Couple of Worship Songs

On Sunday along with hearing an incredible message that focused on having a proper views of God for 2009 (two main points: God is Transcendent and God is Immanent) we sang two songs that we have not song for awhile and I wanted to share the lyrics with you.

Blessed Be Your Name, 2002 Worship Together Music, By Matt Redman

Blessed Be Your Name in the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow, blessed be Your name
Blessed Be Your name when I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness, blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name when the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be, blessed be Your name
Blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be Your glorious name

You give and take away, You give and take away
My heart will choose to say, "Lord, blessed be Your name."

How true it is that we are to bless God when things are all going well (in our eyes) and when things are not going well (in our eyes again, God always has the very best for us even in suffering and pain). My prayer right this moment and I hope forever, echos the end of the song, "You give and take away, You give and take away. My heart will choose to say 'Lord, blessed be Your name.'" It is a choice to bless the Lord but it is always the best choice.

Here I Am To Worship 2000 Thankyou Music, Tim Hughes

Light of the World, You stepped down into darkness,
opened my eyes, let me see.
Beauty that made this heart adore You,
hope of a life spent with You.

So, here I am to worship, here I am to bow down,
here I am to say that You’re my God.
You’re altogether lovely, altogether worthy,
altogether wonderful to me.

King of all days, oh so highly exalted,
glorious in heaven above.
Humbly You came to the Earth You created,
all for love’s sake became poor.

And I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross.
I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross.
I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross.
I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross.


What a wonder of what God has done for me. He opened my eyes and let me see. Oh He is altogether lovely, altogether worthy, and altogether wonderful to me! I'll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross. May my heart cry out Here I am to Worship!

Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful

As a PE teacher we have certain policies of when the students don't participate outside. These include any day that the weather is projected to be over 100 degrees, a Spare the Air Day and rain (rain that gets the entire ground wet). We have no rule about being too cold or too foggy. All of the PE teachers in my department make announcements all the time to our students to have them bring the proper cold weather clothing because they will dress for PE even in cold weather. There are always several who are not prepared when it turns cold and are not too pleased with our choice to continue PE outside. Then we always have a few in each class who are the one's we call "will always wear their short and t-shirt uniform everyday no matter the conditions outside".

The school that I teach at really does not have adequate inside facilities to take some 200+ PE students at one time. There is a gym but it is quite small and the students really lose all self control when we are in there. There is only so much sit down volleyball and tug of war that we as teachers can handle. There is a theater for us to use and be very comfortable but there is always the issue if another teacher (especially the Drama teacher) is using it for something for their students. Another issue of going inside is if we show a sports movie but they have to nothing more than PG and at that it is a stretch sometimes if a movie is not appropriate for young viewers. If we decide to do a lesson it is extremely large scale. Throughout the day between all of the PE classes with all 5 of the teachers we are teaching over 1,000 students. If you have a handout then you are making over 1,000 copies, usually front and back. So most of my co-workers have the same view point as myself, "any day outside is better than a day inside".

The last couple of weeks the weather outside has been quite frightful, if I could say that. Two weeks before vacation, we were socked in with Tully fog. I posted on that. There were even some days that there was fog and frost at the same time. This is a really rare occurrence for the Bay Area. The week prior to vacation was even more frightful. Monday it was raining out and the theater was available because the Drama teacher was out ill. We made the sub stay in the drama classroom. The rest of the week we were outside. Tuesday it was freezing cold, literally freezing cold and threatening rain/sleet/snow all day. The Weather Channel reported the city in which I work at 39 with a dew point of 35 and this did not include the wind chill factor. I don't think out West the weather reports include a wind chill factor, or at least I don't hear about it in California. The near by hills and mountains had snow all over them. I personally almost froze out there that day. Wednesday it was clear but still very cold but was better only because the sun was shining. Thursday was cold like Wednesday but the threat of rain had returned.

Thursday during one of my classes one of my students said, not sure if it was said to anyone but I heard him, "Oh the weather outside is frightful" (he was singing that line to Let it Snow, Let it Snow). He is one of my students sitting there unprepared with his legs and arms wrapped up into his t-shirt sitting in a big blog on the ground. I walked by him and chuckled and told him he was very creative.

Just A Few Blocks Away

Hello blogging friends!

I am so thankful that I am on break from work for the Christmas Holiday. So nice to sleep in until my body is ready to get up (this morning it was just before 8 am) and not at 5am. One of my kitties tilted one of my wooden blinds and the sun was streaking on in. Through the slots in the blinds I could see that the sky was beautiful. A perfect mix of clouds and blue, my favorite type of day! The glistening frost on the neighbor's roof was almost melted away.

A Perfect morning for a walk in the park that is just 2 blocks away from my house. "Heart Park" is what I fondly call this park. God has used this park (more specifically the splendor of His incredible beautiful creation) significantly in my heart. When I am among the majestic California Oaks, the reflective 7 small ponds, the changing of the colors of the seasons, the green carpet of the ground celebrating a recent rain and the fresh crisp air, I am ushered into a time of prayer with my God, my Savior. This morning was no exception. My heart was pondering and thanking God for His perfect timely gift of the incarnation. God in human flesh, Christ the Savior, was born to a virgin, born to ultimately die to pay the penalty, to take the full wrath of God for sin, for my sin, for my guilt. Pretty amazing.

I am reminded of Luke 1:26- 35

"Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he sadi to her, 'Hail favored one! The Lord is with you.' But she was greatly troubled at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this might be. And the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jaco forever; and His kingdom will have no end.' And Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be, since I am a virgin:' And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God."

And Luke 2: 9-14

"And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you; you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger.' And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.'"

My heart was full of praise and adoration this morning. This praise and adoration lead to praying for some other concerns of my heart. What a joy to be a child of the Most High. Here are a few pictures of my time this morning. If you have followed my blog, I have posted pictures in here before from "Heart Park".

Have a wonderful day!

So, I can't get the pictures to move where I want them and they are out of order so let me explain them.
Picture 1 is just of some cat tails.
Picture 2 was just a burst of the last bit of red color before they fall off. All the other trees have dropped their leaves.
Picture 3 & 4 are almost the same photo but slightly different. I am trying to decide which one I like better to maybe get it printed out and hang it up. Please feel free to give your input.
Picture 5 was when I first started into the park this morning.
Picture 6 is one of those often not seen things in weather called a "Sun Dog".
The last picture, picture 7, I took because I loved the green carpet, the younger oak trees and the little path winding between the trees.

Sorry in advance if this post does not appear correctly when I am finished.

Today in my Town

Here is what The Weather Channel says on my Yahoo home page right now. I never dreamed I could be "Dreaming of a White Christmas"! For the record, I have only seen it snow 1 time in my lifetime in the Bay Area (not including the local mountains).


Current conditions as of 6:53 am PST

Light Snow

Feels Like:

36°

Barometer:

29.97 in and rising

Humidity:

89%

Visibility:

9 mi

Dewpoint:

33°

Wind:

SE 5 mph

Sunrise:

7:17 am

Sunset:

4:50 pm

36°

High: 47° Low: 40°

I Joined

This past week I joined Facebook. What a cool networking site to connect with current and past friends. I chatted with friends from high school that I have not with in over 20 years. I had to be careful that I was not spending too much time on the site. It can seriously be a time drop, not because it is a great site (because it really is not great), but because you look for friends that you want to catch up with. One might struggle with "making friends" with everyone you have ever known in your lifetime. Some folks on there had over 500 friends. Yikes! I don't know if I could be friends with 500 people. I barely do a good job with my few friends, my kindred spirits, who I would call my closest friends (most of which I don't talk to but once in awhile or an email here and there) little alone all of my acquaintances. But for the sake of a quick update in what is going on in a person's life and to chat with them briefly, Facebook is worthwhile. One category a "friend" asked me to join is my high school prior to Internet. That's right, there was no Internet in high school and barely existed while in college. Oh, how have times changed!

So, if you are on Facebook and you want "to be my friend on Facebook", look me up and ask to be my friend.

On a side note, I think it is hilarious that of my sisters, I being the oldest and the least experienced with computers, am the only one who has blogged and on Facebook. Maybe that is a sign that I am not married and don't have children.

Tully Fog

This is what it looked like at work all this past week. You could not even see 30 yards away. Three of the days it was like this all day long. I was really cold and did not dress right for the first two days of the week. By Wednesday, I was well prepared: Thermal under skin, long underwear top, sweat shirt, and heavier sweat shirt and lined sweats.

On Friday, I was marking the fields for a great game I am teaching my students called team handball. I could not see the cones that I placed on the ground to mark off the fields. Some students walking to school had to go and stand at the cones and yell out to me where they were so I could line everything up straight. It was kinda funny. Another funny thing of that morning was the fields had been mowed a few days prior but the grass was long so there was clumps of grass all over the place and the ground was really damp from the fog. By the time I was finished tromping around the fields to mark them, my shoes were built up with 2" platform of grass.