- Guys, you won’t break any fences sitting on the bed with Amy in front of 9 other people — spoken by Pam at the morning’s team meeting. In order to get 11 people in a Cambodia hotel room, multiple people have to sit on the bed. Amy was already on it, but none of the late-arriving guys seemed to want to join her.
- Fix your gaze — spoken by Alf during the morning devotional. From Acts 3, where Peter and John perform the eponymous act on the lame beggar; Alf’s question was do we “fix our gaze” on people, or merely look at them? Do we believe Jesus can make the lame walk, and raise the dead, or have we been “enlightened”?
- King of majesty, I have one desire, just to be with You — this blog entry’s title phrase, sung in church this morning; apparently “Kong” is in the iPhone’s dictionary, so it didn’t autocorrect. I had to bite my tongue really hard to keep from laughing when I saw what I’d really written. It’s an amazing thing to be literally “on the other side of the world” (thanks Rich!) and worship the same risen Jesus that we worship at 121. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
- Are we determined to be in the presence of God? — I don’t actually remember who said this one, I think it was the worship pastor at New Life. Self-explanatory — are we determined to be in God’s presence, or do we just hope it happens and move on if we don’t “feel” it in the first five minutes? (Not about music, by the way.)
- Found love beyond all reason; caught in the mercy fallout — Also sung in church this morning. I suspect I listen better to what I’m singing when it’s being sung in Khmer and I’m reading the English translation under the Khmer words on the screen. “Love beyond all reason” — it is “beyond all reason,” which is why post-Enlightenment people have such a hard time with it. We should stop trying to reason it out and start trying to live it out.
- The time has come to stand for all we believe in — Also sung in church this morning. This isn’t a new thought, but it takes on a different meaning when you’ve been in the belly of the beast the night before. As my pastor and others have said, what we do is what we believe, everything is just talk. Are you standing (and by “standing” read “living”) for all you believe? Am I? I often don’t like my answer.
- Today, today, it’s all or nothing — Also sung in church this morning (I know, I was very reflective during the music portion of the service, apparently). One of the most interesting things about being here is how many U.S. ex-pats there are who came here, saw a need, and moved their families here as a result. For them, it was really all or nothing. They chose “all.”
- Be active and know that I am God — one of those mind lurches I take so often. A speaker at church quoted Psalm 46:10 (Be still and know that I am God). My mind took a hard left; I usually know He is God when I’m still. The problem is remembering He is God when I’m active, when I’m engaged in a task, when I’m driving to work, when I’m doing whatever. I need to be better at always knowing He is God, not just when I’m still.
- Everything’s a lesson, nothing’s done just to do it — spoken by an IJM staff member about the approach New Life’s pastor takes to raising nationals as leaders. I thought we should all live life that way. I seem to do a lot of things just to do them.
- Because I’m old; if you want to ever be old, you’ll hush up — spoken by Vince, telling an Agape staff member what she should have said to the soccer-playing kid who came indoors where Bridget was one day and asked her why she was sweating, since she didn’t play soccer.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 says we should “pray without ceasing.” We forget sometimes that prayer is a conversation, not a soliloquy. That means we need to be listening without ceasing, too.
What has God said to you today? Were you listening?