From the Mind of MandoRon

I was reading Psalm 150 this morning in the NIV translation, and for some reason got curious to see how The Message Bible phrased the Psalm.

Psalm 150

 1 Hallelujah! Praise God in his holy house of worship, praise him under the open skies;

2 Praise him for his acts of power, praise him for his magnificent greatness;

3 Praise with a blast on the trumpet, praise by strumming soft strings;

4 Praise him with castanets and dance, praise him with banjo and flute;

5 Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum, praise him with fiddles and mandolin.

6 Let every living, breathing creature praise God! Hallelujah!

Did you catch that? 

Look at verse 5 again. 

Needless to say I was quite excited to learn that the mandolin was mentioned in the Bible - even if it’s a modern paraphrase and not a literal translation…   Apparently praising God with the mandolin is much more biblically correct than a guitar…

So Psalm 150:5 is now my favorite verse.  But only if you’re reading The Message Bible.

Jett (age 5) - “Daddy, guess what!”

Me - “What Jett?”

Jett - “Today, Barack Obama is President.  He lives in the White House.”

They know it’s a big day too…

Yesterday at dinner, Jada told us that she would like to be friends with Obama’s seven-year-old daughter, Sasha, since they are the same age.

I spent some time yesterday trying to come up with something clever to write concerning Barack Obama’s inauguration today.  I didn’t really come up with anything, so please set your expectations low.

Regardless of whether you voted for Obama or not, you’ve got to admit that today is an historic day.  The United States will have it’s first black president.  He will also be the first president without a white, Anglo-Saxon name.

I think it’s only fitting that yesterday was a holiday commemorating Martin Luther King.  Dr. King had a dream that one day everyone would be treated equally, regardless of color or race.  Are we there yet?  Definitely not. 

But I’ve got to think that Obama as President gets us one step closer. 

I’m excited about today.  I wish that I didn’t have to work today so that I could spend the day glued to the TV coverage of the festivities.

Happy Martin Luther King Day!  I hope you are getting to enjoy a nice 3-day weekend too.

Earlier, I was browsing my Bloglines subscriptions and came across JesusFreak Hideout’s list of  their 25 most anticipated album releases for 2009.  Thought you might be interested.

Happy Sunday, and welcome to my little contribution to Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Setlist Fiesta!

Here’s the setlist from the GracePoint Sunday Morning Experiences:

• Dig In by Lenny Kravitz (walk-in)
• All Because of Jesus by Fee
• Break Free by Hillsong United
• Song of Hope by Robbie Seay Band
• How Great is Our God by Chris Tomlin
• Set Me Free by Casting Crowns (offering)

Dig In has been around GP for a few years now.  It’s a fun little song.  Lenny has a couple of great songs on his newest album that I’d love to do sometime - “Love Revolution” and “Bring it On”. 

All Because of Jesus is a great song by Steve Fee.  We use the radio version rather than studio version.  I honestly can’t remember the difference at the moment…

Break Free has become a bit of a staple.  Good song.

Song of Hope is a fairly new one (last few months).  Amy was doing some cool stuff on the keyboard.

How Great is Our God.  Gil did a great job of getting everyone singing at the end.  Interestingly, the first service sang just as loud as the second service despite having half as many people…  We usually do this in the key of C, like the live version, but we’ve done it in B at least once also.

Set Me Free is a GP favorite.  I think we debuted it at Easter two years ago.  Very powerful song.  Gil does an awesome job on vocals, and I really enjoy watching Deric go nuts on the drum kit at the end of the song.  Good stuff!

And the band lineup: 3 vocalists, 3 electric guitars, bass, keyboard, drums, and some occasional tambourine. 

Did you notice Andy’s new Telecaster?  I think Santa brought it to him for Christmas.  It’s quite awesome.