Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Jesus, King of Glory

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

This scripture reminds me of our Christmas theme this year. Jesus, King of Glory. Amazing to imagine that God would give up His Son to allow Him to come in the flesh and walk with us. John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Then to die and make a way for us. Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

There are so many more scripture about His Glory... and I think that I barely have grasped what it really means. All I really know.. is the glimpse I have of His glory is enough to blow me away! And one thing the worship, stick, and drama team were able to witness this year is the transformation of His people ... to be a people resembling more like Jesus. We had such a wonderful opportunity to use our talents for His glory. And although many of us were nervous about performing this Christmas presentation... God showed up... and it gave Him glory...because we knew that what we had experienced was not of ourselves... but His power! So, Hallelujah!!! Jesus, King of Glory. May we remember the power in our lives to be transformed into His image from glory to glory...there because of His mercy and love. Wow! What an awesome God we serve!

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Worthy is the Lord

For the last two weeks we have been studying the little worship booklet Worship and Music Ministry from the Calvary Basic Series.

We have read and discussed chapter 1 with the first two principles for worship and music ministry; principal 1- Knowing Biblical Truth Will Cause People to Worship God... thus making worship a natural response of the effects of God's Word in our hearts. Our worship is an overflow of the joy and peace that God has brought about in our lives.

Principle 2: The Same Care Given to the Teaching of God's Word Should Also Be Given to the Worship of God...thus understanding that we take the time in each service to worship God.

I encourage you to read this section again and to look up the scriptures that go along. What makes this such a great little book is that it is plum rich with scripture.

We started chapter 2 last week and continued it this week as well. It is a long chapter and absolutely incredible with the discussion of Who we worship and how we worship Him.

Principle 3: God Alone Is Worthy of Our Worship. In our discussions we talked about worshipping God alone... and in leading worship, we don't want to distract or bring attention to ourselves. We simply want to enjoy worshipping Him and being an example that others may follow. We also discussed how we can worship other things in our lives...these are known as idols and often times can be revealed in how we spend our time and our money. It is always good to examine ourselves as we read the Word, and allow Him to speak to us about these things. He is so good!

Today we talked more about principle 3. We marveled at the thought that Jesus is fully God and that He was worshipped from a small child... the Magi.. the disciples.. the blind man... a Samaritan lepor... a repentant prostitute... the list goes on. In the Bible it often says ..."He worshipped and praised Him". I couldn't stop wondering what that might have looked like. The Bible describes moments of worship... they are detailed with words like "amazed", "in awe", "intrigued", "wondering as they pondered the Lord, bowed, filled with awe, glorified God.

It was summarized that first we worship with our thoughts, feelings and desires, which then turn into actions or deeds. Verbal expression is one of those actions. We are expressing our love to our God and Father. That is basically what it is... our love flowing to God. How awesome!! We love Him because He first loved us! So incredible! I love this! Don't You?

I think we need to discuss the rest of chapter 2 next Sunday. Pages 15-30. Let's all come prepared to discuss.

Jeff and Hedy will be leading Wednesday worship along with Jordan. I know the Lord will bless that time.

Sunday May 6 we are going to have a large group. It will be Tim, Jesse, Jeff, Hedy, Sophia, me, and Jordan. Jesse will be playing violin as a prelude and some other of the worship songs.

Please leave a comment. It would be neat if we can use this as a means to communicate, encourage and edify. Praise God!

Saturday, April 14, 2007

He Has Risen!

Welcome Back Me! And You! I haven't kept up with this blog for quite some time! But its good to be getting back to a more consistent routine. It has so much been on my heart to be more available for the Lord to use me in this way. To communicate through this blog encouraging one another. We have so much to be grateful for. So much reason to worship, praise, and give thanks. He is so Worthy.

So much has happened in our fellowship since last time I blogged . But I realize that the purpose of this biog is not to keep a history record, but to encourage and edify. To spur one another on toward love and good deeds. But this much we can say. God has most certainly been glorified and He remains faithful.

So now what I am hoping for is that we all, on our worship team, and anyone else interested in participating and training for the music ministry, may contribute to this blog by contributing information, links, resources, and comments as the Lord leads.

The Easter program was a true blessing from the Lord. It was so neat to see how He orchestrated each detail in order to communicate His story to all of us.

I am looking forward to seeing how God will use each gift and talent for the next events that we prepare in the future.

In the next few months we will be reading the Word and other literature, organizing, training, and praying for His guidance for the worship team. We plan on having a workshop in the middle of June. The date will be announced soon.

For now, this blog will serve as a good communication tool to update everyone on weekly reading, practices, and schedule.

Those participating on the team tomorrow should come by 8:15 for review before service. We are having practice after church, lunch will be provided.