Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Music
Believe it or not, music can really affect and have an influence on you. Many of us just do not understand the importance of listening to good music that glorifies God. This, by the way, our main goal in music should be to glorify the Lord, so that He is known and greatly praised. There are three basic points that need to be point out in the concept of music.
- Music really does affect us. Now, because of this point, that should prove right there that we need to fill our minds, hearts, and souls with good, God-honoring music… because it does affect us. If we are listening to praise worthy music, we will be full of praise, and worship in our hearts toward God. Also, the spirit of the person who is singing affects us too, because they’re spirit rubs off on us. Just like if you are around a negative person who is griping and complaining all the time, eventually that attitude will rub off on you. If you’re around someone positive and encouraging, that spirit will affect you in a good way. So the spirit of the music really does have a lot to do with God-honoring music, along with the beat as well. The beat or the music even without the words is a key importance too. If the beat of the music is doing more for your flesh, then benefiting your spirituality, obviously, it is not Christ-honoring music. We as Christians and especially our music should be different from the worlds. We are commanded to “shine our lights before men and glorify our Father in heaven.” And part of that is by the music we are listening to. When people see the kind of music we listen to, that is part of our testimony. You can tell a lot about a person by what they listen to.
- Music should be God-glorifying. “We must decrease, and HE must increase,” that scripture verse applies to music as well. Music needs to benefit a Christian’s walk with the Lord, and mainly to glorify God So that He is honored and praised.
- Music and the unsaved person. You cannot mix Christian words with a worldly beat. Let’s say an unclean person (with leprosy) touched a clean person. Would that make the clean person unclean? Yes, it would. But what if a clean person touched an unclean person. Would that then make the unclean person clean? No. So the point here is that you can’t mix the world with Christ in music. An excuse some people use for this kind of music is “It can draw a lost person and therefore reach them for Christ.” Really, music is not and should not be used for that purpose. God has called pastors to reach the lost with their message. So God’s Word (the message) should be used to reach the lost, not music. It is wrong to compromise Christian words with a worldly beat to save the lost person or in any case. So, whenever we listen to music, God should be on His throne and glorified and exalted. It is so important that we listen to praise worthy music so that we will be in awe of who God is, and our hearts will be drawn closer to Him.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
School during summer?
Well, a few days ago, I found out that I am going to have to do school until the end of July and maybe a little bit through August due to some interuptions we have had this year. (By the way, I am homeschooled). So anyway, this was horrid news to me! I thought, "WHAT! You have got to be kidding me! I am going to be racking my brain while everyone else is enjoying their summer!" I tried and tried and tried to find some wonderful excuse to tell my parents why I shouldn't continue to do school during summer. But they stood strong.... even through my tears. And they told me and my sister that we need to finish it all, and it is good for us to learn everything we can and it will benefit us in the future, and that it would build character and skills in me and my sister. At first, I thought, "yeah, right." But the more I think about it now, the more I know my parents are right.
I learned several lessons through all of this. One of them is, I need to trust my parents because they have by best interests at heart, (I know this seems hard to believe at times!) and also because they know what is best and they know what they are doing is good in the long run, so maybe it was good that they didn't give in to my excuses. (And in all honesty, sometimes teenagers are so emotional and hormonal that we just can't think straight and we need to trust our parents because they have been through all of this stuff before and they are not going on a "roller coaster" inside (like we are at times), but instead, they are stable and they know what they are doing. God gives us parents and authority for a specific purpose and reason. Unlike us teenagers sometimes, our parents our fully mature and stable and they are put in our lives to guide us and teach us the ways of the Lord. I guess, the point I am trying to make on this is, when you think your parents are crazy and you think that they don't know what they're doing, trust God and believe and know that they DO know what they are doing and they are really doing what is best for you. They love us and want whats best for us, and believe it or not, they don't enjoy saying "no" to us and chastising and reproving. They do that BECAUSE they love us. Just like Jesus chastises His children when they do wrong. Discipline is for our good, and will build "fruit" and character in us, although it is not enjoyable at the present moment. I know all of this from experience and I have to keep that in mind while I perservere through my school during this summer. And by God's help and grace, I will make it through!
I learned several lessons through all of this. One of them is, I need to trust my parents because they have by best interests at heart, (I know this seems hard to believe at times!) and also because they know what is best and they know what they are doing is good in the long run, so maybe it was good that they didn't give in to my excuses. (And in all honesty, sometimes teenagers are so emotional and hormonal that we just can't think straight and we need to trust our parents because they have been through all of this stuff before and they are not going on a "roller coaster" inside (like we are at times), but instead, they are stable and they know what they are doing. God gives us parents and authority for a specific purpose and reason. Unlike us teenagers sometimes, our parents our fully mature and stable and they are put in our lives to guide us and teach us the ways of the Lord. I guess, the point I am trying to make on this is, when you think your parents are crazy and you think that they don't know what they're doing, trust God and believe and know that they DO know what they are doing and they are really doing what is best for you. They love us and want whats best for us, and believe it or not, they don't enjoy saying "no" to us and chastising and reproving. They do that BECAUSE they love us. Just like Jesus chastises His children when they do wrong. Discipline is for our good, and will build "fruit" and character in us, although it is not enjoyable at the present moment. I know all of this from experience and I have to keep that in mind while I perservere through my school during this summer. And by God's help and grace, I will make it through!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Call it Compassion
Compassion is a wonderful thing! It's one of the loving feelings that brought Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, when we did nothing to deserve it. In Matthew 8, it says that Jesus had compassion on a hungry multitude that had been following Him for days. And Christ's compassion on them led the way to a miracle that revealed God's power to the crowd of four thousand.
Why would Jesus want us to have compassion? Well, let's think about it. Compassion usually does the following:
1.) Compassion get's the focus off ourselves. When compassion is pondered and felt in our emotions, we usually are not thinking about our wants and needs, but rather the object of our feeling's needs. One thing I find amazing when I study the passage about Jesus feeding the four thousand, is that He didn't consider His own compfort. You have got to remember, although He was God, He was still a mortal man, and had hunger pains and felt tired just like everybody else.But, He had compassion, love and concern, on the crowd of people, and instead of telling His disciples to give Himself something to eat, Jesus blessed the food for nourishment of the hungry people.
2.) Compassion Guides. Since compassion comes from the heart, it will naturally guide us sometimes without us knowing or even fully comprehending that we are "acting out of compassion." So, for example: Compassion in our heart would naturally want to reach out to someone in need. Then what would you say the opposite of compassion is? I hope you said selfishness or harshness. If our heart is masterminded by those un-Christlike traits, then compassion won't get the best of us. It would probably go as far as to have compassion and pity on ourselves, which definately would not be compassion anyway, but instead something like self-centeredness. (Which brings me to my next point)!.
3.)Compassion reflects a pure, unselfish heart. If our heart is selfish, we would not consider other's needs over ourselves. If our heart was full of filth, instead of reflecting God's sweet tenderness, it would reflect blemished and tarnished feelings. I realize you must be wanting to ask, in order to get a more in depth answer: "Why is compassion so ideal? Even more so for a Christian?" First, above all things, JESUS was the most Compassionate One, and He is our ultimate example. Secondly, compassion is the wonderful thing that connects one heart to reaching out to serve another, and serving and ministry is one of our priorities as children of God, to the prodigal children of God. And lastly, because it is highly beneficial to fulfill the Great Commission that Jesus commanded to His children. Love and compassion are very necessary to reach the lost.
Now compassionis "installed" in everyone in this universe's heart, I would suppose. But for it to be used purposefully, it needs to be activated by the Lord for His ministry. For example, if a depressed young man came to a very tenderhearted and compassionate girl, saying he was feeling down, and wanted sexual fulfillment, and she, feeling sorry for him and being compassionate, gave in because she thought it would help. She would have let the gift of compassion control her negatively. ( In other words, there is a balance to compassion.) So you see, we must use compassion very wisely and be careful not to flounder it.
Compassion and love reflect on the Father. Shouldn't we take a part in these attributes?
--Written by Mikaylah Hansen
Why would Jesus want us to have compassion? Well, let's think about it. Compassion usually does the following:
1.) Compassion get's the focus off ourselves. When compassion is pondered and felt in our emotions, we usually are not thinking about our wants and needs, but rather the object of our feeling's needs. One thing I find amazing when I study the passage about Jesus feeding the four thousand, is that He didn't consider His own compfort. You have got to remember, although He was God, He was still a mortal man, and had hunger pains and felt tired just like everybody else.But, He had compassion, love and concern, on the crowd of people, and instead of telling His disciples to give Himself something to eat, Jesus blessed the food for nourishment of the hungry people.
2.) Compassion Guides. Since compassion comes from the heart, it will naturally guide us sometimes without us knowing or even fully comprehending that we are "acting out of compassion." So, for example: Compassion in our heart would naturally want to reach out to someone in need. Then what would you say the opposite of compassion is? I hope you said selfishness or harshness. If our heart is masterminded by those un-Christlike traits, then compassion won't get the best of us. It would probably go as far as to have compassion and pity on ourselves, which definately would not be compassion anyway, but instead something like self-centeredness. (Which brings me to my next point)!.
3.)Compassion reflects a pure, unselfish heart. If our heart is selfish, we would not consider other's needs over ourselves. If our heart was full of filth, instead of reflecting God's sweet tenderness, it would reflect blemished and tarnished feelings. I realize you must be wanting to ask, in order to get a more in depth answer: "Why is compassion so ideal? Even more so for a Christian?" First, above all things, JESUS was the most Compassionate One, and He is our ultimate example. Secondly, compassion is the wonderful thing that connects one heart to reaching out to serve another, and serving and ministry is one of our priorities as children of God, to the prodigal children of God. And lastly, because it is highly beneficial to fulfill the Great Commission that Jesus commanded to His children. Love and compassion are very necessary to reach the lost.
Now compassionis "installed" in everyone in this universe's heart, I would suppose. But for it to be used purposefully, it needs to be activated by the Lord for His ministry. For example, if a depressed young man came to a very tenderhearted and compassionate girl, saying he was feeling down, and wanted sexual fulfillment, and she, feeling sorry for him and being compassionate, gave in because she thought it would help. She would have let the gift of compassion control her negatively. ( In other words, there is a balance to compassion.) So you see, we must use compassion very wisely and be careful not to flounder it.
Compassion and love reflect on the Father. Shouldn't we take a part in these attributes?
--Written by Mikaylah Hansen
Saturday, April 28, 2012
New Happenings
 |
| Mackenzie(me) and Mikaylah |
 |
| We're smiling cause we love the store we were in.... Anthropology |
 |
| Me and my sissy |
 |
| Me.... Can I please have it? |
 |
| Ahhh, prices, prices, prices! |
 |
| My sister Mikaylah and I, we love this store, but didn't buy anything! haha! |
 |
| Sisters in Charming Charlies |
 |
| Me at my fave store Anthropology tryin on hats.... I love hats in case you haven't noticed! |
 |
| Me in the mirror! |
 |
| Me at Anthropology trying on a hat |
 |
| Me |
 |
| My cousin Marah and I at my cousin Jordan's 13th bday! |
 |
| Me and my sis in the car....how exciting |
Monday, April 9, 2012
Mackenzie's Recent Photos
 |
| My sister Mikaylah, me, my sister-in-law, and my cousin Hollis on Easter |
 |
| Me and my sister on Easter |
 |
| The three stooges! haha! |
 |
| Mikaylah, Hollis, and me |
 |
| My good friend Glory and I at Passion Play backstage in our costumes |
 |
| Glory and I |
 |
| me and my friend Glory in our angel costumes! |
 |
| Me on the train tracts |
Monday, April 2, 2012
More Passion Play Pictures
 |
| Me and my sweet friend Lyndsey Smith in our angel costumes backstage at the Passion Play! |
 |
| My friend Hope Ellison and I |
 |
| My friend Hannah and I |
 |
| My friends Lyndsay, Hope, Hannah (haha, I love this pic!) |
 |
| My good friend Glory and I |
 |
| Me and Glory in our costumes |
 |
| Glory and I |
 |
| Glory and I backstage |
 |
| my friend Larissa and I |
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)