Rev. Hughes Oliphant on worship:
There is another element to the worship set forth in this psalm, and that is praise. Although the psalms often put the words "praise" and "thanksgiving" at parallel , such as in Psalm 100, "Enter his gates with thanks giving and his courts with praise".(Psalm 100, NIV), the two words have distinctly different meanings. Thanksgiving celebrates the story of our redemption, while praise is astonishment at becoming aware of entering God's presence. As I like to put it, praise is an expression of the "Oh, wow!" experience. Our worship should have not only thanksgiving but praise as well. "Sing to him, sing praise to him."
Psalm 105 goes on to tell us that in worship we should, "Glory in his holy name". To glory in God's name is to savor his majesty, to rest in his peace, to meditate on his justice and truth. This is one of the places where the arts play their role in worship. This is true of the visual arts as well as music. Music help us feel the truth. To glory in God's name is not so much a matter of learning something new about God as it is to feel what we already know. It would be a mistake to try to separate these two aspects of our experience. They have to go together. In fact, the deeper knowledge we have of God's Word the more profound our feelings. Some people are more sensitive than others, to be sure, but all other things being equal knowledge promotes feeling and feeling promotes knowledge.
11.04.2009
9.03.2009
Dear Employees:
As the CEO of this organization, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barrack Obama is our President and that our taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way. To compensate for these increases, our prices would have to increase by about 10%. But, since we cannot increase our prices right now due to the dismal state of the economy, we will have to lay off sixty of our employees instead. This has really been bothering me since I believe we are family here, and I didn't know how to choose who would have to go.
So, this is what I did. I walked through our parking lots and found sixty "Obama" bumper stickers on our employees' cars and have decided these folks will be the ones to let go, I can't think of a more fair way to approach this problem. They voted for change............I gave it to them.
I will see the rest of you at the annual company picnic.
THE BOSS
As the CEO of this organization, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barrack Obama is our President and that our taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way. To compensate for these increases, our prices would have to increase by about 10%. But, since we cannot increase our prices right now due to the dismal state of the economy, we will have to lay off sixty of our employees instead. This has really been bothering me since I believe we are family here, and I didn't know how to choose who would have to go.
So, this is what I did. I walked through our parking lots and found sixty "Obama" bumper stickers on our employees' cars and have decided these folks will be the ones to let go, I can't think of a more fair way to approach this problem. They voted for change............I gave it to them.
I will see the rest of you at the annual company picnic.
THE BOSS
8.05.2009
a quote about rice
"Rice is a great thing to eat when you are hungry and you want to eat like 2000 of something."
-Mitch Hedberg
-Mitch Hedberg
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