Tag Archive - prayer

3 Influencing Factors when Getting Ready to Meet the Savior of our Soul

June 10, 2011 in Worship with 2 Comments

Image credit: clarasoon via www.sxc.hu

Each week, there is the opportunity to gather with others to worship by expressing praise, adoration, devotion, submission, and gratitude to the King of kings and Lord of lords – to the One who paid it all when we could not. For many, it is the highlight of their week to gather with others in the name of Jesus Christ.

But for others, the perspective of this time is skewed. The gathering is just an isolated event in a weekly string of events. It’s simply one more thing to do. We do not come prepared; we leave being no different, and perhaps wonder why we came.

But when taking a broad, biblical view of worship and the body of Christ, we remember that the gathering together of the saints for worship is the culmination of a week of living worship. It is a time to come together and remember, celebrate, ponder, pray, rejoice, encourage, and be renewed. When we approach this time with our spiritual eyes open and our hearts and minds ready to engage with God and with His people, it is no longer one more thing on our calendars. It is a can’t miss encounter with the the glorious God who loves us immensely and gave His Son for our wretched sin.

Yet in the midst of messy lives, people often miss the significance of the corporate gathering. Continue Reading…

Worshiping Together: 6/5/2011

June 7, 2011 in Sunday Setlist with 2 Comments

I had the opportunity to lead worship this weekend for the first time since concluding at the church I was previously a part of. We’re in a season of transition, waiting for what God has next for us. You can catch up on our transition in this post.

In the meantime, we’re living in Toledo, and volunteering at a church re-plant lead by a great friend of ours. It’s great to be able to serve with him in this time.

This past Sunday had a focus on one of the core aspects of the denomination we’re part of, the Christian & Missionary Alliance. The focus was on the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20, Acts 1:8) and what it means to be a part of that as a church.

The service went like this: Continue Reading…

[QOTW] Prayer and the work of Christ

April 7, 2011 in QOTW with 0 Comments

Prayer involves much more than just presenting our requests. It must include our worship, devotion, praise and our thanksgiving. We must also come into the presence of God in the right attitude, confessing our sin and seeking his forgiveness. We have no rights per se to present anything to God except through the finished work of Christ on Calvary.

— John Murray, If We Only Knew, (USA: Xulon Press, 2009), 37

Worshiping Together: 3/20/2011

March 24, 2011 in Sunday Setlist with 0 Comments

Sorry for posting this a bit later in the week. It’s been a bit busy for me as I work on wrapping up ministry at in my current role and prepare for moving.

We kicked off a new series this week that will take the church up through Easter Sunday called “Who is Jesus?”. Over the next number of weeks, there will be the opportunity to remember and reflect upon some different qualities and characteristics of Jesus as painted in the Bible. It’s important to see Christ as more than just our Savior. For one, He is more than that. For another, our identity is found in Christ as Christians, and if we don’t know who He is, we won’t know who we are.

The following quote from Henry Scougal in The Life of God in the Soul of Man,  captures it well: True religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the Divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or, in the apostle’s phrase, ‘it is Christ formed within us.’ Having a clear picture of Jesus helps us know who Christ is and what it is that is being formed in us. Continue Reading…

Worshiping Together: 3/6/11

March 9, 2011 in Sunday Setlist with 0 Comments

This week was the final week of the Love God, Love Others series. We’ve spent the last many weeks looking at the letters of John in seeking to understand the connection between our faith in God and our relationships with one another in the Body of Christ. We know these letters as 1, 2, & 3 John.

For the final week, we combined the short letters, almost postcards, of John known as 2 & 3 John. These are real short letters with some focuses on specific people and situations. They seem to be little notes of John where he is acknowledging how the church is living what he wrote about and encouraging them to continue to do so. We might look at them as the “practical application” part of a message. As we wrapped the series up, we focused on and encouraged the practical living out of all that we have learned. Continue Reading…

Worshiping Together: 1/23/11

January 26, 2011 in Sunday Setlist with 0 Comments

Genuine love of God will always be seen in how we love others. Our faith and relationship with God must spill over onto others if it is sincere. That is our overriding thrust as we continue to journey through the letters of the Apostle John.

This week, we were in 1 John 2:18-29 as we remembered that there is no other way to Jesus. Everything else is a counterfeit, or anti-Christ. Are there are lots of those around. In addition, just as Christ laid down His life for us, we should be willing to lay down our lives for our brothers, especially those in the family of God. That doesn’t mean we’ll need to give up our life, but be willing to perhaps live it for the sake of someone else. Simple truths that are often challenging to live out. Continue Reading…

A Changing Season for Us

January 18, 2011 in Personal with 10 Comments

I’ve always been fascinated with how we use the word ‘season’ in the church world to refer to the different phases and periods of our life. And when we begin to move out of one period into a new period (hopefully because God is leading us to do so), we refer to the changing seasons in our life.

Beck and I find ourselves in one of those times of change. This past Sunday (Jan 16 2011), we announced to the church where we currently serve that our season of ministry with them is coming to a close. As of March 31, 2011, we will no longer serve our current church as Worship Pastor. There are a lot of factors that are at play here, and we are responding to the obvious signs that it is time.

The challenge is that we do not know what will be our next step. We are confident that God will provide for us another church ministry opportunity. We are sure of His call on our lives and that He has equipped us as He has with gifts, passions, and abilities for the purpose of serving in pastoral roles. Part of that calling (at least in this ‘season’ of life) is using worship and the arts to creatively tell and engage people with God’s story so that we together can remember and respond.

Please join us in prayer at this time. Pray that the period of transition with go smoothly and be God-honoring. Pray that He will provide that next place of ministry at just the right time. Granted, we would prefer that right time to be by the end of March, but we know that God will provide what we need when we need it.

I’ve included the text of what was shared by me to the church family on Sunday. Feel free to click through for the full content.

Thanks.

Continue Reading…

Worshiping Together: 8/15/10

August 16, 2010 in Sunday Setlist with 0 Comments

The Sunday kicked off the final series of our current senior pastor. As I’ve mentioned before, we are entering into a time of transition in the life of Cody CMA. Over these next few weeks, he’ll be wrapping up ministry here and preparing the church with some biblical counsel for the next season of life.

The metaphor of the hand-off comes from relay races where one runner has to hand a baton off to the next runner to keep the race going. It has to be done correctly so that the team is not disqualified and so they don’t loose precious time in a tight race. When done correctly, it is a thing of beauty that just happens. When done poorly, everyone’s attention is drawn to it and the price can be high.

This past Sunday, we spent time in the book of Philippians talking about gratefulness and thanksgiving. Our service focused on calling people to gratitude and thanksgiving in a number of ways. Continue Reading…

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