out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks

ok, so we did this excercise at
worship team rehearsal tonight and it was really neat.
Mike had us all open our Bibles to Psalms,
and just skim through the pages and find a Psalm
that really stuck out to us. And then he had us all get up
and walk around the sanctuary, just reading Psalms out loud,
all different ones but at the same time, so we weren't really
listening to each other, but we were reading the Psalms out loud.

The point of the excercise was to not feel weird
having God's words on our lips
"out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks"(matt 12:34)
The overflow of our hearts, as followers
and worshippers of Christ, should BE Christ!
when we come to church Sunday morning,
it should not feel awkward or weird to us
to be singing praises to God.
It also should not feel like we're performing.
So in order to make it feel natural to speak or sing God's praises,
we have been asked to read the Psalms out loud in a quiet time with God
just in worship to Him...so i decided to share one of the psalms
that i happened to read out loud tonight


this whole practice has made me fall in love with God all over again =)


Psalm 66:1-12, 16-20

Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
Say to God, "How awesome are your
deeds!
So great is your power that your
enemies come cringing to you.
All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name."


Come and see what God has done:
he is awesome in his deeds toward the
children of man.
He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the river on foot.
There did we rejoice in him,
who rules by his might forever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations-
let not the rebellious exalt themselves.


Bless our God, O peoples;
let the sound of his praise be heard,
who has kept our soul among the living
and has not let our feet slip.
For you, O God, have tested us;
you have tried us as silver is tried.
You brought us into the net;
you laid a crushing burden on our
backs;
you let men ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through
water;
yet you have brought us out to a place of
abundance.

....


Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell you what he has done for
my soul.
I cried to him with my mouth,
and high praise was on my tongue.
If i had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
But truly God listened;
he has attended to the voice of my
prayer.

Blessed be God,
because he has not rejected my
prayer
or removed his steadfast love
from me!

Jesus saves

sooo if you know me, you know that i am a music geek. lol
a lot of my posts will probably come from lines of songs
that just got me thinking about different things, so at least
now you know what to expect lol

anyways, so today's song...well, this weekend/beginning of the week
the song that has been on my mind a lot is "Jesus Saves"

it's probably my most recent favorite that we sing in church
and the reason i like it so much is for the third verse
it says:

"He will live our sorrow sharing
Jesus saves, Jesus saves
He will die our burden bearing
Jesus saves, Jesus saves
It is done, will shout the cross
Christ has paid redemption's cost
while the empty tomb declaring, Jesus saves!"

-God knows our sorrows.
He knows what it feels like to lose
someone you care so much about...

-Jesus died for OUR sins
he bore the cross so we wouldn't
have to suffer in hell for eternity
(this doesn't mean everyone goes to heaven.
some people choose to ignore God and His free gift)

-"It is finished" the suffering was over for Jesus
and the suffering will be over for us
when we enter God's kingdom someday

-Christ has paid the cost.
"the wages of sin is death"
so Christ died once to save us from
eternal death. dying forever...doesn't sound too great

-Jesus rose from the dead 3 days later
leaving the empty tomb as a sign
that death was not the end of it
we will be raised to life again with God in heaven

-"death has lost it's sting"
God has power over death

WOW

ok, i don't really know what else to say
i think God having power over death
is a pretty good way to end this post

if God has power over death and He is on our side
who or what can be against us...??