A hodgepodge of stuff

Sunday night I joined my brothers and sisters in Christ at Central Lutheran Church in Elk River for the worship experience of a lifetime. I had absolutely no clue how hungry I was for that kind of worship, especially after a year and a half of seminary. It was music and testimony for an hour and a half and there were times I was almost brought to tears. The children's choir even assisted in leading us in worship. Yet as people will always do, as soon as the kids got up to do their part, the video cameras came out. The worship leader took note of that and used it as a teaching moment. He said that even though it's cute to take pictures and make memories, the kids are not performing for you, but leading you in worship. They are sharing their faith with you, so instead of taking pictures and video of them singing, just sit back and allow them to lead you into the presence of God. (Totally not anywhere near what he said, but you get the idea.) It was truly amazing and made me really miss being able to play with a band and assist in leading worship through music.

On a totally different note, I've been thinking quite a bit this past week about the culture we live in. I'm not sure if it's because of things I'm reading for class or lectures, but I'm finding myself really bothered at the fact that the Bible is read so differently now than it was when it was written. Why? It's because our culture is completely different from the culture of the Biblical period. This world is so big that we each have our own interpretive lens on when we read the Scriptures. Now that I have no clue where this paragraph is going, here's my question: How does God want us to read the Bible? Does he want us to bring to the reading our own interpretive lens, or does He want us to lay down our interpretive blinders and allow the Holy Spirit to speak what it wants and/or needs to speak? I have to side with the latter.

Finally, a word from Martin Luther.
"Because up to now people have made such a big display at the consecrations of monks and nuns (even though their estate and existence is an ungodly, human invention without any basis in the Bible), how much more should we honor this godly estate of marriage and bless it, pray for it, and adorn it in an even more glorious matter. For, although it is a worldly estate, nevertheless it has God's Word on its side and is not a human invention or institution, like the estate of monks and nuns." - Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, pg. 370