This past Sunday Catawba UMC enjoyed the stories and music of Christsong. Christsong is a prison ministry made up of Bobby and Nancy McGee. Last year they saw over 700 people accept Jesus as Lord and saw 3,000 people recommit their lives to Christ.
Catawba UMC supports them financially throughout the year. We believe in what they are doing. Actually, to be more accurate, we believe in what God is doing through them.
If you want to know more, you can visit their website at http://christsongministry.org/.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
New-to-me-Music
One of my Christmas presents this year from my mother-in-law was the new Switchfoot CD Vice Versus
and John Foremans's (the lead singer for Switchfoot) series of mini-albums Fall-Winter-Summer-Spring.
I've listented to most but not all of Vice Versus and Fall and Winter. I haven't gotten to Spring and Summer yet. The music so far is just amazing. I'm loving it. It's been one of those rare occurrences where the music and lyrics is better than I thought they would be. I've been really impressed with John Foreman's song writing skills.
Here are a few of my favorite lyrics and a sentence about the reason why:
I wonder why
would I wait till I die to come alive
I'm ready now, I'm not waiting for the afterlife.
-Switchfoot – Afterlife – Vice Versus
Christ makes us alive not just for an eternal future, but for a purposeful present. Such good theology in this.
I am the war inside
I am the battle line
I am the rising tide
I am the war I fight
Eyes open, open wide
I can feel it like a crack in my spine
I can feel it like the back of my mind
I am the war inside
-Switchfoot – The War Inside – Vice Versus
Isn't it true that often the greatest war we face is the war inside. The war against temptaion and sin. We know ultimately the war is over because of what Christ accomplished on the cross, however, we also know that until complete fulfillment of the kingdom of God, we are warring against spiritual principalities on the inside and outside and only with Christ can we win that war.
This convicts me: how restless as am I in seeking God? Answer: Not as restless as I should be.
The grave is lazy
He takes our body slow.
-John Foreman – Learning How to Die
This brings back memories of sitting and reading scripture and praying with and for people while they were dying of cancer. The lyric isn't always true, but I like the theological portrayal of the grave i.e. death as lazy.
All along I thought
I was learning how to take
How to bend not how to break How to live not how to cry
But really
I've been learning how to die
I've been learning how to die
-John Foreman – Learning How to Die
One of the hardest things for a Christian is dying to self. We all need to learn how to die so that Christ may increase!
Here's Learning How to Die on Youtube. This particular homemade video does not do the song justice. So just open the link, turn up the speakers and minimize the video.
and John Foremans's (the lead singer for Switchfoot) series of mini-albums Fall-Winter-Summer-Spring.
I've listented to most but not all of Vice Versus and Fall and Winter. I haven't gotten to Spring and Summer yet. The music so far is just amazing. I'm loving it. It's been one of those rare occurrences where the music and lyrics is better than I thought they would be. I've been really impressed with John Foreman's song writing skills.
Here are a few of my favorite lyrics and a sentence about the reason why:
I wonder why
would I wait till I die to come alive
I'm ready now, I'm not waiting for the afterlife.
-Switchfoot – Afterlife – Vice Versus
Christ makes us alive not just for an eternal future, but for a purposeful present. Such good theology in this.
I am the war inside
I am the battle line
I am the rising tide
I am the war I fight
Eyes open, open wide
I can feel it like a crack in my spine
I can feel it like the back of my mind
I am the war inside
-Switchfoot – The War Inside – Vice Versus
Isn't it true that often the greatest war we face is the war inside. The war against temptaion and sin. We know ultimately the war is over because of what Christ accomplished on the cross, however, we also know that until complete fulfillment of the kingdom of God, we are warring against spiritual principalities on the inside and outside and only with Christ can we win that war.
I am restless
I am restless
I'm looking for you
I am restless
I run like the ocean to find your shore
I'm looking for you
-Switchfoot – Restless – Vice VersusI am restless
I'm looking for you
I am restless
I run like the ocean to find your shore
I'm looking for you
This convicts me: how restless as am I in seeking God? Answer: Not as restless as I should be.
The grave is lazy
He takes our body slow.
-John Foreman – Learning How to Die
This brings back memories of sitting and reading scripture and praying with and for people while they were dying of cancer. The lyric isn't always true, but I like the theological portrayal of the grave i.e. death as lazy.
All along I thought
I was learning how to take
How to bend not how to break How to live not how to cry
But really
I've been learning how to die
I've been learning how to die
-John Foreman – Learning How to Die
One of the hardest things for a Christian is dying to self. We all need to learn how to die so that Christ may increase!
Here's Learning How to Die on Youtube. This particular homemade video does not do the song justice. So just open the link, turn up the speakers and minimize the video.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Getting Back into the Swing of Things
For some reason there were a couple of months where I did not get the church Newsletter articles on our website and I didn't get the sermons posted online and I didn't blog consistently. I'm not sure why...but I've decided to get back into the swing of things. So the current Newsletter is on the church website: www.Catawbaumc.org. The latest sermon is up (accessible at the bottom of this site and on the church website) and I'm blogging again!
Hopefully this is the start of more consistency for the entire year. The holidays always seem to throw me off my rhythm. I think that can be a good thing and a bad thing. Anyway, whatever the case, I'm back!
I'm looking forward to continuing the sermon series Wisdom 101. Last Sunday I talked about how God came to Solomon and said "ask for anything and I will give it to you" (1 Kings 3:5). Solomon asked for Wisdom. God honored his request. We are going to be looking at Solomon's writings in Proverbs for the rest of the series.
I'm looking forward to it and I hope you are too!
Hopefully this is the start of more consistency for the entire year. The holidays always seem to throw me off my rhythm. I think that can be a good thing and a bad thing. Anyway, whatever the case, I'm back!
I'm looking forward to continuing the sermon series Wisdom 101. Last Sunday I talked about how God came to Solomon and said "ask for anything and I will give it to you" (1 Kings 3:5). Solomon asked for Wisdom. God honored his request. We are going to be looking at Solomon's writings in Proverbs for the rest of the series.
I'm looking forward to it and I hope you are too!
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