first

praise God! katie has her FIRST ever, music therapy assignment since moving out here and starting her business. next tuesday she'll be leading a session for some residents of a nursing home in bristol. the coordinator for the home has told katie that, depending on how this first session goes, she would like to come up with a weekly arrangement and also refer her to other homes and care facilities!

pray:
first, thank God for opening up this door.
second, that her session would go well and that any anxiety would be assuaged.
third, that this would lead to other opportunities with this and other facilities.

you can visit katie's music therapy web page here.

prophet series

this semester, journey, the college ministry i lead worship for, is entering into a series on the major prophets of the old testament (minor prophets to come next semester). i'm personally very excited for this series; the prophets are a set of completely understudied books of the Bible, and the passages that are studied frequently leave something to be desired of the remainder of the messages they have to communicate. it's going to be a fun ride!

leading worship for this series has already presented some challenges, given that i enjoy tying the music we sing to the message preached during a given week, but some of the passages we're going to be studying contain language and ideas not commonly stylized for musical purposes. however, one of the themes i have come to associate with studying the prophets is that of God's consistency; His unchanging, eternal nature. Too often it is thought that separation between old and new testament is necessary because God is somehow "different," as though he changed His mind about the whole thing half way through, but the pure and simple truth is that God has remained the same from eternity past and will continue to remain unchanged long after time is measured. so i settled on some songs that communicate God's everlasting quality as "theme song" for this semester. the lyrics of one of them are below, as is the url for the series...check it out!

Everlasting God
Glenn Packiam

One thing I know that I have found
Through all the troubles that surround
You are the Rock that never fails, You never fail.

One thing I know that I believe
Through every blessing I receive
You are the only one that stays, You always stay.

You never change, You’re still the same
You are the Everlasting God
You will remain after the day is gone and the things of earth have passed;
Everlasting God

go here: http://theprophetseries.com

...and please pray for this semester:
-that first of all things, the Spirit would lead the ministry and that God's will would be done.
-that those who attend would be deeply impacted by God's words and unalterably motivated to service for the kingdom of God.
-that those who lead would bathe each and every decision in prayer and follow the Lord's path for His people.
-that an eventual move to a new venue for the ministry will not only go smoothly, but also promote growth and healthy change.

obama

it's hard to know during an election season which candidate to support. most of the time, those who follow the news of the election trail, keep up with the issues, watch the debates, only get to see the side of a candidate that he (or she) chooses to display, but one candidate i have been watching closely for a number of months has, or is (i should say) doing something during the primaries and caucuses that truly shows what kind of president he would be.

it has been reported that barack obama, in the midst of the insanity that are the primary elections, has been negotiating peace with his father's homeland of kenya, africa. between rallies, town hall meetings, and impromptu interviews, sen. obama has been predominantly on the phone with the kenyan government and secretary of state rice trying to aid kenya's journey to democracy by getting the various political factions to talk to each other and "calling for calm."

here's a more comprehensive account from Time writer Joe Klein...

what a remarkable story: while the other presidential candidates clamour about obama's lack of diplomatic experience, here he is, behind the scenes, completely unsung, negotiating international peace when the other candidates can seldom make it back to d.c. for votes on legislation.

new year

happy new year!!

so it's obviously that time of year when the resolutions come out. we've waited all winter, piling on the pounds, ignoring our goals from the previous year, just to make it to january 1 when we can start fresh and be motivated by a new number at the end of the date. honestly, i haven't been much of a proponent for making new year's resolutions since i was about ten and my resolution to become a major league baseball player didn't really pan out, but this year is different, this year is special....this year...i'm getting married.

marriage, or the idea that in less than two months i will be married, has brought about in me a desire for some new kinds of resolutions. sure i want to lose ten pounds by my honeymoon, but there's something else there. there's now a spiritual pressure to be something more than i have been, do something more than i have been doing. it is altogether indescribable, but i do feel it is healthy. God has marked my life by placing challenges in my path to continually transform me into something He can use for His kingdom, and this is a big one, to completely understate it. in 54 days my life will be forever changed by the woman i love joining me in marriage; what then should my resolution be for this new stage? what can i resolve when i don't know what to expect from this year?

i suppose that the best i can do is to resolve to be open to the change God is likely to bring; resolve that life this year will be completely different from all the years past; and that no matter what happens, i must resolve to be God's son and to let His will govern my and katie's life as we start out into the unexpected.

....but i'm still going to loose those ten pounds ;-)