variety-God's choice

today im chapel during worship and i'm singing the chours of a song ive sung a million times and it all of a sudden comes alive to me:
"Desert Song"
all of my life in every season
you are still God and i have a reason to sing
i have a reason to worship

i sing praise, i will sing praise
no weapon formed against me shall remain
i will rejoice and i will declare
that he is my God and he is here!

This song has been in my head all day and today when i got frustrated or mad at my circumstances, i would start singing it or humming it. it instantly makes me smile and remember that god is always there. he has always been there for me. this past year has been rough but god is there and slowly i'm beginning to see all the good that has come from it. it reminded me that i do have a reason to worship. i'm alive. i have a great family that supports all my decisions. i have a wonderful fiancee that loves me more than life and works so hard to provide for us. i have a great relationship with my future in-laws (some people don't get along with their in-laws and hate to be around them--i thank God every day that we all get along and enjoy spending time together and that they treat me as one of their own children.) i have friends that encorage me through rough times. i have a calling on my life to change the next generation. all of these things make me want to sing praises to the God that made them all possible. this jan. has been full of changes already. jobs, room arrangements, wedding details, devotional times, classes, chapel, and just life in general. but every little change is getting me one step closer to right where i god wants me to be.

mark batterson spoke about ministry philosphies today. he talked about variety--there are over 200 types of beetles on the earth--one is just fine for me but God looks at if differently. he said that he used to get frustrated as a young minister because there was no 'order of service' recorded in the Bible. he struggled with how many songs to sing, how long prayer time should be. then he realized that Jesus taught differently when he was speaking to different people. mark is convinced that there are so many ways to do church, we as pastors just haven't thought of them yet. to be honest i was beginning to get neverous. i didn't really know where he was going with the sermon. ive heard sermons go this direction before and they ended up bashing traditional churches. ive grown up in traditional churches and i attend one now and i love it! but he went to a place that i didn't expect him to at all. he said that all churches need a 'church print.' everyone had a different finger print, with that in mind all churches needed to be different. different churches meet the needs for different people. this was where i had wanted every pastor i had heard preach a sermon on ministry go. mark said bottom line: we need to minister to people. help them change their lives. he said that his church is traditional in beliefs but not traditional in they way they taught them. at the end he showed a black/white video of his church's baptism service, he was wearing cut-off shorts, a sleveless tee, sunglasses, and a backwards baseball cap. they were in a river. this is nothing like i had seen before. but the their was one common denoiminator. he was baptizing people. those people came up out of that water CHANGED!(and in color) and they showed it. they jumped up out of that water with arms streched towards heaven and praising God. i thought that this was a great illustration of the baptism. but that excitement about the Lord that is what ministry is all about. helping people change their life with Christ. it doesn't matter how they get there-just that they do.

tonight mike and i went and picked out our wedding bands. i got to bring my home and we ordered his. this was a big step for me. i'm sitting at the counter remembering when we were picking out my engagement ring. it has gone by so fast. i still can't believe that we are under a 100 days its always been real but its really coming together. everything that we plan and set into stone for the big day just makes me remember how much closer the day is getting. and to think that i only wanted to be engaged for 6-8 months. there is no way that i could have pulled it off!!!