|
Faith
|
|
Saturday, 15 August 2009 12:42 |
|
So, I got a tattoo today. It's a symbol of a worshipper. It's perfect for me because it really defines who I am. I've been thinking about this a lot recently. When we make a life-long decision, like chosing Christ, I think a "mark" is appropriate. Just as baptism is our first act of obedience, I think a mark, which in my case is a tattoo, is my way of saying, "this is for life." In my mind, it's a no-turning back, I'm here to show all the world kind of statement. Make no mistake, this is for me, not for anyone else. But it's my outward expression of what's inside me....and that's a worshipper. 
|
|
Faith
|
|
Sunday, 28 December 2008 00:00 |
|
From this hospital room, I'm learning a lot about rest. As you can see from my header at the moment, I've added musical "rests" to remind me that life is not about running as fast as you can to the other side. Sometimes we need to rest.
Rest comes in may forms. Sometimes, we need to rest our bodies, like my nana. I'm watching her rest now and I see that she gets a little stronger every time she does take the time to rest. When I was so sick a few weeks ago, rest was all that I wanted. Rest builds our bodies back so we can continue to move forward.
Sometimes, we need to rest our minds from all the craziness going around. We've been running crazy for most of December and I want more than anything to be able to turn off my brain. Tomorrow I return to work on top of trying to help nana, so there will be no more rest for me.
We're called to rest. God took the 7th day to rest and it's commanded as something we are to do. I often wonder lately if the way we run ourselves down now is not a direct result of our refusal to honor the Sabbath? It's an interesting question to ponder. I have all day to think about it.
|
|
Faith
|
|
Saturday, 06 December 2008 00:00 |
|
Well, last night was the 4th annual Homeless for a Night event. The youth from our church raise funds and blankets/jackets/jeans for the area's homeless centers. Then, they bring a cardboard box and willingly "become homeless" for one night. All the kids gather on the church property with nothing but short-sleeve shirts. Depending on the amount of money they raise, they are allowed to borrow a blanket and a jacket from the pile being donated. They do not get to choose what they get.
Sometime around midnight, a "meal" is given...Ramen noodles and hot chocolate. That's it. Then they have to bundle up in their boxes and sleep for the night outside in the elements. Some years it's rained; some years it's been freezing...this year was relatively mild with random sprinkles to help turn the boxes to mush.
Approximately 70 youth raised $13,000 and a landscaping trailer full of blankets, jeans and coats. They did great! There was only one glitch last night. Somewhere around 9:30, during worship, the sprinklers came on....everywhere. Parents dove to cover the sprinkler heads with everything from planters to buckets to bare hands as boxes and children were soaked. One parent even dashed in front of the stream of water herself to protect my husband's DJ equipment, being used as a PA system. The best part of all, the sprinklers aren't even set to go off on Friday night. nice.
At some point during the night, there was a shooting at a nearby high-end residential development. One of the parents is a police officer, so we all got to follow what was happening. How random and yet almost poetically justified that on the same night that so many youth stand up to raise awareness and make a difference in the lives of the unfortunate in our area, yet at the same time, something so senseless, irresponsible and callous as a shooting is underway.
This made me stop and think about the battle that is being fought on this earth, in our communities...good vs. evil. It's the polarizing opposites that give us a snapshot into the condition of the world we live in; the world we're raising our children in. Teaching them to stand up for what matters now hopefully helps to insure that when they are out in the real world, they too will make the decision to stand for Christ instead of standing for the things of the world. |
|
Faith
|
|
Saturday, 01 November 2008 00:00 |
Today's sermon was called "Guard Your Heart" and it came to me as a kick in the stomach.
Guard Your Heart
The premise of the sermon was that what goes in is what comes out. Good fruit will be born from those who feed their heart with good things and rotten fruit will be born from those who feed on the evil things of this world. We will all bear fruit. WE WILL ALL BEAR FRUIT.
Will it be good fruit or rotten fruit?
I started thinking about all the things that we face every single day. As Christians, we still need to be in the world, because that's where the people are that we are called to disciple to. But while we are in the world, we cannot ever allow ourselves to become of the world.
Guard Your Heart
Some of the evils that can erode our heart come in seemingly innocuous forms.
It comes from :
What we do with our down-time What we watch or read when we're relaxing Where we go on the Internet The kinds of things we think is OK but wouldn't bring up at church
It's about being honest and realizing that it's not OK to fill our hearts with garbage and expect beauty to then flow from that same heart. It's about WANTING to not poison the ones you love the most.
It's about faith, love, marriage, family, life. These are the things that matter.
Guard your heart and you will guard these very most special items. It's about drawing a line in the sand and saying,: "NO, I will NOT go there." "NO, I will NOT do that." "NO, I will NOT put myself in a situation where I can be tempted."
and it's about saying: "YES, my wife means more to me than that." "YES, my children deserve better than this." "YES, I believe in this."
I am just struck by the simplicity, yet the complexity of what I just wrote.
Guard Your Heart
|
|
Faith
|
|
Monday, 08 September 2008 00:00 |
 My husband preaches / teaches at the prison. Several times a year, he gets 2 hours at the work camp's chapel to hold a special kind of service. Last night, I went with my husband to help with a huge worship service. There was a line of prisoners waiting to get it. It was amazing. The service began with hand washing outside (thus, the line) and a record 60 people came in. There were no chairs today, Rob was trying to make them uncomfortable and push them to really worship. It worked. For two hours they listened and worshipped to a band we brought in.
I got to speak and it was a first for me. Click here for the audio file. It was crazy and amazing and wonderful. People came up to me afterwards telling me how I connected with them. One in particular, said he was sure I was talking about him and not me.
They thank us and tell us how much they appreciate us coming out to see them. The reality is that we are the ones who are so blessed to be a part of this. Their worship is real...the ones who are sold out are just that - sold out. It was very, very cool. listen here (you have to wait for the whole thing to download).... |
|
