Grace
Praying for my enemies is one thing – but to love them? This stands in the face of what the world teaches. It goes against my self-preserving instincts, and my most natural gut-reactions. Yet, curiously, it’s something I find myself longing to do on an ever-increasing basis. I never would have imagined I would be able to wrap my head around this verse in the bible. It was one of those “yeah, but” verses for me for years. So I’m very thankful to see this fruit beginning to grow in my life.
Lord, what act of radical grace can I give to an enemy this week? Please show me, and give me the courage to follow through in obedience.
Loving your enemies. Radical grace. What are your thoughts?
If You Grew Up On A Secluded Island…
Our Men’s Ministry, JourneyMEN, has been studying Francis Chan’s book, “Crazy Love” for several weeks now. In the book, he poses a hypothetical, but very thought-provoking question. It’s a question I have been meditating on, and really searching my heart about. So I wanted to ask it here…
If you were born and raised on a secluded island, having no outside influence and nothing to read but the Bible, what would church look like in your mind? And if you were rescued from that island as a young adult, and came to the United States, would you say that churches here resemble what you imagined church would look like while reading God’s Word for all those many years?
The Choice
We see them
everywhere.
Sidewalks. Parks.
Underpasses.
We pass them on the street without so much as a glance, as though they are as inanimate as the bench they are laying on.
We pull up to the intersection, seeing them from far off, hoping that they don’t approach our car, making sure not to make eye
contact. But for
a full minute,
the hand-
written sign
remains in our
scope of
vision, calling
to a deeper
place in our
spirit than we
are comfortable
with, especially
in our hurried
state. The
light is
about to
change.
What do you do?
Filthy Rags
“All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” – Isaiah 64:6
This verse helps to clarify, even more, the hopelessness I had before I was redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
What have you learned from God today? Please share!
Social Media & #thebookofjames
James 1:19 says to be “quick to listen and slow to speak”
Proverbs 12:23 says, “the heart of fools blurts out folly.”
The bible is clear. We are to be careful with our words.
Slow to speak. Quick to listen. And only fools blurt out folly.
With that fresh on your mind, please turn your thoughts to Social Media.
Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and many more outlets on the web provide countless opportunities for us to share our thoughts.
Few of us have ever had such a large and captive audience. I mean, the average person has the ability to reach hundreds, even thousands of readers a day!
What a huge responsibility!
Question for Christians: Are we applying God‘s Word to our online lives? Or are we feeling immune to, or even hidden from it?
How many foolish things do I blurt out to the masses? Am I really quick to listen and slow to speak?
James 3:8 says it directly, “no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”
I wonder what James would have to say about taming our tweets.
Persecution In India – Francis Chan
Set List – 8/22/10
YOUR GRACE IS ENOUGH – Chris Tomlin
NO SWEETER NAME – Gateway Worship
HIS GLORY APPEARS – Brook Fraser/Hillsong United
REVELATION SONG – Gateway Worship
AMAZING GRACE, MY CHAINS ARE GONE – Chris Tomlin – Invitation
This was another great morning of worship at Daybreak! Please comment below and tell me what you guys did at your church! And please visit The Worship Community to see what other Worship Leaders did at their churches today!
Sunday Setlist – 8/15/10
Happy Day – Tim Hughes
Let Creation Sing – Hillsong
Holy And Anointed One – Kutless
Worthy Is The Lamb – Hillsong
Breathe – Passion – Invitation/Altar Call
This was a great morning of praise and worship for our church. Our youth got down front and were dancing and giving hand gestures for the song “Happy Day”. It was so energetic and fun. And they made it even more so.
“Let Creation Sing” was an excellent call to worship. I love this song!
“Holy and Anointed One” was a new song for our church, even though it’s been around for quite a while. It was the perfect song to move closer to the Lord in worship after prayer time. Daybreak loved it.
“Worthy Is The Lamb” is one we’ve done quite a few times, and every time we sing this song about our Lord, He moves our hearts in a mighty way. The corporate attitude of worship was amazing. And this was a tremendous segue into the Pastor’s message on how the Lord reveals himself in His world, and in His Word.
Finally, all the music and the Pastor’s message out of God’s Word softened many hearts and set up an amazing prayer time and altar call at the invitation. I love seeing lives transformed and renewed in the presence of the Almighty!
Thanks for reading my Sunday Setlist! Please comment below and tell me what you all did at church on Sunday! And please go visit The Worship Community to read more Sunday Setlists from other worship leaders around the globe.
Sunday Set List – 7/18/10
Click to view our setlist in PCO
Glory To God Forever – Fee
New Doxology – Gateway
The More I Seek You – CFNI/Kari Jobe
Word Of God Speak – Mercy Me
This morning was an awesome time of worship! Everything went well, and I loved the attitude of worship that I saw! My only regret is that I started tearing up on Word Of God Speak, and for whatever reason I couldn’t shake it off. My voice was shaky from trying to control the torrent of tears that was pressing the backs of my eyes. Nevertheless, everyone worshiped through my emotions and poor singing, so I was glad.
Has this ever happened to you? What do you do when you’re leading a song and tears of surrender and worship press hard to be released? My throat closed up and my vocals were rendered powerless. Vocal gurus, is there a secret to controlling this?
Thank you for reading my blog. I would love it if you would comment below and tell me about your worship service/s this morning. And I invite you to go over to check out other Sunday Setlists at theworshipcommunity.com.
deepwaterwalk 