Psalm 100

I overslept this morning and missed going to church, so I thought I'd have it right here.

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving thanks.

1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.

3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

This is a well-known Psalm, and one that remains fixed in my mind. One of my mentors used to quote verse 4 whenever we started to pray, and I think it's a good approach. Of course, there isn't a need for prayer to be formulaic, but I believe it helps to "count your blessings".

The message within the text and my memtor's advice is that thankfulness and praise are the means by which we connect our selfish hearts with the Perfect love of our Creator. If, for a moment, we can forget our own worries and realize the wonders of His work, all Earthly troubles slip into meaninglessness. The contrast between our Mighty God and each day's trivial problems becomes so stark that we can do no other thing but rejoice.

I will shount to You for joy, my Lord, because I see the beauty of your Creation. With a thankful and gladdened heart I will sing praises to you, because you have given me the blesings that come from nowhere else. For my friends, family, gifts, safety, abilities, and life may I thank You without end.

Let my heart be tethered to Yours; Let my eyes seek Your beautiful face and no other; Let my feet walk only where You will lead; Let my tongue speak only what You would have me say.

In the Perfect Name of Christ, who is my Salvation, I pray these things.

Bless my friends and family, and especially those who I dislike.

Goodness, Gracious

Still happy.

Tonight has been an absolute blast! Live back at Belmont this fall has started wonderfully. I'm living in my first apartment, on campus in Hillside with some of my best friends. Read, Mike, and our new friend Brinley are holding down 2701 with me, and we've had so much fun together. Tonight was some good old fellowship and fun, with incredible hamburgers at Brown's diner, followed by fresh-baked Ghirardelli brownies at the apt, then a screening of my favorite movie of all time... Back to the Future! I was grinning and happily chuckling throughout the whole movie -- it's just so good, and the night's been so much fun. Not to mention that we're cooking our weekly Saturday Morning Super-breakfast in the AM, complete wiht Applewood smoked bacon. mmmm....

Now that I have that block of text out of the way and I've expressed just how happy I'm feeling right now, I'll catch up a bit. As I mentioned, the fall semester here at Belmont has been off to a good start. I'm really enjoying my classes, and it's been wonderful to reunite with my friends. I've been really busy with music, too -- The Nova Ray has been hard at work with new songs and shows, and I've kept up playing with Austin Manuel, too. I'm looking forward to playing some more of my solo songs as well. We'll see what this fall holds.

I've felt some good community with God as of late, too. I haven't always kept Him as my focus, but it's been easier than it was this time last year. Things are simpler and I'm finding that I have more of a desire to read, speak, and live acording to the Gospel.

I've gotta take a break now.. we're about to start BTTF II.
More to come later.

-Rob