7 posts tagged “worship”

I Think I heard Jesus

Mar 11, 2008
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Give thanks to the God of heaven. His faithful love endures forever.

Psalms 136:26 (NLT)
We've been meeting during the weeks leading up to Easter in a special time of worship on Sunday nights. The object is to grow closer to God and each other as we explore just what Easter cost God and just what it means for us. So I've planned each service with the aim to do as much as we can together. No sermon, more sharing.

Each week I've used certain symbols to remind us of what God has done. We had "veils" of paper that we tore as we contemplated what God did through Jesus' death on the cross in tearing the veil in the temple that separated the people from the presence of God. We had bread baking one night in the sanctuary as we celebrated communion. We wore name badges last night that proclaimed us "guilty" that we took off and affixed to the cross to testify that through Christ's death, we were made right with God.

And I've used many different videos - both music and drama, to help us grasp how wide, and how deep the love of God is for us.

My hope is that we have experienced the presence of God together these past few weeks.

But last night, I think I heard Jesus' voice.

I had passed out a sheet of paper which had on it a list of Scriptures that told of God's love for us. I began by reading the first verse, and then each person to my right read the next verse.

Sitting there in the stillness, hearing the voices of these people I've grown to love so much read the words of God's love letter... just took my breath away. Each person read. Some have strong and clear voices, and you could hear the conviction in them. Others spoke softly, but clearly in love. Our friend Allan uncharacteristically stayed to worship with us. He's developmentally disabled, but can read. With the help of his friend Joe Stoy, Allan became a part of our expression of love for God. Then the wavering voices of Robert and Virginia Hughes, aged saints among us were testimonies not just to the lives they have lived, but for Who they have lived them.

It was an experience with the Body of Christ I will never, ever forget.

At the end of the circle was Ian, the youngest among us. The number of verses ended with two repetitions of "His love endures forever." His mother and then his father read those. Ian looked at the paper and at his parents and then spoke "His love endures forever."

Yes it does. And through the voices of God's people, young and old, I think I heard Jesus.

New Hope @ Worship 09 March 2008

Mar 11, 2008
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The day the time changed.

My pastor friends were asking, "did the time change hurt you guys?" My answer was "maybe, but people out sick and out of town hurt more." There's so much lingering sickness in the area, still.

Beautiful day.

Our music today:

The Heart of Worship - classic to prepare to be in God's presence
True Worship Song - really enjoy this one
Your Name - awesome song
Come Thou Fount - tied in so well with the message
I Surrender All - all

And a special musical offering by our littlest praise team members: "I'll Fly Away".

The message came from Matthew 7:13-29 - the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus was testing His congregation to see if they understood what He was asking them to do and challenging them with choice and consequences. I really felt that God was dealing with some people as we went through the wringer together.

Sunday night: We continued our special worship meeting for pre-Easter. I distributed several pieces to be used in worship. "Guilty" name badges, a stripe of red ribbon, and a sheet of Scriptures telling of God's love for us. The name badges were placed on at the beginning of worship and taken off and placed on the cross as we came to take communion. The ribbons were to represent the "stripes by which we are healed".

EVENING WORSHIP MARCH 9, 2008

Worship Theme: “Loved”

Opening Prayer

Intro: “The Truth” - (grabbed this video off Youth Specialties site - very impactful)

By Any Means Necessary – Reading 1

Hosea 1:2 says: When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, "Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord."

Video – “How Deep the Father’s Love” - Fernando Ortega - You Tube

Go, show your love again – Reading 2

Hosea 3:1-3 says: The Lord said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes."
[2] So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about [10 bushels] of barley. [3] Then I told her, "You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you."

Video: What does Love Sound Like? - Worship media purchase - worked well

Romans 5:6-8 (NIV)
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. [7] Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. [8] But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 4:9-10 (NIV)
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. [10] This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

What does love look like?
(Now we focused on the stripes)
John 15:13 (HCSB) No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.

PRAYER BEFORE COMMUNION

Video: In Christ Alone - Great hymn set to images from the Passion of the Christ - You Tube

PERSONAL PRAYERS OF CONFESSION

EACH PERSON COMES AND TAKES COMMUNION WHEN THEY ARE READY. TAKE A PIECE OF BREAD AND TAKE A CUP OF GRAPE JUICE. WHEN WE ALL HAVE THEM, WE WILL FIRST EAT THE BREAD, THEN DRINK THE JUICE.

1 John 4:16a (NIV)
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.

To wrap things up, I played a video of a guy who calls himself "Juan Mann" who goes to public places offering "Free Hugs". I prefaced it by saying "love wins". Great and inspiring. - You Tube

Encouraging Developments

Jan 23, 2008
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One of the most encouraging trends in worship music today is the interest new artists have in picking up those hymns which blessed generations and reworking them to speak to generations now here. Chris Tomlin did it with his treatment of Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone), and "O Worship the King". Now David Crowder has done it with "O For A Thousand"

Granger Hits A Home Run With "Let It Be...Christmas"

Nov 30, 2007
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New Hope - Worship November 25, 2007

Nov 27, 2007
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Weekend after Thanksgiving and I wasn't expecting much, but we had a really good turnout. The vibe was really good, like a group of people who had been apart for a while and were really glad to be back together again.

Worship set:

(Guitars, keyboard, flute)

Here I Am To Worship
Hosanna

Call Upon His Name
Hosanna

Just As I Am

I continued the Mythbusters series with a message attacking common myths about the church with the biggest being "Church is about us". I played the "meChurch" clip and it was well received, and I spent a lot of time with the concept of the "ekklesia" and how it went from an assembly of people with faith in God to the Body of Christ living out His purposes in the world.

Here's a clip of what "Here I Am To Worship" is about.

Indescribable

Feb 18, 2007
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How can I describe what happened today at New Hope?

It was Indescribable!

Perhaps the biggest crowd in the history of New Hope gathered for worship and to witness the wedding of our two dear ones - Robert Hughes and Jewel Cuchens.

On Amazing Grace Sunday, we experienced amazing grace.

I still keep seeing that gulf between where we were before God drew us to Himself through Jesus, and where we are now as His children, wholly and dearly loved.

We are His masterpiece. The word poema in the Greek. We get our word poem from it.

As a writer, I know how it feels to create something. You put yourself into it. The Bible says that God created us in His image, and created us anew in Jesus. So we are His proof to the world of His love.

It's Indescribable how great that should make us feel.