July 4 and worship

As we approach July 4, how should the Church approach the day? It is not really a religious holiday. And yet the vast majority of church people are deeply patriotic, and our nation does enjoy the benefits of having had a Christian foundation. Should we make this a day for flag waving in church? Should we pull out the book of patriotic songs and sing it cover to cover?

As I think about the celebration of our nation’s independence, I am deeply mindful that this freedom and liberty is actually anchored in a heart of dependence, not independence. Our freedom and liberty are dependent on us being a people surrendered to our God.

I was reading in Isaiah 1:16-20 this morning as well as the rest of the first 5 chapters of Isaiah.  I believe that this is the cry of a deeply patriotic man who loved both his country and his God. He called out to a nation that had turned its back on its God, calling them to return.  Is this perhaps the patriotic stance at this point in our nation’s history?

Looking back, looking ahead

A new year provides an opportunity to look back and to look ahead.

Looking back is something that was a part of the worship of the children of Israel.  In the Passover, they looked back, year after year, recalling the faithfulness of God in delivering them from their slavery in Egypt. Looking back strengthened their faith in God's ability to handle the hear and now too.

As you look back over the past year, where have you seen the hand of God, faithfully working his deliverance and unfolding the path through the wilderness to you?

The turning of the calendar to a new year is also a time to look ahead.  "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away.  Behold, all things are become new."

What new things is the Spirit of God stirring in your heart?  What fresh new things might he have in store for us as we worship together?

God, keep leading us forward. And keep us following that lead.  Breathe your freshness into our hearts and into our worship.

Augustine's Prayer

O you who are everywhere present, filling yet transcending all things; ever acting, ever at rest; you who teach the hearts of the faithful without noise of words: teach us, we pray you, through Jesus Christ our lord. Amen. --Augustine

Favorite Christmas songs?

What are your favorite Christmas songs, and why?  Which verse(s) or phrases?

Luke 2:21-40


21 And when eight days were fulfilled for circumcising him, his name was called JESUS, which was so called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. 22 And when the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought him up to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord), 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons. 25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, that they might do concerning him after the custom of the law, 28 then he received him into his arms, and blessed God, and said, 29 Now lettest thou thy servant depart, Lord, According to thy word, in peace; 30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples; 32 A light for revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of thy people Israel.

God, give us such a heart of anticipation like Simeon had!

Authentic

Father, grant that what we sing with our lips, we may believe in our hearts,
and what we believe in our hearts, we may show forth in our lives.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Giving Thanks day

The phrase, Thanksgiving Day, rolls off the tongue all too easily - without passing through the mind or the heart.  How about calling it Giving Thanks day?  That little "speed bump" might help our minds and hearts engage and connect with the One from whom all good gifts come.

The Lord's Prayer

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, he told them not to use vain repetitions.  Then he gave them an outline to use in their prayer life.  Unfortunately, that very outline can become a vain repetition.  Let's slow down as we pray it.  Let's let words guide the thoughts of our hearts.

The first two words of the prayer are "Our Father".  Our Father, you have called us into a family relationship with you and with one another.  Let us walk as your children, as brothers and sisters with each other. Let us recognize your father heart that has adopted us as your own.  We love you, Father. 

Famous One

God is great

There are lots of worship songs that talk about the greatness of God.

Great is the Lord! He is holy and just.
By His power we trust in His love.

Hallelujah! Glory be to our great God!

How great is our God! Sing with me! How great is our God!

What does it mean that God is great? What other songs come to mind that talk about the greatness of God?  Scriptures? I would love to hear from many in response to this.

Face Down

What does it mean to worship? Bruce shared this morning about bowing down or prostrating ourselves before God. Here is a link to a related page that explores the Hebrew: http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/prostration_heb.aspx

Jesus said that the Father seeks those worshippers who worship in spirit and in truth. How does our spirit bow down prostrate to God?

March 14

I am still surprised when God takes a service and knits it together so that the various threads make one tapestry. 

March 7, 2010

A couple of items from yesterday's service: Tom and I teamed together. I would be interested in feedback (not the kind from sound systems) regarding that arrangement.  How was the sound?  Did the songs flow in ministry? Any other comments? 

In terms of lyrics projection, I noticed at least one instance of the mouse pointer showing up on the projection screen. This demonstrates the need for projection ministry training. Volunteer availability for training has, however, been a challenge. 

Wednesday evening

Bruce preached on Phil 3:7 and talked about God offering us something beter whenever he calls us to release something. For some reason, I am still suprised when God coordinates the songs with the message.

YWAM team sharing

Last Wednesday a Youth With A Mission team, recently returned from their Africa Outreach, came and shared in our Wednesday evening service. What a challenging word! They were sharing about the plight of the children. The comment made by one of the girls on the team was challenging. "I used to think that giving my money was what I should do. But God has been challenging me to think outside the box. How can I help the children. God is telling me to throw away the box." How can we be God's hands touching the children with His love?

Development of Projection Training

I am pleased with the progress on developing the projection training.  It looks like it will be essentially four units:

1. Unit 1 - Ministry, Worship, and Projection
2. Unit 2 - Preparation for Service
3. Unit 3 - The User Interface
4. Unit 4 - Best Practices

During this week the people involved in the projection ministry will be creating their accounts on the wiki that we will be using in unit 1.  Sunday morning we will start in ernest.

Lyrics Projection training

I am going to be putting together some traing for the people who are doing the lyrics projection.  I would appreciate some feedback regarding the projection ministry at Lamb of God.

It is kind of one of those things where, when everything goes right, you don't think about it. However, please think about what is working well.  Where are we excelling?  Where can we improve?  I will be reviewing the comments to help in identifying opportunities for improvement that we might be able to move toward by providing some additional targeted training.  This is, in no way, a negative reflection on what is currently being done.  We want to perform our ministry in a way that enhances our worship experience and honors our God. 

Carried along....

2 Peter 1:20-21 (New International Version)


20Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

What does it mean to be carried along by the Holy Spirit?  What are the implications for our times of worship?

Christmas Eve

I liked the carolling in the narthex as people walked in.  I think it helped them to prepare for our Christmas celebration.

Deep words

I love the depth and richness of many of the Christmas carols, especially in the later, less well known verses.  We sang one of those on Sunday.

Come Desire of nations come

Fix in us Thy humble home

Rise the woman's conq'ring seed

Bruise in us the serpent's head

Adam's likeness now efface

Stamp Thine image in its place

Second Adam from above

Reinstate us in Thy love

Hark the herald angels sing

Glory to the newborn King

December 6 service - walking in step with the Spirit

I'm thinking that I must have missed something.  Bruce said at the start of the service that the focus on the services during a\Advent were going to be Christ's first coming, his coming now, and his coming again.  I didn't catch that in the service on Sunday,  however.  Maybe he was talking about Wednesdays.

At any rate, a couple of things from worship that I am wondering about any feedback.  First, the songs in the first worship set (with the exception of the last one) all moved directly from one to the other without any pause.  This was intentional. 

• Come, Now is the Time to Worship =>
• O Come Let Us Adore Him =>
• Celebrate the Lord of Love =>
• Trading My Sorrows =>
• Joy to the World

The intention was that the message of each song would build on the previous.

Secondly, for the offering song I chose one that I was hoping would be easy for the congregation to pick up on.  I think they did.  "You are the vine, we are the branches, Oh- - -" etc.

First Advent service

I really enjoyed the music at this service.  I think it was easy for the congregation to pick up on (once the timing on O Come O Come Emmanuel was understood) and had a mood that reflects the mystery of the incarnation.  One of the things that music can do is to communicate in a way that grasps not just the brain, but the heart too.

November 25 service

If tomorrow all the things were gone I’d worked for all my life,

And I had to start again with just my children and my wife.

I’d thank my lucky stars to be living here today,

‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can’t take that away.

Bruce quoted this song at the beginning of the service.  Line 3 is what my student workers would call "an epic fail".  The stars don't influence luck.  Their role is to proclaim the glory of God!  A better choice for song lyrics that carry the thought would have been to use "A Mighty Fortress".

"The Word they still shall let remain nor any thanks have for it;

He’s by our side upon the plain with His good gifts and Spirit.

And take they our life, goods, fame, child and wife,

Let these all be gone, they yet have nothing won;

The Kingdom ours remaineth."

November 15, 2009

The service was quite long - but it did not seem long at all.  Jeff did a great job of holding our interest, story telling, and relating the stories to the work of the Spirit of God in our midst.

I was concerned before the service how the technical parts would go, because there was a PowerPoint and a DVD for the children's sermon, a video (.avi) for during the offering, and another DVD for the announcements at the end of the service. 

The PowerPoint came in, and it was in Office 2007 format.  The projection computer has office 2003 - not compatible.  I took it to the office computer.  That one has Office 2000!  I had also brought my laptop along, so I ran out to the car and got that so I could transfer the PowerPoint to 2003 format.  Hurdle number one successfully cleared!

The DVDs came in line fairly easily.  I took care of the projector input switching up front, and Becky handled getting things running from the booth in back. Hurdles two and three.

The last item was the .AVI for during the offering.  This was a video from YouTube.  I knew that the chances of a working wireless network connection were at best about one in ten.  So I had captured the video at home and converted it to AVI format.  Indeed, the computer did not connect wirelessly on Sunday.  When I tried to run the AVI, however, the computer could not keep up with it.  It would hang part way through.  So I had to quick learn the song.  I am glad that I had played through the file a number of times getting the video capture!  So we did the offering song live rather than running the video.

I think it is time to replace the projection computer.

And it all came together.  God is faithful!

Scripture for November 8

Galatians 3:26-4:7 (New International Version)



Sons of God

26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Galatians 4

1What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. 2He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. 3So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. 4But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. 6Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba,[a] Father." 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

November 1 - Galatians 3:1-14

The scripture was as follows:

 

1You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? 4Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? 5Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?

 

6Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."[a] 7Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. 8The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you."[b] 9So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

10All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."[c] 11Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith."[d] 12The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them."[e] 13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."[f] 14He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

Songs were:

• Kindness
• I Give You My Heart
• Empty Me
• Live For You
• Light the Fire Again
• You Are My King
• All I Really Want
• Your Grace is Enough

Points to ponder:

• What was the main thing that you think God was wanting to do on Sunday?
• How did the worship time an message strengthen each other?
• Were there particular songs that especially touched you?
• Were there other elements of the time that either enhanced or distracted?
• It was Reformation.  Did our service pick up on this?  We didn't sing "A Mighty Fortress".  Is that OK?

These are just a few questions to consider.

My own thought is that whether or not we sang a hymn which might be expected on Reformation Sunday is less important than that we have our ears attentive to what the Spirit of God is speaking to us.

October 25 worship

Lord, make us ready for our time of worship.  I pray that we would be drawn into your presence.

Every time a faithful servant serves
A brother that's in need
What happens at that moment is a miracle indeed
As they look to one another in an instant it is clear
Only Jesus is visible for they've both disappeared

May Jesus be the One who is seen.

October 18 service

I have a couple of questions regarding Sunday's service that I would like to get people's impressions on.

1. How did the service hold together?  Did the worship time mesh with the Word time, etc?  The reason I ask is because I did not have the text or sermon theme to work with at the time of putting the service together.  I didn't sense something disjointed or anything like that, but I am wondering if there may have been themes that were present even though they were not overtly planned that way.

2. Musically how did our time seem?  It was the Sunday of 6/8 time worship in the key of D. :-)  Seriously, the songs did flow one into the other.  Was that helpful in the flow of the worship in addition to the flow of the music?

As a reminder, these were the songs:

Pre-service:
 - Come, Now Is The Time To Worship
 - You're Worthy Of My Praise
Opening Worship Time:
 - Praise To The Lord The Almighty
 - High and Lifted Up
 - You are the Lord
Offering:
 - Our Father
Closing Song:
 - Beautiful One

3. Responses to the new-ish song - You Are The Lord?
Here is a link if you need to hear it again.



I took care to try to make sure all the songs were in a singable key.  There is probably no key that works for everyone, but hopefully the key of the songs was not a stumbling block to the message or the moving of the Spirit.

October 11 service

This comment I am copying for Laura.  It got posted under a different date, but applies to 10/11/09:

Ok, so I have missed the last three Sundays, but was there yesterday and am struggling with what to say. First, I need to ask, why is no one useing and/or commenting on this Blog? There have been no postings since Sept. 13TH. What's up with that? I thought those involved agreed to be part of trying to decipher what the Spirit of God would like to see us change to draw people closer to Him and into a deeper worship of Him. The verse in Revelation from Sunday, "WORSHIP GOD", just keeps resounding in my heart. Also, when Bruce referred to MAKING your grandkids hug you as oppossed to them running into your embrase, really, to me embodies what our own personal worship needs to be. We cannot just rotely sing praise songs and or hymns and expect to give God the glory He deserves or expect to be filled up with the joy of His Holy Spirit. Hence, my thoughts: The worship team needs to select songs that are made to be sung by a body to the Lord as opposed to songs meant to be an offering by a few that the congregation can listen to and be ministered by. The first song Sunday was awesome and I really felt the Spirit trying to do a work in the body, then, not so much! Songs that are complicated to sing along with, or AGAIN, TOO HIGH, lose the congregation fast and the moving of the Spirit is dropped like a hot potatoe! You can just sense the loss! Then, when Jeff got up, BOOM, the Spirit was back, had the body's attention, and WAS POWERFUL! The same with Bruce's sermon, POWERFUL! PRAYER TIME, POWERFUL, COMMUNIION POWERFUL, in spite of the song choices...much love, but we need to confront this as worship teams and be willing to make it about lifting up our Great God and leading the people in need to His strong arms for direction and comfort....It is so not about performance! If we as worship team members will practice before, and then just WORSHIP GOD on Sundays and not be in performance mode, I truly believe we will see His Spirit blanket our worship service and anoint it as He already is anointing Pastor Bruce, readers, and prayers at LOG. Thoughts?


Laura

Your thoughts?

I haven't posted here in a few weeks.  But I want to again invite the other designated authors to initiate posts at any time.  And anyone can reply to existing posts.

September 13 service

I got to sit in the congregation for this service, so I got a bit of a different perspective for this Sunday.

I had a couple of thoughts regarding preparation for the Sunday service.

Thought 1: As I was singing the words to the songs, I realized how easy it is to sing through them without letting them touch the heart. And the words are deep and should be allowed to be used by the Spirit to touch us. I'm thinking it might be good to ask the people who are going to be leading on Sunday morning to read, preferably aloud, the words to the songs. Reading them rather than singing them can let them sink in - kind of like a speed bump for the heart.

Thought 2: As Bruce was talking about us growing up and being able to handle a sharp knife or matches as we mature, I thought about the Sword of the Spirit. What if we put the text for the coming week in the bulletin so that those who wished to could begin to chew on the Word prior to coming to church? This would not necessarily have to bind us to using that text the following week. It could be the text that we would use unless the Spirit re-directed to something different. It could be put in the bulletin, not as the text for next week's message, but as a verse to focus on through the week.

Thought 3: With the story of Charlotte Eliott, I thought about a technique that I have been learning about in a class that I am taking. It is called digital storytelling. Here is a link that gives a bit of background: http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/ One way to think of digital storytelling is parables presented in 21st century media. I could see this technique used with something like the Charlotte Eliott story, or with a parable, or an illustration, etc. Again, it would require more preparation in advance to put together the media, etc. Two weeks lead time would be somewhat tight, but possible.

OK, now some logistics observations:

• Some of the songs were in difficult keys to sing, notably "Be Lifted High".
• I received a comment from someone after the service who was sitting in maybe row 3 or 4 toward the side of the church that the sound was overpoweringly loud. Any observations from anyone who was sitting in a different area? How was the sound where you were?
• Practice before the service was running during the Bible study and was easily heard in the Bible study area. Can we make a commitment to end practice before the study starts? Or is that not such a big issue?

The Awesomeness of God

I am interested in your thoughts about the video before the start of service. I think it tied in well with the worship time. It seemed to take a bit of time before people were actually watching it and listening, but toward the end of the clip, people seemed to be drawn in. Is there a better way we could have done that? Perhaps waited and done it after the opening prayer? Something else?

Here is the video again:





I was talking with Tom King after the service, and he mentioned that when I went into "Be Magnified" after the last song, there were words of prayer and blessing that came to his heart and mind, but he didn't speak them out because he wasn't sure if it was the time. I encouraged him to run with that. I think we need to be ready to have our plans adjusted and fine tuned by the Spirit, even if it is on the spot!

In the Presence

I really liked hearing the church sing "Holy Holy Holy". I was enjoying listening so much I forgot to offer the song up as praise.

"In the Presence" truly moved me. It's a song from the very beginning of my Christianity. I was singing that song to God with all my heart.

It made it clear that for me worship is almost all about which songs we sing. Every song has good Christian lyrics. It's when the melody is powerful that I enter into worship irresistably.

I don't suggest we actually do this, but from an data based engineering perspective, it would be extremely interesting to poll people after each service to see which songs elicited the greatest responses and why.

On a different note: I was born again into a Charismatic church that spent the first 45 minutes to an hour singing praise and worship songs. At times when the music faded for a bit, people would ask for prayer, give praise reports, and prophesy. It was wonderful praying the words of those songs to God.

Waiting on the Lord

That 4-letter word - wait. That was our theme this week. Did we wait on the Lord during our church time today?

Psalm 130:5-6 (New International Version)
5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more
than watchmen wait for the morning.

I thought that we touched it a bit.

Here are some of the songs that we have used in worship over the past few months. If you had to pick the ten that were the greatest blessing to the congregation, which ones would you pick?


Title/ Author
Above All/ LeBlanc, Lenny\Baloche, Paul
Alleluia No 1 (Alleluia Alleluia Give Thanks)/ Fishel, Donald E.
At The Foot Of The Cross/ Sheppard, Tre
Beautiful One/ Hughes, Tim
Before The Throne Of God Above/ Cook, Vikki\Bancroft, Charitie Lees
Better Is One Day/ Redman, Matt
Blessed Be The Name Of The Lord/ Prosch, Kevin\Daniels, Danny
Breathe/ Barnett, Marie
By The Blood/ Jernigan, Dennis
By Your Blood/ Hamlin, Jeff\Grondin, Alan
Carried To The Table/ Mooring, Leeland\Hindalong, Steve\Byrd, Marc
Christ In Me/ Garcia, Gary
Come Now Is The Time To Worship/ Doerksen, Brian
Cornerstone/ Patillo, Leon
Draw Me Close/ Carpenter, Kelly
Enough/ Tomlin, Chris\Giglio, Louie
Everlasting God/ Brown, Brenton\Riley, Ken
For The Lord Is A Righteous God/ Jernigan, Dennis
Glory Glory Lord/ Fitts, Bob
God With Us/ Bryson, Jim\Cochran, Nathan\Graul, Barry\Millard, Bart\Scheuchzer, Mike\Shaffer, Robby
He Knows My Name/ Walker, Tommy
Holy And Anointed One/ Barnett, John
Holy Holy/ Owens, Jimmy
Holy Holy Holy Lord/ Scholtes, Peter
Holy Is The Lord/ Searles, Jeff
How Beautiful/ Paris, Twila
How Deep The Father's Love For Us/ Townend, Stuart
How Great Is Our God/ Tomlin, Chris\Reeves, Jesse\Cash, Ed
Hungry/ Scott, Kathryn
I Believe In Jesus/ Nelson, Marc
I Exalt Thee/ Sanchez, Pete, Jr.
I Give You My Heart/ Morgan, Reuben
I Love You Lord/ Klein, Laurie
I See The Lord/ Falson, Chris
In Christ Alone/ Townend, Stuart\Getty, Keith
Indescribable/ Story, Laura
Isn't He/ Wimber, John
It's Your Blood/ Christ, Michael
Jesus Draw Me Close/ Founds, Rick
Jesus Messiah/ Tomlin, Chris\Carson, Daniel\Reeves, Jesse\Cash, Ed
Lamb Of God/ Paris, Twila
Lead Me To The Rock DeShazo, Lynn
Lord I Lift Your Name On High/ Founds, Rick
Love The Lord/ Brewster, Lincoln
Majesty/ Smith, Martin\Garrard, Stuart
Make A Joyful Noise Unto The Lord/ Owens, Jimmy
Mighty To Save/ Fielding, Ben\Morgan, Reuben
My Redeemer Lives/ Willison, John
My Soul Followeth Hard After Thee/ Smith, Jeff
Nobody Fills My Heart Like Jesus/ Jernigan, Dennis
Oh Lord You're Beautiful/ Green, Keith
On The Third Day/ Byrd, Marc\Maher, Matt
Open The Eyes Of My Heart/ Baloche, Paul
Psalm 19/ Butler, Terry
Refiner's Fire/ Doerksen, Brian
Resting Place/ Rademaker, Daphne
Sanctuary/ Thompson, John W.\Scruggs, Randy
Shout To The Lord/ Zschech, Darlene
Sometimes By Step/ Mullins, Rich\Strasser, David (Beaker)
Step By Step/ Strasser, David (Beaker)
Take My Life/ Underwood, Scott
The Basin And The Towel/ Card, Michael
The Heart Of Worship/ Redman, Matt
The Lord Is My Strength/ Jernigan, Dennis
The Lord Is My Strength/ Gallio, Frank
The Trees Of The Field/ Dauermann, Stuart\Rubin, Steffi Geiser
There Is None Like You/ LeBlanc, Lenny
Trading My Sorrows/ Evans, Darrell
Unashamed Love/ Hiebert, Lamont
We Are Hungry/ Kilman, Brad
You Are The Vine/ Daniels, Danny\Rigby, Randy
You Never Let Go/ Redman, Matt\Redman, Beth
You're Worthy Of My Praise/ Ruis, David

Time for ministry

1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The illustration of the child in the mother and whereever the mother goes the child also goes was really effective.

At the end of the sermon, rather than going to the offering, what if we had given opportunity for people to come up for individual prayer? I was sensing a time for ministry.

There were a lot of new songs for one service. I liked the way Brad handled it specifically inviting people to listen and join in if they felt comfortable doing so.

Spectator vs. Participant

As we were worshipping and hearing the Word today, I was thinking about God's desire that we be participants rather than spectators. How do we move from listening to words about our relationship with God to practicing that relationship?

From Ephesians 1 -

15For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Let's keep not only talking about praying these things for each other. Let's keep praying it.

Welcome

This is the first posting for the Lamb of God Worship Blog. Our prayer is that this will be a tool that God can use to sharpen our focus, to affirm and strengthen things that are going well, and plant and nurture seeds of improvement for our worship life together.