More Precious than Silver

This evening I'm playing an arrangement of this beautiful song for the prelude.

More Precious than Silver

Lord, You are more precious than silver.
Lord, You are more costly than gold.
Lord, You are more beautiful than diamonds,
And nothing I desire compares to You.

Lord, Your Love is higher than mountains.
Lord, Your Love is deeper than seas.
Lord, Your Love encompasses the nations,
And yet, You live right here inside of me!

Who can weigh the value of knowing You?
Who can judge the worth of who You are?
Who can count the blessings of loving You?
Who can say just how great You are?

Lord, You are more precious than silver.
Lord, You are more costly than gold.
Lord, You are more beautiful than diamonds,
And nothing I desire compares to You.
And nothing I desire compares to You.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Colossians 2:3; Proverbs 8:11

Music and Words by Lynn Deshazo

© 1982 & 1992 Integrity's Hosanna! Music

Indigo and its Implications

Here's my newest version of Indigo Summer--links to both old ones at the end.

Summer suburban scene, Glenellen Drive
Soft morning sounds, lilac following night's gentle rain
colors whisper like this new July day
slowly slips into a calmly quiet world
Breakfast on the deck
over the camel-dry
parched ground under the deck
surrounded by lightly rainladen trees' leaves
longing for cloudbursts

Tame tacos make our lunch at the restaurant on
Main Street, with cerulean celadon blazing
dazzling brights glancing off windows of the
house at the end of the street at the
rim of the park
in vividly urban attitudinal edge
under clear skies and hot sun

Then later, another humid night, filled with yearning
music, restless talk

And while night begins fading, dawn's birdsongs and emerging day's sunglow

Scene at the beach
hot sand, sparkling sand
wet sand and breaking waves
Followed by another desperate, white and hopeless silent night
longing for tomorrow's dawn
still waiting in hope for hope


Wednesday morning, July 11, 2001 Original version

Monday, October 03, 2005 October 2005 version

Immersion, Submersion

The Roman Catholics announced they'd be installing an immersion font; the report said the announcement had made some people nervous. The Powers That Be explained, "Oh, you're thinking of Baptists and Mormons--they baptize by submersion; this is going to be immersion."

Someone said something to me about acquiring a Theology of the Other; my distressed reply needs to be "Theology of the other is the very last thing I need! I have submerged myself in the other to the point of drowning, of losing myself completely, while Jesus calls us to immerse ourselves in the other, so an authentic I and a real thou emerge from that immersing."

Covenant! Baptismal paradigm? Probably!

Lent 1 2007

Change My Heart, Oh God

© 1982, Mercy / Vineyard Publishing
Words and Music by Eddie Espinosa

Change my heart oh God,
make it ever true.
Change my heart oh God,
may I be like You.

You are the potter,
I am the clay,
Mold me and make me,
This is what I pray.

ORANGE!

You scored as Orange. You are ORANGE! You have a bubbly personality, which you dont always show. You aren't as aggressive as those who are red, but you do like to be sucessful in what you do. Orange 90% White 75% Red 65% Yellow 65% Green 60% Purple 45% Black 25% Blue 10% What color represents you best? created with QuizFarm.com

Saturday Word Spin

Phrases from one of the photo- and word collages currently on the hall wall--I made these ages ago, but still enjoy looking at them and totally appreciate the insights and creativity they represent.

The living is easy.
Alive in the city.

a moment of darkness...

Shelter!
dream

Search for meaning

the word of God is not fettered

earthlight

follow your heart

breaking away

We're full of surprises: Come on in.

sun-country house
Catch the Sun

Wait and See

the whole world changes.

You shall be called Israel!


Small graphic prints and a flurry of Americana colors.

Friday

Friday, Friday and the only thing I have to blog is the fact I actually finished the class handout for Sunday--tons of material, but I wanted some extra for people to carry home and consider. I'm thinking I may not need to prepare as much new material for next week as originally I'd imagined. Check it out:

Theology of the Cross 1

House in Dorchester 4 B&W

Here's the picture I'm working on in Photoshop: so far, I've done brightness, contrast and tonal range adjustments. Keep checking back for exciting innovations! BTW, this is a house on Wellesley Park close to Nick's.

Ash Wednesday 2007

Today, all day, is Ash Wednesday; I got this image from the RevGals.

Tigar

We have a new Husky Cousin in Tucson! His name is Tigar (correct spelling), and here's his story Carla emailed us:

This poor dog was found on the street when he was 2 months old. The man who found him was in the Air Force, he took him to the vet and they decided his birthday was 1/1/01, he had him fixed and had him about a year. He got shipped off to war and gave Tigar to someone else at Edwards Air Force Base. He had him about 6 months when he was shipped out to the war zone, so he passed him on to another person on the base where he lived for about one & a half years and he went off to war, so Tigar was passed on again where he stayed for another year until that young man went off to war. He was than given to EJ & his family and they had him for the last year. EJ is now going to war for the second time and under the new rules the family has to move off the base when the person who is in the service gets shipped out, our wonderful government at work. EJ's family has to move in with his wife's family in a senior citizen area which only allows dogs up to 25lbs so he had to find a home for Tigar. Nobody would take a 6 year old dog so he is now with us. We are his 5th and final home unless something happens to me and he would than go to Patti. What a story!

Moonday: Lunar New Year

Feast of Transfiguration

Transfiguration: Until the Day Dawns from T-Fig 2005--all of two years plus two weeks ago!

But just linking to a previous blog from another place isn't quite enough; I need to add something new for this day's blog, so here's another song from:

John Mayer | Grammy nominee for: Male pop performance--"Waiting on the World to Change"; album, pop vocal album, rock album, solo rock vocal performance...

Waiting on the World to Change

me and all my friends
we're all misunderstood
they say we stand for nothing and
there's no way we ever could
now we see everything that's going wrong
with the world and those who lead it
we just feel like we don't have the means
to rise above and beat it

so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it's hard to beat the system
when we're standing at a distance
so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
now if we had the power
to bring our neighbors home from war
they would have never missed a Christmas
no more ribbons on their door
and when you trust your television

what you get is what you got
cause when they own the information, oh
they can bend it all they want

that's why we're waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

it's not that we don't care,
we just know that the fight ain't fair
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

and we're still waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting waiting on the world to change
one day our generation
is gonna rule the population
so we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

Mission Yearbook 2007

This afternoon I played piano for a memorial service and picked up a 2007 Mission Yearbook--only a few weeks into this new year! I really like praying for the worldwide church with the church worldwide.



Luke 13:29, "People will come from east and west" forms this year's focus.

California Water

This evening after Mariners' dinner, Beverly gave a great talk about her experiences visiting California water authorities, entities and facilities; here's a map:

Map description:
Updated May 2001 - This is a map of California's surface water system. It features natural and manmade water resources throughout the state, including the wild and scenic rivers system, the new Eastside and Los Vaqueros reservoirs and the Coastal Aqueduct, linking the central coast to the State Water Project. Water facilities are color-coded to indicate federal, state or locally-funded projects and the wild and scenic river systems. Map text explains the state, federal and local water projects; Bay-Delta issues; wild and scenic rivers; the Colorado River; and groundwater issues.

Thursday.

Late this morning I won an opened copy of Adobe InDesign 2.0 User Guide, and I know it will be coolly useful!!!

At the Praise Festival this evening I accompanied on the organ:

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I've come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Words: Ro­bert Ro­bin­son, 1758; in his A Col­lect­ion of Hymns Used by the Church of Christ in Angel Al­ley, Bi­shop­gate, 1759.

Music: "Net­tle­ton," Wyeth's Re­po­si­to­ry of Sac­red Mu­sic, Part Se­cond, by John Wy­eth, 1813.

and then on the piano, that totally oldy:

We are One in The Spirit,
We are One in The Lord.
We are One in The Spirit,
We are One in The Lord.
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored.

Chorus
And they'll know we are Christians by our love,
By our Love,
Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love.

-2-
We will work with each other,
We will work side by side.
We will work with each other,
We will work side by side.
And we'll guard each man's dignity
And save each man's pride.

Chorus

-3-
We will work with each other,
We will work side by side.
We will work with each other,
We will work side by side.
And we'll guard each man's dignity
And save each man's pride.

Chorus

-3-
We will walk with each other,
We will walk hand in hand.
We will walk with each other,
We will walk hand in hand.
And together we'll spread the News
that God is in our land.

© 1966 Peter Scholte

Scott and Kate sang:

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
'Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt of life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
'til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

February 14

Happy Valentine's Day 2007!!!!!

He Is Exalted

This will be my offering for next Sunday--the Feast of T-Fig. I spent lots of time practicing it this afternoon!

HE IS EXALTED, by Twila Paris

He is exalted
The King is exalted on high
I will praise Him
He is exalted forever exalted
And I will praise His name

He is the Lord
Forever His truth shall reign
Heaven and earth
Rejoice in His holy name
He is exalted
The King is exalted on high

© 1985 Straightway Music/Mountain Spring Music; adm. by EMI Christian Music Publishing/ASCAP

Monday, Monday

Late this afternoon, or maybe it was more like early evening, I was in the groc store and heard Chris Isaak's There She Goes. It's sort of a post-breakup song, but when I heard, "There she goes," I immediately put myself into the song and thought, "There I go--thinking and writing theology again!"

That's as far as today's blog goes...

Epiphany 6: Hymn to Freedom

This morning I played this as the offering: "In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Preacher and Prophet to the world, and in honor of Black History Month."

Hymn to Freedom | 1962

Music: Oscar Peterson

Lyrics: Harriette Hamilton

When every heart joins every heart and together yearns for liberty,
that's when we'll be free.
When every hand joins every hand and together molds our destiny,
that's when we'll be free.
Any hour any day, the time soon will come when men will live in dignity,
that's when we'll be free, we will be
When every man joins in our song and together singing harmony,
that's when we'll be free.

Day Seven

Today is post 7, marking the end of my first week of daily blogs! This is fun, since already I can see this blog's personality emerging: I've done a little theology, a song and some design, all topics part of my usual everyday life. Technically a blog is a site where you write, and many blogs (lots of the RevGals', for example) are journal-like, though they may include content such as sermons or photographs taken by the blogger. Of my too many blogs, almost from the beginning desert spirit's fire! emerged as my more formal theology site and became part of my résumé/CV. I began dsf during July 2002, after finishing a 2-semester mini-MBA at San Diego State, and though I did quite a lot of teaching during that year, I didn't have time to do anything else particularly theological. My testimony blog, this far by faith, with its mix of reflection, design and theology is my most journal-like blog, and I've cross-posted several things there and on dsf. sun country living started as a commonplace book where I could post interesting quotes, observations and phrases, but it has evolved into a showcase for my non-biblically based design. You know a lot of the rest; tomorrow I'll begin Week 2!

New Design Medium!

Today I suddenly realized I'm moving into a new design style using Photoshop as my primary medium rather than scanning and digitizng my analog art (which I'll still continue to due, since the results are so wonderful, IMHO). Previously I'd mistakenly imagined doing a version of my analog style on the computer screen, but even with a Wacom tablet that didn't work very well. Here are clickable thumbnails of the two images I did in Jane's class yesterday and today in response to the warmup exercises she has us do to begin each morning.

O-o-h Child

This song featured in the films Crooklyn and Over the Edge; the Spinners and Five Stairsteps both made versions that got lots of FM airplay.

by Stan Vincent

Ooh, ooh, child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh, ooh, child
Things'll get brighter

Ooh, ooh, child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh, ooh, child
Things'll get brighter, oh

Some day
We'll put it together and we'll get it all done
Some day
When your head is much lighter, yeah

Some day, yeah
We'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun, yes, we will
Some day
When the world is much brighter

Ooh, ooh, child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh, ooh, child
Things'll get brighter

Ooh, ooh, child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh, ooh, child
Things'll get brighter

Some day
We'll put it together and we'll get it all done, I know
Some day
When your head is much lighter, alright

Some day, yeah
We'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun, yes, we will
Some day
When the world is much brighter, oh

Some day, yeah
We'll put it together and we'll get it all done, I know
Some day
When your head is much lighter, oh ,yeah

Some day, I know
We'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun, yes, we will
Some day
When the world is much brighter, yeah, yeah

Ooh, ooh, child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh, ooh, child
Things'll get brighter, I know

Ooh, ooh, child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh, ooh, child
Things'll get brighter

Right now

Body Image

Body Image, where:

• body,
• mind,
• psyche,
• spirit and
• culture

converge. Its impact reverberates in all areas of life:

• mental,
• physical,
• emotional and
• spiritual.

Melonhead

Making selections, etc., in Photoshop. When we did this a year ago in IMCP I didn't blog it, so here's the version I made along with Jane's class this morning while technically I was in lab working on theology.

Location

Oh, I know I need a community and friends who know where I live. Where is my social location, my theological and spiritual place, my spot as an artist and designer and as a musician? How do I describe each of those?

Epiphany 5

Here's my very first post of my Blog Project 365. Originally I imagined starting it on Easter, then on Ash Wednesday, but logically, since I'm making this winter a time of reflection and quiet, why not begin it now? These two songs are from this morning's worship.

Psalm 86:12, "I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart:
and I will glorify thy name for evermore."

Glorify Thy Name: words and music by Donna Adkins

Father, I love you, I praise you, I adore you,
Glorify Thy name in all the earth.
Glorify Thy name, glorify Thy name,
Glorify Thy name in all the earth.

We sang stanzas 2 and 3 of Draw us in the Spirit's Tether, but I'm quoting all of it--such a favorite!

1. Draw us in the Spirit's tether, for when humbly in your name,
   two or three are met together, you are in the midst of them;
   Alleluia! Alleluia! Touch we now your garment's hem.


2. As disciples used to gather in the name of Christ to sup,
   then with thanks to God the Giver, break the bread and bless the cup,
   Alleluia! Alleluia! So now bind our friendship up.


3. All our meals and all our living make as sacraments of you,
   that by caring, helping, giving, we may be disciples true.
   Alleluia! Alleluia! We may serve with faith anew.

Text by Percy Dearmer, 1925; alt.
Tune, "Union Seminary" by Harold Friedell, 1957