Awesome Reminder

Emily and I attended the last Passion City Church gathering.  As I mentioned before, the three anchors of the church are: The Glory of God.  The Grace of God.  Extravagant Worship.

Louie teased the audience at the beginning of the service by mentioning a new, never-been-released song by Chris to be sung at the end.

You could sense the excitment in the crowd.

When the service came to an end, Louie invited Chris to sing his song.  To my surprise (and I think everyone else), he exited the stage toward an "apartment" set up in the back of the venue.

That was it.  His "song" was raising awareness for an organization called World Relief, which assists refugees relocating to Atlanta.

It was an awesome reminder that singing songs is not worship, but a PART of worship.

How you live your life, day in and day out, is worship.

"For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever!  Amen.  Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship." (Romans 11:36-12:1)

"So whether you eat or you drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31)

CLICK HERE for pictures from the gathering.

Just another day?

It's safe to say Maddie enjoyed herself...

This is in response to my last post. I think it's safe to say Maddie enjoyed herself last night. My apologies for the amateur video footage.

We left the house in disarray. When we got home, Em said, "Oh, I should have cleaned the house before we left." To which Maddie responded, "It's OK." and put her head on Em's shoulder. Hugging Em, she said, "Love you so much."

I took Micah upstairs to get ready for bed and heard Maddie singing, "Dory (Glory) to Dod (God), Dory to Dod, Dory to Dod forever!" while Em was putting her to bed.

Thank you God, for these precious moments!

Maddie's New Song

We're (including Maddie) going to see Fee tonight, so we thought we would teach Maddie a new song.

"Take my life and let it be
All for You and for Your glory
Take my life and let it be Yours"

"Glory to God
Glory to God
Glory to God, forever"

We can't wait to worship with her! Thank you, Fee, for lyrics so simple (yet so profound) an almost-two-year-old can learn them!

You Alone Can Rescue

Matt Redman's latest project, We Shall Not Be Shaken, was released on iTunes today. The lyrics from my favorite track nearly brought tears to my eyes as I read Samuel's update this morning.

Who, O Lord can save themselves
Their own soul could heal?
Our shame was deeper than the sea
Your grace is deeper still

You alone can rescue
You alone can save
You alone can lift us from the grave
You came down to to find us, led us out of death
To You alone belongs the highest praise

You, O Lord, have made a way
The great divide You healed
For when our hearts were far away
Your love went further still
Yes, Your love goes further still

We lift up our eyes, lift up our eyes,
You're the giver of life
[Repeat]

All Over the World

Last week was the launch of North Point Online. According to the website, 4,000 were live while another 3,000+ tried to connect. While we only stuck around for the worship led by Steve Fee, we were very impressed. It was moment to remember as we worshiped with Maddie sitting in Em's lap and Micah in my arms -- AND thousands all over the world.

Tune in this Sunday for Part 2 of Andy Stanley's Losing Your Religion.

Our Little Singer/Dancer

In an earlier post, I shared one of Maddie's favorite songs -- Let God Arise. The song came out when Maddie was a baby. The beat is great for bouncing around, which is what we used to do as she laughed HYSTERICALLY. Now she's learning the words and requests: "Jesus saves. On!"

I've tried my best to secretly record our little singer/dancer. Here's what I have so far.

My favorite is when she throws her hands up and yells "Saves!" Oh, what fun it is to capture these little moments!

America

This is one of my favorite songs -- especially on the 4th.

Lift your eyes up

Look to the sky

The Lord is coming

Coming to America

Hillsong United

Emily and I had the opportunity to see Hillsong United this past Wednesday. This band from a land down under knows how to ROCK. It was quite the experience and I'm happy to see their newest album -- A_Cross // The_Earth -- made it to #2 on iTunes' Top Albums list.

They also have a great website -- I-Heart. I highly recommend checking out.

Magazi Update

It's been almost six months since my last Magazi post, so I wanted to share a recent picture of him and his family. They recently purchased the field in the background and are hoping to build a house (i.e. dirt floor, brick/block/cement walls and tin/corrugated iron roof). He sent his "report card" and appears to be doing fairly well in school. One of our favorite things he sends is his drawings. One even include stickers we sent to him!

I'll Never Be The Same

I have NO musical talent whatsoever, but LOVE music. I'll never forget the first time I heard this song -- I was watching Passion 07 online. I felt like it was my theme song -- "'Cause I know that You're alive; You came to fix my broken life; and I'll sing to glorify; you're holy name Jesus Christ."

As I shared in my testimony; I'll never be the same.

Extravagant Worship

In an earlier post I mentioned the three anchors of Passion City Church -- The Glory of God. The Grace of God. Extravagant Worship. This month's gathering focused on Extravagant Worship.

Louie started his sermon with a video clip of Michael Jackson fans. As you can imagine, the fans were hysterical. Louie's point: We were wired for worship -- and we're really, REALLY good at it.

Worship is not an option -- WHO or WHAT you worship is. Louie defined worship as us responding to what we value most in life. You only get one lifetime of affection. Who or what is on the receiving end of it?

"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship." (Romans 11:36-12:1)

More Je-Ja!

Maddie and I were just dancing to Let God Arise. Here was the exchange after the song:

Maddie: "More"
Me: "More of what?"
Maddie: "Je-Ja!" (i.e. Jesus)

So we danced again.

A Contemplation & Celebration

To be in the same venue that will host the likes of Dave Matthews Band and Kenny Chesney for the purpose of amplifying -- and I mean AMPLIFYING -- the name of Jesus Christ was amazing. Louie also took time to reflect on the cross, sharing that because of the cross, we can be Alive. Clean. Embraced. Healed. Free.

For "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

Happy Easter!

The least of these...

Emily and I have decided to sponsor a child through Compassion International. As a parent, it breaks my heart to know there are children around the world living in extreme poverty and it only takes a small sacrifice on our part to make a difference.

Magazi is from Tanzania and was waiting over six months for sponsorship. It'll be a week before we receive his information pack; however, we do know today's Magazi's birthday!

We look forward to sharing our experience of sponsoring Magazi with you.

"To me, a faith in Jesus Christ that is not aligned with the poor...it's nothing" -Bono, lead singer of U2