Everyone has their favorite song for different reasons. The fact is like most everyone enjoys some form of music: Hip/hop, rock, Heavy metal, jazz, Christian…. People like music for different reasons some because of the arrangement, the lyrics or maybe because they just like the beat. For whatever reasons, we all enjoy music because it expresses us and our styles music is so versatile that it changes and evolves into different forms all the time. The music industry makes millions of dollars or even billions of dollars a year from CD and digital music sales, but how much of it is really worth buying, not just because of poor quality but because of a poor message? Or does it even really matter if we buy these albums? If everyone would post some lyrics of their favorite songs or songs that are currently popular at your schools and with your friends we can kick off this discussion.
Mikkel Lysne
Friday, April 18, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Jesus, Others, and Yourself
The Greatest Commandment (Matthew Chapter 22)
36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
So who was your neighbor today? Was it your teacher at school who is having a rough time at home? Was it the lonely kid, the loner, the geek, or the dork in your class? Was is the kid in your neighborhood who never gets invited to anything? Was it the person in class who got laughed at today? Was it the shy girl who no one seems to know anything about?
Was it the homeless person you saw on the street? Was it the mother and children who checked into the Domestic Violence shelter this week? Was it the person you saw on the news whose house burned? Was it the guy who only has one set of clothes? Was it the lady who did not eat a meal today? Was it someone fighting cancer? Was it the kids in your school who can not read? Was it the kids who abuse substances so they don't have to face the truth about their insecurity?
Was your neighbor an African street kid? An HIV orphan from Malawi? Was it a girl from New Orleans who is still not back in school? Was it the kid from the Sudan who was maimed in an uprising? Was it the little boy in a Russian orphanage who has no hope for the future? Was it the Afghan family who is displaced from the war? Was it an illegal immigrant family from Mexico? Was it children all over the world who don't have clean water?
God made it pretty simple for us. We are supposed to love Him with everything we have got. And part of loving Him with everything we have is to love His people. He wants us to love our family and our friends but loving God means loving His family as well. His family is incredibly diverse and incredibly needy in our world. Ours is a world in need of so much and our love for God is demonstrated by our willingness to feel the need and to act. God calls us to care for "the least of these" in response to our thankfulness for His gift of grace. By caring for our "neighbors" whether they be in our home, our neighborhood, our school, our city, our country or our world we live lives that are holy in the sight of God.
Look around you. Who is it that needs you? Who do you need to serve? What is going on around you in the world that you can not stand? Where do you feel a passion for change? Who or what is God calling you to? Which part of His world is He asking you to improve?
Who is your neighbor? And how will you serve your God?
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Martin Luther: Dangerous Man for God
"Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen!”
“Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God”
"I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess”
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say”
“Pray, and let God worry”
“How soon 'not now' becomes 'never'.”
“All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired, although not in the hour or in the measure, or the very thing which they ask. Yet they will obtain something greater and more glorious than they had dared to ask."
“Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God”
"I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess”
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say”
“Pray, and let God worry”
“How soon 'not now' becomes 'never'.”
“All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired, although not in the hour or in the measure, or the very thing which they ask. Yet they will obtain something greater and more glorious than they had dared to ask."
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