Advent: Hope

Stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.
-Luke 21:28 (NRSV)

Wow, here it is, Advent season again. A time when the church basically remembers to be watching for Christs return. A few years ago, I decided to give up something for Advent, I tried to give up rich foods and desserts until Christmas, hoping that my heart might be more open to the presence of Christ. It was a challenging sacrifice, and I didn't fair so well.

When suffering, hardship, or disaster come, are we ready to stand firm and place our hope God? I recently read an article online about a South African who spoke about her families history, they lived during the beginning of apartheid. Families were taken in trucks from their homes and towns and taken into exile to the so-called homelands. Singing arose on those trucks as loving parents comforted their children and offered songs of hope.

In dark times gifts of memory and hope comfort us, bringing strength to stand in the face of cruel injustice. God give us the strength to stand for you. To hope in you, and to find strength in You during this Christmas advent season. Remember to reach out to those around you who find this time of year difficult. Show them the Hope of Christ

Live it out

Today is the time to begin to live Worship! Not tomorrow, not yesterday, not the new year.

Everyday we have to choose. We can choose to live the same old way or we can start to live it to our best through living a life of worship. Does this mean we need to go around singing, dancing and praising every minute of the day? By no means. What I mean is living in integrity and being thankful for what God has done, and is doing.

So how do we begin to live a life of worship? Forgiveness is a place to start. If we hold anything against anyone or towards God we can't live our lives in worship.

Next, give honor and glory to God. God does so much for us each day that we don't give Him credit for, So take time to thank God for the simple things.

Next, pray. The word says to pray without ceasing. This doesn’t mean that every word from your mouth should be a prayer, it simply means that we need to stay in contact with God through our thoughts. When we do, we have less time to think about distractions that try to take us out of our lives of worship. We tend to forget about distractions and difficulties when we are focused on prayer!

Then we should take time each day to read the bible. when we do this we are actually hiding God's word in our heart. God will help us to understand His word and hide it in our hearts. You don’t have to memorize large parts of scripture. But if you take verses and meditate on them you can absorb these truths. They will help you to make better decisions while you are living your life of worship.

Last but not least you must take time to worship and praise. take the time to worship God in the way he designed for you. Whether it's on your face, or bouncing around the room, just take the time. You will find your freedom in praise when you are by yourself, but I encourage you to bring it to the sanctuary on Sunday. It is contagious. the more people who begin to feel free on Sunday, the more others will join, and soon we will all be worshiping freely in many different expressions

In Hard Times

In Loving Memory of a beautiful person. You will be missed.


Sometimes we wonder, "Why me???" or "What did I do to deserve this?" or "Why did God allow this to happen to me?" I came across this article in an e-mail I received. It kinda hits home and it is a thought provoking explanation...



A teenage daughter is telling her Mother how everything is going wrong, she's failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.

Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, "Absolutely Mom, I love your cake."

"Here, have some cooking oil," her Mother offers.
"Yuck" says her daughter.
"How about a couple raw eggs?" "Gross, Mom!"
"Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?"
"Mom, those are all yucky!"

To which the mother replies: "Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake! "

God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times.
But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!

God is crazy about you. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning.
Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart.
Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance.

"Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes." Nehemiah 4:14b

Isn’t this a powerful statement! You can almost feel the zeal of Nehemiah. Watching Kevin say the words, was almost like seeing Nehemiah speaking. He had authority, he had power. He was ticked because people around him were starting to fall to the lies of the enemy. Now we all know from what we have heard and read in our Bibles that God is, as the text says “great and awesome”, but do you know that for yourself? When you personally think about God, do the words great and awesome come to mind? If they don’t, I assure it is not because God has ceased to be great and awesome.
Author Henry Blackaby says in experiencing God. “Right now God is working all around you. One of the greatest tragedies among God’s people is that even though they long to experience Him they do not know how to recognize him at work in their midst”
If this has been the case for you, take some time to pray for God to reveal to you where he is working so that YOU may be able to say, with all sincerity of heart, “Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome”.

Thanks to advance notice from Kevin (our pastor for those of you who follow this blog from elsewhere) I've been reading nehemiah with the attitude "God, what are you saying in this book that you want to say through me, and what songs can I play that you will use to help us remember." So while I've been doing this, I've had a couple of thoughts that I thought I'd share.

What impresses me about Nehemiah is his humility and wisdom in this chapter. When Nehemiah arrives in Jerusalem, he must have made an impressive entrance. The king had sent army officers and cavalry with him, so I’m sure everyone was curious why he was in Jerusalem. But he doesn’t tell them right away. He tells us that he “had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem” (Nehemiah 2:12). He stays for three days and then–at night–he inspects the Jerusalem walls. He keeps his own counsel and instead makes a full inspection before announcing his purpose. He is thorough. He gathers all the “facts” before making a decision.

If I’d been Nehemiah, I’d have ridden into Jerusalem proudly, announced my plans right away. I’d have done this before I’d inspected the situation and had a good grasp of the whole situation. Good thing Nehemiah wasn’t like me, which is probably why God picked him for the task. Instead, Nehemiah is humble. the fact that he quietly examines the walls before making any decisions or plans shows me his wisdom. He is careful in his planning and wants to have first-hand knowledge of the situation before he proceeds any further into his mission.

I could stand to learn a lot from Nehemiah’s actions. How many times do I make plans without considering all the “facts” beforehand? How many times do I barge into a situation, proudly thinking I can make it right, when I don’t know the full situation to begin with?

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth. See you on Sunday when Kevin speaks from Nehemiah 3. I don't know about you, but this series is definatly got me paying attention, and it's got me digging into the word a little deeper than I have in awhile.

Be Ready

You know, what’s so good about our God is how He can deliver to us exactly what we need exactly when we need it. Matthew 25 has proven to me again that He knows exactly what I’m going through and knows exactly how to handle the situation.

There are three powerful parables in this chapter:

1) The story of the ten bridesmaids
2) The story of the traveling man with 2 wise and 1 foolish servant
3) The sheep and the goats

All of these have to do with being prepared and being good stewards with our time, our treasure, and our talent. As I read this chapter over a few times, it really hit me how important it is to have things in order; to be ready at all times.

See you Sunday

Raise your hands

Do you raise your hand during worship at church? I do! I love doing it. Let me share why...

For me, raising my hands means surrender...several different surrenders:...like when a police officer tells a suspect "hands up" surrender - I am guilty, please pardon me surrender......or "these burdens are too heavy for me..take it", surrender...or I don't know what else to do surrender....

For me, it also means adoration. I once watched the Beatles Anthology...I saw these girls screaming, crying, and raising their hands while they were listening to Beatles sing their song in a concert. They adored Beatles! And it struck me that we don't express our adoration to Jesus as much as we express our adoration to our favorite rock band! When i worship and I feel like expressing my adoration to God, I raise my hand freely.

I know I cannot be still during worship. I mean, I have to express my worship through my hands while I sing. I even dance (ok, sway) and cry....

I am not saying that I am more spiritual by raising my hands...no...that's not what it means. It just means that that's how express my love and adoration...to the one I love the most!