Monday, February 22, 2010

Set List 02.21.10

Here is the music that we used for 02.21.10 - Red Letters - Week 3:

[Opening Song]
D - We Have Overcome - Israel Houghton (Elevation Worship Version)

[Worship Set]
A - Not To Us - Tomlin/Reeves
A - Beautiful The Blood - Fee/Giglio
A - The Stand (w/ Glory To God) - Houston/Fee

[Closing Song]
G - By His Wounds - Mac Powell

This week Steve preached on Mark 15:34:
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
which is a quote from Psalm 22:1:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
The thing that stood out the most to me about this sermon was the fact that when you feel far from God, Jesus understands because he felt far from God during his time on the cross.

Steve closed with a note from Kelley Mitchell. For those of you who don't know, David Mitchell is our Youth Pastor here at First Baptist Church. His youngest daughter, Belle, had a brain tumor removed back in October and Kelley and Belle have been at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for the past 4 months. You can check up on Belle's progress on CaringBridge.

On Saturday, we also had a Acts 11:29 Project. We helped out at the United Way's Project Connect event. This is a event to give immediate help to the homeless people here in York County. The turn out was not quite as big as the organizers had hoped, but a lot of good was still done. There were opportunities for the homeless to receive medical screenings, clothes, socks, haircuts, food, jobs, housing, chiropractic help, dental screenings and much much more. It was great seeing people come in and have their lives changed by something as small as a haircut.

Next week is Commitment Sunday. This will be a great opportunity for people to find out more about First Baptist Church and for people to join the church. Looking forward to it.

Check out what other worship leaders are doing at Sunday Setlists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Set List 02.14.10

Here is the music that we used for 02.14.10 - Week 2 of "Red Letters":

[Opening Song]
Bb - O Praise Him - David Crowder

[Worship Set]
E - King of Glory - Third Day
E - Enough - Chris Tomlin
E - Better Is One Day - Matt Redman

[Closing Song]
A - It Is Well - Todd Fields

This week we looked at the saying of Jesus in Luke 14:26 where he says:
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.
We had a great crowd this week at REVEAL. There is a lot of energy in the services and it is just a blast leading worship.

This weekend we have our Acts 11:29 Project on Saturday morning. We are partnering with Project Connect this month as they do a "fair" for the homeless of York County. Last year the event went great and I am sure that this years will be even better.

You can check out what some other worship leaders are doing here at Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Monday, February 15, 2010

Sunday Recap

Sunday was a very good day at Reveal. Attendance was up and we had a few first time guests hanging out with us. We are in week 2 of our Red Letters series and Steve preached from Luke 14:25-27.

Here are some of the highlights:
  • We like to look at Jesus's command to 'hate our mother, father' as just him saying we are supposed to love Him more than you love others including your family. But that doesn't go far enough.
  • The Greek word translated 'hate' in Luke 14:26 literally means 'hate.'
  • Our connection to Christ has to be stronger than our any other connection that we have.
  • Family connections are never to get in the way of following Christ.
  • How much did Jesus give for you? Everything. What does Jesus then expect from us? Everything. It's a high calling.
  • Jesus calls us to come to where He is. To do that we may have to leave others including those we love behind.
  • Then He calls us to follow him. Once we've gotten to where He is, then we are to follow Him wherever He leads us.
  • Steve loves Kentucky basketball.
  • Steve's favorite place he's lived is Louisville, KY.
  • Things (sports teams, places, people) become important in our lives.
  • We can't let our attachment to those things become so important that we're not willing to give them up to follow Christ.
  • One day, Steve is gonna die and all those things (including his UK memorabilia) are gonna get left behind.
  • When we follow Christ, the things we 'give up' are replaced by things that are much more satisfying and fulfilling.

I had someone ask me yesterday if we had already done a Red Letters series. And, yes, yes we have. We did a Red Letters series last February and the plan is to make Red Letters an annual sermon series where we look at some of the teachings of Jesus that are radical and that call us to a new way of life and living.

If you didn't make it yesterday, hope to see you next week.

-- Peace, Jamie

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Super Bowl XLIV

The National Football League is somewhat of an obsession of mine. As soon as the clock ticked to 0:00 on Sunday night, I was beginning to think about free agents, drafts, and OTAs. NASCAR will get me through to the Fall but the NFL is the sport that I'm most passionate about.

I was pulling for the Colts on Sunday (and actually thought they would win). Anybody who knows me understands that I am terrible at picking winners. I thought the Jets would beat the Colts and the Vikings would beat the Saints in the Conference finals. So I'm not surprised that the Colts lost.

But football is not what I'm here to talk about. I drove around to a few different places on Sunday night and so I missed a lot of the commercials. Sometimes this can be a good thing but other times I truly enjoy some of the commercials. Anyway one of the things on my to do list on the week after the Super Bowl is catch all the TV spots. I think I saw them all!

Here are my top 3:



THIS (and reruns of the Vikings-Saints game on my DVR) will be my football fix until the fall.

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Sometimes using your imagination is better than any image that can be put on the screen. Google gets the award for doing the most with the least.

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http://www.snickers.com/ads/superbowl.html

Then the Betty White/ Abe Vigoda Snickers commercial which apparently Snickers doesn't want shown anywhere but on their website. Not sure when I'll be involved in a football game like this but if Snickers can make feel that much better, I buying.

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Of course there were some bad ones: the Monster.com Casual Friday ad, the Dockers I Wear No Pants ad and all of the Denny's chicken ads. Whoa, those just creeped me out.

I'd love to hear what some of your favorites were.

-- Peace, Jamie

Monday, February 8, 2010

Set List 02.07.10

Here is the music that we used for 02.07.10 - "Red Letters" - #1:

[Opening Song]
G - All We Need - Charlie Hall

[Worship Set]
D - Everyday - Joel Houston
D - My Savior, My God - Shust/Greenwell
C - Restore To Me - Powell/Nasser

[Closing Song]
A - Mighty To Save - Fielding/Morgan

This week we kicked off our new series "Red Letters". For those of you who have been coming to REVEAL for a while, you may remember that we did this series last February as well. We are planning on doing this series each winter to take a look at some of the radical things that Jesus said.

Steve preached a great sermon about protecting yourself from temptation using Matthew 5:29-30. He also used the story of David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:2-5) to further explain the Matthew passage.

We also had lunch this week after REVEAL. It was a great time to meet some new people that are coming to REVEAL as well as connect with some people that we had not spent time with in a while. If you are looking for a way to get connected with REVEAL, this would be a great first step to meeting some people.

You can check out what some other churches are doing for worship each week at Sunday Set Lists.

Dream Big...Pray Bigger!

Will

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Reveal on Sunday (Plus Lunch)

Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will be back to a normal schedule this week. Reveal should be back at its normal time and place (11:55am in the Apex).

We are kicking off week 1 of the Red Letters series. For those of you who are Reveal vets, yes, we did a Red Letters series last year. We are planning on making it a regular series during which time we look at some of the truly radical teachings of Jesus.

Also, since this is the first Sunday of the month, we will be serving lunch in the cafe immediately following Reveal. Invite a friend to join you for the worship gathering and lunch.

Hope to see you Sunday.

-- Peace, Jamie

The Sacred Echo

I recently read Margaret Feinberg's The Sacred Echo: Hearing God's Voice in Every Area of Your Life. In it, she asks some great questions about prayer like: "Why pray a prayer a hundred times when God knew my heart's desire before the words left my lips the first time? Why cry out for justice repeatedly when God knows the depth of need more than I ever will? Why echo a prayer when God has already heard it countless times before?" (20). I love those questions. How many times have I tossed out those same and similar questions to God? I love that our God is big enough to listen to our questions, to hear our questions, and to respond simply with His presence in our lives.

Sometimes my problem is that I want concrete answers to everything. I want to know and I want to know now. The reality is that answers to our questions are much less important than God. When our prayers open us to the presence of God in our lives and we begin to hear His voice (the sacred echo) in the everyday events and encounters, we begin to experience Him more intimately.

In the opening chapter, Margaret says that "prayer is the place where I'm invited to present the parts of myself that no one else sees to a God who already knows and loves me anyway" (26). What an awesome and yet somewhat terrifying picture of prayer. Hopefully, my prayer life can be much more than a recitation of a list of people who are sick (both physically and spiritually). Hopefully, it can be about hearing the persistent echo of God's voice and presence in my life.

-- Peace, Jamie