christianity in its very essence is a resurrection religion!

Thine is the glory, risen, conqu’ring Son;
Endless is the victory, Thou o’er death has won;
Angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,
Kept the folded grave clothes where Thy body lay.
Thine is the glory, risen conqu’ring Son,
Endless is the vict’ry, Thou o’er death has won.

Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb;
Lovingly He greets us, scatters fear and gloom;
Let the church with gladness, hymns of triumph sing;
For her Lord now liveth, death hath lost its sting.
Thine is the glory, risen conqu’ring Son,
Endless is the vict’ry, Thou o’er death has won.

No more we doubt Thee, glorious Prince of life;
Life is naught without Thee; aid us in our strife;
Make us more than conqu’rors, through Thy deathless love:
Bring us safe through Jordan to Thy home above.
Thine is the glory, risen conqu’ring Son,
Endless is the vict’ry, Thou o’er death has won.

a very good place to start...

when you mix together my love of the sound of music and techno (and my friend links to this video), then i wind up whistling do re mi and dancing around like i did yesterday...

ironically enough, as justin was doodling on his paper while we were waiting for others to finish their table officials' tests last evening, i realized what "1 2 3 4..." is in luke - and it IS elementary!

"for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Luke 12:34

blood of the Healer, fall on me...

it's not enough to simply know the facts of Christ's death and resurrection... to know that His blood pays the price of sin, or even to know that it pays for sins of the people around me. i need His blood to pay for MY SIN. God, have mercy on me, a sinner!

"knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." 1 Peter 1:18-19

we've sung this hymn a couple times recently

it's "come ye sinners, poor and needy," by joseph hart

this verse is especially great:

come, ye weary, heavy laden,
lost and ruined by the fall;
if you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all.

me against me against me

i've been reading a devotional book by john stott called "through the Bible, through the year." this week's readings are the 7 words of Jesus from the cross. today, in thinking about His total selflessness in saying, "Father forgive them," in the midst of His suffering and pain, i was forced to repent of my own selfishness. i think that the time when it rears its head the most is when i'm sick or injured, and Jesus was specifically thinking of OTHERS in the midst of His pain... i need to keep the words of Philippians 2:3-4 always before me!

the title i gave this makes me think of a great old project song:


(yeah, i've been this close)

my mother's words haunt me still...

when sarah and i were younger, mom had some key catchphrases she'd use - things like "with great skill and dexterity" and "you can't sue me, i already am." sometimes when we were being especially obnoxious, she would tell us, "you can be replaced by a short monkey." that phrase always seemed kind of odd to me and stuck in my head, so much so that we even named a spaceman joe album of oddities after it.

so i've been gone all week. i saw on the facebook that heather had put up some photos of people "studying" while i was gone. in one of them, i noticed that randi had a stuffed animal that i did not recognize. hmmmm.

well, today, while we were getting ready to study, joey pulls the monkey out and tosses it to randi and refers to it as "little steve." i asked, "where did that come from and what did you just call it?" joey said, "i found it in the basement the other day, and we named it after you since you were gone."

so, yeah, i've been replaced by a short monkey!!!! (thanks mom) ;)