you're in my house now, friend or foe!
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Gabriel Allred from Christ for the Nations Music and Lauren Farmer cover "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" with a nice little gift tagged at the end.
This song will sound great in a congregation. Maybe we can sing it in February????This is what life should be like...
"Strasbourg/St. Denis" from the album "Earfood"
LORD OF THE UNIVERSE
1 Lord of the universe, hope of the world,
Lord of the limitless reaches of space,
here on this planet you put on our flesh,
vastness confined in the womb of a maid;
born in our likeness you ransomed our race:
Refrain:
Savior, we worship you, praise and adore;
help us to honor you more and yet more,
help us to honor you more and yet more!
2 Lord of the universe, hope of the world,
Lord of the infinite eons of time,
you came among us, you lived our brief years,
tasted our griefs, our aloneness, our fears,
conquered our death, made eternity ours: Refrain
3 Lord of the universe, hope of the world,
send out your light to the ends of the earth.
May we who know you obey your command,
go with the grace of your gospel to all,
bringing salvation and freedom and joy: Refrain
4 Lord of the universe, hope of the world,
how your creation cries out for release!
looks for you, longs for you, watches and waits,
prays for your kingdom of justice and peace!
Maker, Redeemer, triumphant One, come! Refrain
... this was one of those moments:
"We cannot purify our own desires. So don’t fall into the trap of taking this on as a spiritual self-improvement project. Instead, lift yourself to God in the midst of your disordered state and allow God to undertake the necessary transformation.
Only prayer can order a disordered inner life. While this may seem overly simplistic and possibly over spiritual, it is absolutely true.
Prayer sorts out our desires. Notice that I did not say that in prayer we are able to sort out our desires. No. The sorting work is God’s, not ours. Our job is to sit in God’s presence and allow God to purify our desires. IF this does not seem practical enough, you have not spent enough time sitting in silence in God’s presence. Words may be coming between you and God.
Silence in the presence of God belongs to the core of prayer. It deepens our awareness of both ourselves and God. For it is in the stillness of silent prayer that we learn what our own desires most truly are. It is here that God reveals us to ourselves. “Examine me and know my heart, probe me and know my thoughts” (Psalm 139:23) is not, as it appears, a request that God would know me but that God would show that known self to me. And where God does this most dependably is in silent prayer where we center ourselves in God.
Prayer is the place of divine transformation because it is the place in which our hearts our slowly transformed into the heart of God. Prayer is the place where we discover that our deepest desire is nothing other than God alone. This is the purification of desire."
- David Benner, Desiring God’s Will (pp 87)
In the past few months, the planet has yet to witness shades of brilliance as radiant as the one you are about to be betrothed to. That is, the singular most impressive specimen of humanity's ingenuity and fraternization which has been brought at the most serendipitous, or should I say sardonic, of occasions. Which has been about three times for your money and will overwhelm the bottle of my face. And hello my friendly welcome to me web site.
