Shout!

I've decided to start a blog. I wasn't really sure what to call it, or what the format should be, or what I should "blog" about, but I just figured it would be a good way to share with people I love what is going on in my life with a little bit more detail.

So here we have it: A Joyful Noise! I noticed a poster in my mentor teacher's room yesterday that said "Make a joyful noise" and I thought, Wow, I've never seen that poster before in her room. And then I thought, Yes! Yes, we should!! Needless to say I stole the name from a poster that stole the name from the Bible, Psalm 100:1

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

My Bible says

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.

You know what? Shout, sing, dance, laugh, serve, eat a pickle, vacuum your house, go shopping at a thrift store, work at a crummy job. Anything with joy to the Lord! As a matter of fact, if you keep reading Psalm 100, it goes on to say in verse 2

SERVE the Lord with gladness; Come before Him with joyful SINGING.

Huh. Waddya know? The rest of this chapter is so good, I'm just going to go ahead and share the rest of it with you!

Know that the Lord Himself is God;

It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and

His courts with praise. Give thanks to

Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good;

His lovingkindness is everlasting and His

faithfulness to all generations.

Friends, there are so many reasons to be joyful in the Lord. And so many ways to express that joy. So I encourage you, to rejoice, REJOICE in the Lord... ALWAYS! Again I will say REJOICE! (Philippians 4:4) FACT: words relating to 'joy' in the Bible, i.e. joyful, rejoice, gladness, etc. numbers over 570 times!!! 574 to be exact. I counted. Well, I added them up on a calculator after I did a word search online. But still. And I'm sure I forgot some synonyms to the word 'joy', so there might even be more! Wow! So, despite whatever is going on in life, we can have joy because we have Christ. And that, is something to shout about!

Joyfully singing,

lisa