I love music. All kinds of music. But this season of my life has me listening to Toby Mac, Casting Crowns, Michael W. Smith, Kutless, Mandisa, Jamie Grace and the like. I recently downloaded Mandisa's newest album What If We Were Real from iTunes. I love all the songs on the album but my favorite is Good Morning with Toby Mac. The first couple of days, I would plug my iPhone into the car and crank that baby up on the way to school and it would get the girls dancing, smiling, singing and laughing. There were even a couple of morning that Anna Kate would grab hold of the volume knob and turn it down once we got close to the porch where they unload. That song would just set the mood for a good day. Sure enough, as soon as they would pile in the car those afternoons I would ask how their day went and the reply: GREAT! So we are beginning to make a habit of it because who can't use a GREAT day every now and then?!?
GOD'S WORD translation of Ephesians 5:19 reads: by reciting psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs for your own good. Sing and make music to the Lord with your hearts.
Singing, for the most part, is soothing for the soul. It just puts most everyone in a good mood! Why not try it a day or two and see how you fare? See if it lifts your spirits. Your family or co workers may not appreciate it, but your God adores your music and song!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Crazy Holy Week Randomness
Sorry I haven't blogged lately but with 2 girls on 2 different softball teams that travel and a busy youth season, spare time to blog has been minimal.
So yesterday was the beginning of Holy Week. In the Gilliam family, it began with Sunday school and attending the traditional service at 11:00 where the children's choir at FFUMC paraded down the aisle with palm branches while the hand bells played and chancel choir sang. On into the service, the children sang two songs. It was a beautiful scene. As I sat in the choir loft gazing out over the congregation, I could see there were smiles on every face there. Isn't that the way it's suppose to be? The joy of children and their voices just makes us all glow doesn't it?
The school week has begun now as I type this and while driving back home this morning, I began thinking about the week that is ahead. Today will feature physicals this afternoon for both kids in preparation for summer camps and then onto a ballgame for Hanna. Tomorrow Anna Kate has a ballgame and then Wednesday is our routine schedule at church with children's choir and youth. Thursday, Anna Kate and I have to be at the school at 5:45 AM to depart for a field trip to Montgomery. Also Thursday, there will be two softball games in two different towns so Anna Kate and I will have to zip back home to get her suited up and onto the softball park while Wayne gets Hanna to her game. Thursday night is also Maundy Thursday service at FFUMC but I'm not 100% sure I will be able to swing the service. Friday, Good Friday, is the day I've been looking forward to since February. Well, I look forward to Good Friday every year but this year I am attending Secret Church at Brook Hills with David Platt. If you've ever read the book Radical, you will know what I am talking about but if you haven't, you should check out the website at http://www.brookhills.org/secretchurch/. Also, I have a couple of extra tickets if you want to attend. Either call, email, or comment here and I will let you know the details! I can hardly wait!!! After grabbing a couple winks, I will be heading to Guthrie Smith Park Saturday for the 3rd Annual Community Wide Easter Egg Hunt sponsored by FFUMC. It is so much fun and I love the fellowship and visiting with all those who attend! Then Saturday night, God willing, we are going to have dinner with some great friends and maybe play a little corn hole!!!
And then Sweet Sunday, Easter Sunday! My 2nd favorite day of the year! (My favorite is Christmas because if He hadn't been BORN, He couldn't have DIED). Anyway, Easter sunrise service is always special to me. As I drive to the service in my car, I imagine Mary running to the tomb of Jesus when dawn was breaking. I imagine her heart pounding with anticipation to place the ointments she had prepared on the body of her beloved. And to her astonishment, the stone has been rolled away. In past sunrise services, in the still of the morning, the birds are singing, the water is falling from the fountain in the courtyard and it is just serene. It is almost as if the world is standing still awaiting the stone to be rolled away. If you have never been to a sunrise service, where ever you are, I encourage you to attend one this year. To me, it just makes the celebration of the risen Savior more real. As I type this, I can feel the emotion of the entire event well up in me.
So that is what is planned for this crazy Holy Week for the Gilliams. What do you have planned? I am hoping to get a couple minutes each day to revive my blog but I can't make any promises! Happy Holy Week Yall!
So yesterday was the beginning of Holy Week. In the Gilliam family, it began with Sunday school and attending the traditional service at 11:00 where the children's choir at FFUMC paraded down the aisle with palm branches while the hand bells played and chancel choir sang. On into the service, the children sang two songs. It was a beautiful scene. As I sat in the choir loft gazing out over the congregation, I could see there were smiles on every face there. Isn't that the way it's suppose to be? The joy of children and their voices just makes us all glow doesn't it?
The school week has begun now as I type this and while driving back home this morning, I began thinking about the week that is ahead. Today will feature physicals this afternoon for both kids in preparation for summer camps and then onto a ballgame for Hanna. Tomorrow Anna Kate has a ballgame and then Wednesday is our routine schedule at church with children's choir and youth. Thursday, Anna Kate and I have to be at the school at 5:45 AM to depart for a field trip to Montgomery. Also Thursday, there will be two softball games in two different towns so Anna Kate and I will have to zip back home to get her suited up and onto the softball park while Wayne gets Hanna to her game. Thursday night is also Maundy Thursday service at FFUMC but I'm not 100% sure I will be able to swing the service. Friday, Good Friday, is the day I've been looking forward to since February. Well, I look forward to Good Friday every year but this year I am attending Secret Church at Brook Hills with David Platt. If you've ever read the book Radical, you will know what I am talking about but if you haven't, you should check out the website at http://www.brookhills.org/secretchurch/. Also, I have a couple of extra tickets if you want to attend. Either call, email, or comment here and I will let you know the details! I can hardly wait!!! After grabbing a couple winks, I will be heading to Guthrie Smith Park Saturday for the 3rd Annual Community Wide Easter Egg Hunt sponsored by FFUMC. It is so much fun and I love the fellowship and visiting with all those who attend! Then Saturday night, God willing, we are going to have dinner with some great friends and maybe play a little corn hole!!!
And then Sweet Sunday, Easter Sunday! My 2nd favorite day of the year! (My favorite is Christmas because if He hadn't been BORN, He couldn't have DIED). Anyway, Easter sunrise service is always special to me. As I drive to the service in my car, I imagine Mary running to the tomb of Jesus when dawn was breaking. I imagine her heart pounding with anticipation to place the ointments she had prepared on the body of her beloved. And to her astonishment, the stone has been rolled away. In past sunrise services, in the still of the morning, the birds are singing, the water is falling from the fountain in the courtyard and it is just serene. It is almost as if the world is standing still awaiting the stone to be rolled away. If you have never been to a sunrise service, where ever you are, I encourage you to attend one this year. To me, it just makes the celebration of the risen Savior more real. As I type this, I can feel the emotion of the entire event well up in me.
So that is what is planned for this crazy Holy Week for the Gilliams. What do you have planned? I am hoping to get a couple minutes each day to revive my blog but I can't make any promises! Happy Holy Week Yall!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Dropping Hints
So this morning I am reading in Joshua and this scripture just JUMPS off the page at me: Love the Lord and follow His plan for your lives. Cling to Him and serve Him enthusiactically (Joshua 22:5). I love the enthusiastically part. It's my favorite.
As I am getting ready in the mornings, I try to catch Joyce Meyer or Creflo Dollar or TD Jakes or John Hagee but this morning, I watched Jesse Duplantis. Jesse isn't regularly on during the 6-7 am time frame so I normally catch one of the others. I love Jesse Duplantis because he is a hoot when he brings The Word. He makes it fun and interesting because God is fun and interesting. I once heard him say to a group of preachers: don't give no boring blah blah blah sermon because people think God is a boring blah blah blah God. So now I DVR all of Jesse's new sermons (I use his first name like we are on first name basis but he doesn't know me from Adam, or Adamette shall I say) (I guess I could stalk him down like I did Travis Cottrell at Deeper Still last December but I haven't been close enough to stalk him so that won't work I guess) (I need to quit typing what I'm thinking and putting them in parenthesis otherwise this entire blog will be one big parenthesis). Anyway, I push play and guess what his sermon was on: SERVING GOD WITH ENTHUSIASM!!! Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Yep, God is dropping hints!!!
So many times we get beat up by this world and get "stuck" in our ministry. And I have been vicitm to that from time to time and well as many others I serve alongside. Anyway, I needed to be reminded of this today because my enthusiasm has been lacking the last couple months. You know how you are on the mountaintop with God and then you start heading down the mountain and can feel yourself sliding faster and faster? Well, that's been me. But I am reminded in Joshua that I don't need to cling to the world and all it has to offer (or not offer), I must cling to the Lord!!! I need to be following the plan He has for my life instead of listening to what the world is telling me I need to do.
Today, I will begin focusing on His promises to and for me and what He has to offer. By just focusing on those promises alone, I have begun to feel my enthusiasm rise. So watch out world, I'm back! I will leave you with the lyrics to Mandisa's (Never Gonna) Steal My Joy. It's "my song" for this season!
I look at my life
And I still can't believe it
How did I make it
To where I stand now?
You don't understand
I was up against the whole world
And all I could feel was it breaking me down
But out of a hopeless situation
There came a song of redemption
Life may push my heart to the limit
But I won't let go
Of the joy in my soul
‘Cause everything can change in a minute
And the world may try
But they're never gonna steal my joy
So get up, stand up
And rise above it
If every plan
That you've made goes so wrong
You don't have to give in to the struggle
You may be down
But don't stay there for long
In every hopeless situation
There is a song of redemption
The world may say
You're never gonna make it
The world may say
You're not strong enough to take it
But I don't care
‘Cause the joy of the Lord is real
And they're never gonna steal my joy
As I am getting ready in the mornings, I try to catch Joyce Meyer or Creflo Dollar or TD Jakes or John Hagee but this morning, I watched Jesse Duplantis. Jesse isn't regularly on during the 6-7 am time frame so I normally catch one of the others. I love Jesse Duplantis because he is a hoot when he brings The Word. He makes it fun and interesting because God is fun and interesting. I once heard him say to a group of preachers: don't give no boring blah blah blah sermon because people think God is a boring blah blah blah God. So now I DVR all of Jesse's new sermons (I use his first name like we are on first name basis but he doesn't know me from Adam, or Adamette shall I say) (I guess I could stalk him down like I did Travis Cottrell at Deeper Still last December but I haven't been close enough to stalk him so that won't work I guess) (I need to quit typing what I'm thinking and putting them in parenthesis otherwise this entire blog will be one big parenthesis). Anyway, I push play and guess what his sermon was on: SERVING GOD WITH ENTHUSIASM!!! Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Yep, God is dropping hints!!!
So many times we get beat up by this world and get "stuck" in our ministry. And I have been vicitm to that from time to time and well as many others I serve alongside. Anyway, I needed to be reminded of this today because my enthusiasm has been lacking the last couple months. You know how you are on the mountaintop with God and then you start heading down the mountain and can feel yourself sliding faster and faster? Well, that's been me. But I am reminded in Joshua that I don't need to cling to the world and all it has to offer (or not offer), I must cling to the Lord!!! I need to be following the plan He has for my life instead of listening to what the world is telling me I need to do.
Today, I will begin focusing on His promises to and for me and what He has to offer. By just focusing on those promises alone, I have begun to feel my enthusiasm rise. So watch out world, I'm back! I will leave you with the lyrics to Mandisa's (Never Gonna) Steal My Joy. It's "my song" for this season!
I look at my life
And I still can't believe it
How did I make it
To where I stand now?
You don't understand
I was up against the whole world
And all I could feel was it breaking me down
But out of a hopeless situation
There came a song of redemption
Life may push my heart to the limit
But I won't let go
Of the joy in my soul
‘Cause everything can change in a minute
And the world may try
But they're never gonna steal my joy
So get up, stand up
And rise above it
If every plan
That you've made goes so wrong
You don't have to give in to the struggle
You may be down
But don't stay there for long
In every hopeless situation
There is a song of redemption
The world may say
You're never gonna make it
The world may say
You're not strong enough to take it
But I don't care
‘Cause the joy of the Lord is real
And they're never gonna steal my joy
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Disecting Life To Pieces
SUDDENLY the Angel of Jehovah appeared to him (Moses) AS A flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw that the bush was on fire and that it didn't burn up, he went over to investigate. Then God called out to him, "Moses! Moses!" "Who is it?" Moses asked. "Don't come any closer," God told him. "Take off your shoes, for you are standing on holy ground." Exodus 3:2-5 The Living Bible Paraphrased
I read through this scripture in a couple different versions this week and love The Living Bibles wordage best. Especially the part where it reads that Moses went over to investigate. I thought to myself, when we see something happen that seems "unreal", we tend to go over and investigate as well don't we? We know now the bush had the Angel of Jehovah (or LORD) in it but I wonder how many times the Angel of the LORD has been in something that we try to rationalize or explain?
You see, when we meet up with God, He changes stuff. We should pray to God that when He is going to make normal things abnormal, that He will open our eyes to notice when He is there. LORD, will you open my eyes so I will be aware of when You show up in my life?
When we see the supernatural activity of God, what is our tendency? Do we rationalize, explain, or try to figure it out? Do we ask why? Are we too smart for our own good where we HAVE to know the reasoning behind EVERY LITTLE STINKING THING?
Moses didn't stand around and try to figure out the burning bush out, he just turned his eyes to look. Immediately, we find him taking off his sandals (it says shoes but I figure it was in the desert and I feel certain he was sporting his Rainbow flip flops rather than his newest pair of Nike's). He didn't stand there trying to convince himself of some logical thing happening, he just began to worship God.
So my thoughts are this: When we hear God's voice, do we call it intuition or God? When our marriage is happy and thriving, do we call it good counseling or God? When we get a raise in a depressed economy, do we call it luck or God? When the depression has finally lifted from our life, do we call it it good medication that finally worked or God? When we get a new house, do we call it good financial planning or God? When we encounter one open door after another after another, do we call it good timing or God?
What is it about us that makes us have to explain everything away? Why can't we just let things be God appearing to us AS A (you fill in the blank)? Why can't it just be that the Angel of the Jehovah was in it? Why can't it be that it was just God?
I think it is time to get to the point in our walk with God that we give Him the credit that He deserves. Don't try to explain it, just join Him and praise Him and thank Him for His hand upon you!
I read through this scripture in a couple different versions this week and love The Living Bibles wordage best. Especially the part where it reads that Moses went over to investigate. I thought to myself, when we see something happen that seems "unreal", we tend to go over and investigate as well don't we? We know now the bush had the Angel of Jehovah (or LORD) in it but I wonder how many times the Angel of the LORD has been in something that we try to rationalize or explain?
You see, when we meet up with God, He changes stuff. We should pray to God that when He is going to make normal things abnormal, that He will open our eyes to notice when He is there. LORD, will you open my eyes so I will be aware of when You show up in my life?
When we see the supernatural activity of God, what is our tendency? Do we rationalize, explain, or try to figure it out? Do we ask why? Are we too smart for our own good where we HAVE to know the reasoning behind EVERY LITTLE STINKING THING?
Moses didn't stand around and try to figure out the burning bush out, he just turned his eyes to look. Immediately, we find him taking off his sandals (it says shoes but I figure it was in the desert and I feel certain he was sporting his Rainbow flip flops rather than his newest pair of Nike's). He didn't stand there trying to convince himself of some logical thing happening, he just began to worship God.
So my thoughts are this: When we hear God's voice, do we call it intuition or God? When our marriage is happy and thriving, do we call it good counseling or God? When we get a raise in a depressed economy, do we call it luck or God? When the depression has finally lifted from our life, do we call it it good medication that finally worked or God? When we get a new house, do we call it good financial planning or God? When we encounter one open door after another after another, do we call it good timing or God?
What is it about us that makes us have to explain everything away? Why can't we just let things be God appearing to us AS A (you fill in the blank)? Why can't it just be that the Angel of the Jehovah was in it? Why can't it be that it was just God?
I think it is time to get to the point in our walk with God that we give Him the credit that He deserves. Don't try to explain it, just join Him and praise Him and thank Him for His hand upon you!
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