Tag Archive - thanks

[QOTW] A Message of Breathtaking Freedom

July 7, 2011 in QOTW with 0 Comments

“The gospel of grace is a message of breathtaking freedom. It must be embraced with faith and thanksgiving. You are thoroughly accepted just as you are.

Jesus Christ is your righteousness and he is never going to change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When you wake tomorrow, he will still be your righteousness, before you have done anything to enjoy God’s favour. You have to earn nothing.

Your spirit needs to bask in the brilliant sunlight of this reality. You need to know it inwardly and celebrate it on a daily basis.”

— Terry Virgo, God’s Lavish Grace, (Oxford, UK: Monarch Books, 2003), 40

Why We Are to Fully Worship…Always

June 21, 2011 in Worship with 1 Comment

One weekend, I shared these verses with the worship team:

Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations. He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn— shout for joy before the LORD, the King. (Psalm 98:1-6)

Sing for joy to God our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob! (Psalm 81:1)

Shout with joy to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious! Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you. All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing praise to your name.” Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man’s behalf! (Psalm 66:1-5)

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. (Psalm 95:1-3)

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. (Psalm 100)

Did you notice anything about these verses? Continue Reading…

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…

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: 11/21/10

November 24, 2010 in Sunday Setlist with 2 Comments

This past Sunday was our annual Thanksgiving focused service. While every week should be a week of gratitude and thanksgiving in life and worship for a Christ-follower, it’s good at times to draw our attention back to this important discipline.

So, we gathered as the Body of Christ to give thanks and to be reminded of why this is so important. We took time to allow people to verbally give thanks out load as we are instructed to do in places like Psalm 145:9-12. It was great to hear the different ways and things people are thankful for in relation to God, His presence in our lives, and what He is doing and providing.

The final part of our pre-service segment was a video from Floodgate Productions called “A Thanksgiving Welcome.”

Our worship together began with a Not to Us (Tomlin/Reeves). We had people greet during a instrumental bridge, and then finished the song singing together. Continue Reading…

Sunday Setlist: 11/22/09

November 24, 2009 in Sunday Setlist with 0 Comments

generous living 4We finished up the final week of our three week mini-series on Generous Living this week. The thrust was that generosity inspires more generosity, and we tied that in with a strong thanksgiving theme. A thankful heart is a generous heart. As we are thankful and grateful to the Lord for all He provides and does, we are more likely to want to be generous since we recognize that all we have comes from His graciousness.

It was a great time of being together and giving thanks. May we not only give thanks at this time of the year, but may we always be thankful people. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. (Psalm 100:4) Continue Reading…

Forget Not

November 21, 2009 in Ponderings, Worship with 1 Comment

I have heard about you, LORD, and I am filled with awe by the amazing things you have done. Show us your power to save us. (Habakkuk 3:2 nlt)

Something that has struck me as important recently is the significance of remembering. When I lead, I’ll often ask God to help us remember who He is, what He has done, and how He wants us to live. I do this rather frequently. You may wonder, why?

The aspect of remembering is huge for us. We go to great lengths to remember things that are important like significant moments in life, treasured relationships, birthdays, and more. We do so through pictures, videos, treasures, and conversations to help jog our memories. We feel sad when people forget about events that were meaningful to us, and it’s heartbreaking to watch some people forget as they age. We will also go to great lengths to block memories of situations that were painful, hurtful, or destructive.

Remembering is a huge necessity in our lives. We need to remember the stories, memories, and commitments of our life because we are forgetful people and are easily distracted. When we don’t remember, we lose a part of ourselves. We forget how God has used the events of life to shape us and reveal Himself to us. Author Robert Webber once wrote that “forgetting brings death, but remembering brings life.”

God knew this about us. As sin entered the world, He knew that we would need help in remembering who He is and what He told us. You can trace this theme throughout the Bible. God constantly told the Old Testament Israelites to build monuments to remind them and their children of the great things He did for them. He encouraged them to takes steps to remember His grace and mercy so that would not get distracted by other gods. He wrote down the 10 Commandments so they would not forget the essential things to live a God-honoring life.

As the early church began to meet, they meet weekly on the first day intentionally so that they would not forget the importance of the resurrection. Meeting together in fellowship was important throughout the week so that they would not forget each other or what God was doing. The writer of Hebrews recognized the importance of this as he told his readers to not give up meeting together. God’s message for us was that when we stop meeting together, we stop remembering and begin to forget.

So, why is remembering the greatness and character of God so important? When we remember, we are not distracted by temporary things or drawn away into sin. I think author David Powlison captures it well. “If you could remember just one true thing in the moment of trial, you’d be different. Bible ‘verses’ aren’t magic. But God’s words are revelations of God from God for our redemption. When you actually remember God, you do not sin. The only way we ever sin is by suppressing God, by forgetting, by tuning out his voice, switching channels, and listening to other voices.”

Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. (Psalm 103:2 niv)