. . . should lead us to a time of giving thanks. Take a moment right now, stop what you’re doing and consider the harvest of wealth, knowledge, and love you’ve received over the last year. We are so blessed.

A few of us were just speaking with Pastor Stan in the Church Office about his trip to Nigeria over the last couple of weeks.  He was sharing how twenty American dollars given to a village pastor was almost like handing him an unlimited bank account.  We can blow $20 bucks at Chic-fil-A in less than five minutes!

According an article on globalissues.org, “at least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.”  This is reality.  That’s about three fancy coffee drinks at Starbucks.

As people benefiting from a wealthy society here in America, what are we to do with these issues?  Do we give it all away and live in poverty ourselves? For some, that has been the answer.  Yet, there is a balance, I believe, in that we receive much in order for God to teach us how to share.

In Luke 12:48, Jesus teaches that to whom much is given, much is expected.  In this season of harvest, it is fitting that we take stock of all we have received, be it material or not, and make sure that we are putting it all to good use for the glory of God.  Maybe there’s something in our lives that is excess.  This could be the one thing that your brother or sister next door could use to make their life better.

As we take stock, let’s give thanks to God.  It is a rare opportunity in our world that so many can participate in the joy of sharing out of an abundance.  You can offer thanks to God with your lips, but He truly sees your gratitude as you give.

The early church demonstrated their gratitude of God’s blessings by selling their possessions and giving to those who were in need (Acts 2:45). The question my family and I will be answering over the next few days is this:

Out of God’s great abundance in our lives, what can we give to another in order to put action to our faith?

Will you join me in answering this question with your family? How have you built this spirit of thankful sharing into your family life?  Please share below.

- BP 

Posted via web from pursuingyahweh’s posterous

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Over the last few days I’ve taken a Sabbatical/Study Leave of sorts for the purpose of prayer, personal worship with God in a secluded spot, and life change/growth.  I spent part of this time at the BCMD’s Shepherd’s Rest at Skycroft.  The ground on that mountain is hallowed.  I have seen God work in many lives there and I have experienced sacramental moments in conversation, prayer, and worship. Last week proved to be one of those mysterious, sacramental times with the Lord.

A Challenging Book for a Thirsty Soul

I set out in a car loaded down with new books and a loose plan for what I was going to study.  God quickly changed the course. I was first challenged by Francis Chan’s new book, “Crazy Love.”  It is very conversational, just like Chan’s stage presence.  Two questions that are challenging me from this book are:

• Am I allowing my high view of God to affect my daily life, in every word, in every decision? 
• Do others witness my high view of the Creator in my daily living?

- BP

Posted via web from pursuingyahweh’s posterous

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Two nights ago, on Tuesday, Karley and I finally got our date night in.  She had long been waiting since her big sister had a date with me a few weeks ago.  We decided to go to the mall for pizza and Build-A-Bear.

Karley was giddy as she made her new bear on our date.

She was so excited all day long.  When I got home from work she was waiting at the top of the stairs for me.  It was good to spend time with her in the car just talking and singing along with the radio.  After pizza, she got to pick out a new bear to make.  I’ll never forget the look on her face that night.

Of course, no daddy date in the Patrick family is complete with out ice cream.  On the way back to the car we played a rousing game of “step on your shadow!”

I love the tradition that has begun with my girls this summer.  Admittedly they started with a bang, a concert for one and a new bear for another.  Not all future dates will be as extravagant.  I hope to use these times to build our relationships and teach them that the greatest gift we have is each other.

My good friend Judy made a statement this week that has stuck with me.  She said, “don’t get so caught up in reliving the past or envisioning the future that you miss the beauty of today.” If my kids can grow up knowing that we live this out in our family, then I will count it as a success.

How are you finding the beauty of today? How are you building your life into your children?

Here’s a little video recap of the evening (RSS readers – if you can’t see this video, click here)

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by Amy Patrick

It seems I have been overwhelmed in the last three months with “last times”. Sometime in May I drove my very first mini van for the last time after a minor accident caused it to be “totaled”. In early June, I walked my oldest into her kindergarten classroom for the last time. Some day recently Karley called her big sis “LaLa” for the last time and started calling her Lauren. Then, just in the last week, my baby, Tyler, preferred crawling as his mode of transportation for the last time. Now he is walking more than crawling and I know in a few weeks I won’t be able to remember the last time he crawled.

As parents, we celebrate so many firsts…I wonder if we remember and celebrate all the lasts. I have three more weeks of summer left with all three of my children at home. I plan to make the most of these last times.

How do you celebrate “lasts” in your family?

This is a post by my wife, Amy, originally posted on her personal blog.

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Lately much of my study life and thought life has been focused to the subject of the Lord’s Supper; known in other circles as Communion or the Eucharist. I’ve asked a lot of questions and decided that it is time to survey the masses. So I’m here asking for your help by completing a short, anonymous survey. It will not take you very long and your honest answers will go a long way to help in the writing of some upcoming blog posts on this subject.

You can take the survey here.

In case you need a little incentive, I have two, $10 Starbucks gift cards that will be randomly given away at the end of the survey.  The survey is anonymous, however, if you want a chance to win one of the gift cards, you need to submit your email address at the end of the survey.  I’m only collecting email addresses for the purpose of the giveaway contest or if you wish to be notified when survey results are ready.

OK, go, answer questions.

Thanks,
BP

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One of the cool new features offered to Verizon FiOS TV subscribers are widgets for social networking sites Facebook & Twitter. A Verizon VP, Shawn Strickland, reports that Verizon is “. . . trying to bring these social-networking applications to the mass market in a way that enhances their TV experience.”

Both widgets are currently one-way streaming meaning that viewers can read updates and information, but cannot update their accounts from the Digital Set-Top Box. When we first tried the new widgets out the other day, we were able to log on to Facebook and click through our photo albums in full screen view, as well as check up on our friend’s status updates.

Twitter & TV Converge with Verizon FiOS' addition of web 2.0 widgets including Twitter & Facebook

The Twitter widget does the best job at bringing a convergence of web 2.0 and the TV viewing experience.  Once loaded, the viewer can choose to view tweets on favorite topics, trending topics, or Tweets on the current show.  The last option takes the show title from the guide menu and performs a twitter search for that title.  The picture for this post shows the following tweet I sent out while watching a Sugarland concert:

@pursuingyahweh: Watching Sugarland: Live on the Inside on #ABC – LOVE J Nettle’s voice! #fb

The only thing missing from the Twitter widget is an auto-update function on tweets.  I know, I’m lazy.  If you want to find out more about these new features, check Verizon’s website here, or try this nifty Google search.

What are your thoughts on the convergence of web 2.0/social networking and life situations/applications.

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Yesterday was a fantastic day of worship at FBC Laurel. We are in the middle of a doctrinal series titled, “These Things We Believe.” Yesterday’s theme was about our salvation.  We also celebrated the Lord’s Supper, or celebrated the Eucharist, or communion – whatever your tradition calls it!

Before I walk you through the service, you can look at our program notes here: FBCL 10:45 Notes for August 2, 2009

This service had four major sections:

1. Thanksgiving and Celebration to God for His Creation
2. Meditation and Confession of Sin
3. The Service of the Bread and the Cup
4. The Message

For the opening celebration of God and is acts in creation, we used Happy Day, Forever, and Holy is The Lord.  At the end of Holy is The Lord, we tagged the first verse and chorus of the hymn, For the Beauty of the Earth (not listed on the program notes). This was a great opening set.  Musically, the band had a tight groove and the vocals were spot on.  Spiritually, it opened up a time to praise God for all that He has done.

We moved into the Meditation and Confession of Sin section as the offering was collected by using this video (RSS subscribers, please click here for the full post with video):

After the video finished, I sang the two verses of Jesus Messiah by myself with just the acoustic guitar and some light pads in the background. Pastor Tommy then led a responsive reading of 1 Corinthians 11:22b-29 (NIV) [responsive reading text]. After a time to meditate on this scripture, with a light guitar in the background, we moved into a confession song with Give Us Clean Hands. This was followed by Praise the Father, Praise the Son, which was basically a vehicle to present the Lord’s Prayer.  After reading the Lord’s Prayer together, we punctuated this section by returning to the bridge of Praise the Father, Praise the Son where it repeats the last line of the prayer: “Yours is the kingdom, Yours is the power, Yours is the glory forever!”

At this point in the service, Pastor Stan led in the distribution of the bread and cup as in our church’s tradition.  While the elements were being served, we displayed this video (RSS subscribers, please click here for the full post with video):

The “amen” of the Lord’s Supper was Hillsongs’ Worthy is The Lamb. This started off a little rocky for me because of some monitoring issues, but it turned out to be a great moment of celebration and praise.  All of these elements came together quite well and helped to launch the message titled, “A Great Salvation.”

We followed the message with Hillsongs’ Salvation is Here. I think some folks were surprised with an invitation song that began with a drum click off and a full groove band intro.  But I think it was the perfect match to the ending of Pastor Stan’s message.

I personally felt like the service had an easy flow and a good balance of loud praise and quite meditation.  For me, it was one of the more memorable Lord’s Supper services we have had at FBC Laurel.

Were you there? What did you think? Please share your feedback below.

Wanna see what other churches experienced in worship last weekend? Click over to my friend Fred McKinnon’s blog and browse around the other Sunday Setlists participants.

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Yesterday morning, my good friend, Randy Elrod (renaissance man & ReCreate founder) send out this tweet:

@recreate – Attn:LifeWork2.0 attendees today! 1st.person who comes 2me&says”good things come to those whoTwitter”receives a limited edition watercolor

Sadly, I was not attending the LifeWork 2.0 seminar nor did I win an Elrod watercolor. HOWEVER:

As I was getting ready to head home for the day, I saw this tweet from Mark Hall of Casting Crowns come through:

@markhallcc – We are in Salisbury tonight! I’ve got a few free tickets and meet and greets for you guys. Twitter me asap as win!

So I did what any good fan would do and sent him a reply.  A few minutes later I was on the phone with the band’s road manager getting the details of the tickets I had won. After several of my peeps left me high and dry, and my wife not able to get off of work, I decided it was the perfect opportunity for a spontaneouse Daddy/Daughter Roadtrip and Concert! Off we went on our adventure.

We spent about 5 hours in the car round trip last night, but it was worth it to see my little girl experience her first arena style concert.  Indeed it was the best daddy date we have ever had together.  Below are some pictures to commemorate the evening.

For those of you who think twitter is dumb, I can only speak from experience that it is good – really good!

After the show with the stage in the background

Lauren & I in our seats at the show

Lauren with Mark Hall of Casting Crowns

Lauren sporting her new shirt and daddy's autographed copy of Mark Hall's new book

our view of the show

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