Worship Lessons

Such a great devotional hymn. Holy Spirit- Kristyn Getty

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:02:42 -0400

Such a great devotional hymn.

Holy Spirit- Kristyn Getty

My personal favorite rendition of In Christ Alone. In Christ...

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:22:46 -0500

My personal favorite rendition of In Christ Alone.

In Christ Alone (Solid Rock)-Travis Cottrell

New Life Worship-Great I Am

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:13:54 -0500

New Life Worship-Great I Am

Give Me Faith- Elevation Worship

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:13:16 -0500

Give Me Faith- Elevation Worship

Jesus Culture- One Thing Remains

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 12:44:42 -0500

Jesus Culture- One Thing Remains

Change of things

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 10:38:13 -0500

Hi friends,

I want to start this post by apologizing for the lack of attention we have paid over the last several months. Life gets busy and such. But I’m going to put a great deal of effort into revamping things some.

With that revamping, I’m thinking of making this blog less article and essay driven and more about resources and music that has been helpful refreshing and helpful in leading the people of God in worship. I’d love some feed back if you have any. But my hope, in the coming months, is to post more often and be of help how ever I can.

In Christ,

Matt

in-reply: thought I’d end the night in some worship because I...

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 01:28:04 -0500

in-reply:

thought I’d end the night in some worship because I can and I have an amazing God, that’s why!

The paradox of the Gospel

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 11:57:54 -0500

In all likely hood, this post isn’t going make any sense.

The gospel is a very perplexing thing. A holy Creator sends His perfect son, Jesus, to live among us, set an example for us, and then die the most grueling death in replacement for all believers going to hell.

As imperfect human beings, the death of Jesus give us hope. Without Jesus, we are merely sinful people, roaming this earth with no purpose what so ever. The gospel is about redeeming a sinful race. The human race. The gospel is about us.

Yet, the gospel brings glory to God. We are called to carry this gospel to others. And what does the delivery of this Gospel accomplish, exactly?? That God will be glorified above everything else. So, we are called to sacrifice every day so that the name of Jesus would be known. The gospel is not about us.

As my good friend, Collin would say, Gospel Paradox.

What is "AMAZING GRACE"?

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 03:01:00 -0400

What is the definition of “grace”? So many thoughts come to mind as I consider the different options of this one very POWERFUL word.

Grace.

Definition (according to Webster): The exercise of love, kindness, mercy, favor; disposition to benefit or serve another; favor bestowed or privilege conferred.

Webster defines grace as an over-loving sense of affection, if you will. His definition focuses on doing good deeds for one another, and putting others before yourself. Webster has a correct definition of grace, in a worldly sense.

I heard a message on grace a couple of weeks ago that I am really not sure if you could seriously call it a message. All the evangelist did was read scripture that had grace in it, which is great! But at the same time, if you are going to preach, dig into the text and find the true exposition of the passages you are preaching. So LET’S!

One passage of Scripture that came to my mind is Romans 6:14:

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

What Paul is writing to the Romans here is that we do not answer to the law of Moses anymore. The ten commandments are not what we “follow” to be saved. Paul says that we are under charis, which is the favour of God is upon us. We have a divine influence upon our hearts from Almighty God. Thank God we do not answer to laws anymore and that there is no boundaries that our sin outweighs. Romans 5:19-20 clearly shows us this wonderful promise of grace in our lives:

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grade did much more abound.

In this point of the blog, you would think I would have more Scriptures quoting grace to you, but let’s be honest, everyone knows what grace is. Right? Well, no. A lot of people, actually, all unsaved people, do not know what grace is because they have never experienced a divine intervention in their life. Let me take you to a passage that is going to sound SO familiar to you, but we will break it down because it is more powerful than you think. Ephesians 2:8

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God

Did you read that, by GRACE are you SAVED. Grace is what saved our souls from dying without Christ and living in a sinner’s hell for all of eternity! What kind of grace are we talking about though? Strong’s Concordance gives the greek word and it is… CHARIS. The same grace that covers our sins and also humbles us. That same grace that intervenes when we get a big head and calms us, is the same grace that covers are sins and makes us righteous before a sinless God. Let’s really be honest, how amazing is grace? Look at the last part of the verse, it says that grace through faith is a GIFT from God. The greek word doron is written here which means a present or a sacrifice: gift, offering.

Where did grace come from? - The ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross of calvary.

When do we obtain grace? - When we chose to follow Jesus Christ in faith and put our faith AND trust in his death, burial, and resurrection.

What does grace really do? - Grace gives us what we do not deserve. Hope. We now have a hope that no other non-believer has because of what Christ’s suffering did for us and what his blood covered. Jesus took care of sins bounty toward us and paid the penalty.

Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

It is no accident that Romans 6:23, and Ephesians 2:8 both have the word “gift” in them. God’s gift of grace toward us gives us a rest for our weary soul, a mender for our brokenness, and a hope for our lives.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see.

- Ben

Photo

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:58:15 -0400

July the Fourth

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 10:08:38 -0400

Today is primarily a day to celebrate the Independence of the United States of America but I’d like for us to mark it as something else for the future. I’m going to make a goal for the next year to spend each day in prayer for the leaders of our country, our troops, and the people who make any sort of decisions. I hope that you’ll join me in praying for our country and that our leaders will turn to the Creator for guidance in their decisions.

Happy Fourth, Go ‘Mericuh, and God Bless.

-Matt

Salvation vs. Surrendering One's Life

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:41:20 -0400

So some of you may know that I work in the summer at a church camp outside of Clarksville, TN. Something we deal with on a pretty regular basis as camp counselors are young kids of elementary age accepting Christ as their personal Savior.

Last night, my good friend Michael Shearon finished his sermon on Nehemiah accepting God’s will by rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. During the invitation, he was very intentional in inviting the young people to come back and make a decision to accept God’s will on their life.

This interaction prompted a discussion between us about the difference between accepting God’s salvation and surrendering one’s life that I found very interesting. It seems to me that a child at the age of eight or nine may be able to understand what Jesus did on the cross. This leads the students to be able to understand the process of confession of sins and His grace in the form of forgiveness and how all of this plays into salvation.

However, I’m not so sure young kids understand how much is actually involved in life and what it really means to lay our lives into the hands of the Creator and make our lives His. In all honesty, I do think that there is a difference between the two. And more importantly we need to recognize this difference and think about what exactly that means for our lives.

Sure you have been saved, but have you truly allowed the Father to take your life and use it in every way possible to affect the Kingdom?

- Matt

Awesome blog. God Bless.

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:01:43 -0400

Thank you sir!!!

What this country needs more of

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 15:50:55 -0400

What this country needs more of is not:

More tolerance
More republicans
People with a better moral compass
Better healthcare
Better gun-control
Less Racism
A different President
Illegal abortions
Ect.

What this country needs more of:

Christian people who take up their cross every day and are salt and light to others.
Christians who go out and love on “the least of these” and show them the non-judgmental love of Jesus
Christians explaining that, yes, the church is full of hippocrits, but that is because the church is full of humans, who are fallen.
People who are willing to go into “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the end of the earth.

Now the above is not trying to down any of those things, for they are just examples, but I hope you see my point. I fear that, as Christians, we are not standing for the right things. I hope that you will join me in praying for our country and the lost people in it in my daily quiet time.

-Matt

"If leading worship is just about bringing a group of people into a room so we can get goosebumps and..."

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 22:33:44 -0400

““If leading worship is just about bringing a group of people into a room so we can get goosebumps and sing songs together, there’s not much value in that. But if leading worship is a means to an end, that we leave this place as a different kind of people, as part of a new humanity that God wants to create – the people that are caring for the widows and orphans, that aren’t bound by the systems of this world but becoming free, becoming fully engaged in our world – then that matters.””

- Michael Gungor (via all-i-need-is-you)

Are You Really A Christian?

Wed, 30 May 2012 12:03:18 -0400

I am just getting into a book written by Mike McKinley that is entirely devoted to convincing people that call themselves Christians that they truly are not. Honestly, when I first read the title, I assumed it would be a book on assurance of salvation. And boy was I wrong. These issues that I saw everyday when I was younger have become more and more reality to me as a more mature young adult (if you can call me that). It has made me start to examine my own life and really think about my motives as a Christian.

McKinely’s introduction tells of his motives for the book, just as I have explained. One thing is for certain, God does not want luke warm Christians. What do I mean by lukewarm? I mean a individual who has “claimed” Christ, but has no specific relationship or even day to day walk. That is a lukewarm Christians. It is not someone who is necessarily “going through the motions,” but someone who genuinely has a unstable walk with Christ. THAT is lukewarm. I have been there very recently, and it is not a good feeling. One analogy that McKinley uses for the spirit of him giving this book is to imagine that we are all running a foot race. McKinley writes,

“According to the rules of this race, it doesn’t matter how we place, but it is absolutely critical that we finish. Not only that, our eternal destiny hangs on whether we finish this race. Finishing means eternal joy. Failing to finish, for whatever reason, means eternal suffering. This would be a pretty important race, would it not? Now imagine that, looking along the racecourse, we see people dressed in running shorts and fancy sneakers, but for some reason they are sitting by the side of the road. Other people are crouched down, still as statues, tense, poised, and ready in the starting blocks. But they never move; they just stay there. Some people are wandering around in circles. Still others are running the wrong way. Supposed then we stop to talk to these wayward runners and non-runners. Quickly it becomes clear that they are convinced they’re running well. They say they’re looking forward to completing the race and receiving the substantial reward. They smile and talk dreamily about life beyond the finish line. The problem is, we know that they will never finish the race given their pace or direction. Tell me: What would be the loving thing to do in that case? Would love motivate us to ignore their confusion? Would love motivate us to politely nod and say nothing? Of course not. Love would require us to warn them, to convince them, to plead with them to change their course.”

I know that was a lengthy, but it gets the point across. This is our job as Christians. To warn others of their hypocrisy, but first examine ourselves. Being a Christian takes a daily dying to ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Christ. The problem is that a lot “Christians” want to go to heaven, but don’t want to follow Jesus. This cannot happen, they go hand in hand.

Just a thought.

Ben

"You are not worshiping God as you should if some areas of your life worship Him and others do not."

Sun, 20 May 2012 18:33:13 -0400

“You are not worshiping God as you should if some areas of your life worship Him and others do not.”

- A.W. Tozer (via rclth)

Sick of it.

Sat, 19 May 2012 18:51:27 -0400

Hypocrisy.

It’s all over and always has been, but I’ve noticed that today’s Christians are prone to a new kind of hypocrisy. It’s eating me alive. What is it. The “love the gays” rhetoric that’s started, especially as of late.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think this is a great concept… at times. What kills me is the word “love”.

Love in many Christian circles has become another word for tolerate.

People say they’re loving on people, specifically the homosexual community, when love is actually an investment. Love is caring. Love is instigating thoughtful conversations.

Love is becoming a part of that person’s life, not saying hello and just being “courteous” and “kind”.

- John Palmer

"O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who..."

Fri, 18 May 2012 11:08:12 -0400

““O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.””

- Nehemiah 1:5-11

Quick thought

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:22:04 -0400

mousahh:

I’m at Starbucks to do homework but I wanted, real fast, to share what has been on my heart of late.

As a Christian, my life must model the life that Jesus lived in every way. There is kind of an ongoing discussion between me and several friends as to whether or not God has one distinct characteristic that everything falls under or all of his characteristics are equal. It just now hit me that maybe it is impossible for us to describe the one thing that God is. Sure, he is perfect. But I don’t know that my mind can comprehend that sort of perfection because I do live and walk on an imperfect earth with fallen people on it.

Just something I’ve been working on in my head. Thoughts?