Our baptisms were wonderful encouragements and reminders of how we are dead to our sin, and raised up with Christ!
Grant Horner taught a spectacular message on "The Suppression of Truth and the Origin of Culture" in which we learned that fallen humans have suppressed the truth of God, but have not been able to rid ourselves completely of it; that it comes back to us in different forms because of our longing to fill the gaping void that is left when we push it away. It's definitely an intellectually stimulating idea, and a motivating factor for us to be familiar and well educated in our culture in order to point all of the "partial-truths" we find in culture back to the ultimate truth that is God.
I'd encourage you to check it out HERE (either for the first time, or to take another pass at it!).
On Friday, I had some really cool ministry opportunities that kept me running around all day, and I wanted to encourage you with some of them.
Friday morning, I had the opportunity to play the drums for Legacy Christian Academy's chapel services that they have twice a month. For those who don't know, Legacy has been a highly ranked private school since their beginning in 1995. This past year, they transitioned from "Legacy Private Academy" to "Legacy Christian Academy" and have started to institute some new things as they head in this direction. Chapel is one of those things, and they have chapel services two Fridays a month, in which they lead worship songs, and have local pastors and other speakers come and speak to the kids. I've been playing the drums with their chapel group since the beginning of '09, and it's been a great way to get out and serve in the community.
I had lunch with some of their staff members, and their speaker for the day: AJ Tigner, who is a Master's College graduate, and who now teaches in Thousand Oaks.
I ran back to the office to start filling our Baptistry, and edit a few charts for our worship team rehearsal later in the day.
Then I ran home and picked up my dog, Maggie, and we headed out to Sun Valley not to visit my wife (although we did stop in and say hi to her too), but to visit Holly Stark's 3rd grade class for their "Camp Read-A-Lot" day. I read them one of my favorite books from my childhood: "The Puppy Who Wanted A Boy" and Maggie helped provide a visual aid as she wandered from child to child and cuddled with them as they sat on the floor on blankets. I also had my guitar, and so we sang "Father Abraham" and "A-la-la-la" together, and generally had a great time.
I got back to church to finish a few preperatory things for worship team rehearesal, and then rehearsed a little with our new flautist (flute player), before the rest of the team arrived. We rehearsed from 5:00pm to about 6:45pm and I headed home.
Today (Tuesday) I moved all of my office gear from Crossroads to the suite next door (The "E" Suite), and set up in one of their offices that we are now renting in order to convert my former office into the new nursery for our rapidly expanding childrens ministry. So if you come by the church, I'm not in the same front office any more, I'm right next door.
So that's what's been keeping me busy the past few days, just wanted to keep you posted. Have a great week!
2 comments:
Paul, Just wanted to say an exuberant "Thank you!" for all the hymns on Sunday. I was raised in a very traditional church (and home--my dad plays hymns on the organ), and always delight in the depth of truth that the hymns offer...I was sincerely blessed Sunday morning!
Thanks Trisha, I grew up singing hymns as well, and of course, going to Master's and studying music, you learn the value of good hymn composition. There's a reason some of them have been around for hundreds of years...:)
Post a Comment