Archive for February, 2008

Gospel-Centered Worship

{ February 25, 2008 @ 2:49 am } · { Faith }
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I was reminded today of how blessed I am to be in a church with Gospel-saturated worship. Every aspect of our worship at church is dunked in the beauty of the Gospel. Praise God for that! And praise God for the people that He has used to make that possible! It’s really sad how many churches are satisfied with simply singing things like, “I LOVE YOU, GOD! YOU ROCK MY WORLD! YOU’RE MY BEST FRIEND, JESUS!” when their worship could be so much more than that! We are so blessed with songs like Our Great God and It’s All of Grace, to mention some of my favorites. I realized today how much I take for granted these amazing, worshipful songs. But I mean, it’s not just our songs. Many sermons preached these days are like that too. Praise God that He has used Mr. Cochran to bless us with such amazing, God-honoring, worshipful sermons!

So, I just wanted to encourage you all to never take the blessings of a Gospel-centered church for granted.

Beauty

{ February 17, 2008 @ 1:11 am } · { Culture }
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Do you ever wonder what true beauty actually is? This question has crossed my mind a time or two. Our culture defines beauty as outward, for instance, the “beauty” of Angelina Jolie or Megan Fox. But, if we took down their fake hair, undid all the plastic surgery, and washed off all the makeup, would we really see beauty? After all, the lives of these women portray absolute hideousness. I have to use the example of Britney Spears. About 4 or 5 years ago, I remember Britney Spears as being the ultimate teen idol. Everyone wanted to look like Britney Spears, because she was SO “beautiful”. Well, look at her now. We see a mentally ill wreck. She is no longer, even in the eyes of the world, “beautiful”.

What is true beauty, then? After all, outward beauty doesn’t last forever. Well, I believe ultimately true beauty is in Christ. Outside of him, we are about as beautiful as a cockroach. After all, God doesn’t look at what you look like on outside, God looks at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). So, therefore, don’t judge beauty by outward appearance. True beauty lies within a true Christian who loves God with their entire heart, soul, mind and strength. When you have found a person like this, my friend, consider yourself quite blessed indeed.