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Archive for category How Great Thou Art
Six Sides of Cardboard | Respect
Posted by Curtis in How Great Thou Art on May 29, 2010
Tomorrow we’ll look at Jesus’ return to his hometown, where those in His hometown take offense at him. Maybe He should demand respect! What do you think? Would that fit with his proclamation of the Kingdom message?
Get Up! | More After Words
Posted by Curtis in After Words, How Great Thou Art on May 27, 2010
Remember, this is not the end of your story.
Get Up! | After Words
Posted by Curtis in After Words, How Great Thou Art on May 27, 2010
This past Sunday, we thought together about God as the author of our stories, who alone can proclaim that whatever is troubling us, it is not “the end of our story.”
Note also some lyrics from the song “Unwritten,” by Natasha Bedingfield:
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten
Are there ways in which you could better trust in the One who is writing your particular story? How could your church community help you do so?
Get Up! | No Half Measures
Posted by Curtis in How Great Thou Art, On Second Thoughts on May 22, 2010
Tomorrow we’ll think together about Jesus’ power to raise the dead! Notice, again, this quote from C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity:
Get Up! | Half of My Heart
Posted by Curtis in How Great Thou Art on May 22, 2010
In tomorrow’s passage we find Jairus being exhorted to have faith instead of fear. Maybe we could put it this way: until then he’d believed with only half of his heart.
Check out these lyrics… Could they be read in light of Jesus coming into Jairus’ life? How about ours (especially in light of the New Testament’s assertion that we are the Bride of Christ)?
I was born in the arms of imaginary friends
free to roam, made a home out of everywhere I’ve been
Then you come on crashing in like the realest thing
Trying my best to understand all that your love can bring
Oh, half of my heart’s got a grip on the situation
half of my heart takes time
Half of my heart’s got a right mind
to tell you that I can’t keep lovin’ you, can’t keep lovin’ you
Oh, with half of my heart
I was made to believe I’d never love somebody else
made a plan, stay the man who can only love himself
Lonely was the song I sang ’til the day you came
Showing me another way and all that my love can bring
Oh, half of my heart’s got a grip on the situation
half of my heart takes time
Half of my heart’s got a right mind
to tell you that I can’t keep lovin’ you, can’t keep lovin’ you
Oh, with half of my heart, with half of my heart
Your faith is strong, but I can only fall short for so long
down the road, later on
You will hate that I never gave more to you
than half of my heart
But I can’t stop lovin’ you, I can’t stop lovin’ you
I can’t stop lovin’ you, I can’t stop lovin’ you,
I can’t stop lovin’ you with half of my
half of my heart, oh half of my heart
Half of my heart’s got a real good imagination
half of my heart’s got you
Half of my heart’s got a right mind to tell you
that half of my heart won’t do
Half of my heart is a shot gun wedding
to a bride with a paper ring
And half of my heart is the part of a man
who’s never truly loved anything
Half of my heart, oh half of my heart
Half of my heart, oh half of my heart
Half of my heart, oh half of my heart
Get Up! | Be Here Now
Posted by Curtis in How Great Thou Art on May 21, 2010
At the outset of this Sunday’s text we find Jesus still speaking to the woman who had suffered for 12 years under the hands of many doctors. You’ll recall, he was interrupted by this woman on his way to the home of Jairus.
Maybe we could put it this way: Jesus is fully present, wherever he is. Do you ever feel like, whilst one place, your mind is really somewhere else?
Notice these lyrics from a song called “Be Here Now” by Ray LaMontagne:
Don’t let your mind get weary and confused, your will be still, don’t try
Don’t let your heart get heavy child, inside you there’s a strength that lies
Don’t let your soul get lonely child, it’s only time, it will go by
Don’t look for love in faces, places, it’s in you, that’s where you’ll find kindness
Be here now, here now
Don’t lose your faith in me, and I will try not to lose faith in you
Don’t put your trust in walls, ’cause walls will only crush you when they fall
Be here now, here now
While Ray LaMontagne may not have had this meaning in mind in writing this song, could we find indeed find a strength that lies inside of us because of the presence of Christ’s Holy Spirit? Since we know that Christ is always with us, does that give us the strength to be present wherever we are?
If, Then | Hold My Hand
Posted by Curtis in How Great Thou Art on May 14, 2010
In Mark 5.21-34, our text for this Sunday, we find a woman reaching out for Jesus. When was the last time you reached out for someone? When was the last time you held someone’s hand?
If, Then | What It Should Be
Posted by Curtis in How Great Thou Art, On Second Thoughts on May 14, 2010
This Sunday’s text brings up some interesting questions about what church gatherings should be like. Though some of us may have seen this clip before, it may be worth reflecting on again.
One question to ask ourselves in doing so: “Why does Jeff Tweedy say rock concerts are ‘what church should be like if church was what… it should be’?”
If, Then | 1st Corinthians 9.24-27
Posted by Curtis in How Great Thou Art, More Fore Words on May 13, 2010
In this Sunday’s text, a woman reaches out for Jesus in hopes of healing. Maybe her yearning for Christ is not entirely unlike the Apostle Paul’s striving in 1st Corinthians:
If, Then | Falling At Your Feet
Posted by Curtis in How Great Thou Art on May 13, 2010
This Sunday’s text features two different people who fall at Jesus’ feet. And this song is good.