I thought to myself, “That is a good law to have.” As I read it I was appalled to see that it is legal to own child pornography in the Czech Republic and they are just thinking about passing laws to make it illegal! I was upset as I read it, because there can’t be much out there in this world that is more evil than it!
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Good evening to you my faithful reader! So it is snowing once again down here in Southern Ohio. We have been blasted this week. In fact, two of the days I’m normally on campus I was snowed in this week! In many ways it was God’s providential hands at work after the exhausting weekend all of us staff had last weekend with the Winter Retreat. You would have thought that with those two days off of campus to rest up and get some office work done I would be charged up, but sorry to say somewhere along the last week I picked up a cold. So I tried to sleep in off today, but it appears that I didn’t sleep enough because it is still here! So as I met with the Lord this afternoon I was reminded of a verse that helps me get going when I feel zapped and have no energy! (Read More)

People often ask me how I can do what I do. They don’t question the part of my job that sees God move tangibly in the hearts of students, athletes or anyone that I have the privilege to see God move in, but the support part. The part that means going out and trusting God to move in the hearts of individuals, churches, and etc. to join me in advancing the Kingdom of God in what He has called me to. That is scary for most. I’ll be honest it is scary for me as well!
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As promised here is some fun stuff from the weekend and the winter retreat. This is the first installment of what I have dubbed zhtv or zachharrod.com television! I pray hearing Andrew and Jude sharing about what God is doing in their lives encourages you! This is why we do what we do! Changed lives! Let the revolution pick up steam!

I can’t believe it is after 11 and I am still conscience (maybe it was the 4 hour nap this afternoon!)! I had a great weekend, but very long and tiring with the Winter Retreat! God did some fun stuff, stay tune for some more from the weekend, but for now you can czech out the pics I took on my flickr site! Be a Revolution!

Well hello from West Palm Beach International Airport! It has been a sad morning, not just because my Bears lost, but also because of this depressing cloudy, very rainy weather! But I’m grateful for it because I know what I am flying back to! So we sit here on the free wi-fi and catch up on some emails and also self-medicate a bit! This morning I went on iTunes and purchased America’s Game Super Bowl Champs: 1985 Chicago Bears for $1.99 to help me feel better about my team. Haha…. No really, but I guess there is some truth to it. Well, back to the freezing North and an off-season with no football! Please pray for this week and coming weekend we have our Winter Retreat with about 300 students coming from all over our region. Pray for it to go smoothly and also that there would be a ton of my guys that come and experience life change!