Posts from — September 2007

Although the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed have been around for centuries, I believe in many ways we have a newer creed on our hands. Granted, I’m sure there is much more to the definition of a creed but every time I read these words or worship my Lord and Savior through this song, I am focused on Christ alone…who is the way, the truth and the life and is the only solid ground to stand on. Proclaiming these truths is a rich blessing and encouraging to the depths of my soul.

“In Christ Alone”
Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Copyright © 2001 Kingsway Thankyou Music

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost it’s grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Brought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

The LBD Dual Significance: Psalm 29:1-2 “Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.”

John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

So I’ve been in a little blogging funk. I have a little yellow notepad with almost three pages worth of ideas and thoughts but nothing is really coming together to form what I would call a complete post. So I’m feeling funky…and not in the dancing kind of way.

I guess I will consider this sparse time a great opportunity to do “research”. It might also be a good respite for those of you feeling like you’ve been spending a little too much time reading my blog. Please keep reading though.

Here…I’ll whet your appetite with the soon to be posts:

Top 10 List
Encouraging Words
The Net Community
Light vs. Dark
Conflict Resolution

The LBD Dual Significance: If I currently had this figured out, you would not have a post titled “Funk”.

I’ve spent a majority of my blogging time today in replying to comments. But, I also have a lot of random thoughts running through my head right now. And, since I don’t have a Tumblelog to post my short snippets of life, I decided to make a whole post of RANDOMNESS!

* I have a Facebook now. My girls are excited.

* Yesterday was a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky. I read in the hammock for an hour and it was awesome.

* We just signed our wills yesterday. Weird. But I’m glad to check it off of my to do list!

* It’s cooling off! Gone will the days be of beating my air conditioner! Soon, very soon.

* I really liked my house yesterday. I actually had the thought “I love my house!”. This is huge for me and I hope it lasts.

* I get my haircut today! I had to cancel my last appointment so I’m about a month overdue. I’m growing it out though but my layers need a lot of help. Plus, I love my hair lady Mary!

* I’m having a 242 group craft nite at my house on Friday. I love being crafty!

* I started an official workout routine last week and my hamstrings are so sore. I’m not very flexible so I don’t stretch correctly because it hurts all the time. I really need to stretch.

* We’re almost done with the porch remodel! It is now wired for music, Daniel should finish the finishing details this weekend, and I will be painting. I cannot wait!

* I love my Pandora! I searched for Hillsong last week and they did not have it. Guess what they just added? Hillsong! Yeah for Pandora. Amy Stroup…I searched for you so maybe they’ll add you too!

The LBD Dual Significance: I’m thankful that I wasn’t just a random thought but a purposeful, intimately designed, wonderfully made, image of God.

Today is September 11, 2007. 9/11/07. The sixth anniversary of 9/11. The sixth year after the attacks.

Just as I have heard my parents generation remember exactly where they were when President Kennedy was shot or how I remember the night I sat with my family and watched O.J. Simpson elude police in the infamous white bronco, I very much remember where I was on September 11, 2001.

My radio alarm went off and as usual, I hit snooze for what seemed like 1000 times. I was in our first apartment bedroom with my husband of 52 days basically feeling on top of the world in my dazed morning mentality. I remember hearing, not music like I was used to on my alarm, but a very intense reporting voice but the words they were saying were not computing yet in my brain. Then my phone rang and obtrusively interrupted my slow awakening process.

It was my mom and she asked me if I knew what had happened and to turn on the television. I did so and yelled for Daniel to get up and come see this. I flipped between each channel and finally landed on Katie Couric over Peter Jennings. We did not have cable so I only had the main networks to choose from. I remember feeling dumbfounded, a little numb, scared, sorrowful, and so young.

I had to work at The Cottage, an antique and gift shop, from 10am – 6pm so I soon left the couch to get ready. Daniel had the day off from work and I really just wanted to stay with him but he told me to go because all I would do was sit on the couch and watch the TV all day long. When I got to The Cottage, Barry already had a television set up front at the registers and the somber atmosphere was overwhelming. I basically spent the whole day sitting at the counter, watching the television, and feeling what everyone else was feeling.

When I got home that evening, I think we had pizza or something and continued to watch the coverage on TV. I remember watching the President’s speech and being so grateful that it was President Bush who was in office. I had a lot more confidence in his course of action and his character than the previous President. I went to bed that night with my little bubble shattered and holding Daniel a little tighter than before. I think that day was the day I really transformed into feeling like an adult and knowing that from now on, I had the responsibility to act like one.

The LBD Dual Significance: This is the first year that I haven’t been “doing” something else on September 11th. Last year we were flying back from Hawaii for our 5 year anniversary trip. Every year prior, I was working or in school. This morning, I actually turned on the television to see what they were reporting and I saw reports on the mortgage crisis, Richard Gere, and some teen star rather than the memorial type reports I was expecting to see. I’m not really that much into memorializing things but I was a little surprised.

Then I spent some time in Wikipedia looking at the timeline of events and noticed the President’s comments: “Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.” This brought to mind last spring’s Virginia Tech massacre and the convocation speech given by Nikki Giovanni. Both are truly great speeches according to American standards and I remember thinking highly of both at that time. However, they both leave me with grasping for hope in the pride of my identity…as an American and as a would be Hokie. I actually believe that President Bush could be making a reference to Christ as the “foundation of America” but it still speaks to American pride. Nikki Giovanni mentions that “No one deserves a tragedy” and I know America as a whole did not believe we deserved the 9/11 attacks either.

The truth is, however, that we should expect tragedies such as these. Why else do we need to put on the full armor of God? Ephesians 6:11-13 “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.”

However, as children of God, we receive the gift of his grace with eager expectation. Ephesians 1:5-8 “In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight.”

So, what do we deserve? I will mention that in a quick search in the ESV BIble, I found 25 uses of the English word ‘deserve’ and none of them were used in a positive context.

I’ll leave you to wrestle with the “deserve” question. And add a few more…

What is your hope in?…

…Is being an American enough to hope in?…

…is being a Hokie enough to hope in?…

…is being “you” enough to hope in?…

It’s been two weeks now since I made my big grocery run to Publix. I need to go again today! While I was there, I decided to buy 5 slightly green bananas and 3 really green bananas. This way, we could enjoy them at just the right ripeness (is that really a word?) over a week period.

Unfortunately, my planning did not succeed. Why, you ask? Well, we ate the slightly green bananas in a 2 day period and those 3 green bananas…well they are still really green. After two weeks they are now turning brown but have not ripened at all. They have been so hard, you could actually hurt someone with them.

So, I guess that’s the last time I will buy fully green bananas. Just thought I’d share my random banana experience with you.

The LBD Dual Significance: Life doesn’t always turn out the way I expect. Even with careful planning, good decisions, and Christ in my life, I still do not ‘deserve’ to have everything peachy keen. It’s what I do with the curve balls in life that really challenge me to live out what I believe, not just what I know.

2 Timothy 3:12a Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Thanks to the rec from my sister-in-law, I have just discovered www.pandora.com. I’ll let Pandora explain what they are:

At Pandora, we have a single mission: To play music you’ll love – and nothing else. Just drop the name of one of your favorite songs or artists into Pandora and let the Genome Project go. It will quickly scan its entire world of analyzed music, almost a century of popular recordings – new and old, well known and completely obscure – to find songs with interesting musical similarities to your choice. You can create as many “stations” as you want. And you can even refine them. If it’s not quite right you can tell it so and it will get better for you.

Why am I excited about this?
* It’s free. Of course they have a paid version, but the free one is pretty darn good. Simple set up process too.
* Because it’s free, you guessed it, they have ads. However, their ads are only graphic, not pops us, and use flash right on your Pandora page. So, if you are not on that page, you don’t see the ads. Also, the ones I have seen are done in good taste. So far, no Vic’s Secret or alcohol ads or anything close. And, there are no music interruptions like previous internet radio sites I have used!
* Great sound and no trouble streaming. It has not slowed my computer down nor has it “skipped”.
* The way it customizes your music is incredible. There is nothing worse than wanting upbeat music when your playlist somehow has an incredibly slow song mixed in. For your analytical types, check out their brief description of The Music Genome Project. Also, you still maintain control to edit your stations as you see fit.
* For you networking types and itunes fanatics, you can share your stations, use it on facebook, bookmark songs for later or purchase immediately from itunes. Did I mention you can have as many stations as you want?

For someone like me, whose husband rules the itunes library and organization of it, this is a great way to enjoy a variety of music, old and new, and discover new artists that I might not know about. Here’s to another day with Pandora!

The LBD Dual Significance: What I feed my mind is so important. Also, music affects me a lot. The genre, lyrics, etc., totally affect my mood and what I think about. So, I want to use music to my advantage as much as possible. If I need to get things done quickly, you better believe it is upbeat country music. If I’m just enjoying the day and happy about life, I’m in a Dave Barnes sort of mood. If I’m pensive, humbled, or grateful because of Christ, I’m listening to worship music. You get the idea.

Try it out and tell me what you think or expose me to something new that you’ve discovered! Thanks Andréa for the great rec!

I just had an epiphany.

Most of my friends know that I am walking through a crazy little season of unknown. There is a whole lot of dual significance going on right now!!! But I’ll spare you that analysis. As a struggle to be content, joyful, excited, peaceful and rest during this new season of life, I have been constantly reminding myself to “Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10. I have a hard time resting and when I am “resting”, I usually struggle to enjoy it.

After a rough day yesterday, I woke up this morning to sit before the Lord and wrestle through this. I decided to look back at my journal from about 3 months ago to refocus my dreams for this season, and BAM!…there it was! One of the verses God showed me during that decision making season was Psalm 127:1 “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” Great verse, but it honestly did not have a lot of significance to what I was processing at the time but was a reminder to me that He was in control. I believe now, he showed that to me then, because he knew I would look in my journal today. God is so cool.

The LBD Dual Significance: I’m still trying to build. Ergh! As much as I am striving to just be still, I still have this feeling inside that I have to come up with this great plan for this next phase of life. And every time I try and build, the Lord taps me on the shoulder, wipes it away, and reminds me to be still. So, my new prayer is “Build Lord Jesus, Build! And give me the patience to honor you in my rest and trust of your creation!”

Earlier this week, I had an experience that does not happen too often in my world. I had just found a CD that had six songs from my brother’s little high school band and was listening to it on the way to a family dinner. My brother and I were pretty close during those days and I was reminiscing about that great time in my life. I could remember all of the concerts at Daybreak Coffee House, the late nights we would stay up and talk, how we would play his guitar in the stairwell of our basement (I guess the sound was better in that echoey space), and leading worship in our student ministry.

The funny thing was, I had a smile on my face that would just not go away. Not an ordinary everyday smile, but a deep, genuine, BIG smile. The more I realized that I had a big smile on my face while I was all alone in my car, the more I was aware that it wasn’t going away. The more I paid attention to it, the bigger it became. Not that I wanted it to go away, but it was a weird phenomenon all the same.

When I finally arrived at my destination, I finished up listening to the last song, took a deep breath, and then tried to wipe the smile away. I guess I just didn’t want to have to explain why I had this gigantic smile on my face. It was almost embarrassing, a little out of control, and I guess a little personal all at the same time.

The LBD Dual Significance: I think it is absolutely awesome how our emotions have no knowledge of time. What made me smile happened about 10 years ago, but I was feeling happy about it in the present. My emotions didn’t know that it wasn’t happening in the present because I was thinking about it at that moment. So, it’s almost like I was able to experience the joy of that time in my life over again just because I was thinking about it. Wow, how powerful our thoughts are. I want my thoughts to be on…. whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. Phil 4:8