festival of praise day one of three...

i wouldn't say much about the praise session.. because i come from a presbyterian church, and i don't practice much of raising my hands up in the air; much less jumping around or dancing around while singing... but the songs chosen were at least familiar, and so i could at least sing along...

but the message presented by Rev. Dr. Phil Pringle is good... he tells us to be happy, and that being happy is the first step in pleasing God... well, it's logic, and yet we don't really see it till somebody brings it up.. God would certainly prefer the world's 6.5 billion people telling him "oh dad, what a lovely day. Thanks for everything, I love you so much"; rather than "oh my God, why is my life so screwed up"... but of course, he doesn't only want to hear praises, he wants us to be close to him and tell him everything... but being happy is better than being sad. Period. Another thing, is that we're all living in this planet, and going through [more or less] the same problems... so what difference does it make for a christian to go around "oh man, my life sucks!!!"??? any tom dick or harry can do it, and maybe even pepper it with some colourful hokkien vulgarities... the christian life should stand out from the rest because we are a bunch of people saved and made new again by the grace of God; we are a bunch of people who knows that the suffering we have here on earth is temporary and the joy and blessing that awaits for us in heaven is more than sufficient to cover over all our sorrows on this planet... so we should be happy!!!