We moved in a baby grand piano this past Saturday. It weathered the move (all of up two houses and across the street) pretty well, and I've been enjoying playing it. While I'm not a music connoisseur, I'm enjoying the sound of the piano. It's mellow and slightly overpowering, sound-wise, in our wood-floored living room. I usually play it with the top down, and our ottoman underneath. Evidently, it was at a bar in downtown Renton for a while, and it shows - there are nicks in a lot of places, and the top cover is a replacement fashioned out of plywood. The actual piano was made by a company named Julius Bauer, which made pianos from the late 1800s until just before World War 2. It's intriguing, thinking that this piano that's sitting in our living room is well over 70 years old. Crazy.
I was listening to a wednesday night ministry message this morning, and this point on the outline really sobered me:
Laodicea means to know everything but in reality to be fervent about nothing; in name it has everything, but it cannot sacrifice its life for anything; it remembers its former glory but forgets its present condition before God.
Wow. Lord, humble us and keep us from not realizing our true condition. Keep us in the light day by day, and build us up into Your dwelling place.
The tragedy of tragedies is our going through a situation or environment and not gaining God.
But to Him who is able to guard you from stumbling and to set you before His glory without blemish in exultation, to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, might, and authority before all time and now and unto all eternity. Amen.
--Jude 24-25
Have been meaning to do this for a while now and finally did it a few days ago. The banner songs from the semiannual trainings are available for free on lsmwebcast.com. I downloaded all the English language banner songs and burned them, in order, to a cd. Did you know that they all fit on an 80 minute cd, with thirteen seconds to spare? Ruth and I have been enjoying listening to them in the car as we drive around town. It's been good.
Very much enjoyed a footnote on 1 Corinthians 1:9:
This book unveils to us that the very Christ, into whom we all have been called, is all-inclusive. He is the portion given to us by God. He is God's power and God's wisdom as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to us. He is the Lord of glory for our glorification. He is the depths (deep things) of God. He is the unique foundation of God's building. He is our Passover, the unleavened bread, the spiritual food, the spiritual drink, and the spiritual rock. He is the Head and the Body. He is the firstfruits, the secondman, and the last Adam; and as such He became the life-giving Spirit that we may receive Him into us as our everything. This all-inclusive One, with the riches of at least twenty items, God has given to us as our portion for our enjoyment. We should concentrate on Him, not on any persons, things, or matters other than Him. We should focus on Him as our unique center appointed by God, that all the problems among the believers may be solved. It is into the fellowship of such a One that we have been called by God.
Last night, after doing a few last bits of cleaning up, I left the keys on the counter, unlocked the top door, and then looked around. It's been a little over two years that we've stayed at this cramped, cozy, character-full apartment/attic. The memories are good. Now we're in a large house, and it still doesn't feel fully like home yet. Lord, may You fill it with people! I closed the top door, locked the bottom door, and closed it. The landlord was supposed to do a walkthrough today.
We went to see Cavalia (cavalia.net) this past Thursday. While it wasn't jaw-droppingly amazing, it was pretty enjoyable, especially when the horses moved and coordinated together with what seemed like almost no communication with their handlers. It's probably very hard to do a show like this - you're balancing between general people (me), who don't know much about horses and won't really appreciate the special trots that they can do, and horse lovers (Ruth), who can really appreciate the training that went into some parts of the performances. It was great seeing the horses running full-tilt through the tent, and while the first half was alright, the second half climaxed and then the show ended, leaving you wanting more. Horses, a living animal with thought s and intentions, are a double-edged sword - on one hand, the audience loves it even if they make mistakes; on the other hand, it's nearly impossible to get everything exactly choreographed and aligned, so you have to build in tolerances for the horses. Overall, very nice, and happy we got to go and see it.
the blog section! Managed to get it done before we move this coming Friday. Now, all blog posts are accessible and indexable by Google (although I don't know if they'll like my use of the hash to denote the particular blog post you'd like to see, but ... oh well. Enjoy!
Snow yesterday. Freezing rain today. Then more snow. Fun, fun. Happily, the icicles on the roof of our rental are about a foot long. :D
From Truth Messages:
Whenever we come to the Word with an open heart and an open spirit, we immediately touch both the Word and the Spirit as the truth....Two or three times every day we need to come to the Word....What a wonderful instrument the Word is for contacting the Lord! When we are disappointed or depressed, feeling empty within, we can open ourselves and come to the Word. After reading for a while, something within us rises up, and we enjoy the presence of the Lord. This is the experience of the truth, the reality. It is the Triune God in His Word being imparted into our being. This is the truth.
