"Study of the liturgy is always and everywhere a study of the lives of women and men." - Dom Gregory Dix

2012: a new season - one in which to work harder, make things better, do things faster, and become stronger #daftpunk #BeBold

RT @JoshGarrels: Christianity Today names "Love & War" Album of the Year! Im honored. Magazines ship today, and here's their blogentry: http://t.co/ZYsDvekV

@lensweet: To let Jesus "in" is to let ego "go." A big heart gives rise to a small ego.

@lensweet: My biggest problem with "praise music?" Too little harmony . .. people need to find their "place in the choir" http://t.co/j12Dmtfb

RT @CrawfordSalasin: "...For that is what God meant humanity to be like; like players in one band." #MereChristianity #CSLewis

We were born with an acoustic

When asked how his music reflected his native West Virginia, composer George Crumb said, "I used to express that like every composer maybe...inherits an 'acoustic,' and that acoustic is natural and it comes from the place he grew up."

One definition for the word "acoustic" is "pertaining to the sense or organs of hearing, to sound, or to the science of sound."

Through these two thoughts I put us in remembrance that we did not originate in this world.  We find our origins in heaven.  From that understanding, our "acoustic" should be the things and sounds of heaven, particularly the voice of the Triune God.

Perhaps it is time for us to become reacquainted with our roots and tune into the frequency of heaven.

@CSLewisDaily: When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place. #CSLewis

@CSLewisDaily: God cannot bless us unless He has us. Therefore, in love, He claims all. There's no bargaining with Him.

@CSLewisDaily: You must ask for God's help...After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again.

@CSLewisDaily: One road leads home and a thousand roads lead into the wilderness. #CSLewis

@preston_sharpe: RT @RickWarren: "People are NOT rubbish.People are made in God's image.They're fallen but the image of God hasnt been destroyed!"John Stott

RT @CSLewisDaily: It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men- #CSLewis

@CopelandNetwork: We need to learn to slow down in difficult situations and turn to God first.

@lensweet: RT @jr_briggs: "Wherever St. Paul went, there was a riot. Wherever I go, they serve tea." - Anglican bishop and scholar N.T. Wright #radicalgospel

The Divine Mash-up

Last night while teaching at Deeper Life Institute, I was flipping through the book for the night, So Beautiful by Leonard Sweet, looking for a quote when I spotted the term "mash-up" on a page in the epilogue. After I read the quote for which I was searching, I came back to the term "mash-up."

I told the class I compose and perform electronica music. I told them about some of my musical heros (like Tim Exile and Imogen Heap) who have the capabilities to perform mash-ups. A mash-up is when you take snippets of pre-existing songs or a sample (be it live or pre-recorded) and tweek, slice, double, reverse, effect, or anything else you can think to it and combine those snippets with other snippets to create new songs.

It got me thinking: the Church is the "divine mash-up."

God is the Master Composer, taking our lives in their various stages, and weaving them together in a way that is beautiful to His ear.

May we components of God's divine mash-up...

Communion is so incredible, who am I to check the guest-list - Madeline L'Engle

RT @brettdhill: Praise the Father, form the Body of Christ, and live in the Spirit-Jordan Bajis

Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. -- A.W. Tozer

Faith is not a once-done act, but a continuous gaze of the heart at the Triune God. #Tozer

@CSLewisDaily: The Church is the Body of Christ in which members share the common life, complimenting & helping one another- #CSLewis

@CSLewisDaily: Read history & you find that Christians who did most for the present world were those who thought most of the next #CSLewis

A modern-day triumph - @lensweet: Historic St. John's Bible is finished | StarTribune.com http://t.co/AdAAeuC8

@CSLewisDaily: There are many different ways of bringing people into his Kingdom, I have therefore learned to be cautious in my judgment

@CSLewisDaily: It is not enough to want to get rid of one's sins, we also need to believe in the One who saves us from our sins

"We die daily to self so we may worship God to the fullest." - TFH P&W Team

@CSLewisDaily: The present is the only time in which any duty may be done or grace received-CSLewis

@CSLewisDaily: Forgive us as we Forgive-We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse Gods mercy for ourselves

@CSLewisDaily: God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

@lensweet: every theological dispute is like every war---an "argument without end"

@CSLewisDaily: We must show our Christian colors if we are to be true to Christ-We can't remain silent or concede everything away-CSLewis

@CopelandNetwork: Never base your faith on your feelings. Base it on God's Word (Kenneth Copeland)

@lensweet: RT @E_StanleyJones: "Salvation is in Christ and not in the system built up around Him." - E. Stanley Jones

@lensweet: Look around worship-any kids? "Teens who are present look like dental patients under heavy anesthesia (but so do many adults)" Sarah Arthur

@CSLewisDaily: If He who in Himself can lack nothing, chooses to need us, it is because we need to be needed-CSLewis

@CSLewisDaily: If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more & if they are your enemies, you are under orders to pray for them

@lensweet: photographer Edward Weston describes the creative process as "seeing through one's eyes, not with them"

@PauleyP: "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" - MLK Jr. My fave quote. #NoH8

@lensweet: dialogue is more about listening than talking

From lensweet: John Owen (1616-1683) summarized his life with this prayer: "Teach me, Lord, to pray as I ought & to live as I ought to pray"

"I don't read the Word as some religious exercise - I read the Word because it teaches me how to live this life!" - Kenneth Copeland

4 ay?} ???9 DG?A?0 ]???u?{ B?? sx\ ???? ??????< ???1 ? ?Att 4D??e7??.?????j??y??????o?????]

4 ?? D.?? :?2?????4 ???2?????s ?????9 $.??n2(?f?????./?@Tt? B?As???&??i{ ?L?Ao7; ??? ? ? ???0?./??h 2= ?????./?@?? t???t ] ??i7?m ??

"...we attend worship to hear from and speak to our living Lord, who has taken up residence in our community." -- Constance Cherry

This is a test of the SMS capabilities of my blog. This is only a test! :) R+

Power outage revelation

Upon returning to my parents' home after supper the other night we discovered the power went down for the whole neighbourhood. Fortunately, their home is on city water, so we had water the whole night.

This led me to thinking about people and their spiritual lives...

Too often a lack of power, or external evidence, can leave people feeling as though they have an inferior spiritual life, especially when they compare themselves to others. However, the reality is the Holy Spirit, the water, is still moving! Life and growth is still happening!

Too often we fail to realize and/or recognize God is ALWAYS moving in our lives. It is up to us to rest in that knowledge and believe even when things look "dark," God is working both to will and do His good pleasure in our lives, in our midst, in our congregations, in our communities.

Though it may be easier said than done, let us hold fast to this knowledge and embrace the move and refreshing of the Holy Spirit.

Prepping for the Holy Triduum

I have been reflecting on the days of Holy Week, however this year the Triduum (three days) have particularly arrested my attention.

Most of the time we jump in our focus from Palm Sunday to Maundy Thursday to Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Not much is made of Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and yet something changed in the atmosphere of Jerusalem between Palm Sunday and Thursday. The storm began to brood...

Being from Kansas almost guarantees you have the makings of an amateur meteorologist engrained in you. We look for the signs of the storm before it hits. This makes it easier for us to respond to the storm.

As we move into the Holy Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday) it is good to pause and meditate upon the portions of Scripture which describe how we reached this point and the people in the Scripture.

What was brooding:

--in the Pharisees to seek to kill Jesus?

--in Judas before he kissed Jesus?

--in John before he fled the garden?

--in Peter before he denied Jesus?

--in Pilate before he pronounced sentence?

Holy Week

It's official - we are now firmly in Holy Week!

Holy Week marks the eight days from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. During this time we recall the journey of Jesus from being hailed at the Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday, to the instituting of a new way of living on Maundy Thursday, to the ultimate expresson of Love on Good Friday, finally culminating in the Resurrection of Easter Sunday.

As you journey with Jesus through the trials and joys of this week, ask the Holy Spirit to increase your awareness to those around you, that you may help them bear their burdens and rejoice with them in their joys.

New EP out...

I released a new EP of electronic music last week. You can download it for free here.

It was made in response to the RPM (Radio Production Month) Challenge. It features collaborations based upon words, phrases, or poems given to me by others, upon which I composed a tune (in addition to drawing inspiration from their own lives for the key signature, time signature, tempo marking, and instrumentation).

I look forward to next year's challenge...

Ash Wednesday

It is Ash Wednesday. For some reason, that makes me feel good...

You would think a time that causes one to examine their faults would be a sorrowful, or discouraging time. Yet, I enjoy Ash Wednesday.

I like seeing the dark purple and praying for God's grace...

I savor the aroma of the incense wafting, smoldering, as I kneel before my Maker and express my sorrow to Him...

I enjoy sealing people's foreheads with the sign of cross with ash, made from the palm leaves of last year's jubilant Palm Sunday celebration...

I appreciate feeling the cool ashes applied to my own forehead, receiving the sign of forgiveness and blessing...

I love knowing God loves me...that overwhelms me...

That is why, on this most solemn of days, I feel good...

Repentance that Changes Us

This is a devotional for Wednesday from DYNAMIS (http://www.dynamispublications.org/), an Orthodox Christian daily devotional. The text is Joel 2:12-26; the commentator is discussing the relation between fasting and repentance in light of God's call to His people:

++++++

Joel 2:12-26 (3/2-3/15) First Vesperal Reading, Wednesday of the Week of Forgiveness
Fasting III ~ Repentance that Changes Us: Joel 2:12-26, SAAS, especially vs. 13: "...rend your hearts, and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and compassionate. He is long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy, and repents of evils."

Fasting can be viewed, at bare minimum, as limitations imposed on types and quantities of food, sleep, and other pleasures. But as Father Georges Florovsky noted, "Asceticism does not exist of prohibitions. Asceticism is activity, a 'working out,' a perfection of one's self....inspired by the task of inspiration." Thus, fasting may direct attention to sinful deeds, but we benefit most when it prompts us to repudiate the evil thoughts that precede sinful acts, when both thoughts and acts are repugnant to God. The Prophet teaches us to rend the heart when turning to God the Lord.

The significance of evil thoughts is twofold: 1) the inward corruption they work in the heart, and, of course, 2) the resulting sinful acts and consequences that follow from wicked thoughts. Do remember that among the consequences that follow our evil thoughts and actions are the Divine judgments that befall us. Through His Prophet Joel, the Lord kindly invites us to heartfelt repentance and promises to "...restore to you the years the grasshopper and the locust have eaten, and for the blight, and the caterpillar..."

(Joel 2:25). We pay a heavy price for unrestrained evil thoughts and passions. Like locusts, they eat up our hearts and souls, a process Saint Gregory of Nyssa summarizes: "...man was a thing divine before his humanity got within reach of the assault of evil...then, however, with the inroad of evil...afflictions broke in upon him." Our passions rise from their natural state and turn into a destructive swarm of marauding insects, eating our hearts - wrath, fear, cowardice, impudence, depression and indulgence, hatred, strife, merciless cruelty, envy as well as flattery and brutality together with brooding over injuries. These turn into a ravenous plague within us. Joel likens these swarming passions to conquering nations who desolate and mock 'the good land' we inherit in Christ (vs. 17). The image of God in us becomes despoiled! But the Lord promises to drive away the desolating adversary (vs. 26) and restore those things necessary for life (vs. 24).

Thus, our loving Lord connects fasting with repentance: "Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting and wailing and with mourning; rend your heart and not your garments" (vss. 12,13). He holds up repentance, as one would an icon of promise, to encourage us. Let the Priests sound the trumpet, God's people gather, and even newly-weds set aside their nuptial joys. Let God's People weep for both inward and outward sins crying to God, "O Lord, spare Your people, do not give Your inheritance to reproach..." with godless powers ruling over us (vss. 15-17).

God declares that He will turn His "...face away from [our] sins, and blot out all [our] iniquities" (Ps. 50:9). He desires not the death of sinners but that we should repent and live. He describes Himself as "...merciful and compassionate...longsuffering and plenteous in mercy and repents of evils" (Joel 2:13). The Lord is inviting us to embrace the coming Great Fast, and "...be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God, for He gives food that is right for you" (vs. 21).

Joel declares God's promises: "He will shower you as before with the early and the late rain" (vs. 23). So let us sow well in our hearts. He will "restore to [us] the years" eaten away by our sins (vs. 25). As Metropolitan Hierotheos says, "Repentance...in deep mourning and joined with confession is what unveils the eyes of the soul to see the great things of God." Repentance is the promise of Great Lent. Let us pursue it diligently and we shall be able to "...praise the name of the Lord [our] God for what He has so wondrously done unto [us]" (vs. 26).