~ Flashback: Midnight Special.. so great.. live performances.. so much greater than the staged videos of later music shows like MTV and VH1.. had a more intimate feel with the artists than the mass produced music industry that followed... all the digital this and that... technology has really smothered something in music..
~ same thing with worship music... we've lost an intimacy with all the staged and technological super shows.. Satan was over music.. it was a sensual, intimate thing that reached into the very being of ppl.. a spiritual/religious experience.. originally sposed to be with the same God that created the sexual experience between a husband and wifey.. "then it all went wrong"
~ not that it has to be accoustically driven.. but the scripted, staged, hype-man/woman is kinda nauseating.. and it has become the norm... everyone talks of being undignified like David.. but few go there on a personal level.. and worship leaders will never take us there until they go alone, whether anyone goes with them or not... those are the leaders that release that authentic aroma of worship of our God.. when they go to those intimate places of worship unafraid of who or what system they offend...
~ Everyone makes it about the issue that David danced naked.. like his nakedness was the hinge and focus of that moment of authentic worship.. or that he told his wife off with an arrogant rant about being undignified.. that wasn't it at all. It was David expressing something that had eaten him up inside and spilled over into his physical man, uncontrollable, offensive, uncaring of anything or anyone except the God that overwhelmed his heart and very being. It was an act of desperation, and a cry of exhiliaration, in that one moment when everything in him threw off all weights and stumbling blocks that stood in the way of complete intimacy with his God...
~ For David that was an unrestrained dance that led to an honest and truthful wardrobe malfunction.. he unintentionally shed his clothes in the middle of a church/worship ceremony... for you and me, it will look very differently.. it will be personal, it will be just as offensive to onlookers in the church and outside the church, but it will take us to a place where we experience God in a way that we have never imagined. Just as sex is such a personal experience.. so is worship.. only it is your spirit that reaches that place of zoe.. for God is a Spirit.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Just a China Teapot
This is what's left of my mom's china.. I kept it wrapped in clothes in a suitcase I used to use when traveling around as a kid. I was shuffled around alot, and it is by the grace of God that it survived all my travels. When my oldest brother got married, and I was going off to college, I gave it to him where it would be safe. He keeps it displayed in the foyer of his home with my fathers ring.
They are precious to my entire family and I love seeing them each time I visit his home. My mom had lots of beautiful glassware, we were small when she died, and it all got lost in the shuffle. The cool thing is that my brother didn't even know I had kept it. We had to flee our home as kids and it was one of the few things of my moms I managed to hide away. I was visiting my brother my last year of high school and he made the comment one night as we were talking how much he wished he had mom's teapot of all her things.. I had no idea it meant as much to him as to me... when I took it from my suitcase to show him.. he was so moved by it, that I gave it to him to keep safe for our family. Funny how those split second thoughts as a kid are so guided by God, even concerning things that would seem so insignificant as a little china teapot.
It's old and prolly has a reasonable monetary value.. but no one in my family could set a price on it. It is one of the few remaining possessions that our mother's hands had handled with such care and tenderness. It's so much more than priceless ♥
~ The other great thing I forgot to mention is that my oldest brother had left home years before me.. he had taken the creamer dish from her dishes that we had salvaged as kids.. he was showing me the creamer dish that night that we were talking and was remembering drinking tea with my mom as a boy.. then I dug the teapot from my suitcase and gave it to him.. I love that some of our fondest memories of my mom were so similar. What are the odds that we would both hide away pieces of her china without knowing that one day as adults we would bring those pieces back together. Such a picture of how God keeps his promises.. he watches over the fatherless and the motherless.. he heals and restores the things we think are lost forever.
~ and he uses us in the process... pretty incredible.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Husbands and Wives: Next Gen Challenge
My challenge to the next generation...
Husbands love your wives, not according to the example your parents and society set.. but to the example that Christ set as he died to himself daily for his bride.. even to the end, giving up all the glory that he was due, and suffered injustice on a cross until death in her place and for her sake, as undeserving as she was.
Wives submit to your husbands, despite what the world says a woman's rights are, despite the arrogance of men and systems and even some that call themselves Christian, despite how badly they may lead, God will keep you and your children where ever you end up, whether in the ditch, plunging over the cliff to certain death, or in the opposite direction that you know God pointed.. if you submit out of respect for him, God will work all things for good because of your obedience and love for Christ. He promises, and we know that he is not a man that he would lie.
No one gets a perfect life.
No one gets a perfect marriage.
You gotta do the best you can,
and sort all things out with God out loud along the way.
Good luck with that ♥
Husbands love your wives, not according to the example your parents and society set.. but to the example that Christ set as he died to himself daily for his bride.. even to the end, giving up all the glory that he was due, and suffered injustice on a cross until death in her place and for her sake, as undeserving as she was.
Wives submit to your husbands, despite what the world says a woman's rights are, despite the arrogance of men and systems and even some that call themselves Christian, despite how badly they may lead, God will keep you and your children where ever you end up, whether in the ditch, plunging over the cliff to certain death, or in the opposite direction that you know God pointed.. if you submit out of respect for him, God will work all things for good because of your obedience and love for Christ. He promises, and we know that he is not a man that he would lie.
No one gets a perfect life.
No one gets a perfect marriage.
You gotta do the best you can,
and sort all things out with God out loud along the way.
Good luck with that ♥
In a Little Clay Pot
Why is it that when we talk about living for God we think of some great and world-impacting thing that we need to do?.. as though our lives have less meaning and purpose unless we lead a drove of ppl to Christ...
and that is good, and that is the forefront of our walk.. but the numbers are not the measure.. the measure would seem to fulfill the purpose and calling of what God has ordered our steps to do. What if your entire life wasn't about traveling to other lands, or preaching to a crowd of thousands? What if your mission was to make a difference in the life of that little neighbor kid that everyone has overlooked and rushed by on their way to church every morning? What if pouring your life into your children, so that God can use them to reach that neighbor kid isn't being the obsessive parent the world criticizes you for being?...
What if God formed you and fashioned you to do the little things that no one else wants to do because there's no spotlight, and no one will ever know your name, and you don't get to travel to exciting places and do all the cutting edge ministry and adventure? What if the souls on your list to cross paths with and plant seed in their hearts are only one or only a few or in the quiet and forgotten places?
Why is it our nature to dictate to God what our Christian walk is sposed to look like? Why not let him lead and why not seek him to teach us contentment in the things that we deem so nothing and insignificant? Why not ask him to help us to see the ppl and calling and mission of our life as he sees it, rather than as the religious crowd and the world and the well-meaning see it?
Sometimes, a life is to be lived planted in a little red clay pot, on a window sill, in a tiny house, on a quiet road.. seen by only a few, but the most rare and precious fragrance to the God and the ppl that needed you to love them ♥
and that is good, and that is the forefront of our walk.. but the numbers are not the measure.. the measure would seem to fulfill the purpose and calling of what God has ordered our steps to do. What if your entire life wasn't about traveling to other lands, or preaching to a crowd of thousands? What if your mission was to make a difference in the life of that little neighbor kid that everyone has overlooked and rushed by on their way to church every morning? What if pouring your life into your children, so that God can use them to reach that neighbor kid isn't being the obsessive parent the world criticizes you for being?...
What if God formed you and fashioned you to do the little things that no one else wants to do because there's no spotlight, and no one will ever know your name, and you don't get to travel to exciting places and do all the cutting edge ministry and adventure? What if the souls on your list to cross paths with and plant seed in their hearts are only one or only a few or in the quiet and forgotten places?
Why is it our nature to dictate to God what our Christian walk is sposed to look like? Why not let him lead and why not seek him to teach us contentment in the things that we deem so nothing and insignificant? Why not ask him to help us to see the ppl and calling and mission of our life as he sees it, rather than as the religious crowd and the world and the well-meaning see it?
Sometimes, a life is to be lived planted in a little red clay pot, on a window sill, in a tiny house, on a quiet road.. seen by only a few, but the most rare and precious fragrance to the God and the ppl that needed you to love them ♥
Alone in the New Year
So many friends are going thru difficult times... the loss of loved ones, serious sickness, or personal crisis that they cant really talk about... words seem so small to those watching and feeling so helpless... like glasses of water on a raging inferno... the world dances by celebrating the New Year and all the festivities, while you suffer a sense of loss and loneliness that is inescapable, and there are no answers or explanations...
I just want to say that as much as it seems that no one notices or cares... there are ppl who do... you are loved, and while our prayers feel so small and our words are few because we feel so helpless, our hearts hurt with you and for you... I pray that whatever the reason for the difficulty you are facing... or the lack of reasoning.. that God would in some way comfort you tonight... that he would bring direction and refreshing in how to walk that thing out...
I pray that he would send friends and even strangers that know him to come and be a shoulder to help you carry and bear that heaviness until you are stong enough to carry it as a token rather than a weight. Some things cant be shed in this life... some things remain but God changes us and equips us to overcome the pain that it inflicts. ..
I pray tonight that a rare and precious beauty emerges from the darkness that threatens you, from the evil that is pressing in upon you, from the ashes that have robbed you... so that the face of God leaves an imprint on you as it becomes a revelation of how very close and present he is... of how he stands between you and the enemies assault as your sheild and your very present help in time of trouble...
Love to you.. to my friends who have suffered much as this year has transitioned.. may you feel the arms of God around you in real and practical and intimate ways so that you are strengthened and assured that you are loved... and you are not alone despite how alone such things can make you feel. Love and hugs and prayers for strength. In the name of Jesus. Amen ♥
I just want to say that as much as it seems that no one notices or cares... there are ppl who do... you are loved, and while our prayers feel so small and our words are few because we feel so helpless, our hearts hurt with you and for you... I pray that whatever the reason for the difficulty you are facing... or the lack of reasoning.. that God would in some way comfort you tonight... that he would bring direction and refreshing in how to walk that thing out...
I pray that he would send friends and even strangers that know him to come and be a shoulder to help you carry and bear that heaviness until you are stong enough to carry it as a token rather than a weight. Some things cant be shed in this life... some things remain but God changes us and equips us to overcome the pain that it inflicts. ..
I pray tonight that a rare and precious beauty emerges from the darkness that threatens you, from the evil that is pressing in upon you, from the ashes that have robbed you... so that the face of God leaves an imprint on you as it becomes a revelation of how very close and present he is... of how he stands between you and the enemies assault as your sheild and your very present help in time of trouble...
Love to you.. to my friends who have suffered much as this year has transitioned.. may you feel the arms of God around you in real and practical and intimate ways so that you are strengthened and assured that you are loved... and you are not alone despite how alone such things can make you feel. Love and hugs and prayers for strength. In the name of Jesus. Amen ♥
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