MERRY CHRISTMAS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!!!

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

- Isaiah 9:6 -

[New Song] 'Promises' by New Life Worship & Desperation Band

Song Title: Promises
Song by: New Life Worship & Desperation Band
Album: My Savior Lives (2007)

[Lyrics]

Bridge:
Singing all of Your promises won’t let go of me
(All of your Promises won’t let go of me)

Verse:
I’ve surrendered my life to Your ways
I have learned what it means to obey
Jesus, my heart has been
Changed by You

I am walking the path You have made
I am seeking the truth everyday
Jesus, my heart has been
Changed by You

Pre-Chorus:
I couldn’t walk away if I tried
Cause Your love is better than life

Chorus:
The sun’s shining bright and it just won’t set
Cause Your love is alive and it lights my step
My heart is amazed everyday to the next
Your joy overtakes and I can’t forget about it

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, I can’t forget about it (x2)

[New Song] 'I Will Remember You' by Brenton Brown

I don't know if you guys know this song already but....

Song Title: I Will Remember You
Song by: Brenton Brown
Album: Everlasting God (2006)



[Lyrics]

Chorus:
I will remember You always remember You
I will remember You and all You've done for me

Verse 1:
I will not forget all Your benefits
Even when the storms surround my soul
How You comfort me, heal all my diseases
How You lift me up on eagles wings

Verse 2:
I will not forget all Your benefits
How You've chosen and adopted me
Orphaned by my sin, Your grace has let me in
And never once have You abandoned me

Bridge:
I have tasted and I've seen how you Father faithfully,
How you shepherd those who fear Your name
When the shadow's start to fall and my heart begins to fail
I will lift my eyes to You again (and)

Magnifying God

Just wanted to share with you from what I've been reading...

(excerpt from 'Don't Waste Your Life' by John Piper...)

Magnify has two distinct meanings. In relation to God, one is worship and one is wickedness. You can magnify like a telescope or like a microscope. When you magnify like a microscope, you make something tiny look bigger than it is. A dustmite can look like a monster. Pretending to magnify God like that is wickedness. But when you magnify like a telescope, you make something unimaginably great look like what it really is. With the Hubble Space Telescope, pinprick galaxies in the sky are revealed for the billion-star giants that they are. Magnifying God like that is worship. (emphasize mine)

We waster our lives when we don not pray and think and dream and plan and work toward magnifying God in all spheres of life. God created us for this: to live our lives in a way that makes him look more like the greatness and the beauty and the infinite worth that he really is."


Worship=to magnify God.

<><<><\\\\\
-sHin

[NEW SONG] SPEAK TO ME

SPEAK TO ME
Tommy Walker from 'I Have A Hope' album (2008)

(Verse 1)
I am your servant
And I am listening
Speak to me Lord, speak to me

I need your wisdom
And truth and comfort
Speak to me Lord, speak to me

(Chorus)
Speak to me
Speak to me
Through your word
Through your spirit
Speak your words of life

Speak to me
Speak to me
I am listening
I am waiting
Speak to me

(Verse 2)
I am your servant
And I am listening
Speak to me Lord, speak to me

My heart is silent
My soul is longing
Speak to me Lord, speak to me

WORSHIP & AIRPLANE RIDES

Last week during small group I shared about my frustrations in worship. Then I read this the other night that seems to illustrate really well what I was trying to convey. I pray that we cease to be a merely content worshipper but seek to be a childlike worshipper with exuberence to come before the presence of an Almighty God!

(excerpt from 'Just Like Jesus' by Max Lucado)

People on a plane and people on a pew have a lot in common. All are on a journey. Most are well-behaved and presentable. Some doze, and others gaze out the window. Most, if not all, are satisfied with a predictable experience. For many, the mark of a good flight and the mark of a good worship assembly are the same. “Nice,” we like to say. “It was a nice flight/It was a nice worship service.” We exit the same way we enter, and we’re happy to return next time.

A few, however, are not content with nice. They long for something more. The boy who just passed me did. I heard him before I saw him. I was already in my seat when he asked, “Will they really let me meet the pilot?” He was either lucky or shrewd because he made the request just as he entered the plane. The question floated into the cockpit, causing the pilot to lean out.

“Someone looking for me?” he asked.

The boy’s hand shot up like he was answering his second-grade teacher’s question. “I am!”

“Well, come on in.”

With a nod from his mom, the youngster entered the cockpit’s world of controls and gauges and emerged minutes later with eyes wide. “Wow!” he exclaimed. “I’m so glad to be on this plane!”

No one else’s face showed such wonder. I should know. I paid attention. The boy’s interest piqued mine, so I studied the faces of the other passengers but found no such enthusiasm. I mostly saw contentment: travelers content to be out of the airport, content to sit and stare and say little.

There were a few exceptions. The five or so mid-age women wearing straw hats and carrying beachbags weren’t content; they were exuberant. They giggled all the way down the aisle. My bet is they were moms-set-free-from-kitchens-and kids. The fellow in the blue suit across the aisle wasn’t content; he was cranky. He opened his laptop and scowled at its screen the entire trip. Most of us, however, were happier than he and more contained than the ladies. Most of us were content. Content with a predictable, uneventful flight. Content with a “nice” flight.

And since that is what we sought, that is what we got. The boy, on the other hand, wanted more. He wanted to see the pilot. If asked to describe the flight, he wouldn’t say “nice.” He’d likely produce the plastic wings the pilot gave him and say, “I saw the man up front.”

Do you see why I say that people on a plane and people on a pew have a lot in common? Enter a church sanctuary and look at the faces. A few are giggly, a couple are cranky, but by and large we are content. Content to be there. Content to sit and look straight ahead and leave when the service is over. Content to enjoy an assembly with no surprises or turbulence. Content with a “nice” service. “Seek and you will find,” Jesus promised. And since a nice service is what we seek, a nice service is usually what we find.

A few, however, seek more. A few come with the childlike enthusiasm of the boy. And those few leave as he did, wide-eyed with the wonder of having stood in the presence of the pilot himself.