i am an offering

Yesterday’s service was great.  Especially the message.  Man was it hard-hitting and necessarily so.  I love how our pastor will constantly challenge men in the church and cause us to think hard and fast about what we’re really doing to lead our families.

Some highlights for me were that “some things you just can’t do in the recliner.  You have to get up, turn off the TV and do them.”  I’m not much of a recliner and TV sort of guy, but the concept applies to whatever area of life has become “your lazy” area if you will.  Pastor Wade also gave us the challenge that if we have problems with daydreaming/fantasizing we should focus that energy on how to make our marriage better and how to honor our wives and families more instead.  What a great concept!

We are also held accountable for making sure we talk to our daughters about modesty.  Men, we understand how these things work - we were (and maybe are) all there at one point or another.  We need to teach our daughters especially how their dress affects other men.  Great challenges yesterday.

The songlist (posted in collaboration with other worship leaders at Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Setlists)

• Wonderful Grace of Jesus - gathering song.  Being a fan of Southern Gospel music and in particular The Cathedral Quartet, I’ve always loved this song.  It was a great way to remind us of what God has done for us in Jesus.  The only problem with this song is that it can get a bit too high at some points for your average singer.
• The Name of The Lord (Strong Tower) - hadn’t sung this for awhile so it was fun to sing it again.  The congregation seemed to lack a little energy and I was wishing so much that we had some hand-clapping or some percussion involved on this one.  I suppose I could have started the hand-clapping.  Whoops.  Leading worship from the congregation didn’t work on that one from me this week!  Guilty!
• When I look into Your Holiness - I had only sung this song a couple times but for some reason the words really struck me yesterday and drew me into worship.  Such a simple song, but so effective.  “When all things that surround become shadows in the light of You - I worship You!”  What can help us to make the things that surround become shadows so that His light shines brighter in our lives?
• Oh the Glory of Your Presence - I had never heard this song before.  I’m not sure if it was because my heart was already very open to worship or if the song was just well-written, but I was able to really enjoy worshiping through this song as well.
• ‘Tis so Sweet to Trust in Jesus - closing hymn.  Another classic.  However, this one also gets a little high.  I love the fact that our pastor also knows how to lead worship, though, because he had us repeat the chorus after his closing thoughts - but he brought the song a few keys down.  Nice work!

We also had the experience of hearing from my friend Tara who shared about her time as a missionary in Sudan.  It’s exciting to hear the work that God is doing throug her.

The rest of the day was filled with eating with friends and family and watching lots of olympics.  And boy am I glad we stayed up to watch the men’s swimming relay race.  What a race! Our men certainly represented our country well - both in how they swam and how they handled the interview afterward.

A great day on Sunday at Living Word.

Songs:

• Sing to the King (Foote)
• Marvelous Light (Charlie Hall)
• Jesus, Thank You (Pat Sczebel - Sovereign Grace Music)
• Jesus Paid it All

I will never get sick of Jesus, Thank You. What an amazing song to sing. Pastor Wade taught on four curses that came about as a result of the fall. One of the has been a very tricky subject for many Christians - the curse that man would rule over woman. He did such an awesome job explaining these things and pointing out that if men don’t step it up in there own lives and be a true spiritual head that is willing to die for his wife as Christ died for the church than it will never work. I’d encourage you to take a listen to the sermon. It was phenomenal. One fantastic quote from Wade:

Whoops, did I just do the stereotype of the American sitcom? Dad’s you want to get down about your role in life, just watch TV. Men, you will start to see that the cultural expectation for you is to commit adultery and to buy beer…we men are easy bait…God wants you to step up and lead your families…He wants you on your knees, taking your family before the Lord, doing battle. He wants you on your knees, He wants you in His word, to step up and be a man!”

Truth Project in small group was awesome. We looked at “Who is God” and El Qannah, one of the Hebrew names for God rocked my world. Study that name sometime. It will challenge, change and blow your mind on who God is.