Monday, January 5, 2009

U2?

Today I was having a conversation with a pastor friend who says he doesn't know any music by U2? :-O I KNOW...I nearly fell on the floor too!..once I recovered though, I quickly shot him an email with my favorite tunes. That of course included "Grace", "Still Haven't Found what I'm looking For", and "God, part 2". In my attempts to explain the last song, I searched The Message for the verses from Paul that I think the song is about. I'm posting them here (a first btw) because I really like the way it's said here:
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15 What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. 16 So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary. 17 But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help!

18 I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. 19 I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway.

20 My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. 21 It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. 22 I truly delight in God's commands, 23 but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

24 I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? 25 The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

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more can be found here...but this wording makes more sense to me than the other versions I've read or heard a "million" times before.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=52&chapter=8&version=65

Oh...and here's the song too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7fhIVgpSnc

4 comments:

  1. Good post Laura...cd be called...'Notes from the 2 Paul's'...I linked up to Bono's(Paul) significant other's site...http://www.alihewson.com/...'tis true,she is significant and quite intriguing,but maybe that's what the other Paul was alluding to ;-)...did you remove yr Picaso link?...I downloaded the program...impressive product with respect to user-friendliness(maybe I shld'nt be too quick)...I posted some old photos taken w/my old Olympus...maybe ,I'll load a few from the D90..is that the Corel Paint thing on yr photos I see?

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  2. BTW...the Joshua Tree rates very highly in my cannon,despite it's absence on my Blogger profile...gotta fix that!

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  3. Ka-boom!...I meant canon...lol

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  4. Hey FiF...
    Thanks for the compliment.

    That picasa link was a mistake so I took it down. I was just testing something out and didn't realize that it posted here. You're right about the user-friendliness! I've used that app for a while now, particularly add images to a web album and shoot the link out in email. Best part is it's free!

    Nope..it's hours and hours, sometimes days and days, of using Elements,Picasa and Lightroom. Had no clue what I was doing. Just learning about digital photography at the time. Drove my artist friend John crazy will questions and critiques. He finally just told me to quit using subpar software (not lightroom) and get Photoshop dang it (ok, maybe he didn't say dang it, but it sounds good).

    The reason I'm so wild about PainterX is that I can do stuff in minutes that it took me days to do on the other apps.

    The only PainterX pix is the purple flowers that look like woodcut.

    Joshua Tree is a GREAT one that's for sure!!

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