His Grace Is Sufficient

I think that I might do some writing on the whole Nashville experience this coming week, perhaps Wednesday. But I wanted to share something that I learned about this evening, something about worship. Now, with the speaker (who I'll keep nameless), I did have my theological goggles on...there was definately some crap to sort through, but he did a fairly good job of presenting this idea, and these are some ideas that I formulated from what he was talking about.

Worship is not some convoluted style or styling, but a response to what he has done for us. We touch God's heart only when we are in His hands.
--Is this not something that we need to take a look at in the LCMS? Does it truly matter if God's people are rocking out to him with a praise band there or if a church is singing in angelic form to a great hymn? I don't think that God cares about the music, but it is where the heart is. Are we being allowed to be directed at Him, forgoing ourselves for him? It doesn't matter what form of music we sing, it can easily become some product of ourselves and the boasting that can result from worshiping how well we "worshipped" God. I will say that I enjoy a Chris Tomlin or David Crowder praise song over a song from the TLH or LW, but there are also great hymns that I love to sing as well. (Thy Strong Word and A Mighty Fortress to name two.) And both sides of the asile here make valid points, but there valid points overshadow their own shortcomings as well too. (I won't make any specific remarks concerning a particular argument, but just note that it is there.)

Luther's stance on worship and piety is necessary, or better yet, key!
--No, the speaker didn't talk about this...at all. But, what the speaker said reminded me of Luther and how much he looked to the worship of a believer as being a key aspect of who he/she is. I don't have any specific quotes from Luther on this, but it is more of a summary of how Luther felt on worship. But the big thing that I want to say about Luther and self-piety, which is a good thing!, is that Luther talked about remembering our baptism every morning. Why? Because it reminds us of who we are, what Christ did for us, and that our sins are cast away from us. It's also a great start to your day. Try crossing yourself each morning just before you crawl out of bed...I struggle keeping a habit on this, but it's something I want to be doing.

We need to stay away from consummerism worship ("all about me" worship) and cling to consumed worship ("all about God" worship...the speaker used another term, I liked this one better, probably because of my favorite Bible passage- Jere. 20:9). Somethings that were spoken of that are in contrast between the two were:
performance/God's requirement
feels good/hurts good
(These last two work for all types of worship!)
use up the song- repetitious/use up the singer
find this category in the store/cannot be categorized.
--I think that both sides of this worship argument have lost their first love. And it has now become a product...a product of ourselves that deliver what we want, inward driven worship. Think about that.

So, I've been reflecting on 2 Corinthians 12:9. Where Jesus says that His grace is sufficient enough for us. It is true. It doesn't matter whether we are at a high point or a low one...I've been on a rollercoaster ride this weekend...but it is His grace that remains ever before us, leading us and guilding us. His love never leaves, but it is always abounding in so much more than we can ever imagine. "Holy is the Lord God Almighty, the earth reveals His glory!" -Chris Tomlin.

Happy Veteran's Day!

This holiday is probably one of the most overlooked holidays on our calendar. I never had this day off in school when I was growing up, but I do remember through 3rd grade having Columbus Day off...until some truths about that horrible man surfaced to the attention of Minnesota Independent School District 112- which was the school district that I grew up in. Only when I went to school at the University of North Dakota, did I get the chance to have that day off...a state that honors our veterans.
So, this is my grrr for the week is that we do not do enough to remember those who have served and those who do serve. The thing that pisses me off the most is when people are bickering and arguing about our current war! Okay, the facts are that we knew about Sadaam's WMD program in the late 90's and did nothing about that, other than to try to push some obviously useless sanctions through one of the most corrupt systems in our world- United Nations. Bill Clinton out right failed our country/world's security by not doing something more. Further, if we would have had a Republican controlled congress in the early 90's, G.H.W. Bush would have been able to topple Sadaam then. (Sad enough is that we put him into power and that we fought them while they were using some of our old weapons.)
Back to the WMD thing, we have intelligence reports from a vast majority of the countries that do undercover work that Iraq really did have them...so it wasn't something that G.W. Bush simply made up. He used all the intelligence that we had available to make a decision. Further, would you rather have freakin terrorists blowing up buildings on our turf, or theirs? I say that it was a good thing to invade Iraq, because it brought the war to their home turf and then allows us to get at them where they are at. But then we have the media in our country that doesn't bolster our government, that doesn't give morale to those who are fighting for our country, but they slander our government and in doing that, they slander our troops! Media outlets like MSNBC, CNN, and so many liberal, left-wing newspapers that control something like 75% of all newspapers. Foxnews does lean more to the right, but gives the opportunity to lean in the middle. The media shouldn't be telling us their version of any story! They should leave the polar-ness of any story up to the viewers/readers of whatever local news outlet exists. But instead we have the media, oh- this includes Hollywood!, that is the culprit of dividing our country, along with extremist politicians and judges.I honestly think that both political parties offer many good ideas and concepts, but they problem is that they spend too much money on wasteful endeavors. The other major problem is that we really only have a 2-party system, which doesn't work, we need more major parties, and other parties need more freedom to have their candidates to be put on ballots. One system that I like is the one that many parliaments have, which is where the different parties have to put together a coalition to have their "congresses" operate. That could prove to be beneficial here. But because of how polarly extreme our country has become...there's little hope of getting out of the status quo, which is Latin for "the mess we are in."
Okay, enough of that...I'm getting all railed up! Anyhoo, this week has been a good week! Lots of rest, lots of work done! I was able to finish my sermon for Sunday on Wednesday, a couple days earlier than last time. And all of the meetings that I had this week went well too. Youth group was pretty fun on Wednesday, we talked about families...which went okay. I sometimes wonder how we could have better studies...hmmm. I don't know what it is, but I feel that my groups just don't get a lot out of the study...maybe that's just the way I see things too.
This weekend should be interesting- we have a wedding at our church here this weekend, so I get to see how PB does that. Tonight, after the rehersal, I'm going over to a friends house to watch Episode 3...which is always a good movie to watch. And then on Sunday I get to preach again!
Best Idea today: Frosty! It tasted so good after my workout...kinda an oxymoron there...workout, eat fast food.
Worst Idea today: Getting upset and stupid Florida drivers....man, I feel my roadrage coming back!

Well, I'm still here!

All Saint's Day went well. It was a long day though. And I didn't get a chance to workout, which was something that I had wanted to do...but a day off is good too.
I had my meeting with Dr. Neilsen yesterday, which went well. We talked about somethings that have been happening on my vicarage and what not. He helped me to see somethings that I hadn't expected to have happen with me, further he gave me some necessary advice too. (Sorry about the lack of specifics, but I think that there isn't a need for me to go into those details...) I must admit that I do get uptight around quite a few Seminary people, even some Synod people, which is weird and it is hard to explain why sometimes too. With the Sem. people, I think that it's because they have so much control over what will happen with me over the next couple of years yet and I feel that I cannot be myself around them. But, I felt more comfortable with Dr. Neilsen once we started talking.
Monday night into Tuesday was not the greatest night of sleep ever. I was thinking about so many different things...however, none of those "things" concerned my meeting with Dr. Neilsen. One of my problems is that I think way too much! I should stop doing that! Last night's rest was great! One of the best nights of sleep that I've had in a long time.
My Church 101 class went well. I had 5 people there, we were hoping for more, but 5 people is still great! We are starting with the basics from the Bible, about God's amazing grace, and also as a guide we are using "God for Us," which is a CPH publication for adult confirmation. I hope that they have more questions next week when we talk about: "How do we know?" (That's in talking about God, how do we know that He exists?) So, I'm looking forward to that. Speaking of things to look forward to, this Friday is supposed to be the junior high lock-in, which should be pretty good...hopefully we get enough kids! (I've found that it's hard to get that age group involved, which I find interesting...I thought that we'd have more problems getting high schoolers involved.) I'm glad that this weekend will be pretty busy, a nice change in pace! Go Gators! (Honestly, I don't care...about them; it's the experience that I'm looking forward to!)
About a month ago, we had a memorial service for a woman named Ruby Armstrong- I was not able to meet her, but she did have a saying that many people said was "her" saying. She said, "Lord, you never promised it would be easy, but you never said it would be so hard." That is so true, perhaps even more so for my brother vicars and myself.
Best Idea today: I woke up before my alarm! That, for me, is a good sign that I've slept well!
Worst Idea today: Well, I was so worn out yesterday- physically, mentally, and emotionally, that it took a 20oz Dewski to keep me going...soda is not healthy.
Hobby Idea today: Guiness Book of World Records Breaking - Starting with something easy... Submitted by Vicar Matt P.
If anyone outthere who reads this blog has any ideas concerning the "hobby idea," send it to me...I'll put it on here, depending on appropriateness. For example, taking up surfing- appropriate. Seeing how long it takes to get drunk off of moonshine- not appropriate.