MOre than just thirty seconds of fame, the worlds most popular toob download of March is interviewed here:We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.
I thank God for my handicaps, for, through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God.Helen Keller
Helen Razer writes in response to Rudds excision of carers payments
This strange vinyl seat is neither pretty nor particularly comfortable. Nonetheless, it offers a sort of nervous intimacy. As I sit in the chair, holding a blended spoonful of something between puree and broth, I ease into its familiar slouch.
Thousands of people were sat in this chair before me in, what I imagine to be, an almost identical humour. We offer food. We cajole, "Go on. Eat something. Keep your strength up!" And we hope that the patient will just eat a little. And we hope (although we wouldn't tell you) that the patient will eat nothing at all.
It is clear that my grandmother is dying. She's just doing it very slowly.
I'm sitting on a sofa in a room that will shortly be described by real estate copy writers as a "family" area. It's far too big for my parents who are on their own for as long as the respite centre will care for my grandmother. My mother, who looks at least ten years older than her physical age, has been crying and asking the same question for an hour or two.
It is clear that my mother is dying. She's just doing it very slowly
Rick Warren (REMEMBER HE WROTE "PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE")
You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having "wealth" from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren,
"Purpose Driven Life " author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California
In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:
People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.
One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body-- but not the end of me.
I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.
We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.
Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one.
The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.
God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.
This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.
And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.
You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.
If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness,"which is my problem, my issues, my pain." But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.
We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.
It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.
You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.
Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.
It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72
First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.
Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor , care for the sick, and educate the next generation.
Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.
We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?
Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do.
That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.
Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.
NOW . PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH YOUR FRIENDS
There are few things better in life than discovering new music that moves your soul, and when it happens, there’s cause for applause. Irish born Indie band The Swell Season, now on tour with fellow paddy Damien Rice, have recently released their self-titled debut album and are now garnering praise for the sullen and simplistic work of art. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova make up the band, switching between main vocals, guitar and piano with each track. The Swell Season is a new project (and once hobby) for Hansard, who fronts the vocals for Irish rock band “The Frames,” who have been together since 1991 and which he took time off from to explore new projects. He found one such project in The Swell Season’s much more laid-back and low key vocals and composition.
The Swell Season happened by accident for the pair of singers as they were asked by a mutual friend to record a few tracks for his Irish independent film “Once” (premiering this month at the Sundance Film Festival) and ended up recording ten songs with Irglova which moved the director so much, he insisted they release them outside of having them be the soundtrack to the film.
The songs themselves are written based on extremely personal and sometimes disturbing material taken from the performers’ own lives and people they know. One of the most powerful tracks on the album is undoubtedly “Drown Out,” a choppy and almost haunting song based on the story of someone Hansard knew who hunted ghosts in Ireland. A pair of boys, who were burned at the stake for witchcraft, somehow found the ghost hunter and, following two lights in the distance, realized they were the ghost hunter’s eyes and they could see out from the darkness and through them. The band’s web site reveals few of these details, but Hansard is quite chatty at concerts and loves to explain the relevance and story behind the songs, something fans adore about the frontman.
The most moving (and perhaps single-friendly track) on the album is the pleading and heartbroken ballad “Falling Slowly.” In the time right now when The Fray’s song “How to Save a Life” is topping the charts, “Falling Slowly” would blow it away if people would give it a listen. You can’t help but be moved as Hansard begs “Take this sinking boat / and point it home.” It’s quite a bit more moving than a song made famous for being featured in “Grey’s Anatomy.”
So with a new year, why not try some new music? Explore bands and sounds you’re not accustomed to listening to, and give change a chance. Perhaps The Swell Season is your ticket to exploring new musical landscapes. Punch it and get on board.
Enjoy this picture!
