Psalm 131

This semester my friend Emily and I have been doing a Beth Moore study on the Psalms of Ascent. As part of this study we have be rewriting Psalms 120-134 as personal prayers to Jesus. This has act has really been impacting my spiritual life this semester as I get a chance to be both creative and reflective...things I often don't allow myself the time to be. Here is my psalm 131:

Psalm 131
LORD humble my heart, let no ounce of pride find a home there.
Purify my glances and let my eyes never be to good for those around me.
LORD I do not want to be involved in things to great for my mind.
I want to rest quietly in your embrace like a small child in its mothers arms.
Forever and ever is how long I want to put my hope in You.
Please keep my heart aligned with You.

Back to School

This past Tuesday, September 1 marked a new period in the our lives. We are going back to school!! (All I want to do when I think that is say it in an Adam Sandler voice). David and I are taking classes at Lincoln Christian Seminary...which I am not sure if that is what it is called anymore with their big name change to Lincoln Christian University. We are really excited to be sharpened and to grow in intimacy with our Lord as we learn more about Him and the story of his people. I would say we also are a little intimidated by this whole taking classes again thing but we know it is where we are supposed to be for this season of our lives.

Just for Gretchen we took some back to school photos on Tuesday morning :)

...and we're back!

Our life the last month or so:
July 12-30 Nairobi, Kenya
July 31: Laundry, Laundry, more laundry and printing pictures. Sleep, too.
August 1-5: National Student Conference with amazing college students.
August 6: Morning hospital visit. Evening 3.5 hour trip to Sycamore. Both totally worth it!
August 7-9: Camping w/ the grandparents out at Lake Sangchris. Sweet rest and Nana's delicious cooking for 3 days!!
August 10: Linds @ work. I spent the day unpacking our suitcases from three different trips! wow!
August 11-present: A slow return to "normalcy"

It has been a crazy month. We've been so blessed though to see God work in some ridiculous ways every single day. We'd love to share the stories and hear yours too! Just shoot us an email or give us a call!

Thanks so much to all of you have have been so persistent in prayer for us. We could not have made it past July 12 w/o you!

-David & Lindsey

Lions, Giraffes and Wildebeests, O My!

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been looking back over some video footage we took on our trip last year to Kenya. In viewing this, David and I are becoming more and more excited to be back. We return to Kenya 19 days from today! Here are a few clips from the safari our team took last year...lions, giraffes, and wildebeests o my! (don't mind the commentary in the background :) )

Sharing the love

Ever since I started doing worship music, I've always tried to make it a rule that I'll never do a song that I haven't been able to worship to myself.  Though that sounds all cool and stuff, a lot of the motive behind it is from knowing how miserable(and bored) I'd be if I were not able to worship to the song I was singing with and in front of others

In order to avoid the misery,  inauthenticity and boredom, I have to take some time to let a song sink in a little bit, allow it to influence my faith, and then process how God has used it.  After it has had an impact on me, then I feel comfortable with sharing it outwardly.  

A little while back I stumbled across what has become somewhat of an exception to that rule.  It's a song called "How He Loves" by John Mark McMillan.  After hearing this song once, I was completely hooked.  I listened to it probably 20 times the first day(a Sunday) I heard it(and all the other songs I could find by John Mark on myspace) and again the next day.  Almost immediately, I worked at learning the song and by Tuesday, we were putting it in the worship set for Friday night.   

I have become so thrilled with this song that I can't help sharing it with anyone willing to listen. Most of my musical friends knew about it within 24 hours and my poor wife was forced into listening to it repeatedly.  

The reason I'm so thrilled with this song is that it expresses what I experienced in my return to relationship with/faith in Christ. I don't know how to describe any better just how wonderful this song is for me and more importantly how much its message (which existed long before me or the song) has changed my life forever.  

Here are the lyrics:

"How He Loves" by John Mark McMillan

He is jealous for me
Loves like a hurricane
I am a tree
Bending beneath 
The weight of his wind and mercy
When all of a sudden
I am unaware of these 
Afflictions eclipsed by glory
And I realize how beautiful you are
And how great your affections are for me

Oh how he loves us so
Oh how he loves us
How he loves us so

He is jealous for me...(repeat 1st verse and chorus)

Yea He loves us 
Whoa how He loves us

Whoa how He loves us

Whoa how He loves

We are his portion
And he is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in his eyes
If grace is an ocean we're all sinking
So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss
And my heart burns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets
When I think about the way

He loves us
Whoa how he loves us so
Whoa how he loves us
How he loves us so

I thought about you
The day Stephen died
And you met me between my breaking
I know that I still love you God
Despite the agony
See people they want to tell me your cruel
But if Stephen could sing 
He'd say its not true
Cause your good

I just stumbled across a couple videos on youtube with recordings of this song. The first is John Mark explaining the song and singing a portion of the song.  I had no idea about the entire context of the song.  This only adds to the incredible meaning I've already found in this song.  The 2nd is some woman with incredible pipes completely rocking the song.  Also, John Mark has a recording(definitely the best version over any covers) posted on his website-- thejohnmark.com

"Tonight, God wants you to encounter His love.  Without it these are just words, these are just instruments.  It's like we're just up here making noise.  But the love of God changes us and we're never the same again..."

enjoy!

-dave

The CSF Story

A couple of weeks ago David and I had the opportunity to speak about Christian Student Fellowship at the main campus of the church we attend which is South Side Christian Church. South Side has been so generous in allowing us to share about CSF with the congregation at the Southwest campus in the fall and now at the MacArthur campus. Instead of giving a sermon we decided to tell the story of what God is doing right now in our campus ministry. God is doing wild and crazy things in our students as they encounter Him and our transformed by his love and grace.

If you are interested in checking out the message here is the link http://www.southsidechristian.com/#/Media/

We gave the message of 4/26.