Ornaments from our tree 

Two shots of our "holiday" tree. Flash on and flash off. 

My Birthday #26 - and climbing . . . but I did get to watch Carolina SPANK the Falcons - it was a beautiful thing. 

The Kingdom

I was engaged in an interesting conversation last night . . . the topic: What (or where, or who) is the Kingdom of Heaven? If I were trying to explain the "Kingdom of Heaven" to someone - what would that be. How does one get there? Is it a place at all? Is it a citizenship?

That, I think, is going to lead me to some interesting places, and some interesting reading, and probably some interesting opinions too.

What do you think? What is the kingdom of heaven. I'll post more on it later . . . but for now, I'd like to hear some opinions.

Grace,

Des

Jesus the Rabbi

If you've never heard of Rob Bell, you should definitely look him up. He the pastor of the fastest growing Christian congregation in the US (based somewhere in Michigan, I think). I heard him speak last year at Youth Specialties in Atlanta. Then, just recently, my pastor gave me this great CD of a message that he gave talking about some great history stuff as it relates to Jesus. He was specifically speaking on the educational system in Jesus' day.

My first mistake (not, like, ever . . .) is that, while I know Jesus is real, I forget that He existed at a point in history, and that has DRASTIC consequences on how I view Him.

Bell asks the question . . . what was it about the middle east 2000 years ago that was so appealing to God that He sent his Son at THAT point in time - out of all the possible times that Jesus could have been here? It's a GREAT question. He talks about how SO much of what Jesus said and did needs to be view through the lens of a 1st century Rabbi - which is essentially what Jesus was - at least, as a human - yes, He was (is) God - but more than just a human form, He was 1st century Rabbi form.

Let me give you some simple examples - if you live near me, as me and I'll copy the CD for you to have a listen to. He talks about how learning was very different then - whereas we ask what's 2+2 (correct answer: 4) - a correct answer in Jesus' situation could be another question (what is 16 divided by 4). What they taught was not information but understanding, shown by the interplay of questions and questions and questions and answers. So, when Mary and Joseph found preteen Jesus with the teachers in the synagogue, it says that they were amazed with his questions AND answers (i.g. NOT JUST his answers to their questions).

Another example is when Jesus is talking about his Yoke, and how it's easy - well, a YOKE was basically the interpretation of the law that a particular Rabbi held . . . it differed from Rabbi to Rabbi, for example, what was permissible on the Sabbath - the entire compilation of what they allowed and forbade (is that REALLY a word?) was called their YOKE and they taught that yoke to their students. In fact, a Rabbi wanted to perpetuate his yoke, he wanted it to live on long after he was gone.

Not only does that give a completely different understanding of Jesus saying, "My yoke is easy." but also consider this . . . when a Rabbi came along, once in a blue moon, with a new Yoke (something that no other Rabbi was teaching at the time), he would often say things like, "You have heard it said that . . . but I tell you . . . "

There's so much - we can't understand Jesus fully out of His context - he was not a North American in 2005. It's MY job to get my head around that.

Father God - help us to search out and find out more of the amazing aspects of Your Character. We know we'll never understand the vast majority of who you are and how all things work together. But help us know you more, and, in so doing, know more of what we are to do!

Grace,

Des

Relatives

Christmas is coming, which makes me excited . . . but an interesting thing happened the other night. Kristy and I are unable to go home for Christmas this year, so we're making all of our preparations here and trying to send cards and/or gifts home to our families, typical ho-ho stuff.

In doing so, I made some smart-alec comment, you know the kind, where you say something and add some random number to exaggerate a quantity - so I said something about "blah, blah, blah . . . the 87 people in our families!"

So Kristy responds with, "Whatever . . . I bet you can't name 87 people in our family."

I admit, it seemed like a rather formidible task.

But, within a few minutes I had rhymed off, without much stopping to thinking, at least 87 people. It TOTALLY added some perspective to my thinking.

Those are people that we're directly related to - I stayed, I think, exclusively with just aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and parents - I can't even begin to fathom HOW MANY people we have had some kind of relationship with through our lives. I don't think of myself as having a LOT of friends . . . but this really makes you think

How many people have seen Christ in me? How many have seen Satan? How many people have I ignored because they were unpopular? How many people have noticed me because I was unpopular? What's my legacy?

You also hear about the concept of six degrees of separation: the concept that everyone in the world is connected by a chain of, at the most, six relationships. I can only imagine, even from those 87 relatives, how many people THEY know.

In any case . . . I've been thinking a bunch about how people will remember me - not in a morbid kind of way - but, for example, past camp staff that I've not seen in years, and may never see again if our paths don't cross. How do they remember me? What kind of person was I? What did I do to let them know that I cared about them? How do people see me now?

Interesting.

Grace.

Des

Christmas Pictures

Hey - you can check out pics of our first Christmas Tree at our photo blog. Merry Christmas!

Love

Sorry about the forever-since-last-time thing - things have been busy.

But, the other night, Kristy and I read an interesting point in our devotions - from a book by John Piper. It talked about love.

It proposed that we have adopted a very worldly view of love - we've adopted society's view of love: that if we are loved, we will feel exalted, like the center of attention. But, God, in loving us, wants us to make HIM the center of attention. It's a pretty interesting perspective.

God wants what is best for us - and that is himself. He is the best thing - of all things.

Grace,

Des

The Media Moment

There is a new really neat podcast coming out of The Salvation Army Western Territory. It is done by Josh Cowing and Richard Brown (of MediaShout, and animalproductions.com) who are both part of the Western Territorial Media Ministries Team.

It's very cool - they talk about media ministry and tools related to media ministry from a Salvation Army point of view.

The website for the podcast is:

http://mediamoment.blogspot.com/

Grace,

Des

real

Lord, make Calvary real to me
Open my eyes to victory in Christ for me
Lord, make Calvary real to me

Sorry I haven't written in forever. I have a lot of 'projects' that I'm currently working on and that takes up a lot of my extra time. I have a LOT of ideas that I want to share . . .

soon, very soon.

Grace,

Des

Apartment Hunting

I know that I can't LIVE in this thing, but we did see this today as Kristy and I were browsing places to live in Asheville, NC.

Grace,

Des 

Perspective

God is amazing - use this in your worship today.

http://www.troybrophy.com/projects/solarsystem/index.html

How big is God?

Grace,

Des

A New Design!

Hey - Hope you like the new look. I was getting bored of the other one, and since I've been playing a lot lately with web design stuff, I figured I'd give this a try. You can probably figure out that there is a considerable amount of TWEAKING to do, but I really like it. The 'insert bill' image at the top I took one day at a vending machine . . . I think it may have been at camp.

Anyway, let me knowwhat you think of the new look.

Des

My Wife - Scary Crow Lady

My beautiful wife on Halloween!

Grace.

Des 

It had to be perfect!

In case you didn't realize, it had to be PERFECT.

Des. 

Happy Halloween

Kristy and I carved our pumpkin last night! It was super wonderful. To see more of our fun, go to http://desmerizingpics.blogspot.com.

Have a scary day!

Des  

Time

If you've ever had any difficulty reconciling the concept of God existing outside of time . . . C.S. Lewis handles it amazingly in two books: 1) Mere Christianity and 2) Miracles. The ideas that he puts forth in Miracles, I've been reading for two or three days now and I'm still reeling from it. I can't quite get my head around it.

In Mere Christianity, he says what one would expect him to say - generally that God sees everything as we understand present - past, present, and future he sees as an instant. It really is a good passage and you should definitely read it.

In Miracles, however, he takes it a step further and says that since everything occurs in an instant, future events (i.e. prayers) can affect past events. A paraphrase of Lewis' quote is that a prayer prayed at noon can affect events at 10:00 am. That's amazing - and hurts my head when I really get thinking about it.

In any case, it's worth a read.

Grace,

Des

Some Interesting Pics

Ok, I've officially added a lot of photos to our photo blog at http://desmerizingpics.blogspot.com.

Check 'em out.

Grace.

Des

Our Anniversary in the Mountains

As of Sunday, Oct 23, Kristy & I have been married for 1 year. We took the weekend and drove through the TN and NC mountains - drove through the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. It was fantastic. I'll put some pictures on our picture blog so you can see some of what we saw.

It's really nice to be able to take a weekend away, like that. It helped me realize that I don't make enough time for myself or my wife. So I will now.

Anyway - nothing more interesting to say here for now - I'm on vacation for a couple of days so I've shut my brain off.

Grace,

Des

The NEW iMac G5

It will be mine . . oh yes . . . it WILL be mine!

This was one of the announcements by Apple today . . . along with a new video iPod and a new version of iTunes, that supports video download.

Grace. 

The more things change . . .

You know in the 1940s and 50s many people sat around and listened to the radio . . . and longed to by a television. Then people sat around a TV, longing to be apple to have a computer in their house. Then people wished they could some how be connected to an international network, a world-wide-web of computers as it were.

Technology sure has advanced . . .

So, what does it say about civilization that I am sitting around listening to a radio broadcast of the Toronto Maple Leafs over the internet?

Hmmmmm. Either way . . . GO LEAFS!

Grace.

Who am I living For?

I am beginning to realize how much I am living for other people instead of for Christ. Not that I haven't always suspect such . . . but far too many of my hours are spent in an attempt to please people, for our mutual benefit.

Honestly, I realize that I have made decision relating to my church because of issues pertaining to my job. I don't like that. Perhaps its one of the difficulties of working within The Salvation Army . . . not too many evangelical churches are as, if not likely more, well-know for their social service work and agency-ness.

In any case, it's a viable and valuable church, nonetheless. And, a church that I am proud to be a part of - even when people ask me if I go to church at a thrift store.

All I need to do is to take ownership of it - to make my faith practice about my faith, about my relationship. I admittedly have not done that - certainly not to the degree that I really want to. My most worshipful times were during CharminUltra ministry nights (see http://charminultra.blogspot.com for more info).

And I think it's about time to do it again.

Des

The SA Race Car

This is a Race Car - whose owner, having some advertising space left over, decided to donate it to The Salvation Army. Not sure WHERE the race actually took place . . . I THINK it was Hickory, NC. But either way, it's pretty cool

Daily Bread

I've been thinking today about financial blessing and prosperity theology . . . that God wants to bless us and give us abundance.

I don't think it's true.

I think God wants to bless us when it makes for Him to bless us, according to His perfect will. I also think that he wants to withhold blessings . . . . according to His perfect will. I also think that He brings pain . . . according to His perfect will. Some say that He can't cause pain/evil . . . I don't think it much matters what you think about it. I don't think pain, either physical or otherwise, is evil.

It is hard for me to think that we should pray to God for 'blessings', where blessings are defined as more than what we need. Jesus said "Give us, today, our daily bread". The most I can figure that He prayed for would be to have his impending crucifixion taken from Him . . . which was immediately followed by, "Not my will, but Yours be done."

It's easy for me to get uptight about money . . . not for materialistic reasons . . . just to make sure that there is always enough there. It would be easy for me to pray for financial blessing . . . but I don't think that's what God would have for me, and I certainly can't, in my mind's ear, hear Jesus praying for it.

Give me, today, my daily bread.

Grace.

Des

Funny Spam

Unlike John C. Dvorak, I do indeed get spam. Only tech geeks will get that reference . . . I submit it for your consideration.

I don't know if it was an attempt to bypass some keyword filters that sort by references to drugs (e.g. Vioxx, Valium, etc), but check out the spelling on the drug names in this email that I got at work:

• Vlazgra - $3.3
• Levigtra - $3.3
• Ciallis - $3.7
• Imitnrex - $16.4
• Flomtax - $2.2
• Ultrdam - $0.78
• Viopxx - $4.75
• Ambiien - $2.2
• Valhium - $0.97
• Xanacx - $1.09
• Sosma - $3
• Merixdia - $2.2

What the heck is LeviGtra? Or VioPxx? Or, my personal favorite, Valhium?

Anywho, I thought it was funny.

Grace.

Des

Camera, anyone?

SALES PITCH ALERT!!!

If anyone is interested in buying a 4.0 Megapixel Minolta Dimage S414 - I may have an incredible deal for you. Kristy and I are buying a new digital camera and, since there's no need to have two, I figured I would give the world a great opportunity to own a good little camera. It's a little bulky (i.e. it's no ultra compact), but it really does take some REALLY good photos. Just about everything that I've posted on this blog, at least, were all taken using that camera. More images at http://placesihaveeaten.blogspot.com. The pictures there aren't at 4.0 Megapixels either, I had to resize them considerably so they wouldn't take forever to download. The images that you see when you enlarge are at 2.0 MegaPixels, so the originals are much more defined.

I'll include the memory card (SanDisk Ultra II Compact Flash, 256 Megs - 117 pix at a time at highest resolution), a case, plus I'll even throw in a set of energizer AA NiMH rechargables (with charger)!

That's right . . . Oh yeah . . . I'm the price king . . . I realize that I haven't mentioned a price yet . . . I'm the king so I don't have to.

If you're interested let me know (desmondcsmith@gmail.com), I'll cut you a deal.

Grace.

Des

Why I Feel Like a Criminal

Tonight a bunch of us went to the well (http://www.the-well.org), which is a very cool coffeehouse-church here in Charlotte. What was cool was that there was a bass soloist that played an hour+ concert. His name is Trip Wamsley and you can check out his website by clicking on the title of this post.

It was very sweet. We sat and had coffee and were sonically pleased.

But he made me feel like a rotten criminal.

This guy was amazing. He also had some sweet hardware that included an 8-String bass and some serious looping systems, etc. Problem is I've been playing bass for over 10 years now and I haven't given myself to the instrument. I should be playing that thing as much as possible. Playing = Learning. Playing = worship. Worship = good.

So, while I would like to say that I'm going to play more and learn more and worship more I don't know if I actually WILL end up doing that. I certainly don't want to say it if I'm not going to do it.

But it was sweet.

God has blessed me with a little talent - I really need to be responsible and do my best . . . don't I?

Grace,

Desmond.

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to my sister - she's 18 today!

Yay.

Des

Running from Cheetahs is Easiest when Using Your Feet

Unity. You may remember a number of posts about unity from a while back. You may also remember my saying that we need to make every effort (a la Ephesians) to keep the unity among the body of Christ.

I still believe that - first of all.

What I'm realizing is that we may have a bit of a misunderstanding (or disunderstanding) about what unity really means. It seems like for a long time we've had the idea that unity means all of the believers sitting around worshipping as one big happy group in one big happy room. But the more I read about unity, especially going back to Ephesians 4, I don't necessarily think that's an accurate description.

So, I've prepared the following anecdote for your consideration. Remember that unity is described with many references to a body - i.e. the body of Christ.

There is a reason, a very good reason, why your hand is found at the end of your arm - which is complete with joints and enough length to reach just about everywhere except that one spot on your back. There is also a very good reason as to why that hand, at the end of that arm, has a bunch of fingers that that bend and grasp and point and scratch. Those are the functions of fingers. The arm carries the hand to where it needs to be so the hand can hold the fingers out to do what they need to do.

There are times when an elbow needs to do something other than bend and there are times that the fingers have to be the supportive group instead of the functional group (like when you're using a cue stick). But the arm, provides support so fingers and hands can do their work. Obviously if the hand couldn't get to the knee to scratch or to the feet to put on your socks, there wouldn't be much use to have a hand.

Now, there's also a reason as to why every inch of your body isn't covered with fingers. At times, it may be practical to have fingers everywhere, but for somereason that's not how we were put together

Interestingly, your body is covered with skin - skin can itch - fingers can scratch and can be carried by arms to where the scratch may be. You fingers serve your skin - and your arms serve it too.

So, unity in the body, is not every part having every function. It's not your body having fingers covering every inch of epidermis. It's the hand using what it can do to serve the parts of the body that needs it. It may seem like a lot of work . . .

. . . but it's in the best interest of the hand to scratch the itch. Otherwise, the body still itches. Another example: it's in the mutual best interest of the legs and of the body if the legs do their function of running away from a wild cheetah about to sink its teeth into the shoulders - which are relatively far away from the legs. But, it's all still one body.

It's also in the best interest of the body if the legs do their job AS WELL AS POSSIBLE. It's not going to do much good for the legs to run away from said cheetah at 15 mph. Cheetah wins. And eats.

It's NOT, however, in the best interest of all appendages if the hands get the idea that they want in on the action. My advice is to NOT try to run away from a cheetah standing on your head. You have a better chance using your feet and legs.

So, what is unity? Essentially, in the body of Christ unity is acheived when all members involved know their role and do it not for themselves but for the entirety of the body. It's also knowing what is NOT your role and not trying to usurp the members on which your jealously may be focused. It is sometimes great to be a hand. It is sometimes great to be a foot. There is often great joy in being an elbow.

Know what you're called to do and do it.

Grace.

Des

I'm Gonna Love you Forever

Isn't it interesting that when one speaks about love, when one makes promises based on love, it is frequently followed by some reference to eternity?

Good ol' Clive Staples pointed that out to me in some reading that I was doing last night. The nature of love seems to be forever. Think about a love song, and you'll probably not find that the promises will be short term. Lust songs, maybe. But love songs will almost always have a reference to eternity. From Randy Travis to Jessica Simpson to Jon Bon Jovi.

Obviously Christian marriage is expected to be forever. But that's not forcing something upon us that is foreign to the very nature of love. Love IS eternal. Love IS eternal even when we don't feel IN love. Promises made while you're in love, aren't void when that feeling passes. Lewis says that "a promise must be about things that I can do, about actions: no one can promise to go on feeling in a certain way. He might as well promise never to have a headache or always to feel hungry."

If you're a long-time reader, you'll know that I like making parallels between marriage and worship. Granted, it seems like there should be enough about God to keep us IN LOVE with Him throughout all of eternity. But, if we're committing ourselves to Him, when/if that feeling goes away our promise has to be more about what we'll continue to do, even if the feelings die away. Worship is not about feelings. It's not even feeling good about what you're doing.

It's about promises that we make to God, covenant that binds us even if the conditions change.

Grace

Des

Inspiration Needed

I find myself, first of all, not being as inspired as much as I have been in the past. That accounts for the less frequent blogging. I really want to be. I guess some of the problem is that I'm not looking real hard for inspiration these days. Mostly a time issue.

So the first thing on my to-do list is to make an effort to make time to look for inspiration. Look to God, look into His character, see what I find.

I also find myself being inspired by unholy things - not sinful as much as, just, human. I spend a lot of my time, lately, reading and listening to things about technology. I love it - I'm a big tech geek at heart. But I need to be a inspired, active follower of Christ.

Not to say that Christians shouldn't like tech - I'm more admitting that I've spent more time researching the iPod nano lately that reading about iGod's plan-o for my life. Sorry - see what I mean?

I want to be inspired by the character of my amazing heavenly Father. I WILL look to Him and learn more about His infinite complexities. You can't help but to be inspired, right?

Grace.

Des

The 30-Something Dilemma

I have always heard that the biggest controversies in the church don't come the old people vs. young people debate. I never believed that. It has to be that debate doesn't it? What else in the whole of the church is more controversial? Where else can all of these issues come from?

Pastor friends of mine, intellectual authors that I've never met (though I've read their books) have told me that the source of the biggest controversies in the church come from the up and comers, the not quite boomers. They're the 30 (plus or minus) somethings that feel that because they are the biggest contributors of resources and especially intellectual time and resources that they should have the ultimate say.

That freaks me out. I never believed that until now - because I'm beginning to see it. It makes me laugh - though uncomfortably because it's so sad at the same time.

All this means that I will (if not already) find myself in the center of the controversy very shortly. I don't know - I think I just want to worship really.

Isn't that what we all want to do?

Grace.

Resettlement in Newfoundland

A very cool picture

OK, I've been wanting to get my hands on this picture for a long time - I finally asked my aunt to scan it so here it is.

This is my Dad's house (actually, my Grandparents' house). Back in the 50's and 60's there was a push in Newfoundland to resettle some of the isolated communities to areas where services and infastructure were more accessible. A LOT of families, not wanting to lose their homes, did this - they moved their homes to the ocean, tethered them to some dories and hauled them to their new locations - many miles away.

I thought it was very cool.

Grace,

Des

The scientific name for an animal that doesn't either run from or fight its enemies is lunch.

Michael Freidman

Heh heh.

Grace.

Bell Ringing for Jesus & Katrina

I've spent the vast majority of the past few days ringing bells - or at least standing by kettles representing The Salvation Army's response to Hurricane Katrina. My wife and I and a number of other volunteers all went to Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre and stood in the blazing sun for hours at a time.

It was actually quite entertaining.

Friday night was Coldplay. Good crowd, good number of donations, good concert. We didn't stay for the whole thing, but it was good.

Yesterday was a Christian All Day Music Festival thing. Michael W. Smith and Jars of Clay were the big names. Not nearly as big of a crowd. Interestingly enough, the only real difference that I noticed between the Coldplay crowd and the Christian crowd was the much higher percentage of tacky t-shirts.

Today, was the 10th Weenie Roast with 3 Doors Down. Good show but HOT. I burned a little.

Only real interesting thing that happened was: as I was setting some stuff up, I passed the front gate (in my highly visible Sally Ann T) where I heard one of the younger workers say, "Oh, do they have those bells?" I can only assume that she was complaining about the incessant ringing.

I agree it's not always plesant - but I bet she had a home to go back to. I bet 99% of the Katrina Victims would not complain about a ringing bell.

God, Bless them.

Grace.

Microsoft Preempts The Salvation Army's Hurricane Relief Effort

I'm a firefox user - you may not know what that means. If not, go here and you'll figure it out.

So I'm sitting at work today (Sept 08/2005) and Dave sends me a link to MSNBC's main story, about FEMA having 25,000 bodybags on hand in the wake of Hurrican Katrina. When he said "Check out The Salvation Army ads in the main story!", I had to go and have a look. When I opened the page, however, all I could see were ads for MSNBC's email alerts and, further down the page, for the MSN Toolbar. I figured I'd refresh to see if they'd change . . . nope. Bad luck I thought, so I kept refreshing. Still the same two ads. I couldn't figure it out.

THEN, I realized something - I'm the only guy here in the office running FireFox. Could Microsoft, or one of it's entitities be preempting the "Salvation Army Aid the Hurrican Victims" ads in favor of trying to get a sorry FireFox user to sign up for some of their wonderful programs? Surely not.

But, as I feared, as soon as I opened up the same story in IE 6, I saw the Salvation Army Ads saying, "We combat natural disasters with acts of God" Clicking on the ad in IE brought me DIRECTLY to the Salvation Army donation server. In firefox, I found out that I could "Search and Browser Smarter . . . using the MSN toolbar with Windows Desktop Search". To add insult to injury, it opened in a new window, instead of a new tab!

COME ON, MICROSOFT! How low can you be? Just because I'm not a IE user, you're going to not let me know that I can help Katrina's victims?

I say, boycot Microsoft - wait, they own the world don't they? Use fewer Microsoft products!

Grace.

Ainsley and Uncle Des 

Another Blog

Hey - one more thing. I started a new blog tonight that SOMEONE out in the world may find interesting - I think it's just fun.

http://placesihaveeaten.blogspot.com

It's going to be mostly photos of places . . . that I have eaten. And some of the food that I have eaten.

So far - one post - but the cool thing is that it's the first blog that I have started from Madrid!

Madrid - The Tour

Shots from Madrid

Here are some shots from Madrid today. Forgive that we're all gally-vanting around Madrid in our Salvation Army Uniforms - though it does make it somewhat more funny.

Anywho, the first couple of shots are of Real Madrid's home soccer stadium - a soccer Mecca. The SECOND photo is of a HUGE soccer fan, Matthew Sims, celebrating the visit.

Then I held up a leaning building using just my back, and Charlie licked a fake ice cream cone.

The last couple of shots are from around the Royal Palce - the last photo being one that I think I will stick Kristy in later.

Concerts and open airs, and such, are going well. The best is doing open airs in places for where we don't have permits to do so - the police show up, ask a few questions. We have seen a few folks a couple of times now - people that were at one of our open airs and whom we invited to another. That's good.

The idea of this whole trip is to build the public knowledge of ALL that the Army does. It is an extremely hard-fast religious culture, 97% Catholic, but in a Catholic church that has been assoctiated with dictatorship in this country. Many people are turned off from anything having to do with Church or Christ.

Sounds like a job for Delta Force.

In any case - we have a string of other open airs following morning worship tomorrow. Continue to pray for us.

Grace.

Welcome to Spain

Hola!

Welcome to my first post from Spain.

It will be short.

No sleep on the plane - full schedule today - Madrid is beautiful - but aparently, there are plenty 'o pick-pockets. I have not yet lost my Canadian Passport - perhaps the most valuable document on the planet, next to the dead sea scrolls, the declaration of independance, and Da Vinci's jounals.

That is all.

More to come . . .

Grace.

My Reign in Spain

Tomorrow, less than 24 hrs from now, I will be on a very long flight to Spain. It's going to be exciting - which is not to say that I've been 100% looking forward to it for the past few months, but it will be whatever I choose it to be.

Please pray for the group - it's going to be a crazy schedule. I WILL be taking photos, and video though, and HOPEFULLY, I'll be able to post from over there. If not, I will when I get back - both on my picture blog and some official pics on our departmental site (http://www.nscmusicandarts.com). Also, I'll be on Google Talk, if I have broadband there, so if you have any need to talk to me - download that client and you can find me at desmondcsmith@gmail.com.

Anywho, that's it - I'll let you know how everything goes. There is some fun stuff scheduled - like playing for a 100 yr. old's birthday at a Seniors' Complex. Fun. Partying like Jesus.

Grace.

Perspective (for those of you that don't watch the news)

NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Katrina probably killed thousands of people in New Orleans, the mayor said Wednesday - an estimate that, if accurate, would make the storm the nation's deadliest natural disaster since at least the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

"We know there is a significant number of dead bodies in the water," and other people dead in attics, Mayor Ray Nagin said. Asked how many, he said: "Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands."

WOW. Thousands? Remember to pray for this whole situation. Get involved, somehow, if you can.

Grace.

Let's not forget these

BAGHDAD Trampled, crushed against barricades or plunging into the Tigris River, more than 700 Shiite pilgrims died Wednesday when a procession across a Baghdad bridge was engulfed in panic over rumors that a suicide bomber was at large.

Most of the dead were women and children, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman said. It was the single biggest confirmed loss of life in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. Sabah Ali, a senior official in the Health Ministry, said 719 were killed and 383 injured.

Grace

An Image of Christ

Sometimes, friends of mine give me a hard time about my choice of morning radio show. I listen to Ace & TJ, here in Charlotte, on Kiss 95.1. They're actually pretty good - sometimes a little crude, but ALWAYS funny. I don't listen to Christian radio in Charlotte, because, IMHO, it stinks. Sorry New Life, just what I think.

With all of the recent happen on the Gulf Coast, an interesing thing occurred. I realized that I, in fact, DO listen to a Christian morning show - perhaps the most Christian morning show in the region.

Course of events: Following the landfall of Katrina, Ace and TJ (normally on from 6 -10 AM) stayed on the air all day and organized an impromptu telethon to benefit the victims of the disaster. They solicited supplies, volunteers and even prayers.

Hmmmm.

So far, they've raised tens of thousands of dollars and have a CONVOY of 18-wheelers headed that way, full of supplies.

And they didn't sit around and gossip - they just got the work done. They didn't complain about someone else getting the limelight, they just got the work done.

Praise the Lord, for Ace and TJ.

Grace.

Notorious Sinner

Mark 2:15

So, I think I either want to be a notorious sinner or find out who they are and invite them to dinner. Who are the notorious sinners today? Who are the "Tax Collectors"?

Are they the porn industry? Are they drug kingpins? Are they speeders? Are they Christians?

But it seems like having a party with them would be a good time. Jesus would have done it.

Grace

New Friends

I've added some friends to my friends list - this list is not exhaustive and the biggest reason you may not be there is A) you don't have a blog or B) it's annoying to add those links and I couldn't normally be bothered.

I keep getting amazed by Google. I would like to work for Google. They are, in the words of one friend of mine, "No joke." Everything they touch turns to gold. So, if you want an invite to join GMail (the most amazing web-based email on the planet) let me know and I'll hook you up.

It's cloudy today. The weather has been amazing for the past couple of days. Every morning, just a little hint of coolness. I think all it really is, is that the air was dry (read: not humid). Very very nice.

I apologize for the lack-lusterness of this entry. But I'm serious about the loving Google bit.

Hmmmm.

Grace.

Talk about Weird News

OK . . . so there are some weird things happening. I'm not exacty sure what it all means, but somehow, I think armageddon is involved. Are you ready for the news?

Alright . . . . Air Canada was voted to be North Armerica's #1 Airline.

Yes . . . I know. If any of you are Aeroplan people you may have gotten an email about it. My theory is this . . . the only people that care to be voting about what the #1 Airline are drunk Canadian men returning from a weekend away to see a hockey game.

There's no way on the planet that Air Canada is better than any other airline on this continent. My best experience with Air Canada occurred during a trip to Ottawa, when I had been flying Canadian Airlines and their plane all but exploded, so, the only way they could get me home was to put me up in First Class on an Air Canada flight. They gave me a nice hot facecloth and a beautiful ham and swiss on a baguette.

In any case, Air Canada is about as useful as my armpit . . . or my appendix . . . or my appendix pit.

I'm very disappointed . . . I'd like to meet all 7 people that voted on this and . . . get mad at them.

That is all.

Grace.

Other Interesting Quotes from my Google page

Here are some other quotes that are making me think.

There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible.
- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.
- Matt Groening

Interesting

Sometimes I feel very callipygous.

Also - Interesting quote from Confucius:

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

Grace.

Jesus' Burden

We always quote the verse, "Come unto me . . . and I will give you rest." Jesus said that, in Matthew 11. It's great and gives us peace. It even says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."

Problem is, as with most things, we stop there because we have all the comfort we need in those few words.

But Jesus goes on and says, "Take my yoke upon you (ie be harnassed up like oxen), and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Here's your comfort - let me take your burden and I'll replace it with a burden, albeit a MUCH lighter burden. But if you let me guide you (ie like a farmer guides an animal) you'll have rest.

He doesn't just take away all your burden - He gives you more.

But it's different. And we should take responsibility for it.

Grace.

The PodCasting

Long story short . . . I've finally discovered the joy that is podcasting. With iTunes, you can download the latest episodes of SO many radio shows or other audio programs (like Science Friday, from NPR).

The idea, of course, is that you would listen to them on your iPod. Well, I don't have one of those . . . yet. But you can also listen on your computer or burn them to a CD.

Nice.

This is Daphne - she's an Eastern Fence Lizard, and she lives at our house.

In the Middle of the Storm

I was reading a while back about Jesus calming the storm - you know - where he's asleep and there's a huge storm happening and the disciples were frightened . . .

It's in Matthew 8.

Anyway, the thing that stuck out to me is that Jesus was asleep. We always talk about Jesus being right there for us when times are tough, when the seas are rough, when we've had enough (corny song coming on!). The disciples, however, felt troubled and Jesus was right there asleep. Not making them feel comfortable. Not making them feel good about themselves.

I can only assume that that is where He would have stayed if they didn't go and bother Him. He probably would have stayed asleep.

So they ran below deck, woke up the soon-to-be Saviour of the world and shouted, "Lord SAVE US - we're going to drown."

His response was funny. I take it as a scold, or a burn even: "Why are you so afraid?" Yes, it's rough. Yes, your dinner might come back up. Yes, it SEEMS scary. Omniscient saviour of the world KNEW what they were afraid of . . . but that's not what he asked . . "WHY ARE YOU SO AFRAID? YOU HAVE SO LITTLE FAITH."

What's that? A test? Sarcasm?

He rebuked the storm and it stopped. Did they get what they asked for?

I don't know. I don't think they really knew what they were asking. It seems as though, in hindsight, they were never in danger to begin with. He didn't SAVE THEM as such, given that. He took away the elements that they were afraid of, the elements that troubled them. AND he rebuked them as well. Gave them a life lesson. Stuff is going to stink all around you, and there is going to be a lot that you don't like. I CAN take it away, but it does you more good to learn from it.

Interesting, I thought.

Grace.

Stupidity should be painful

Nothing uberinspiring tonight . . .

Except that I was driving behind a Jeep today with the following two bumper stickers:

• The whole world is going to hell and I'm driving the bus

AND

• Stupidity should be painful.

Rather ironic, I thought.

Grace. More to come.

None of my business

So, I'm still at TMI - still missing my wife - and still reading through "A New Kind of Christian". It's a very interesting read. One of the chapters today was called, "It's none of your business who goes to hell?"

Also, it was a very interesting series of arguments that followed.

Essentially, McLaren says we get so concerned with getting everyone into heaven, but what if that's not the ultimate goal, but rather a by-product? What if living out your purpose in Christ is what you're supposed to be doing and heaven/hell is merely a by-product?

So, we just need to serve people and let God sort out the rest - don't worry about their (or our eternity). Just do what we need to do. If we were needed to be a judge, I'm sure we would have been apointed such.

What I'm realizing (read: what I'm coming to terms with) is that I have a lot of 'knowledge' about Christianity. Much of it, however, is Christianity with the spin of how people have lived for the past 500 years (i.e. intellectualism, scientific answers to question). In other words, my understanding is by no means pure. It's Christianity inside the envelope of modernism.

Time to open it up.

Grace.

PS (Jennifer): I'm not familiar with Christian Hedonism . . . so I'll have to read up on it. For the rest of your question, that may be the next post.

Gotta go down before you go up

Short post: I'm at the elective interview at Territorial Music Institute.

But on the way here, today, I was reading "A New Kind of Christian" by Brian McLaren. Interesting point that was made.

If you're on a mountain peak, and you want to go up to a higher one, you first have to come down from the lower before you can go up the higher . . .

Grace.

Coming Soon

Well, Camp, for me, is over. Hallelujah. Kids were great, staff was great, God blessed it . . . that is all. Not to say it wasn't without it's issues - pray for our recuperation.

Now, I'm not quite back to my regular blogging schedule. I've still got our Territorial Music Institute coming up for the next 10 days - not sure that I'll have much blogging time there. But soon I'll be able to think again.

For those of you that know, or care, I'm one of the ones that have been dealing with the thoughts that worship may, in fact, have nothing to do with what we like, and everything to do with what God likes. No reason for me to hide that. I believe it.

One of the questions asked of me is "Why would God reject my offering?" If I offer my sacrifice to God from my heart, then He should accept it.

There's a lot to consider. As I start to write all this, I realize that it's probably too much to get into at the moment . . . . here's a synopsis:

Worship is our actions that speak to God of His value. It doesn't necessarily speak of how valuable he is TO US - but rather how much we value HIM (there's a big difference in those two statements, I hope you can see it).

Worship is not just singing. Neither is it simply praying. Neither is it speaking to God how much He's worth.

Exodus 8:1 is one of the versus where God tells Moses to go tell Pharaoh to "Let my people go" but it doesn't stop there . . . the reason God wants them let go is different depending on what version you read - some say worship God, others say work for God.

• Let my people go so that they can worship me
• Let my peopel go so that they can work for (serve) me.

Working for God is neither singing, dancing, speaking, or praying - but it is worship. In essence, worship is our 24-hour-a-day statement that God 'reviews' and puts whatever priority he deems fitting on. Our track record speaks of what we love - it is our belief in action because of who GOD IS, and in the processing supporting (or not supporting?) what we say we believe.

(I know - it sounds like salvation through works. It's not. Faith without works is dead. It's still faith, it's just dead faith. I put that priority part in for this very purpose - He PROBABLY puts more weight on our BELIEFS but He certainly still considers our actions too - it's all one big offereing).

Praise is a different thing - it's more about what God has done for US - here's my major concern: WE'RE SO TIED UP THINKING ABOUT WHAT MORE GOD CAN DO FOR US THAT WE SEEM TO MISS THAT HIS DESIRES AND EVEN THE DESIRES OF OTHER PEOPLE SHOULD COME BEFORE OURS; THAT WE ARE SELF-CENTERED CHRISTIANS.

Egocentric Christians . . . . now there's an oxy moron.

The only other point I wish to make is this. God often rejected offerings. Cain comes to mind quickly - his insufficient offering paled in comparison to his brothers. Also, interestingly, in Amos 5, see this:

²¹ "I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand your assemblies.

²² Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, ^[b]
I will have no regard for them.

²³ Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.

²⁴ But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Just because they're done FOR God, essentially, doesn't mean he wants what you're bringing. Worship, without letting justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like a never-failing stream, seems like it is turned away.

Maybe I'm interpreting that incorrectly.

Grace.

Recant

Words can be very deceiving. Please understand that, through my last posts I did not intend to offend - but I assumed that it probably would just because of the way we Christians are. Also interesting is that Christ came, in his words, to bring division.

The longer we bicker about our denomination directives, the longer we're wasting time that we could be spending serving others or worshipping God.

Someday we will all be united - not he United Church of God - small 'u' united.

I apologize if I offended. That said . . . agreeing to disagree perhaps not such a bad thing.

Recommended reading: A Generous Orthodoxy, Brian McLaren.

Exactly what I thought would happen.

Interesting comment on my last post. Exactly what I hoped would happen, deep down in the perverse sections of mind, but interesting nonetheless.

Carefully reading my statements, you will see that I did not, in fact say that we should all be Catholic, but rather that we should be catholic. The former is a denomination. The latter is a state of unity. But it perfectly illustrates the lack of understanding or concern that we seem to have for each other, in the brotherhood of God. I'm not at all suggesting that we return to any particular roots. I'm suggesting that God knows exactly what He's doing by telling us to love one another, to encourage each other, and to work together for His glory instead of furthering our kingdoms.

Just like there was salvation before the Salvation Army, the state of being catholic existed before the Roman Catholic church.

Despite what we may think about particular denominations within the body, our DIRECTIVE from God is that we make EVERY effort to keep the bond of unity.

I apologize for deliberately leading this conversation directly into the lion's den. It's a little thing I like to do. For future reference please remember: Catholic=denomination, catholic=unified Army of God working to extend his kingdom on earth.

Blessings to catholic Christians everywhere!

Grace.

A Long Break

It, again, has been way too long.

Camp is going very well - don't really expect much to change.

I said the other day during a conversation that we should all be catholic. The response was something to the effect of, "Yeah, whatever" followed by a number of other interestingly-worded statements that I don't care to mention.

Us protestants, why do we think it's OK to keep protesting? And what are we protesting over? I understand the Lutheran split, I think . . . but it's become way to silly hasn't it?

In any case, I can't help but go back to the idea in Ephesians to make every effort to keep the bond of peace through the spirit of unity.

Why we gotta hate?

Infighting = Cancer

There have been some things happening that have made me think about infighting in the body of Christ. Isn't it cancer when a body turns against itself?

I can't imagine that something as horrible as cancer belongs in the perfect body of Christ. Infighting = death.

Grace.

At Camp

So, I'm at camp - and will get very little time to acutally post much - especially interesting stuff. But my wife found this today, and I couldn't let it go. It's pretty amazing.

"If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned or unprayed for."

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Grace.

Open Doors

God is reall y doing some neat stuff as it relates to opening doors for Kristy and I . . . in life, in minsitry, it is pretty amazing to sit and watch it all unfold. Granted, makes it difficult to decipher what it is that HE wants us to do in all of that . . . but it's interesting to see the options.

That's all on that.

The other interesting thing is something that I wanted to mention earlier but didn't get a chance. The concept of the "miracle of reception" or receiving. I don't know where it came from other than to say it was a theoretical thing that came up at a rehearsal the other day. Basically, we were talking about watching horribly-peformed performances that just bless your heart beyond belief. That THAT is a miracle of reception. God lets you see through the junk to the real heart of the matter - the heart of the offering.

Maybe it's not so much a miracle as much as it is a choice. Its about enouraging others in their worship. God blesses you through it.

It's a pretty neat concept that I plan to put on my list of things to research.

Grace.

Alone

I'm in Atlanta. The Territorial Songsters are singing at our Family Conference.

There's a song called 'Give Thanks Unto the Lord" that we're doing, and have been rehearsing like crazy. Stan Colbert, an Army Officer, is our fearless leader - an incredible musician, and a great spiritual inspiration - I have referred to him as a guru in the past.

What I love about him is that he brings spritual moments out of many things that you would never think. In the lyrics, there is a section that says "Give thanks unto the Lord who alone doeth great wonders."

Stan said that he wanted us to really bring out the "...who alone..." because it was basically the message of the song.

Who alone . . . He doesn't need us. But He chooses people. It helped me worship. His majesty, my mistakes.

Grace.

Motivation

I want to be able to motivate people to do something useful and be less self-interested. How does one do that?

To Do List

There's a couple of things that I want to do:

1. Write a book - I'm about ready to start this one . . . I think.
2. Make T-Shirts
3. (At least learn how to) start a business
4. Find out what it's like to sleep on the streets
5. Be content with what I have, knowing full-well that I have a lot, even if it doesn't seem like I have a lot.
   

In a Strange Sea

I recently heard, for the first time, Out of my League, by Stephen Speaks. Good tune. WITH a fantastic line . . .

"It's frightening to be
Swimming in this strange sea
But I'd rather be here than on land."

The song is a love song. But that one line captures, I think, the essence of my life at the moment. As long as I've been here in the US, it's still a strange sea to me. I've been married for 7 months or something now, it's fantastic, but it's different than the other 24 years of my life.

Beats not being swimming though.

Grace.

Husbands submit . . . .

Chris Retz, whom has been in contact after he stumbled across my blog, recently sent me some CDs. One is of himself presenting a message, the others are of Brent Avery, founder of MEM Ministries.

I've just started to listen to these CDs - starting with the first of Brent Avery's. It's real interesting stuff - basically showing how Christ (and baptism specifically in this first part of his message) runs through all of scripture, from the first verse to the end. He even delves into the old hebrew and shows where the inspired word of God makes reference to Christ . . . very interesting stuff, which, once I finish listening to the whole thing I'll comment more on.

But he made some VERY interesting points, right at the end of his first sermon. He was talking about Adam, and how an old Jewish tradition says that Adam's sin was different than Eve's. Eve, it says, was deceived. But, in what is one of the very first foreshadowings of Christ in Scripture, Adam CHOSE to eat, knowing that the only way that he could be connected to his wife was to lay down his life in this way. Holy smokes . . . talk about humble pie.

And later, in Ephesians, it says to love your wife just as Christ loved the Church. I know the bible is the only inspired word of God. It'd be nice if he did more, but, man, when God inspires, he REALLY inspires. It's very interesting to hear about some of these connections.

I'm sure there will be more to come. Thanks Chris for the material.

Grace.

SNICKERDOODLE COFFEE

Oh wonder of wonders!

I got my hair cut today. You may have guessed that's NOT the excited news. On the way back, I decided to stop into a little coffee shop that I've passed many, many times but never visited. Hold this thought . . . .

A little background: Tilden - you'll know him from the recent wedding photo that was posted here - would always bring back Snickerdoodle flavored coffee from Philadelphia - he'd bring it to the office and we would all rejoice. However, that's a long commute when you run OUT of snickerdoodle coffee.

BUT, Dilworth Coffee House, of Charlotte, NC - much CLOSER than Philadelphia - ALSO SELLS SNICKERDOODLE COFFEE!!!!

I'm a little excited. I can't wait to tell Tilden!

AND, it's a WI-FI hotspot.

Grace.

Corporate Worship

Can anyone tell me where it is that we are commanded to participate in corporate worship?

Make EVERY Effort

Unity is a command. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Right there, loud and clear, it reads, "Always keep yourselves united in the Holy Spirit, and bind yourselves together with peace." It even gives rationale: "We are all one body."

Division is about disunity at it's core. It can be rationalized using styles or preferences or tastes, but it boils down to disunity. Perhaps what continues to be an arguemnt is based on our misgivings about worship - if we TRULY understood what it is, this may in fact not be a debate whatsoever.

Praise & Worship - are not the same thing. When we have a "time of praise & worship" we're actually trying to accomplish two things at once - but one thing RARELY gets done. We do a truckload of praising and very little worshipping. Worshipping is our actions, our expressions, of God's unequaled character. Nothing about US enters into the equation. In Teaching Kids Authentic Worship, the author says that we only worship when there are no personal pronouns present. I like that. It's ALL about God. I think she's completely correct in what she says, and may ADULTS can learn a lot from reading that book.

She says that Praise & Thanksgiving are by-products, VALUABLE by-products, of worship. Lets just not confuse those things. Praise and Thanksgiving ARE NOT worship. They depend on what God has done for us personally - Worship is ALL ABOUT HIM. Praise and Worship, then, may be affected a little more by personal flavor. But, maybe not Worship.

I'm quickly realizing that a lack of unity is not the problem in Churches wrestling with splitting. The glue that CAN hold us together is a common worship of God. Since a clear definition of worship has gotten away from us, the glue doesn't stick that well.

In the protestant church that's a hallmark of who we have come to be though, hasn't it? We don't like something, so we split. We talk about how there's absolute truth - apparently there's just 1000 different versions of it. Martin Luther was probably right in protesting some of the Catholic practises of his day, but I think we may have taken his lead just a little two far.

My prayer is that we can all be united - somehow. In a setting where, not only will traditional vs. contemporary not matter, it will be irrelevant. The western thought that our church "service" can meet EVERYBODIES needs, is pretty messed up. First of all, we don't have any needs as Christians (see 2 Peter 1:3). Secondly, no one is getting saved in church. "Evangelism" also happens outside of 'Worship'.

We're a body - yup, we have parts. I wonder, though, if we really need to divide all the way down to the cellular level. How far is too far? (<- Didn't think I'd ask THAT question about church division!). My concern is that we aren't making EVERY effort keep the body together. EVERY EFFORT!!!

Perhaps there's a better way.

Grace.

TWOnity - Unity Continued

I will eventually get to how I think all this ties back to unity in the body - and eventually what unity in the body looks like. But I'm still stuck on my understanding of worship. As promised, here's a bit more, involving Abraham, Isaac, and David.

OK - lets start with Abraham - I should say that a lot this was directly inspired by an article on Experiencing Worship, written by Rob Parsley. The first time that the Hebrew word, 'shachah', is translated as 'worship' in the Bible comes from the story of Abraham and Isaac. This is the OBVIOUS biblical introduction to worship - though many people worshipped before - if you're looking up worship, the is the first place at which you arrive.

After finally fathering a child with his wife Sarah, God says to sacrifice him. Wow. This is a guy who has been promised to be the FATHER of a great nation of people Talk about a legacy. It is relatively more difficult to do that if you have to kill your only son. But there's no rebuttal - Abraham knows what he must do.

Once Mount Moriah is in front of them, Abraham and Isaac continue alone - no servants. Here it is: Abraham says to them, "We will worship and then we will come back to you." (Gen 22:4) Of course you know that Isaac lives - sorry to give away the ending to those of you unfamiliar - and God provides a ram for sacrifice.

Worship, then, is about, at least in part, SACRIFICE. Abraham was willing to give up EXACTLY that which God had given Him - the blessing that God poured out on Him, he was willing to give back. Abraham must not have had ANY pleasure in this - this was his son whom he loved as only a father can love his son.

I wonder, then, how much I'm willing to sacrifice. If I go to church and they don't sing my song, does that mean that I don't worship, or does it mean that I'm making some regal sacrifice: "Well I went to church and they didn't sing any of my songs - God must be well-pleased with my worship!"

This is from the author of that article I mentioned: "When we make the choice to worship God, we are emptying ourselves of our own rights and will and surrendering ourselves to Him. Worship is the foremost act of sacrifice. It proclaims death to our self."

Perhaps corporate worship is different. I don't think so, but maybe someone has that arguement. Corporate worship, as we understand it (i.e. going to church and singing songs and reading scripture . . . you all know what they do at church), seems like such a contradiction of terms to me, if you're arguing that people 'all worship differently'. Here's what I mean - people worship differently - they come to a place where they can worship differently together. They only 'corporate' part is that they're all in the same building. The corporate part implies together - the worship part (if everyone worships in their own way) implies apart.

Worship at its core is not different from person to person. There are endless expressions of it. But there should only be one motivation - the Lordship of God. Granted we may be aware of that Lordship whether we're being blessed or being tested, through times of comfort, or of loss, but the base motivation is always present when someone chooses to worship.

David also said something very cool - and I'm not entirely sure how I've missed it for all of these years. BUT, here goes. After realizing a grave sin, David wanted to make a sacrifice (<- key word) but had no animal. An owner of a nearby 'threshing floor' was willing to give David whatever he wanted, but DAVID said this: "No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing."

HOW did I miss that? I will not sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing. That in itself is a fantastic blog post - we're SO used to getting a lot for nothing: on Uncle Bill's tab.

In any case, King David realized that a sacrifice, by definition, has cost. The question is what does my worship cost me? I'm not rich, I'm not poor, I've got enough that's for sure (<- Old Mother's Day recitation - reliving my childhood, sorry). I've certainly got enough to sacrifice. I'm in the top 1% of incomes in the world (Global Rich List)!

Alright . . . I think I've set it up well enough. Next time, I deal with unity in the body of Christ.

Grace.

Congratulations

Some of the coolest people - and some of our best friends - in the world!

YAY - Tilden and Stephanie are MARRIED! We love you guys!

Grace.

Unity - Like you didn't know it was coming

As some of you may have already suspected, I've been thinking a lot about unity in the body of Christ over the past few days, and specifically how it relates to our worship.

First I should say that I don't like any of the terms that we've chosen to use to describe typical church worship services (e.g. blended, contemporary, traditional, etc). I think they're all wrong. I think they promote an interpretation of worship that has nothing to do with what worship is. Let me say also, that I don't know what worship is - and so that I'm actively trying to figure it out.

I have been quoted as saying (Marty) that "We have done to the word Worship, what we have done to the word CHURCH." That is, church is not the building - or never was intended to be, but if you say CHURCH to just about anyone, the first thing they think about is a nice building with a nice steeple, announcing that, if you're a Christian, come join us. We have similarly perverted the word worship. Worship can include, but is not limited to singing praises and lifting hands - I'm sick of hearing that definition. I'm also quite tired of hearing about how we worship differently. I think we do worship differently from each other - just not in the way that most people describe. I believe that worship, at it's heart, cannot be described as an event, in the temporal sense. Not even as a lifestyle.

Worship is the ACTIONS (yes, worship is a VERB - an ACTION word) resulting from our conceptualization of what/who we value. That is, if we believe that money is the most important thing, the most deserving thing, than our actions will reflect that concept. Our attempts to acquire more money will reflect that concept. Our attempts to guard the money we already have will reflect that concept. The words that we choose to use, the decisions that we make, the way that we live our life will reflect it.

This same idea also reveals where many other concepts are on our scale of worth - for example, if you love money and but hate peanut butter (hypothetically speaking) your actions will reflect that dislike. I . . . I mean, one who hates peanut butter will say that thy don't like it, they won't buy it, they'll avoid it at all costs, etc.

It's important to note that the ACTIONS are both ACTIVE & PASSIVE. We we actively choose to do and what we PASSIVELY do without much thought at all will both indicate where our love is, and to what degree that love is.

Now, if we love God, our actions (both passive & active) will reflect that love. It seems too trivial though to 'love' God. We also need to have a concept of Him as Lord. We also need a concept of Him as master, as saviour of the world, as healer, as friend, as EVERYTHING that he is. Inherent in having these concepts, is that we will attribute value to each of them. If we had been healed of some terrible disease we may place more value on God's healing aspects than something else. If we never have heard God talk to us, God as FRIEND, may be of little value.

Our worship (actions) reflect those feelings, whether we like it or not.

God really is more than someone who makes us feel good once a week when we sing a song that we like. God is more than someone who sits back and waits for us to worship Him. God is NO LESS than LORD. We don't have an accurate concept of lordship - that may contribute to some of the confusion - I know it does to mine.

Now, I know what you're thinking . . . what does ANY of this have to do with Unity? Well, I'm getting there, but I fear that I'll have to put it in a different post - just to break it up a little.

But I will say that worship is NOT about getting what you want, or deserve, or have been promised, or what you like. Worship is not even about you and God.

Worship is about God. We're only involved because thats what we were created to do. I hate when I'm at work, or anywhere and I have to 'bribe' people to do their job. It's their job - they shouldn't need more convincing that's what they're supposed to do. But we require blessings and healings and loving and having our preferences met before we 'agree' to do the job that we were created to do.

Sorry, I'm ranting now - but I have to go on, that example sparked me up - as much as I'm still learinign about worship, I'm CONVINCED that God didn't want to create a choir or a drama troupe or a band that spend their time practicing to sing or act or play. He wanted to create people that would do unto others that which they would want done unto themselves. He created people that he intended to do whatever for the least of humanity. He created people who would honor Him by keeping his commands (*** Remember that bit for later).

So, I probably sound like I had a turd sandwich for lunch. I didn't. I had soup - very good soup.

Up next time - the examples of David and Abraham/Isaac as worshippers.

I've got to rest my fingers.

Grace.

A Collision is Coming

I meant to post this a while ago - David Crowder Band is in the middle of recording a new CD. They have a really cool website/blog set up - go to http://www.acollisioniscoming.com. You can watch them on webcams in the studio and everything - it's VERY cool.

Grace.

EASY

Easy Hidden Mickey
I know they've been difficult - so here's a good and easy one - hopefully you can find it. It's the floor tile from the hotel.

Grace.

What to Say

During some recent worship I was participating in, the statement was made, "Lord, what else is there to say except 'thank You' for all that you've done for us." This got me thinking. If we stop thinking about ourselves and what God has done for US, there's a LOT more that we can say.

Here are a few helpful suggestions:

• You are good
• You're love endures forever
• You are a perfect judge (or You judge perfectly)
• The world declares your majesty
• Nations will bow to you
• You are love
• You are perfect
• Your anger is righteous
• Glory to you, God
• The earth is Yours, and everything in it.

No one should ever be stuck for things to say about the master of the universe, especially us, over whom He is soverign. Add more please - but don't use any personal pronouns, just to make it about God alone.

I'll add more later.

Grace.

Where's Mickey Now?

Difficult Hidden Mickey!!!

I don't know if anyone has spotted Mickey in the first installment of "Hidden Mickeys". THIS one is TOUGH. You'll probably want to find a way to zoom it - and stay to the right side.

Let me know if you find it.

Grace.

Pictures!

Greetings.

I'm going to start posting a bunch of pictures on ANOTHER blog - just to keep this one clean and clutter free. You can find it at http://desmerizingpics.blogspot.com. It'll mostly be like vacation pics and random things from our lives - nothing really interesting. Unless you find that stuff interesting. I know our family probaby will.

Anywho - it's there.

Grace.

Hidden Mickeys

Find the hidden Mickey!

You may or may not know that there are AT LEAST 400 hidden Mickey Mouse references, scattered all throughout Disney World - designers hide them in their work to make reference to their founding mouse.

Anyway, the last time I was at Disney, I spent the WHOLE day looking for them. This is the tree of life from the Animal Kingdom. See if you can find Mickey here.

Venting

We don't need anything else from God. We may want it. But, I believe it is wrong to say that, "I need to be fed." No. 2 Pete 1:3 says that, "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." We have been blessed to bless God and to bless others.

Worship IS NOT about us. In any way. It's not about what I like. It's about God. The only that I'm even involved is that I have to be the one to do it.

Perhaps we're in a situation where we don't understand what worship is. That may be the bigger issue. I'm arguing with someone about worship . . . but it doesn't work if we have different understandings of what worship is.

But I don't want to be a group of self-interested people gathering together for mutual self-interest.

Sorry, I'm venting. I'm in Orlando still following a 'heated' session.

Grace.

Orlando

My wife and I head to Orlando, this week. We're at the Sally Ann Territorial Youth Workers Confernce. I'm getting tired of conferences. I could literally spend all of my life at conferences and NEVER get a chance to do anything with it.

I am excited about seeing old friends though.

In any case, I may not be posting for a while. Hopefully, they'll have a wireless internet signal (maybe I'll buy a small wireless router) so I can post from the meetings.

Grace.

If we only understood . . .

Let me first say that I write this FULLY INCLUDING MYSELF in the thoughts . . . .

I wish we understood who Jesus is; who God is. I look around and I see Christians who will 'gossip' about how bad another Christian person is because they swear. I see young people who care only about themselves. I see adults that are content in their complacency. I see porn, and murder, and violence and "worship" and, for some reason, it's not required that those things be mutually exclusive.

All the while, I can't find anyone who will do anything about it; who will take a stand and confront and correct.

Maybe it's time I did. I wish someone would've (or would) do that for me.

Grace.