Coming Attractions!!!

I unintentionally took most of July and all of August off from daily posts.  The daily Bible study, Friendly Theology, and the Koine Greek Word of the Day Podcast will return September 1st.    Also sometime this fall we will begin an Art Fridays series.

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A Prayer for Trinity Sunday

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us
your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to
acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the
power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep
us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to
see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with
the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen.

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Exodus 29 – Multi-sensory offerings to God

“You shall offer up in smoke the whole ram on the altar; it is a burnt offering to the Lord: it is a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the Lord…You shall take them from their hands, and offer them up in smoke on the altar on the burnt offering for a soothing aroma before the Lord; it is an offering by fire to the Lord…The other lamb you shall offer at twilight, and shall offer with it the same grain offering and the same drink offering as in the morning, for a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the Lord.”

God seems to be a multi-sensory God. How are these offerings a soothing aroma to God? Does this mean that God is pleased because he likes the smells of burning grain and flesh or is the aroma pleasing to God because it represents the people being obedient to God?

In addition to smell, God is pleased with the sounds of our words when we offer them up as an offering to God. God is pleased when he sees our time and effort up offered as an offering. God is pleased when he tastes our cooking offered to someone in need as an offering to God. God is pleased when he touches us and we respond in worship. God is pleased

When we give the best we have to offer in worship of God, God is please.

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Update on Blog

Hi all,

I’ve been a little slow on new posts during the Christmas season.  The blog will be revamped and is scheduled to open up again full time the first of January.  The changes will include:

• A facelift of the blog layout with seasonal decor
• The resumption of Chapter a day Bible posts on weekdays
• A Koine Greek Word of the Day podcast on weekdays
• The resumption of articles, poems, literature, prayers, and other stuff posted 3 days a week

We will of course be keeping the weekly meanderings, otherwise what would I do with all the random stuff I come across over the course of the week.  There will also be a section added regarding speaking opportunities if you need a guest speaker for a Sunday morning or a conference.

If you would like to see anything else on the blog please let me know.

Thanks,

Matt

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A quick note

Sorry that posts have been late this week. Monday morning I, along with half of my department, was laid off at work. Thursday morning I was offered a job that I had been interviewing for over the last month and a half; I will start that new job on Monday. So the way it worked out, I got a week paid vacation and a raise. But this week was a little nerve-racking for us as we did not know what was going to happen. I am very thankful that God has provided for us.

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Weekly Meanderings

Here’s some stuff I came across this week…

Have a great weekend!

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My absence

This is the last week of my quarter at school, and I’ve been playing that wonderful game known as catch-up. I will be posting again early next week if all goes well.

In the mean time, I had a conversation today and a lyric from “Advice, like youth, probably wasted” (one of the best prose poems of the 20th century) ran through my brain, so I thought I’d post that as a blast from the past. A newspaper column by Mary Schmich, published by the Chicago Tribune on 01 June 1997.

—

Inside every adult lurks a graduation speaker dying to get out, some world-weary pundit eager to pontificate on life to young people who’d rather be Rollerblading. Most of us, alas, will never be invited to sow our words of wisdom among an audience of caps and gowns, but there’s no reason we can’t entertain ourselves by composing a Guide to Life for Graduates.

I encourage anyone over 26 to try this and thank you for indulging my attempt.

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ‘97:

Wear sunscreen.

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RSV

I hate RSV.  We are on day 8 in the Clendineng household.  In theory it should only last 8-15 days and then we all get better.  We’ll see how it goes.  All signs point to us getting healthy soon.  I can almost swallow without excruciating pain, Sam’s nose isn’t too runny, and Owen has his voice back (nothing is more pitiful than a two month old who has lost his voice).  Hopefully I’ll get caught up on blogging today.

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This weekend in the Clendineng family

I apologize for late posts, we were five for five on being sick this weekend.

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The Gig website

The website for the Gig is up and running. I’m not happy with it yet, but you can go and check it out.

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Youth Group

The theme of youth group tonight was “hope”.  We listened to some personal stories of hope; stories from some kids lives about how they dealt with tragedy, sorrow, and depression.  Then we gathered in our small groups and tried to talk.  Most of the discussion was supposed to be based on Psalm 42.  In the midst of despair we can rely on God’s presence.

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How I spent my Thursday night…

Tonight I was supposed to blog about the first week of my winter quarter. This quarter I am taking Culture and Community; it should be an interesting class. Unfortunately, I will have no comment until next week. A little before bedtime my 2 year old spit his juice all over my lap top. I spent the next 3 hours taking my laptop apart and cleaning the components. I finally got the e,i, even numbers, backspace and delete to work. So, I apologize for tonight and look forward to next week.

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Who am I?

Tonight at youth group there was a powerful message given revolving around the question “who am I?” Our pastor gave his testimony and spoke about how the choices we make every hour of every day answer the question “who am I?”

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Introduction

This year I am committing to blogging on a daily basis. I am hoping that this blog will allow me to process my thoughts and eventually be a forum for discussion. I do not expect this to be a great or widely read blog; ultimately this blog is for me. Tentatively I have set up the following schedule.

• Sunday – Prayer
• Monday – Church
• Tuesday – Sports
• Wednesday – Readings
• Thursday – Youth
• Friday – School
• Saturday – Meanderings

Hopefully, this will be a beneficial process.

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