Lord I'm Amazed by You - or - Simple Pleasures

Psalm 8

1O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
3When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
5Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

6You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,

7all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,

8the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

At about 4:54 this morning, I awoke to the sound of my dog, Nick, running into our bedroom door (for those of you who don’t know, Nick is blind). He has been sleeping in our bedroom since we moved – for some reason the crate in the laundry room is no longer acceptable to him, haven’t quite figured out why, but so it is. Anyway, I knew he was either in need of the backyard, or of water. So, I got up and first took him to the backyard (seemed like the right priority). As I set him down in the grass, I looked up to see the most amazing sky full of stars – right here in my own backyard, when I wasn’t even looking for it. The absence of moonlight made the stars more visible than the times I had gone looking for them (earlier this month I had purposefully gotten up at about 4 am to see the meteor shower – although I was excited about the 8-10 “shooting stars” I saw in about 30 minutes that morning, I had been a little disappointed at the lack of a canopy of stars in the sky). I stood amazed and excited, then I went in and got my binoculars for a closer look. Again, I stood amazed and excited, and in complete awe of the majesty of our God that surrounds us all the time, even when we are not aware of it. I was humbled, and I confessed my lack of pure satisfaction in God alone – too caught up in the rhythm of day to day life, and lately burdened by the difficulty of life – to continually be amazed by my God. But my God is amazing, all the time, even when I’m not expecting it, especially when life is hard.

You dance over me

While I am unaware

You sing all around

But I never hear the sound

Lord I'm amazed by You

Lord I'm amazed by You

Lord I'm amazed by You

How You love me

How wide

How deep

How great

Is Your love for me

How wide, O how wide Lord

How deep, O how deep Lord

How great, O how great

Is Your love for me

Lord I'm amazed, amazed by You

Lord I'm amazed, amazed by You

Lord I'm amazed, amazed by You

How You love me

Exploring Kansas

Have you ever seen a Prairie Chicken?

We were amazed how far we could see - keep in mind, Kansas is pretty flat, we are not way up high here!

Well, obviously the courthouse is not operating right now, but aside from the current temporary closure for renovations, this is the oldest operating courthouse in Kansas. It is in a pretty little town called Cottonwood Falls.

Here we are at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Somtime when we have more time we will go back and explore the land around this farm area. It is in a beautiful part of Kansas called the Flint Hills, and it is part of the only Tallgrass Prairie left in the world!

We also spent some time in a town called Council Grove. The Santa Fe trail came through this area, and crossed a small river here. The town got it's name because of a council that took place in a grove of trees in 1825 in which the United States Government signed a treaty with the Osage indians obtaining the rights for a public highway, the Santa Fe Trail, to pass through this area crossing the river.

So that was our trip through the southern part of the Flint Hills, next on our list is the Gypsum Hills - how did this flat state get so many areas named for the hills?

Anonymity

OK, so I think I may have found a definite advantage to no one knowing me. Yesterday, I went to the Y for my workout after I dropped Kim off at the airport. Now, usually I get dressed in my workout clothes at home, go and workout, then come home and shower (I could shower at the Y, I just like my shower better!) Anyway, yesterday I quickly threw some exercise clothes in a bag before leaving for the airport. When I got to the Y I opened my bag and quickly realized that the problems we were having with our washing machine definitely affected how well that load had been cleaned - either that or it had sat in the washer too long, anyway, it did not smell nice at all! I'm pretty sure the folks on either side of me on the elipticals noticed it, I'm not sure how they could have missed it. But all they knew was that the lady next to them didn't smell good, they didn't know who the lady was, just some stranger. Of course, next week when I go to a class and run into some of them again, maybe they won't be strangers anymore. Oh well, hopefully it won't be memorable enough for them to say "oh, your the lady that stunk so bad last week!"

Church Hunting

Well, I don’t know if this is the something interesting I have been trying to urge my brain to spew forth, but it is what my brain is spending a lot of time grappling with these days.

Church Hunting. Seeking to find the community of believers with which to associate. It sure seems like it would be a whole lot simpler to just have “The Church”, to just have one common gathering of believers. But in the two thousand plus years since Jesus walked this planet in the flesh, people have decided for various reasons, perhaps some more justified than others, that they must separate themselves or define themselves beyond whether or not they are believers Jesus Christ, the son of God, the way of salvation. We disagree on worship styles, when and how to be baptized, the sufficiency of scripture, the role of women in the church, which sins are “big” enough to keep someone from being a teacher or preacher, the activity and manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our lives, what the words “infallible” or “inerrant” really mean, how and when to take communion, and on and on and on! It all becomes very confusing after a while.

So, here we are, looking for a church home – church hunting. We are finding that we have to focus on the “essentials” (I have always cherished the saying – “in essentials - unity, in non-essentials – liberty, in all things – charity”). So for me, for my family, what are the essentials? What we hope to find is a community of believers (we assume believers to mean believers in Christ, the fully human, fully divine Son of God – who died and rose again, who conquered death, and who is the only acceptable sacrifice, the only acceptable atonement for our sin, the only way to the Father) who look to the Word of God as given to us in the Holy Scriptures as the only true and infallible authority in our lives and seek to apply it day by day and moment by moment – challenging each other to be in the world but not of the world, and who gather together to worship our Holy God in Spirit and in Truth and to encourage each other in walking each day as followers of Christ and servants of His church. In the end will it really matter if that group of people happen to be part of a denominational church or not, if they happen to worship in traditional or contemporary style or some mixture of the two, if they raise their hands and jump and shout or if they quietly but completely immerse themselves in worship, if they recite the Lord’s prayer and apostle’s creed or not, if I hear or see people around me speaking in tongues or being slain in the spirit or not, if, if, if……

All we can really do is ask God to lead us wherever He will lead us, to do whatever He will have us to do, and to always, always glorify His Name. After all, His church is about Him, not about us. I hope you will keep us in your prayers as we seek after the congregation God would have us be a part of.