FROM: Banbury, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
ABOUT ME: Living the highs and lows of life in the adventurous pursuit of God Himself and of who I'm meant to be as the Bride of Christ.
(View complete profile)
Wednesday, August 29, 2007,8:05 p.m.
THE VOICE OF TRUTH
I watched "Facing the Giants" yesterday (in a staff meeting - how cool is that?). What a great movie. It has been much in my mind in the last day and a half, both with its message and also the lyrics to the song that is played over the ending credits.
The chorus of the song goes like this:
The chorus of the song goes like this:
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
And the voice of truth says, "This is for my glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
And the voice of truth says, "This is for my glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth
"The Voice of Truth" (Casting Crowns)
In the movie they mention that the Bible says the words "Do not fear" 365 times. In my flesh I want to respond to that with the words, "Easier said than done," but I'm thinking that practice just might make perfect.
Actually, God makes perfect, and on His voice I'm willing to pin all my hope....
Saturday, August 25, 2007,9:26 p.m.
COMMUNITY
There's a bit of a conversation about community going on below in the comments section of the last post. Just thought I'd clue people in since the blog was not about that at all. (I believe the blog wasn't about ANYTHING at all.)
Monday, August 20, 2007,8:32 p.m.
AT A LOSS
I'm at a loss as to what to blog.....
I think that this loss partially stems from having too many books on the go. I don't know whether to write about the inner lives of women (I've been reading For Men Only - the counterpart to For Women Only that I read a few weeks ago - far less shocking than the first read, this book is talking about how women generally tick as opposed to how men generally tick. Thought I'd see what was being said. GOOD STUFF for any of you guys who want to figure out your wife / girlfriend / friends.....), or the murder of one Mr. Campbell, artist in Scotland (Dororthy L. Sayers - so far I don't know who dunnit), or the latest exploits of Ben-Hur (took a little break from that in the last couple of weeks - but it's a FANTASTIC read), or Psalm 88 and 89, which I'm currently pondering, or.....
Too many options.
Not much to say about any of them, really. I'll leave you with this instead. It was taken in the gardens just outside the Saskatchewan Parliament building in Regina.
I think that this loss partially stems from having too many books on the go. I don't know whether to write about the inner lives of women (I've been reading For Men Only - the counterpart to For Women Only that I read a few weeks ago - far less shocking than the first read, this book is talking about how women generally tick as opposed to how men generally tick. Thought I'd see what was being said. GOOD STUFF for any of you guys who want to figure out your wife / girlfriend / friends.....), or the murder of one Mr. Campbell, artist in Scotland (Dororthy L. Sayers - so far I don't know who dunnit), or the latest exploits of Ben-Hur (took a little break from that in the last couple of weeks - but it's a FANTASTIC read), or Psalm 88 and 89, which I'm currently pondering, or.....
Too many options.
Not much to say about any of them, really. I'll leave you with this instead. It was taken in the gardens just outside the Saskatchewan Parliament building in Regina.
Monday, August 13, 2007,10:32 a.m.
THE MOST BLOGGABLE MOMENT IN A LONG WHILE
I threatened to blog it, but since it's his story, Xander has blogged it himself. Too funny. Check it out HERE. It's definitely one that we will remember for a long while....
Thursday, August 09, 2007,9:20 p.m.
A SONG-WRITING / WORSHIP LEADING CHALLENGE
I have been in a really dry place with any sort of song-writing for quite some time now, and so tonight was watching an online video by Tim Hughes that I happened to come across in my wanderings. I got about 80% of the way through and had already heard lots of good stuff when he said this:
"I remember a worship leader friend of mine laying down this challenge: 'Tim, if someone comes to your church and all they do is for one month they just listen to the songs you sing - they don't hear any of the preaching, they don't listen to any of the prayers, they don't hear any of the scriptures read - they just hear the songs. What kind of God would they think that you worship?'"
Whoa. Not just for song-writers but also for worship leaders picking sets every time there's a gathering of the church.
It's a heavy responsibility.
With God's divine help, let's step up.
"I remember a worship leader friend of mine laying down this challenge: 'Tim, if someone comes to your church and all they do is for one month they just listen to the songs you sing - they don't hear any of the preaching, they don't listen to any of the prayers, they don't hear any of the scriptures read - they just hear the songs. What kind of God would they think that you worship?'"
Whoa. Not just for song-writers but also for worship leaders picking sets every time there's a gathering of the church.
It's a heavy responsibility.
With God's divine help, let's step up.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007,9:00 p.m.
LAST BIT FOR NOW
"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves..."
"...do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others."
"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus...."
(Philippians 2:3-5)
Tuesday, August 07, 2007,9:54 p.m.
MORE PONDERING
Are you still pondering? Or have you looked at the blogs and thought, "Maybe someday she'll write something different again"? Take two minutes - I dare you - it will be worth it.
"...make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose."
(Philippians 2:2)
Monday, August 06, 2007,12:08 p.m.
STILL PONDERING
"...if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion...."
(from Philippians 2:1)
Sunday, August 05, 2007,2:17 p.m.
KEEP PONDERING
"....if there is any consolation of
love [in Christ]...."
(from Philippians 2:1)
Saturday, August 04, 2007,1:28 p.m.
SLOWING DOWN
Since being in a small town in Saskatchewan and then coming back home to Vancouver, I've been pondering the pace that we choose to live our lives. Before leaving town on my holidays, I had 10 days that were so filled with appointments and scheduled things that I barely had time to breath, let alone pack and have a few moments of down time. Then I went to SK, and had almost nothing but down time for two weeks. Then I came back and noticed myself fighting for the down time again (winning, at the moment....).
The pace we live our lives at is hectic. Yes, I get it - many of us cultivate that pace ourselves. But I think at the same time, some of it is thrown on us, some of it comes from our own decisions, and some of it comes from our own desires. And what I find when the pace starts to pick up is that I do things in order to get them done, as opposed to doing things for the enjoyment of or even just the actual reason for doing them.
Which got me thinking about our worship of God (of course).
How much do we just ponder the character of God?
How often do we just sit there and "stare" at Him, so to speak?
How frequently do we find ourselves simply daydreaming about who He is and how great He is?
And for me especially, the kicker was this: How often do I sing or lead a song used for worship with the song and its tempo being what drives my pace of worship instead of the wonder of God?
I have lately been working on pondering the words of scripture more slowly, and the words of our songs more intentionally. That's tough - my mind wanders, I usually have a dozen things going on in my head (if you've met me it's for that reason that I often blurt out weird and random things in the middle of a conversation), and to focus so intently on something that is not actually physically in front of me can be difficult. And if I'm at that moment actually in the role of musical worship leader, I'm also thinking of where to go next, is my bass player following me, do the PowerPoint words match what we're singing, where is the Holy Spirit wanting to go next, etc., etc.
But the words we sing and read are powerful. Actually, that's not quite true. The truth that we sing and read is powerful. Maybe it's a good discipline to read less at a time, and really chew on and swallow the wonder of what those words and that truth is saying. Maybe we should sing some and then remain silent, ruminating on the glory of God that we have just sung about.
What a tough discipline.
But what a fantastic opportunity to purify our worship.
So here's something to try: I'm going to write just a tidbit of a scripture - not even the whole sentence all at once. Chew on it, ponder it. Don't pretend you've done it (like I do whenever I read stuff like this in a book or something) - really do it! Take a day, two days, and let it be what your mind drifts to. Go deep and see what revelation of God you find in just a few words of scripture. Let God show you more of Himself in it, and then respond to that in worship of who He is.
The pace we live our lives at is hectic. Yes, I get it - many of us cultivate that pace ourselves. But I think at the same time, some of it is thrown on us, some of it comes from our own decisions, and some of it comes from our own desires. And what I find when the pace starts to pick up is that I do things in order to get them done, as opposed to doing things for the enjoyment of or even just the actual reason for doing them.
Which got me thinking about our worship of God (of course).
How much do we just ponder the character of God?
How often do we just sit there and "stare" at Him, so to speak?
How frequently do we find ourselves simply daydreaming about who He is and how great He is?
And for me especially, the kicker was this: How often do I sing or lead a song used for worship with the song and its tempo being what drives my pace of worship instead of the wonder of God?
I have lately been working on pondering the words of scripture more slowly, and the words of our songs more intentionally. That's tough - my mind wanders, I usually have a dozen things going on in my head (if you've met me it's for that reason that I often blurt out weird and random things in the middle of a conversation), and to focus so intently on something that is not actually physically in front of me can be difficult. And if I'm at that moment actually in the role of musical worship leader, I'm also thinking of where to go next, is my bass player following me, do the PowerPoint words match what we're singing, where is the Holy Spirit wanting to go next, etc., etc.
But the words we sing and read are powerful. Actually, that's not quite true. The truth that we sing and read is powerful. Maybe it's a good discipline to read less at a time, and really chew on and swallow the wonder of what those words and that truth is saying. Maybe we should sing some and then remain silent, ruminating on the glory of God that we have just sung about.
What a tough discipline.
But what a fantastic opportunity to purify our worship.
So here's something to try: I'm going to write just a tidbit of a scripture - not even the whole sentence all at once. Chew on it, ponder it. Don't pretend you've done it (like I do whenever I read stuff like this in a book or something) - really do it! Take a day, two days, and let it be what your mind drifts to. Go deep and see what revelation of God you find in just a few words of scripture. Let God show you more of Himself in it, and then respond to that in worship of who He is.
"If therefore there is any encouragement
in Christ...."
(from Philippians 2:1)
