On making a joyful noise

God's word commands us to make a joyful noise.   Churches debate how best to do that in corporate worship.  I appreciated this article:

The Difference between Congregational Worship & a Concert

A music teacher I know says that most Christian pop-radio songs are not meant to be sung by a congregation, which explains why in many churches you can hear the praise team more than you can hear the congregation.  Just because a song sounds good on the radio or CD or at a concert, doesn't mean that the congregation (especially the non-musical ones like me) can sing it.

A few years ago our nieces went with us to a Getty concert, which was more like a sing-a-long, and one niece leaned over to me, and, with surprised joy in her voice, said, "I can sing these, even though I've never heard them before." 

Just two anecdotes that show how helpful it is for the music of the Church to be sing-able!

What is the last song you remember learning in church ~ and enjoying it?

1000 Gifts, Vol. 4, #59

601.  tiny rabbits eating clover in our yard

602.  rows of soybeans in the man's field behind our house, growing and hiding the brown soil underneath, making a carpet of green

603.  the contentment that comes from being industrious & seeing progress in our creation mandate of subduing the earth (and the chaos and the dust and the dirty dishes & laundry)

604.  a new favorite summer recipe - I think I could eat it every day!!

605.  a shift in perspective from seeing our summer calendar as BUSY, to seeing it as FULL -- full of opportunities with people

606.  God's grace - and my husband's! - when I hit the wall because I put tasks in front of people

607.  a spontaneous - yet heart-to-heart - conversation that touched deep places in my soul - in the foyer after church

608.  2.5 hours around a table with 10 or so like-minded folk, as we strategized and dreamed and worked on details for our church's missions conference

609.  participating in that as a couple

610.  both of us being refreshed & energized by the opportunity to use our God-given gifts & passions

Honda

I glanced at the calendar to see what was going on that day.  The square was blank except for:

"Honda 3 PM,"

and I almost had a mental whiplash.

The church planting team I worked with in Japan has a piece of property (with a church building and educational building) in a neighborhood called "Honda."  (Unrelated to and not the same characters as the Honda car company characters.)  Although there is an entire community and tens of thousands of people who live in Honda, I used it as a place name for the two buildings on church/mission property.

In any given week, I taught English classes at Honda, led a Bible study or two at Honda, attended meetings at Honda, participated in outreach events at Honda, had appointments at Honda, e.g., to meet an English student there so we could ride somewhere together, and the list goes on.

My calendar (in Japan days) was full of "Honda 3 PM" or "Honda 8 AM!"

When I read "Honda 3 PM" on my kitchen calendar the other day, I was confused.  Honda?!?  What?!? 

In my mind, I was pronouncing it with a long o sound (as the Japanese would), so it didn't even translate that I really was supposed to go to what Americans call the /hahn' duh/ dealership in a nearby city (not in Japan) at 3 PM for an oil change and tire rotation. 

Given a few seconds, my mind realized that it couldn't be the Honda of my Japan days, and I proceeded to plan my day so that I would make my appointment.  Whew!

Trust for our trembling, and hope for our fear

Do you ever find yourself trembling or fearful, carrying a burden, needing comfort for your sorrows or answers for your prayers?

Meditate on the beautiful hymn, Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness.  I was introduced to it in our church in Japan and love the haunting melody.

Even with halting Japanese (especially when it comes to reading the equivalent of "King James" Japanese in the old hymnal), I could tell that the words were powerful, and they touched my heart and drew me into worship.

I made quick work of finding the English translation on Cyberhymnal and wrote the English words in the back of my English hymnal, and they ministered to me this afternoon.

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness,
Bow down before Him, His glory proclaim;
Gold of obedience and incense of lowliness,
Bring and adore Him—the Lord is His Name.

Low at His feet lay Thy burden of carefulness,
High on His heart He will bear it for thee;
Comfort thy sorrows and answer thy prayerfulness,
Guiding thy steps as may best for thee be.

Fear not to enter His courts in the slenderness
Of the poor wealth thou wouldst reckon as thine;
Truth in its beauty, and love in its tenderness,
These are the offerings to lay on His shrine.

These though we bring them in trembling and fearfulness,
He will accept for the Name that is dear,
Mornings of joy give for evenings of tearfulness,
Trust for our trembling, and hope for our fear.

Take a few minutes and read the words above while playing the video below?  (If you want to look at the Japanese words, it's Sanbika #7, which starts:

主のみいつとみさかえとを

こえのかぎりたたえて、

またき愛とひくさこころ

御座にそなえひれふす。

1000 Gifts, Vol. 4,. #58 ~ Father's Day Week

591.  a father & father-in-law who walk with God

592.  driving west at 8.30 PM into a gorgeous sunset with pinks, purples, & periwinkles galore

593.  the start of a new Bible study

594.  freedom to answer honestly when a lady asked how I'm doing

595.  the unbridled enthusiasm of a baby Christian in our group

596.  the testimony of God's goodness despite the amount of sorrow in the lives of the couple dozen women in the group

597.  the Lord's favor when I went to Goodwill ~ and found the exact brand of pants that fit me best (I used to have a good source at the consignment shop in TN)

598.  a successful couple hours of food prep after a long day in town (Bible study, lunch, errands, groceries)

599.  "happening" upon free First Aid case at Target (free when you buy 3 of the First Aid essentials on that endcap) ~ just days after I had put "assemble first aid kits" on my to-do list

600.  the Lord's mercies truly are new every morning!

Fasting from prayer

At prayer meeting a few weeks ago, the leader told of hearing a radio interview with someone who fasted from prayer.

Not someone who fasted and prayed.

Someone who fasted from prayer. 

Instead of praying verbose, flowery prayers with lots of repeated phrases, this person tried to pray three-word prayers. 

It is not as easy as it sounds!  We tried it for part of our prayer meeting.  In between prayers, we meditated on those three words.  I found it to be a good exercise for my soul.

Some examples were:

Search my heart.

Lord, forgive me.

Help my unbelief.

You are holy.

You are good.

What would be your three-word prayer?

Toothpaste & cooking oil

"Do you coupon?" she asked.  I really wanted her to think well of my ability to be a good homemaker and a good steward, but honesty is the best policy, and so my immediate reply was, "I'm a coupon failure."  She breathed a sigh of relief, because she is also a self-diagnosed coupon failure.

But, I do want to be a good homemaker and a good steward!  And that is why I have been so happy to find the following frugal tips that WORK!

Whenever I pack my overnight bag backpack for a quick trip to the lake or for small trips such as our overnight trip to our niece's graduation, I don't want to fill it up with full-sized bottles of shampoo, toothpaste, etc.  But neither do I want to pay an arm and a leg (per ounce) for the little travel tubes of toothpaste.

I recently discovered that you can squeeze toothpaste from a normal-sized tube into a used travel-size tube!!  {Insert happy dance!}

The next tip is one of those, "It isn't really necessary, but it's a nice extra" type of things.  My kitchen cupboards are stocked with glass jars filled with walnuts, craisins, lentils, rice, etc.  The glass jars once held applesauce or spaghetti sauce, but mostly salsa and peanut butter (staples in our life!).   When the peanut butter is gone, I run it through the dishwasher with the next load, and VOILA!  There it is ... a clean, empty jar with torn paper and residual glue on it.  I fill it with pantry items and put it on the shelf.

But I'm in the middle of a project which involves jars and lace and table decorations, so I decided to peel off all the salsa labels and get rid of the gummy, gluey mess.   After soaking in a sink of warm water, Magic Erasers work, or steel wool, but the best thing I've found is a little bit of cooking oil scrubbed on and in and around with steel wool.  Now, that is a true VOILA!!

What new tips have you discovered lately?