one day, my heart will reflect the words to the song below. until then, i can only follow my heart, with much fear and trembling.
"HE will break you to have you." well, the wrestling match is over, and i lost. i'm broken, by HIM and for HIM.
yes and amen
hear Your people saying yes
hear Your people saying yes to You
yes to anything You ask
yes to anything we´re called to do
hear Your people say amen
hear Your people say amen to You
let Your kingdom come on earth
let it be just like we prayed to You
yes and amen to everything that´s in Your heart
yes and amen to everything that You have planned
we live to see Your will be done
and see Your perfect kingdom come on earth, on the earth
yes and amen
we´re taking up our cross for You
give us the strength to take these dreams and follow through
we live to see Your will be done
and see Your perfect kingdom come on earth, on the earth
all the promises are yes
all the promises are yes in You
every good and perfect gift
every blessing that we have was You
--Matt Redman, Robert Marvin and Josiah Bell
©2006 Thankyou Music (administered worldwide by EMI CMG Publishing, excluding the UK which is administered by Kingswaysongs.com) lyrics from www.mattredman.com
3.27.2007
3.22.2007
extravagant
what a way to begin captivating 2!!! sometimes, the Lord just likes to show off...
we went to see chris tomlin, matt redman AND louis giglio at the pmac wednesday night - what an awesome gift from the Lord, and an amazing way to prepare our hearts for what He has in store for us high up in the rockies!
His love truly is extravagant!!!
we went to see chris tomlin, matt redman AND louis giglio at the pmac wednesday night - what an awesome gift from the Lord, and an amazing way to prepare our hearts for what He has in store for us high up in the rockies!
His love truly is extravagant!!!
3.18.2007
eva
welcome to a very deep place in my heart...
introducing eva cassidy - one of the greatest blues artists to ever live. this is "fields of gold", written by sting, and covered on her "live at blues alley" cd. this is one of my favorite songs of all time.
introducing eva cassidy - one of the greatest blues artists to ever live. this is "fields of gold", written by sting, and covered on her "live at blues alley" cd. this is one of my favorite songs of all time.
3.16.2007
influence, part 1
the next few posts will not be light reading. there is much here you may not agree with. that's ok. they are my thoughts, and i don't claim to be 100% right. you are welcome to chime in to agree, disagree, or offer your own thoughts... if, through these words, i have caused you to dwell, to tarry, to think... then i will have accomplished what hoped i would with these posts.
i've been mulling over this idea for about a month now, knowing it needs to be written out - there's been much pondering and praying for words to convey what's been circling in my heart and mind. i am pressed hard to write today, so i am... but i don't really have a clue what's going to come out of these fingertips yet. nothing rehearsed, no organized thoughts... just ideas and words swirling around.
i think that most people in my world - including myself - don't realize the influence that they have on others, and that others have on them. at least, i hope that's the case... because influence is a funny thing - it can easily be used for good or bad, despite our best intentions, which points to the very real need to filter everything we say, do and/or hear through the Word of God... and sometimes that's tricky, too, because it's very easy to latch onto one verse that seems to support our viewpoint or position, but it's all too easy to twist and warp the Truth of God's Word into something that's not truth at all.
take the book of james, for example. we've been studying it for the past few weeks, so it jumps readily to mind as a good example of a bad influence. i've never liked the book of james (gasp) until we really dived in and studied it backwards and forwards. kudos to the people who prepare the material for community groups, for in my humble opinion, they have done an EXCELLENT job of taking a difficult text and making sense of it. i say "difficult" from a strictly personal viewpoint - you'd think that as much as i dislike dancing around issues that i would really dig james' refusal to 'mince words', as josh put it. my dislike for that particular book stemmed from how easily and frequently one verse can be taken out of context... and used to persecute and harm untold numbers of people over the ages. think salem. think the crusades. think of the ultra-conservative theologians or clergymen who ostracize God's children, standing on their interpretation of "truth", without taking the entire text into consideration, or the intended audience, or the context, or any of the significant factors that make God's Word beautiful and life-giving, instead of ammunition meant to kill and destroy.
i believe that we are ultimately responsible before the Lord for our words, our actions, our decisions - our lives - and will have to stand before Him one day to account for them. i believe fully in the grace of Christ, but it still makes me weak in the knees when i really think about that day. when thinking about that day, it's easier to wrap our minds around what we've done wrong in our lives (deliberate sin) than it is to really dig in and think about the less obvious aspects of our lives - motive comes readily to mind, and is perfectly in line with a discussion on influence.
to be continued...
i've been mulling over this idea for about a month now, knowing it needs to be written out - there's been much pondering and praying for words to convey what's been circling in my heart and mind. i am pressed hard to write today, so i am... but i don't really have a clue what's going to come out of these fingertips yet. nothing rehearsed, no organized thoughts... just ideas and words swirling around.
i think that most people in my world - including myself - don't realize the influence that they have on others, and that others have on them. at least, i hope that's the case... because influence is a funny thing - it can easily be used for good or bad, despite our best intentions, which points to the very real need to filter everything we say, do and/or hear through the Word of God... and sometimes that's tricky, too, because it's very easy to latch onto one verse that seems to support our viewpoint or position, but it's all too easy to twist and warp the Truth of God's Word into something that's not truth at all.
take the book of james, for example. we've been studying it for the past few weeks, so it jumps readily to mind as a good example of a bad influence. i've never liked the book of james (gasp) until we really dived in and studied it backwards and forwards. kudos to the people who prepare the material for community groups, for in my humble opinion, they have done an EXCELLENT job of taking a difficult text and making sense of it. i say "difficult" from a strictly personal viewpoint - you'd think that as much as i dislike dancing around issues that i would really dig james' refusal to 'mince words', as josh put it. my dislike for that particular book stemmed from how easily and frequently one verse can be taken out of context... and used to persecute and harm untold numbers of people over the ages. think salem. think the crusades. think of the ultra-conservative theologians or clergymen who ostracize God's children, standing on their interpretation of "truth", without taking the entire text into consideration, or the intended audience, or the context, or any of the significant factors that make God's Word beautiful and life-giving, instead of ammunition meant to kill and destroy.
i believe that we are ultimately responsible before the Lord for our words, our actions, our decisions - our lives - and will have to stand before Him one day to account for them. i believe fully in the grace of Christ, but it still makes me weak in the knees when i really think about that day. when thinking about that day, it's easier to wrap our minds around what we've done wrong in our lives (deliberate sin) than it is to really dig in and think about the less obvious aspects of our lives - motive comes readily to mind, and is perfectly in line with a discussion on influence.
to be continued...
3.10.2007
annie's song!!!
i found it!!!
ok, so it's not the original 1974 version (i'm a purist, what can i say?) but this will still let you experience it as a worship song...
click here to go back to the original post so you can read the lyrics as you listen with both your heart and your mind...
that's just good stuff.
ok, so it's not the original 1974 version (i'm a purist, what can i say?) but this will still let you experience it as a worship song...
click here to go back to the original post so you can read the lyrics as you listen with both your heart and your mind...
that's just good stuff.
3.08.2007
truth
last summer, even after hearing a resounding "YES" from the Lord about joining the ring, i still needed my heart and mind to line up.
it turned out to be a very easy decision to make. it came down to one question... just one.
"am i being fed TRUTH consistently, not just on sundays, but all the time in my interaction within this community?"
the immediate answer was, "YES"... and every now and again, He proves it to me just to punctuate His answer.
i love it when He does that.
it turned out to be a very easy decision to make. it came down to one question... just one.
"am i being fed TRUTH consistently, not just on sundays, but all the time in my interaction within this community?"
the immediate answer was, "YES"... and every now and again, He proves it to me just to punctuate His answer.
i love it when He does that.
3.02.2007
relevant
i've been asked a lot of questions and had much concern expressed by many of you, prompted by the last couple of posts. churning on the responses, it's occurred to me that there is one question conspicuously absent:
what does Jesus have to say?
it seems to me that hearing His voice is paramount right now... it is of the utmost import. i could be totally off here, but isn't the whole point of Christ's return, the atonement, the restoration, the salvation, the sanctification - all of it - isn't walking with God about ever-increasing dependence on Him? at the core of it, isn't that what faith truly is? i can't think of one instance in the Bible where we are instructed or encouraged to become independent from God - that's what got us in this mess to begin with, all the way back in the garden.
please know that i'm not disagreeing with any of you, or trying to pick a fight. this is a struggle in my mind, and i welcome any thoughts you are willing to share.
what does Jesus have to say?
it seems to me that hearing His voice is paramount right now... it is of the utmost import. i could be totally off here, but isn't the whole point of Christ's return, the atonement, the restoration, the salvation, the sanctification - all of it - isn't walking with God about ever-increasing dependence on Him? at the core of it, isn't that what faith truly is? i can't think of one instance in the Bible where we are instructed or encouraged to become independent from God - that's what got us in this mess to begin with, all the way back in the garden.
please know that i'm not disagreeing with any of you, or trying to pick a fight. this is a struggle in my mind, and i welcome any thoughts you are willing to share.
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