Marva Dawn’s Theology of Worship : Quotes 1 & 2

“Christian worship proclaims the objective truth of the gospel and genuine freedom of thought.  Moreover, worship trains its participants in habits of thinking and reveals a cosmos large enough to ask good questions.”

 

“Too easily in the darkness [of the reality of life’s struggles] I try to be in control by exercising or taking good care.  But when darkness strikes again, my efforts to control it pervert personal worship and make God too small.  I need public worship to bring me a holy and a merciful God who shows me my sinfulness and yet offers the possibility of repentance and forgiveness.  I need worship that lets me lament and find in that cry God’s caring presence.  I need an assembly of people who ask God to be God in their lives and thereby proclaim God’s power, faithfulness and gracious healing.”

 

Reaching out without Dumbing Down – Marva Dawn

Rambling (but not so random) reflections on the way things might be

Darkness is the absence of light.  Evil is the absence of good – or rather of God.

In giving his creatures love, creator God gave his creatures the choice of not-love.  In plucking that fruit from that tree, the creatures sought Me-ness which is, indeed, not-love.  In the way that love is light, not-love is the absence of that light and in the way that love leads to light, to the Light, not-love leads to darkness, to not-light.

Where there is light, there is no room for darkness; where there is love, there can ultimately be no not-love.

Creator God promises to one day reveal the fullness of Light to those who choose Love.  Not only will those who chose not-love not be able to support that Light, neither will that light be able to support its darkness – there will simply be no room.  Darkness is nothingness, light is fullness.  Where there is fullness there can be no nothingness, no not-fullness.

For those who live in Love, who live in Light, they will no longer know not-love or not-light.  Where there is fullness, there can be no nothingness, no not-fullness.  If not-love and not-light are allowed entry, there is not fullness – Love and Light are not full.

One day not-love, not-light and not-fullness will be put away and Love and Light will reign in all His fullness.  And we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

(Oh yeah, oh yeaaahhh)

I dreamed a dream…

So, dreams.

What does it mean when someone tells you they had a very “Vivid Dream” about you?  What does that feel like?  How does it seem any different to any other dream?  Is it that you don’t turn into Anthea Turner when the clock hanging from the ceiling in the apple strikes 52 o’clock?

Answers on a postcard to What am I supposed to do with that? @Smallcorner dot com.

Can’t sleep reflections on NYE 2010-2011

I’ve just seen then New Year in at the Eiffel Tower, Paris, France, Europe, The World, The Milky Way etc…

To be honest, it was less classy than expected (not least due to the < 5€ “champagne”) with a cloudy sky spoiling any chance of fireworks.  Of the colourful, banging, sparkly kind, I mean.  I currently can’t work out if the few fireworks I heard were bystander offerings and if the city just didn’t bother or what, but going off with a bang wouldn’t quite describe it!

But… I had fun with an old friend and new friends – the melding of my two current lives under the cloudy sky of gaie Par-ee.  This, plus < 5€ champagne, plus not being able to sleep, plus surviving being crammed into a metro car with at least 600 more people than would normally fit into such a small space (plus 4 others trying to squeeze in for good measure), sure makes one ready to be grateful for the year gone by and especially at the prospect of the new year come.

And so the following are 4 of my reasons to be thankful for 2010 and 4 of my hopes for 2011…

Grateful in 2010

– For a good, solid end to a 4 year contract which brought many friends and joys through all the ups and downs.

– For time to discover some significant realisations about who I am created to be and why that might just be a Good Thing.

– For bittersweet fond farewells which gave expression to the many beautiful ways in which I really am loved.  This is what I’m most grateful for.  Either that, or my Macbook.

– My new apartment and everything it represents.

Hoping in 2011

– To know more of Love

– To grow in courage and strength to be the person I am created to be, particularly in my new context.

– To find my apartment is home, even if I never quite get around to painting the bathroom.

– To lose my mother’s thighs… I’m female after all…! 😉

I’m also hoping this sore throat will go away and that once this is all out of my head I can grab some sleep before Gaie Par-ee kicks us out of our hotel.

Happy New Year, y’all xx