Grits cover of U2’s “With or Without You”

See the stone set in your eyes
See the thorn twist in your side
I wait for you

Sleight of hand and twist of fate
On a bed of nails she makes me wait
And I wait without you

With or without you
With or without you

Through the storm we reach the shore
You give it all but I want more
And Im waiting for you

With or without you
With or without you
I cant live
With or without you

And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give
And you give
And you give yourself away

My hands are tied
My body bruised, shes got me with
Nothing to win and
Nothing left to lose

And you give yourself away
And you give yourself away
And you give
And you give
And you give yourself away

With or without you
With or without you
I cant live
With or without you

With or without you
With or without you
I cant live
With or without you
With or without you

Lyrics obtained through http://www.justsomelyrics.com/677297/Grits-(Featuring-Jadyn-Maria)-With-Or-Without-You-Lyrics

Jesus, I wait for You. I wait for Your comfort. I wait for Your return. I wait for You.

The Dance of God

The story behind this is that Tuesday, I was helping with VBS decorations at the church and had just taken a break to go find my music director to ask him a question. Only when I got to where his office would be I learned he was not in at that moment. So I was heading back down the hall with the windows and noticed it had just started raining. Upon arriving back in the church lobby where we were working on the decorations, I announced that I had to do something, that my momma wouldn’t let me do it, but that I just had to. When asked what it was, I announced, I just feel like I have to take my socks off and go run in that rain. Everyone said, well do it. So I did. I got into that parking lot at the church and just started dancing in the rain, arms lifted up, and I looked toward Heaven and just let God wash away my fears and my worries.

I am no longer afraid of having a rare, incurable disease. I am no longer afraid to serve God in whatever way that will be. And thus begins the dance of God.

The Dance of God

All it takes is one heart, one mind, one soul, one life. All it takes is one breath, one hope, one prayer. All it takes is one small child, one new believer, one young life. All it takes is that to really know and experience the dance of God. The dance of God is not necessarily about the steps, the motions, the choreography because the dance of God is whatever is in the heart. It starts in the heart, moves through the veins, the arteries, the muscles, the brain. The next thing you know, the feet start moving, the arms start moving, the body starts moving. There doesn’t have to be music because the music is in your heart. An onlooker may think it crazy, but you don’t care. All you know is you have to dance, dance, dance. Dance like you don’t care because you don’t. All you care about is praising God, worshipping God. For the small things, for the large things. For the beautiful things, for the not so beautiful things. For all of creation. For all of mankind. And that is the dance of God.
-Written by SES, 2 June 2010

The little girl climbs on the daddy’s feet for a father-daughter dance. There doesn’t have to be music. The music is in the heart. I’m climbing on God’s feet and I’m hanging on for the dance and for the ride. God’s song in my heart is the music of the dance.

Psalm 149:3
Let them praise his name with dancing,
making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!

“Be Glorified”
By Chris Tomlin

Your love has captured me
Your grace has set me free
Your life the air I breathe
Be glorified in me

Your love has captured me
Your grace has set me free
Your life the air I breathe
Be glorified in me

You set my feet to dancing
You set my heart on fire
In the presence of a thousand kings
you are my one desire

I stand before you now
With trembling hands lifted high
Be glorified

Your love has captured me
Your grace has set me free
Your life the air I breathe
Be glorified in me

Oh yeah

You set my feet to dancing
You set my heart on fire
In the presence of a thousand kings
You are my one desire

I stand before you now
With trembling hands lifted high
Be glorified

Be glorified in me
Be glorified in me
Be glorified in me
Be glorified
Be glorified in me
Be glorified in me
Be glorified in me
Be glorified in me
Be glorified

You set my feet to dancing
You set my heart on fire
In the presence of a thousand kings
You are my one desire

I stand before you now
With trembling hands lifted high
Be glorified

Gluten Free

I’ll add more to this post later or do what another blogger I know does and do a part II, but I’m checking out glutenfreefrenzy.com right now and they have this supercool contest for Mixes from Heartland (available at http://www.mixesfromheartland.com). It’s supercool because, personally, as a newbie to the gluten-free world, I find that my mom and I have to do a lot more baking and other home-cooking and it’s so hard to find mixes that don’t cost an arm and a leg. But my wheat allergy has been a small blessing in disguise: I am actually starting to lose weight on the gluten-free diet!

Linkin Park’s “Numb” and a spiritual application

Lyrics are from: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/linkinpark/numb.html

“Numb”

I’m tired of being what you want me to be
Feeling so faithless lost under the surface
Don’t know what you’re expecting of me
Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes
(Caught in the undertow just caught in the undertow)
Every step that I take is another mistake to you
(Caught in the undertow just caught in the undertow)

[Chorus]
I’ve become so numb I can’t feel you there
Become so tired so much more aware
I’m becoming this all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you

Can’t you see that you’re smothering me
Holding too tightly afraid to lose control
Cause everything that you thought I would be
Has fallen apart right in front of you
(Caught in the undertow just caught in the undertow)
Every step that I take is another mistake to you
(Caught in the undertow just caught in the undertow)
And every second I waste is more than I can take

[Chorus]
I’ve become so numb I can’t feel you there
Become so tired so much more aware
I’m becoming this all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you

And I know
I may end up failing too
But I know
You were just like me with someone disappointed in you

[Chorus]
I’ve become so numb I can’t feel you there
Become so tired so much more aware
I’m becoming this all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you

[Chorus]
I’ve become so numb I can’t feel you there
I’m tired of being what you want me to be
I’ve become so numb I can’t feel you there
I’m tired of being what you want me to be

The spiritual application I found in this is not only how sometimes in friendships, we have older, wiser friends who we look up to, but then something happens, and we start to question that person about everything. But see life is not perfect, people are not perfect. If we were perfect, then Jesus would not have needed to come to the earth to die for us.

But the hope is that things can be resolved and not fall apart.

The other spiritual application, and this is important, sometimes in conflicts we want to run away and hide, not just from the conflict, but from God as well. An important lesson that is getting reiterated for me right now is that God pursues His children.

So, the objective at that point is to accept God’s love and to not become so numb-to Him or to the person who you may have a struggle with. Because if we become numb, we may miss the opportunity for restoration.

What’s on Your iPod?

I have a collection of over 500 items, ranging from songs, news reports, videos, and sermons on the iPod I have access to.

Of those the first ten songs that pop up (I have it on random shuffle) are:
“A Cradle Prayer” from Christmas by Rebecca St. James
“What Hurts the Most” from Me and My Gang by Rascal Flatts
“Over It” from Radio Disney Jams, Volume 7 by Anneliese Van Der Pol
“Happy Christmas” from Christmas by Rebeccas St. James
“Supermodels” from Jordan’s Sister by Kendall Payne
“Last One Standing” from Radio Disney Jams, Volume 6 by Triple Image
“Don’t Say You Love Me” from Radio Disney Jams, Volume 3 by M2M
“What’s Your Name?” from Radio Disney Jams 8 by Jesse McCartney
“Juliet” from Radio Disney Ultimate Jams by LMNT
“Stayin’ Alive” from Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel by The Chipmunks
Part two of this blog post will have the first verse/chorus of the first ten songs on the iPod on that day.

But I write this to say that the Nick Jonas video post I have speaks a lot about how I feel right now.

I want someone to love me
For who I am
I want someone to need me
Is that so bad?
I want to break all the madness
But it’s all I have
I want someone to love me
For who I am

Nothing makes sense, nothing makes sense anymore
Nothing is right, nothing is right when your gone.
I want someone to love me
For who I am
I want someone to need me
Is that so bad?
I want to break all the madness
But it’s all I have
I want someone to love me
For who I am

Nothing makes sense, nothing makes sense anymore
Nothing is right, nothing is right when you’re gone
I’m losing my breath, I’m losing my right to be wrong
I’m frightened to death, I’m frightened that I won’t be strong

I want someone to love me
For who I am
I want someone to need me
Is that so bad?
I wanna break all the madness
But it’s all I have
I want someone to love me
For who I am

I’m shaking it off, I’m shaking off all of the pain.
Breaking my heart, breaking my heart once again

I want someone to love me
For who I am
I want someone to need me
Is that so bad?
I wanna break all the madness
But it’s all I have
I want someone to love me
For who I am

I want someone to love me
For who I am
I want someone to need me
Is that so bad?
I wanna break all the madness
But it’s all I have
I want someone to love me
For who I am

Yeah, who I am.

Lyrics from http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/n/nick_jonas_and_the_administration/who_i_am.html

A Deep Thought Response to Some Questionable Statements

From Pastor Bob Flayhart’s blog at http://www.bobflayhart.com:

The scariest and most evil principle Machiavelli puts forth in The Prince is that “the whole idea of being good…is rather naive,” and that what is important is not “being good, but appearing good.” Another principle is that you can get away with anything if you are able to “appear religious.” Machiavelli asserts that if you can “appear” religious then people are more likely to trust you and think you are moral and good and it is then easier to deceive them so you can get what you want.

Machiavelli rejects the Christian world view and despises it by saying that Christians will think of heaven and it makes people ineffective in working in the world. He also wrote that Christianity “ties our hands” by limiting what we want to do with all kinds of rules.

There’s the summary…but here’s the scary part…how do Machiavellian principles dwell within my own heart? First, how often am I more concerned about appearances than the actual condition of my soul? How often do I set up my posing self in oder to appear moral or good or righteous before others? How am I often one person in public and another completely different person when no one else is around? How often do I put forth the appearance of “loving God” when my heart is cold? How often do I walk into Church on Sunday mornings as nothing but a poser?

How often am I a complete pragmatist? How often am I thinking about how I can control my life, my circumstances, even people in my life to “get what I want” in the most effective and necessary way and fail to consider the way of the Gospel which is loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and loving my neighbor as myself? Let’s be honest…love is not often very pragmatic…and it’s never easy.

The saddest thing of all, perhaps, is that Machiavelli completely missed the point of the Christian life…we’re not to be so heavenly-minded that we’re no earthly good! The hope and vision of heaven is to be in our sites so that we work toward bringing the Kingdom of God into reality on this planet NOW! Certainly many, many Christ-followers miss this, but the Christian is not only concerned about the eternal destiny of the souls of people. We are concerned primarily about the glory of God…and God is glorified as suffering is alleviated, evil oppression is eradicated, people are educated, widows and orphans are taken care of, and yes, even nature is cared for…in addition to being concerned that all the nations hear the Gospel!

The Christ-follower who truly knows Christ and His word knows that the end NEVER justifies the means, that love must always win over pragmatism and that we are to work with all our strength to bring the reality of the Kingdom of God, in all it’s beauty and goodness, to bear upon this planet in our every sphere of influence, including all our vocations and all our relationships.

My thoughts are this:
“The scariest and most evil principle Machiavelli puts forth in The Prince is that “the whole idea of being good…is rather naive,” and that what is important is not “being good, but appearing good.” Another principle is that you can get away with anything if you are able to “appear religious.” Machiavelli asserts that if you can “appear” religious then people are more likely to trust you and think you are moral and good and it is then easier to deceive them so you can get what you want.”

I would agree with Machiavelli’s assertion though….

“There’s the summary…but here’s the scary part…how do Machiavellian principles dwell within my own heart? First, how often am I more concerned about appearances than the actual condition of my soul? How often do I set up my posing self in oder [sic] to appear moral or good or righteous before others? How am I often one person in public and another completely different person when no one else is around? How often do I put forth the appearance of “loving God” when my heart is cold? How often do I walk into Church on Sunday mornings as nothing but a poser? ”

These may be good questions, but should not then actions be taken to make sure these things are not happening? Strive to be perfect like God, yes, but if in one’s pursuit of perfection, one fails to show love and grace and mercy and forgiveness and compassion to everyone, then it seems the questioning is moot.

“How often am I a complete pragmatist? How often am I thinking about how I can control my life, my circumstances, even people in my life to “get what I want” in the most effective and necessary way and fail to consider the way of the Gospel which is loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and loving my neighbor as myself? Let’s be honest…love is not often very pragmatic…and it’s never easy.”

Okay, so what’s so hard about it? If a person is a Christian, love SHOULD come easy, easier than it often does. But honestly, think about it. If God is a God of love, and a person really is walking with God, then every part of him/herself will begin to be peeled away (like that onion of reference) and it should become THAT much easier to love!

And by the way, love may not be easy, but what about it would be unpractical? Christians are supposed to be like God. God is a God of love. It seems to me that by the very nature of God alone, love would be the most practical thing of all. If everyone would just start being loving toward everyone else they encounter, then oh how sweet and easy so many things would be for everyone around.

“This is why we need to flee to Christ continually…only the power of His death and resurrection and the sin-defeating might of His amazing grace can rid my own heart of Machiavellian leanings. ”

A heart of duplicity? Perish the thought. But people are duplistic in nature. But this I can probably agree whole-heartedly on.

“The saddest thing of all, perhaps, is that Machiavelli completely missed the point of the Christian life…we’re not to be so heavenly-minded that we’re no earthly good! The hope and vision of heaven is to be in our sites so that we work toward bringing the Kingdom of God into reality on this planet NOW! Certainly many, many Christ-followers miss this, but the Christian is not only concerned about the eternal destiny of the souls of people. We are concerned primarily about the glory of God…and God is glorified as suffering is alleviated, evil oppression is eradicated, people are educated, widows and orphans are taken care of, and yes, even nature is cared for…in addition to being concerned that all the nations hear the Gospel! ”

That last part pertaining to God being glorified…seems even the best of the so-called Christian population tend to forget this overall. It’s one thing to be concerned about all these things, but the best way to show that concern? DO SOMETHING! Words alone won’t do in many of these cases, and actions speak a whole louder when it comes to this whole glorifying God thing. But first start in your (generic) own heart, then reach out to family and friends and the neighbor down the street. Then and only then, is one really and truly ready and able to show concern for the world around them.

As to the tidbit about nature being cared for? Why is this an afterthought? If Christians (and everyone else for that matter) are being good stewards like they are called to be, caring for nature should NOT be a second thought. It should be something that comes naturally and seamlessly-like recycling and not letting anything potentially harmful leech out in the environment? Corrupt environment oftentimes yields corrupt people.

“The Christ-follower who truly knows Christ and His word knows that the end NEVER justifies the means, that love must always win over pragmatism and that we are to work with all our strength to bring the reality of the Kingdom of God, in all it’s beauty and goodness, to bear upon this planet in our every sphere of influence, including all our vocations and all our relationships.”

Agree in part. “Love must always win over pragmatism…” Maybe, but maybe not BECAUSE in the Christian life love should ALWAYS be practical.

So, my question: What’s so hard about loving everyone when we are commanded to so? Seems like there is not a good enough reason to do anything but.

_________________________________________________________

By the way, I did have to look up some definitions and synonyms and stuff…http://www.merriam-webster.com/ is what I used although I normally use dictionary.com, but either way….

Of Bobs and Jasons (Or My Life As a New Christian at OMPC-Part I) copied from Facebook Notes

I was invited to church by a Bob. After the pastor returned from a mission trip to Ireland, I met him. Turned out his name was also Bob. The tone of the worship service is established by this somewhat “eccentric” but really cool music minister named Jason. After a couple of weeks, Bob number one’s wife took me to the new members’ inquiry class led by, you guessed it, another Jason. So, how do I keep all these awesome people in my life straight? At first, my relationship with Bob number one was hard to explain, but now we are just friends. I use the proper Southern Miss with his wife. Jason, the music minister, is just Jason. The other is Mr. Jason. Bob number one is now Mr. Bob and Bob, the pastor, has now respectfully become Pastor. I had to come up with a system because being a young Christian presents enough challenges without also dealing with “what do I call you?”

*In retrospect, I’m not so sure “eccentric” was quite the word I was looking for?!?

Why Legalized Gambling in Alabama Would Be Wrong

In a time of such deep recession when so many people continue to lose their jobs, yet the cost of living and health insurance continues to rise, the last thing Alabama needs is another thing to provide FALSE hope to gullible and innocent who are living on their last dime.

It would be morally and ethically irresponsible for the people and the legislation of Alabama to allow for gambling of any type to be legalized.

Let’s consider that smoking is legal. Does this mean it is good for a person? No. It causes lung cancer in not only the smoker, but also in those who breathe the air around the smoker. It also causes asthma in those who breathe that same air.

Let’s consider that drinking is legal. Is it good for a person? No. It damages the liver. Drunk drivers kill people.

Cell phones. They are both a way to stay in touch with people who are near and far at all times of the day through talk and text but they can also cause accidents and fatalities.

Gambling has led to addictions which in some states has led to taxpayer dollars being spent to put up billboards and set up hotlines for counseling to help those addicts. That is money that is being diverted away from the education that the gambling dollars was supposedly going to help.

Gambling can become addictive. People end up putting false hope into some machine that is rigged against them, that will cause them to fail, and then they lose everything they have because in the off-chance they happen to win, they want to do it again and again and again. There’s the addiction. Hook, line, and sinker.

Gambling is not good stewardship of our resources. It is wasteful and sinful.

God did not tell us to go waste everything He put us in charge of. He told us to be go be good stewards.

Part of being good stewards is using the money we have wisely for education and for road repairs. Part of being good stewards is helping those less fortunate than ourselves.

Gambling is not the answer. It is the harm.

We have several opportunities presented to help ourselves get out of the mess we are now in. We can allow higher property tax for education. It would only affect a few anyway, but oddly, the only people I see ever protesting these higher property taxes are the very people who can afford it and should be paying it.

And because in the end, the state would have to sponsor hotlines and counseling to help those who end up addicted, that would divert money that is supposedly going for education or roadwork or some other noble cause away from what the gambling was legalized to support.

The better solution would be for the people who live in those fancy houses that cost $500,000 and drive those fancy cars that they make $1000 per month car payments on and that insist on going out to eat every night at some fancy restaurant to get off their high horse, and vote for higher property taxes in Alabama, which would support education.

Because frankly, the only people I ever saw putting up a fight against that the last time was the people who can afford it and should pay it. The only people I hear complaining about raising some kind of tax somewhere should our state manage to cut taxes on groceries like most every other state in the United States is the rich people.

God asked us to take care of the poor and the hungry and those less fortunate than ourselves. Part of that would be to cut the taxes on essentials, like food at the grocery store, because the reason why American society is getting fatter is because the healthy food is unattainable to some 50 percent or more of Americans due to the inane taxes on groceries.

And the only reason why the state of Alabama is in the middle of another tax dollar-wasting debate on whether or not to legalize gambling is because of rich people who are greedy and want to see the poor and the needy fall flat on their faces in shame when they lose to a bunch of rigged machines.

How lowdown and uncaring can these sick people get?

In all honesty, it should be the church that comes along to make sure that no one will be victimized by such immoral, unethical, unhealthy, sinful, wasteful temptations. Every church in Alabama should be making sure their members are armed with the truth and the facts they need to make sure this won’t go through and then some. Every minister should make sure that no one will be able to be persuaded, that those who would be the most susceptible are taken care of, and that everyone is equipped to handle the consequences, whether good or bad.

But honestly, we don’t need gambling to fund education. We don’t need dirty money to teach our children. We don’t need dirty money helping healthcare costs. We don’t need dirty money repairing our roads. We just don’t need dirty money.

Deciding What to Do With Pain

I want to include something before I state my spiel. This is from Pastor Bob Flayhart’s blog:

http://www.bobflayhart.com/2010/02/gospel-armor-against-temptation.html

Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Gospel Armor Against Temptation
Just before celebrating the Lord’s Supper last month I shared some words that others have asked me to post. The words were these: Those Christ-followers who are covered up with guilt and shame and self-condemnation are most open to giving in to temptation. Conversely, those Christ-followers who are most willing to receive and hope in the wondrous grace of God are most strengthened against temptation.

When we are wrestling with shame and guilt, the pain of the defeat and condemnation is so intense that we’ll look for anything that will numb the pain…the narcotics of choice, then, are often the pleasures of the world that we are deceived into believing will get rid of the pain. But that just creates a downward spiral of more guilt and shame and the pain multiplies. Guilty and condemned Christians will always be desperately looking for relief from their pain…and temptation to seek that relief in sin is very alluring.

However, Christians who are convinced of the hope of forgiveness and live in the grace of God are less trapped by feelings of shame and guilt, experience more joy, and are therefore more strengthened in the battle against sin…we still will be tempted by the so-called “pleasures” of the world, but equipped with the peace of forgiveness and the joy of grace, even when we blow it, we will be quick to repent and experience afresh the wonders of God’s love…thus entering into the Spirit-filled upward cycle of forgiveness and joy and strength.

There is no one who does not sin…daily…it’s what we choose to do with that sin that makes all the difference. If we beat ourselves up and live in self-condemnation…we will be more open to looking for relief from the pain and will be less equipped to fight against temptation. If we acknowledge afresh our need for amazing grace, we’ll experience forgiveness and will be gripped again by the love of the Father…and we’ll be more equipped to say no to sin and yes to righteousness.

This is why the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is so vital to Christian health…there’s no need to beat ourselves up over sin because Christ’s Body was broken for us; and there’s no need to live with guilt and shame because His blood was shed to grant us full and total forgiveness.
Posted by The Bobosphere at 4:32 AM

My heart breaks when I say that sometimes the people who present themselves as “trustworthy” and “respectable,” are not the best at practicing what they preach and showing others the very traits of God, they persistently reemphasize over and over again.

My heart breaks tonight as I contemplate resorting to an old method of coping to get the pain I feel out.

Let’s hope that this guilt and shame isn’t caused by another Christian.