Sunday's Music - Feb. 28

I didn't forget! Some of you like to know before Sunday morning what we will be singing. Hmm, maybe those folks practice before they come. Not a bad idea.

We'll begin with "Days of Elijah" which is always fun to sing.

Then the choir will sing "Miracle Man" which is from our Passion Play. (coming up April 1-3) Since that song tells a lot of the ministry of Christ I thought it would be good then for all of us to sing "Lord, I Lift Your Name on High" which tells Jesus' life and mission very concisely.

You came from heaven to earth to show the way.
From the earth to the cross - my debt to pay.
From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky.
Lord, I lift Your name on high!

Here's a karaoke versio for you to practice with.



After that we'll all sing "Tell Me the Story of Jesus" and one more song that I can't think of right now.

Traci Koon will sing "special music", Bro. Larry will preach and second service Dan will lead the invitation because I will be baptizing Jesse K. at the end of the second service.

It will be a great day.

I hope to see you all in worship tomorrow (If you live in Clarksville).

Big Boy Prayers

Did you learn prayers like these when you were a child?
God is great, God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. Amen.

A friend of mine, when first learning to pray, said, "shank sho for our food." The story goes that some time when he was in Jr. High that he said his prayer, "shank sho for our food" and then looked up and said, "Why do I say 'shank sho' ?"

Another phrase often tacked onto the end of a prayer is "and God bless the missionaries." Have you prayed that? I'm certain God hears our prayers and that God does "bless the missionaries," but I know that in our prayers there is so much more God is willing and waiting to do. It's time to put away our childhood prayers and do some big boy praying!

God wants us to be involved in His kingdom work both physically and through our prayers. God is not limited in what He does by our prayers, but I also know that as we pray God's power is seen in great ways. For some reason God lets us in on the wonderful things He wants to do so we can share in the work.

 God answers prayers - not so we can say, "oo, look at this. I prayed for something and it happened." but so that He will receive glory.

Let me try this another way. Which prayer and answer will give God more glory.

1. Prayer - "Lord, bless the missionaries." Answer -  God does something really great in some part of the world.

2. Prayer - "Lord, I pray that an affordable place will be found in Palo Verde in the east part of  Caracas, Venezuela so the four small groups of Christians near there can join together and form a church to be a witness in that part of town. Answer - an affordable place is found and a new church is formed and they begin reaching that area for Christ.

Obviously if you had prayed the second prayer you would join many in rejoicing about the new place and church start and would give God the glory for an answer to prayer.

The prayer request #2 I gave as an example above is an actual prayer request from Ed and Pamela who are part of the Barrios Caracas mission team. Here is a link to a web site from that mission team that tells you about their work and how you can pray. http://www.caracasforchrist.com/

Will you join me in praying for them? Will you pray your childhood "bless the missionaries" prayer or will you pray a "big boy" prayer?

I will update you when I hear an answer to the prayer request and we can give God the glory together as we see Him at work!

Disciple Now on Hickory Point - the Fun Never Stops

We had a great group of guys at our house!

Started off expecting 11 nd a leader, then we added one or two one day and then all of the sudden it was 16 guys and Kevin as their fearless leader.

We've teased a lot about having to open the windows to air the house out after they left, but they were great! They had some great times of Bible study, played a lot of xbox and rock band and wii, ate a LOT of food, played football outside and didn't break anything, so it was all good!

We're already talking about wanting them all back next year!

Memory Monday - February 22

I have to admit that memorizing the Beatitudes is turning out to be more difficult than I had imagined. It's not that any one in particular or by itself is difficult to memorize or to understand... the problem seems to be that with my weak mind I end up scrampbling them all together.

For those of you who are just now joining in on our Memory Monday challenge, you have some catching up to do if you want to memorize all of the Beatitudes. We have learned/memorized 6 so far. If you just want to join in starting this week, scroll down a little until you see verses 9-10.

Here is what we have memorized so far (of the Beatitudes. search the blog using "memory monday" and you'll find other verses we have memorized.)
3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4."Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5."Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

6."Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

7."Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

8."Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
 
Here are our two verses for this week.
 

9."Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

10."Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

The Persecuted Church is something near and dear to my heart. Please click on the link for more information on how our brothers and sisters in Christ suffer for their faith and how you can help them.

The Voice of the Martyrs

I Gave That up for Lent

Any time my dad didn't want to do something, or didn't want to eat something, or needed an excuse for whatever, he would say, "I gave that up for Lent." As a good ol' Southern Baptist boy I really had no idea what he was talking about. Lent wasn't something we actually did. And since his comments of "giving it up for Lent" weren' confined to any particular time of year I never knew Lent was a season in the church calendar of many Christians.

Here is a very simplified but hopefully somewhat acurate explanation of Lent, Ash Wednesday, Fat Tuesday and other things that are mysteries to most Baptists.

Lent is the 40 days (not counting Sundays) before Easter. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. Ashes from the burned palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday are put on foreheads in the shape of a cross. During Lent Christians are encouraged to give something up. Many give up meat and end up eating a lot of fish. Some friends of mine in Denver always gave up desserts during Lent. The point of giving something up is to remind ourselves what Christ gave up for us, to remind us to rely on Him (as we miss the thing we gave up), to reflect on Christ's call on our lives and actually give up things we shouldn't be doing anyway, ... I think the list could go on for a while.

Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras were invented because people realized that they weren't going to have some of the excesses of life until after Easter and specifically how they would miss the fat of the meat so on that Tuesday they would literally stuff themselves with lots of meat and fat knowing that was it for a long time. And of course as people tend to be and do, that then evolved into the drunken mess it is in a lot of places as people try to get in all the sin they can before they have to give it up.

So what do we miss from this if we are Baptists?

All of us need times of reflection when we remember again our need of a Savior. We all need times to realize we have filled our lives up with a bunch of junk - and I don't just mean physically. All of us need to spend more time reflecting on the cost Jesus paid as He took on the sins of the world - your sins and mine. All of us need to personalize Christ's sacrifice and see again His call and claim on our lives.

If Lent helps you to do that, that is a great thing. If it causes you to get drunker than a skunk and eat yourself into a coma on Fat Tuesday then it is NOT a good thing.

Perhaps you have some things you need to give up for Lent. Ask the Lord to show you what is in your heart and my guess is there will be at least a couple of things to "give up" perhaps not just for Lent, but for always.

Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Luke 9:23 NIV

Community String Orchestra

Memory Monday - The Beatitudes Continue

I hope that not only are you memorizing the Beatitudes through our Memory Mondays Challenge, but that you are also trying to live a life guided by them.

Here are the next two.

Matthew 5:7-8
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.



Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
 
Check previous posts if you are behind on memorizing with us.