Call to Worship

Day of the Lord

2012-02-16T10:21:00.001-08:00

Currently writing a paper on the "Day of the Lord" in the Minor prophets. Never realized how prevalent that phrase is along with "on that day" and "in that day". There is so much out there. Lord help me out.

Love.

2011-11-23T05:27:00.000-08:00

Speaking the truth in love is one of those rare things I long to be able to do. It's a skill that incorporates both the holiness and mercy of God's characters. It requires wisdom to not only tear down, but build back up. I find it lacking in my life and in those around me. It's actually quite interesting to see how everyone is a believer of truth, but forget to couple it with love. I'm just

Time to Worship (February)

2010-02-25T07:03:00.000-08:00

The blizzard of 2010 and various circumstances allowed us to worship at different places this past month. Most of it came in the form of family time and personal reading. But we did deal with a lot of sluggard/laziness during this time. Time just slipped away this month. So this past Sonship meeting was good in which we continued Chapter 7 on Repentance. True repentance is often confused

Worship Time - Sunday School

2010-02-17T23:30:00.000-08:00

This sunday was special for me. I shared a little at how God was working in my life and since it was Valentine's day, shared a little how God brought my wife and I together. The sermon was on Husbands from Ephesians how husbands are called to love his wife as Christ loved the church. We then went to our main study, which I wanted to share a little about what was going on in Haiti. Hopefully

Worship Time - Confession: Snow Days

2010-02-04T21:45:00.000-08:00

The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside!" or, "I will be murdered in the streets!" - Proverbs 22:13 The sluggard says, "There's a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!" - Proverbs 26:13 I struggled this week to say the least. I think God has been gracious to me especially during this time. It started last Saturday traveling home from church in which I felt like I could have

Time to Worship (New Year 2010)

2010-01-04T20:01:00.000-08:00

As the new year arrives we are doing an account of our past year. Where can we improve, what areas of our lives do we want to see changed? We talked about it today. Areas needed - organization/effective use of our time, i.e. scheduling, Areas wanting to improve - evangelism and fellowship. wanting to share the gospel and witness God's work in our lives and in people's lives. Realizing

Time to Worship (December Update)

2009-12-22T00:18:00.001-08:00

Snow covered our home. Over two feet. Amazed at God's great creation. Isaiah 1:18 "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." All I can say is that we are learning a lot about human condition and God's incredible grace towards us. We sin, we don't even realize half the things that we do, but we are so utterly in

Time to Worship (Thanksgiving November)

2009-11-24T05:21:00.000-08:00

This is a follow-up to our leading songs this past Sunday. I was reminded and comforted by God that when we sing, when we work, when we serve, we serve and sing to God alone. Standing in front of a crowd of people makes me want to hide and this time, we were singing in front of everyone, exposing ourselves, our limited musical skills and our limited range... This was definitely a lot of HEAT I

Time to Worship (Mid November Update)

2009-11-18T12:48:00.000-08:00

Because of certain circumstances, my wife and I have the opportunity to serve in the music ministry this coming week. I'm pretty nervous but think it would be fun since we haven't really done anything like this since our old bible study days and even the children church days.Singing in bible study is pretty straight-forward, you could sit down and everyone just looks at their paper to sing.

Time to Worship (November)

2009-11-04T13:55:00.000-08:00

As October ends, we continue in a pretty solid pattern. We have bible reading with the family around 9PM. Just about everyone is ready for bed and it is a good time to settle down. The occasional out day and bible study nights will push this later, but usually around nine and ten has been optimal for us to get ready for bed.Our readings have been through our family bible and the children's

Time to Worship (October)

2009-10-25T21:02:00.000-07:00

Continue in our reading of 1 Samuel. This has been slow as we have also been reading through our daughter's children's bible. The children's bible provides more pictures and little less depth, than the Family Bible, but overall the time has been quite good as our daughter is intrigued by the pictures.Jonah seems to be the favorite, then stories about Jesus, but because of VeggieTales Jonah, she

Time to Worship (Mid-Autumn Summary)

2009-10-20T09:14:00.000-07:00

It is mid-October and we are in the midst of the flu/sick season. The past few worship services have focused on work, life, faith.We started a new Sunday School on Apologetics based on C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. You can follow along here at GentlenessAndRespect.com.Our family time of worship at home has been stagnant due to illnesses, but it should be the other way around. Our worship

Time to Worship (Mid August Summary)

2009-08-16T05:01:00.000-07:00

We finished up the book of Ruth and continued with 1 Samuel. During the time of judges we see the corrupting nature of sin as men were being led astray from God. In Ruth we see the same thing happening but also a strand of hope. God in his providence provided a line to redeem his people. The line leading to David through Ruth and Boaz. What a great story... a love story...God in his

Time to Worship (July Summary)

2009-07-29T08:56:00.001-07:00

We are currently beginning the book of Ruth in our nightly bible reading. After finishing Judges we were a bit troubled at how different and "ungodly" many of God's servants were. Maybe a bit of fresh air, but disturbed nonetheless. Ruth is someone who is a little bit more in our "scope" of who a servant of God should look like. Anyways, we'll be surely disappointed when there is sexual sin

Sonship

2009-07-13T09:05:00.000-07:00

These past few weeks have been interesting. The theme of sonship seems to be popping up more often now. In a sermon series by Tim Keller on the Prodigal Son, he discusses true sonship. I started listening to a series entitled "Grace in the Church" by Steve brown in which he refers to sonship a lot... how we are living as christians and the prisons and traps we fall into when we forget who we

End of June Update

2009-07-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

Been pretty busy with family and friends visiting. We are currently in the book of Judges. After finishing Esther, we decided to go back and read the book of Judges.Finished reading Samson's story yesterday and finding a lot of things about God's servants. Surprising to say the least.Also listening to Steve Brown's lectures on "Grace and the Church" from RTS Virtual on iTunesU. It is a very

Time to Worship (Week 8 Summary)

2009-06-13T04:37:00.000-07:00

This week went as well as it could. We had a pretty consistent devotion time reading through the book of Esther. Every time I look at some of the verses in Esther I am reminded that God our king chooses some and rejects others. This is out of his glorious grace because if we are left to ourselves we would be lost.Though we see King Xerxes as the sovereign authority in this book, we know that

Time to Worship (Week 7 Wednesday)

2009-06-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

As we finished up Nehemiah, we were deeply convicted by what we do on Sundays. We were also deeply convicted in our hearts as to how our hearts are pulled in so many directions but we forget to rest in the Lord and place the Lord first on the sabbath.We began reading Esther today. Interesting beginning, we noticed how favor was moved from Vashti to Esther. We also liked the name Hadassah,

Time to Worship (Week 7 Monday)

2009-06-02T04:46:00.000-07:00

As we were finishing up Nehemiah, we discussed some of prior days events and prayed over certain situations that happened after the party. We received some bad news today... some pertaining to possible assaults and arrests. We prayed for those involved and for those family members affected by the situation.Who are we that we neglect the Lord's day. Nehemiah 9 recalls all the great things God

Time to Reflect (Week 7 Sunday)

2009-06-01T04:21:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was crazy to say the least and to top if off we experienced some of human depravity first hand. Usually we just discuss things, but Sunday afternoon was a time where we were not only able to share our faith in God, but also learn a little bit about apologetics and human depravity and everyone's need for Jesus.My wife and I were at a friend's house where we met some other people

Time to Worship (Week 6 Monday)

2009-05-26T06:50:00.000-07:00

This was an interesting Memorial Day weekend. We went away to a friends and then got home pretty late, but we're hoping to get everyone in bed a little bit earlier just to get some more time with my wife. Anyways, it kinda worked this weekend. We were just packed with things to do... But we did manage to get a few moments to read scripture together.To summarize this weekend, we read through

Time to Worship (Week 5 Friday)

2009-05-17T03:13:00.000-07:00

We continued with our reading of Ezra, finishing the book and starting Nehemiah next. Ezra concludes with a public confession of sin and moving to a list of all the people found in sin. This was actually a good portion in understanding a little about what happened to the Israelites when they were in exile. It appears intermarrying with the people around them and idolatry were the major sins.

Time to Worship (Week 5 Thursday)

2009-05-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

We had a quick reading in Ezra 8.It continues with Ezra recruiting a group of people to return with him to Jerusalem. Ezra 7:28 Because the hand of the LORD my God was on me, I took courage and gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.It was repeated throughout chapter 8 that the hand of the Lord was on them. 8:18, 22, 31. Ezra noted that every situation was part of God's sovereign

Time to Worship (Week 5 Wednesday)

2009-05-14T06:09:00.000-07:00

We had an hour and a half online session yesterday listening to and discussing chapter 1 of Sonship by Jack Miller. Just read a review of it by Van Dixhoorn concerning it from WTJ vol.61-2. I'm a little biased since Van Dixhoorn was my professor last semester.Anyways, we looked at sin, grace, Christ, adoption, the Gospel... The audio was a bit dated but the message was received. I think after

Time to Worship (Week 5 Tuesday)

2009-05-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

We continued reading through Ezra today. Chapters 4-6With all building projects, there is opposition. After Cyrus came Xerxes and Artaxerxes. The enemies of the Jews brought reasons to stop the building of the temple. It is a reminder that even though you are doing God's work, there will always be people opposed to it.Following Artaxerxes came King Darius. He gave a decree after the Jews