POST No. 100!!!

its my 100th post! have a squirrel!

woop de woop de woop! de woop! Its post number 100! Being as it is a momentous occasion, I will post something else that shares the number 100!

Psalm 100

New International Version (NIV)

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
² Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his^[a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Footnotes:

1. Psalm 100:3 Or and not we ourselves

New International Version (NIV)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica

I’m thankful to God that i’ve swam this far in the sea of blogging! Here’s to many more blogs!

 

Note: I’d just like to say that I wrote this on 21st Dec 2011 but published it on 22nd Dec 2011 after the quirky turkey post. Therefore, although it may appear on the home page as my 99th post, it is in fact my 100th post.

Pondering over gingerbread latte

Today I went out to Starbucks and enjoyed the umpteenth gingerbread latte of the season. It is my winter usual; my winter tipple. I was sitting in there pondering on things.

The first thing that I pondered was this: why was there a spanner in the bathroom next to my toothbrush? For what purpose was it there? The mystery spanner baffled me as I brushed my teeth this morning. It baffled me again thinking of it in the coffee house. To be quite honest, it’s baffling me right now. One eyebrow is raised.

The second thing that I pondered on was this: why do we call letters that are sent to many people at Christmas ’round robins’? Why not ‘parallelogram pigeons’ or ‘circular chaffinches’? And forget about the square seagulls. FORGET ABOUT IT! It is birdy favouritism through and through.

Then I thought to world travel. I am blessed to have traveled to so many amazing places! God has created so many beautiful things and places on this earth, and it’s nice to discover them first hand; to gaze upon foreign shores and to soak oneself in an alternate culture. Thank you God! Today, I had the pleasure of playing ‘need for speed: the run’ .It is a drive from one side of America to the other, going through places I have visited. Seeing these places in their rendered glory, it makes me want to revisit these places. I am grateful to God that He has blessed me with world travel and so many wonderful places to visit!

Yesterday I saw a reindeer. Correction, I saw 2. They were really cute. I thank God for the animals; how wonderful and intricately designed they are. I also thank Him for my family and friends. And that He sent His son for me, despite all that I’ve done. Thank you Jesus for saving me.

Today’s date is 10th of December, 2011. It is fifteen days to Christmas. The advent candle is sufficiently melted, and a small chocolate snowman awaited me in the torso of captain America this morning. Cold winds chill the land. Winter holidays start next week. The weeks are getting busier as choir performances and band rehearsals become more frequent. Holiday work is being set and although things are getting busier, the country is winding down for Christmas. I think back to last year. Things seemed much easier then. Perhaps I was young and foolish. I thank God that He’s got me through another year.

Another thought of the evening

So, ive just noticed the time! Aaaaahhhh! I need to blog! So here goes.

Advent Calendar started today. It’s a captain America one. 24 and counting! I’m thankful to God for the chocolate. I’m even more thankful for the event I’m counting down to – the fact that Jesus came to earth for all of us.

This evening I saw a really cute kitten. It looked at me with its adorably massive green eyes. I love cats. Thank you God for cats. Thank you God for my cat!

Tonight I went to a CU pub quiz. Our team lost by 1 point. Apparently, Japan has tea ceremonies. It sounds intriguing. I had a great night – it was great to hang out with Christian friends and meet some new people. Thank you God for this!

I got to the car and checked the temperature. It went down to 2 degrees. I could feel the icy winds blow through the sleeves of my new holiday sweater. I think I’ll dress in layers tomorrow. Maybe I’ll don a hat. A fedora. Winter is certainly here.

24 and counting.

Sleep grows near to me. I must rest my weary eyes.

thank you God for today. Thank you for my family and friends. Thank you for the day You blessed me with. Thank you that You are always there with me.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving day! Have a crudely drawn bald eagle on flying past the American flag! (it was a lecture doodle!)

Hey there! So, I heard that today is Thanksgiving day in the U.S of A! So, for all of y’all in America reading this, happy thanksgiving day! We don’t really celebrate it in the UK. I say don’t really, because this year, I did get an offer to go to a farm building and have a turkey and stuff. I didn’t do this. Also, its apparently the only day that the Apple store does a discount. I missed this too!

Also, now its a month to Christmas eve!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!

So yeah, being as it is a day of thanksgiving, here are some things I am thankful for:

• What Jesus did for me
• My family (including the cat)
• my friends
• food and shelter
• education
• things I am blessed with
• CU
• Worship band
• Pentecostal gospel choir
• Church
• Soul Survivor
• Worship Central
• music in general (but not dubstep.)
• Nintendo
• drawing
• US Comedy TV shows such as 30 rock
• Scott pilgrim Vs. the world
• Manga and graphic novels
• world travel
• Christmas markets

The list could go on and on but its getting late and I’m a bit tired!

Thank you God for all these things!

I sang so much it hurt

Today, I read my Bible in One year. I came across this:

Psalm 26

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ I wash my hands in innocence,
and go about your altar, LORD,
⁷ proclaiming aloud your praise
and telling of all your wonderful deeds.

⁸ LORD, I love the house where you live,
the place where your glory dwells.

New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica

Earlier on this evening, I went to worship band practice. Having missed it for 2 weeks due to my illness, I was really missing being there and I really wanted to sing and worship God. I love to proclaim God’s praise loudly and I also love the house where His glory dwells. I crave it.

So, I set off to go there, I was coughing a bit. When I got to practice, I found that we had a good setlist for sunday morning, but a lot of songs that are high (sometimes too high for men to sing, especially with a hurting tongue/ throat/ ear situation). But I desperately wanted to worship God with the rest of the band. I pulled it together and sang the best I could! That is, until my throat went raw and started really hurting. Its still hurting now. I wasn’t able to hit the notes I could usually hit. My voice was weaker. I had to cough mid-phrase. Despite this, I’m glad I went and sang praises to God. Because in the end, He sees and hears it all, knowing the intentions of our hearts. Even though it may not have been the sweetest sound i’ve ever made, God accepts it!

I am reminded of a song that is on my iPod; It is called hallelujah and it is by Leonard Cohen. It is on the Watchmen soundtrack. A certain verse spoke to me:

I did my best, it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

I tried my best to worship God. And perhaps it was alright. But perhaps it went wrong. Whatever the circumstance or whatever it may feel like at the time, I will always try to stand before my Lord in song and worship Him. Every cloud has  a silver lining; theres always something we can praise Him for! For me personally, it was that I could sing again. That I could be in fellowship with the worship band. That although my voice didn’t feel like it could hold, it did. And for this, today I am thankful! Its an improvement on yesterday!

Hallelujah! I will praise the Lord for He has been good to me!

Wind[chilling]!

This afternoon I set off on the drive home. I thought I’d leave around 4pm, so that I could avoid the traffic and miss the school run clog-ups. Whilst driving through a nearing town, I started to thank God for various things – for everything He’s done for me, from great friends to the privilege of education to finding a nice little chippy for lunch. (Massive fish and an abundance of chips, £4 – marvellous!). I thanked Him that He provided me with a place to park my car, so that I can get things done. Long story short, I had a little bit of a prayer-fest! I thanked Him for His creation and the beauty of it. I noticed the branches on the trees swaying a little. After passing through the town, I had to concentrate to find the route home. (I simply HAD to concentrate, because a few minutes earlier I had taken a wrong turn and ended up driving towards Caton or somewhere!)

A few minutes later I got on to the motorway and put my foot down. My little car has a top speed of 84mph, so you really have to floor that pedal to get it up there! The branches on the trees on the sides of the motorway were really swaying. It was dead windy. I thought nothing of it and pressed on. I passed the service station and overtook a few cars and everything was fine. I was aware of the slight wind resistance. And then it happened.

There was nothing at the sides of the motorway. No trees, no buildings, no bushes – nothing! Nothing, that is, but full on wind. I really had to grip the steering wheel. My palms were sweating. Every time a 4X4 or a lorry or large-ish vehicle passed, my little car was being pulled or pushed away by the wind. At one point it was so strong that I was swept nearly to the hard shoulder and then shortly after nearly into the next lane. It was really scary. I was in the left lane and was behind a slow vehicle doing about 55mph, but the wind’s effects were still monstrous. I was all like ‘pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease God, let me get safely home’. And thats when He reminded me of this:

Mark 4

New International Version (NIV)

Jesus Calms the Storm

³⁵ That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” ³⁶Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. ³⁷ A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. ³⁸ Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

³⁹ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

⁴⁰ He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

⁴¹ They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica

I saw this as similar to my situation. Here is how:

• The disciples wanted to go to the other side. I wanted to go home.
• They had left the crowd behind. I was on my own.
• There was a massive storm that had frightened the disciples. There was  a harsh wind that was frightening me a bit.
• They asked Jesus to help them. Jesus got me through it.

Just like the disciples in this passage, I was having a bit of a panic. I was scared that the car might get swept into a lorry or down a hill or something. (There was an unusually high amount of lorries around today.) And then I asked Jesus for help. When the disciples did this, He physically calmed the storm. When I did this, He calmed the storm raging within me. I was abruptly reminded of the quotation from the disciples: “They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” ” Even the wind and the waves obey Him. Wow! What did I have to worry about, If Christ is with me all the time? NOTHING, THATS WHAT!

So where my brain was originally shouting “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH ITS WINDY AND ITS WELL SCARY”, it was now saying something along the lines of “Suck it up! Be a winner! You’ve got the God of all creation and the Saviour of the world on your side”. And to quote Romans 8:31, if God is for us, who can be against us? Or to paraphrase, if God is for us, what can be against us? This calmed me down. The wind didn’t seem that big an issue anymore. I got home safely and thanked God for a safe journey.

When things in life seem scary, we need to remember that God is with us. And even the wind and the waves obey Him! We have nothing to worry about!