katie rose writes

Today, I've been reading in "Desiring God," by John Piper. The topic for today has been Worship. And how it is an "end in itself". I've been reading and rereading, trying to grasp this concept for the last 30 minutes. And then it clicked. Worship is ultimate, because glorifying God is our ultimate. What I mean by "ultimate" is that it is our chief end, as Piper likes to put it. It is the biggest thing we can do: give glory to God. "He must increase, but i must decrease!" cries John the Baptist, and so should our lives heed that cry. It is no longer I who am central--it is God. That is the exchange we must make in becoming crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20). So, worship as ultimate. I typically would define worship as, well off the top of my head (I cannot find one of my favorite books, "Wired," by Louie Giglio, in which I wrote several definitions of worship), as a line from one of the worship songs we've song rece...

Listening to a new Sanctus Real song ("These Things Take Time") and examining an old, ratty Bible that almost got destroyed by a little mini flood in my dorm room, I begin to wonder. The past couple of days I have really been in peace. I cannot explain it. In fact, I sometimes step back & look at the bigger canvas upon which Christ has been painting this story...and I am just amazed. Proverbs 16:9 says, We can make our plans, but the L ord determines our steps. and again in 20:24, The L ord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way? I am so overwhelmed by my God, and how He just works truly everything out for the good. It may not seem very good at the time. I mean, I look back at some events in my life & still have trouble seeing "good" coming from them. But the good isn't for my pleasure--it's for God's glory. The good in that verse (Romans 8:28) really has nothing to do with me at all--it is for God...

So right now I'm sitting in front of my computer, taking a much needed break from all the studying, writing, and other school-related things that have basically taken over my life the last few nights. But in the midst of all the craziness that has evolved over the last two days including a 30 minute cry fest on the drive home from the doctor, two tests, a paper, a project...and many more things I have yet to do....yes, in the midst of all of that, God has been present. Always. Teaching me, molding me, sometimes even slapping me in the face with my ignorance of His constancy and unending grace upon my heart. As most of you all know, if there is anyone besides my mom & dad (love you!!) reading this, I am going to South Asia this summer (if you want to know the country, you have to pledge to be a prayer warrior for security reasons, so email me if you're interested!). This week (again, in the midst of craziness--when I was asking God specifically to show me that He is ...