I'm currently listening to Song of the Lakes - "Afterglow"- this song is talking about waking up with the one you love, after all the years have gone by-
"Sunday morning afterglow, and the one thing i know is that you're with me and i'm with you..."
*** This song makes me think of a house on a not-so populated lake, and a not-so big house, and a little wooden deck on the back with an old grand-ma type rocking chair and a little pooch sittin' next to it...and the sun is barely setting...it's late summer and air is humid, the kind that makes your legs stick to the chair... And a sigh of love (or rest?)- comes out of my mouth as I'm just rocking slowly and watching the sun dance on the water with the ducks. Oh...dream of dreams.
and it's not that i'm really WITH somebody either- it's like Jesus is with me and my little doggie, which is suprising... and it's like, for a moment, I've caught that amazing, completely tangible REST that Jesus talked about, (the rest the Pharisees would never find) and it was mine for that one moment in life...by the water side, in my little rocking chair, on the humid summer night.
I was MORE THAN CONTENT.
I was SATSIFIED in everything the LORD had done and will do.
I WAS AT REST.


So, yeah. i some weird dreams these past few nights being sick and all-102 degree fever...horrible, but it went down the second day late at night..now i just have raging headaches and my ears are starting to hurt (which is a bad thing, cuz i had like 3 ear operations when i was a kid...so i don't wanna hafta back to urgent care, cuz it cost me like 60 bucks!)- but i'm totally declaring GOD's healing word over my life and my body- cuz my mom just sits around the house and comments on all these different ailments that run in our family (like diabetes and arthritis and alzehmiers) so I'm thinking while she's talking about all this ("I'm not gonne get it, cuz my blood is different now, i have the blood lineage of Jesus and he took all my sickness away from me. I don't claim it on myself")--- and mom and i talked about church the other day- cuz i told her i visited a different church on Sunday- i went to the Calvary Church that's just up the road from my house- and it was JUST like New Hope- where i use to go, but it's smaller...and well, i mean it wasn't bad or anything, but worship was all just routine it seemed and i thought i was the only who raised my hands (just a little bit)- in the whole place. It was just very quite and conservative.
So- I'll be visiting another church when i go next sunday.
I'm not saying that people who don't raise their hands while worshiping is a bad thing- What I'm trying to say is that I wanna find a church that's pretty close to Christ Center- back in oregon...where i could worship the LORD openly and not be concerned whether or not the people around me would be offended. I want to find a church that praises the LORD somewhat joyfully too! (gesh, go figure...i'm so demanding!)
So- my mom and I were talking about this- and i told her that i felt kinda restricted at that church and that it was just a little to conservative for me, so i'm gonna visit another one next sunday- and she's like, "what do you mean?" and I'm like "Well, i like worship that's more active, like, if yer praising the lord you should be joyful about and if you wanna clap your hands and love the Lord with all your heart, you should be able to do that in church!" (and i motioned the clapping hands thing)
and she's like "What! NO! you're suppose to be reverent to the LORD in HIS HOLY SACTUARY!! not all this clapping stuff, becuz that's not HOLY!"
(one thing you gotta know about my mom, she was raised with RELIGIOUSITY, AS A SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST- so it's all about process and works and duty and stuff.)
and i was thinking, ("gesh, it's gotta be pretty stressing and burdensome to know that you can't worship God in all manners- cuz King David even danced! and he was a KING! how much more should we dance and sing and use all sorts of instruments to praise him! )
Ofcourse, i know that worship isn't just music- I've taken Mr. Buttacavoli's "Music and Worship" class at EBC and it was GREAT it opened my eyes to SO much to what real worship is, and Jesus moved powerfully in that class, when i was in it. but what it was about is that whatever you do, sacrificially- iguess, is an act of worship to the LORD. You can bow down and worship the lord, you can clap your hands and worship the lord...you can give you tithe and worship the lord, and you can help your neighbor and be worshiping the lord!!!------
IT'S ALL A MATTER OF THE HEART- where our hearts lie there is our treasure, so really, our whole lives should be a beautiful dance of worship weaved all around the years we've know the KING---

* another thought- i've always pondered-
is there a difference between a Living Sacrifice (as Paul describes in Romans-i think it is..?) and a Christian ? (using the examples that you have encountered or known- other brothers and sisters in Christ, using your personal experiences- is there a difference?)
I'll leave this up here and see who gets the chance to answer.
I really should split, cuz i gotta update my resume' and send some out today.

"It's time to grow, she'll make it on her own, she'll make it on her own...follow the winds of the open sea and make it on her. A bit afraid of the unknown and all that may come, to lead her to some distant shore, where she will make her way..."
-Song of the Lakes
"Woman in the Twilight"
-here's another one!

"Lake Michigan beautiful pearl of America! Thank you for finding me a home, I've been gone for so long , I've been sailing the seas, many a land I have roamed, and your whispering breaze of your sweet summers seeds guided me through all the rain. They led me through gails with your winds in my sails to a place that I wish to remain...."
-Song of the Lakes
"Pearl of America"