The Old Rugged Cross

I'm going to try very hard not to talk politics too much on this blog since the main point of it is the worship and music ministry of Hilldale, but recent comments by one of the presidential candidates reminded me of a song (therefore it is a music post rather than a political post).

"I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it someday for a crown."

I don't really cling to my "religion" and I'm certainly not "bitter" about not making the kind of money a US Senator makes (therefore needing to cling to guns or religion to sooth my soul). Implying that I cling to religion because I'm bitter about my station in life is a bit rude and condescending.

I cling to the Savior, Jesus Christ.

I cling to the cross as a symbol of Jesus' love for all the world shown as He gave His life as an atonement for sin.

I cling to my church because I love the people of God.

I cling to the Southern Baptist Convention because I agree with its theology and am proud of the world mission efforts through cooperative giving.

http://www.sbc.net/

OK, I'll quit. The list could be longer.

Hahaha My Lovely Wife and My Blog

My lovely wife, Cheryl, critiques my blog for me. She tells me if she thinks a picture will bother someone or if she thinks I've insulted someone or if I sounded like a total nerd, and so I go back and change things or I tell her the picture looks OK to me or whatever.


So tonight she said, "Are you depressed? What's wrong?"


"Huh?"


"I read your blog. It was very dark."


"Huh?"


"You quoted Romans 8!"






"Hahahaha!" She's so funny. So I guess it was a bit of a stretch to compare a dogwood winter with the bad things that happen in life that you have no control over. I really didn't mean to overstate the cold weather with doom and gloom and weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Although if I lose all of my iris again this year I may be a little depressed.) I was simply pointing out that there are things that happen in life that we have no control over and how in all those things - granted we usually think of huge things like war and famine and yellow fever and a plague of locusts - but even the little things that annoy us can't separate us from God or His love.




The iris on Bear Hollow last year.

Hahahaha. I'll try not to be quite so over the top in the future. Not that I've ever really - you know - been "over the top". I probably have only exaggerated once or twice in my whole life, hmmmm, well, once or twice last week, hmmmmmmm, welllllll, OK, once or twice today...

Dogwood Winter

I'm all against dogwood winters, but that doesn't seem to stop them from happening. It actually snowed on Cheryl this morning when she drove through Joelton. I guess I'll need to cover up some plants tonight and tomorrow night.

Like this beautiful bleeding heart.


I suppose there are many things in life that I'd just as soon not happen, but they happen anyway. That doesn't mean life is bad. It doesn't mean anything really. I just hope my bleeding heart survives this cold snap.

On a totally different note...
For the first time since I have been to Hilldale, the second service choir was bigger than the first service choir. Way to go 10:30 choir! The choir sounded great both services. Thanks to everyone who sang with us this morning. I'll be looking for you all Wednesday night. Bring someone with you.

Kid Blitz Live at Hilldale

Woohoooooo! What a fun night!



And once again someone is picking on poor old Bro. Tim.

Sunday's Music

Choir anthem - The Basics of Life


Congregation - Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord


Holy, Holy, Holy

Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone

and more...



Sunday night the Youth Choir is scheduled to sing and I forgot to put a note about that in the bulletin. Since the Youth Choir is singing the handbell choir and youth choir will trade rehearsal times.

What does this picture have to do with Sunday's music? Nothing. I just got these daffodils and red bud branches out of my yard last night and thought you would enjoy seeing them. I may retake the picture with a little more light. Do you see my creek outside?

Tim's Egg Surprise

Look! Bro. Tim is on Youtube! I've never seen him speechless before. You can go to Youtube and leave a comment. The more traffic it gets the more Youtube will send people to it. Hahahaha!

More Kids

Hmmmm, without naming any names... some of our grandmothers (well, one, actually) in the choir mentioned - in a nice way of course (egged on by my lovely wife) - that on my post with pictures of the kids in the Passion Play http://hilldaleworship.blogspot.com/2008/04/kids-in-passion-play.html that I didn't have pictures of their kids. My apologies to all of the grandmothers. I hope it won't be toooooo obvious who the grandmother is when you see the pictures.




Isn't she beautiful? (the baby)