Christ Church Guest House

During our stay in Jerusalem we stayed in the old City at the Christ Church Guest house, it is part of Christ Church which is the oldest Protestant Church in the Middle East. The location was great, service was great(actually it was manned by a team of 10-15 volunteers), lack of A/C was just fine with me. This Guest House is a form of ministry used to be able to house short and long term missionaries to Jerusalem and one night I got to talking to two men in their mid 50's. I was sitting near them doing some writing in my Journal and they struck up a conversation. One man worked for an NGO in Palestine to outfit disabled children with wheelchairs. He was accompanied by a full time missionary who started telling me about some of the amazing experiences the Lord has used him in. The one that sticks in my heard(I am writing this a week after) was as we were talking about boldness and how the Lord allowed him to talk to two Palestinian women and how they are both following Christ today. These are the people that I enjoy spending my time with and I love to see how the Lord is using them to redeem his kingdom.

This cat lived at Christ Church and was a handful, every meal it
would try to eat you food when you were not looking.
Sneaky little thing.

All is Great in the Lord

Paul Shackelford

More Photos from our entire trip: https://plus.google.com/photos/102484709808402381964/albums/5664263551425737985

Rise Again - Needtobreathe

I have been reading a book about the arts and Christians role in creating culture. Steve Turner, the author, asserts a major critique that modern Christian art does not speak about real life. The art created does not sound genuine or have any ties to real life that people outside the faith can connect with. While reading the book I listened through this album and I think that this song does a great job of breaking the mold. The members of Needtobreathe are all outspoken followers of Jesus but very little of the art that they produce mentions Jesus or Christianity at all. Instead they craft creative music, written from places of pain and joy. "Rise Again" steps through pain that occurs in life as we see relationships stretched and torn. The bitterness of broken hearts and friendships is then contrasted with the truth that we will get up from this pain and rise again. "I can see us moving on, I can feel that coming on strong", the joy that comes after the

Twenty-Four - Jess Ray

Lately I have been listening to lots of music and podcasts while working and biking to work. I was feeling a need for some new music so I turned to NoiseTrade to check out some new artists. My favorite thus far is Jess Ray because of the honest lyrics, tastefully simple musicality and overall enjoyable listening environment. While on my flight back to Atlanta I was struck by this song at first because of the drums that propel this song behind the walking guitar. If I were to add drums to a track like this it would have been done in a very similar manner. Once I got past the drums I was awe struck by the simple power of these lyrics, take a read below and follow the link to her blog to listen. To me it was not written for an outward expression of hope or encouragement but rather as a inward proclamation to the soul. As the psalmist often choose to sing, this song speaks inward in a call to stand up and be reminded of truth all to often forgotten. As I gear up for the star

You Will Be My Ain True Love - Alison Kraus

This song has so much power, even if you remove the lyrics. I just decided to take in the full potential of the song by turning the stereo all the way up and playing the song a few times. Before even looking for a video of this song I knew it was related to the Civil War and the separation that occurred between loved ones. This song starts out explaining the battle field and how the soldier has survived the terrors of war. As the song continues to build you can tell that the soldier wants to be with his love. They have been separated by this war and now he wants to be back with her. The last few lines portray his death and how he has been reunited with his "True Love". I believe that this song describes his "True Love" as God, our eternal True Love. He has returned to his maker after being killed in Battle and this song paints that picture so well. This song has tons of power in the music behind the lyrics, it adds so much to the meaning of this song!

Letters from Lilongwe

Search This Blog