raising the harvest song

with it being thanksgiving time, we of course have been practicing a couple of "thankful" numbers for choir. the one for sunday morning is an arrangement of "come, ye thankful people, come." well, the arranger must have had some sort of issues that he wanted to take out on the tenors and basses, because after not singing for the first page and a half, we then sing DOUBLE TIME to try to catch up with the ladies. and not just double time... sometimes it's double time with a stutter!

however, redemption comes in the final verse, as we come back to sing together and "more broadly." every week as we finish the song, i find this verse becoming my prayer and all hardships that i had with the arranger long forgotten (fittingly enough, my Bible reading had me at matthew 9:37-38 yesterday as well!). sing it with gusto!!!

even so, Lord, quickly come,
bring Thy final harvest home;
gather Thou Thy people in,
free from sorrow, free from sin,
there, forever purified,
in Thy presence to abide;
come, with all Thine angels come,
raise the glorious harvest home.

amen. come Lord Jesus.

yeah, i'm an emo kid...

or at least i tear up more than your "stereotypical guy" is supposed to...

of course, who says that the stereotypes are correct? i think about when the psalmist says, "my eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law." (ps. 119:136), or the ephesian elders crying over paul's departure (acts 20:37), or even better, Jesus himself ("Jesus wept" - john 11:35).

so what makes me cry? (and why do i analyze and form lists?)

goodbyes: driving away from my sister's place in jersey, hugging dad at the airport

books: reepicheep sailing away in the voyage of the dawn treader (the best of the lot! imo), a walk to remember, the departure from the grey havens in the return of the king (note: the movie did NOT make me cry)

movies: the scene where julius' eyes meet gary's mom's in the er in remember the titans, pretty much the whole way through we are marshall

songs: hearing taps played at the memorial or veterans' day parades

BUT - being the week it is AND being the son of a tubist... when the drum major salutes and high fives the tubist... something within me swells and the tears begin to fall - yeah - i'm from O-H-I-O:

not what you expect to hear in a message about tithing...

"don't give"

yup, you read that right. today in our pastor's series where he's been covering "back to basics," we came to "what the Bible teaches about tithing." well, because 2 corinthians 9:7 says, "each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver," mark's point was "nothing short of an attitude of gratitude for the salvation that is ours in Jesus Christ should be the motivation for our giving." AND if our motivation is ANYTHING else - guilt, habit, etc. - it is better not to give at all! chew on that one.

never thought of it that way before...

as part of studying Luke this year, i've been reading a commentary by michael wilcock. he makes a great point about luke 15:2 ("and the pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, 'this man receives sinners and eats with them.'") - although the pharisees are saying this as a complaint against Jesus, it is the truth of the gospel!

JESUS WELCOMES SINNERS WHO KNOW THEY ARE SINNERS AND HAVE NOWHERE ELSE TO TURN!

hallelujah!

for introspection...

the following is a quote from "death by love: letters from the cross" by mark driscoll:

"the opposite of the gospel is idolatry. idolatry is worshiping someone or something other than God. by worshiping i mean that we make sacrifices (e.g., time, energy, money, emotion, thought) so that we can give ourselves to someone or something because it is our highest priority. everyone is a worshiper for the simple reason that we were made by God to worship and cannot help ourselves. but because we are sinners, we are prone to worship created things rather than God the Creator. romans 1:25 teaches that this is at the root of all paganism/idolatry, saying, 'they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.' this is a complete inversion of the purpose of our creation, which is to worship God and rule over created things as shown in Genesis 1:26-28. martin luther taught that idolatry is, therefore, not just a sin but rather the sin that is the cause of all other sins..."

i love the way the new underoath albums starts...

the drum track begins and the vocals cry out:

"i'm the desperate and You're the Savior!
i'm the desperate and You're the Savior!"

blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. matthew 5:3

revealed to little children

what a blessing to listen to the 7 year old beside me praying in the prayer meeting tonight:

"thank You Lord that you have given us so much - a home and food and a place to live. help more people to come to know You every day."

amen!

2 deaths and a blown tire

this past week, two men that i knew died suddenly. both of them had had physical problems for a while, but their deaths were still somewhat of a suprise.

the first man was a well to do business man (he even had a doctor for a son). he had lived a hard partying life, and i was a bit suprised that he was only 67, because his body seemed to be much older than that. i have no idea where he stood with the Lord, but the life that i observed, spoke of little hope. he seemed to be a fairly bitter old man.

the other guy was one whose life had been amazingly transformed. he had been a night watchman before his illnesses made him unable to work any longer (and also made his medical bills difficult to pay). although his sister came to our church, he was very anti-God. about 3 years ago, when he was in the hospital his sister had asked us to pray for him. the pastor went to visit him and the church helped him out some with his bills. after he was home and stronger, he began to attend on Sunday mornings (perhaps just out of a sense of gratitude). let me tell you, Jesus got ahold of bill's life! it has been such a joy to see him stand before the church and make a public profession of faith, to hear his childlike prayers of faith at the prayer meeting, and to experience his hunger for God's Word at the men's Bible study. i was shocked when i heard that linda had found him dead on his floor last tuesday, but my very next thought was "Praise You Lord, bill is with You!"

another incident happened to me this past weekend. we were part way to an fca event at ysu, when i suddenly had only 3 good tires on my van. this pretty much ended our trip as we waited for the tow truck to arrive. the saddest part? i had known that the tires were in declining condition, and had even planned to replace them this week. too late, the blowout had already occurred. how many people live putting off their need of Jesus Christ? how many does death suprise unawares? don't push it!