The Next Great Praise & Worship Hit

(Please note, sarcasm to follow)

Dancing in Love

Dancing across your alabaster waves
Singing the melody of my heart
Rolling around the fields of your grace
Swimming the river of your sea

Chorus: Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance

Gazing across your effervescent wonder
Looking at your spectacular love
Climbing the mountain of your joy
Your peacefulness enthralls my heart

(Chorus)

Skipping across the rainbow of light
Towards the thrill that is a pot of gold
Drinking your wine of intoxicating mercy
Resting in the arms of your love

(Chorus)

(Dancing in Love, M & M, 2009)

Now, compare the above "song" (and I use that term loosely) with the following:

Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
See Him dying on the tree!
’Tis the Christ by man rejected;
Yes, my soul, ’tis He, ’tis He!’
Tis the long expected prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;
Proofs I see sufficient of it:
’Tis a true and faithful Word.

Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning,
Was there ever grief like His?
Friends through fear His cause disowning,
Foes insulting his distress:
Many hands were raised to wound Him,
None would interpose to save;
But the deepest stroke that pierced Him
Was the stroke that Justice gave.

Ye who think of sin but lightly,
Nor suppose the evil great,
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the Sacrifice appointed!
See Who bears the awful load!
’Tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed,
Son of Man, and Son of God.

Here we have a firm foundation,
Here the refuge of the lost.
Christ the Rock of our salvation,
Christ the Name of which we boast.
Lamb of God for sinners wounded!
Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
Who on Him their hope have built.

(Stricken, Smitten and Afflicted - Words by Thomas Kelly, 1804)


Have you ever noticed how songs that are sung, or rather presented, in church, er, worship, services today seem to not have a lot of depth in them? Heck, in fact sometimes they seem like they could be a better fit for a love song to a boyfriend/girlfriend? Just insert his/her name where he or him is and you'll see what I mean. In fact, I was joking around with DH a few weeks ago and started singing I Give You My Heart to him:

I give you my heart
I give you my soul
I live for you alone
Every breath that I take
Every moment I'm awake
Oh, have your way in me

Can someone please tell me where the substance in this song is and how it pertains to God/Jesus/Holy Spirit? Is this what our "worship" services have sunk to? Can we not have any songs that have deep, theological meanings? As DH once said, I think I may have to toss my cookies someday.

Now, mind you, there's nothing wrong with songs about a relationship with God. However, to balance that out, we should be explanining WHY to have that relationship and HOW to get that relationship. Why are so many preachers and worship leaders/music ministers today so afraid to use "big" or "taboo" words like justification, sanctification, propitiation, substitutionary atonement, imputed righteousness, and hypostatic union, and, most importantly, the S word? Don't know that one...stay tuned, I'll reveal it later...

Nope, I'll go ahead and reveal it now, so I hope you're sitting down...it's Sin.

Haven't Gotten Rid of Me Yet

Not that anyone is trying to...at least, not that I know of, anyway! I haven't blogged much lately - why, I'm not sure. If you ask DH he'll tell you I have a lot to say about a lot of things, but I can't seem to put them down on paper - or computer, as it may be. I wish I had some deep, philosophical, theological, meaty topic to expound on, but nothing's coming to mind at the moment; give it time, however, and it probably will.

DH & I got an XBox 360 & bought Guitar Hero World Tour. This game has taught me at least one thing - my goal in life better not be to be a guitar player. I am not the most coordinated person in the world, but I did used to play the flute & have sung in a few choirs in my day, so I can't use the excuse that I have no musical inclinations. I'm just not cut out to be the next Eddie Van Halen. DH, however...no, he's not either, but he has an entertaining time trying (keep an eye out on You Tube...just kidding, Mark. I love you!)

6 months we've lived in our house now...I love that saying - OUR house! It's not another individual's house, or a property management company's house, it's our house! That does make a lot of difference into how you take care of it, I've noticed. I didn't think it would, but it does. I'm almost to the point where I look forward to getting up on Saturday morning & do my share of the housework - notice I said ALMOST! :-)

Yep, I'm Still Here

Yes, my adoring fans (all one of you, and you know who you are!), I'm still here. Actually, I forgot my password & couldn't get into my blog...but, obviously I've remembered it.

The big update - WE BOUGHT A NEW HOUSE! Well, new to us, anyway. It's the first home I've ever purchased (2nd for DH). As you may (or may not) remember, we used to live across from the country of TU (the best undefeated football team in the state, IMHO). At the end of June, we received a letter from yet another property management company that they would be taking over the management of our house. They were also changing the rules & were going to require all rent payments payable & due on the 1st of the month. This would be a big change for us as we normally paid by the 11th (per agreement w/the original private landlord). This only gave us about 3 days to pay rent, as we had already budgeted for DSD to attend Falls Creek for the first time. Well, that lit a fire under my tushy, so I walked over to QT the next day (Saturday), and picked up a paper that shall remain nameless for the World of Homes. I chose some open houses that I thought we might be able to afford and we spent the weekend looking. Now, mind you, we have been through some financial challenges in the last 3 years, so I had no idea how much we would be able to afford. For all I knew, a cardboard box would be our next home - no offense to those of you that live in one. Anyway, we looked at several homes over that weekend. On Sunday, we went to a open house of one of DH's parents' friends' house. The realtor was the same one that sold his dad's house. We decided to retain her as our realtor. She recommended someone w/Bank of America to contact about a mortgage. She told us that he should be able to get us a mortgage and, if not, would let us know what we could do in order to get one in the future. Over the next couple of weeks, we looked at houses and got our pre-approval letter. There was one day in which we looked at 5 houses, but kept coming back to the first one we looked at that day. It was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1 car house with a double driveway, large front porch and a covered patio. We eventually put an offer in on it, then found out there was another offer on the table. At this point I felt we should be on HGTV on either House Hunters or My First Place. The sellers decided to work with our offer and came back with a counteroffer. We countered their counteroffer with another offer, which they accepted. A week before we were scheduled to close, they found out the roof needed to be repaired. We already knew this & had told them about it. They had someone come out & do an estimate, then presented us with the option of a) repairing the roof and we would keep the brand new washer & dryer that were in the house, or b) they would have the roof completely replaced, take the washer & dryer with them, and add $250.00 to the cost of the house. Hmm, new roof or washer & dryer? I think I'll take new roof for 500.00, Alex. I'll save another post to go over closing day. We thankfully had enough money left over to buy our own brand new washer & dryer...front loaders, thank you very much!

So, it's been almost 2 months now & I really love this house. We've had one housewarming party for people at my work and will probably have another one for our Sunday School class & people from DH's work.

That's about it for now...I'll also update you on the denture situation later - can you believe it'll be a year tomorrow? Geesh, how time flies!

Paper v. Plastic

So, I'm watching the news and, once again, the left coast wackos are trying to legislate crap. They now want to force people to pay to use plastic sacks at the grocery store or, in Seattle, ban both paper & plastic. It's something about the plastic being bad for the environment. Guess what, wackos - paper bags attract bugs, which I'm sure are also not good for the environment. Sorry, but I refuse to pay for using plastic bags and, besides, I do reuse them - guess what I use to take my lunch to work? You guessed it, plastic bags from Wally World. If that's not recycling, I don't know what is.

DH and Our Trip

For those of you who have read DH's blog, you'll note that, yes, he got a tattoo. How do I feel about it? I'm proud of him; he's been saying for sometime that he wants to get one, but he could never get the nerve. Have I mentioned before that he's a wimp? He won't give blood, because he doesn't like the pain, so what does he do now? Go and get inked. It actually looks pretty good. It's an outline colored forest green. He plans to go back in the future & get it colored in. If you're wondering what a triquetra is... (http://www.apologetix.com/apologetics/apologetics.php) It's in the upper left corner of the webpage.

On a related note, if you get a chance, check out the group that has the triquetra on their website - Apologetix. They are a Christian parody rock band (think Weird Al).

Okay, outta here for now...

We Won!!!!!

Okay, "we" didn't win, but I still feel like I was a part of it.

UNO THE BEAGLE WON WESTMINSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the first time in the history of Westminster that a beagle has won Best in Show...and it beat out 2 ugly poodles!!!! I'm with DH, I can't stand poodles. I was rooting for the dachshund, which I've never seen win the hound group, but I was glad to see the beagle win.

The sad thing is, I think I was more about excited about the dog show than I am about the presidential race. I'm not quite sure what to think about that.

2 more sports items of note: NASCAR officially begins this weekend with the Daytona 500 (go Jeff Gordon!) and, more importantly...pitchers and catchers report to spring training tomorrow!!!! Gee, can you tell I'm a sports fan?! :-)

Magster 5000 v. 1.0 - 3, Old Sparky - 3

Shortly before the ice storm, we had a new, albeit unwanted, addition to our family - a small, grey, four-legged animal with a thin tail. Yep, we had a mouse, and its name was NOT Mickey, Minnie, or Jerry. Let it be known that I HATE MICE!!!! Just ask my DH, Okie Rambler (more on that momentarily). I never knew how many ways there were to kill mice until I did some research. Whoever made the comment about building a better mousetrap knew what they were talking about. However, before we had the opportunity to purchase one of these fine products, we discovered we had one right under our nose - the Magster 5000, version 1.0, otherwise knows as Maggie, our miniature dachshund. We had come home from work and discovered her handiwork on the kitchen floor. Thankfully, the only mess to clean up was the body of the departed -- score one for the Magster! A couple of nights later I went into the kitchen and what did I find? Another corpse. Now, remember...I HATE MICE!!!! So, what did I do at 1 in the morning? The same thing any self-respecting married female would do: I woke up DH and had him dispose of it. I'm so glad he loves me, otherwise he might have made me take care of it! I went back to the research and discovered a trap we've affectionately nicknamed "Old Sparky." The proper name for it is the Victor Electronic Mouse Trap. It is an enclosed, battery operated box that sends an electric shock to the mouse, killing it in approximately 20 seconds, hence the title "Old Sparky." The best part, for me, is that I never have to see the mouse! You just go and get your DH and have him dump the mouse out, reapply the peanut butter or bait of your choice, and wait for the next criminal. As of this writing, Maggie has rid the world of 3 mice, as has Old Sparky. I thought we had gotten rid of them, but, alas, about 5 minutes ago (Happy New Year!), I saw a live one in the kitchen. So, if you need to rid your house of mice, we could probably make some sort of deal to rent you the Magster 5000...or you could spend about 20 bucks for Old Sparky.