quote of the week and other thoughts

QOTW:
"Obsession is a young man's game."
-old guy in The Prestige

other thoughts:
this guy allen, a pastor, is pretty awesome. he speaks at this worship thing i go to on saturdays and never fail he brings to each talk a severe passion for god. it's so awesome. his messages are not very typical and last week he mentioned that his wife pointed out to him that they are in fact not even always that practical. there is something about this whole worship thing that is fairly impractical and i think there may be something to that. i know it's been said before that we are not necessarily supposed to get anything from a worship service, in fact the name would suggest that we are there not for ourselves but to worship our creator. i find though that most pastors give us something to work on, get better at, a way to improve our christian life, love better, pray better, not sin better, but save till the end a few brief words directed at the love of christ which is the solution to whatever problem or task they have spoken to. why not skip all the other stuff and go straight to love. if its the solution for all of the other stuff then why not just always talk about it. talk about experiencing it and stuff so that when we do experience it we wont wonder what it is. this is sort of what allen does. he talks about gods love for us. and he speaks from his experience. pulling out of his own life experiences of gods faithful love. there is something in that as well. the more a pastor teaches about scripture the more it becomes a classroom. the more he makes it a part of his life the more life changing and overwhelming the gospel becomes. as i see it now a worship service ought to flow from worship to worship to worship in different forms. singing or listening, proclaiming the love of god for us and reminding us why we have gathered in his presence, basking in his love and he in return basking in our love for him. for though we come to worship it is not a thing that starts with us. we rarely come already overwhelmed with him to the point of worship, no he is there loving us already but we have forgetten that he is. in remembering it once again we then can begin to worship.

thats what we have been thinking about for a few weeks. this god that we come to loves us so much. he loves us always and this will not change ever for anything. no matter what day it is, no matter our attitude, god is not swayed. his love for us is not affected by us. it is just love. he desires to pour it out upon us and for us to live intoxicated by it. there is something so amazing about the times when we dont need practicality in our life, in our church. worship, or love for that matter, is best when there is no regard for common sense. mary pouring a jar of perfume on jesus' feet that cost way to much to waste. god and his bride casting aside all that anyone else would find of value to be together, to bring a smile to the face of the other. that is love and what happens in real worship.

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