 How Could We Sing (Video/Chord Chart)I thought it would be cool to do a video series of some of our Worship Songs and show you how they sounded when they were originally written...if you want to play this song in your own personal worship or add it to the worship repetoire of your church, here is a link to download the lyrics and chords. Enjoy...
Jun 9, 2008 | 0 comments
One Life Between UsThere is a new song on our Acoustic Demo called, "One Life Between Us". It is probably playing on the player now if you have your sound turned on. The song talks about our relationship with Christ and it's just about every day I realize how far away I am from being where God wants me to be. There always seems to be something in the way.
Recently, in sunday school class, we briefly studied the story of Christ confronting the Rich Young Ruler. I have always thought about that story quite literally...the Rich Young Ruler asked what he had to do to enter the Kingdom of Heaven...Christ told him to follow the Law of Moses or the 10 Commandments...the Rich Young Ruler said that he had followed them...then Christ told him to sell everything he had and give it to the poor...we know the Rich Young Ruler was hurt by this response and we never hear from him again...so we assume that he never did enter the Kingdom of Heaven...but what Christ said to him spoke about so much more than just salvation... My Sunday School teacher said it best...in summing up Christ's words, he made this statement...Christ effectively said, "This is what's standing between you and me". Those words just stuck with me...I couldn't get them out of my head..."This is what's standing between you and me." And there's always something...always something standing in the way of that perfect relationship that we can have...even the things that we think are good can stand between us and Christ...our jobs, our families, even our church... Paul talks about it in almost every book that he wrote in the new testament...when people look at us, they should see Christ. They should see His Sacrifice, His Obedience and His Love... John the Baptist said it best in John 3:30, "He must increase, but I must decrease". Some of the lyrics of the song are: Open my hands Let go of all my perfect plans Pick up my feet Leave me where grace and weakness meet Patient Love - Take my breath Perfect Love - Be my death Til' there's only One Life Between Us Pray that Christ takes your breath this week...
Apr 3, 2008 | 1 comment
Answered Prayer?2 Kings 5:13
Prayer is such a powerful thing for the Christian. God tells us that if we ask anything in accordance with His will, He will give it to us. Even when we don’t pray for what God has in mind, sometimes He will still give us what we ask for… And when we pray, we really do expect God to answer. If we didn’t, then what would be the point in praying? There are so many things that we can and should be praying for…we pray for forgiveness, we pray for guidance, we pray for healing…the list of petitions that we have no problem asking God to listen to goes on and on… Our problem comes in accepting His answers to our prayer. 2 Kings 5 tells us the story of Naaman, an army commander-in-chief, a man with a great deal of power that also commanded a great deal of respect. His only problem was that he had leprosy. A young girl told him that a prophet of God, Elisha, would be able to heal him. So Naaman set out to find Elisha and be healed. When Naaman found Elisha, Elisha sent a messenger to the door to give Naaman instructions on how to be healed. The messenger told Naaman to wash in the Jordan River. It’s Naaman’s reaction that is so typical of us… He has just been told that his leprosy would be healed if he washed 7 times in the Jordan River. Naaman’s terminal disease would be completely taken away if he did this one thing… Instead of running to the river and doing as the prophet of God had instructed, Naaman started questioning the method… Weren’t there better rivers? Shouldn’t Elisha have met me face to face? Wouldn’t a more “miraculous” or “flamboyant” ceremony have been more appropriate? This is certainly not the answer I was expecting… Today we pray the same prayers and we give God the same reactions. God, aren’t there better people we can minister to? God, shouldn’t someone else meet that need? God, wouldn’t a miraculous healing prove more effective than my suffering? Take a minute today to evaluate some of the answers God is giving you…is there really a better way than what God has prepared?
Dec 19, 2007 | 0 comments
When the going gets tough...Scripture – Joshua 7: 6-9
Have you ever felt like Joshua? Have you ever asked God, “Why wasn’t I content with what I had? Why did I have to make a fool of myself? Why did I make a fool of God?” Joshua had just experienced one if his greatest victories at Jericho. God had recently given Joshua instructions to be “bold and courageous” (Joshua 1:6). He had been promised victory over nation after nation. Joshua’s call was to inherit the Promised Land. And now here Joshua stood, defeated by an army that should have taken only a fraction of his resources to overcome. So his obvious question is “Why wasn’t I content? Why did I have to make a fool of myself? Why did I make a fool of God?” We are in this position so many times ourselves…we feel we’ve been called to talk to a friend about Christ, to help a neighbor in Christian love, to take on a ministry within our church or to reach a community for Christ. We accept God’s calling. We have a few victories, things are going in the right direction and then we stumble. What once seemed possible through Christ, even promised to us by God, is now a cause for embarrassment. Our friend rejects the gospel message, our neighbor returns our kindness with spiteful gossip, our church isn’t happy with our approach to ministry or our community decides that we are excluding more people than we are including. We wonder why we weren’t content with what we had…we were much happier and more comfortable this time last week or last year. The awesome thing is…that’s exactly where God wants us to be. God’s condition to Joshua was only that he be obedient to God’s commands (Joshua 1:7). Joshua was to dedicate himself to God’s service. He was to meditate on his words and his law. We are called to do the same. The life of a Christian is a life of obedience. Our obedience is never an embarrassment to God. It is one of the best ways to show that we truly do love him (John 15:9-10). So, take a minute today and see where you can be more obedient…should you be sharing Christ with a friend today? Should you be helping your neighbor? Should you be taking on a ministry? Should you be reaching a community for Christ?
Nov 26, 2007 | 0 comments
Spring has Sprung...Spring has sprung…or so it seems. And that can only mean one thing… Easter is just around the corner. More grass is growing in our yards, more flowers are gathering around the pulpit and more people are gathering in the pews. It’s a perfect time for believers to share the opportunity for new life that our Risen Lord has provided. It’s also the time of year when most of us dig back in to the greatest story ever told, the story of Christ’s three year ministry here on earth. And every year, it seems like I find a part of the story that I had never heard before. This year happens to be no exception. I started with the story as told by Luke. I read about Christ being baptized, how he received the Holy Spirit and headed to the wilderness for forty days to be tempted by none other than Satan himself. And then I reached the second half of the fourth chapter…
Jesus had returned to his boyhood home. He went to church on Saturday and stood up to read from the scriptures. He opened to the book of the prophet Isaiah and read to the congregation about a man who had the Spirit of the Lord upon him. A man that was sent to minister to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, set the captives free, make the blind see and liberate the downtrodden. A man that the world had been eagerly anticipating for hundreds of years. Then Jesus sat down, and while the whole room was sitting in silence, he said, “These Scriptures came true today!” I can’t even imagine the look on everyone’s face or the surprise that they must have felt. Here sat the Savior of all mankind in a church pew in Nazareth. Luke goes on to tell us that the people of Nazareth eventually tried to kill Jesus because He told them that he wouldn’t perform miracles for them to prove His status as Messiah. The further you dig into Christ’s ministry, the more you’ll find this to be the case. These people needed to take Christ’s word that He was who He said He was and could do what He said He could do…Luke even writes that “He spoke as one who knew the truth, instead of merely quoting the opinions of others as his authority.” We all get that feeling when we just know that someone is telling the truth. Whether it’s our child, our spouse, our best friend or our worst enemy, you know when the truth is all that they have given you. The same goes when we decide to share the story of Christ. People know it’s the truth…and yes, it’s awkward when they choose not to believe it. But God never asked us to save the world…that’s what He sent His Son to do…just give Him an opportunity to do it…
Jul 4, 2007 | 0 comments
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