sounds from asia

I was asked to give a short talk on worship recently, focusing on the characteristics and attitude of a worship team member.

As i looked into the word 'attitude', I was fascinated but the definition that relates to aircraft attitude. The basic definition is that aircraft attitude is a composite of a number of factors, based mainly on the direction facing, rather than the current direction of travel. So, for example, if a falling aircraft has its nose pointed above the horizon, it will gradually slow its descent and begin to rise. It is said to have a climbing attitude, even though it is falling (initially).

We had the privilege of Matt Redman & Louie Giglio in town at the weekend. Another AboutLifer has linked to some great video footage of the night.

I've been following Matt Redman's music since the early 90s, and have really enjoyed his leading at Soul Survivor festivals, so I was really looking forward to the event. It was an awesome evening, in front of a sold out crowd, and it was so encouraging to see so many worshipping passionately.

This devotional intrigued me on Saturday. The difference between how Christians and non-Christians appear has always fascinated me and A W Tozer's comments throw new light on the topic.

I'm not sure that we are "most sinless when we feel the most sinful." Is this really true? And what parts of the Bible illustrate this? I can certainly understand that the act of confession is so essential in accepting God's gift of forgiveness as it draws us back to him; perhaps this is what A W means.

This coming Sunday is the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slade trade. On 25th March, 1807, the slave trade act was passed after much campaigning by William Wilberforce and other Christians, making the slave trade illegal in the British empire. Other nations, including America, Sweden and the Netherlands quickly followed suit and passed similar laws.

I finally got round to watching the latest Bond film (Casino Royal) last week, after signing up to the local video store. The video store was something I've been putting off for months because you can buy movies on VCD here for less than a pound (about a fifth of the price of a cinema ticket). But, the thing is, the better movies are never the cheap ones, so we end up buying movies we only want to watch once, and then we suddenly have more movies than we know what to do with.

Well, here it is. At last I'm finally entering the world of Aboutlife, after watching from afar for a while.

The main thing that prompted me to start this blog was a retreat I attended last month, hosted by the WorshipCentral guys (highly recommend it if you get the chance to go). It was great to meet other worship leaders in similar roles to me. I decided it was AboutTime I found a way to share thoughts and new songs with others involved in worship, and AboutLife seems to do that well.