This post is part of the service Setlist extravaganza over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com. After you read mine, check out the other setlists posted there!
The Setlist:
Walk-in:
Service:
Service flow from Planning Center. (We started using Planning Center a few weeks ago – I LOVE IT!)
“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”
- Jesus (John 15:4)
My wife and I are avid Fringe viewers. A few weeks ago, one episode really illustrated John 15:4 for me.
The episode, titled Johari Window, involved a town of people who have, for generations, been stricken with a physical deformity as a result of a government experiment. The townspeople hide their physical deformity from outsiders through a massive electromagnetic pulse that runs through the town. The pulse causes them to look normal; however, once they leave town and are out of the pulse’s reach, their true deformities show.
Last Saturday, I completed the annual “pruning of the roses” task at home – not as dangerous as the “running of the bulls”, but I did have some good pokes from the thorns!
Some of the rose bushes and trees we have are pretty old (according to my neighbor, some were even transplanted years ago from his house). Some of them are younger, having been planted by us. In order to keep them healthy and flowering each year, they must be pruned – even if they look like they don’t need it…even if they have blooms right now.
Old or new, well-established or just-planted – each gets the same treatment.
This post is part of the service Setlist extravaganza over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com. After you read mine, check out the other setlists posted there!
The Setlist:
Walk-in:
Service:
Yesterday, Karen and I were looking out our hotel window and she pointed out that all the footprints that littered the beach were gone – washed away by the surf.
It reminded me of how our sin is washed away as we live out 1 John 1:9 – initially as we receive salvation and then in relationship with God and with one another:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
It also brought to mind lyrics from Brooke Fraser’s Hosanna:
I see His Love and Mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing
The people sing
Hosanna hosanna
Hosanna in the highest
x
Father,
Thank you for the tangible reminders of your undeserved mercy, grace, and forgiveness. Thank you for the promise of a clean slate – for second chances – all at no great price paid by me other than acknowledging my sin to You. Your Son graciously paid the price for me on the cross – may I appreciate His sacrifice all the more as I confess my sin. Quicken my mind to keep short accounts with you – confessing that which You already know and are so ready to forgive and forget.
amen.
This post is part of the service Setlist extravaganza over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com. After you read mine, check out the other setlists posted there!
The Setlist:
Walk-in:
Service:
The Recap:
No recap this week – Pastor John lead today as Karen and I are on a get-a-way trip for our 23rd wedding anniversary.
Here’s the view of God’s creation we’re enjoying:
Hope your Sunday was great!
Karen and I are in Monterey for a few days celebrating our anniversary and, as I was looking out our hotel window at the stars and listening to the ocean, I remembered this song from when I was growing up. (If I recall, the way we did it had a lot of Ah-ah-ah-ahs in it!)
It’s dripping with Truth!
He’s Everything to Me
Ralph Carmichael
In the stars His handiwork I see,
On the wind He speaks with majesty,
Tho He ruleth over land and sea,
What is that to me?
I will celebrate Nativity,
for it has a place in history
Sure, He came to set His people free
What is that to me?
Till by faith I met Him face to face
and I felt the wonder of his grace
Then I knew that He was more
than just a God who didn’t care
That lived a way out there
And now He
walks beside me day by day,
Ever watching over me lest I stray,
Helping me to find that narrow way
He’s Everything To Me.
© 1964 Bud John Songs, Inc. (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)
