Forever For His Glory

Last night was one of our monthly English Country Dance practices. And at the dances we have a mixture of people that have been doing ECD for many years, to those who have never danced before. Towards the end of the evening, one of my favorite dances was announced, Postie’s Jig. It is also one of the few dances where instead of dancing in long lines of guys and girls facing each other, each group is compiled of only 4 couples (4 guys and 4 girls). I *happened* to end up in a group that was almost entirely composed of advanced dancers (myself included). 5 of us were part of the first group that had started the ECD practices, 2 others had been coming for over a year, and the other boy was the type of beginner that teachers dream of. As the other groups formed, I noticed that most of the other groups were composed entirely of all beginners (there were a lot of new people that evening). I mentioned to one of the girls that maybe one or two couples in our group should go trade places wit...

Growing up, we’re told not to be “ conformed to this world, but be transformed through the renewing of your mind ” . (Romans 12:2) We’re told not to judge how, or what we can do by comparing ourselves to others. Except in one thing I’ve noticed; we don’t sing like we should. And maybe it’s just because I sing that I’ve noticed it (in myself and others), but if we don’t sound good singing, we don’t do it. Colossians 3:16 says, “ ... singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord .” We’re not called to sing (and only sing) when we sound good. Psalm 100 says, Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to al...

It never fails, at least once every month or so, I’ll be in the kitchen at Wednesday night church and I’ll hear some of the older ladies talking about some child or friend, and they’ll make the statement, “but (s)he’s got a good heart”. It didn’t used to bother me, either. I’d hear the story of whoever the person was, and no matter if it was a girl on drugs, or a young boy with anger issues, it was always the same. “They’ve got a good heart.” The sad thing is, it became a family joke to us. We weren’t trying to be disrespectful, but it was our way to respond to it, since there wasn’t anything we could do about it. And then recently I realized our desensitization to it. After hearing it for however long we’d been hearing it, it no longer bothered us. Which isn’t a problem, right? I mean, it seems innocent... except, I don’t think it is. I don’t remember ever hearing Jesus or the Apostles (or anyone else in the scripture, for that matter), ever tell someone that they had a “good” hear...

At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night ; a nd God said, “Ask! What shall I give you?”And Solomon said: “You have shown great mercy to Your servant David my father, because he walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You; You have continued this great kindness for him, and You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. Then God said to him: “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long lif...

Many years ago I was watching a Christian parody about how a Christian should not witness. The “Christian” in the video started talking to an unbeliever and ended the conversation by telling the guy to “read your Bible!” and then whacks the guy with the Bible that was in his hand. The quote popped into my head last night as I was about to read the Bible before bed. I had gone to bed at about 9:50 with every intention of spending a while in the Word, but somehow I kept getting sidetracked as my mind (i.e. flesh) kept finding me other things to read/think about until I glanced at the clock only to find that it was 10:40. Where had the time gone? Surely I hadn’t wasted that much time!? And immediately (as if on cue) my mind started coming up with excuses as to why I shouldn’t read the Bible now because “it was too late”; “if you read it now you won’t be rested in the morning”; “you can always read it tomorrow, after all.” But you know, I’ve gone along with it before, and it never ...

“What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?” “Family.” “Jesus.” “Friends.” “Home.” Last Wednesday was the last Bible study before Thanksgiving. When we first started teaching the class 3+ years ago, it was like pulling teeth to get the kids to pay attention and not be disruptive. After several months, I was ready to quit after several weeks where the boys were being especially rude and disruptive (it seemed like they were doing it out of spite for us). We didn’t, of course, though it was very tempting. The lady that had taught the class before us used to go home every week crying, and I could definitely understand why. After those weeks of “trials”, the kids started getting better (slowly) and we started building relationships with them. The surprising thing was that the boys that were originally the “trouble-makers”, became the best students. After they found out that we loved them and cared about their life, they started paying attention, asking questions, and genuinely wanting to ...