I’ve been in the process of getting this blog’s new home ready. It’s time to move.

Here’s the new location.

Hope you come and visit.

40 Days of Community, Part 6. How to tell God you love Him.

Join the Song Vicky Beeching|Ed Cash

How Great is Our God Chris Tomlin | Ed Cash | Jesse Reeves

Be the Centre Michael Frye

All I Need Rita Springer

Reminder:

Celebration Sunday is Sunday 3/22.

One service @ 11:30am in the Lenawee Christian School gymnasium.

40 Days of Community, part 5 – Serving Together

Let the Praises Ring Lincoln Brewster

Join the Song Ed Cash | Vicky Beeching

Not to Us Chris Tomlin | Jesse Reeves

Here is Our King David Crowder

40 Days of Community – How We Help Each Other Grow

Clap Your Hands Ben Cissell | Bob Herdman | Mark Stuart | Tyler Burkum | Will McGinniss

Join with the Angels Lex Buckley | Tim Hughes

O Praise Him David Crowder

Let It Rise Holland Davis

Sing to the King Billy Foote / Charles Silvester Horne

You are God Brian Bergman | Charlie Hall | Dustin Ragland | Kendall Combes

40 Days of Community (part 2)
‘Reaching Out Together’

We Want to See Jesus Lifted High (Doug Horley)

You Don’t Love God [if You Don't Love Your Neighbor] (Carl Story)

God of this City (Andrew McCann | Boyd Aaron | Ian Jordan | Peter Comfort | Peter Kernaghan | Richard Bleakley)

Giving a ’shout out’ to Willy, Rich, Greg, Doug, Rick, Traci, & Jamie for leading us in the bluegrass song ‘You Don’t Love God’. Thanks for helping us see ‘loving others’ in a fresh way.

Why We Need Each Other (40 Days of Community)

House of God – Bart Millard | Jim Bryson | Mike Scheuchzer | Nathan Cochran | Pete Kipley | Robby Shaffer

Sing, Sing, Sing – Chris Tomlin | Daniel Carson | Jesse Reeves | Matt Gilder | Travis Nunn

Not to Us – Chris Tomlin | Jesse Reeves

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology course with Dan Wilt.

Who is God? Who are humans? Why are we here? What is the Kingdom of God? How is the Kingdom of God expressed in the world? Where is human history going?

Why all the questions?

Simply put, how you or I answer these questions impacts how we live.

Not easy questions to answer. Another person working through these questions (as a part of essentials*blue) called us God wrestlers. So below is what resulted from my wrestling with these questions.

God, the one true God, Creator. Ruler. Savior. Eternally existing in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. (These three are co-equal and are one God.)
God created the universe.  God created humans in His image. [Genesis 1:26,27] Humans were made for spirituality, joy, relationship, justice and beauty. God created us to be worshippers and as such, humans are designed to receive and respond to God’s love. God entrusted humans with the task of caring for His creation. God saw all that He had created and it was good. [Genesis 1:31]

The Fall of man forever changed creation as sin entered the world. God’s beautiful creation was distorted. The relationship humans had with God was shattered. Humans, still worshippers began to worship other things.  The world still had power and beauty, but also sorrow and suffering.

God had a plan to rescue humans and to restore earth.

This finding, saving and giving of new life is found in Jesus.

Jesus lived a sinless human life and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all people by dying on a cross. When Jesus rose again, the Kingdom of God arrived on earth. Through Jesus, his life, death and resurrection, God’s given humans a way to become a new creation – this is what we call ‘the gift of salvation’. The gift of salvation offers freedom: freedom to experience God’s rescue for ourselves.

Every person who accepts the gift of salvation becomes an agent of the Kingdom, and as such, a part of the Church.  Each a part of the whole and in some mysterious way resounding with the wonder and brilliance of God Himself. The Holy Spirit enabling and encouraging each to witness to all the world the promises fulfilled in the redemptive work of Christ.

The places where we see heaven meeting earth, where present meets future gives us a glimpse of what we are looking forward to – when Jesus returns and God finishes what He has started – completing His new creation.

Until then, we continue to work here on earth reflecting God, using creativity, force of will, moral nature, the capacity to love, the capacity to give as we tell and retell the story of creation, new creation and God’s pursuit to rescue us; seek justice for the weak and misused; care the earth and its inhabitants and love and give to those around us.

You are Good (Israel Houghton)

Promises (Jared Anderson)

My Savior My God (Aaron Shust|Dora Greenwell)

200 Short* (Steve D. aka Serious)

*You can find lyrics here as well as a link to listen to the song.

Lyrics to 200 Short. You can listen to the song here.

Two hundred dollars short from making unemployment
Two hundred dollars short from paying that rent
Two hundred dollars short for getting these bills paid
Two hundred dollars short is all we ever get

It’s a thousand for this
Yeah, a thousand for that
We ain’t got a thousand dollars, we can’t get on track
We can’t get that
We can’t backtrack you know
But if you’ve got a way to do that then ya it’s a go

Yeah it’s a show
Gotta do something to pay the bills
All these hills and valleys, work it out like Bally’s
And it’s on the way to Rally’s to waste a little money
Yeah it’s funny but we gotta get some food in our tummies
Trying so hard to survive, feels like we live and we try
Seems like we live and we die

Throw it in the oven and bake it
Still no slice of the pie
ring, ring go and pick up the phone
“Hi, I’d like to refinance your house loan”
‘My what?’
“House loan”
‘Yeah right, I don’t know if I’ll ever own a house in my life
If I had a good job, then yeah I might
But if your done wastin my time, then man good night’

Two hundred dollars short from making unemployment
Two hundred dollars short from paying that rent
Two hundred dollars short for getting these bills paid
Two hundred dollars short is all we ever get
Two hundred dollars
Still we be two hundred dollars short
Two hundred dollars short
Two hundred we missed it
Two hundred dollars
Said we two hundred dollars short
Two hundred dollars short
That’s the way it is man

Get off my case I ain’t got no money
All these money hungry people’s hands laced with honey
Sticky fingers turn off my ringers
I ain’t got time you can steal their money but you won’t get mine
Don’t like me? Fine.
I don’t like you neither
State of Michigan, T-Mobile, 150 for oil
Rich people way too spoiled they can’t feel this pain
Take back bottles for a gallon of gas
Yeah I feel that
A Nickels a penny, A quarters a dime
This minimum wage employment is a waste of my time
Hip hop is an expression it’s a reason I rhyme
If I have to give it up for my family then fine
Cause I don’t want to be 40 years old out on the street
Peddling cds, making the same mistakes over keep
Hittin repeat, if you feel it man kick it with me
Come on kick it

Two hundred dollars short from making unemployment
Two hundred dollars short from paying that rent
Two hundred dollars short for getting these bills paid
Two hundred dollars short is all we ever get
Two hundred dollars
Still we be two hundred dollars short
Two hundred dollars short
Two hundred we missed it
Two hundred dollars
Ya we be two hundred dollars short
Two hundred dollars short
That’s the way it is man