Pure Luck Or Divine Intervention? You Tell Me

Here's a couple passages from the introduction of a book by C.S. Lewis titled Reflections On The Psalms that I thought is worth sharing. Read it then tell me your answer:

"The Psalms are poems, and poems intended to be sung:  not doctrinal treatises, nor even sermons...Their chief formal characteristic, the most obvious element of pattern, is fortunately one that survives in translation. Most readers will know that I mean what the scholars call "parallelism"; that is, the practice of saying the same thing twice in different words...

It is (according to one's point of view) either a wonderful piece of luck or a wise provision of God's, that poetry which was to be turned into all languages should have as its chief formal characteristic one that does not disappear (as mere metre does) in translation...

By giving to truths which are infinitely worth remembering this rhythmic and incantatory expression, He made them almost impossible to forget."

 
Pure luck or divine intervention?
My verdict:  God knew what He was doing!

Hillsong Creative DVD - Musician Training

Came across this online today & had to share it.
I would highly recommend every band & worship team buy it. It will challenge, inspire, & aid your growth. I'm getting one for my team over at Calvary, guaranteed.
Here's a sample (& one of my favorite Hillsong tracks tracks by the way):

Hitting The Pause

Had to share this passage.
Take it. Use it. Put it on your desktop. Let it remind you to pause and refocus.

3 Ways To Slowly Kill Any Team

Teams are a funny thing.
Teams come in all different sizes and shapes. There's the husband & wife team, the pastor & his staff team, the sports team, the executive team, the band, and tons of other teams. The funny thing about teams is that they're the greatest thing ever invented and the worst thing all at the same time. King Solomon, the richest & wisest king in Israel's history, says a team can be the greatest invention we ever experience: "Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one; they get a better return for their labor." (Ecclesiastes 4:9) Do you agree?
If you do, you have a somewhat healthy team. If you currently don't, your team is dying or already dead. As good as Ecclesiastes 4:9 sounds and as true as it is, I find it utterly disturbing that people in any team also experience some of the most difficult days of their lives. After much reading, studying, and personal experience, I've found the 3 diseases that slowly kill any team:

1. Create a lack of focus - as soon as you enter in more than one goal/vision for the team in any given day, things start getting muddy and the unity starts fading. It's as easy as loosing sight of your particular role. And another thing, as soon as you start to confuse the style with the vision, you're going to get frustrated when someone else's style is different than yours.
   
2. Take away the element of trust - if you start to think you can't trust this person or that person, you start to think the teamwork element can't do as good a job as you can on your own. That is deadly because you undervalue the other people/person on your team.
3. Don't have any fun together - this is a sure-fire way to ensure that your team becomes seen as a responsibility rather than an opportunity. You start dreaming of how much fun you could be having with other people or if you were on another team, because let's face it, relationships are meant to be fun so if yours is not you're going to look elsewhere.

Take an inventory of all the teams you're a part of or lead. Are you letting these 3 diseases slowly grow stronger & deeper or are you able to identify them when they hit and kill them on the spot? You're never NOT going to be part of a team (unless you live in a cave) so you'd better get yours right or else your work life, family life, friend life, church life, love life, and personal life are going to be miserable when they don't have to be.

Remember Today Forever!

I will always remember today, September 15, 2009.

Taken from www.hell0-righton.com (Zac Smith's blog):
"I found out today that I now have no metabolically active metastatic disease. The lesions in my liver and spleen have resolved. The lesions are still there, but there is no active cancer in them. The doctor told me that he has never seen anyone respond to the treatment like this. I will go to a specialist soon to have the lesions looked at. But I am cancer free at the moment and do not have to do any more chemo.

I thank God for the healing that occurred — medicinal and miraculous. I am so excited He allowed me to go through this. And thanks to the thousands who prayed for me. To God be the glory."

I can't hardly believe this news! Can you?!

Activating The Getting

I was just reminded of a difficult truth while I was reading more of Joshua.
It's a principle I actually don't like because it's not easy for me to accept.
And I'm guessing that you, just like me, need a reminder of this particular truth because somehow we tend to easily forget (very conveniently) the difficult truths.
Here's what I read:

"So the LORD gave to Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they conquered it and settled there." (Joshua 21:43, NLT)

Gave. That little word packs so much punch. It (the word gave) seems almost like an inappropriate word here because it's not like the Israelites just sat around and God just rained down a wrapped gift. Israel had to work their butts off in order to receive this gift. Just because God wants to offer something as a gift does not mean we don't have to do anything in order to receive that gift. We will often have to take the step of obedience in seemingly ridiculously overwhelming situations, much like the Israelites did (i.e. conquering Jericho was no normal situation) in order to activate God's gift. Afterall, God loves to stack up the odds against us so that He can receive more credit for the gift in the first place.

Stop sitting, wishing, waiting to receive God's blessings in your life. Go, get off your butt, trust God, and watch the miracle theater begin! He has specific blessings in store that He'd love to give to those of us who have enough trust, obedience, and character to receive it.