Thursday, March 31, 2016
Unexpected kindness
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
I'm thoroughly exhausted
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Come home to a good book
Monday, March 28, 2016
Morgana
Sunday, March 27, 2016
In Christ we shall be made alive
The second song that was with me was this delightful Cantonese 3-part canon. The worship leader used it in service this morning and I was brought back to when I sang it most probably 30 years ago and haven't sung it since.
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Are you sure Jesus is not alive?
Friday, March 25, 2016
It is Good Friday
Handel had chosen just these few verses from Scripture and put them with wonderful music to aptly tell the account of Jesus's suffering and death on the cross: Here is the Lamb of God that takes away your sin. He became despised and rejected in your place. He took upon your grief on himself. He was flogged and maimed. He has borne your griefs and carried your sorrows. Wounded for your transgressions. Bruised for your iniquities. And with all the stripes he suffered, we are ironically healed. But still, we are like sheep who have gone astray, we removed ourselves from his grace. We even laugh at him and question the drama of it all. Jesus suffered still. He knew it is the only way for our salvation. He was stricken. But...there is hope. There is life a-coming!
22. Chorus
Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.
(John 1: 29)
23. Air (Alto)
He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
(Isaiah 53: 3)
He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off His hair: He hid not His face from shame and spitting. He was despised...da capo
24. Chorus
Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows! He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him.
(Isaiah 53: 4-5)
25. Chorus
And with His stripes we are healed.
(Isaiah 53: 5)
26. Chorus
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
(Isaiah 53:6)
27. Accompagnato (Tenor)
All they that see Him laugh Him to scorn; they shoot out their lips, and shake their heads, saying:
(Psalm 22: 7)
28. Chorus
"He trusted in God that He would deliver Him; let Him deliver Him, if He delight in Him."
(Psalm 22: 8)
29. Accompagnato (Tenor)
Thy rebuke hath broken His heart: He is full of heaviness. He looked for some to have pity on Him, but there was no man, neither found He any to comfort him.
(Psalm 69: 20)
30. Arioso (Tenor)
Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto His sorrow.
(Lamentations 1: 12)
31. Accompagnato (Tenor)
He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgressions of Thy people was He stricken.
(Isaiah 53: 8)
32. Air (Tenor)
But Thou didst not leave His soul in hell; nor didst Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption.
(Psalm 16: 10)
pearlie
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Why I will not take a genetic test
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
My next kitchen appliance: a pressure cooker
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Traffic was literally at a standstill today
I believe this was what exactly happened this morning because of the rainy weather.
Monday, March 21, 2016
Countries with the best English speakers
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Earworms: I learnt something new today
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Music in heaven!
Friday, March 18, 2016
The Messiah: "He was despised" should have been "I am despised"
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Such amazing hope we have
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Handel's Messiah: 2 more days and we are on!
Handel’s Music for Easter
Paul Baker, conductor | Gabrielle Maes, alto soloist
16-Mar-16 14:00
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
O for a good deep sleep
Monday, March 14, 2016
Dried Bok Choy Soup with Rice Vermicelli
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Live Sermon Sketchnotes: one too short, the other too fast
Saturday, March 12, 2016
Dave ★★★★★
Dave (1993)
Friday, March 11, 2016
In memory of a friend
all who have died
by their own hand.
Grant them peace
from their inner turmoil
and the compassion of your love.
Comfort those who mourn
their loved ones.
Strengthen them to face the questions of pain,
the guilt and anger,
the irreparable loss.
Help us to reach out in love
to others who prefer death
to the choices of life
and to their families who grieve.
Amen.
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Wednesday, March 09, 2016
When will I get to afford one of this?
Tuesday, March 08, 2016
Nostalgic Find
Monday, March 07, 2016
Have you heard of this - betterment charges?
Sunday, March 06, 2016
A church without the Holy Spirit. Possible?
Saturday, March 05, 2016
Yarn bombing, a worldwide movement
I came across this Ted Talk about knitting and art, which I thought was very interesting. The simple things that we do with our hands can have a chance to be creative. So don't give up the simple.
pearlie
Friday, March 04, 2016
Thank you Lord for the good and the bad
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
We give you thanks O Lord for the good and the bad in our lives.
The good days knowing that you have and will continually provide for us. The bad days knowing that we are dependent on you at all times.
We thank you for the good people we are with who bless us and whom we bless. We thank you for the bad people we meet for reminding us of our fallen nature so we will not be proud and for whom we can show your love.
We thank you for good health knowing that we are made in your image and we reflect your perfection. We thank you for our bad ailments knowing that this body is temporal and we look forward to the promised resurrected body.
We thank you for good feelings because we are filled with your presence and you give us joy even in our sorrows. We thank you for bad feelings recognizing that we are not worthy of you and yet you call us your own.
We thank you for the badness of the cross where you have suffered and died for us and where our transgressions are washed away with your blood. We thank you for the goodness of your very self of whom we abide in for you are the resurrection and the life.
Amen.
pearlie
Thursday, March 03, 2016
To cook or not to cook, that is the consequential question
Though I realize that is putting the matter a bit too bluntly. Cooking means different things at different times to different people; seldom is it an all-or-nothing proposition. Yet even to cook a few more nights a week than you already do, or to devote a Sunday to making a few meals for the week, or perhaps to try every now and again to make something you only ever expected to buy—even these modest acts will constitute a kind of a vote. A vote for what, exactly? Well, in a world where so few of us are obliged to cook at all anymore, to choose to do so is to lodge a protest against specialization—against the total rationalization of life. Against the infiltration of commercial interests into every last cranny of our lives. To cook for the pleasure of it, to devote a portion of our leisure to it, is to declare our independence from the corporations seeking to organize our every waking moment into yet another occasion for consumption...It is to reject the debilitating notion that, at least while we’re at home, production is work best done by someone else, and the only legitimate form of leisure is consumption. This dependence marketers call “freedom.”
Cooking has the power to transform more than plants and animals: It transforms us, too, from mere consumers into producers. Not completely, not all the time, but I have found that even to shift the ratio between these two identities a few degrees toward the side of production yields deep and unexpected satisfactions.
Cooking, I found, gives us the opportunity, so rare in modern life, to work directly in our own support, and in the support of the people we feed. If this is not “making a living,” I don’t know what is. In the calculus of economics, doing so may not always be the most efficient use of an amateur cook’s time, but in the calculus of human emotion, it is beautiful even so. For is there any practice less selfish, any labor less alienated, any time less wasted, than preparing something delicious and nourishing for people you love?"
Wow...this is certainly so fitting for me in my desire to get back to cooking. I will surely go get a copy of the book now, and watch the first three episodes before my free Netflix expires, which is tomorrow.
pearlie