So, a funny thing happened this morning. Matt (of course) was the first person I saw this Easter morning, so I said to him "Christ is risen", fully expecting a response like: "He is risen indeed." Matt, however, clearly did not grow up with this tradition and enthusiastically said, "Heck yes he is!"
So, however you choose to express it... Happy Easter! He is risen! Heck yes!
So, this is not really wedding-related, but it is something we wanted to share with you all.
Over these past few months, Matt and I have both been contemplating the motivation behind praise of God.
Here is what we've been struggling with: Do we praise Him for who He is? or Do we praise Him for all the good and nice things He does for us?
Our personal conversation and questions were brought to life these past few weeks through a song we've been singing at church. The song, entitled Desert Song, was written by the musicians at Hillsong.
Below is a video of the song and a short testimony from Jill McCloghry, one of the Hillsong singers. We hope this blesses you today.
Check out this video:
The bottom line that we've discovered is that we should praise God for both who He is and for what He does for us. Very often, though, we only praise him for what he does for us, because that is easy for us to grasp. We see the beauty of creation and we see that He has lavished blessing on us.
However, praising God for blessing us isn't enough. We should also praise God because He is holy, righteous, gracious, merciful, compassionate, etc. No matter what He does or doesn't do for us, He is worthy of our praise.
Lyrics to Desert Song:
This is my prayer in the desert, When all that's within me feels dry, This is my prayer in my hunger and need, My God is the God who provides,
And this is my prayer in the fire, In weakness, or trial, or pain, There is a faith proved more worth than gold, So refine me Lord through the flame,
I will bring praise, I will bring praise, No weapon formed against me shall remain, I will rejoice, I will declare, God is my victory and He is here,
This is my prayer in the battle, When triumph is still on its way, I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ, So firm on his promise I'll stand,
I will bring praise, I will bring praise, No weapon formed against me shall remain, I will rejoice, I will declare, God is my victory and He is here,
All of my life, in every season, You are still God, I have a reason to sing, I have a reason to worship,
I will bring praise, I will bring praise, No weapon formed against me shall remain, I will rejoice, I will declare, God is my victory and He is here,
And this is my prayer in the harvest, When favour and providence flow, I know I'm filled to be emptied again, The seed I receive I will sow
Psalm 104 "1 Praise the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty.
2 He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent....
33 I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD."
Deuteronomy 7:9 (from The Message)
Know this: God, your God, is God indeed, a God you can depend upon. He keeps his covenant of loyal love with those who love him and observe his commandments for a thousand generations.
The last week of February brought an end to the Mardi Gras festivities. The beginning of March marked the end of my internship. It was such a great experience – I learned a lot about what I’ll be doing in the future, met some great people, and got to travel to some exotic locales (and by exotic I mean backwoods Louisiana).
At the end of my internship I was offered a full-time position, so I’ll be starting work as a Staff 1 in the fall of 2010. I’m so excited and, given the current economy, blessed to have this great opportunity.
Me and my handy dandy audit trunk -->
Throughout the month I had several visitors, including Frankie (featured in the St. Patrick’s Day blog and video) and Dean, a friend from church, who brought his friend Jessica. It was fun hosting these friends during their first trip to the Big Easy.
During March, Matt was busy with church and school – mission teams, ministry events, Bible study, leading weekly prayer meetings, tests, papers, and all that jazz.He spent most of his Spring Break in Mississippi helping lead worship at a Youth event with Rob and Andrew.
At the end of the week, we took a trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama to enjoy some time at the beach. It was only a three hour drive, which is much better than the seven or so hours it takes to get to the beach from Knoxville, and the water was beautiful and blue. It was, however, extremely windy and a little cool. We walked along the beach some, ate our picnic lunch, tried to read (made difficult because of the gusts) and eventually packed up and headed to the nearby state park, where Matt napped for a couple of hours and I finished reading Jane Eyre. For dinner, we drove a short distance to Foley, Alabama to try Lambert’s Café, a highly recommended eatery. I don’t know what we were expecting, but the sight that greeted us when we got there was not what I thought. The place is similar to Cracker Barrel, with lots of good Southern home cooking. It is known as “The Home of the Throwed Rolls”. Indeed, this means that every five minutes or so, someone comes out of the kitchen with hot rolls and throws them to you. The food was good…at least mine was. Matt was told by his friend Luke, a Mississippi boy, to try the hog jowl. Well, it turns out this stuff is glorified bacon, thick and fatty….yum, right? He ate maybe a quarter of what they brought out….it was pretty gross. We won’t be taking any recommendations on dinner selections from Mississippi boys anytime soon.
Obviously, this is not hog jawl. It's just Matt enjoying some ribs (his fave).
A sign inside Slim Goodies, a fabulous diner in Uptown.
Matt and I are continuing to perfect our culinary skills. We grilled steaks on our George Foreman one night – not too bad if I do say so myself. The highlight (or lowlight) of the month occurred last week, when I was making grilled cheese sandwiches. Sounds simple enough, right? Not so. I decided to try using one of the fancy stainless steel pans my landlord provided. Well, something crazy happened - the pan heated up too fast or something - and I burned the sandwiches, and set off the smoke alarm. I called my landlord and she said she would send someone from maintenance right over. In about two minutes there was a knock at the door. It wasn’t the maintenance man. It was the New Orleans Fire Department….I was mortified! It was an experience though. And I learned a couple of important lessons: 1. Register for nonstick cookware 2. Open a window when you are cooking in this apartment, or have Matt flail his arms around like he’s being attacked by a nest of hornets to fan the smoke 3. Meet the Fire Dept. downstairs.They don’t know the code to get in, and they are not too happy when they have to call the office to get the code.
On the wedding front, we have started looking at places to register and things to register for. We went to Williams-Sonoma last week to look at kitchenware. Let me just say that even though I grew up in a house where there was always something going on in the kitchen, I had no idea how much stuff there was out there, or how many variations of each item there are – coffeemakers, toaster ovens, crock pots – so many sizes, options, choices…crazy!
All in all, March was a fabulous month down here in the Big Easy. We hope your month was awesome as well.I’ll be back in KnoxVegas in a couple of weeks.
