My friend Brian preached a few weeks ago, and I was able to look up his sermon online today. (Message me if you want the URL... it was a good sermon). I could probably write an entire blog on six or eight of his points, but then I really wouldn't get any homework done. Let me mull through a few more points before I share them, but this one is among my favorite.
His main point for the message was talking about preparing the soil, pruning, and producing (harvesting) our lives. With that said, he went on talk about how life is messy. It's full of crap. Yes, he said "crap" from the pulpit. He went on to talk about how the best fertilizer is made of crap. Fertilizer is vital to preparing the soil. Fertilizer, like life, is made of crap. In order to prepare our lives for pruning and changing, we have to experience crap. Life is messy. It happens.
Imagine what God is doing through the crap in your life and how fertile He is making the soil. Just remember, the pruning stage comes next, and it isn't easy either.
In Christ,
<>< Katie
"It has given me great joy to find some of your children are walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I am not writing to you a new command but one we have had from the beginning: I ask that we love one another." 2 John 4-5
Monday, March 30, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Musical Hallucination
God likes to speak to me through music. I've awful at learning music, but I love to learn from music. I am almost always having a musical hallucination. It's only fitting since my twin brother, Nathaniel, is a worship leader. Well, tonight, Nathaniel was leading worship and for some reason the PowerPoints did not match what he was singing (this is actually a frequent occurrence, for those who've worshiped with Nathaniel). This time the PowerPoints were wrong, not him. So he told us to just listen (actually, I heard him say, "Sing with me now" when there were no words... I later learned he'd said, "I'll sing now."
There we are, singing a popular worship song, and the audience participation is flopping because the PowerPoint is messed up. How often do we sing that song? Every week? Every two weeks? Either way, if we sing along every word on a regular basis when the PowerPoint is up, yet we can't sing it at all when the PowerPoint is missing, how much attention are we really playing? Are we so focused on our singing to God that we're missing what we're actually saying to Him? One thing I'm trying to do lately, is actually read the words you're singing. There are a lot of lines that are suddenly clarified. There are a lot of lines that are really hard to sing, lyrically. Give it a try this week.
In Christ,
<>< Katie
There we are, singing a popular worship song, and the audience participation is flopping because the PowerPoint is messed up. How often do we sing that song? Every week? Every two weeks? Either way, if we sing along every word on a regular basis when the PowerPoint is up, yet we can't sing it at all when the PowerPoint is missing, how much attention are we really playing? Are we so focused on our singing to God that we're missing what we're actually saying to Him? One thing I'm trying to do lately, is actually read the words you're singing. There are a lot of lines that are suddenly clarified. There are a lot of lines that are really hard to sing, lyrically. Give it a try this week.
In Christ,
<>< Katie
Friday, March 27, 2009
Clue Number One
On March 21, my friend Jonathan celebrated his birthday. Even though it's late, this still calls for a clever Jonathan story... that requires a lot of thought. Just kidding. :-)
While stories like the orange construction cone and "famous last words" will always have a special place in my heart, I decided on a different story. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Jonathan was one of the people who went on my mission trip to Mississippi several years ago. Our entire group (and several hundred of our closest friends) slept in the church sanctuary. Jonathan and his dad each pulled two pews together and formed beds for themselves. My mom and I slept on an air mattress next to them. One night, I was in bed, and I rolled over to see six-foot Jonathan STANDING in bed trying to get out of the "house" (that's what we called the area where the 15 of us were sleeping...). Unfortunately we were packed in like sardines in a can, so the only way out was to step on someone's head or to walk across the pews.
Since I'm the silliest at night (being with Mom didn't help, of course), I couldn't resist the urge to voice my comment regarding the situation.
"You're STANDING on God's couch!"
I wanted to pull the "teacher card" and be like "Do you stand on your own couch at home? Then don't stand on God's couch either." Actually, I found the whole situation hilarious. And "You're standing on God's couch" is one of those lines that will always make me laugh.
In writing that, I thought of another funny story...
Jonathan and I were in his living room writing a song. There's a huge window in the front of his house and the weather was overcast. His mom came in and said,
"Dad just called and thought we should know we're in a tornado watch."
"Ok. Let us know if it becomes tornado warning," Jonathan responded and we went back to song-writing.
Tornado watch? No big deal.
Tornado warning. Good to know.
<>< Katie
While stories like the orange construction cone and "famous last words" will always have a special place in my heart, I decided on a different story. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Jonathan was one of the people who went on my mission trip to Mississippi several years ago. Our entire group (and several hundred of our closest friends) slept in the church sanctuary. Jonathan and his dad each pulled two pews together and formed beds for themselves. My mom and I slept on an air mattress next to them. One night, I was in bed, and I rolled over to see six-foot Jonathan STANDING in bed trying to get out of the "house" (that's what we called the area where the 15 of us were sleeping...). Unfortunately we were packed in like sardines in a can, so the only way out was to step on someone's head or to walk across the pews.
Since I'm the silliest at night (being with Mom didn't help, of course), I couldn't resist the urge to voice my comment regarding the situation.
"You're STANDING on God's couch!"
I wanted to pull the "teacher card" and be like "Do you stand on your own couch at home? Then don't stand on God's couch either." Actually, I found the whole situation hilarious. And "You're standing on God's couch" is one of those lines that will always make me laugh.
In writing that, I thought of another funny story...
Jonathan and I were in his living room writing a song. There's a huge window in the front of his house and the weather was overcast. His mom came in and said,
"Dad just called and thought we should know we're in a tornado watch."
"Ok. Let us know if it becomes tornado warning," Jonathan responded and we went back to song-writing.
Tornado watch? No big deal.
Tornado warning. Good to know.
<>< Katie
Monday, March 16, 2009
Hola
Long time no chat!
Comments make my day, so when there are no comments this isn't much incentive to blog more. If you take the time to read it, take the time to lemme know you read it. :-)
I just got back from a mission trip, and so I'm formulating my experiences into words. Hopefully there will be some fun stories/ lessons mixed in with the amazing memories.
Learning to listen,
<>< Katie
Comments make my day, so when there are no comments this isn't much incentive to blog more. If you take the time to read it, take the time to lemme know you read it. :-)
I just got back from a mission trip, and so I'm formulating my experiences into words. Hopefully there will be some fun stories/ lessons mixed in with the amazing memories.
Learning to listen,
<>< Katie
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
καλός
As a part of one of my classes, we have a weekly tradition of singing an ancient Greek song. It wasn't, so we made up a reason to sing. Sometimes we sing because someone's sick. Sometimes we sing because someone's feeling better. Sometimes we sing for birthdays. Sometimes we make up fake birthdays. Sometimes we sing just because we want to sing. On Monday the professor asked if it was anybody's birthday. It wasn't, but my half birthday is this week. I told him that and he decided that was a good enough reason to sing.
I was then forced to come to the front of the room and stand directly in the light from the LCD projector onto the screen. Instead of allowing me to stand there and look silly, he put my hands on my head and I kind of looked like a moose. (This is the same professor I ran into at IHOP two weeks ago with his grandkids, and I wanted to shoot a straw wrapper across the restaurant at him. He told me he wished I would have not because I would have hit him, but because it would have been funny to watch me try). Anyway.
I stood there and they all sang to me in Greek. When we finished, he looked at me with my moose antlers being blinded by the LCD projector, and noticed something. New Testament Survey class turned sermon for a moment there. Jesus's name was being projected on my forehead (ok, it was really the first five letters of "Jerusalem", but I moved and then we got "Jesus" on my forehead). Shouldn't having Jesus on our forehead's being the goal of all people? Living so He is seen instead of us should be the ultimate reason to sing.
καλός
<>< Katie
I was then forced to come to the front of the room and stand directly in the light from the LCD projector onto the screen. Instead of allowing me to stand there and look silly, he put my hands on my head and I kind of looked like a moose. (This is the same professor I ran into at IHOP two weeks ago with his grandkids, and I wanted to shoot a straw wrapper across the restaurant at him. He told me he wished I would have not because I would have hit him, but because it would have been funny to watch me try). Anyway.
I stood there and they all sang to me in Greek. When we finished, he looked at me with my moose antlers being blinded by the LCD projector, and noticed something. New Testament Survey class turned sermon for a moment there. Jesus's name was being projected on my forehead (ok, it was really the first five letters of "Jerusalem", but I moved and then we got "Jesus" on my forehead). Shouldn't having Jesus on our forehead's being the goal of all people? Living so He is seen instead of us should be the ultimate reason to sing.
καλός
<>< Katie
Thursday, January 29, 2009
The Lord, OUR GOD, is Holy.
Every January, my school this week of three nightly services and two morning services (normally we have one of each). This years' speakers were not my favorite, and I contemplated not going. I finally decided I'd go not because I like the messenger but because I love the One sending the message.
Well, I got lots of messages.
- God calls us to practice and teach. (Not just teach).
- In Matthew 7, Jesus basically says, "You're a dork."
- "Let your yeses be yes and your nos be no. And let your actions agree.
- We're not free because we have a hard time freeing ourselves from our past, people's expectations, and and our perceptions.
For tonight's service, a friend and I were asked to quote some scriptures and handed a page to memorize. Just the two of us. An entire page of Bible verses. In front of a plethora of people. Memorized. Microphone. The whole schebang.
Remember the little 5th grade girl who could hardly be heard in the first row of the stage much less the back? Yeah, she's gone. My friend and I were told that we wouldn't really need a microphone, but they wanted us to have one anyway. We both stood at least an arm's width away from the mic, so I don't even know how much of us it picked up.
Well, we got through it, and I only stumbled over one word. I couldn't properly pronounce the word "awesome" because my mouth wasn't working properly. That's it. The rest of it was there. Nice and slowly, too! But I can't take credit for any of it. There were times up on that stage where I had no idea what the next line was, but it came out.
Before the service, we prayed (like eight times). I prayed that God would be seen tonight tonight. I said if people saw David or Katie or Tara or Nathaniel or Matt then we'd failed. We'd all failed. It's not the messengers that need to be seen. It's the One sending the message. (That was my personal theme for this week). Well, when I finished I sat back down in the same seat I've sat in for the last three nights (the company has just changed over time).
"I had no idea I was sitting with a star," Sarah said. I smiled politely but the inside of me broke. That was exactly the opposite of what I'd prayed for.
God and I had a little discussion. I'm sure it's not the last time we'll have to have this chat. Truth be told, the only thing I did tonight is get my lazy butt out of the chair and let Him use me. It was terrifying, but it was so worth it.
I was talking to Sarah again afterwards and she said she was going to go fellowship. I told her I was leaving before fellowshipping (SHOCKER! That's something my church does well!) because I was didn't want to hear people tell me I did a good job. In all actuality, it was God who did a great job! (And I felt really corny saying that).
I'm not one to pull the "Statue of Liberty" or even a "Fork Lift"... I grew up in a church where we were lucky if we got more than the praise team clapping. There are probably three songs where my hands will go in the air. Our last song tonight was one of those. What better way to end a fantastic week but by singing:
I'll stand,
with arms high and heart abandoned.
In awe, of the One who gave it all.
I'll stand,
my soul, Lord, to You surrendered
all i am is Yours.
God is good,
<>< Katie
"Ascribe to the Lord the glory do to His name. Bring an offering and come before Him. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness."
Well, I got lots of messages.
- God calls us to practice and teach. (Not just teach).
- In Matthew 7, Jesus basically says, "You're a dork."
- "Let your yeses be yes and your nos be no. And let your actions agree.
- We're not free because we have a hard time freeing ourselves from our past, people's expectations, and and our perceptions.
For tonight's service, a friend and I were asked to quote some scriptures and handed a page to memorize. Just the two of us. An entire page of Bible verses. In front of a plethora of people. Memorized. Microphone. The whole schebang.
Remember the little 5th grade girl who could hardly be heard in the first row of the stage much less the back? Yeah, she's gone. My friend and I were told that we wouldn't really need a microphone, but they wanted us to have one anyway. We both stood at least an arm's width away from the mic, so I don't even know how much of us it picked up.
Well, we got through it, and I only stumbled over one word. I couldn't properly pronounce the word "awesome" because my mouth wasn't working properly. That's it. The rest of it was there. Nice and slowly, too! But I can't take credit for any of it. There were times up on that stage where I had no idea what the next line was, but it came out.
Before the service, we prayed (like eight times). I prayed that God would be seen tonight tonight. I said if people saw David or Katie or Tara or Nathaniel or Matt then we'd failed. We'd all failed. It's not the messengers that need to be seen. It's the One sending the message. (That was my personal theme for this week). Well, when I finished I sat back down in the same seat I've sat in for the last three nights (the company has just changed over time).
"I had no idea I was sitting with a star," Sarah said. I smiled politely but the inside of me broke. That was exactly the opposite of what I'd prayed for.
God and I had a little discussion. I'm sure it's not the last time we'll have to have this chat. Truth be told, the only thing I did tonight is get my lazy butt out of the chair and let Him use me. It was terrifying, but it was so worth it.
I was talking to Sarah again afterwards and she said she was going to go fellowship. I told her I was leaving before fellowshipping (SHOCKER! That's something my church does well!) because I was didn't want to hear people tell me I did a good job. In all actuality, it was God who did a great job! (And I felt really corny saying that).
I'm not one to pull the "Statue of Liberty" or even a "Fork Lift"... I grew up in a church where we were lucky if we got more than the praise team clapping. There are probably three songs where my hands will go in the air. Our last song tonight was one of those. What better way to end a fantastic week but by singing:
I'll stand,
with arms high and heart abandoned.
In awe, of the One who gave it all.
I'll stand,
my soul, Lord, to You surrendered
all i am is Yours.
God is good,
<>< Katie
"Ascribe to the Lord the glory do to His name. Bring an offering and come before Him. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness."
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Brian's Big Mess
Neither Amber nor I wanted to go to church this morning. It's really hard to get up early to go to a church you don't love. We were both dragging our feet because we were exhausted, but we went anyway.
We got there and managed to find ourselves in the first row (AHH!!! Cardinal sin in the Lutheran church). Across the aisle was worship leader Brian and his wife Emily (who we know from school). Well, halfway through the sermon, Amber and I hear a huge SPLASH and our eyes dart to Brian and Emily. Brian spilled his glass of water on the floor. Not just any glass of water. A HUGE glass of water and it went all over himself, his Bible, the floor, and almost all over me, too!
We laughed histerically as this huge puddle spanned the aisle. I'm really glad no one came down for the altar call because I am quite sure they would have tripped. (And it would have been my responsibility save them... wouldn't that be a great, "How'd you break your arm?" story?). The usher during the offering came by and had to step very carefully as he looked down disapprovingly at the mess. He quickly came back and mopped it up... in the middle of the service... as he sang praises to God. :-)
After church Brian teased that he was cleansed for the sin of wrinkles. Don't know you the 11th Commandment? Thou shall not have wrinkled pants on Sunday. What does this mean? We should fear and love God that we eliminate ourselves from wrinkles or face the dreaded water cup. :-)
In Christ,
<>< Katie
We got there and managed to find ourselves in the first row (AHH!!! Cardinal sin in the Lutheran church). Across the aisle was worship leader Brian and his wife Emily (who we know from school). Well, halfway through the sermon, Amber and I hear a huge SPLASH and our eyes dart to Brian and Emily. Brian spilled his glass of water on the floor. Not just any glass of water. A HUGE glass of water and it went all over himself, his Bible, the floor, and almost all over me, too!
We laughed histerically as this huge puddle spanned the aisle. I'm really glad no one came down for the altar call because I am quite sure they would have tripped. (And it would have been my responsibility save them... wouldn't that be a great, "How'd you break your arm?" story?). The usher during the offering came by and had to step very carefully as he looked down disapprovingly at the mess. He quickly came back and mopped it up... in the middle of the service... as he sang praises to God. :-)
After church Brian teased that he was cleansed for the sin of wrinkles. Don't know you the 11th Commandment? Thou shall not have wrinkled pants on Sunday. What does this mean? We should fear and love God that we eliminate ourselves from wrinkles or face the dreaded water cup. :-)
In Christ,
<>< Katie
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