So what difference does it really make if the choir stays in the choir loft or not.
It seems apparant that the majority of the choir wants to leave and go sit with family or children or be able to view the Powerpoint or whatever?!?!

BUT - He was AMBUSHED tonite by the biggest antagonist in the church. She sat on the piano bench as several of us laughed and fellowshipped after rehearsal. She smiled and laughed and just cut up with the best of 'em....When everyone left, she still sat there. THEN the venom came out! She questioned Tom "I have a question. Why does the choir come down out of the choir loft?" and let the games begin! She absolutely flew off on him and he TRIED to keep his "Handle the Antagonist" mode, but probably didn't do as good as he could've or should've. Her words of intimidation "TIME WILL TELL" can go bothh ways!

What's happening to us?
What is does the future hold for creativity?
You are a God of creativity!
Look around us, it is so obvious.
There is brightness in the sun, Darkness in a storm, Color in the flowers and even some nasty stuff in the air that makes us sneeze and cough.
But you are creative.
You use a bad traffic jam to help us avoid a wreck
You have the phone ring just before we walk out the door so that we end up at the traffic light by an old friend
You allow us to lose a job so that we are forced to trust you as our sole source of provision.
You take us out of a comfort zone to prove to us that you and only you represent true comfort.
So if YOU are so creative it only makes sense that you design some of us to be creative. You said in your Word that you made us in YOUR image and that you want us to walk in your likeness.
So we, too, can be creative, can we not?
Why then is it that some Pharasaical people think they are able to retract what God himself created?
Why are there those who are not willing to recognize God's creative gifts?
Do they have authority to attempt to tell us we cannot be creative?
NO! Those of us who have been given a gift of creativity from God MUST remember that HE is the giver of the gift, and what HE has placed His hand on, will prosper, regardless our position.
We may have been called Minister of Music, Minister of Creative arts, but the title is irrelevant. It is the job description and that is to BE LIKE JESUS, imitate his creativity, Walk in His creative Nature.
Let God continue to be creative in us and let us anxiously anticipate how he will be creative in our lives in our next phase.
CREDO CREO!!

Well I am back from my trip, but I am STILL struggling with staying still. If anyone has ever been on a cruise, you have a tendancy to get "SEA LEGS" and to continue to have that "riding on the waves" feeling. Trust me, I have it! I had a great trip with TOO MUCH food to say the least!! So much for the LOW CARB, Matt---I BLEW IT!! I am already back on track though. There are a couple of downfalls that my trip produced - One downfall was the fact that today started the SC Creative Ministries Conference. This is the first year in many that I have not been able to attend, but with my having just returned, I couldn't leave work early enough to make it. The other downfall, that I have had to just accept is that Rachel, my daughter was proposed to on Saturday. Her fiance told me that he was going to do it and told us all about the plan, but I knew that because my trips was planned, I'd have to just settle for video. I watched the video and it was absolutely precious. Chase sang the final song in the High School Talent show. The song was one he wrote specifically for Rachel. After he finished, he put the guitar down and took the mic and began to tell about how he'd written the song for Rachel and that they had been best friends for 12 years. He began to say that he just wanted her, along with everyone else know just what she meant to him, and he then asked her to join him on stage. Needless to say, there were screams of elation throughout the auditorium! When she got to him, he knelt down and said that nothing would make him happier than for her to be his wife! The place went WILD!! She just grabbed him, hugged him and kissed him and of course, said YES! I had written her a letter for her daddy to give her after it all was finished for the evening, and she seemed very pleased and appreciative.

I just wanted to give a quick update on the fact that I won't be blogging for a few days. I'm headed out early in the morning to catch a flight to Miami and then a boat to the Grand Caymens and Jamaica....I'll think of you all! :-)

The Invitation

The Invitation is to come
The reason we are invited is because we are
Needy
Thirsty
Hungry
But we have no food
No money
The invitation is to come
Without money?
Free?
Why spend your money and
Why work for things that don't satisfy?
Cars
Boats
Clothes
Expensive restaurants
Jewelry
The Invitation is to listen
To hear
To live
To receive a promise
The invitation is to seek God
He CAN be found
He IS near
The invitation is to turn to God
There is mercy
There is forgiveness
There is provision
There is peace

I just arrived at work and opened my email. What an encouragement and confirmation of all that God is teaching us... Here is just a bit from the devotion:

"An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up" (Proverbs 12:25).

Do you struggle with anxiety? If you do, and most of us do at some time or another, then you know the weight of an anxious heart. In the height of your anxiety, you also know how much a single kind word can cheer you up.

So often, Jesus encourages us not to worry, to be of good cheer and to fear not. I know what you are thinking: Easier said that done, right? I know.

When our lives are filled with anxiety, only one thing can truly help: The comfort of Christ. Christ does desire to comfort us through the Holy Spirit--the comforter.

Friend, the opposite of comfort is to have anxiety. Is it easy for you to become emotionally distressed, filled with anxious thoughts? Are you struggling to keep your chin up? Does your heart race or palpitate due to the amount of anxiety in your life? If so, please read 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 thoroughly.

We need to grasp that our comfort comes from Christ. The Lord comforts us in ALL our troubles. There is no pain too big for the Lord not to be able to comfort us.

We too can rest upon the promises of God during our moments of anxiety and suffering. God is faithful.

"I remember your ancient laws, O LORD, and I find comfort in them" (Psalm 119:52).

We too can rest upon the Word of God during our time of anxiety, questions and doubt as His Word comforts us.

"May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise to your servant" (Psalm 119:76).

We too can rest upon the Love of God to see us through our daily struggles.

"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love" (Philippians 2:1a). We do receive comfort from knowing that Christ loves us!


Sorry to be so long with this...but I thought it was encouraging.

I obviously haven't written much over the last few days. I took my laptop to the repair shop--hey, I have an extended warranty, I might as well use it! So, I've resorted to the desktop at home, and it is brought over with the slaves I think!

Anyhow, I will try to play some catch up. By now, Saturday is a blur!! Although if I remember, we went to the grocery store, watched trading spaces on TV and wished they'd visit us....so, let's see...nothing different about THAT Saturday!! :-) Oooooops, I take that back...we DID have a confrontation with who we THOUGHT was "Mr. Murphy"...ironically, it wasn't him, but his "head man"...SATAN himself!! He has attacked us from one side to the other over the last 6 months of our financial crises! I've about had it...and we told him so!! He came THIS time and used Tom's van as his source of "THIS" will surely get 'em down! But we refused to buy into that, and quickly told him WHERE he could go back to!! The van was fixed...but $250 later we just claimed God's promise to completely be our source of everything!!

Sunday was Easter, but in reality, not one thing different to us about it than any other Sunday. To us, EVERY Sunday is Easter! We had 2 great services and came home in the afternoon (after lunch at a Chinese Bistro) and CRASHED and BURNED on our Sunday nap! We had our typical Sunday night Financial Peace Class and it was somewhat hard to handle as it was on careers and extra jobs...Hard, in that it was like he was expecting people to do that to get out of debt quicker, but for us, it is for survival.

Well, its Monday, and time for me to head to the shower and great ready for a new day....I'll write more later.

Last night was an incredible night as we remembered Jesus' death in a Maundy Thursday service. The service was relatively based on the theme of JOHN 3:16. The choir sang an arrangement of "God So Loved the World" (Stainer arr.) which then sequenced into a newer version of that same text by Mel Tunney. It was beautiful. We were offered to "Come to the Table" for a remembrance of the body and blood that was so graciously shed for ME!! We continued singing with a piece I'd never done before called "THY WILL BE DONE"...WOW! What an awesome piece. It was such a dramatic portrait of the intenseness that Jesus must have experienced. That led into a scene between choir and narrator of the crucifixion. My heart was heavy as I remembered scenes from THE PASSION where Jesus was accused and beaten so horrifically. The piece began to close as we sang in response to the telling of the thief on the cross who desired FORGIVENESS..."Forgiven, He's been forgiven, God has looked beyond his sin, saved him from what he might have been. Gave him a new life within." I noticed the woman in front of me as she began to weep. I could feel the intensity of her emotion coming all the way through her to me. I pray as she prayed, that we would never forget how unworthy we are of God's forgiveness. At the completion of this, the pastor knelt at the foot of a cross that was in the center of the stage. He was followed by the entire congregation. We prayed and felt the presence of Jesus permeated the room. Then we left in silence.

Still needs some revision...but here's the start....



Reader 1 He's Flying today
Reader 2 He's flying today
Reader 3 He's my son

Reader 1 There will be a new source of authority
Reader 2 *Military March Chant*
Reader 3 He is my son

Reader 1 He's playing a new kind of Hide and Seek
Reader 2 One, Two, Three, Four, 5,10,11,12--Ready or Not, here I come
Reader 3 He's my son

Reader 1 Is He cold?
Reader 2 Hit the ground!
Reader 1 Is he hungry?
Reader 2 "Mess" Hall is an understatement
Reader 1 Does he Sleep?
Reader 2 Allright, its 4AM up and at 'em. Let's go...4 miles to run
Reader 3 He's my son

Reader 1 He has another family
Reader 2 Mary, Joseph, James, John
Reader 3 He's my son

Reader 1 A Cross, Nails, Bleeding, Pain
Reader 2 Father, Why?? It is Finished
Reader 3 He's my son

Reader 1 Lost
Reader 2 Don't you know that I am about my Father's Business
Reader 1 Found
Reader 2 I came that you might have life
Reader 3 He's my son

ONE MORE DAY

I didn't realize it would come down to this. I thought that when I spoke those simple words so many years ago that he would always remember them, remember me. It seems only a breath away when we were swept away with excitement. " I do, I do, I will, I will", We did, we have. We promised our lives, our love, our joys and sorrows in sickness AND in health - until DEATH US DO PART. I think the 'PARTING' is now just breaths away. The ring on his finger is still there, but the symbolism of security and faithfulness that it represented has been intertwined with tubes and medication. As young parents we squabbled over whose turn it was to change the diaper. "Come on, baby, I did it last time. It's time YOU take some responsibility and have a turn. O, Look, it's a good one this time - wink, wink"
I KNOW, I KNOW HIM. If he knew that HE was now the one being cleaned and changed, he would quickly rise up out of that bed and take his turn. Just as it was with our children, my responsibility continues. I don't want to become bitter. I want to see this as another opportunity to bring to life a promise I made, a promise that I will keep with no regrets, questions or whys. I want my moments of comfort in holding his hand to be reflective, a reminder of when butterflies came to me as I held his hand. A confidence in remembering the strength of his hand as complete silence became a prayer "God, I know you will be with us and see us through this another trial". And He always did, God always saw us through so many things. Births, deaths, career changes and losses, weddings, funerals and many many days of nothing but complete dependence on God's grace to carry us ONE MORE DAY. The strength and confidence remains as I sit here ONE MORE DAY. Each day is just one more day. I will never know if today is our last day or if we'll have ONE MORE DAY. "I'm here, baby, I'm here. Yes, I know it hurts, but I'm here. I'll always be here - one more day.

I'm too young for this
I am just not ready
I want her to be happy
I love him as a son

She is not old enough
How can she be ready
She is happier than I've ever seen her
She loves him with all her heart

There is a diamond in the balance
Hearts prepared to meld together
Friendships that have blossomed
A God-centered lifetime love

How can I question a gift from God?

You are a God of Goodness
Unexpected
Surprise
You are a God who goes beyond what we expect
Unexpected
Surprise
You are a God who blesses us with things we don't deserve
Unexpected
Surprise
You are a God who loves us even in our most unloving moments
Unexpected
Surprise

Thank you for the unexpected events that surprise us at times, yet always remind us that YOU ARE GOD!
Expected
No surprise

I am so excited!! I just got word that I am going with my aunt on a cruise to the Caribbean! YEAH!

Did I say anything earlier about 'MURPHY' moving into our house...I think I remember our Financial Peace Facilitator making mention that as soon as we try to get on the right track that 'Murphy' and all his 'laws' would come and take up residence in my house...UNINVITED, no doubt, he has shown up by way of my heating unit! Of course, it has turned off cold again and I am sitting in this cold house with a tiny space heater that is SOoooooooooooooo noisy...I think I'd rather be cold!!

Father, let me continue to trust you, even when I am irritated, frustrated, aggrivated and cold. Let me remember that you go above and beyond my circumstances. I ask you to give wisdom to those who may come and give advice, imput or assistance with the heater. Provide a means for us to have it handled appropriately.