Katdish.net

I’ve been updating my painting blog lately. Mostly because people keep asking me if I have a website, and if I gave them this one, I’m guessing my phone would pretty much quit ringing. Anyway, I have already scheduled several posts and am working on some more. One of my favorite nurseries is one I did for Grace Presbyterian Church. I painted three rooms, each with a different bible theme. I knew I wanted the infant nursery to have baby animals, so I decided to use Isaiah 11:6. I will post all the pictures next Sunday over on Stuff I Painted.

I must confess, prophetic scripture passages aren’t exactly my strength, and when I read this passage, I knew it would work for what I wanted to do in the nursery space, but I never really understood what the verse meant. It’s actually pretty cool. In the interest of context, here’s Isaiah 11: 1-9:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD – and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

I love this scripture because rather than describing Jesus as coming from the Kingdom of David, it uses the more humble description of “the stump of Jesse”. It also tells me that there will come a time when wickedness and evil will be destroyed; that Love really does win.

Feel free to expound on the commentary of this portion of scripture in the comments section. I’d love to read your thoughts on it. Happy Sunday, y’all!

So, it seems that the Esteemed Reverend Hogan is hassling me for reposting some of my older posts. So instead of doing another “best of HLAC”(?), I have decided to link Jeff’s newest post, Everyday. Which surprisingly, has absolutely nothing to do with Sly and the Family Stone. But you gotta admit, Jeff’s picture on the sidebar of my blog bears a striking resemblance to Mr. Family Stone.

If you happen to be new to HLAC, please feel free to express to Jeff how much you are enjoying reading some of my older posts. He will probably dig that.

P.S. – That’s some pretty stellar camera work in that video, huh?

P. P. S. – “And so on, and so on, and Scooby Doobie Doobie! Ahhhh! Sha Sha!” They just don’t write ’em like that anymore do they?

How much attention do you pay to the sidebar(s) when you read someone’s blog? I will typically check them out the first couple of times I read someone’s blog, then pretty much ignore them. Unless, of course they have a jukebox. Then I immediately find the blasted thing and turn it off. Then I may have to get up and clean the dog piddle off my leg, depending upon what song is playing and how loud I have my speakers up on my computer.

If you are the type to look at the sidebar, you may have noticed a quote by me and a picture of some of my home improvement handiwork. Well, the following post is what inspired that quote. I have included some of the comments from that post, including the comment that inspired that quote:

The New Math:
Well, it’s Saturday and I am hard at work in my soon-to-be uber fantastical studio/escape from the world. I am taking a brief respite from the task at hand to give you a brief peek into the glamorous life of me. (Sure, don’t mention it.)

Here’s a new mathematical equation to ponder:

These are the days of Elijah,
Declaring the word of the Lord:
And these are the days of Your servant Moses,
Righteousness being restored.
And though these are days of great trial,
Of famine and darkness and sword,
Still, we are the voice in the desert crying
‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord!’

Behold He comes riding on the clouds,
Shining like the sun at the trumpet call;
Lift your voice, it’s the year of jubilee,
And out of Zion’s hill salvation comes.

These are the days of Ezekiel,
The dry bones becoming as flesh;
And these are the days of Your servant David,
Rebuilding a temple of praise.
These are the days of the harvest,
The fields are as white in Your world,
And we are the labourers in Your vineyard,
Declaring the word of the Lord!

There’s no God like Jehovah.
There’s no God like Jehovah!

Copyright © 1997 Daybreak Music Ltd.

Late yesterday afternoon, I received a call from my friend’s daughter. You see, my friend is 71 years old and is dying of cancer. She was in the hospital, but is now in hospice care at home. Anyway, she was asking for me all day, and they finally got a hold of me. I sat with her, we prayed, talked and laughed. There is always laughter when I’m with my friend. I cannot express how special this lady is to me and my family. She is kind, compassionate, outrageous and funny. When I get to be her age (God willing), I want to be just like her. The video and the song lyrics posted above are “Days of Elijah”, the song she wants played at her funeral. No slow, sad songs for her! She wants people to celebrate God’s glory.

I’m going to go hang out with my friend some more today. I know she’s destined for a much better place. She told me she’s ready to go. But I just want to spend as much time with her as I can. I’m selfish like that…

In my last compelling and riveting shopping post, I DO NOT heart grocery shopping, I introduced you all to the pornographic cheese buttler:


With a heavy heart, this blogger is sad to share with you the news that our beloved friend PCB has been forcibly removed from the local Kroger. What makes this news even more difficult for me to accept is this: I can’t help but feel that I may have had a role in his removal.

I’m sure it will come as no surprise to any of you that this blog is ready by literally TENS of people every single day, and the PCB buzz that post must have created on the Internet forced the hands of Kroger executives. For this, I am deeply sorry. Also, I may need to start shopping exclusively at HEB, because I get the stink eye from the Kroger store manager every time I pull out my blackberry.

I attempted to interview several store employees as to the whereabouts of PCB. Alert meat department employee “Skeeter” (not his real name) made the following comment: “Yeah…(guffaw)…They made us take him down.” When asked the whereabouts of PCB, store management would only give me vague references to wine vendors and store rotations. I smell a cover-up!

Jeeves, a long time friend and confidant of PCB was still too visibly shaken to give an interview, choosing instead to drown his sorrows in a delightfully fruity yet cheap Merlot:

There are unconfirmed reports that Jeeves was later reprimanded for making lewd and suggestive remarks to the night stocker in the feminine hygiene aisle. It’s been a rough couple of weeks for him…

PCB’s replacement, Woodrow Brimley (rumored to be the younger brother of Wilford Brimley of “Cocoon” and “Di-a-bee-tus!” fame) had only this to say: “Cry me a river lady! I’m 3 feet tall, bald, wearing white panty hose, and I’ve got a bolt stuck through my hand! Now leave me alone, I’m trying to pimp some Yellowtail (that’s what she said).”

On a happier note, I was able to purchase a box of the new shiny m&m candies. My opinion? Meh…They taste much like the original peanut m&m’s. The only difference being that there are almonds instead of peanuts and I got the strange sensation that a couple of Polly Pocket shoes were dropped into the vat during the candy coating phase. Weird. Also, we’re out of crackers again.

Goodnight Pornographic Cheese Buttler, where ever you are!

Recent events in my immediate area concerning a certain church mailer I received have made me want to go into full ranting mode. But since I don’t want my big, fat mouth to reflect poorly on my church family, I have decided to dig up an old rant instead. (Read: My husband told me not to.) A few months ago, I posted the following prosperity gospel rant. Many of you have already read it. For those of you who have, please go check out Nick the Geek’s post here: Who is a fool
For those of you who have yet to experience me at my self-righteous best, please enjoy the following rant and THEN go read Nick’s post. He’s actually a pastor, and a pretty smart (albeit geeky) one at that.

Without further adieu, I give you The Prayer Cross:

There are so many things in this commercial that anger me that I will have to dissect and analyze it a bit at a time:

“Watch as people gaze in amazement as the experience the magic of the prayer cross for the first time.” Errr, magic? Didn’t I read somewhere in the bible that magic is a bad thing?

“Creating not only a magnificent piece of jewelry, but a one of a kind spiritual accessory.” You mean like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? That kind of spiritual accessory? Oh, wait, that’s the Fruits of the Spirit. Everyone knows that it’s really tacky when you wear fruit as an accessory. Nothing at all like this necklace.
“When held up to the light, the entire Lord’s Prayer becomes instantly and almost miraculously visible.” Well, at least they said “almost miraculously”. Don’t want to be stretching the truth or anything.

“Each prayer cross comes with a certificate of authenticity.” Which is reassuring. Because you’d probably go straight to H-E double hockey sticks if you get one of those fake prayer crosses.

“The prayer cross is the perfect way to say Happy Easter or Merry Christmas.” Hmmm…I kind of think the best way to say Merry Christmas is to celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world (the One who left His perfect home in paradise where He sat at the right hand of the Father to die an excruciating death on the cross for the atonement of our sins) and to give comfort, encouragement and hope to the marginalized in society. You know, like Jesus did. And while the prayer cross is undoubtedly “blingtastic”, If I chose to wear a cross, it would be something simple. Not necessarily made of wood and stained with blood, sweat and tears, but a more humble representation of the ultimate price that was paid at Calvary.

“…and is sure to bring joy and comfort to all who wear it.” I don’t know about you, but wearing a shiny cross made out of genuine Austrian crystals and sterling silver does not bring me joy or comfort. The very idea that a person might believe they can purchase a trinket and it will somehow fill that giant, God-shaped hole their heart is both infuriating and heartbreaking. (Not to mention blasphemous.)

This is just one more thing that feeds into the heretical teachings of the prosperity gospel, leading people to believe that God is for the express purpose of blessing them (instead of the other way around); that your financial status is directly linked to your own personal holiness; that if you are poor or sick or you have lost a loved one and your heart is breaking, it is because you are of little faith. And speaking of well known biblical passages, how do these health and wealth preachers explain the beatitudes? Would someone PLEASE explain to me how you get around that particular passage of scripture?

I know that there are a few pastors who read my blog. (Don’t worry, I won’t turn you in the secret society of holiness.) I am sincerely asking why, with the notable exception of John Piper, more highly visible Christian leaders aren’t speaking out against this blasphemy? I am totally off base with this? Please give me your honest opinion, anonymously or otherwise. Because as far as I’m concerned, the Christian community as a whole should be involved in the spiritual equivalent of roaming the streets in an angry mob with torches and pitchforks to expose these people for who they really are. (In Christian love, of course. Always in love.)

When I picture the Perfect Gift, during communion or simply during quiet time, my concept of beauty looks more like this:

I know many have been praying for our launch, so I wanted to begin by expressing how very grateful we are for your prayers. When we got into our “prayer huddle” this morning, we prayed specifically for Jason’s church and I silently prayed for so many of my amazing friends that I have met through this medium.

Launching on Easter Sunday was an almost overwhelmingly emotional experience for me. It was probably good timing. It really drove home why we’re doing what we’re doing in the first place.

Here’s an interesting statistic that Jeff sited several weeks ago: Eighty-two percent of people that get a personal invitation to visit a church from a friend, neighbor or co-worker will respond positively to that invitation. I mentioned in an earlier post that C3 has decided not to pursue advertising right now. We’re not against advertising, we just feel that the money put towards getting our name out would be better spent in outreach and missions. The best, most effective advertising (for us, anyway) is someone who is genuinely excited about how God is moving in the life of our church; someone who cares enough about a friend, neighbor or co-worker to want to share that experience with them.

Did our launch day exceed our expectations? That’s an impossible question to answer because we had absolutely no idea what to expect. But I will share a personal example of inviting a friend to church.

Before Ron and I were married, he introduced me to a couple that were his closest friends, who quickly became my closest friends as well. We did everything with them. It was rare that a week passed without getting together with them for dinner or just to hang out. This relationship continued after we were married. After the birth of our first child, we found a church home and became very involved in several ministries there. It was a wonderful experience that I don’t regret, but because there were so many meetings and events centered around the church, we never seemed to have a free weekend to spend with our dear friends. We were so involved in ministry that we neglected to minister to our friends.

Our friends were at our first Sunday today, along with their daughter and one of her friends. We’re getting together with them in a couple of weeks. I don’t know if they will become members of our church, but I do know how much it meant to Ron and me that they were there on such a special day, and I want to honor their friendship by making time to share our lives with them.

Last Sunday, one of our core members invited a little girl from her neighborhood to church. She was so excited about being in church. She was asking, “Do you guys meet every week? Do you meet in the summertime?” If that wasn’t blessing enough, this week she showed up with her mom and seven other kids ranging in age from 4 to 14. We had an Easter egg hunt right after church today. It was pouring down raining outside, so we held it in the school cafeteria. (Having a core group member that happens to be the principal of the school you’re meeting in definitely has it advantages!) Anyway, I was looking at the group picture of all the kids with their bags full of eggs, and it occurred to me that a) 5 of our kids were missing (divorced parents – not their weekend) and b) of the 14 kids in that picture, only 5 of them belonged to members of the church. That was such a cool “ah-ha” moment for me.

We had several visitors today. I don’t know if they will be back. What I do know is that every single visitor we had was there because someone extended a personal invitation. We’re certainly not going to make any of the megachurches in the area nervous anytime soon, but that’s okay with us. It was a very good day.

I was thinking about my blogger pal Koffijah’s post, The Jesus Program this morning. Check it out. It’s really good. And if you’re reading this Koffijah, you’re still off my Christmas card list.

Thanks again for all your prayers, I felt so connected to the Church (big “C”) this morning.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a Deadliest Catch marathon calling my name. Incidentally, if you happen to have my phone number, don’t even think about calling me on Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. central time. It’s the season premiere, and Ron and I are gonna be all up in that!

By your Side

Why are you striving these days
Why are you trying to earn grace
Why are you crying
Let me lift up your face
Just don’t turn away

Why are you looking for love
Why are you still searching as if I’m not enough
To where will you go child
Tell me where will you run
To where will you run

And I’ll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don’t fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world’s sin
So I could carry you in

And give you life
I want to give you life

Cause I, I love you
I want you to know
That I, I love you
I’ll never let you go

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

I am quiet comfortable being sarcastic and ridiculous, and I’m all for a little self-righteous ranting now and then. I’ve been doing the aforementioned things for as long as I can remember. I’m a painter, and while I’m no Rembrandt by any stretch of the imagination, I don’t mind posting pictures of projects I’ve worked on because I’m satisfied that every project, big or small, was done while upholding a fairly high standard I’ve set for myself. Most artists, whatever their medium, put a part of themselves into their work, and the work is a reward in itself. Blogging is sort of the same for me. I appreciate the fact that I have a few faithful readers and have met some absolutely fantastic people through this medium. I can certainly understand if someone stops by once and never returns. There are some incredibly good blogs out there, and if you don’t enjoy reading something, why waste your time? Nothing personal.

Now, here’s the embarrassing part. Ever since I could talk, I have loved to sing. I never pursued singing (outside my car or in the shower) because I never thought I was that good. Then about 10 years ago, my dh and I were having dinner with some new friends, Ed and Kris from church. They were both on the praise team, and Ed was leading worship on a volunteer basis. I don’t remember how we got on the subject, but I mentioned to them that I loved to sing, but had never sang in public. (I didn’t mention the time “back in the day” when I sang Stairway to Heaven at my friend’s wedding reception. I’ve actually tried to block that memory–it wasn’t pretty, not even a little bit.) Out of the blue, Ed says, “Come sing on the praise team!” He could have said, “You just won 10 million dollars” and I wouldn’t have been more excited, or more terrified. It was like God was saying to me, “Here’s your dream come true. Don’t screw it up.”

Long story short, I’m an okay singer. I’m not great. I am surrounded by other vocalists on a regular basis that just knock my socks off, and I simply appreciate the fact they let me sing with them. Earlier today, I was feeling convicted about my personal worship time. An old hymn came to mind that is one of my favorites – “I Surrender All”. I lit some candles, got down on my knees and worshipped God right here in my living room. I recorded it on my flip video, but I’ll get to the reason behind that in a sec. I played it back. It is long, monotonous, I sound mostly lispy and warbley, and at some points like I’m chewing on cud. I was really tempted to re-record it. But I decided against it because one of the things I need to surrender is my pride, and playing back this video was certainly humbling. Besides, no matter how it sounds on the recording, in my heart it was beautiful, and it brought me into His Presence. I pray it was an acceptable albeit unworthy offering to Jesus.

So, why record it? I hope this doesn’t sound incredibly sappy, but I was thinking how honored and humbled I would be if I could worship with you. If not in person, than in some small way right here on this blog. Beth, Sherri, Jason – feel free to throw in some kickin’ harmonies and/or drown out my voice with your own. I have posted the lyrics below the video. Feel free to sing the correct words in the last verse. Not sure what happened there — I close my eye alot when I sing.

All to Jesus I surrender;
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.

Refrain:
I surrender all,
I surrender all;
All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.

All to Jesus I surrender;
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
Take me, Jesus, take me now.

All to Jesus I surrender;
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.

All to Jesus I surrender;
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power;
Let Thy blessing fall on me.

All to Jesus I surrender;
Now I feel the sacred flame.
Oh, the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory, to His Name!

I pray this Good Friday through Resurrection Sunday is a very special time of reflection and reverence; that you can spend time with family and friends; and that you would feel God’s love and power in a big way.

Jason, I’m praying for your church big time. Whether you have 10 or 10,000, I know that you will give an offering that is pleasing to Him.

I know I promised an incessant ranting post, or another “Official versus Unofficial” post, but in case you haven’t noticed, I’m a bit undisciplined, and you’re not the boss of me. This blog is a bit like life, aka a giant box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get. On one visit you might bite into a delicious bit of wisdom, on another you bite into the one filled with toothpaste. You can decide for yourself which one this is.

(The previous paragraph was brought to you in part by Forrest Gump and Jim Gaffigan.)

Last night was rehearsal for our praise band. I like to blog about stuff we talk about at rehearsal sometimes. Mostly because I like it when Jeff says stuff like, “Wow. You really do pay attention when I’m talking. Who knew?”

We are a new band made up of people who have all played together before. That’s an important distinction. I think we had a very good, solid sound when we were all apart of another band with a fairly decent worship CD to prove it. But in order to move forward, we have to remind ourselves that how we used to do it, no matter how great it might have been, can sometimes hold us back from something new God wants us to discover. Incidentally, that applies to a whole host of experiences in and out of ministry. I feel a tangent coming on, so I’ll just move forward with what this post is supposed to be about…

If you’ve ever been part of a band, specifically a bar band, you know that the goal of playing in the band is typically to get yourself into a better band. You will look for holes within a song to fill up with your own personal awesomeness. This could be anything from a screaming lead guitar solo, an extended drum solo, or an incredibly annoying, warbley Mariah Carey descant. You look out for numero uno.

When you play for the glory and honor of God, the approach is the exact opposite. You begin to leave holes and give your band mates opportunities to fill them, keeping in mind that the biggest hole left should be the one that only God can fill. Otherwise, you’re just a glorified bar band. I hope this is making as much sense here as it does in my head. Maybe if I give you an example it will make more sense:

May we always allow a God-sized hole in our lives for Him to dwell. A very blessed Resurrection Sunday to you all.