The Sweetest Frame

I love God's word. Tonight I have been doubly blessed. I received a word of encouragement from the Lord and was reminded of a great story too! First the word of encouragement... 2 Chronicles 20:12 O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you .” Sometimes I feel just like Jehoshaphat. I don't know what to do, but I will put my eyes on the Lord. I know He is able to deliver. And boy did He deliver... He used the choir? 21 And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say, “Give thanks to the Lord , for his steadfast love endures forever.” 22 And when they began to sing and praise , the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. 23 For the men of Ammon an...

I don't know much about this band, but I really like the song "Love is Here." You can check it out for free over at Rhapsody . You can also check out their video at youtube . (I'd listen to the audio first.) Tuesday Giveaway... First person to reply can have an iTunes gift for this song. Winner: 1. Mike. Calvary Setlist for July 27th He is Exalted Everlasting God Worthy, You are Worthy Wonderful Cross

This video clip of an "Amazing" Grace is priceless. HT: Mike. Thanks for this!

From today's reading ... 1 Chronicles 19:13 Be strong, and let us use our strength for our people and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him. Keith Green used to sing: So keep doing your best And pray that it's blest And He'll take care of the rest. Lord, help us to d o all within our power to fight for your kingdom, but in the end our prayer is that You will do what seems good to You.

One of my E-Teamers put me onto some new music by a group called Leeland (Thanks Autumn). We also sang one of their songs during our worship services. I'm not exactly sure how I missed this group - I've heard the name before, but never took time to check out their music. Also just realized that the drummer in the band must have been a Leeland fan. It's been a while so here's this week's giveaway... First 3 responders will get their pick of any Leeland Song as an iTunes gift. All you need to do is send me an email letting me know which song you want. You might want to check out some of the songs on Rhapsody . Winners will be posted here: 1. 2. 3. Calvary Setlist from Sunday July 13th, 2008: This is the Day I Will Call Upon the Lord I Stand in Awe The Love of God

I have so many wonderful memories from our trip, it's hard to say what my "favorite" ones are. I thoroughly enjoyed going through the Lord's Prayer in our Team meetings every night. And I also loved hearing the rest of the team share their "God & Me" moments. Dustin M. was moved by the concert of prayer in a special way the night before we left. Hannah had a moment by this beautiful tidal pool were everyone was talking and climbing, but she was listening and hearing from God. Emilee had the Lord give her some clear direction about some decisions she needed to make. I think everyone including my family had a moment or two on this trip where God spoke into our lives. One of my favorite "God & Me" stories was Dustin A. and his missing camera. Dustin accidentally left his camera at Point Udall. Later that afternoon, when he realized it was gone, he was sick about losing his pictures. That night it rained, and we were sure that even if the camer...

After my E-Team worship experience, I'd give a resounding no to the title question, but I'm sure that in other churches this may be happening. Here is an interesting article: The Slow Death of Congregational Singing . Pass it along to your worship leader and feel free to comment below.

Please Take Me Fishing... (Click on the image to see a higher resolution picture) This is one of my favorite shots of the entire Virgin Islands trip. This is Mr. Greenway's boat and he was gracious enough to haul us to Buck Island and back while we visited St. Croix. We did have one fishing adventure, but we didn't catch any fish. On the other hand, we did see about 50 flying fish, some dolphins swimming close to the boat, and 2 huge tuna crash out of the water. It was amazing. Thanks Mr. Greenway for taking such good care of us!

I had a crazy day on Monday working through the Apple Care Support System. My Macbook has been intermittently burning CD's since about February - shortly after I upgraded to Leopard. I would try different CD's and different speeds and usually get something to burn. But it continued to get worse. It finally got to where it wouldn't even load blank CD's. What's crazy is that sometimes when you change the language in System Preferences, it would work another time or two. Go figure. Finally after our E-Team trip I had a day or two to devote to fixing this issue so I called Apple Care. They were really friendly, but of course I had to walk through what seemed like 100 steps. First we did a reset. Then we did an update. Then the dreaded Archive and Install. Then an attempt at some hardware diagnostics. You know you should be nervous when the guy on the phone says hit D on bootup and you'll get diagnostics, and then after failing twice, he says that's ...

Workin' Hard. When we left the training, one of our main prayers was that we would be a hard working group, and that we would be able to accomplish some tasks to encourage the Church at St. Croix. Little did we know that our eager hearts would lead to blistered hands. I wished that on that first day we would have worked as "smart" as we did "hard." We were scraping up tile to prepare some classrooms for new carpet. I don't think most of our hands had done much labor in recent weeks and most of us ended up with blisters. But at least we got to soak them in salt water! :) Okay, maybe that was the second "not real smart" thing that we did. But we just taped up our hands on Thursday morning and went back at it. I really don't remember hearing much complaining at all. I was really proud of the team.

I thought it was interesting how the ESV worded what the NIV termed "unfaithful." 1 Chronicles 9:1 So all Israel was recorded in genealogies, and these are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel. And Judah was taken into exile in Babylon because of their breach of faith. 1 Chronicles 10:13 So Saul died for his breach of faith . He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord , and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance. 14 He did not seek guidance from the Lord . Lord, help me to inquire of You before I step.

Another thing that just amazed me about E-Team was the singing during the worship services. These kids belted it out and they sang from their hearts. The band did a great job, but with these kids as a choir, it was easy. Every night I went away from the worship service with a "just happy to be there" feeling. We sang a variety of new and old songs, and learned a song, Revelation 19. It became a favorite for many, and our St. Croix team taught it to the church on the Island while we were there. You can listen to the Mars Hill version here . You can download the lyrics here . And you can get a chord chart to a similar version from Stuart Townend here . You can also get a slightly different version from iTunes. It goes under "Great is He Who's the King of Kings" by Spring Harvest Live Worship. Great song. (It's hard to go wrong with scripture songs, and I have a feeling we will be singing this one for a while!) Thanks again to everyone who made worship...

I've been out of the loop for a month. What's new on your iPod? Drop me a line or leave a comment... and maybe I'll give something away soon.

I wish that I had been able to blog my E-Team experience while it was occurring, but I just wasn't able to make it happen. So over the next few days, I'm going to try and recount some of the highlights of our trip to St. Croix , if for no other reason than to further cement them in my memory. We pulled into Nashville on June 9 th , not exactly sure what to expect. What I really didn't expect is how many new friends we would make. While finishing a project is a noble goal, any missions trip should be about more than painting a room, or digging a trench. It should always be about people and about making disciples. The Lord used some new friends and some old ones to continue discipling me. Two of my new friends are Josh and Alicia Crowe . Alicia is as sweet as she can be, and Josh is as crazy as he can be, but they both have a huge heart for Japan and I know that God is going to use them to change lives in that country. We met other team leaders on Monday and Tuesday, s...

I'm familiar with the quote - "Be angry and sin not", but I like the rest of this quote from Psalm 4 4 Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. I think part of the key to "not sinning", is taking time to ponder what is making us angry, and then to be silent before the Lord that we may have his mind about what we should actually do. It's so much easier for me to react, than to actually think and then act. I need to practice my pondering.

"Let us and the functional hyper-calvinist semi-pelagians both repent." If you want to check out the context of the quote head over to 9 marks . Basically it's about people who have strong theology in their speaking and teaching, but little action in their witness.

Some people talk about change, and some people really make change. Josiah heard God's word and he acted on what he heard... 2 Kings 23:24 Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. 25 Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him. Lord, please help me to act upon the truth that you give to me each and every day.