Genesis

 Since our challenge was again, not just to talk about it, but to live it.  I thought this might be a good forum for us to share some stories of specific impact God is having on our lives, or using us to accomplish.  This may be in the form of a witness opportunity, a miracle, a divine revelation, a new faith awakening... ect. 

God is there, everywhere, waiting for the lost who have chosen to stray to find their way back to him.

 It's got to be tough to be a parent.  To know when to discipline and lead and when to let go and hope your child will not get lost. 

 There's a whole lot of "stuff" that pulls us from God.  For some four year olds, spending four hours in a cobbler shop admiring moon boots can be a distraction, for others, work, life, family, sports, television, and other things of this world pull us from the only One who matters. 

How do you you keep from being distracted? 

 Happy Mother's Day and have a great week!  Tina

Bad things can happen out of free-will, however God can also administer punishment out of His love for us.   

(When Ben was sharing the "father" punishment story words came to mind of a Stephen Curtis Chapman song -  "God is God and I am not".)

Many testimonies truly point to the fact that brokenness often brings our relationship with God closer to Him.

God wants for us to throw down our "baby bunnies" and pick up our cross and follow his direction.

Thoughts?

Have a great week!  Tina

I found a few minutes in between diaper changes to get a new review online! I'm looking forward to getting back behind the guitar this weekend, thanks again to Stan for pinch hitting these past couple weekends.

Building 429 has always brought a smile to my face when I hear their music. Their instrumentation and musical styling is often very powerful and has a way of getting at your emotions. The words are for the most part inspiring and worshipful.

It has been just a little over a year since their last release "Rise" and now already we have a new batch of songs on "Iris to Iris." Usually when a group releases another full length disc within a years time it signals one of two things; the new disc is a collection of songs that have been in the can for a while or it is a rehashing of previously released material. This is not the case with "Iris to Iris."

This CD is different from the previous two and those two are different from each other. "Rise" had a much heavier sound to it while this newest offering has more of a modern worship feel (think Tomlin, Crowder, Hughes, etc).

Jason Roy (lead singer) has always impressed me with his vocals. They are gruff without being overly raspy and can emmote a lot of passion and feeling to the already inspired words.

On the topic of vocals/lyrics (hey, it can't be all great) Roy tends to get a little repetitive and redunant. For example an excerpt from the song "Incredible" he drones on; You have made the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the wind, and the fire, and the rain, it’s so beautiful Yes, yes, yes we get it already.

For fans of the first 2 releases which contained songs that were pretty straightforward rock, this disc might be a bit chewy.

Some of my initial favorites are; "Singing Over Me", "Amazed" & "Waiting to Shine". "Grace that is Greater" is a great remake of the hymn.

Have a great rest of the week, see you in worship!

I think most people would conceptually agree that it's all about Jesus. Problem is most of us don't live that way.

Who's at the center of your world? Who's at the center of your life?

Live Jesus, Share Jesus, Serve Jesus.

ben

Text:  Acts 4:23-31

Be bold.   Pray for boldness - for yourself and for each other.  We need to challenge each other and most of all pray for each other.

Dive into the power, wisdom and love of God.  Watch for His answer and know that when you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you will be filled - not just once, but whenever you need it.  Prayer slays fear, like paper covers rock.

Go and be bold.  Know a friend who doesn't know Jesus?  Earn the right to talk to them about Jesus and then take that step.    Don't know how?  Pray for boldness.  You can also ask a few Christian friends to be in prayer.

Thoughts?     

 Have a great week - Tina

I know that testifying to our faith is not as natural as we'd like it to be.  In fact, sometimes we look the perfect opportunity in the face and miss it.

Some thoughts from today... we testify from our weakness.  

Leviticus 8:22-24, we testify as forgiven people covered in the blood of Jesus.  

 Are we willing to surrender.  To listen to His voice, Serve in His name and when He directs and to Go where and when He calls.  May our lives be the testimony.  

ben 

How much of what you are focused on won't mean anything five years from now?

Life is temporary.  Jesus is FOREVER.  For some of us (me included) this is sometimes glazed over much like an Easter ham.  We say "HE IS RISEN INDEED" as the easily repeated phrasing at Easter services but do we even understand that the enormity of THAT huge truth?  That our hope is only found in JESUS and HIM alone.

We looked at the following text:

Genesis 3

Matthew 28

1 Corinthians 15:12-34

Have you heard it all before?  Are you moved by the Victory of the Resurrection?

Do you have joy and fear in your relationship with God? 

One thing I wondered - if so many people don't have joy and fear in their relationship with God, how do they get there?  It's such a spectrum of feeling.  Does having a healthy balance of both help make you respect and maybe live a little in awe of the enormity of your relationship with God?

Do we casually just accept this Truth or does it become to mean something more than we could even imagine? So how do we KNOW IT and LIVE IT?

Because of His resurrection there is HOPE. 

We deserve death because of our sin.  That's an awfully heavy burden to carry unless we understand the rest - that we have LIFE and HOPE through Jesus and only Him.

 JESUS IS RISEN.  I hope you had a blessed Easter!   Tina

Tim Hughes to the rescue!

The drought is over friends! Our friend from across the pond, Tim Hughes has brought us a new disc packed with great worship songs! In 2001 Tim released his first major label disc and it is partly because of that disc that I am doing what I do today. The songs on the CD were heartfelt and genuine. Not only that, they were memerable. How many times have you bought a CD, listened through it all and right away completely forgot how half the songs went? That was not the case on "Here I am to Worship" Tim has penned a number of popular worship songs; Here I am to Worship, Jesus You Alone, Beautiful One, Maker of All Things. Perhaps you have heard of them?

So now we have "Holding Nothing Back" the third disc from Hughes. I think this group of songs has as much if not a bit more influence on the corporate worship setting than the first. The recordings are definitely more polished than previous discs, but in this case I don't mind and neither should anyone else (I read an article that somewhat slammed the feel of the disc). Tim employs the guitar work of Stu Gerrard (delirious?) on some tracks and it definitely adds. I don't know how you could record any of Stu G's work without it sounding over produced. That guy is a nut for guitar effects and all other bells and whistles.

The album has a definite theme to it. Hughes will be the first to admit it too. He says that it is songs penned from his various concepts and encounters with God over the past several years. All this makes for some great chorus' and deep meaningful verses. The songs are catchy with plenty of good hooks built-in.

"Happy Day" and "Out of the Darkness" are two great tracks that can definitely get you going. Some other $0.99 worthy tracks are "Everything", "Almighty God" and the title track "Holding Nothing Back".

Get your vocal chords warmed up church, there's some new material on the horizon!

It is all about Jesus.  Do you know him?

If you know him, do you share him? 

If you don't share him, do you really know him? 

Here are four simple steps to opening the scripture and sharing who Jesus is, with corresponding verses...

 1- the need (Romans 3:19-23)

 2- the love (John 3:16)

 3- the sacrifice (Isaiah 53:4-6)

 4- the way (John 14:6-7)

I promised this morning that I would throw some resource links out there.  So, here it goes.  here, here, here and here. 

ben