November 2, 2006

Love, Selfishness, and The World of the Innocent

Some of the fondest memories I have of church lie in the old gospel service held before Sunday School and our Traditional service. Only "old people" came, and they shouted out suggestions from the pews and we sang old, old gospel songs, Beulah Land, I'll Fly Away and Amazing Grace. Dad always complained that all the songs were about heaven, nothing about life here.

Things have changed since then. Most of the "Old folks" have all died or been moved into Nursing Homes, the younger generation is reclaiming the Sunday pews, and we no longer hold the old gospel service. Music has changed a bit too. To appeal to the youth and young people, we sing a good deal of contemporary music in church, Open the eyes of my heart, Sanctuary, and Here I am to worship.

The majority of song topics no longer revolves about heaven and such, but now I've been, ah, presented with a new criticism.

The whole Contemp. Christian world is all about me, me, me.

Lord prepare ME to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true...

Open the eyes of MY heart, Lord, I want to see you....

You are MY strength when I am weak, you are the treasure that I seek,
You are MY all in all...

Apparently, we are so selfish that we go on and on about asking God to prepare us to be what we already are, and that more time should be spent singing about God.

???????????

God is love - we know that much, right?
Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love." - 1 John 4:8

For me, God's love is shown to me through the powerful words of the songs under fire.

Seeking You as a precious jewel,
Lord to give up I'd be a fool,
You are my all in all.

When I fall down You pick me up,
When I am dry you fill my cup,
You are my all in all.

Whoops, in those two stanzas alone, I just refered to myself seven times. Does that mean that I'm no longer focusing on God? Ladies and Gentlemen, your opinions please.



This is a lovely picture of Olivia and Linda. Yep, my adorable sister and her mirror friend. Ah, sweet innocence.



1 Corinthians 13: 1-8a
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become but a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous;
love does not brag and is not arrogant,
does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked,
does not take into account a wrong suffered,
does not rejoice in unrighteousness,

but rejoices with the truth;
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.


Oh yes, and btw, today is National Men Make Dinner Day. [link]

So get up, men, and go cook something for the lovely ladies of your home!

:-D








3 comments:

Ellentia said...

You could see it two ways, first, you could see it as selfishness. Second, you could see it as reffering to what He has done for you and it is hard to do that without saying "I" or "me". As to the National men make dinner day, that was totaly random!
-ellentia

Petr said...

I find something else in that post that puts the contemporary music in bad light.

"To appeal to the youth and young people, we sing a good deal of contemporary music in church, Open the eyes of my heart, Sanctuary, and Here I am to worship."

I'll repeat it, with more emphasis.

"To appeal to the youth and young people, ..."

Worshipping GOD is not about what I want. That and I don't really like praise and worship that much...

That sounds sort of like what we heard a coupla weeks ago, about prayer. We shouldn't be spending most of our prayer time praying for OURSELVES, but we should be praying for others.

BTW, with that in mind, Lillian broke her arm a couple hours ago. She's never gonna be careless around a chair again.

Petr said...

I hear ya, brother!! Amen!

God or your boyfriend, you just can't seem to keep the sarcasm out. :)