Heart of Worship

When the music fades, and all is stripped away

And I simply come

Longing just to bring, something that's of worth

That will bless Your heart

I'll bring You more than a song, for a song in itself

Is not what You have required

You search much deeper within, through the way things appear

Your looking into my heart

I'm coming back to the heart of worship

And it's all about you, all about You, Jesus

I'm sorry lord for the things I've made it

And it's all about You, all about You, Jesus

written by Matt Redman

modeled by me

At the Tracks

Today I went to take some self photos for my blog page. I wanted to have a picture of myself walking down railroad tracks and talking some more about being on a journey. When I got home and looked at the pictures, well, my blog idea then changed.

As I looked at this first picture I saw myself walking the tracks with motion. Eagarly seeking to get somewhere or do something.

The second had myself just standing, looking forward, waiting and anticipating something down the tracks.

The last picture just has me sitting. Not looking forward and not anticipating anything.

So which picture am I now during my journey between the trees and which should I be?

I long to be moving forward, going to a place, a goal, a purpose.

But should I be in a hurry, or should I just be taking some time to stand, to wait, to seek?

And what about just sitting, not looking forward but maybe just taking some time to listen?

Any Thoughts???

ChapStick Addiction

I found out this summer that I have an addiction. Nope, never knew I had it and didn’t know that other people had it also.

It took an article on the internet to bring it to my attention. Wouldn’t have known I had it if someone hadn’t pointed it out. Good ole’ internet.





See, I’m addicted to some stuff that comes in a cylindrical tube about 2.5 inches tall by 5/8 inches wide.







The first time I can remember needing it was when I went to a two week YMCA camp in the fifth grade. Shortly after I arrived there, my lips started to burn and get chaped. I can remember to this day how irritated my lips became and much they burned.

They started to crack.

I wrote home immediately telling my mother my pain and to quickly send me some ChapStick as fast as she could. This was in the days before the internet existed so I had to count on snail mail.

I can remember waiting each day for the mail to arrive… looking for my package from home. Finally it came, and I think some cookies were included with it!



I must have found some other means of taking care of the problem because I don’t think I would have made it the 5 or 6 days it would have taken for the request to get home and the package to arrive back. Dunno but I do still remember getting it and immediately applying it all over my lips and around the mouth. Couldn’t get too much of that stuff on.
Oh the cool soothing relief it brings.


I swam in chlorinated pools from the 7th grade till I graduated from High School on various swim teams. Being under water several hours a day with dry winter months takes a toll on the lips.

ChapStick was always handy.

Always in my pocket.











I slowly over time became addicted without knowing it.

After I read about ChapStick addiction I started to realize trends that I was not aware of that I did naturally. I could never leave home with out a tube of the stuff in my pocket. I’d almost panic if I had left home and realized that I didn’t have it with me. I may not have needed it at the time, but because it wasn’t with me, all of a sudden my lips would start becoming irritated. I’m sure it was a subconscious thing but no matter.



I was in New Zealand this summer and left my ChapStick behind where I was staying when I went to the movie theater . I really didn't need it but since I didn’t have it…only then did I need it. So I went into a pharmacy and found some on the rack. They only had duel packs and the price… over 6 bucks. But since I didn’t have it with me and I wouldn’t be back to where I was staying for several hours, I bought the 2 pack at the price they wanted. Heck… I was headed to the movie theater where I would be eating salty popcorn… surely I would need it then.



I was set.

Relief

In August I was in a boat with my niece. That’s when I found out that not only are there addicts, there are also pushers. You see, as we were in the boat she whips out her ChapStick and immediately asks everyone in the boat individually if they would like some ChapStick. WOW. Not only was she a user, she wanted others to enjoy her addiction.

She was a pusher


Then I found out there are sites online for ChapStick addicts, this being one of them.
http://www.kevdo.com/lipbalm/addict.html

Is there a plot by the ChapStick manufacturers? Have they made their formulas so that peoples natural lip protections will be broken down and people made to become dependant on there products?



If there is a plot, they have advanced it to trying to entice children and get them addicted early







Then there is the Teenage market where it is no longer cool to have Princess and Winnie the Pooh containers.

So they market it with the extreme name in it.






I’m not buying into the conspiracy anymore! I’m slowly trying to cut back and I’m only buying the non-flavored/non-colored versions.

So I ask you.

Have you been able to read this blog without reaching for some lip balm? If not… maybe you might have to question if you’re an addict too.

Take the quiz

Mitzvot

I learned a new word this week

It’s the Hebrew word Mitzvot .

“The word "mitzvot" means "commandments." In its strictest sense, it refers only to commandments instituted in the Torah; however, the word is commonly used in a more generic sense to include all of the laws, practices and customs of halakhah, and is often used in an even more loose way to refer to any good deed.”

So this definition led me to another new word, halakhah.

I was blown away when I read the definition of this word.

Get this:

The word "halakhah" is usually translated as "Jewish Law," although a more literal translation might be "the path that one walks."

The word is derived from the Hebrew root Heh-Lamed-Kaf, meaning to go, to walk or to travel.

To go… to walk… to travel

Does that describe my life right now or what!

This means then that as we travel and go about our journey (halakhah) we are to do Mitzvot or good deeds.

Why? Well, for one it’s what we were created to do. Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works (Mitzvot), which God prepared in advance for us to do”.

Why would God have us do good deeds?

So even the pagans will glorify God!

To live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you do doing wrong, they may see your good deeds (Mitzvot) and glorify God on the day he visits us.
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds (Mitzvot) and praise your Father in Heaven.


So I was out riding my bicycle this past week and passed a sign in front of a church that said:

“The Best Interpretation Of The Bible Is A Godly Person”

Hit me Right between the eyes because that’s whats really been on my heart.

Not more than two weeks ago I was talking to a friend about not throwing the bible into peoples faces. The best way to preach the bible is to know it so well that it just extrudes out of your pores through your life. You don't have to quote the bible chapter and verse, but you can live the bible truths through your life and preach it that way.


Which leads me to the point of this Blog.

It’s not preaching the word of God, being a bible thumper, knowing all the right answers or the condemning of people that is going to get Jesus message across.

It’s Mitzvot, good deeds that people are going to see and want to know what makes you different.

I wanted a picture of a person with a bullhorn for this blog so I “Google Imaged” Bullhorn. I was immediately taken to this site: http://preachtruth.org/.

They had these images showing that 1 picture is worth 1000 words. http://preachtruth.org/1000words.html.

How about this school of evangelism where they teach “confrontational evangelism”.

Then there was this site: http://www.frontiernet.net/~avtruth/

Check out this guys flash site and click on Campus Preaching when it has finished loading.

Do you find love and Mitzvot on these sites?

I have always been embarrassed as a Christian when I have come upon these people. I feel like the lines are crooked and I don’t know what side of the line to stand on. On one hand, they are my brothers and I should support them… but on the other I feel for the person that is being preached to. Its actually inhibited my wanting to share my faith with strangers, because I’m so put off with these kind of people.




Does God use this form of Evangelism or are we called to Mitzvot?

What do you think?

…faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

.

Small World?

How big is your world?

As a kid, my world was as big as my yard.
Later, I ventured to the neighbors houses.
Then came riding a bicycle and going around the block.
The next big step was leaving the neighborhood and entering another.
A car, WOW, I was able to see the town and then with experience, able to visit another.
We begin our journey in a small environment where we are protected by our parents from harm.
Later, with trust, we are allowed to expand our horizons and explore further.
The transportation that we have used starts with walking, to riding, to driving, and then flying. With each step we take, the world that we grow up in seems smaller and smaller.
This past weekend I experienced how communication also makes our world and lives more connected.
My friend Angele Gerten was in the midst of a two week mission trip to the Fiji Islands where she was working with Habitat For Humanity in a small isolated village. 17 out of 22 members of her team came down with a virus. 15 recovered fairly soon except for Angele and a guy named Marty. These two were carried out of the village, floated across a river and loaded on a flat bed truck and then driven to a hospital. They were both seriously sick with Marty drifting in and out of consciousness.
Saturday Morning I got the call.
It came from Andrea, Angeles step sister. She told me the news of how they were in trouble. She heard it from Angeles mother Lisa after Angele was able to phone her from the hospital she was in.
Ryan, Angeles husband, didn’t know. He was on a camping trip in New Zealand.
I call Brett Jones, the Pastor of CessionsCommunity Church that Ryan is a Worship Pastor at in New Zealand, to tell him the news, for him to try to contact Ryan.
So with in a very small time communication was made from Fiji to Detroit MI to Lowell MI to Battle Creek MI and then to New Zealand.
Pray circles were notified, emails made, blog sites updated and Instant messages sent.
Countless people all over the world in homes and Churches were immediately praying for their recovery and safety.
With each step we take from our protected environments and safety from our family, communities and support, to reach out to a needy world, I learn also how small our world is. How even though we are far from each other at times, we can still immediately support each other.
Angele and Marty are recovering and have returned to the village.

My world just keeps getting smaller.

Between the trees

There are two prominent trees talked about in the Bible. The first tree is found in the second chapter of Genesis and is called the tree of life. The second tree is found in the last chapter of Revelations and is also called the tree of life.

Between the two trees we are told many stories of people of faith. Stories of victory and stories of sorrow. Stories to help us on our journeys. Stories that we can learn from. Stories that are timeless, and tell of a universal truth. Stories of people following Gods leading and living for him and his plans and story and not their own. People, technology, governments may change, but not the word of God. His truths live forever.

Many people think that we are to accept what Jesus has done for us on the cross, saving us of our sins, and that’s it. They have accepted the ticket to heaven, there salvation secure, so they just wait for Jesus’ return.
Is the only point in living getting people to believe as I do and getting to the same place and waiting?

God wants so much more for us than that. He wants us to be part of the story... His Story. To enter into his work that he is continuing to do on this Earth. He wants us to live between the trees. God uses us to bring heaven to earth here and now. A follower of Jesus is a person that is living and is never going to stop living.

So that is what I long for… To enter into and be part of Gods story… not my own. So when I’m gone, people can look and see my part in Gods story, living in faith....

Tanner Ridge,

Living between the trees.