Earth is salted with beauty that leaves us wanting more

Ecclesiastes 3:11  “He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but man cannot discover the work God has done from beginning to end.”

God has strewn exquisite beauty all around us, but only on a sample platter.  Beauty, says Ecclesiastes, has a time-limit.  Just a taste here, a glimpse there, a fleeting touch, and then it’s over.  God sprinkles just enough eternity over us to make earth feel incomplete.  We sense it in our souls -- earth’s paradises are only appetizers, leaving us hungry for more. 

Is life just a tragic comedy that means nothing?  So the best you can do is follow Solomon’s philosophy to eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow you die. Or could it be that God has brushed the commonplace with the scent of Another Place to lead us to the one place where we can find what we’re looking for?  Maybe all our unfulfilled longings are meant to drive us to God Himself.

Everything in the world and in the Word points here. 

Romans 1:20 makes this connection as well:  “From the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse.”  

Psalm 19:1-2 tells us that “the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands. Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge.” 

God wants us to find our happiness in Him, the only One who can fill the hollow places of our soul. 

Holy Gossip - is there such a thing?

Did you know Gossip is related to the word for godparent, so it has a holy derivation. I was shocked when I discovered this! Unholy gossip is bad, of course, but I have a healthy respect for holy gossip.

I love the time just before prayer meeting starts on Sunday mornings where we sit in the peacefulness of the sanctuary and in that holy environment we contemplate the week past and all the people we have met and shared with, what's really been happening, and we share the joys and concerns for our church family and the community.   This is an amazing way to get focussed before the Lord and pray with holy intent.

Holy gossip is so much a part of being a member of community - staying in touch with friends, neighbours and relatives - does he really want to see people, or is he too tired? Should I drop in today? That is good gossip. This not only helps with prayer but also it helps me know who to ring or bump into during the coming week.

I personally believe holy gossip helps us build a stronger church community - which in turn makes a more positive impact on our community!

 

What was God thinking?

This is certainly an accurate description of the beginning of the Christian movement. I doubt that any of us would have devised God's invasion of human history the way he did.

Jesus was born as an apparently illegitimate child to an unmarried couple who were obscure members of a small nation on the outskirts of the Roman Empire. He lived in such obscurity that apart from the New Testament we know very little about him (although the Roman and Jewish historical references corroborate the New Testament). His brief three-year public ministry ended apparently in complete failure: rejected by his people, betrayed by one of his disciples, deserted by the rest, condemned by Rome, and erased in the most ignominious form of execution.

Even though his disciples claimed he was the Messiah who was raised from the dead, they were hardly the kind of people you would expect to start a worldwide movement. They were blue-collar workers who came from the wrong part of Israel and had no formal education, military might, or political clout. This movement should have evaporated like hundreds of other small religious sects.

How many of you like Math?

Thought you might like a math lesson to find out how much God loves us.

From a strictly mathematical viewpoint:

What Equals 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?

Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%?

We have all been in situations where someone wants you to GIVE OVER 100%.

How about ACHIEVING 101%?

What equals 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula for our math lesson that might help answer these questions:

If:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Is represented as:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

If:

H-A-R-D-W-O-R- K    8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

And:

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E    11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But:

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E    1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

THEN, look how far the love of God will take you:

L-O-V-E-O-F-G-O-D    12+15+22+5+15+6+7+15+4 = 101%

Therefore, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that:

While Hard Work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, it's the Love of God that will put you over the top!

Electronic Music

We have no musicians here in Scottsdale - so the use of electronic music is the go.  SO we have added to our cd & dvd collection to cover the necessary music we require.  Among these have been the Hallelujah Choruses - I have always loved playing them in the band & it is great to have the Norridge Citadel Band at our meetings each week to play for us.  For those older folks in our congregation they have appreciated the brass in the accompaniment and are quite enjoying the more modern songs [1980 is modern compared to most in our song book].  Here is one we have used a couple of times now leading into our prayer time.

When I look into Your holiness

by Wayne & Cathy Perrin ©1980 Integrity Music:

When I look into Your holiness,
When I gaze into Your loveliness,

When all things that surround
Become shadows in the light of you;


When I've found the joy of reaching Your heart,
When my will becomes enthralled in Your love,
When all things that surround
Become shadows in the light of you.


I worship You, I worship You,
The reason I live is to worship you.
I worship You, I worship You,
The reason I live is to worship you.

I love how music brings us into the presence of God!!!