Let’s Get Excited!

I wrote this for our Church newsletter this month. I updated it a little bit in light of the World Series outcome. I hope it encourages you this week!

Almost everyone knows that I am a pretty big Texas Rangers Fan. It stings a little when I realize that a World Series win for the Rangers was so close! A friend of mine said this and it made me feel a little better — “The next best thing to winning the world series is losing the world series!” I am however proud of the team I root for and I will be forever grateful to the very kind people in our church that bought me and Paula-Beth tickets to last Saturday’s World Series game. If you saw that game, you know it wasn’t their best performance, but that didn’t keep me from cheering on my team! The Rangers scored 7 runs, but the Cardinals scored 16. The sound that erupted when OUR team scored was truly awesome. People got excited to cheer on the Rangers!

We have a lot of sports fans in our church, and I’ve seen this same type of excitement from them for our local football team. There is an excitement when you enter the gates of the stadium or arena. (I got goosebumps when I walked in to the Ballpark last week!)  True fans know all the players names, hits, errors, or fouls.  We all get excited and praise the work of OUR pitcher, OUR point guard, or OUR quarterback, and we all love talking about their achievements.

Do we get that excited about being in God’s presence?  Do we enjoy entering His gates with praise? Do we know all about Him?   Do we shout for joy and praise Him for who He is and what He has done?  Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t wrong to shout for a team, to support them, and to talk about how great they are.  However, we are called to give the same, if not more, devotion and dedication to the Lord as we do for our favorite team.  Look at what the psalmist writes in Psalm 100:1-5:

1 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! 2 Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into His presence with singing! 3 Know that the LORD, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name! 5 For the LORD is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.

In this passage, we can see five ways we are to worship God and four reasons that we worship God.

1. We are to worship God with a joyful noise together. Corporate worship is very important. If we can come together and get excited about our favorite sports team, we can come together and worship together.

2. We we are to worship by serving the Lord. This isn’t just doing things for the church cause we feel like we have to. This is committing to serve and being happy (glad) about it!

3 and 4. We are to worship by coming into His presence singing, and to know or recognize that HE is God. The psalmist doesn’t say “Come into His presence and stand there if you don’t know the song!”  The psalmist says, “Sing to the Lord a NEW song!” We eagerly learn new things about our favorite sport team’s stats, but when it comes to learning something new in worship we get a little skiddish.  We need to make an effort to sing in HIS presence, and to intimately know HIM above everything else in our lives.

5. We are to worship God by entering His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise!   Just as I entered The Ballpark excited and ready for the game last weekend, we need to enter His gates with excitement, ready to give thanks to Him for who He is and what he has done.

The psalmist also tells us four of the reason we are to worship God.  (There are countless things we could tell the world why we worship, but the psalmist focuses on these four):

1. We worship Him because He made us, and He guides us like a shepherd guides His sheep.

2. We worship Him because He is a good God and wants what is good in our life.

3. We worship Him because His love is forever. No matter what we do He will love us to the end.

4. We worship Him because His faithfulness will be given to all generations. That means our grandkids, great grandkids, and so on will see Gods faithfulness in their lives.

Those are certainly some great reasons to worship!  I hope they will encourage you to get excited as you come to worship as it has encouraged me to come and lead worship.

Selah – Pause and Reflect

So Yeah, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything to the blog. I know I haven’t been very consistent with the blog, but for those that have checked it out please give me your comments. My goal from here on out is to try to post at least one blog each week. I would like to give a Sunday Setlist and talk about how the worship service on Sunday morning go. So please check it out each week when you can. And please comment. I want to hear from you!!

The following is an article I wrote for our newsletter last week. It’s about just taking the time to think on what God is doing in our lives. I’ve been trying to do  that more lately, in light of all the changes at FBC over the past few months. Two things that continue to be evident every time I think about every thing that is going on is 1. God is good, and 2. He is ALWAYS in control. We just have to pause and reflect on what He is doing around us, and to meet Him where He is.

If you are musician, you know the importance of taking notes on your music during rehearsal – get louder on this measure, don’t play at this spot, remember the key change, etc. As a worship pastor and choir director, I like it when you do that because it means that you’re paying attention.

The writer of the Psalms, put the same kind of “reminder” notes in to a few of the chapters.These notes are in the form of a word “selah”. You have probably seen this word in the middle or at the end of a psalm and wondered what does that word mean?

Here is an example taken from Psalm 62 7-8:  

On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.   Selah

Well, I am so glad that I have this opportunity to tell you. It’s such a great word! The word selah was an instruction to the music leader to have the song (remember, psalms are songs not poems) stop for a moment to let the people think about what they just sung or heard. The musicians would sing a couple of lines and then selah – pause and reflect!

I wrote a song in college that I titled Selah after studying about this often overlooked word in the psalms. The first verse goes: “Start of my day, always the same, everything seems to be rushed. Where is my time? It’s so hard to find a simple hush.” Sometimes it is so hard to find the time in our busy days to just to be still, be quiet, and reflect on what God is doing. It seems that life never slows down either. We are always going to be busy with something. Don’t get me wrong, being busy isn’t necessarily wrong either. Let’s just make sure that we take the time today to Selah every once in a while. To pause and reflect on what God is doing in our lives and around us.

Let me know your thoughts! Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week!

In Christ,

Michael

 

BTW:  GO RANGERS! BEAT ST. LOUIS!!

Worship Wars

Kenny Lamm from North Carolina has an interesting first post in a new series on choosing a worship style in your church. Try to guess what the writer of this article was talking about before you get to the end of the article:

Take a look at this excerpt from an U.S newspaper objecting to the new trends in church music:

There are several reasons for opposing it.
One, it’s too new.
Two, it’s often worldly, even blasphemous.
The new Christian music is not as pleasant as the more established style.
Because there are so many songs, you can’t learn them all.
It puts too much emphasis on instrumental music rather than Godly lyrics.
This new music creates disturbances making people act indecently and disorderly.
The preceding generation got along without it.
It’s a money making scene and some of these new music upstarts are lewd and loose.

Does this sound like some of the “fan” mail you receive the week after you have pushed the envelope in worship with some new worship songs?

This was written by a pastor in 1723 attacking Isaac Watts, the writer of great hymns like When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, Joy to the World, and O God, Our Help in Ages Past.

You see, “worship wars” are nothing new to our decade. As long as we have had organized church and people with personal preferences, there has been conflict. As James 4:1 says, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle with you?”

- Excerpted from the Renewing Worship blog.

WOW! Pretty enlightening huh? We have come a long way in our worship service haven’t we? Why is the one thing that is supposed to be entirely for God. . .the one thing that tears us apart?

My Prayer is this–

“O Lord, Please allow me to lead in worship in a way that is not uplifting myself, a style, a preference, or a song; but that it will be all about you!  I want to come back to the heart of worship where it’s all about You Jesus. Not about me, not about my likes, dislikes, what people like or dislike. I want to lead worship, AND worship with freedom. I want to come into your presence with no agenda, no motives. . .JUST WORSHIP! to close my prayer I sing this song to you Lord. . .let it be my heart. Forgive me when I fail you, allow me to be transparent and allow you to lead through me at First Baptist Church Hamlin, Tx.

When the music fades And all is stripped away And I simply come. Longing just to bring Something that’s of worth That will bless your heart. King of endless worth no one could express how much You deserve. Though I’m weak and poor all I have is Yours every single breath. I’ll bring You more than a song for a song in itself is not what You have required. You search much deeper within through the ways things appear You’re looking into my heart! I’m coming back to the heart of worship And it’s all about You All about You, Jesus  I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it When it’s all about You It’s all about You Jesus!

AMEN!

Hope everyone has a wonderful worship service tomorrow. Allow God to move in you and move you to follow his direction for your life!

In Christ,

Michael

It’s been a long time. . . .

WOW! So much for trying to blog more. Yeah, I’ve pretty much failed on that. I see that a few of you have checked back periodically. I hope I haven’t let you down to much. I do want to blog more, and I would like to try to post something at least once a week.

Life is going great here in Hamlin! God is doing some amazing things at First Baptist Church, and I am so thankful that He is allowing me to be a part of it. This past weekend our church had a Solemn Assembly service. We began on Saturday night with a time of worship and prayer, and concluded on Sunday Night. In between people were able to sign up for hour time slots to have someone praying for 24 hours! This was really an awesome thing to see! The theme verse for the weekend was 2n Chronicles 7:14. I created a little video promo for the weekend. . check it out—

http://www.facebook.com/v/545067743533

God moved mightly in the hearts of His people during the course of the weekend. On Sunday, morning we had a special service of praise, prayer, and scripture reading. We had several prayer stations around the sanctuary that people could go to and focus on God. We had large tablets and sharpies positioned at the front of the sanctuary with the phrase “God, Thank You for. . . .” and “God You Are. . .” and people could come up at any point during the worship time and write their end of the phrase. It was a “fresh” time of worship! We also had a sealed carboard box with just a slit in the sides for people to insert “confessions to God” (I’ll tell you more about that in a second). The last part of the Sunday morning service Bro. Donny and Bro. Russ read scripture that talked about specific corporate sins that bring the church down. As we looked at each sin the people in the congregation got into small groups to pray specifically about these sins. It was truly awesome to see God move people to their knees and to the alter to lay down things that are keeping them from being fully committed to Christ!

Back to the sealed cardboard box. On Sunday night we met out in the parking lot and burned the box with all the confession cards in it. What an amazing sight to see those confessions, sins, struggles burn up as a symbol of committing our lives to Christ. We then met back in the sanctuary and had a great time of worship and observed the Lord’s Supper.

All in all, the weekend was great. God moved among His people! It is my prayer that our lives, our church, and our community will feel the after affects of this weekend for years to come!

New Town, New Home, New Church!

WOW! So I haven’t updated since CHRISTMAS! I am really sorry for those that have checked my blog for updates. I do want to blog more and I’m wanting to try to put something up each monday (and maybe more).

This will just be a quick post as it has been a long week and I am pretty behind on things.

First of all if you didn’t know yet, we have moved! PB, Lucy, and I (and Anna our beagle) moved to Hamlin, Texas. I am now the Worship/Media Pastor at First Baptist Hamlin. I love it here! I am still getting into the swing of things of a new position and learning the new dynamics of this church body, and the staff. Last week we went to my sister’s high school graduation in Illinois so it has been a whirlwind of a month for us. We moved, we settled in, then we left for illinois for a week, and now we are back and trying to settle in again!

for now I will leave you with some pictures of our new house!

Lucy looking out the window of our NEW HOME!

kitchen

View from the kitchen to living room

living room

Master Bedroom

Lucy’s Room

and our sweet Lucy helping mom water the flowers! (well the concrete. . haha!)

Keep checking the blog and keep me accountable to post more. Like I said I really want to put a post up each monday.

Hope everyone has a great week!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Hello Everyone! I hope you have had a very Merry Christmas. It has been a white Christmas for us here in Texas! That’s right. it’s beginning to look a lot like . . . . .Illinois! This was probably the worst snow storm I have ever driven through, but it was so beautiful coming down. Here are some pics I took. . .(the one in the car was taken and posted by my wife, cause it would have been too dangerous to post while driving!)

You can't see it in the picture but the flakes were huge!

This was literally the worst snow storm I've ever driven in! BTW. . I didn't post this while driving my beautiful wife did.

We woke up Christmas morning to a beautiful White Christmas

We had a great Christmas with family. I am taking a little vacation for the rest of the year. . . .at least for the rest of 2009! I am excited about just spending some time with our family and resting, and relaxing a little.

Sorry I haven’t posted the past few weeks. I am going to be more diligent about posting. In fact it is on my calendar each week to post. I want this blog not only to be a source of communication to friends and family, but also for our church family and others to get a little insight in who I am as a worship leader and who I strive to be in my Christian walk. So please feel free to “keep me accountable” in blogging more!

Before I leave I want to share one thing that I’m the most thankful for this Holiday season. . . MY FAMILY. I have a beautiful (both inside and out) wife, and a what a blessing I have in my daughter Lucy. Both of these wonderful women in my life make me a better person. I’m so thankful for them! I hope you all have a great time with your families over this Holiday season. Don’t take for granted the time you have with them and make every moment with them! So that being said here is our family Christmas portrait that we had taken a few weeks ago.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

from the Tollers!

Sunday Set-list #2 – Grace is Enough!

As I prayed through the songs for this weeks worship service, I really felt led to focus on who God is, and what He has done in our lives, and how His Grace is the reason we come to worship. Our Worship Set is as follows:

Call to Worship

“Come, Christians Join to Sing”

“We Bow Down”

“Your Grace is Enough”

“Grace Greater than Our Sin”

“Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)”

Sermon

Response & Invitation

“Come Just As You Are”

When I lead worship, I really strive to choose songs that lead in a direction. My goal this week was to start at the call to worship, coming to Christ- “Come, Christian’s Join to Sing Alleluia, Amen! Loud Praise to Christ our King Alleluia, Amen! Let all with heart and voice, before His throne recjoice, praise his is gracious choice Alleluia, Amen!” then singing about who God is and what He has done in our lives- “You are Lord of creation and Lord of my life, Lord of the land and the sea! You were Lord of the heavens before there was time, Lord of all lords You will be!” and praising Him for who He is and what He has done- “We bow down and we worship You, Lord!  Lord of all Lords You will be!”

The next worship set was all about God’s grace. I love going from that last chorus in “Your Grace is Enough” into the chorus of the hymn “Grace Greater Than Our Sin” – “Your grace is enough! Your grace is enough! Your grace is enough for me!” — “Grace grace! God’s grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within! Marvelous grace, infinite grace, grace that is greater than all our sin!”

WOW! Some great songs about Who God is and what He has done for us in our lives! I closed this “grace” set with one of my favorite hymns that has been updated by Chris Tomlin– “Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)” I love leading this song for three reasons. The first reason deals with my personal worship–what an awesome declaration in the chorus of how I am truly grateful that my chains are gone, and I’m free in Christ. The second reason deals with the corporate worship of the church. It never fails, we sing the first two verses of Amazing Grace, that everyone knows, then we hit the chorus. . .and boom! It hits people like a ton of bricks. . .wow. . .I truly am free in christ, and then I see people sing this chorus at the top of their lungs. It is such a blessing to see people connect with this song.

The third reason I love leading this song is the last verse. Most people don’t really know it because we are so accustomed to the last verse in the hymnal. . you know the one. . .”When we’ve been there ten thousand years. . .” yeah that one. Now don’t get me wrong, that is a great verse, but did you know that John Newton didn’t even write it!?!? That’s right, about 30-50 years later the verse we all know as the “last verse” was added to John Newton’s hymn from the final verse of an anonymous hymn‘Jerusalem, my happy home’ found in ‘A Collection of Sacred Ballads’. The original last verse as penned by Mr. Newton is this: “The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbear to shine; but God, who called me here below, will be forever mine.” What an awesome verse to sing! The earth my fall apart, and everything may go dark and cold, but you know what? God you brought me to the place I am today. . will always be with me and protect me and love me! Awesome huh? I love singing that because it catches people of guard, and they are like. . woah. . that is the a cool NEW verse! I’m sure Mr. Newton is smiling up in heaven saying. . “PEOPLE! Old or New doesn’t matter. . just reflect on the one whom you sing of! GOD Who called you to this earth and Who is with you now!”

All in all, it was a great time of worship this morning. I am really enjoying doing this blog, because I’m able to express my thoughts and revelations that I have as I pick this music out with you. I hope you are enjoying it too. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!  If you are enjoying this you can check more sunday setlist blogs over at the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival at FredMcKinnon.Com that I’m participating in. You can check it out here.

Till Next Week!

EVERYTHING

Today in our service we had a deacon ordination. As I prayed about what to do music wise for the service, I really wanted the songs to be songs that meant something to Garrett, who was being ordained. So we met on wednesday and went through some song choices and put together this worship set:

Call to Worship

“Be Glorified”

“Lord, Be Glorified”

Offering

“Pure”

Testimony

“Shout to the Lord”

“How Great Thou Art”

Message

Deacon Ordination

Response & Invitation

“I Surrender All”

Benediction

“The Family Prayer Song”

The service was great! It was really awesome to be involved in the deacon ordination of a friend. What an honor to be able to lead songs that mean something to the one being set apart today. It was also awesome to be able to be among the ordained men to pray for Garrett and Cortney as they make this step of faith to serve.

Probably one of my favorite songs this morning was one that I really didn’t lead. Cortney  sang the song “Pure.” Paula-Beth played piano and sang BGVs, Reed played the djembe, and I played the guitar and sang BGVs. Having just the piano, guitar, and djembe really gave the song a neat acoustic feel.  Even though this was a “Special Music” it really tied right into the rest of the worship set.

“Pure” is one of my favorite worship songs and has amazing lyrics. Here they are:

Your love is pure

Your love is precious

Your love is all I need

Your love surrounds me

Your love astounds me

Your love is ev’rything

I run to You

When my heart is weak

I cling to You

You’re all I seek

It’s my heart’s desire

To be close to You

Here in Your arms

I’ll find my strength

Ev’rything I want

Ev’rything I hope in

Ev’rything my heart cries out for

Pur

Chorus 1

I run to You

When my heart is weak

I cling to You

You’re all I seek

It’s my heart’s desire

To be close to You

Here in Your arms

I’ll find my strength

Verse 1

Your love is pure

Your love is precious

Your love is all I need

Your love surrounds me

Your love astounds me

Your love is ev’rything

Misc 1

(BRIDGE)

Ev’rything I want

Ev’rything I hope in

Ev’rything my heart cries out for

CCLI Song No. 4764904

© 2003 Gateway Create Publishing (Admin. by Integrity’s Praise! Music)

Kari Jobe

For use solely with the SongSelect Terms of Use.  All rights Reserved. www.ccli.com

CCLI License No. 34161

This song is an amazing prayer to God. A Prayer saying “God, Your love is pure, precious all I need. God Your love surrounds me, astounds me, You are Everything.” Seriously if we really think about God’s love for us it should totally blow us away. I mean, why should God love me that much? I don’t always spend time with Him, I often put Him on the back burner of my life, and I don’t share Him enough with people around me. In spite of this, God still loves me!  John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” and Romans 5:8 says “. . . God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

So we know that God loves us because of what His scripture says, and the song exemplifies that with the first verse– His love is pure, precious, all we need, etc. but do we really show it? Let’s look at the chorus to answer that:

“I run to You when my heart is weak” – When we are at our weakest do we run to God or run to other people?

“I cling to You You’re all I seek” - Do we cling to God, and do we seek Him more than anything else in this world?

“It’s my heart’s desire To be close to You” – is it truly our heart’s desire to be with God? Ask yourself that next time you look down at your watch because the preacher is preaching a little long! (I’m talking to myself too!) Seriously though, do we desire to spend time with Him?

Then in this last part of the chorus we find a truth– no matter what we do we will find strength when we are wrapped in the arms of God: “Here in Your arms I’ll find my strength”

All I can say is WOW! Yeah, maybe I falter on some of those things, I don’t always run to Him when I’m weak, I don’t always cling to Him and seek Him in everything I do, my heart’s desire isn’t always to spend time with Him, but you know what. . . .In HIS arms, I find strength. In HIS arms I can run to Him when I’m weak, I can cling to His Arms and seek HIM, and I can with all my heart be near to Him. . .IN HIS ARMS. I guess the point I’m getting at is, when we allow ourselves to be carried in HIS arms, those other things naturally happen. When we realize His love for us, we naturally want to spend time with God. . .and that leads us to the bridge:

“EVERYTHING I WANT, EVERYTHING I HOPE IN, EVERYTHING MY HEART CRIES OUT FOR!”

Wow!!  I love this! I think it’s awesome that in the song these phrases continue to build and then the song closes with a prayerful repeat. WHEN we realize God’s love for us then we can truly say, “EVERYTHING I WANT, EVERYTHING I HOPE IN, EVERYTHING MY HEART CRIES OUT FOR” is GOD!

I hope all that made sense. What a beautiful prayer/song that we can sing to God in a corporate worship setting, or even in a private setting. Thank You, Kari Jobe, for sharing your prayer with us!

Again, please leave comments for me! I want to know what your thoughts are on my thoughts!

This is also my first blog entry as part of  the Sunday Setlists over on Fred McKinnon’s blog. Good to be a part of the Sunday Setlist group!!

A Worship Leader’s Prayer.

I want to start blogging each Sunday about the songs we sing at FBC Olney. I will post the mornings worship set list and then a few thoughts about some or all of the songs or key points of the service.  I welcome any and all comments from members of FBC or even random blog readers.

Here is the Set List (order of worship) for this morning October 11, 2009:

Call to Worship

“Crown Him with Many Crowns”

“Sing to the King”

Worship through Tithes and Offering

“To God Be The Glory”

“Not To Us”

“My Tribute”

Message

Response & Invitation

“Take My Life Lead Me Lord”

Benediction

“The Family Prayer Song”

I want to center on two songs this morning. The song “Not To Us” and “My Tribute”.

Here are the words to “Not To Us”

The cross before me the world behind
No turning back, raise the banner high.
It’s not for me, it’s all for You!
Let the heavens shake and split the sky.
Let the people clap their hands and cry.
It’s not for us, it’s all for You!

Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory
Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory

Our hearts unfold before Your throne
The only place for those who know
It’s not for us, It’s all for You
Send Your holy fire on this offering
Let our worship burn for the world to see
It’s not for us, It’s all for You

Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory
Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory

The earth is shaking, the mountains shouting! It’s all for You!
The waves are crashing, the sun is raging! It’s all for You!
The universe spinning and singing! It’s all for You!
The children dancing, dancing, dancing! It’s all for You, It’s all for You

Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory
Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory

After we sing this we will lead into the chorus of the song “My Tribute”. Here are those words:

To God be the glory, to God be the glory
To God be the glory for the things He has done
With His blood He has saved me
With His power He has raised me
To God be the glory for the things He has done!

I’m so excited about this little worship set. First of all, we are singing a prayer. . .”Not to us, but to Your Name be the Glory! for YOU have done great things!” I think I like these two songs together because it reminds me of Bruce Leafblad’s definition of worship. Dr. Leafblad says, “Worship is communion with God in which believers, by grace, center their mind’s attention and their heart’s affection on the Lord, humbly glorifying God in response to His greatness and His Word.” We commune with God. . .WE Meet with GOD. . . .First of all how awesome is that! God is allowing us to meet with Him! The Creator and Author of the universe wants us to meet with HIM. If that doesn’t blow your mind keep reading on. . . . We center our mind’s attention. . . nothing else should matter (no, not even the roast cooking back home) and we center our heart’s affection. . . our LOVE, our PASSION, our ONE DESIRE. . . .is centered on the Lord. And We humbly glorify God (NOT for US, but for GOD) because of his GREATNESS and His WORD basically because of who God is in our lives, and His Word is what He has done!

Amazing huh?  When we realize that it is not at all about us, but about the Father and  about giving Him the praise that He deserves, then we are Worshiping God for who HE is, and for what HE has done.  I don’t know about you, but this is my prayer for today. That I don’t just sing a song or two this morning, but that I truly Worship God. Worship Him for who HE IS, and for WHAT HE HAS DONE!

MY PRAYER THIS MORNING:

“Lord, I don’t want to lead worship for man, I don’t want to be just a song leader. I want to lead people to worship you and you alone.  I want to meet with You and center my minds attention and my hearts affection on You. I want to humbly glorify who You are because of Your greatness and because of Your word that you have for me today. Lord, strip from me any selfishness, any pride, any negative thoughts this morning, and allow me to focus entirely on You. Father, please bring your people to your throne room today. Speak to your peoples hearts. Convict, Forgive, and Renew your church this morning. Thank you Lord, for loving me, showing me grace and mercy, and allowing me to lead your people in worship. In Your Holy Name I pray. . . Amen!”

If you are a member at FBC I hope that God speaks to you through out the day today. Ultimately my prayer is that You will draw near to God through the entire time at church this morning. . .in the bible study, in the fellowship with other believers, in the music, in the offering, and in the message. If you are not a member of FBC Olney, I hope you have a wonderful day in Christ!

Like I said in the first part of the post I would like to do this each week. I would love to hear your comments so please feel free to do so!

Also, this week PB and I will be at the Engage Europe Summit in Forney, Tx. Please be praying for us as we go to this conference and learn more about mission opportunities in Europe. I will try to post some things we learn at the conference throughout the week!

In Christ,

How He Loves!

Tonight our youth minister Carter is using an illustration from a foreign movie called most. The video clip can be seen here. The movie is based on a story which I have included below.

The movie is based on a story about a man by the name of John Griffith, who lived in Oklahoma in 1929. He had lost all he had in the stock market crash. He moved to Mississippi where he took a job as bridge operator for a railroad trestle. In 1937 he was involved in a horrible accident. One day his 8 year-old son, Greg, spent the day with his Dad at work. The boy poked around the office and asked dozens of questions – just like little boys do. The bridge was over a river and when-ever a ship came John had to open the bridge to allow the ships to pass. The day the boy was there with his father a ship was coming so John opened up the draw bridge. After a moment or two he realized his son wasn’t in the office and as he looked around, to his horror, John saw his son climbing around on the gears of the draw bridge. He hurried outside to rescue his son but just then he heard a fast approaching passenger train, the Memphis Express, filled with 400 people. He yelled to his son, but the noise of the now clearing ship and the oncoming train made it impossible for the boy to hear him. All of a sudden John Griffith realized his horrible dilemma. If he took the time to rescue his son the train would crash killing all aboard, but if he closed the bridge, the boy we be crushed in the gears. John would sacrifice his son. He made the horrible decision, pulled the lever and closed the bridge. It is said, as the train went by John could see the faces of the passengers, some reading, some even waving, all of them oblivious to the sacrifice that had just been made for them.

Folks, that is what God has done for us. He gave us His son so that we could have life. Some in this world are oblivious to the sacrifice that has been made for us. — “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (ESV)

I just bought the new David Crowder Band Album – “Church Music”- from itunes yesterday. Let me just say the whole thing is awesome. What I love about David Crowder’s Music is that its perfect private worship music for me. Alot of his songs are not designed to be “corporate” worship songs. Granted. . .there are some great corporate songs that he has written, but they are from the heart and have so much depth! One song in particular on this album has been ringing in my head today and when I saw this video clip I just had to share this. It’s Called “How He Loves” here are the lyrics:

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (ESV)

God demonstrates His love to us even while we were sinners. Even while we are still rebellious – even while we are still at odds with Him – even while we are still oblivious to Him – God shows His love to us. God loves us before we even ACCEPT His love – still how He loves us, Oh how He loves!