4 Days!!!

I'm getting excited about camp at Laurel Lake and thought I'd share some old xanga posts from the last time I got ready for summer camp (2007 at the Word of Life Ranch).

So... summer break was awesome; I didn't realize how long it had really been since being home with my family. We went on a lot of errands - shopping, visiting old friends, fixing up our old house in preparation for its sale, etc. I read the book for this summer, as well as some fiction :) and spent a lot of time with my dear brothers ... bike-riding, playing CatchPhrase and Dutch Blitz, listening to music, etc.

I kind of wish I was still there, I can't lie. But that time will come before I know it, and I know that God has great things in store for this summer in the meantime! I am so excited for those little girls to start coming! I want to be the enthusiastic counselor that they need, not letting any fear of man or discomfort or failure get in the way.... Please pray that I will depend completely on the Lord and His grace, rather than on my own feebleness which definitely isn't strength by a long shot.

This weekend will be fun, as all the camps are coming back and the STC'ers will be coming. I hope to get a chance to talk to my friend Courtney whom I haven't seen for a year, but we'll see.

Open Our Eyes

This life is only an echo

Of the deeper life to come

This ache is born of

Your Spirit in our hearts

Calling us homeward

Till our passing days are done

And You bid us "rise and...

"Come, now the wait is over

Eternity's begun

Wake, now the dream is ended

You're finally free to run" (Dance in the morning sun")

Open our eyes

Open our eyes

Wonder is only a window

Beauty is an open door

Longing, leading us onward through the night

To what we're made for

When these shadow lands are done

We will hear You crying...

"Come, now the wait is over

Eternity's begun

Wake, now the dream is ended

You're finally free to run" (Dance in the morning sun")

Open our eyes

Open our eyes

All that's eternal

You've set in our hearts

Our joyful desire burns like the morning star...

Open our eyes (to the joy that's to come)

Open our eyes (to the home that we seek)

Open our eyes (to the promise of heaven)

Open our eyes (to eternity's dream)

We're longing to see (open our eyes)

To live in Your light (open our eyes)

To always be near (open our eyes)

Open our eyes

~ Words by Doug McKelvey

Honors Day at University of the Cumberlands

On a recent Monday, Pappaw, Mammaw,

Mom, Jedidiah, and I

took a trip to Williamsburg, KY to visit Caleb,

meet some of his friends,

show our grandparents the campus,

and eat a tasty lunch in the intramural gym.

The president speaking

Here we are in front of "the prettiest spot on campus" -

the fountain!

It had begun to rain,

so Jedidiah ran to the car to put away some papers.

Thus he unfortunately is not in this picture.

Challenging Femininity #8

Be sure to check out the article on Elizabeth Prentiss! She wrote the hymn "More Love to Thee, O Christ" which has recently become popular due to a contemporary Christian musician singing it. She also wrote the book Stepping Heavenward, among others. That book is one of my favorites. It's a sweet story about a young girl who draws nearer her Heavenly Father throughout her life.

Our New House

This is the truck we used in February to move from our little apartment in our little yard to move to our beautiful home in what seems almost like the country but is really just the suburbs.

Redbuds are the most beautiful trees!

Hopefully we can prune it next year so it's even prettier!

Our house :-)

We are going to have apples!

Well, maybe. This tree needs pruning, too.

A dogwood tree

Violets!!! They're everywhere.

Azalea bushes

And petunias for Dad

We've also planted pansies, strawberries, tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, celery, and peppers. There is a rosebush. And Mom bought some blueberry and raspberry bushes to plant soon. A few years and we'll have quite the fruit selection here! It looks gorgeous and smells better. I'm lovin' it.

Yet Another Post About Physical Expression in Worship

Another example of culture playing a part in interpretations: lifted hands. Normally when we see this in church, it looks like the person is raising his hand in class. It lasts between two seconds and twenty. There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with this, but there is no Biblical example of it. In the Bible, when a person lifts his hands to God, he does just that – he lifts his hands to God. Not one hand, but two. And not as a statement of agreement of commitment or worshipful feeling. It’s not about the person at all. It’s to God!

In Nehemiah, the people worship God with their heads bowed, their faces to the ground, their hands lifted, and their lips repeating “Amen” as Ezra prays.

In the Psalms, David passionately cries unto God with His hands lifted toward His “holy oracle”. He longs for God and overflows with praise as he lifts up his hands in God’s name. He lifts up his hands to God’s commands, perhaps written on the walls and doorposts of his house (Deuteronomy 6)? God’s servants are commanded to lift up their hands and bless the Lord in His sanctuary. David again passionately cries unto God and asks that God view his prayer and lifted hands as incense or the evening sacrifice.

In Lamentations, Jeremiah tells Israel to get up and passionately cry out to God with lifted hands for the lives of their young children. Later he reminds the people of God’s goodness and advises them to consider their ways, return to God, and lift up their hearts with their hands to Him.

And in 1 Timothy, the men of the church are to pray everywhere. When they do, they are to lift up their hands, first making sure that the hands they lift are holy, without wrath and doubting.

But by far the most common physical expressions of worship in the Bible involve kneeling, bowing, falling upon your knees, or falling on your face. Does this indicate something about the reverence we ought to feel as we worship? Bigger question: as these are some of the more common Biblical expressions, when is the last time you saw someone (or you yourself) lay flat on your face before God? Or your whole church? When is the last time you all knelt together? Or bowed with your faces to the ground?

Here’s another interesting tidbit I found: It’s okay to pray with your eyes open, looking up.

It’s been a joy to study this. There is tremendous freedom in Christ. Not license to do what we want; but liberty to worship Him in a wide variety of ways, with a plethora of postures. So don’t be afraid of what other people in your church will think. Still be respectful, of course. But our authority is Scripture. If people did it in the Bible, we can do it now. “And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts” (Psalm 119:45).

More About Physical Expression in Worship

Okay, I’m back. I learned a few things I hadn’t expected. For example, I didn’t expect to read about people sitting before God!

Here are a few principles that stand out. First, “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). If God really expects us to do this, then of course any posture is acceptable; because He wants us to pray all the time – while we’re doing everything else.

This puts some of the above posture in context. For instance, lying down on a pew in a chapel would probably look like sleeping and distract a lot of people. But praying in your bed at night when you can’t sleep would be perfectly natural and right.

Another consideration is culture. That might sound strange, as if I were contradicting the whole premise of this book. I believe in taking God’s Word literally and in following it even if it seems outdated or even unacceptable in our culture. I don’t think there is any verse which is irrelevant to us for any reason, including the 2000-year/ Hebrew-to-American gap.

On the other hand, it would be unrealistic to try to understand what God really meant when He said certain things without considering the culture of the people to whom He was directly speaking.

Take the word “dance,” for example. We are commanded to praise God with dancing. When is the last time you’ve done that? I must confess I never have. But what does it look like to praise God with dancing (beyond the 1 Thessalonians 5:17 principle)? It would be easy to insert our modern concept of “dancing” into the ancient word. But what would the original readers have pictured? Waltzing? Square dancing? Hip-shaking? Break dancing? I doubt it.

The Strong’s Concordance gives the following words for dance:

· 2287 chagag – to move in a circle, i.e. to march in a sacred procession, to observe a festival; by implication to be giddy: celebrate, dance, a (solemn) feast (holiday), reel to and for
· 2342 chuwl or chiyl – to twist or whirl (in a circular or spiral manner), i.e. to dance
· 3769 karar – to dance (i.e. whirl)
· 4234 machowl – from 2342; a (round) dance
· 4246 mechowlah – feminine of 4234; a dance: company, dances (-ing)
· 7540 raqad – to stamp, i.e. to spring about (wildly or for joy): dance, jump, leap, skip
· 3738 orcheomai – a row or ring; to dance (from the ranklike or regular motion)
· 5525 choros – a ring, i.e. round dance (“choir”)

Twist, whirl, circular, spiral, whirl, stamp, spring about wildly or for joy, jump, leap, skip, round, row, ring, ranklike, regular, company, move in a circle, march, giddy, reel to and fro, sing, round.

My Young’s Concordance offers these definitions: chorus, turn, twist, move round, skip, lift up the feet, move round, company.

Have you ever seen Jewish dancing? I had the opportunity to attend a friend’s bat mitzvah several years ago, and the dancing certainly resembled these words. It was beautiful. Several young girls, moving in a circle, twisting, twirling, jumping, skipping clapping their hands.

You know something else I’m reminded of? Little kids. Children love to dance; and very young children who have not been exposed to too much television dance very similarly very simply and very much like the above words.