The conversation  went like this, the church wanted to buy the new Baptist hymnal and the music minister was campaigning to raise money for the purchase when a man came to him and explained that we already had plenty of hymnals in the church with over five hundred songs in them and that was as much music as we would ever need. The video was of a village in Africa and the villagers were singing “Jesus Loves Me”. Now the man had a point we do have a lot of hymnals and we have never sung all the songs in the hymnal I am sure. And do not get me wrong I love the song “Jesus Loves Me” BUT there is a problem that I see that is occurring. We as the people of God have mistakenly assumed that all the songs that were meant to be written have already been written and that god has closed the book ! When the truth is that God has just begun to write music through us! I believe Psalms 40:3 is true for every Christian and that in each culture God is raising up those with the gift of music to write beautiful music to Him but unfortunately we are not doing that. The case of the villagers is most disturbing to me. There they were with a native man trained to preach and singing a song written by an American women almost 150 years ago.  Did any one think to teach the villagers to express their praise to God through songs that came from their own hearts? Surely they are not reading prayers and sermons of other people publicly. There is no doubt that they are encouraged to be open and true with God in those areas….but music is another story   While God has obviously used this music and I will not deny that how much more impact would be felt if the words were from the hearts of their fellow villagers?

The reason I am a modern music guy is because it takes restriction out of the equation and I think you will see if you are watching that some of the most modern churches throw in a hymn and a choir every once and a while because they can not because they have to. There is a place for all of it. What we cannot do is attempt to silence the Spirit of God speaking through us or others in any form whether that be prayer, preaching, or song writing. Too many churches have left this out and I believe it has left a void in the souls of many musicians within the church.

We must remember the book is not closed!!! Keep writing keep praising keep showing God you affection!

• We tripled our attendance from this time last year. Last year we took five people, three adults and two youth. This year we took 14!! That broke down to 4 adults two college students and 8 youth.
• We don’t argue with the instructions on a hair dryer. If it says don’t use underwater cause it might kill us we don’t say that we can do whatever we want and they can’t tell us how to live. But when God tells us to stay away from sin we get upset.
• “Sin is like chocolate covered feces” The speaker actually had shirts with this on it. The point being that we can dress sin up and on the outside it looks smells feels and if we get just a taste it doesn’t seem so bad but if we bite off a mouthful we are in for a rude surprise.
• I have a new hero Nick Vujicic …. Words cannot explain how awesome this man is for hios story go to www.lifewithoutlimbs.com.
• We have bought into the Lies that this world has told us and if we continue to believe them we will never be who God called us to be.
• Thousand Foot Krutch is awesome…. I love intense rock and they put on a great concert.
• I am a sucker for a “daddy and his daughter story” and they had not one but too heart wrenching stories this weekend. I couldn’t keep my eyes dry.
• If you want to see Human depravity and the evil of the heart demonstrated take two toddlers and one toy and lock them in an empty room and wait…..the evil WILL come!
• We stand at the gates of Hell redirecting traffic…that is our job. When you stand at the gates of Hell it will get hot!!
• I have a new band to love www.unhinderedworship.com go check them out….NOW!!
• There is something special about seeing your youth group standing side by side tears streaming down their faces arms lifted to Jesus in praise and worship complete forgetting about who else is around them.
• I can’t wait to go next year!! I hope we triple again!! We had to rent a van this year wouldn’t be awesome to have to rent THREE!!

I was slated to preach both services Sunday so Saturday I went over the church around 9pm for prayer and prep. I spent a good long while walking around the sanctuary praying for the service and praying for the people of the church, some by name. Sunday morning rolled around and I was nervous. For one there was bad weather being forecast and I wasn’t sure many people would show up in the cold rain.

Service started and as I had expected several people ducked out attendance was low and we had no new visitors.  I had been unable to get with the Music Minister prior in the week and had not been able to coordinate the music. Truth be told there was no need. He could not have picked better songs…well he could have if he had the freedom to pick anything but being that we are a Baptist Hymnal type of church he did amazing things with what he had to work with.  All the songs pointed to the glory of the Lord, a key point in my message.

I rose to speak and was a little spastic at first and forgot to say a few things I had meant to but I got on track quickly and seamlessly. I got into the meat of my sermon and took off to the races.  Since I knew we had a bunch of home folk I decided subconsciously to move away from any evangelistic material and stay in the “preaching to the choir” matters.  As I wrapped up I felt God moving on me to be transparent talk about my weaknesses and misgivings in my own life and how I related that back to what was being preached.  I gave the invitation it was quiet and somber, one lady came forward to pray and suddenly one of our Sunday School teachers came forward and asked to address the congregation.

I am never one to quench the Spirit. I am wary of pulpit hounds but I sensed that he was going to say something important. As he rose I shook in anticipation. He spoke words of affirmation. He recognized and declared to the congregation that the Spirit was here and was speaking to them.  He stated that he was blessed that I had preached a sermon all of them needed to hear and was glad that I had not been afraid. He also warned the congregation to not think hat the words came from me but only from the Holy Spirit.  His words brought me to tears.

I received so many encouraging words afterwards. I also got many dirty looks. I had many people hug my neck and boost my confidence. It was a great day.  I had one woman say that she was going to join the church very soon and another say she felt like she had been at church.  Those were highlights of my day.

Unfortunately though I did not get to do my follow up sermon that night as we wound up canceling services due to snow.

Today was a snow day for the schools and I stayed home with my children and had some snowy fun and will do the same tomorrow as schools have been cancelled again. I am taking advantage of these days off to spend some time cathcing up on things around the house and playing with my kids.

On that note I came across this http://www.carloslascano.com/carloslascano/vid_ashortlovestory.html on the creative side of www.StevenFurtick.com

It is in my mind incredible what some people can do. I particularly like this type of art and look. I am sure it probably has a “name”or category but I don’t know it.  It seems to be in the same vein as the Further Seems Forever “Light Up Ahead” music video  but then what do I know right haha.