Mary's Song

'Hark the Herald Angels Sing, glory to the newborn King.
Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled..'

Hmm, I'd like to say that is my song, well, it is my favorite Christmas song!!! There you have it...my favorite Christmas carol. Hmm...I wonder why they are called carols...Anyways, Mary's song is written in Luke chapter 1 which I will quote some for you now...
'My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; for behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich He has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel as He spoketo our fathers to abraham and to his seed forever." Luke 1:46-55 NKJV
Okay so I gave you all of the song. One thing I learned from the message this weekend at church was that when Mary found out she would give birth to the Son of God, she went (sanely) crazy in worship to God. If you read and study about her in the Word, you will know that she was a true worshiper of God. I absolutely loved the message this weekend at church. I hope those that went, did also.

Oh, and what do you know, the very last song we sang in service was...Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Creepy cool, I say!!

The Blazers blaze by the Heat

Perseverance. Drive. Ambition. Teamwork. Control. That's what the Blazers had and felt at their game last night versus the Miami Heat. My dad, sister, and I attended the game which was also on TNT which was after the Denver Nuggets / Dallas Mavericks game. The Nuggets beat the Mavericks. I heard that Iverson had a great game and scored like 36 points to lead the Nuggets. Wait...why am I talking about the Nuggets? I am a TrailBlazers fan!!! Back to the important game. Okay, I'm not just a Trail Blazer fan but an NBA fan. Brandon Roy had 26 points, LaMarcus Aldridge had a good game as well. Travis Outlaw...my oh my! He had 20 points ( a couple of those were dunks). And Martell Webster...this was not a great game for him. The second quarter we went on a 8-0 or 12-0 run and were up by 14 at halftime, 56-42. 49 seconds into the game Shaq went towards the basket and Pryzbilla was guarding him and Shaq got off, elbowed Joel in his nose, and to keep from falling on Pryzbilla, he threw the ball down which hit Pryzbilla's face and he was down for a couple minutes. I was so hoping he would get back up and he did. He went out of the game and came back out to the floor right before halftime. The second half, the Heat caught up to within 1 point but we went on another run and held our lead. We were in control the whole game. Final score was 112-106...yea! Way to go Blazers!!!
On another basketball note (smile), I get to go see my niece play, with her teammates, at a basketball game tomorrow morning. I hear that she has been doing well, scoring, dribbling, rebounding, and some defense as well. Yea!
Hope you all have a nice weekend. TTFN

Happy December!

Can you believe it is the last month of 2007?!!! Where has the year gone?? I hope you all have a month of December. Tonight was another rehearsal for our Christmas choir/orchestra services at church. It went fine and I learned two things, at least. One, to not always listen to my cohort playing clarinet as we may not always have the same part to a song. Second, I learned that I am 1/7 a viola-ist for this service. More to come later??
The message this weekend at church was really good. MacMurray spoke on the Hope of Israel which is Jesus. I loved the part where he was talking about how little kids are on Christmas morning in anticipation of seeing what Santa Claus may have left for them under the tree and in their stockings. He was saying that we should have that same anticipation for Jesus on Christmas, and not only on Christmas Day, but also in anticipation of when He will be coming back.
Oh, and during 1.3 we talked about what drives our lives? I thought that was a very good thing to think about. It is good when we answer questions briefly and are asked to go into more depth. It gets us thinking deeper more on the subject.
Well, I am having a good start of December as...my Blazers won, on the road at Memphis! Final score 106-105...go Blazers!!!
Oh, and one more thing...I hope you all were safe the last couple days as it has been QUITE stormy here! It is interesting to hear and see all the flooding water on the roadways. Pray for those who have their houses flooded and for all the animals.
TTFN

Soprano or Bass clarinet???

I had orchestra rehearsal last night for our Christmas services at church. I was on the slate, so to speak, to play bass clarinet as there were two clarinet players joining us. Last night was our second rehearsal and I was asked if I would play (soprano) clarinet instead as the orchestra leader just found out that one of the clarinetists cannot be with us. I, of course, willingly said yes, even though I do very much enjoy playing my bass clarinet (love that low sound). So I had the choice that night to play clarinet parts or my bass clarinet parts. I chose to play my bass clarinet parts. I thought it would be weird to play clarinet parts on bass clarinet considering the ranges and sounds of both instruments. As it was, I could hear most of my bass clarinet parts being covered by the low brass players. I got my clarinet parts today so I am going to enjoy practicing them this week for our next rehearsal.
Hope you all are having a good week so far. TTFN

Turkey and Halibut

First of all, I hope you all had a nice thanksgiving. I did...we were supposed to have my aunt, cousin, brother and sister-in-law over but my aunt was sick so she didn't come. We did have turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes (YUMMM!), rolls, and other good stuff to eat.
This weekend I went with my family to the coast. I was looking forward to it since I had not been there since Labor Day weekend. Okay, I went there late September with some friends too, for a day. The weather was nice...we left Friday morning (got Friday off work) and came back Sunday afternoon/early evening. Saturday my sister and I spent some time on the beach looking for rocks and agates and found some nice ones. There was no wind at all which was nice. Sunday was sunny as we spent a little time shopping and ate lunch at Mo's. Here comes the halibut...oh, but unfortunately I decided not to have the halibut and had fish and chips instead. Oh, and we got to see the sea lions which had come back to their 'get-out-of-the-cold-water-and-sleep-in-the-sun-place-on-the-docks'. Some were not sleeping at all and had a conversation...I'm surprised they did not wake up all the sleeping ones. All in all it was a nice weekend to have gotten away for a couple days.

Earth-quaking missions with a passion

It was a hit!!! My niece was in the school play that was performed this last weekend called The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. If you haven't seen it or read the book, I recommend you do so. I went to the play Thursday night and saw half of it Friday night as I had worked late on Friday. All the kids did a great job and I thought the lady who cast the play did a great job. I enjoyed the costumes the kids wore as they were from the 1970's. One question: do you (a wise man) like ham? Okay, so that wasn't the main point of the play but ham had a part in the play believe it or not. It took the place of frankincense as one of the gifts the three wise men brought to Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus. I don't think that ham was the wise man's pure and holy passion (see last post). It was nice though that he did bring the ham so J, M, and BJ would have something to eat.
The service was good this weekend in church as it was our annual global outreach weekend. It is very good for us as a church to remember all our brothers and sisters that are out there doing His will by being disciples. It makes me think of a few friends that I know that are out there serving and it gave me that continuing hunger to go on another mission trip next summer. I had already been thinking about it since I went on one three summers ago. It was really neat to hear some stories from a few of our own on how they ended up where they are and what is happening over there.
Here is an odd thing that does not go with the rest of what I just said...there was an earthquake earlier today (?) off the coast, 6 miles deep under the water measuring 5.8 on the scale. Oh, and I just recently read about the cyclone that hit Bangladesh last Thursday and the last number I heard, over 2300 people have been lost. I read that a few countries, including the US, are sending money and supplies over that way to help the ones in need. My heart goes out to them.

Pure and Holy Passion

Who / what is your pure and holy passion? Well, for me, it would be halibut! No, just kidding!!! To be serious, though, it is Christ the King. Last Tuesday night at Bible study, one of our songs we worshipped to was Pure and Holy Passion. That was one of the weeks I got to play my clarinet with the worship team. I immediately fell in love with the song the first time we sung it in church. Saturday night I was on my way to church, listening to the radio in the car, singing along with what song was playing. I switched stations to find another song that I liked but didn't so I turned off the radio and started singing what came into my head. You guessed it...it was Pure and Holy Passion! I must have sung that the rest of the way to church. During the worship part of the service, the second song we sang, after I had got seated was...Pure and Holy Passion! Isn't it cool how He puts songs in your head for a reason?!!
The message was great as it so reminded me of when I was in Mexico! It was on the passage in Matthew chapter six, a section of the sermon on the mount and this part is on laying your treasures up in heaven and seeking first the kingdom of heaven. While I was in Mexico on my mission trip a couple years ago, we did devotions every morning after breakfast. Those of us that wanted to could volunteer to lead one. Our theme was the sermon on the mount. I chose to do the part on...treasures in heaven and that very same passage. So I was listening close to what Stu was saying about seeking Him and His kingdom over the earthly kingdom.
After we had 1.3 and dinner, I was on the way home and I heard Steven Curtis Chapman's song Magnificent Obsession. Okay, I get it. I love that song, too of course. I will leave you this moment with one verse:
"Whom have I in heaven but you? and earth has nothing I desire besides you." Psalm 73:25
I know that if I desire Him and His kingdom, He will give me what I need. Hmm...that just reminded me of another verse...
"Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart" Psalm 37:4
May He be the desire of your heart.