The tumblings of Tony Stone

Pride with Spiritual Gifts

How do you deal with issues of pride over your spiritual gifts, and obsession with good things that God has given? The answer is this: A good look at the temporal nature of those things and the glorious eternal future the gospel promises in Christ Jesus. This is what is happening in 1 Corinthians 13.

Christ is the giver of gifts and is Love

Examine the first 8 verses of the chapter. Paul makes a case for how “loveless” exercising of even the most amazing gifts are useless. When he describes love, he is describing the beautiful person of Jesus Christ- Jesus Christ IS the greatest gift that produces the best eternal fruit. No gift is usable apart from the giver. So whatever the spiritual gift you have, if you aren’t cherishing the giver more, then you are lots of noise with your gift but no substance.

Verses 9-13 is where Paul gives us a view of glory- this is how we overcome the pride and obsession. He shows us the contrast between “here and now” and “then and there”- our time on earth vs out time in heaven.

Here and Now

Know in part, prophecy in part (verse 9)
I spoke like a child, thought like a child, reasoned like a child (verse 11)
Now we see in a mirror dimly (verse 12)

Paul is comparing what we can know now, what our gifts amount to now, and what we can see (understand) now to that of a child with his toys. The best of our gifts now (marriage, spiritual gifts, understanding) are childish- incapable of completely making God known, of complete sanctification. Not childish in a trivial way, but childish in an underdeveloped way.

Why would I boast in what is ultimately underdeveloped? Why would I puff up in pride over that when it grows up into something better? Paul sets us up to view glory!

Then and There

When the perfect comes the partial will pass away (verse 10)
Became a man, put away childish ways (verse 11)
Then we will see face to face, know fully (verse 12)

This is the glory of Christ! When Christ, the perfect, comes, all of our knowing in part, all of our gifts (like marriage, as Jesus said) will be put away- done- finished. Your marriage will end. Your spiritual gifts will cease. Who will care about your puny knowledge? These were all just a means of knowing Christ- not an ends to themselves. They are here now so that we may know love- that is, Christ the giver- more. Don’t idolize them so that they distract you from that.

Why love is greater than faith and hope

Faith, hope, and love- the greatest is love. Love is eternal- Love is God. Cherishing God is the goal of faith and hope- it is the fuel to faith and hope.

When Christ comes, we will not need faith and hope because we will be with Christ Himself, beholding His glory for eternity- face to face. We will know Him perfectly, no need for Bible studies. We would have put away childish ways (the best of what we have here and now) and become mature “men”- glorified and made perfect!

This is the hope of the gospel in the text, and with this constantly in mind, how could we ever boast ourselves in our gifts? Instead, love Christ more and “pursue love and earnestly desire spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 14:1) while we are here.

1 year ago

How to shop for an audio interface

Audio interfaces necessary components for a modern studio and mobile laptop based rigs. For those who don’t know, audio interfaces are basically soundcards that are external and connect to the computer via usb or firewire. They come in many shapes and sizes- control boards, rack mounts, portable boxes- there are so many options these days, and it can sometimes seem confusing on which to pick. In this article, I want to focus on which audio interface may be best for you.

USB or Firewire?

The first thing you want to look for in an audio interface is what type of connection does it take? Make sure your device has an open port that will accommodate the connection your device uses. Firewire has been known to be more reliable for audio because it transfers information in such a way that you won’t get pauses and interrupts in the data bus (geek talk). This basically translates to less things like unwanted clicks and pops in your audio. I personally use a firewire audio interface and bought a firewire card for my computer to connect it. There are two types of USB devices, USB 1.0 and USB 2.0. USB 2.0 devices are newer and the most likely to be sitting on the shelf in the store. They are faster than older USB 1.0 devices and I have one and it works fine, also (I use the 2.0 device with my laptop). I don’t know if I have personally experienced much difference in latency (delay) or audio quality between USB 2.0 and Firewire. USB seems to be the most likely to be around 5 years from now vs firewire, so that may be a factor in your purchase.

Connections

Midi. Quarter inch jacks. RCA. Spdif. Connections are key. What are you buying an audio interface for? Just listening? Recording just a guitar? Recording a mic? Recording a drum set that’s got a kit of mics on it? These are very important questions. If you are going to be using a studio condenser mic, make sure your device has phantom power (needed for studio mics) unless you’re using an external microphone preamp. Most modern interfaces do, but it’s worth mentioning, just in case. Keep in mind that some devices have digital outputs (spdif and optical outs). You may have devices that you’d like to connect to your computer. Consider this, as well.

Look for something that has the right amount of inputs and outputs for you. It would be overkill to get something with 10 inputs if you only use 1 input. Buy something with enough room to grow into, but if you know you’ll only use 2 inputs, keep that into consideration.

Sample Rate and bit depth

For most of us, 24 bits 96khz is going to be just right for recording vocals and playing back high quality audio. Anything more and you’re getting into mastering. Make sure you’re not picking up an audio interface that limits you to 16 bits. This will cripple you when it comes to getting high quality audio in and out.

Drivers and compatibility

On rare occasions, you may run into devices that don’t have drivers or are not compatible with your OS. Make sure your device runs on your OS (XP, Vista, Vista 64 bit, Windows 7, Snow Leopard, etc.).

Bundled software

Consider what comes bundled. Some devices come with sample cds, demo or lite versions of Ableton Live, Pro Tools LE, or some other software. If given a few devices with the specs and connections that you need, you might consider the one that has software that you’re interested in.

Final notes

As always, do research on particular machines

1 year ago

Reason vs Massive

Picking which software to use can be a grueling process of fooling around with demos and reading endless reviews and message board discussions. Everyone looks to different pieces of software for different reasons and that influences what they’d advise- or wouldn’t advise- for you. In my comparison, I am addressing Reason as a sound source vs Massive as a sound source. I use both and have found some of the strengths and weaknesses of both.

Price

When it comes to price, Reason is more expensive, clocking in at about $400 USD. This is expected because it has more than just sounds, it has a sequencer and effects in it, also. Massive clocks in at about $200 USD. Massive is all about sounds, and there’s no added frills of a sequencer or effects units like in Reason.

Sound Banks

Massive: As far as quality sounds, both of these packages have some good quality sounds. I will admit that I was a bit disappointed with Massive- I’ve heard better sounds for $200. There was a wide variety of synthesizer sounds to choose from and the feature that sets this synth over others is that you can easily access and save sounds by category. This makes it a great tool to quickly find the types of sounds that you’re looking for. Overall, this is decent, but I would suggest to someone looking to get Massive to get a smaller companies excellent synth called Wusikstation. I’ve used this for about 5 years and I think that it hands Massive it’s head back on a platter. It only costs $99 USD these days (I spent alot more for it back then).

Reason: Reason is on an entirely different level, sound-wise. It offers you several different synthesizers to play with: Subtractor, Thor, NNXT (and NN19), Malstrom, Dr Rex, and Redrum. Subtractor, Thor, and Malstrom are all synthesizers that have their own distinct sound. Without going into all of the technicalities of what makes them all different from each other, you’ll find that you have a wide range of sound making possibilities between these three. NNXT (and NN19) are samplers. They work great with old Akai libraries, and I even use them with soundfonts. They come with a pretty convincing set of sounds from the factory, also. You’ll get lots of real sounding strings, pianos, organs, brass, etc. that will add that live feel to your tracks (if you use them right). As an added bonus, there are loads of built in effects that sound really good (you only wish that you could use them as VSTs inside your favorite DAW…). Overall, Reason has way better sounds. If you don’t have the $400 USD to spare, you still may find Wusikstation to be a good pick. While you will not get the flexibility of Reason, you will still get a great deal of sounds- synthesized and live sounding.

The Verdict

Between the two, Reason is a better pick for great sounds. If you have the money, get it- it will be worth every penny. I would only recommend Massive if you have other sound sources to choose from and just want to add some quick extra sounds to your library. If you’re tight on cash and want a wide range of sounds to get, and can sacrifice some quality, check out Wusikstation. Happy music making!

About the author

Tony “Stone” Shepherd aka T-Stone, is a producer for Christian hip-hop artists and has been active in the scene since 2003. T-Stone continues to strive for excellence in the craft and to help other producers learn from his experience. Visit him at www.tstonemusic.com

1 year ago 1 note

Free wallpaper download! Galatians 3:13. God has redeemed us by faith through the substitution of His Son on the cross!

2 years ago 1 note View high resolution

Free wallpaper download!

2 years ago View high resolution

Free wallpaper!

2 years ago View high resolution

High overhead and the church

Money, Money, Money!

I was reading an article by a popular pastor and church that said they needed almost 1 million dollars to finish out the year not being in the red. They said that donations were down that month and there needed to cover deficits. Now, a flurry of ideas popped into my mind, but the one that I think was most founded and best to share was how prosperous times can often elevate our sense of “need”- and how that translates to the church.

We need to experience lowness

When we think of needs, it’s often defined by how well the economy of our country is doing. Nobody thinks of living in a shack if jobs are plenty and pay checks are cushioned. You would only think of living in a shack if you were in such dire situations- let’s say that you were lost in the wilderness and a storm was moving in and you found a lone shack to hunker in. That shack becomes our necessity. We would thank God for finding such a shack. It is enough. Ask that same person if a shack is enough when they have a steady job paying a decent salary, and that answer changes. The fact is, we need to experience lowness to get a real sense of what our needs are.

The Church’s overhead

Let me first clarify that by “Church” I am talking about local churches. Now, I don’t think that we have enough information to critique specific churches on how they use their money. We can’t know for sure and we don’t have enough information to levy any charges specifically. However, I think we can speak from a broad perspective, and it’s easy to see how our culture’s view (especially American culture, since I live in it) on wealth and needs affects how we operate the Church.

Back to our “shack in the wilderness” analogy- if the Church were facing tremendous peril like much of the early church did, I think we’d have a different view on what’s necessary. I think we’d see less of the 1 million dollar “need” and would focus on the true need to actually do the duties of the Church in proclaiming the glory of the risen Christ. If the Church were in dire straits, it would call attention to the need of simplicity- but not for simplicity’s sake- a way of church life that’s not dramatically changed by a change in economics. I think that we have such heavy reliance on economics that the dynamic of our church lives would radically be altered if the economics suddenly spiraled.

Building up vs building out

I don’t think that the answer to the problem of Church’s facing financial crunches is to do church in a shack. I think that we can use abundance to the glory of God. And I don’t think that mega churches or things like that are even wrong. I think there will be times when God raises up a mega church (the first Church was pretty mega!). But one thing that I think causes a problem for us in the area of our overhead is the natural desire to build up instead of building out. I think we can see this in our lives- we’d rather upgrade the car, house, the computer, the TV, the cell phone- than keep it modest and share out the wealth to others to the glory of God. We practice this personally, so it’s no wonder that we can spiritualize this principle, take it to the church and have a fascination for building bigger churches rather than building out and planting new ones. I think this is one thing that we can do in aiming to require less just to survive.

2 years ago

Finding our fill in Christ

I have been meditating on Luke 6:20-26, commonly known as the beatitudes. I’m tempted to go into a full blown dissertation of the passage, but I will treat it more like a summary. Let’s look at the verses:

²⁰ Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said:
“ Blessed are you poor,
For yours is the kingdom of God.
²¹Blessed are you who hunger now,
For you shall be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now,
For you shall laugh.
²² Blessed are you when men hate you,
And when they exclude you,
And revile you, and cast out your name as evil,
For the Son of Man’s sake.
²³ Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!
For indeed your reward is great in heaven,
For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.

²⁴ “ But woe to you who are rich,
For you have received your consolation.
²⁵ Woe to you who are full,
For you shall hunger.
Woe to you who laugh now,
For you shall mourn and weep.
²⁶ Woe to youwhen allmen speak well of you,
For so did their fathers to the false prophets.

What instantly strikes me in the passage is how in either case of those who are in the kingdom (those who trust in Christ) and those who are outside of the kingdom (those who do not trust in Christ), there are virtually the same kinds of desires-

1) The desire to have poverty filled with riches

2) The desire to have hunger filled with nourishment

3) The desire to have sorrow filled with joy

4) The desire to have our rejection filled with approval

These are things that both the believer and unbeliever like to have. Jesus’ main point in this passage isn’t to say that these desires are wrong, but rather to bring out the reality of WHERE these desires are filled in.

Poverty, hunger, sorrow, and rejection don’t sound compelling, and by no means is Christ telling us that we have to fit these descriptions to be Christians, so the question is this: As a Christian, where should I ultimately be looking towards to fill these forms of deficit?

The answer is simply “Christ”. If my poverty is filled with the riches of Christ, it is a richness that never fades away, unlike the unbeliever. I may have money, but when I lose it all, I am still rich because my riches were never in my possessions, but in Christ. If my hunger is filled with Christ, the bread of life (the Israelites feasted off manna from heaven, which Christ said is Himself), then even if my stomach rumbles and I don’t have bread, I have my fill in Christ and my hunger for Him, my hunger to do the will of the Father consumes me more than hunger for food does. In my sorrow, if I find my joy in Christ, then despite what things cause injury to me or to my life, my joy was never in the temporary pleasures that can be experienced on this earth, but in the everlasting joy of Christ. And if my desire for approval is found in Christ, despite rejection of men, I know that on the basis of the righteousness of Christ, I will be approved, and my efforts for Christ will be found approved by God even though an unbelieving world has rejected me.

Where do we find our fill?

Psalm 37:25

I have been young, and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread.

The Scripture is still true. Though we may face hunger, with our fill in Christ, we, the righteous, will truly never beg bread or go hungry because the true bread of life-Christ-supplies us with a fill of Himself that can never be added to. Let us set our hope on this fill of bread!

2 years ago

Do I need to be like them to witness to them?

I’ve been in many discussions where the topic came up about relating to people that we witness to. Do I have to be like the people that I am witnessing to in order to witness to them? Is that a pre-requisite for successful evangelism?

When we look at the life of Paul, we see a man who is Jewish going into a wide variety of countries and cultures on his missionary journeys. Paul was a man who most definitely learned the cultures that he went to. But does that mean that we must be like the people that we preach to?

The distinction between missions and witnessing

Missions

What is a mission? I would define a mission as predominantly crossing a cultural boundary with the chief purpose of bringing the cross of Christ into that culture as an outpouring of Christ in your locality. I get this definition from Matthew 28:19-20 where Jesus says:

therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

These verses show the perpetuity of the commission and the range of the commission. The preaching of the gospel starts where you are and spreads to where you’re not. Missions primarily take the gospel outside of a culture. A mission usually has more of a culture-drenching element to it, as you are typically living amongst the people. You will find that like Paul at Mars Hill, learning as much about your culture is beneficial for you to convey timeless spiritual truths relative to that culture’s current understanding.

Witnessing

Witnessing is the act of proclaiming the gospel. Witnessing should be the central thrust of every mission. Witnessing will involve me bringing a person into an awareness of sin, God’s wrath, and Christ- the provision for sinners that appeases the wrath of God.

Do I need to be like them to witness to them?

I think that to a degree when you are a missionary you will take on enough of your culture to properly engage it. For example, if they speak a language that we do not understand, you must learn a bit of their language so that you can properly communicate. If I want to show them what Christ looks like in the context of their culture, I’ll need to understand their culture so that I could show them what the Bible has to say about the good and the bad of their culture.

However, at the core of missions is the gospel- I do not need to be culturally similar to a culture to preach the gospel. If I want to live amongst them and disciple them, then I need to learn the culture. However, preaching the gospel does not require that I be like them to “relate”. We relate on the basis that, despite our cultural differences, we are identical in that we are sinners like our forefather Adam. We are culturally different, yes. The power of the gospel is equally experienced by the person in South America as it is by the person in Africa. The gospel is experienced by the Emo kid and the Hip-Hopper. The basis of our similarities shouldn’t be in our upbringing, our culture, gender, etc. but in the universal indictment upon all mankind- we are born fallen!

Let’s not be afraid to preach the gospel to people simply because we can’t relate on other levels, for we all are the same in our need for Christ!

2 years ago 1 note

Mark Driscoll Blog

2 years ago

Pride with Spiritual Gifts

Christ is the giver of gifts and is Love

Here and Now

Know in part, prophecy in part (verse 9)
I spoke like a child, thought like a child, reasoned like a child (verse 11)
Now we see in a mirror dimly (verse 12)

Why would I boast in what is ultimately underdeveloped? Why would I puff up in pride over that when it grows up into something better? Paul sets us up to view glory!

Then and There

When the perfect comes the partial will pass away (verse 10)
Became a man, put away childish ways (verse 11)
Then we will see face to face, know fully (verse 12)

Why love is greater than faith and hope

Faith, hope, and love- the greatest is love. Love is eternal- Love is God. Cherishing God is the goal of faith and hope- it is the fuel to faith and hope.

How to shop for an audio interface

USB or Firewire?

Connections

Sample Rate and bit depth

Drivers and compatibility

Bundled software

Final notes

As always, do research on particular machines

Reason vs Massive

Price

Sound Banks

The Verdict

About the author

High overhead and the church

Money, Money, Money!

We need to experience lowness

The Church’s overhead

Building up vs building out

Finding our fill in Christ

1) The desire to have poverty filled with riches

2) The desire to have hunger filled with nourishment

3) The desire to have sorrow filled with joy

4) The desire to have our rejection filled with approval

Where do we find our fill?

Psalm 37:25

I have been young, and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread.

Do I need to be like them to witness to them?

The distinction between missions and witnessing

Missions

Witnessing

Do I need to be like them to witness to them?

Let’s not be afraid to preach the gospel to people simply because we can’t relate on other levels, for we all are the same in our need for Christ!

Pride with Spiritual Gifts

How to shop for an audio interface

Reason vs Massive

High overhead and the church

Finding our fill in Christ

Do I need to be like them to witness to them?

Mark Driscoll Blog

Pride with Spiritual Gifts

How to shop for an audio interface

Reason vs Massive

High overhead and the church

Finding our fill in Christ

Do I need to be like them to witness to them?

Mark Driscoll Blog

The tumblings of Tony Stone

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