A Really Good Day

As you can tell by the title, today was really good. Especially church. The music went well and it seemed like the congregation was worshiping to it. It made me really appreciate the gift that God has given Kellen as the worship leader. It's even cooler that he's related to me. The song selection was great and his prayers were very God-entranced and totally focused on His glory. I'm blessed to just be a part of the worship music ministry. The sermon was also very good. Tom talked about humility and looked at three texts: James 4:6-10, Eph. 4:26-27 and I Peter 5:5-9. In short, he demonstrated that pride is the sin that satan commited and that the only way to resist his deceptions is to humble ourselves before God and acknowledge that without Him we can't do anything. He also pointed out that one of the surest signs of dependence on God is the amount of time spent in prayer. This is really convicting for me because there are so many times that I don't think I need God's help and don't pray when I should. Sunday school was also really good. Because we are in between studies (we just finished The Blazing Center dvd series by Piper and are moving on to "Don't Waste Your Lives") we spent some time getting to know each other and spent the last 15-20 minutes talking about the state of the church in America and how weak we are. We are to the point that other nations (usually third-world) are sending missionaries to us. We are drowning in our own affluence and comfort, and if we even seek knowledge, we seek it as an end in itself when it really should serve as a driving factor to love God more and therefore demonstrate that love in good works. It was really uplifting for me because, as it turns out, it was the same topic that I had been praying about on my way to church that morning.

So, all-in-all, church went really well, which was ironic because I woke up late and was late to church so I couldn't help set up the stage for worship. I was really upset with myself for forgetting to set my alarm clock and was basically allowing a lot of little things to come between me and God. And then church came together so well and I heard such a timely message about dependence on God. It really helped me escape from the tiny, insignificant solar system known as Darren and allowed me to see the amazing universe that is God in all its beauty and glory. Plus my good friends the Ramos' visited and I was really encouraged by seeing the whole family and enjoying their fellowship today.

Then that was all followed up by a great round of ultimate frisbee. A group of us have been playing almost every Sunday after church and this time a record amount of people showed up to play. We had 13-14 people I think, maybe a couple more. This meant that we really extended the field from what we normally played on, which meant a whole lot more running in 95-100 degree heat and relatively high humidity for Utah. So, combined with a sunburn, I'm pretty tired and sore right now and hoping that I won't oversleep my alarm clock tomorrow morning (don't worry, I already set it. Now I just need to wake up).

P.S. On a completely unrelated note, I recently bought the new Underoath cd and it is a great cd. I think I've listened to it about a dozen times since Tuesday. If you like their style, then I highly recommend it. They also support desiringgod.org, which I think is awesome.