New Song: "By This We Know Love"

My keyboard player and friend, Dan Kush, is leading worship this week for me as I'm away at the Resolved Conference in Palm Springs. He'll be teaching this song so check out this great video and get acquainted with the words and the melody so you can belt it out right away when the body sings it together on Sunday!

"By This We Know Love" 
by Judah Groveman
Copyright 2009 Sovereign Grace Praise


God of all creation, Lord of heaven's light
Descended into evil's darkest night
Infinitely holy; Your perfections know no end
Selflessly You died my rightful death


By this we know love: that He laid down His life
God's very own Son came from heaven to die
Suspended He hung as He shed His own blood
What grace in His pardon; by this we know love


Forsaken Man of Sorrows, hated by all men
You willingly surrendered for my sin
Scornfully derided, yet in silence stumbling on
Bearing wrath for all that I've done wrong!

Preparing for Worship: June 20th, 2010

Happy Father's Day! It's another great "secular" holiday that has so much more meaning for Christ-followers. We are certainly thankful for the dads in our lives, and it's wonderful to show them the appreciation they deserve, but what a great reminder that our dads here are meant to help us understand the heavenly Father, who is God over all.

Some have dads that epitomize love, consistency, patience, and strength in our minds; while some have dads that seem to epitomize the very opposites of those things. What a stronghold of truth to know and trust that our heavenly Father is PERFECT in all things, and that he cares PERFECTLY for his children, and LOVES to pour out good and PERFECT gifts on those that seek after him. Sometimes our idea of "good and perfect" doesn't always match up with the Lord's, but we know that nothing exists outside of God's sovereignty, and we rest in that.

This week Pastor Todd and his family left for vacation in Maui! They'll be enjoying Father's Day on the beach drinking fruit punch from a pineapple. At least the weather in Valencia has been really nice too; we won't feel too cheated!

That means we have a guest speaker this week. His name is Bob King, and he's one of the pastors of the Sojourners ministry at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley. Sojourners is an all-ages ministry group with a specific focus in Old Testament Studies. Bob will be bringing us a special Father's Day message entitled "Like Father, Like Son...Really?" which you don't want to miss!

Musically, we have our flautist, Jim Morris, joining us this Sunday which is always fun, and we're breaking in a new electric guitarist, Brian Baker. We're going to sing "Come Thou Fount" as an opener and an invitation to the Spirit to help us bring glory to God. Then we'll focus on our Father's Day theme and sing "The Father's Love."

Then one of our elders, Darren Utley, will lead in a time of welcome and greeting, and he'll also be giving us an exciting announcement/update for our Youth Ministries. Basically we have a strong candidate for the position who will be coming to Crossroads on the 27th, and will be teaching in our Youth Group meeting during 2nd service that day. Then Darren will have us all say a quick hello to our fellow Crossroaders, and then we'll be back to singing about our heavenly Father with "How Deep the Father's Love for Us" and "I Give You My Heart" which will be a fitting response as we commit our hearts and lives to honor and glorify the Father who adopted us into his heavenly household from the slums of death!

Then Darren will introduce our guest speaker and Bob King who will come and proclaim God's Word to us. I'm honestly not sure of which scriptures he'll be using in his message, so I can't link to any specific passage, but I found a great video clip of CJ Mahaney talking about God as Father which I recommend you check out by CLICKING HERE.

We'll close with the simple tune "You Alone" as we remind ourselves and each other that only God is truly Father over all, and good above everything!

That's what's happening this Sunday, so BE THERE or I will sprinkle jelly beans on your lawn!

Preparing for Worship: June 6th, 2010

Alright, this is going to be short and sweet. I spent all night at Disneyland last night with my wife's high school as a chaperon for "Grad Night." I have that "stayed up all night" gross feeling so I need to go and take a shower and a nap!

This Sunday is Promotion Sunday for our Children's Ministries classes, ages Kindergarten through 6th grade will all be promoted to their new grade level and classroom. You can find out where their new room is at the check-in desk in the front lobby. We're going to be rocking the bounce house all morning long too!

We're going to be commissioning some folks from Crossroads as they go out on Summer missions trips to: India, Haiti, Thailand, and Uganda! We'll pray for them that God would do a mighty work in each of their lives and that he'd use them and their teams to bring glory to his name all around the globe.

Here's what the morning is gonna look like: We'll start with "Indescribable" and then Todd will come lead in prayer and welcome new visitors and what not. Then we'll learn "Because of This" which is one of the songs I wrote for Resurrection Sunday this year and is available as part of a free (donate if you want) downloadable EP called "Resurrection Songs" that you can find by CLICKING HERE. Check it out!

Then we'll go right into "Offering" which is a great tune reminding us of how we come before God, and the awe and reverence that needs to characterize us as we do so.

Then Pastor Todd kicks off our new study in Nehemiah by setting up the historical context of the book and giving us a general introduction as we dive in to chapter 1. CLICK HERE to check out chapter 1 of this book as we embark on a new part of our journey through the Scriptures.

Then we'll celebrate communion together and sing through "Jesus Thank You" as we remember the death of Christ on our behalf.

We'll finish up with a song of new life and victory through Christ aptly titled "Alive in Christ."

That's what's happening; don't miss it! Happy prepping.

New Song: Because of This

I'm excited for us to learn one of the songs I wrote to celebrate the Resurrection at Easter this year! It's called "Because of This" and it focuses on the resurrection of Christ as the reason we can be free from sin and death.

If you have not downloaded the free "Resurrection Songs" EP from the Crossroads website, please CLICK HERE. It's the second song, and the download comes with a digital lyric booklet that you can access right on your computer once it's downloaded!

Hope that's easy enough, and that you have a chance to listen to the tune and get a handle on it so you can sing it easily and confidently on Sunday!

Leave me a comment if you have any trouble. Thanks!