Humor, Selah, Home

I usually don't write until after the noon power, but my schedule is a little different today, so here I am ready to write now. I'll write about the noon tomorrow when I write about the other classes I take this evening.

10/21 7:45pm power w/Thang

Humor. My j127 cohort Eddie could often be found reflecting, "God is so funny", and sputtering off into laughter. It's true: God can do anything in anyway He sees fit, and He often chooses to do the one thing we never expected. And sometimes, it's really funny. Thang is usually fairly serious, so when he makes jokes, I notice them more. Tonight, he made several, and it caused me to step back and just enjoy what was happening.

10/21 9pm yin w/Devyn

Selah. Although I have since switched to the ESV Bible, I was for a long time completely enamored with the Amplified. My copy as the ripped pages, loose binding, taped cover, and highlights in every color to prove it. It is in the Amplified that I learned to appreciate Selah, a pause -

All the earth shall bow down to You and sing [praises] to You; they shall praise Your name in song! Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]! Psalm 66:4 

This is just one example of the 74 selahs throughout Scripture, primarily in the Psalms. If ever there was a time to selah, it is in a yin class. Often, when we try to slow down, we meet ourselves with resistance. We fidget or makes lists or judge ourselves. But what if, when we got uncomfortable, we were able to take a selah - a pause, to check in with what we're really feeling and experiencing?

Here's to Selah!

10/22 6am power w/Morgan

Home. On my way to class this morning, I was listening to a favorite tune of mine - Come as You Are, by Crowder. In it, besides one of the greatest lyrics of all time (earth has no sorrow that heaven can't heal) it invites the wanderer to come home. Home, here, is not a physical place but rather a state of comfort, security and peace with your Creator, Father and Savior. You will never be more at home than when your soul is at rest in the arms of Jesus. This practice for me was about that kind of coming home, a coming into myself in Christ. I left it singing, Come Thou Fount, a song about our our hearts finding their forever home in singing praise to the One who made us, saved us and carries us all our lives long.

VERSE 1Come, Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the name! I’m fixed upon it
Name of Thy redeeming love

VERSE 2Hitherto Thy love has blessed me
Thou hast brought me to this place
And I know Thy hand will bring me
Safely home by Thy good grace
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

VERSE 3Oh to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart, oh take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above

VERSE 4Oh that day when freed from sinning
I shall see Thy lovely face
Full arrayed in blood-washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry
Bring Thy promises to pass
For I know Thy pow’r will keep me
Till I’m home with Thee at last