WHAT IS WORSHIP

For some time, it had been on my heart to preach a message series on worship. It seems to be one of the main topics wherever and whenever Christians get together. Most conversations and strong opinions on worship normally revolve around the issue of music. it was my desire to lay the foundation for what the Bible seems to teach as life worship: every moment of every day. Then, to eventually deal with the issue of music, in particular worship music in the church.

I entitled the series: The Heart of Worship
These messages have been edited for reading purposes.
My plan is to post one of these messages every few days until it catches up to where I am right now in my preaching; and then to post my message manuscripts each week. If anyone chooses to read them and if anyone would ever want to use anything from them, they have my permission. My hope is that anyone, who might read this, will be encouraged and challenged to take the next step in their spiritual journey.

Greg

WHAT IS WORSHIP?

Please turn in your Bible to Romans, chapter 12.
Have you ever played the game “Dictionary” or “Balderdash”? It’s one of my favorites. You pick a word from the dictionary and have everyone playing the game write out a definition for the word. You then take the definitions everyone wrote, along with the real one, read them out loud; and then everyone guesses which the real definition is. Let’s try some; but I will provide the options for you. What is:

1. Tachydidaxy
A. Sticky paper
B. Extremely fast teaching
C. A Japanese candy bar
D. An inappropriate remark

2. Thumps
A. A sound beating
B. What Canadians call the mumps
C. Horse hiccups
D. Dents on a car

3. Dwang
A. A beam used in floor construction
B. How a 2 year old pronounces “dang”
C. The tail end of a baby bat
D. A jilted lover

4. Raskoliniki
A. A rascal who cuts neighbors chain link fences
B. A Siberian prisoner
C. People who do not agree with the ways of the Russian Orthodox church
D. An Australian game that is like the American game of Red Rover, Red Rover


5. Noop
A. The sharp point of the elbow
B. One of the nicknames of the rapper Snoop Dog
C. The term first used by Naismith, the creator of the game of basketball, that later became known as the basketball hoop
D. How someone from Norway might pronounce the word “nope”

You may not think the definitions of these words are that important; but these are real words with real meanings. The meanings of words are important; otherwise, our communication efforts go for naught. It is crucial to understand the meanings of the words we use. Today, we are looking at the meaning of a very important word. It is a word used often among believers and many times in connection with church. It is the word: worship. The question for today is: What is worship? What are parts of worship? Let’s continue our game for a moment:

6. Biblical worship
A. Quiet and calm
B. Loud and raucous
C. All of the above
D. None of the above

7. Biblical worship
A. 10:45 a.m. Sunday mornings
B. 7 p.m. Wednesday nights
C. 1 p.m. Thursday afternoons
D. A. and B.
E. All of the Above

8. Biblical worship
A. Organ
B. Drums
C. Piano
D. Electric guitar
E. A. and C.
F. All of the Above

9. Biblical worship
A. Shorts
B. Dresses
C. Tee shirt
D. Suit and tie
E. B. and D.
F. All of the above

10. Biblical worship
A. Music
B. Eating ice cream
C. Playing games with the family
D. Giving
E. A. and D.
F. All of the Above

How could all of these things define worship? They certainly are not full definitions; but they are things that can be a part of biblical worship. Some of these listed seemed like opposites, didn’t they? My hope is that over the course of our study of biblical worship, you will come to believe and practice all of the above as acts of worship.

This morning, I would like us to consider a good, working definition of worship.
What is worship? Perhaps the place to start is with what worship is not.

Worship is not just:
· Music
Now, music can be a part of biblical worship. If we were to be honest, this morning, we would have to admit that when we talk about worship, we end up talking about the area of music. The so-called “worship wars” that we hear going on in churches are over music. People describe what worship style they prefer, which has to do with music. No doubt, music is very important when it comes to worshiping God. But, worship is not just music. In fact, music is just a small part of worship. If you think of music only when you think of worship, you are missing something very important.

· The worship services
Corporate worship services are a great way to obey God and to worship Him together. We believe in them. There are many ways we can worship while we are here in a worship service. But, worship services do not fully define what worship is. In fact, they are only a small part of worship. If you think only of our worship services when you think of worshiping, you are missing it.

· Sunday
Traditionally, believers and many non-believers have come to believe that Sunday is the day of worship. It is a day people set aside to go to church, to rest, to remember God. No doubt, it is a day to worship God. It is the day the early church decided on to meet together, in honor of our Lord’s resurrection. But our worship cannot be limited to Sunday. In fact, it is only one out of the seven days when worship is to be taking place.

What is worship, according to the Bible?
1. Worship is a verb
In other words, worship is not about just sitting in a service, listening to a message and special music. It is about you doing something. It is about participation. We are not the audience for worship. God is. We see this in the words of the Bible that are translated “worship”.

When you study the words translated worship, you find the following:
· The English word “worship” simply means “worth-ship”
· One of the Hebrew words used for worship means: “to bow down, to pay homage”
· One of the Greek words means: “to kiss toward”
· Another Greek word means: “to serve or minister”

When you read about worship in the Scriptures, you will be reading about actions. The Psalms was the book of worship for God’s people. And guess what? It is full of actions:
· Sing
· Shout
· Bow down
· Clap your hands
· Dance
· Be quiet
· Stand up
· Bring an offering
· Lift your voice
· Lift your hands
· Play musical instruments
· Kneel

That is why we say that worship is a verb.
It is why I don’t really care for the term “auditorium” to describe this room where we meet for corporate worship. We are not the audience in worship. We are the worshippers, and God is the audience. I don’t really like the term “sanctuary” as though this is holy ground and God can only be found here. There is no perfect term, but I prefer “worship center”, because this is where we meet corporately to worship. We will see that God does not dwell here, but dwells within believers; but this is where we as believers meet in order to corporately worship Him.

What else?

2. Worship is a response
We are just getting started with another season of college and professional football; and it is isn’t difficult to tell who really loves it. Around the country today, there will be football stadiums full of people cheering for their favorite teams. There will be millions of homes tuned in on TV. And people will be responding to what they see from their team. They respond to the fact that their team is playing by wearing team shirts, hats and jerseys. They have an added excitement because their team is playing. They set aside the time of their day to either go to the stadium or watch it on TV. They pay money to go see the game, buy team merchandise or to watch it at home. You can even see some crazy people, mostly men, who have their faces or bodies painted, even during the cold snowy days coming up in the winter time. We call them fanatics.

While the game is going on, the fans at the stadium and home will respond to bad plays by their team with boos, collective sighs, disgusted looks and groans. They will respond to good plays with shouts, high fives and cheering. They will respond with all they are depending on who their team is and what happens over the 60 minute game. Following the game, the fans will respond by talking about what they saw; and they might even talk about it throughout this next week.

People respond to football in a way that could be described as worship. The way we respond to God says a lot about our worship of Him. Our response in worship is not to something as trivial or temporary as a football team. But, instead, it is a response to who God is and what He has done. In the final book of the Bible, those around God’s throne respond to whom God is and all God has done.

Revelation 4:8-11 – “And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come! And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Revelation 5:11-14 – “Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing! And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever! And the four living creatures said, Amen! And the elders fell down and worshiped.”

Every day, we are to respond to God the way football fans do on the weekends and the way these around the throne will some day. Based on who God is and what He has done, we order our lives around praising Him, not only with our words, but our lives.

Throughout Scripture, people responded to what God had done for them with worship. They would sing His praises, tell Him of His greatness, and pass along the news of how wonderful their God was. As we consider a good definition for worship, notice the idea of responding to God as an integral part of many of them.

Let me ask you to consider some good definitions of Worship:
· “The proper recognition and celebration of God, returning to Him the glory that He alone deserves and honoring Him with our lives and our words.” – David Jeremiah

· “Worship is the act and attitude of wholeheartedly giving yourself to God- spirit, soul, mind and body.” – Gerrit Gustafson

· Worship is any expression of our love to God – for who He is, what He has said, and what He’s doing.” – Rick Warren

· “Worship is our response, both personal and corporate, to God for who He is and what He has done, expressed in and by the things we say and the way we live.” – Louie Giglio

· “The total adoring response of man to the one eternal God, self-revealed in time.” – Evelyn Underhill

· “To worship is to act as an inferior before a superior.” – Joseph Garlington

· “Worship is an active response to God whereby we declare His worth.” – Ronald Allen

· “Worship is our occupation with God himself, with the greatness of his being.” – Ray Stedman

What is biblical worship?

3. Worship is a life sacrifice
This is the SO WHAT for today’s message. Since worship is a verb and worship is a response, this is how we are to respond in worship: by giving of ourselves.

Romans 12:1 – “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

You might, in your translation have the words at the end: “reasonable act of service” or something like that. Remember from the beginning of our message that one of the Greek words for worship can be translated “ministry” or “service”.

You see, the people of God were familiar with the sacrificial system. God had required, that at certain times, the people would bring an animal and the priest would sacrifice it, spilling its blood on behalf of the sins of the people. They knew that worship meant sacrifice. In fact, the continual morning and evening sacrifices described in Exodus 29:38-42 is a good picture of the continual life sacrifices we are to be making.

But here in Romans, instead of an animal, we are told to offer ourselves as a sacrifice. Well, isn’t that strange! Of course, he is not talking here about killing ourselves because he says we are to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice.

That is a tremendous challenge for us. At least, with a dead sacrifice, once you kill the animal and spill its blood, the struggle is over and the sacrifice has been made. With a living sacrifice, there is the daily struggle as to whether or not we are going to sacrifice our bodies. Perhaps we sacrificed yesterday, but that doesn’t mean we are going to remain on the altar today! The author of Romans gives us three parts of what God desires from us in worship. First, He wants your:

· Body

How do we do this? He says to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. It means that every day I am to use my body, live my life, in a way that would honor and glorify God. In fact, the next phrase describes this: “holy and acceptable to God”. Holy means “set apart” and acceptable brings to mind this idea of sacrificial worship. It was important that when God’s people gave sacrifices, that God would be pleased. It is still important with our living sacrifice – the way we live each day.

You may ask: What does this include? Paul made it clear:

Colossians 3:17 – “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

No, it is not just coming to church on Sunday for an hour that means you have worshiped God this week. Yes, it includes what you do on Sunday mornings, and how you give and how you serve. But, it also includes how you act at home, school and work. It includes the words you say, the thoughts you dwell on, and the motivations of your heart. It includes what you eat and drink, what you watch on TV or video, what you choose to do and think about when no one is looking, when no one knows. It includes everything you do on any given day. It is a life sacrifice.

You see, this is a matter of ownership. If I am the master of my life, and mankind is the originator of life, then it makes sense that we ought to worship ourselves. This is the path our world has chosen. But, if it is true that God created all things, including human life, then I know who deserves my worship. God owns everything, including my body. In fact, the Scriptures make it clear that our bodies are God’s, not ours:

I Corinthians 6:19 – “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

My application this week has been to pray each day; and to specifically tell God, at the beginning of each day that I am dying to myself that day and want to be a pleasing sacrifice to Him.

Paul’s prayer can be ours:
Philippians 1:20 – “…It is my eager expectation and hope that…Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.”

Verse 2 expands this sacrifice beyond our bodies.
Romans 12:2 – “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Yes, God wants your body, but He also wants your:

· Mind

We are to be transformed, the Bible says, by the renewing of our minds. It’s not just our bodies, but being a living sacrifice also includes our minds. We are tempted to think the way the world thinks. We are tempted to think about ourselves. Our minds must be dedicated to God and His truth in order to be a living sacrifice.

II Corinthians 10:5 – “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

Did you catch that? “Take every thought captive to obey Christ.” Do you want to worship – then you must worship with your mind. And this is a daily battle. Every day you will be tempted to think thoughts that lead you to worship yourself and others and other things. But, you must take those thoughts captive so that you can obey Christ, and thereby worship Him alone.

Luke 10:27 – “And he answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…”

This is about your body and your mind, but there is more. What were the last 2 phrases of Romans 12:2 – “…that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

God wants your body – yes. And God wants your mind – no doubt. But He also wants your:

· Will

Instead of being concerned about our wills and desires for our lives, we are to sacrifice our wills to God’s. It is what Jesus Christ did. Before Jesus went to the cross, He admitted that He would like to avoid all the upcoming pain of being crucified, then said: “…nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

It is what the disciples of Christ had to do. It is what every follower of Christ is asked to do: pursue God’s will, not your own. His will is what is good. His will is what is acceptable. And His will is what is perfect (complete).

According to these verses, you find God’s will by giving of all of yourself – your body and your mind.

It’s really a package deal, and that is the key to being a living sacrifice. It is all of who you are. It is not just your body, not just your mind, not just your will. It is not just your Sundays, not just the way you dress or the music you listen to. It is all of you – every moment of every day. That is why I have chosen a working definition (meaning it is not perfect and a work in progress) for our message series on worship.

Our working definition:
“Worship is responding to who God is and what He has done by giving ourselves completely to Him.”

Here is my challenge to you this week: That every day, you begin with a prayer like this:
God, today I give all of myself to you.
I want to be a living sacrifice for you today.
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight…” (Psalm 19:14)

As Romans 12:1 states: This is your act of spiritual worship (or service). To give all of yourself to God on a daily basis

Finally, this morning, let’s remember that :

4. Worship is about God, not us
You would think this would be a “no-brainer”, that this would not be a question, but it is actually a huge problem. Why? Because we begin to get so involved in the details of worship: giving, serving and singing, that we “forget” who this is all about. Churches fight and divide over budgets, committees and worship styles, making it more about themselves than God.

In the very first commandments of the famous 10 commandments, God said:
Exodus 20:3-6– “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

God expects that our devotion will be to Him alone. He is rightfully jealous when we give our devotion to anyone or anything else, when we make the mistake of expecting God to share our worship. Worship is about God, not us.

Martin Luther said: “A person cannot praise God only, unless he understands that there is nothing in himself worthy of praise, but that all that is worthy of praise is of God and from God. But since God is eternally praiseworthy, because he is the infinite Good and can never be exhausted, therefore they will praise him for ever and ever.”

As I said near the beginning of this message, we sometimes think that worship is about a certain day, a certain hour and a certain style of music. We get absorbed with what we like and don’t like about worship. We can easily forget that worship is not about us, but fully about God.

In his book, The Unquenchable Worshipper, Matt Redman tells a story of a song he wrote…one we are going to sing together in a few moments: “It’s not only on our personal journey with God that we can get cluttered up with distractions. When we come together as congregations, we can just as easily get thrown off course. A few years back in our church, we realized some of the things we thought were helping us in our worship were actually hindering us. They were throwing us off the scent of what it really means to worship.

We had always set aside lots of time in our meetings for worshipping God through music. But it began to dawn on us that we’d lost something. The fire that used to characterize our worship had somehow grown cold. In some ways, everything looked great. We had some wonderful musicians and a good-quality sound system. There were lots of new songs coming through too. But somehow we’d started to rely on these things a little too much and they’d become distractions. Here once people would enter in, no matter what, we would now wait to see what the band was like first, how good the sound was or whether we were into the songs chosen.

Mike, the pastor, decided on a pretty drastic course of action: We would strip everything away for a season, just to see where our hearts were. So the very next Sunday when we turned up at church, there was no sound system to be seen and no band to lead us. The new approach was simple: We weren’t going to lean so hard on those outward things anymore. Mike would say, When you come through the doors of the church on Sunday, what are you bringing as your offering to God? What are you going to sacrifice today?

If I’m honest, at first I was pretty offended by the whole thing. The worship was my job! But as God softened my heart, I started to see His wisdom all over these actions. At first the meetings were a bit awkward: There were long periods of silence, and there wasn’t too much singing going on. But we soon began to learn how to bring heart offerings to God without any of the external trappings we’d grown used to by stripping everything away, we slowly started to rediscover the heart of worship.

After a while, the worship band and the sound system reappeared, but now it was different. The songs of our hearts had caught up with the songs of our lips. Out of this season I reflected on where we had come to as a church and wrote this song:

THE HEART OF WORSHIP

SO WHAT is God asking you to do in order to have the right heart for worship?

November prayer list

Greg’s
Prayer Requests and Praises
November, 2007

Praises

1.Ecclesiastes 5:1,2 – “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.”

2. I finished the content section of my final project for school.

3. Our Go Deep With the Browns outreach event went very well. The players gave clear testimonies of faith and everything was well organized. However, probably the best outcome was that our believers were able to bring their non-believing friends and have continuing opportunities to share their own faith. One of my neighbor attended with his son, when I thought they were the least likely to show!

4. The conference in Indiana was a great encouragement to me. Granger Community Church has many great resources available. If you are interested, check out wiredchurches.com

5. We had an encouraging meeting of our life group leaders, and God seems to using these groups to help many people grow.

Requests

1.Although content is pretty much done, the formatting for my final paper for school is a major pain; and I need to finish it within the next couple weeks.

2. I have a desire to reach out more to our neighbors, building relationships in order to share Christ with them. Please pray for more opportunities.

3. I need patience – lots of it – and right away!

4. Safety and a refreshing time with my parents and brother’s family in New York over Thanksgiving.

5. Upcoming messages: November
4- Worship Series – Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?
11– Worship Series – It’s 10:45 on Sunday Morning – SO WHAT?
18– Worship Series – Vision for Grace in worship
25 – Steve Strong preaches

Halftime

Last year was the big 40. It was then that the whole idea of halftime hit me. I have loved sports as far back as I can remember, and have been used to the importance of halftime. It seemed to me that I was feeling like my life was in halftime. This thought has been on my mind for the past year, and I continue to move ahead with evaluating the past and preparing for the rest of the game of life. Below is my writing from last year, as it explains my thinking and is the basis for this blog site.

HALFTIME - written October 26, 2006

“It’s halftime.” Many times in my life, those words have brought some relief and feelings of urgency at the same time. The first thoughts centered around what had happened so far in the game. They were either thoughts of excitement because we were playing so well or they were discouraging because of how lousy we performed so far. There might be some yelling from a coach, blaming from other players or possibly a unified expression, such as a shout of praise or groan, depending on the halftime score.

The other issue at halftime, the more pressing issue was: how we need to play in the second half. If the first half was great, we were challenged with the goal of not letting down and continuing to perform at a high level. If the first half had been a disaster, then we were challenged to “pick up” our game and make an incredible turn around in the second half.

Regardless of what happened in the first half of a game, there was always a good reason to focus on what we could change – how we played the final half of the game. It would be, based on what took place in that second half, what would be talked about and remembered. We could be seen as “chokers” if we blew a first half lead and lose; or we could be seen as champions if we held the lead to the end or made an incredible comeback.

Halftime is a nice time in the game. Although we have enjoyed playing the game, we still get to out and play some more. It’s not over yet. And maybe, with the halftime evaluation and strategy, the second half can be the best part of the game; and once the game is actually over, the halftime may be seen as the turning point that led to victory.

All of a sudden, people are telling me that because of another birthday, life, for me, is on the “downswing”. I have received gifts like a cane and cards that say things like: “Here’s everything you need for your 40th Birthday (with appropriate pictures): 1. The Cake; 2. The Ice Cream; 3. The Presents; [then open the card] 4. The Hill! – Try not to think about it – Happy Birthday”. Yeah – thanks. I don’t think I like that very much. The last time I had trouble with my new age was turning 25, when I could not get out of my mind that I was a “quarter century” old.

So, as I try to think positively and pro-actively about this new age, the idea of a halftime has been rolling around in my brain. The athletic imagery described earlier could possibly be applied to my life right now. Only God knows if I am at halftime, in the 2nd quarter, middle of the 3rd, or only have a few minutes left in my “game”. But, it seems to be a great time for me to consider this to be my “halftime”.

It means I will spend some time in the next couple months really evaluating the first 40 years of my life: my victories, my defeats (seems like a lot more of those); and more importantly, God’s involvement in it all. A closer look at God’s character and actions that relate to my first half of life will allow me to see more of Him and less of my failures or achievements. He gets the glory.

Then, I will concentrate most of my time on looking ahead to the “second half” of life. What does God want me to accomplish now, regardless of victories or defeats of the past? What things need to remain constant and what things need to be changed? When my life is over, what will victory look like? I must keep in mind that the glory of God, not receiving awards or recognition from others, is my ultimate goal. In order to glorify God, what strategies need to be put in place for the “second half” of life?

I am excited about this life project over the next several months. After all of the “condolences” I have received for my birthday, it is nice to have something positive to look forward to! I am open to your suggestions for how to evaluate my first half and how to plan for the second. I would appreciate your thoughts or stories of what you have done. My purpose for this life project is to be able, at the final buzzer, to say with Paul:

II Timothy 4:7 – “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

May God give you the grace to see your life as He sees it, and to live it to the fullest extent of joy, for His glory!

Greg


One of the resources I began using several months ago, and am still working through is a book entitled "Chazown" by Craig Groeschel. It is leading me through the process of understanding my personal core values, spiritual gifts, life mission, and the corresponding goals that go with it. I have enjoyed my journey through the book so far, and I look forward to ways in which it will assist me in the strategy for the 2nd Half.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

It's a boy!
Perhaps those words were spoken on October 26, 1966 at 4:21 a.m.
8 pounds, 12 ounces - a bouncing, crying (I assume) baby boy (this I know for sure)
That is where it all began - this life journey - atleast in terms of my human experience.

I used to love to hear those words - Happy Birthday! Those words basically meant 3 wonderful things: PRESENTS, ICE CREAM, CAKE (Chocolate)! I suppose those things continue on, but somehow they aren't as exciting as they were years ago. Happy Birthday, these days, reminds me of how quickly life is passing, how faithful of a God I have; and chocolate cake (that's probably permanent)

There are certain days where I sense some type of inspiration to chart my journey in some way. Whether it is my birthday or the beginning of a new year, I think about, or actually start, writing in some type of journal. I guess, this year, I advanced technologically in my thinking; and after some late night pizza, decided to start blogging. Normally, my journaling activity lasts anywhere from a couple of days to a month or so. I usually think it will last a lot longer. This time around, I've decided to take it a day at a time and see what happens - how is that for strategic planning!

As for the name of my blog, I will explain that in my next post. I don't expect anyone to actually read these things, but if you are, let me first say - sorry! Secondly, let me say - thanks. I am pretty sure there is atleast one person who will read this - hi mom! Somehow I sense that she had a lot to do with what took place 41 years ago today; and probably wishes that I would share more of what is going on in my heart and life - at least more than I have shared in the past several years. So, mom, hope you enjoy!

Finally, let me say that I have no idea what I am doing. Those of you who actually understand blogging and what can be done on a site like this can be of great assistance to me. Please feel free to give me some ideas - keep it simple for my simple, fading mind please!

Enjoy this day - the next day of your wonderful journey.
Time to go eat cake!