| If I met the me from 5 (or 10) years ago, would I be my friend?
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| I ate a raspberry today.
Just one. But it came off my very own raspberry bush in my very own backyard.
Life is good. Life is very, very good.
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| Tonight I emailed a friend of mine from high school that I have not had any contact with since 1996 or possibly 1997. It was kind of an awkward email to write. Think about it...what do you say to someone you haven't seen/heard from (or of) for nearly 10 years? How do you condense 10 years of life and living and experiences and growth and change into just a few paragraphs? |
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| So lately I've been thinking about worshipping God with songs/music. It all started when I saw a post on someone's site several weeks ago about how they didn't like a lot of currently popular worship songs because the songs were about us instead of about God. Songs about how we feel about God instead of songs about who God is, and his character and majesty.
A year or two ago I remember believing/thinking the same thing. Now I'm not so sure. It seems like there is a place for both types of songs and to emphasize one over the other is not necessarily a good thing.
I was listening to a message by Bill Johnson from Bethel Church and he made a comment that God ordained worship for us, not for himself because we become like what we worship. That gave me a whole new perspective on worship - it's not about God needing to hear us tell him how great he is - worship is a lot bigger than that.
David is one of my favorite Bible people right now. I think he understood what it meant to be loved by God and he understood what it meant to love God. The Psalms give this great insight into worship and there are Psalms that worship God by declaring his glory, character, and majesty and there are Psalms that worship God by expressing feelings about God.
The other part of worship that I've been thinking about lately is the dependence on songs and music that others have written. There's a place for that, both in corporate worship in a church setting and also in individual worship when we're alone with God. But, I think there is also a place of coming and singing to God spontaneously that is an important part of the time we spend alone with God. Ephesians talks about singing and making music in our heart to the Lord and Colossians talks about how important the attitude of our heart is when we sing to God.
I think God likes it when we make up songs to sing to him. I don't even think it matters if we sing on key or how it sounds necessarily. It's a reflection of what's in our heart. I'm learning that spontaneous singing is one thing that I can use as a barometer of my spiritual state - when I'm not where I should be in my relationship with God, when I've been running off doing my own thing, or just not taking time to spend with God - in those times I can't make up songs to sing to God because my heart is in the wrong place.
and ultimately that's the key to worship - making sure your heart is in the right place.
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| I am mostly no longer sick. Aside from random bouts of coughing I am fully recovered.
It has been snowing most of today.
I am seriously considering going golfing saturday morning.
I need to change my major so I can be done this semester.
I'm running out of time to do that.
I need to do my taxes.
I'm running out of time to do that too.
I started swimming this week.
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