Thursday, May 11, 2006
The MacDonald Family Singers finally have a guestbook. If you hurry and click on the guestbook link on the site, you might be the first to sign it!!!!!! (as of this moment, no one has taken the challenge and signed it). (EDIT: KATIE WON!
Nothing terribly interesting to report except I'm playing a bit more cello these days. It's such a beautiful instrument, I wish I could play it properly. I've also found the time to pick up the trumpet and go through some of the band music we have to play this summer. It's going better than expected after such a long time of not playing it at all. I did record clips of both the cello and trumpet playing, but they need a little more work before the public can access them :D
I got a copy of Bryan Sutton's new CD, Not Too Far From The Tree! A friend sent it - if he ends up reading this, then thank you again :D The CD is great. Meanwhile, I'm just getting around to start learning songs from his older albums, Ready to Go and Bluegrass Guitar. In particular I'm working on Daley's Reel (track 2 on Bluegrass Guitar). I was playing it this morning when my dad came downstairs and he thought it was a nice tune and commented on it. It's not that he rarely comments on what we play, but if he says something about the tune then you know he really likes it.
Ah, if life were as simple as learning a few guitar tunes, life would be boring! I had a run in yesterday with an old acqaintance who is going through a struggle right now. She isn't saved and has got major family/relationship problems. She hides her emotions really well, but she seemed to be listening as my sister and I discussed sin, and how a just judge can't just overlook broken law. You break God's law, you pay the price - "For the wages of sin is death..." However, Jesus stepped in and offered payment for the broken sin, his life - ..."But the gift of God is eternal life." She said she was going to hell then, and asked what she could do about it, and I told her to repent and put her trust in Jesus. She told me that she takes the name of God in vain regularly and couldn't stop, but I reminded her that she had told me she wouldn't sell ONE of her eyes for a million dollars - if she was faced with losing her eye or stopping taking God's name in vain, she'd make every effort to stop. I told her that the reason I try to do what God wants me to is not because I'm earning my salvation through it, rather I'm motivated by the great debt of love I have. She sighed, and said "I HATE human nature," and I reminded her that without Christ she's a slave to it and she won't be able to stop sinning.
She also asked if being a Christian meant that she'd have to forgive every offense committed towards her, and I told her the story of the king who forgave his servant that owed him a million dollars and then that servant who owed the king went and had his servant thrown in prison because he owed him $10. The of course, the king heard about it and had the man who originally owed a million dollars thrown in prison for being unforgiving when he himself had been forgiven such a great debt. Telling the story just reaffirmed for me what a great debt I have been forgiven.
Nothing terribly interesting to report except I'm playing a bit more cello these days. It's such a beautiful instrument, I wish I could play it properly. I've also found the time to pick up the trumpet and go through some of the band music we have to play this summer. It's going better than expected after such a long time of not playing it at all. I did record clips of both the cello and trumpet playing, but they need a little more work before the public can access them :D
I got a copy of Bryan Sutton's new CD, Not Too Far From The Tree! A friend sent it - if he ends up reading this, then thank you again :D The CD is great. Meanwhile, I'm just getting around to start learning songs from his older albums, Ready to Go and Bluegrass Guitar. In particular I'm working on Daley's Reel (track 2 on Bluegrass Guitar). I was playing it this morning when my dad came downstairs and he thought it was a nice tune and commented on it. It's not that he rarely comments on what we play, but if he says something about the tune then you know he really likes it.
Ah, if life were as simple as learning a few guitar tunes, life would be boring! I had a run in yesterday with an old acqaintance who is going through a struggle right now. She isn't saved and has got major family/relationship problems. She hides her emotions really well, but she seemed to be listening as my sister and I discussed sin, and how a just judge can't just overlook broken law. You break God's law, you pay the price - "For the wages of sin is death..." However, Jesus stepped in and offered payment for the broken sin, his life - ..."But the gift of God is eternal life." She said she was going to hell then, and asked what she could do about it, and I told her to repent and put her trust in Jesus. She told me that she takes the name of God in vain regularly and couldn't stop, but I reminded her that she had told me she wouldn't sell ONE of her eyes for a million dollars - if she was faced with losing her eye or stopping taking God's name in vain, she'd make every effort to stop. I told her that the reason I try to do what God wants me to is not because I'm earning my salvation through it, rather I'm motivated by the great debt of love I have. She sighed, and said "I HATE human nature," and I reminded her that without Christ she's a slave to it and she won't be able to stop sinning.
She also asked if being a Christian meant that she'd have to forgive every offense committed towards her, and I told her the story of the king who forgave his servant that owed him a million dollars and then that servant who owed the king went and had his servant thrown in prison because he owed him $10. The of course, the king heard about it and had the man who originally owed a million dollars thrown in prison for being unforgiving when he himself had been forgiven such a great debt. Telling the story just reaffirmed for me what a great debt I have been forgiven.
