| Jennifer's profileThe Moore the MerrierPhotosBlogLists |  Tools  Help |
The Moore the Merrier |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
November 13 It was what it was I should have waited until I had thought it through better. I should have waited until I had time to word it better. I should have waited until I had eaten dinner and things around here were quieter. I was not well-advised. I still maintain that I am not bitter. I still maintain that I am greatly grieved by the hurt Christ's redeemed have suffered unjustly. The timing and the wording were not well-advised. As you can see, I repented of my former work. It is gone. I will take better care in the future. changed my mindProverbs 13:10 November 06 It's been a rough month The week before Rod left, I was sick. When mom is sick, nothing gets done around the house. Why? I'm not sure. So, the house was a wreck when I finally began to feel human again. I spent a couple of days getting it back into shape, and I had to get Rod ready to leave. Before that week was out, I was having pain. Not severe the first couple of days, but it began to become more severe. It was so bad by Monday that I went into urgent care. My doctor has moved to Wilsonville, and that was further than I felt like driving. After a quick look at my symptoms, the doctor at u.c. sent me to get an ultrasound. Now, before anyone gets too excited, this ultrasound was to check for gallstones. The ultrasound came back "clean." In other words, no gallstones are present in my gall bladder. So, my pain continues. I got in to see Dr. Miller who is the world's best doctor as far as I'm concerned. He asked a few questions and sent me home with an order for a HIDA scan. I went in for that on Wednesday. I had to be fasting. I would lie on the MRI table with a camera positioned over me for an hour and a half. I would have a radioactive tracer injected that would localize in the gallbladder; then I would have a chemical injected that would cause the gallbladder to eject the contents. The results would be run through some software to measure the efficiency of the gallbladder. Those tests results should be in today. In the meantime, I am still having severe bouts of pain. And, yes, Rod is still out of town. Other interesting things always happen when Rod is gone. Kids begin to sleep in weird places. Sarah slept in the laundry bucket last night. Toys get melted on lightbulbs (accidentally forgotten after games of hide-and-seek.) Storms are wilder. Children are grumpier. I am sleepier. Oh well. Life is life. Things happen. You figure out how to deal with them and move on. I haven't quite figured out how to deal with the pain I'm in, but I will. God always knows what's going on. He is always there to help His child move through it all. It's all good because HE is good. November 01 Just a verse tonight
It is indeed quite special to be called Christ's friend. October 25 This does not computeOkay, seriously, my blood is boiling. How can you stand in a pulpit and tell me that I need to love the Word of God when you never open it? How can you tell me I need to have a daily relationship with God's Word and memorize when you only vaguely quote verses and never give references? Isn't that a bit disingenuous of you?
I am sitting here still shaking my head at that. That was a motivational speech. It was not preaching. Preaching involves taking God's Word and making it plain. Read the Bible. Preaching is defined in there. If you say you love the Word, then take IT seriously. Wow. Just Wow.Usually that silly little phrase is used for performances that are less than stellar. In this case, I'm using it because there are no other words to describe my son's performance yesterday.
Yesterday we had the USWC President's Cup 2009 Taekwondo tournament. Mike was signed up for three events.
Event number one is his weakest area...Poomse, or forms. These are routines that they must know in order to pass on to higher belts. In the tournament, they perform the poomse for their current belt. He took third place out of three competitors. That made him very sad. Master Michael and Miss Amanda helped encourage him.
Event number two is board breaking which is, I would say, his best event. He is very good at breaking boards. He took second out of three competitors. If he had been able to break all five boards with one kick, he would have taken first. One kick took three tries. Not bad at all.
Event number three is sparring. Sparring is arranged like this: one minute spar, thirty seconds rest with coach, one minute spar. With only three entrants, the winner of the first contest will spar the third person. So, in about forty-five seconds, Mike scored seven points on his opponent. When one opponent scores like that, the match is called and winner is declared. This meant that Mike would spar the second opponent. Now the second opponent had a very bad habit. He liked to grab and hold Mike's leg when he kicked. That is a no-no. He lost a point. Mike scored four points. Opponent scored one. Mike then went to his coach for the thirty second rest. Within thirty seconds of the second half of the round, Mike scored four more points. The match was called and Mike took first place.
The boy floated off the mats.
Now, if you could see him spar in class, you would have gone into the sparring match as I did--sure he was going to lose. Somewhere, though, he found the determination to be as good as he could. He was pleased with his efforts and came home with a new determination to do better    October 10 The four basic prayers in churchThere are four basic prayers in church. The first is the opening prayer. In many Baptist churches (since I am familiar with those), it is not much more than reminding the people why they are there. This prayer typically is a pre-sermon message to the people. Not often do I hear them truly to God. The second is the offering prayer. I'm not sure why we pray before the offering, but these typically turn out to be prayers to remind us why we are giving and that we should give and how we should give. Rarely are these truly offered up to God. The third prayer is the pre-invitation prayer which is most likely going to be a re-preaching of the sermon. This prayer is never to God. The last prayer is the closing prayer which will likely be a reminder that we are to be there for the next service. Again, this is not a prayer to God.
So, why do we pray? We aren't truly addressing our prayers to God. We are addressing the people. So then, it isn't prayer at all. Why are we wasting our time on them?
That said, I've noticed something wonderful of late in my own church. The pre-offering prayers are offered by the ushers. A few of the ushers have begun praying prayers that address God. It is actually quite encouraging. I hope that more of them get the picture and address our God instead of me (and others in the congregation.)
I hope that some of you who happen by and read will tell me that your churches are doing well in this area. I'm not convinced it is so, because I remember hearing Curtis Hutson preach and mock those prayers that don't address God. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Send a private message
Subscribe to RSS feed
Tell a friend
Add to My MSN
Add to your network
Sign up for alerts
|
|
