Well, I know, some of you think Nickelback is cheesy. I have to admit, I like their stuff, and this one is a really good one. It sounds some of the same notes as in "It's Not My Time" by Three Doors Down, so I won't rehash all the themes I pointed out in that one. If you want to hear the audio from that message, you can listen to the podcast here.
"If Today Was Your Last Day" is simply a song about making the most of the time you have here on earth. That is certainly a biblical concept. The Bible tells us repeatedly that our lives are short that they are determined and that we must make the most of every opportunity for doing God's work while we are here on earth.
I really like some of the stuff happening at the end of the video as people take opportunity to do some things to make a difference. I hope we as the church will start doing more things like this.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday Morning Update
Okay, I know it's not Monday morning, but I'm still jetlagged from our mission trip last week. And that's the first thing to report on. Last week nine of us from The Crossroads traveled along with friends from Fairview Church and Joshua's Crossing Church to Las Higuerillas, Mexico. Las Higuerillas is a small fishing village on the Gulf Coast about 50 miles southeast of Matomoros. We distributed beans, rice, and hygiene items along with gospel tracts, gospels of John, and Bibles, did Bible Schools in different areas of the village, and showed an evangelistic video. It was an amazing trip, and we saw the face of Jesus in so many ways. My wife kept a daily log of our time on the trip, so if you'd like to know more details and see the incredible ways God moved, you can read it at her blog. Our team will also be sharing in our service this week, so come hear from them about their experience of being on mission.
The thing that really excited me about this trip is that it represents our second international mission trip in the life of our church, and we aren't even a year old yet. We are intentionally building mission into the DNA of The Crossroads. We are even considering having new members fill out a passport application during the new members' class so they understand the importance of being ready and available to go whenever God gives the opportunity. Our next step is identifying an unreached people group that we will target as a church and begin to develop strategies for our church to be involved in reaching that people group for Christ. We'd love to have others involved, so please contact me if you want to join us in reaching the world for Christ.
Our services this weekend were really great. I love what Robby, our worship pastor, and the band do each week. They really get what it means to bring people into God's presence. We finished out our message series "HOME" this week by talking about how to live for Christ in the workplace. You can listen to the podcast here.
I was a little discouraged that our attendance was down some this week. We still had visitors, as we do each week, but our attendance was down from what it has been. The summer slump seems to be hitting us. Also, the temperature in the cheer gym where we meet was close to unbearable. We are working on a solution with our landlord, so please be in prayer that we get something to happen ASAP.
We are continuing to pursue some other options in terms of our meeting place. Please be in prayer for that also. I'll give you more details as I have them.
Finally, Sunday night we gathered together with Pin Oaks Christian Fellowship in Anna for a OnePrayer service. Pin Oaks' pastor is Phil Morgan, a great guy and a good friend with a heart for our city. We got together to simply worship and pray for the world and for our city. Our worship band, Chasing Lions, led us and did a super job. Praying together as the body of Christ with other believers in our city was a special experience, and I hope we are able to do it more often in the future.
The thing that really excited me about this trip is that it represents our second international mission trip in the life of our church, and we aren't even a year old yet. We are intentionally building mission into the DNA of The Crossroads. We are even considering having new members fill out a passport application during the new members' class so they understand the importance of being ready and available to go whenever God gives the opportunity. Our next step is identifying an unreached people group that we will target as a church and begin to develop strategies for our church to be involved in reaching that people group for Christ. We'd love to have others involved, so please contact me if you want to join us in reaching the world for Christ.
Our services this weekend were really great. I love what Robby, our worship pastor, and the band do each week. They really get what it means to bring people into God's presence. We finished out our message series "HOME" this week by talking about how to live for Christ in the workplace. You can listen to the podcast here.
I was a little discouraged that our attendance was down some this week. We still had visitors, as we do each week, but our attendance was down from what it has been. The summer slump seems to be hitting us. Also, the temperature in the cheer gym where we meet was close to unbearable. We are working on a solution with our landlord, so please be in prayer that we get something to happen ASAP.
We are continuing to pursue some other options in terms of our meeting place. Please be in prayer for that also. I'll give you more details as I have them.
Finally, Sunday night we gathered together with Pin Oaks Christian Fellowship in Anna for a OnePrayer service. Pin Oaks' pastor is Phil Morgan, a great guy and a good friend with a heart for our city. We got together to simply worship and pray for the world and for our city. Our worship band, Chasing Lions, led us and did a super job. Praying together as the body of Christ with other believers in our city was a special experience, and I hope we are able to do it more often in the future.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
My Favorite New Commercial
It's politically incorrect and a little bit corny, but it makes me laugh every time I see it.
Monday, June 15, 2009
GOD on Your iPOD: "Know Your Enemy" by Green Day
The newest offering by California-based punk rock band Green Day is 21st Century Breakdown. "Know Your Enemy," the first single released from the album came out in April of this year.
The repeated tagline of the song is "Do you know the enemy? Do you know your enemy? Well, gotta know the enemy, wah hey." The song is actually about anarchy, common fodder for the antiestablisment tendencies of punk. Other lines in the song that further the anarchic theme are: "Violence is an energy against the enemy," "Revolt against the honor to obey," "Overthrow the effigy, the vast majority," "Silence is the enemy against your urgency, so rally up the demons in your soul."
So, seen through the lenses of punk, the song sounds a common call to rise against the status quo, against the control of restrictive government or any other system that seeks conformity.
But, if you look with God lenses, there's much more that can be gleaned. The basic question is a vital one: "Do you know the enemy?" Let's make this simple. Far too few people really understand who the enemy is in life. We spend our days fighting with other people, fighting with traffic, fighting with our government, fighting with our finances, fighting with worries and stresses. And as a result, we lose sight of the real enemy, Satan.
And the refusal to acknowledge his reality, his activity, and his presence, is exactly what he wants. If we do not recognize him, we get caught up in things that don't matter. We make other people, people created in God's image, the object of our hatred and anger. We get frustrated over things that we aren't supposed to try to handle in the first place. We allow little goadings by the devil to "spur us on to hate and evil deeds." We spend our time on things that don't matter. We listen to lies that he tells us to discourage us, to keep us silent, to keep us from taking action, to keep us from following our God-given dreams.
It is vitally important that we know our enemy. Who is he? A few things the Bible tells us about him. He is the father of lies and everything that comes from his mouth is a lie. He is the accuser of the saints, standing before God always making accusations against God's people. He is a deceiver. He makes evil look attractive. He is a serpent and a dragon, but he masquerades in resplendent beauty as an angel of light. He has set himself against God and God's people and seeks to devour us like a lion on the prowl.
From the punk rock standpoint, the anarchy encouraged in the song is certainly a tool that our enemy loves to use. But, I think you can probably make something else out of the song, turning it on it's head entirely if you see Satan as the real enemy instead of an ordered society. I'll leave it to you to make the rest of the applications from the song. Let me know what you get.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Monday Morning Update
Okay, I stole the title from the same column on my wife's blog. She does an awesome job of keeping a lot of you posted on what goes on at The Crossroads each week. She has a beautiful heart and a wonderful perspective, and God often shows her some incredible things each week.
But I thought it would be beneficial if you heard from me each week as well. (And, it's an easy way for me to keep something going on my blog.)
This week was a great week at The Crossroads. Of course, having said that, every week truly is phenomenal at The Crossroads. I cannot wait to see what God is going to do.
We are currently in our second week of a message series called "HOME" in which we are talking about how to make your house more than just a hotel where people crash each night and eat a couple of meals. Making your house a home is about the relationships that exist between the people that live there. Alright, enough of that. I don't want to preach the sermon to you.
Our attendance has been down a little for the summer, but we continue to see new faces each week, and this week was no different. We had four first time visitors and a number of guests who are beginning to plug in and get more involved at The Crossroads. One of our guests even made a decision for Christ today.
Our music today was incredible. Our worship pastor has such a gift for bringing us into God's presence and being sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. For more on the worship set, you can check out LaRissa's blog. The song that God really seemed to use today was "Lead Me to the Cross." It's the first time that we've done this one, and worshipdude passed off leading this one to one of our female vocalists. Got to say, she really hit this one out of the park, and the song is so incredibly beautiful anyway. We literally had people standing with hands raised, sitting with heads bowed, falling on the floor kneeling and weeping. Beautiful moment. I really love the incredible people we get to work with each week at The Crossroads.
The message today was about honoring your father and mother. I am just amazed and humbled at how God moved in such an incredible way through a service focused on honoring your parents. The message wasn't anything radical. Just respect, obey, care for, and forgive your parents; yet, people were moved and lives were changed. We had some technical issues with capturing the audio, so no podcast this week, but you can download the manuscript at our website. Overall, just an incredible day!
On another note, a couple of things for you to pray for this week: I have an incredibly important meeting tomorrow afternoon that could have a significant impact on the future for The Crossroads. It is one possible opportunity for us for a new meeting place. Pray that God gives us incredible wisdom and direction as far as this opportunity is concerned. Also pray that God grants us immense favor with the man who owns the space we are looking at. We really need God to come through in a big way on this one.
Also, pray for a group of us from The Crossroads who will be traveling to Las Higuerillas, Mexico, next week. Las Higuerillas is a small fishing village on the Gulf Coast where there has been little missions activity. We will be distributing school supplies, Bibles, and showing the Jesus video in Spanish. Pray for safe travel and for God to be at work in an incredible way.
But I thought it would be beneficial if you heard from me each week as well. (And, it's an easy way for me to keep something going on my blog.)
This week was a great week at The Crossroads. Of course, having said that, every week truly is phenomenal at The Crossroads. I cannot wait to see what God is going to do.
We are currently in our second week of a message series called "HOME" in which we are talking about how to make your house more than just a hotel where people crash each night and eat a couple of meals. Making your house a home is about the relationships that exist between the people that live there. Alright, enough of that. I don't want to preach the sermon to you.
Our attendance has been down a little for the summer, but we continue to see new faces each week, and this week was no different. We had four first time visitors and a number of guests who are beginning to plug in and get more involved at The Crossroads. One of our guests even made a decision for Christ today.
Our music today was incredible. Our worship pastor has such a gift for bringing us into God's presence and being sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. For more on the worship set, you can check out LaRissa's blog. The song that God really seemed to use today was "Lead Me to the Cross." It's the first time that we've done this one, and worshipdude passed off leading this one to one of our female vocalists. Got to say, she really hit this one out of the park, and the song is so incredibly beautiful anyway. We literally had people standing with hands raised, sitting with heads bowed, falling on the floor kneeling and weeping. Beautiful moment. I really love the incredible people we get to work with each week at The Crossroads.
The message today was about honoring your father and mother. I am just amazed and humbled at how God moved in such an incredible way through a service focused on honoring your parents. The message wasn't anything radical. Just respect, obey, care for, and forgive your parents; yet, people were moved and lives were changed. We had some technical issues with capturing the audio, so no podcast this week, but you can download the manuscript at our website. Overall, just an incredible day!
On another note, a couple of things for you to pray for this week: I have an incredibly important meeting tomorrow afternoon that could have a significant impact on the future for The Crossroads. It is one possible opportunity for us for a new meeting place. Pray that God gives us incredible wisdom and direction as far as this opportunity is concerned. Also pray that God grants us immense favor with the man who owns the space we are looking at. We really need God to come through in a big way on this one.
Also, pray for a group of us from The Crossroads who will be traveling to Las Higuerillas, Mexico, next week. Las Higuerillas is a small fishing village on the Gulf Coast where there has been little missions activity. We will be distributing school supplies, Bibles, and showing the Jesus video in Spanish. Pray for safe travel and for God to be at work in an incredible way.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
GOD on Your iPOD: "Lifeline" by Papa Roach
Wow, it's been a reeeallly long time since I blogged about anything, but I got an idea for a new feature on the blog.
In May, we finished up a message series at The Crossroads called "GOD on your iPOD" in which we looked at the message of God's love that is written into so many of the songs that connect with us and that we listen to each week. Now, a little more explanation, I'm not talking about explicitly "Christian" songs. In fact, that was one of the requirements. The songs had to be from artists that did not exclusively bill themselves as Christian artists, although some of the artists may have been Christ followers. The songs also had to have charted well in some area within the last year. Beyond that, we were just looking for songs that showed that God speaks through and to people through music. If you'd like to hear more, you can listen to all of them on The Crossroads' podcast at http://www.welcometothecrossroads.com/.
I had more fun with this message series than any I have ever done before. We already have committed to doing a message series like this each year. I was really sad to see the series come to an end, and there were still so many songs that could have been a part of this series.
So, I've decided to just keep you posted on some of the music out there that peaks my interest, that causes me to think, and that connects me with the greater story of God's love as I encounter them. Maybe I'm the only one that will see the message in some of them, but I hope it will start some discussion and keep you listening to music with a discerning ear and listening for the still, small voice of God as he sings his love songs over us.
Alright, well, the first song I want to introduce you to is by the punk/hard rock band Papa Roach. The song is called "Lifeline." I first heard the song a month or so ago and immediately was captured by it. It talks about someone who has had some really big struggles in life and wants someone to throw them a lifeline. Listen and let me know what you think.
In May, we finished up a message series at The Crossroads called "GOD on your iPOD" in which we looked at the message of God's love that is written into so many of the songs that connect with us and that we listen to each week. Now, a little more explanation, I'm not talking about explicitly "Christian" songs. In fact, that was one of the requirements. The songs had to be from artists that did not exclusively bill themselves as Christian artists, although some of the artists may have been Christ followers. The songs also had to have charted well in some area within the last year. Beyond that, we were just looking for songs that showed that God speaks through and to people through music. If you'd like to hear more, you can listen to all of them on The Crossroads' podcast at http://www.welcometothecrossroads.com/.
I had more fun with this message series than any I have ever done before. We already have committed to doing a message series like this each year. I was really sad to see the series come to an end, and there were still so many songs that could have been a part of this series.
So, I've decided to just keep you posted on some of the music out there that peaks my interest, that causes me to think, and that connects me with the greater story of God's love as I encounter them. Maybe I'm the only one that will see the message in some of them, but I hope it will start some discussion and keep you listening to music with a discerning ear and listening for the still, small voice of God as he sings his love songs over us.
Alright, well, the first song I want to introduce you to is by the punk/hard rock band Papa Roach. The song is called "Lifeline." I first heard the song a month or so ago and immediately was captured by it. It talks about someone who has had some really big struggles in life and wants someone to throw them a lifeline. Listen and let me know what you think.
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