An Instrument of Peace

While wearing one of my volunteer hats - communications for MPC Worship Arts ministry, I was preparing to send out a note about our weekend services. It includes the sermon title & text, related scriptures and more. I like to provide video links to the songs we'll be singing so others can listen to & learn songs that will be used in our worship times. (I've cut & pasted in some of the songs we'll be singing this Sunday at the bottom of the page.)

The last section of the note is always entitled "My Thoughts Today" and covers what I feel the Lord has said to me that day as I worked on the note. Some times the words come to my mind faster than I can type them. Other times, it's a bit of a struggle to know that I am writing what God needs me to write at that moment. This week I added a PERSONAL PS...

I'm thanking God today for the changes that have happened in the past year as this new ONE YEAR OLD (who celebrated her first birthday on 1/16/14) has set about a new outlook in many lives. They say that a baby changes everything. This one certainly has helped with so many of the challenges & choices of the past. She is making the future brighter for many. 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS DEAR FRIENDS. We continue to claim God's hand in all of this :) My prayer... LORD, make me an instrument of Your peace - a reflection of Thy love!

As those thoughts came to me, I felt the nudge to share the Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi and a link to the song taken from that prayer. Enjoy both of the following:

Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. 

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. 

Instrument of Peace - sung by the Canadian Tenors

I am moved by music & words of deep truth. I love sharing both. I'm grateful that our church has a blend of the old & new songs at most gatherings. Here are a few songs that we will lift up this Sunday at Madison Park ChoG: 

• Who Can Satisfy -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqHNqaS92dU
• New Doxology - Ken & Miller - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZuLBRSjOU8
• Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czxd5oa-gi0 
• My Faith Looks Up to Thee - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HofI50AD55Y 
• As the Deer  - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70&feature=related 
• Be Thou My Vision - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XZ3ja-quhA 

What songs & writings stir your heart? I'd love to know :) 

Linking with Ann Voskamp - A Holy Experience today...

Radical Lifestyle

I've been thinking about my life a lot lately. How will things play out? I can make all the right choices and stay away from all the bad places. But, there are so many horrible things which happen in the world -- things over which we have no control. I'm reminded daily of that.

Just last evening a sweet woman, only 46 years old, was shot & killed in her own home. Left to grieve & cry out "Why?" are 4 children (ages 10-21). Days before opening presents already wrapped & under the tree, a life is stolen from those children.

This world is broken.
Only God can make it whole!

Last week innocent children were gunned down, as adults sacrificed their own lives to stand in harms way. What kind of a monster can do such a thing to innocent babes? When did our world lose its reverence for life? Are there any guarantees?

Someday my loved ones will sit with a pastor or funeral director and attempt to sum up my life. Will it have ended peacefully or as a result of a horrible tragedy? There's really no way to know. Of one thing I am certain. I want to be remembered for my radical lifestyle. 

I want anyone who comes in contact with me to see that I'm a radical in my beliefs & in my choices & in my actions. And, by radical, I mean radical to this world's thinking - like a breath of fresh air!

In Romans 2, we are told of the type of change God makes in our lives. It's not meant to be subtle. It's meant to stand out... to require hard work & effort... to be seen as different. I love the way it says in The Message:

"God is kind, but he's not soft.

In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand

and leads us into a radical life-change."

Romans 2:3 The Message

I've chosen the path I want to follow. I have studied His Word and know what being His follower. Taking the road less traveled - with The Lord. Isn't easy but, now that I know it, I want to walk that way.

"God overlooks it (sin) as long as you don't know any better

—but that time is past.

The unknown is now known, and

he's calling for a radical life-change." 

Acts 17:30

I don't know about tomorrow. But, I know how I want to be remembered when I am no longer here. I want to be remembered as a loving person who lived her life in a radical way which made the world a better place & made people want to "live like that."