Song of Solomon.

Last night as I was working on the steps at my house (putting up an oak rail and balusters), I listened to a CD of Tammy Riddering giving a brief one hour summary of the Song of Solomon.  This was recorded at GHOP in preparation for a longer teaching that she was going to do.

It was fantastic.  Tammy describes the believers journey to maturity in such a way that every lover of Christ is both encouraged and challenged.  Encouraged that the Lord deeply loves us and challenged at the call to run with Him.  I was so encouraged by it that I asked Tammy if we could put it up on Southgate’s website.  Here’s a link to it, it’s on our Sermons page.

http://www.southgatechurchstl.org/podcasts/sermons/

Not too long ago I was in a pretty bad funk.  You may have noticed me blubbering uncontrollably during worship (sitting at the piano, on the stage).  I was just down, feeling like a failure in so many ways.  And this really great lady I know who just had her 9^th baby was sending me these really wonderful e-mails full of scriptures.  And I was so encouraged by them, they were just the breath of God to me.  Till one day she sent me this verse:  Consider it all joy brethren when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith brings about perseverance . . . James 1:2-3  And she challenged me to stop and say thanks to God when things got hard.  And I got irritated.  Because I AM thankful!  And I felt like I’d been scolded.  And it took me a whole day of stewing to get around to humbly receiving what she had to say.  The next day (the very next day) we read that passage during our group school time (please don’t be impressed, we’ve spent a couple days recently comparing and contrasting Samson with the Incredible Hulk).  And my kids and I talked about being thankful for things that build perseverance.  And do you know what examples they came up with?  House keeping.  School work.  The very things I’ve been hammering them with.  And then, I really was thankful.  I’m thankful for God changing me and them, thankful for His mercy, thankful for so much.  So I’m going to annoy you here:  Are you thankful in the midst of your trials? 

It is with great sadness that I’ve watched the story that has been unfolding from Maryville, Illinois.  A Pastor gunned down in the middle of the church service, unthinkable.

Maryville is just outside of the 255 loop in Illinois, not too far from our members Bruce and Lea York.  It’s a part of our community, the greater St. Louis area.

A friend of mine that is a Baptist Pastor here in South County went to the memorial prayer service yesterday and consoled with some of the members.  The entire Baptist community, a world wide community will be reeling from this tragic event.

If I could make the Lord talk to me (on my terms), it would be to say, “Father, why? And Lord, how could it be that one of the bullets hits Pastor Fred’s heart with deadly accuracy, why couldn’t it have missed his heart and hit his arm?”

But Lord, more than we trust our own understanding, we say, “You are good.  You are loving.  You are kind.  We will trust in Your unfailing love.”

Lord, please help this grieving wife and the two daughters.  Please help the church members whose minds are filled with horrible images that they will want to forget.  Please help the community.  And Lord, please save the shooter, and save many others through this event.  Let Your Kingdom be advanced through this painful event.  Let this event that our enemy, the devil, means for harm, be used for good!  Let Jesus Christ be magnified through Pastor Fred’s death, just as it was through his life!

St. Louis has often been right in the center of what is happening in this nation concerning race issues.  Just think about it, Missouri’s admission into the Union was a part of the slavery debate; the Mason Dixon line; the MISSOURI compromise…

And what was a catalyst to fuel the slavery debate in the few years just before the Civil War?  The Dred Scott decision.  Dred and his wife Harriet were suing for their freedom.  The case was heard right here in St. Louis.  The Old Courthouse that you can still tour today is where that case started, it ended at the US Supreme Court with the Court saying that blacks, “had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far unfit that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”  This quote from Chief Justice Roger B Taney is chilling.  St. Louis, my St. Louis, played a major role in this national event.

Oh God, please let your church in St. Louis be pioneering racial unity, love and affection.  Please pray with me for God to lead us in this direction.  Let us again lead the nation, this time in a positive direction!

I was at a meeting the other day where some African American believers were leading a discussion on racism.  It was provoking.  I’d like to share some of my thoughts here occasionally on this blog concerning racism.

 First, racism is as old as mankind, the root issue is sin, selfishness, and mistrust.  One of the most interesting things to consider on this subject is skin color.  Here in America, our racism is mostly centered around those that have a different color of skin.  But, when we read the news from around the world of acts of genocide, we realize that racism is not only about skin color.  In fact, in most cases of genocide around the world, it’s white on white violence, or black on black, or Arab on Arab.

 What does that tell us about racism?  It’s an issue that deeper than skin color.  It’s a very upsetting issue.  But one that we must (as believers in Jesus Christ) be willing to look at and struggle with.  More to come.

By Angela Sipe, Feb. 2009

I was thinking again recently about the power of music.  Music impacts us.  How do we know this?  Hit the mute button during the scary part of an intense movie – the power is completely gone from the scene.  Not only that, but watching a movie at the theater, completely surrounded by the sound, versus watching it in the comfort of your living room, lights on, friendly noise in the background – it isn’t the same.  [My husband will recall the memory of me watching ‘Jurassic Park’ in the theater, eyes closed, ears plugged, saying “tell me when it’s over, tell me when it’s over”.]  I know that, as a musician, and just a comparatively sensitive person, that some of this might be more true for me than for others.  Still, it is true for all of us, I’m convinced.

We recently acquired a treadmill, because, as I tell my kids, having mommy ignore you for a half hour is way better than having mommy go to the Biggest Loser campus for 3 months.  And I found out that I don’t mind walking/jogging (much), so long as I have some hoppin’ tunes going.  But give me a slow song, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to die before it’s over. 

This is something I’ve struggled with as a worship leader over the years.  I remember going to a class at a conference where the teacher was encouraging us to take advantage of, i.e. manipulate; using this phenomenon.  “If you play this kind of song with this kind of chords and this kind of beat, it makes people enter in like this . . . “  Ugh!  And sometimes I feel like we, as overly stimulated, sensory overloaded American worship consumers, are spoiled rotten.  If I don’t like the music, it’s not my style, it doesn’t move me, I’m not going to worship.  How pathetic is that?  I had a day like that recently.  On the way to church the mp3 player, and once we got there the worship leader all chose my least favorite songs. 

On the other hand, God made us this way, to be influenced by the music.  We have examples in scripture – the prophet calling for a minstrel, King Saul calling on David – God made music to influence us, and us to be influenced by it.  (side note:  what we listen to impacts us – what are you listening to?)  At the same time, He calls us to stir ourselves up to praise Him, not just as an emotional response to music, but as an intentional response to all He is and does, when we feel it and when we don’t.  It is both/and.  We use music as a tool, a platform, an environment to deliberately give wings/words/life to our worship and praise.  And at the end of the day (and at the beginning) we discipline ourselves to worship in spirit and truth, on good days and bad days, on the mountains and in the prisons and hospitals.  The Lord was King at the flood, He sits as King forever.