Joseph - 6/28/2009   Today was CE (Christian Education) Sunday where our focus was on the story of Joseph.

Unexpected Turns of Events Happened When Joseph...

• Spoke
• Trusted
• Obeyed
• Forgave

Are you ready to take some action in your life?

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Speaking -  6/21/2009    Speaking to God...Speaking about God...Speaking for God. 

Praying...Testifying...Prophesizing... 

Take time to talk to and with God whenever, wherever, and however.  In our church tradition, we tend to close our eyes, clasp our hands, and generally allow the pastor to be the one to voice the prayers. Shake up your prayer life a bit - open your eyes, raise your hands, give shouts of praise! 

What stories can you share about God?  Share them!  Don't keep them to yourself.

Is God asking you to speak?  Have you been given a vision to share?  Has God placed a burden on your heart that is aching to be shared  with others.  Have the courage to speak! Read More »

Listening - 6/14/09  Even in today's noisy, busy world, God is still speaking.  The question is, are we listening?  There are so many things to distract us - cell phones, iPods, television, conversations, etc.  Silence bothers many of us.  How can God get through to us? 

As a way of seeking to listen to God, we practiced Lecto Divina - using scripture to open us to hearing God's word for us.  First, we read through a selection of scripture and then meditated on a word or phrase that touched our hearts or caught our attention.  Then we re-read the same scripture with a focus on meditating how the word or phrase connected with our lives.  A final reading had us meditating on what the scripture was calling us to do in the week to come.

Listen.  Can you hear God speaking to you?

Breathe - 06/01/09  Rob Bell has a wonderful video titled:  Breathe.  We took time to view the video and to breathe in God's spirit.  Some excerpts from the video included:

"Is the name of God the sound of breathing?"  - Bell talks about how the Hebrew letters for LORD are believed to be breathing sounds.

"We've been breathed into by the Creator of the Universe.  And this divine breath is in every single human being ever."
"In the Bible, the word for breath is the same word as the word for Spirit."

"Maybe what we need is as close as breathing."

Joan of Arcadia - 5/31/2009   Since all of our musicians were unavailable on this evening, we decided to show the first episode of "Joan of Arcadia."  This TV series was about a young teenager who is encountered by God and finds herself trying to make sense of who God is and what God wants.  Oh, and by the way, God doesn't always look the same every time Joan sees him/her. 

"Millions of people speak to God. What if God spoke back? Life just got a hell of a lot more confusing for teenage Joan Girardi, who already deals with feeling out of place in her family : her police chief father, her somewhat overbearing mother, her geeky younger brother and former football star older brother, now paralyzed. They'd never believe her if she told them that God is talking to her. Does Joan have a higher purpose on earth, or are these strange conversations just in her head? < ... Read More »

Memorial Day - 5/24/2009  Memorial Day is a day to remember those who died serving in our armed forces.  Flags are often placed near the gravestones.  Gravestones remind the living of the dead.  They serve as Remembrance Stones...God often instructed the people to create remembrance stones - not for the dead, but as reminders of what God has done.  In I Samuel 7:3-12, it says  "Samuel took a single rock and set it upright between Mizpah and Shen. He named it "Ebenezer" (Rock of Help), saying, Read More »

Blind - 5/17/2009   John 9 talks about the blind man who is healed by Jesus.  But this story is not just about a healing, but a look at how society, religious leaders, and ourselves are often spiritually blind.  Our healing also needs to come from Jesus, but first we need to acknowledge our blindness - not an easy thing for most of us to do. Physical blindness is often easier to heal than spiritual blindness. Jeff Smith from "Salt and Light Ministries" performs a powerful skit based on this scripture and a Forrest Gump character.  If you missed this service and would like to borrow the tape, please contact me.  Powerpoint slides of "Blind"

Is It Okay to Call God "Mother"?  5/10/09 - What are your feelings on this?  Does calling God "Mother" create a different image than "Father"?  Much of this evening's content comes from Rev. Paul Smith's book called "Is It Okay to Call God, Mother?" 



Listen to a powerful song by Karen Drucker called "Oh, Mother God."  You can listen to it for free on Rhapsody (sign up for their preview of 25 free songs per month).& ... Read More »

Going Through the Motions - 5/3/09  This evening, we watched Rob Bell's video on "Sunday."  Here's a clip from the video if you missed it:  "Sunday"  Some of the key questions posed by Bell are:  "When it comes to church, what do you think God has in mind?"   "How much time do you spend worrying about what people think of you?"  "Is it possible to be interested in Christian faith but turned off by Christianity?"  "Does God need us to attend a worship service once or twice a week?"  "How do we know that God has our hearts and that we are not just going through the motions?"  "What issues in our wo ... Read More »

Burdens Part II - 4/26/2009  

We hope that you feel free to worship God in ways that are meaningful to you - to sing if you wish or just to listen, to stand, sit, kneel if the Spirit moves you to worship.  Feel free to interject - if God is speaking to you, there may be others who also need to hear the question, comment, words of hope.  Make this a meaningful worship experience for you. 

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