Tag Archives: Worship

A Comedians Feedback on Worship

Tim Hawkins is bringing some real funny comedy to the Christian subculture.

I love it.

I hope you get a laugh too.

What’s Freedom in Christ? Can I do anything I want?

I read the following post from WorshipTraining.com with Dan Wilt and thought it did a good job of answering this question succinctly.

Holiness. From Matthew 5:20 in The Message: “Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won’t know the first thing about entering the kingdom.”

If Jesus brings to us any one characteristic of the heart of the Father, it is that God is gracious and redemptive. Freedom rules in the Kingdom of God, but it is not a freedom that grows without parameters. To be truly free is to recognize that our emotions and backgrounds can lead us into ways that destroy our very freedom in Christ. Right living is understanding what nurtures our spiritual freedom and living within those liberating borders.

His prayer:

Lord, I want to understand the freedom that is found in Kingdom living. Teach me your path to freedom.

Amen to that.

What does freedom in Christ mean to you? Do you agree or disagree with this quote?

Quote of the Day: Christian Singing

“Why do Christians sing when they are together? The reason is, quite simply, because in singing together it is possible for them to speak and pray the same Word at the same time; in other words, because they can unite in the Word.”

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, p. 59

Christ is Risen with Incredible Poetry – Music Monday

 

Yeah. I’m going to go out on a limb and say this might be the most incredible poetry you’ll hear all year. David Bowden does an unbelievable job.

Just hit play. You’ll be impressed at the 2:50 mark. Or at least I was.

And I saw him: Death, with his mighty sting, exhaling in every breath the plight he brings. To the grave he gave victory…

Triumphing over life with the fear of endless sleep. Endlessly, we hide from our mortality. Mortally wounded from birth

We lie to ourselves from infancy, infinitely investing time in a life that will inevitably be taken by this incredible creature that stands before me:

Death

He manifests himself on ordinary days. His 6-foot stomach growls with hunger pangs.

For his meal, he cannot wait. So we are forced to taste him even before the grave.

We are all dying, there is no other way. I see him in Haitian and Japanese earthquakes. He’s hating the escapees of his cruel wakes.

I see him in poverty impoverishing the quality of life for regions that are reachable, and in those with the

reach who find reason not to reach out to treat what is treatable. I see him in disease taking life out of uninfected yet affected families.

I see him in oppression, pressing down on the oppressed and the oppressor.

I see him in depression, in Prozac and pain pills, in razor blades and bed-side wills. I see him in abuse: physical, mental, emotional misuse.

I see him in spiritual confusion, material obsession, physical possessions. I see him in marital transgressions, childhood remorse from an ugly divorce.

I see him in our slavery to appearances, appearing to care more about our images than those in dying villages.

I see him in our ignorance, ignoring truth for some comfortable inference.

I see his emergence in our churches as we pull out emergency verses as deterrents to religious differences, going on the defensive, defending our way of worship, making community worthless.

Death is killing us before we even enter the surface of the earth. We are in the service of his words, “It is finished”; the end of our birth.

We cannot hide from his wretched curse. For death and his grave we constantly rehearse.

Even God himself was coerced. Divinity immersed itself in humanity, humbly taking on flesh, scorning vanity.

The world saw his way of life as insanity. Insisting he cease speaking of his radical Christianity. But Man found him guilty, accusing God of blasphemy.

Performing the ultimate usurpation by slaying Christ on Calvary.

But through their cowardly cross, Jesus embossed mankind with amnesty, championing over death with the beauty of his fatal injury.

And I know, many still doubt, and rightfully so, bringing up this inquiry? What does that poor Jewish man dying on a Roman tree 2,000 years ago have to do with me?

I reply simply: Christ came and died to marry his bride to be.

And though death could kill the groom, it could not kill the ring. God made us one with Christ and life in matrimony’s cling.

Now, the undying church, his ever-living wife can sing.

Oh Death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory? For we have risen above your misery! We will not succumb to your finality!

We have overcome your infamous mystery! In the infinite reign of Christ’s ministry! For we are the resurrection!

The insurrection of fatality! We are the risen deity, the intersection of a dead yet living body! We live through imperfections, for we died to become holy!

We cannot be contained by the mouth of the grave. We are the willing slaves to the one who rose from the garden cave.

We have passed through death to new birth.

We gave the grave to the earth, and we claim today the cross’ worth! The body of his rising!

We are the risen church.

Christ is Risen. Amen?

Sojourn Music – Music Monday Recommendation

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Worship Leader Magazine’s Top 12 Songs


Here is a list of Worship Leader Magazine’s Top 12 Songs:

Our church has been really digging, “God Be Praised” for the past few months, but not the same song that is on this list. “God Be Praised” by Desperation Band (found here) is good, but we really like the less popular “God Be Praised” by Gateway Worship. You should check that out.

Also, if you’d like all these tracks (mp3′s), Worship Leader Magazine is doing a promo that you get it all for free, including the charts, if you subscribe this month.

Slick deal. Click here to do so.

[Note: This is not an affiliate link or am I receiving any benefit from WLM. Just pointing you there for information on a good deal.]

My Day Today

calendar

One of the things Sarah and I love to do is share what happened in our days at the dinner table.  I generally forget about 80% of my day, so today I decided to write down some of the things that happened in my day.  Since I frequently get asked what a typical day looks like for me, I thought I would post it today.

  • Read/Commented on Proverbs 4 at the rCalvary church blog
  • Wrote a couple of thank you notes
  • Re-arranged a worship schedule problem
  • Called a potential youth teacher for a vacant week this month
  • Picked out a book (and my top 5 picks) to do later this Spring for our youth group
  • Cleaned my desktop from being filled with icons
  • Cleaned off my work desk
  • Contacted a Flower City Work Camp Executive Leader about an adult problem (and sent another note to someone with updated health insurance information)
  • Responded to ~25 emails in my inbox from the weekend.
  • Researched and wrote a youth group lesson for tomorrow based on the book of Proverbs (this was the biggest chunk of my day – probably 3 hours).
  • Had my ever-important lunch with the secretary
  • Uploaded, edited, and printed pictures for Girls Ministries and Christmas decorations
  • Filled out a leader recommendation form for Flower City Work Camp and mailed it (after a phone conversation)
  • Planned some worship and video ideas for FCWC as part of helping serve on the programming team
  • Hung up some sweet artwork we filmed for the Kids Christmas Play on my door (Picture below)

mikayla-art

  • Checked up on a student from church who was in the hospital on Sunday
  • Tweeted” (love this word)
  • Posted a video of Tim Keller which explores “What the Bible is Basically About” to my Posterous Site and Facebook
  • Watched a sermon on Proverbs
  • Set up my multiple meet-ups for the week with people
  • Came up with a creative way to address some of our student’s doubts that the told our youth team when we did a series on Doubt last year (pretty excited about this)
  • Made the final decision with Steve about how we would be backing up the computers at church (short-term and long-term)
  • Helped begin to clean out the sound closet with Kevin
  • Got about 30 notifications of about 50 new friends I suggested for Pastor Bob (our lead pastor)
  • Gave two friends public speaking advice (still confused why they asked me, but I hope I helped)
  • Filled in information for 12 youtube videos (still private, but public soon)
  • Made a couple of changes to Sarah and I’s new budget.  We are planning to track every dollar we spend this year.  We’ll see how long this lasts.
  • Talked to a parent about a potential FCWC problem with some students.
  • Put up a promo on facebook about youth group tomorrow

Then, I came home and had a nice night with Sarah.  I would call this a “typical” Tuesday for me (except I normally have a meeting with Pastor Bob, but he was out of the office all day).

What was your day like today?  Anything exciting?