Read and Learn: Now on Wednesdays!

Happy Wednesday! The weekly posts for "Read and Learn" which used to be on Thursdays will now be on Wednesdays. In addition, along with Quotidian Grace and JusticeSeeker, there will be a third writer: and that's where I come in. My name is Sara Green and I blog over at The Pinkhammer Blog. I am a seminary student at Princeton Theological Seminary and have just started the Spring semester of my first year here. While I am not yet sure what God is calling me to do after seminary, I am (mostly) enjoying the process of trying to figure that out both here at seminary and as an Inquirer in the ordination process. And I say "mostly" because, well...God has a funny way of keeping things interesting along the way that can be rather frustrating. But I am sure I am not telling you anything you haven't already been through yourself. Though I am exploring campus/college ministry and teaching, I am also very excited about pastoral ministry.

My classes this semester are a New Testament Survey class, a history class that focuses on church and state dynamics from the medieval to reformation time periods, and a practical theology class that focuses on Carl Rogers understanding of pastoral care. Oh! And a worship class on the Psalms which I am taking for my own spiritual development though I can tell it will help immensely with planning and leading worship in the future. I am sure some of my posts will reflect things that come up along the way, but if anyone has a particular interest related to these items, please feel free to leave a comment here and I can blog about it either in the "Read and Learn" posts or over at my blog. I also enjoy peppermint mochas and love photography. : )

Sunday Devotion: Guitar Man

One of today's lectionary texts is Psalm 33

Psalm 33:2 Praise the LORD with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.

Since I was a teenager, I've always enjoyed playing the guitar. I started it when my sister gave up her guitar because she wanted to play the cornet. I took her books and taught myself, which is why I have my own individual style. I wish I had learned to read music along with it, but in those days, I was just content to strum along, making up my own tunes, rhythms and chords.

When I became a Christian, I started to write songs and was given the opportunity to play them on Wednesday nights at the 428 Gospel Club in Glasgow, Scotland. I've still got some copies of the original songs, but when I look back at some of them, I cringe because the lyrics are hokey, the rhythms irregular, and the rhymes are terrible. I guess I was naive and didn't know any better.

It makes me wonder how David got started in the song business. His first audiences were the sheep of his father's flocks, so I guess it didn't matter what his early songs were like. But I am glad he persevered and, that as he grew in faith, his songs became richer and deeper in thought, expression, and love of God. Perhaps one bright day, in the Elysian Fields of Heaven, he'll put on a concert and we'll get to hear the original language, melodies and rhythms of the psalms. That will be something worth waiting in line for, even if it takes forever.

Prayer: Lord God, we thank You for creating music and song, praise and psalms. We thank You for David's expressions of faith, which help us in times of trouble, fear, worry, and weakness. Enable us to express our faith in words of love, prayers of peace, and songs of thanksgiving. In Jesus' Name, we pray. Amen.

Stushie is the writer of the daily devotional blog "Heaven's Highway."

Weekend Screensaver: Psalm 20

Continuing my Book of Psalms art project



This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible: Psalm 20 v 4 - May God give you the desire of your heart and make all of your plans succeed."

Weekend Screensaver: Psalm 18

Weekend Screensaver. From an art project I'm creating on the psalms



You can check out the set on a slideshow...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/traqair57/sets/72157603288751629/