Comments on: Just Let me Say

By: Ai

Ai — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:03:15 +0000

Heard the re-writes only yesterday at church. It’s really beautiful and reminded me to focus on God’s love for us, more than mine/ours for Him, for it is indeed all about God’s love. Thanks Geoff!

By: Dean

Dean — Fri, 07 Oct 2005 05:14:39 +0000

Only of late have I fully started praise God for all he’s done for us… not all the good we do. I was always so focused on how much I have done for my family and church… and i felt empty and unsatisfied because i know how blemished with sin i am. I’m just a sinner.. how is it possible for a sinner to boast of themselves… but i did.

it’s refreshing to know when we praise God instead of man, His blessings fall on us… it’s awesome to feel his love and grace for us… inspite of the wretched souls we are… praise God for His loving kindness, mercy and grace!

By: » Geoff Bullock rewrite index » » Blog Archive » Signposts

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 11:41:37 +0000

[…] d/”> Have faith in God You rescued me The power of your love The heavens shall declare Just let me say […]

By: geoff bullock

geoff bullock — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 00:41:32 +0000

I’m with you Christina… lovely name.. Christ in a .. girl! I know the presence of God, beyond feelings or even knowing. He is so everywhere.. why is he represented as being purely the property of the club, living in the clubhouse purely for the benefits of the members… how purile.. mmmm.. very cynical today, and a touch angry.. how dare we demand God to be who we say he is and damn any other revelation… surely the Christmas story shoes God in disguise coming to us!!! No wonder the carols are still a focus of the nation!

By: Christina

Christina — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 11:32:41 +0000

Love the rewrites Geoff, and your reflections have both challenged and inspired my thinking about worship - in my own life, and in church. It seems so simple, focussing on what God has done and continues to do as we worship, rather than ourselves and our actions to him. It is amazing how this can be subtly shifted, with the church barely noticing. Your reflection on the presence of God being equated with feelings is interesting. I think that it is easy to be guilty of equating God’s presence with how we are feeling. How often have I heard (or even said) that “I didn’t feel anything in worship”. For me, I most often sense God with or within me when I am pounding a trail in the bush, watching a sunset, flailing about in the surf. Sometimes words are not required.

By: geoff bullock

geoff bullock — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 12:55:39 +0000

Hi Anthony..it’s the simplicity of The Christas story. We spend so much time “trying to get to God”.. the truth is far more miraculous. He chooses to come to us, to you and to me. It doesn’t matter whether we “know” it or not.. God’s precence is not dependant on our “knowing”, he is present because he has chosen to be. Yet, God has chosen to do much more than come to us, he has chosen to come “into” us. How much more wondrous can he get?

By: Anthony

Anthony — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 01:51:15 +0000

I am really enjoying reading some of the re-writes; thanks Geoff.

Your story of grace and discovering hope and love in the wilderness has been challenging for me - in a good sense. I also like the wording of finding that the desert is sacred space, because God is already there - much like the story of Moses and the Israelites. Crying out for God to be present and God’s response is always quite simple
Take off your sandals for you are standing on holy ground.
I will be standing there in front of you
images of fire and cloud

I begin to wonder, do I know God is present. Thought I did; your words have . . . I don’t know, can’t seem to express right now . . .

By: just_nigel

just_nigel — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 00:55:50 +0000

I don’t see a problem with society linking love and sexuality - there should be a link. I don’t see a problem with Christians associating love of God with the sexual.

I do see two different threats to society:
1) dissociating sexuality from love
2) reducing love to just sexuality

Christop, I agree the “Jesus-is-my-boyfriend” school has grown out of a culture at risk of the second threat, where love of Jesus is only about how you feel and an implied need to be attractive enough to get it etc.

By: Christop

Christop — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 00:15:06 +0000

I’m wondering if the emergence and popularity of the ‘Jesus is my boyfriend’ songs has anything to do with our society’s association of love with the sexual?

By: just_nigel

just_nigel — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 00:12:11 +0000

Geoff says:
“There is no point in singing Davidic psalmody based lyrics. David had to plead with God to be merciful. Do we need to plead for God’s mercy? No”

I agree we don’t need to plead for God’s mercy for God to be merciful - since God already is merciful.
But maybe there is a need within us to plead for mercy - I know I have felt that. At such a time I loved the Davidic psalm ‘Create in me a clean heart’. Crying out to God for salvation reinforces that it is God who saves and not the other things we may try to fill our lives with. And if we are sad who better to cry out to?

For all the times we have been told to shout to the Lord, it is probably time for us to cry to the Lord or shut up and listen to the Lord a bit more now.

I think we need to broaden the expressions of worship to include more human experiences, and the Psalms (or all the scriptures really) are a terrific example for this. I wasn’t trying to argue for NO “Jesus-is-my-boyfriend” songs or “teenage-fairy-floss-sensuality” just LESS of that and for it to be ballanced by a lot more mature and more nutritious stuff.

Geoff, We could call your rewrites “fiber-enriched”