Sunday Setlist - 09.27.09

Week #62 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, September 27th.

- Open the Eyes of My Heart
- I Am Yours (Take My Life)
- Your Name
- How Great Is Our God

This morning we ended our series "Summer in the Psalms" with Psalm 110. What a wonderful way to end our time as far as a Sunday morning sermon series goes by looking ahead to the life of Christ. We looked at five aspects of Christ in this Psalm. Our Pastor shared these with us; Jesus Christ is announced as:

1) God [we have been created w a purpose to fulfill]
2) King [we have a leader to follow and a kingdom lifestyle to live]
3) Priest [we have forgiveness and immediate access to the Father]
4) Judge [we've been pronounced not guilty]
5) Warrior [we must remember how the story ends, looking ahead to the book of Revelation]

I have enjoyed our time in the Psalms and being a musician I have always enjoyed my personal time in the Psalms. The honesty of the psalmists in prayer, praise, worship and crying out to God for cleansing, renewal and forgiveness has been inspiring on multiple occasions. As I was eating breakfast this morning, I was once again reading the Psalms and I was in Psalm 145. So to end this edition of Sunday Setlists, I leave you with this verse from Psalm 145. In verses 1 and 3a David says this, "I will extol [praise] you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised."

To check out what others are doing in their services and learn more about what Sunday Setlists is all about, check out Fred McKinnon's blog at http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/2009/09/27/sunday-setlists-62/

Sunday Setlist - 09.20.09

Week #61 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, September 20th.

- Hear Our Praises
- Unfailing Love
- He Knows My Name
- Sanctuary
- Draw Me Close

We are nearing the end of our "Summer in the Psalms" series. This morning's message was on Psalm 139. We looked at three main points in this Psalm all pointing to attributes of God. He is omniscient (verses 1-6), omnipresent (verses 7-12) and omnipotent (verses 13-24). We also showed a fantastic video in the service. This video is funny as well as thought-provoking and convicting. It is done by the Skit Guys and called God's Chisel. God doesn't make junk. We are His original masterpiece. If you've never read Psalm 139, check it out and also read Ephesians 2.10.



To check out what others are doing in their services and learn more about what Sunday Setlists is all about, check out Fred McKinnon's blog at http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/2009/09/21/sunday-setlists-61/

Sunday Setlist - 09.13.09

Week #60 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, September 13th.

- The Lord Reigns
- Glorious Day
- Jesus Messiah

This morning we had part II of Psalm 119 in our "Summer in the Psalms" series. What a wonderful Psalm it is. We began the service by listening to the entire Psalm. Our pastor challenged us to read Psalm 119 once each day this past week. It was wonderful to do that. I was really drawn to verse 89 and the first part of verse 90. Here is what it says, "Forever [everlasting], O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven [stands firm]. Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations." As much as this is a psalm about God's Word, more importantly, it's a psalm about God. The words You and Your, which are referring to God, are found 249 times in 176 verses. Our God and His Word are everlasting and the will stand firm through the ages. We have two more weeks in this series. Next Sunday we'll be looking at Psalm 42 and then Psalm 139 the following week.

To check out what others are doing in their services and learn more about what Sunday Setlists is all about, check out Fred McKinnon's blog at http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/2009/09/13/sunday-setlists-60/

Tender Warrior by Stu Weber

I bought this book when Mary and I attended FamilyLife's Weekend to Remember marriage conference back in 2008. We received admission to the conference as a wedding gift and what a great conference it was. So nice to get away for the weekend and spend some good quality time with my lovely wife. I wanted to come away from that conference with some material/books that I would be able to read and really come away with something. That definitely came with this book...just wish I had read it sooner. Stu Weber really get to the heart of man and really Who we should be modeling as men. He also talks about how we are supposed to be devoted husbands and loving fathers. I think most men feel like we have to be the strong one, the warrior, but at the same time we have to learn how to be sensitive to our wives, learn how to speak the language of women, be loving and approachable to our kids, and that is the tenderness in the midst of the warrior. This book is Biblically sound as well. Stu Weber is able to weave in scripture as he makes his point. Which ties in that Weber says we as men need to have a vibrant, growing relationship with our God and King. We need to be growing in our knowledge and personal relationship with God. We also need to be continuing to learn and stay in His Word. The Bible and how it portrays our heavenly Father and His relationship with His Son Jesus are the examples that are set for us to follow as men, husbands and earthly fathers.

There are a lot of discussion questions following each chapter and I hope to in the near future go through those questions. I have now been married just over two years and I'm definitely still learning (I'm sure I'll be learning the rest of my life) what it is to be a good husband. Eventually when we have a family, I really want to be a Godly example and father to my kids. I want them to grow up knowing who God is and how much He loves them, for them to believe in Him and grow in their own personal relationship with God. But it all starts with me, who I am as a man, husband, father (not yet though) and how I'm growing in relationship with my heavenly Father as the ultimate example.

Some Videos to Share

In the last couple days I've come across some great videos that I would like to share on here. These videos hold some wonderful testimonies of God doing great things among people like you and I.

These first two videos are previews of a new song "Heaven is the Face" on Steven Curtis Chapman's upcoming new CD. The first video is the story behind the song and the second video is the song.





This third video is the testimony of a family that went through a real tough time with their 5 month old little girl dealing with leukemia and a song that helped get the family through that time. The song is "Healer" by Kari Jobe. This isn't the first story I've heard about this song getting someone through a tough time. I was an intern at First Baptist Orlando while I was finishing my college degree and there is a family at that church that was trusting that God would heal their little girl and this song was constantly on the heart and voice of this little girl, Gracyn DenBesten. If you want to read more about her story and see a video of her singing this song at First Baptist Orlando you can click here. She also got the chance to sing this song with Kari Jobe at a night of worship held at First Baptist Orlando a couple weeks ago.

The Word of God

As I was checking my twitter this morning, I came across a blog post from another blog that I follow. It was a challenging word basically asking one question; are you reading God's Word? From that, are you meditating on the Word, are you memorizing the Word? I was convicted once again of my time, or lack there of, in the Word of God. It's something I'm working on, but still struggle with. Check out the following link to the original post.

http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/2009/09/10/who-are-we-kidding/

Fearless by Max Lucado

Every one of us deals with fear, especially in this day and age where everything around us seems to be falling apart. There is a correlation between our faith and fear. Fear of “fill in the blank” can consume us in an instant, but as long as we have our faith in the one True God, He can bring us through any situation we find ourselves in. The way we live our life in light of the work that Christ did on the cross, that fear can be conquered, just as sin and death was conquered.

I was looking forward to reading this book as other titles I have read by Max Lucado have been wonderful. This one proved the same. This book has come out at the right time in the lives of probably just about everyone, as fear is becoming more and more prevalent. Life is a constant variable and out of the many circumstances surrounding us comes fear. There is however one constant and that is God. If we put our complete faith and trust in Him, He will be faithful to pull us through the situation. We may not understand the circumstance but we can fully believe that He will walk with us and take the fear away. This may not be the easiest thing to do, because as humans we don’t always understand God’s ways or timing. Even though we may not understand, we need to trust. I’m working on this myself as I have fears and questions, but I’m continuing to learn to put my trust in Him, completely. Reading this book is one more tool to help put me in the right direction. I would recommend that everyone read this book and don’t forget the words penned in Isaiah 40.31, “But they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (ESV)

Special thanks to Thomas Nelson and the Book Review Bloggers program for providing this complimentary book to read and review.

Sunday Setlist - 09.06.09

So since I've started to blog, I'm going to start in on posting our Sunday Setlist. This comes from Fred McKinnon, who is the worship director at St. Simons Community Church. He started this just over a year ago; it's now in its 59th week. I've been following it for a while checking out what other worship leaders are doing at their churches and figured I'll start doing the same. So here is our setlist for Sunday, September 6th.

- Your Grace Is Enough
- Thy Word
- Glory to God Forever
- Jesus Paid It All (during communion)

We are currently in a series called "Summer in the Psalms." This morning our pastor is preaching on Psalm 119! He's taking two Sundays to do it. What a wonderful psalm all about the Word of God! This Sunday was more of a background on the longest Psalm and chapter in the Bible and then next week we'll dive more into the Psalm.

To check out what others are doing in their services and learn more about what Sunday Setlists is all about, check out Fred McKinnon's blog at http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/2009/09/06/sunday-setlists-59/

Here we go...

Well, I have decided to enter into the world of blogging. I've done this for a couple reasons; 1) I'm continuing to grow as a worshipper and a worship leader and would like to be able to share insights into what God is teaching me and hopefully be a blessing to others and 2) I'm in my first book as book review blogger for Thomas Nelson and needed a place to put my reviews.

So there will probably be a plethora of subjects to come as I blog, but my prayer is that this continues to be a blog that is honoring to the Lord, even though there may be sharing of struggles as well as blessings. I leave this first post with a couple passages that I post more for my reminder as I go about this blog and my life as a follower of Christ. Romans 12.1 says "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship" (ESV) and I Corinthians 10.31b which says "whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (ESV)