"While I'm Waiting"
by John Waller, from the The Blessing album.
Buy it here on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Blessing-John-Waller/dp/B000MV8D4W/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1237316501&sr=8-1
Blessings!
P. Jim
3.17.2009
"While I'm Waiting"
I've received a couple of e-mails on the song that we closed the service with this past Sunday. So I figured I'd post it here:
"While I'm Waiting"
by John Waller, from the The Blessing album.
Buy it here on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Blessing-John-Waller/dp/B000MV8D4W/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1237316501&sr=8-1
Blessings!
P. Jim
"While I'm Waiting"
by John Waller, from the The Blessing album.
Buy it here on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Blessing-John-Waller/dp/B000MV8D4W/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1237316501&sr=8-1
Blessings!
P. Jim
To The Point
It's probably no great revelation to my regular readers, but it can be an amazing thing to have a portion of scripture penetrate your heart.
I have to say that the last couple of months have been very eventful and very trying. I've been involved with some very stressful things at work, church can be a very stressful and trying environment, and home can be the same. In the middle of that time, I served on a jury for about a month, and my life feels like it was put on hold and it still feels like I am playing catch-up.
So, I'm sitting in my wonderfully gray cubicle today, and just feeling lousy. Nothing really wrong, just crabby. Then I noticed that I'm playing out conversations and scenarios in my head all in a negative fashion: delivering a piece of bad news to a client and having it escalate, having a ministry meeting at church and having a huge conflict arise out of that, checking my church e-mail and not seeing anything, and wondering if I'm making a difference or being edged out...
And then it hits me. "WHAT AM I DOING!?" For whatever reason, the last couple of days I'd totally allowed this negative spirit, this crabbiness, this just outright LIE to capture my soul and pervade all aspects of my life.
I have on my iPod an application called YouVersion, which is an online Bible put out by LifeChurch.tv. One of the things that I really like about it is that there's a daily reading schedule.
So I just stopped what I was doing, and did my daily reading: Luke 8 and the parable of the sower. Remember that one? The sower threw his seeds and they landed on the rocky ground, the thorny ground, and the fertile soil? Yeah, not quite fertile soil.
I love the fact that God's spirit will communicate with you through His Word. I love the fact that a simple parable can show us a VERY deep spiritual concept, and it can make sense, and it can be acted on immediately!
So, I'm casting off that negativity from the last couple of days. Even if the source of the negativity was another person, from myself, whatever--that's not me, and that's not how God wants you or I to live. Even in the midst of waiting, even in the midst of a trial, that's not who we are.
We ended Sunday's service with a fantastic song by John Waller, called "While I'm Waiting." Simple song, a simple message, and something that can provide that reminder, that nudge, not to dwell in negative circumstances.
I don't normally tell people to buy any music, but I'd encourage you to pick this one up. Use this song as part of your devotional life. Use it as tool to help remind you that God's always around you, always part of your life, and even in those moments of waiting, being in his presence, reaching out to make a difference in someone else's life might be that turning point for your own.
Love you all!!!
Jim
I have to say that the last couple of months have been very eventful and very trying. I've been involved with some very stressful things at work, church can be a very stressful and trying environment, and home can be the same. In the middle of that time, I served on a jury for about a month, and my life feels like it was put on hold and it still feels like I am playing catch-up.
So, I'm sitting in my wonderfully gray cubicle today, and just feeling lousy. Nothing really wrong, just crabby. Then I noticed that I'm playing out conversations and scenarios in my head all in a negative fashion: delivering a piece of bad news to a client and having it escalate, having a ministry meeting at church and having a huge conflict arise out of that, checking my church e-mail and not seeing anything, and wondering if I'm making a difference or being edged out...
And then it hits me. "WHAT AM I DOING!?" For whatever reason, the last couple of days I'd totally allowed this negative spirit, this crabbiness, this just outright LIE to capture my soul and pervade all aspects of my life.
I have on my iPod an application called YouVersion, which is an online Bible put out by LifeChurch.tv. One of the things that I really like about it is that there's a daily reading schedule.
So I just stopped what I was doing, and did my daily reading: Luke 8 and the parable of the sower. Remember that one? The sower threw his seeds and they landed on the rocky ground, the thorny ground, and the fertile soil? Yeah, not quite fertile soil.
I love the fact that God's spirit will communicate with you through His Word. I love the fact that a simple parable can show us a VERY deep spiritual concept, and it can make sense, and it can be acted on immediately!
So, I'm casting off that negativity from the last couple of days. Even if the source of the negativity was another person, from myself, whatever--that's not me, and that's not how God wants you or I to live. Even in the midst of waiting, even in the midst of a trial, that's not who we are.
We ended Sunday's service with a fantastic song by John Waller, called "While I'm Waiting." Simple song, a simple message, and something that can provide that reminder, that nudge, not to dwell in negative circumstances.
I don't normally tell people to buy any music, but I'd encourage you to pick this one up. Use this song as part of your devotional life. Use it as tool to help remind you that God's always around you, always part of your life, and even in those moments of waiting, being in his presence, reaching out to make a difference in someone else's life might be that turning point for your own.
Love you all!!!
Jim
1.19.2009
Holy Time Lapse, Batman!
So, I get on people's cases that don't update their blogs--it's a pet peeve of mine. Seriously. It's like, c'mon, get on it--how long does it take to update a blog anyways?
Yeah. Look in the mirror, Jim! So what that it's been since before there was snow on the ground--update your blog!
Long story short, here we are. It's turned another new year, and the Christmas programs and teas and caroles are all put away for the year. (FYI, we have a strict New Year's Day cutoff for decoration removal in our home.) More resolutions, more things to get going on for our next year of existance.
It seems that in my cycle as a worship pastor, I move in seasons: Christmas, Easter, our all-music Sundays, and everything else. They're great markers for us to maintain our ministry calendars by, but those events and services aren't the benchmark by which we measure ourselves.
This year in 2009, my goal is to see people moved by the presence of God in new and powerful ways during our times together. This isn't an advertisement, but if you're longing for more of God's presence and you don't come to The Gathering services, then not only are you doing yourself a dis-service, you're missing out on very special times spent with God. I'm finding those are the times when I worship that I'm connecting with God the most.
I love what we do as a church--I love our approach on Sunday mornings. I love the freedom that we have to be ourselves, to get excited and to rock out a bit. However, those times at The Gathering are times that I can just BE in God's presence. Leading worship during those times is almost like canoeing downstream on a river--it doesn't take much because the current moves you along. It just takes a little nudge here and there to change direction.
I'm also very excited about our new 10-week series called, "Soul Revolution." I've started reading the book, and I've chosen to do the 60-60 experiment. I suggest you do, too. I don't know what all will happen. I'm kinda excited about that. It was weird "checking in" with God every 60 minutes. It felt strange. But I was pretty excited about it, at the same time.
I'm guessing God does something very cool in your life through this!
Talk to you soon!
Jim
PS--I've started working with P. Pete on Easter. It's going to be so very cool. April 12th. Tell your friends. :)
Yeah. Look in the mirror, Jim! So what that it's been since before there was snow on the ground--update your blog!
Long story short, here we are. It's turned another new year, and the Christmas programs and teas and caroles are all put away for the year. (FYI, we have a strict New Year's Day cutoff for decoration removal in our home.) More resolutions, more things to get going on for our next year of existance.
It seems that in my cycle as a worship pastor, I move in seasons: Christmas, Easter, our all-music Sundays, and everything else. They're great markers for us to maintain our ministry calendars by, but those events and services aren't the benchmark by which we measure ourselves.
This year in 2009, my goal is to see people moved by the presence of God in new and powerful ways during our times together. This isn't an advertisement, but if you're longing for more of God's presence and you don't come to The Gathering services, then not only are you doing yourself a dis-service, you're missing out on very special times spent with God. I'm finding those are the times when I worship that I'm connecting with God the most.
I love what we do as a church--I love our approach on Sunday mornings. I love the freedom that we have to be ourselves, to get excited and to rock out a bit. However, those times at The Gathering are times that I can just BE in God's presence. Leading worship during those times is almost like canoeing downstream on a river--it doesn't take much because the current moves you along. It just takes a little nudge here and there to change direction.
I'm also very excited about our new 10-week series called, "Soul Revolution." I've started reading the book, and I've chosen to do the 60-60 experiment. I suggest you do, too. I don't know what all will happen. I'm kinda excited about that. It was weird "checking in" with God every 60 minutes. It felt strange. But I was pretty excited about it, at the same time.
I'm guessing God does something very cool in your life through this!
Talk to you soon!
Jim
PS--I've started working with P. Pete on Easter. It's going to be so very cool. April 12th. Tell your friends. :)
9.14.2008
Great Elephant!
Wow--what a great start to a new series!
We began our new six-week series, "The Elephant in the Church" today, talking about the Christian subculture--how we've created this little bubble that we live in exclusive to anyone else (Christian businesses, Christian yellow pages, Christian clothing lines, Christian breath mints). We discussed while these things are necessarily bad in and of themselves, when they remove us from the world that we're meant to be making a difference in, the subculture is not what God intended from Christ followers.
We ended the service with a--in my opinion--VERY powerful song that hopefully motivates us to living this life of love that God calls us to. The song was "Rise" by the Robbie Seay Band. If you haven't picked up a new CD lately, let me recommend this album to you. I've very rarely ever completely flipped out over a CD like I did this one. Rise is the opening track, and they had me sold after track two, which is the song "Song of Hope" that we played last week at the "Response" service. We'll actually be doing that song again next week, too.
At any rate, here's the CD and a link to their website (as of this writing, the CD is on sale on iTunes for only $7.99!), as well as the Amazon page for the CD. I hope you find this CD as nurturing as I have!
"Give Yourself Away"
Robbie Seay Band
We began our new six-week series, "The Elephant in the Church" today, talking about the Christian subculture--how we've created this little bubble that we live in exclusive to anyone else (Christian businesses, Christian yellow pages, Christian clothing lines, Christian breath mints). We discussed while these things are necessarily bad in and of themselves, when they remove us from the world that we're meant to be making a difference in, the subculture is not what God intended from Christ followers.
We ended the service with a--in my opinion--VERY powerful song that hopefully motivates us to living this life of love that God calls us to. The song was "Rise" by the Robbie Seay Band. If you haven't picked up a new CD lately, let me recommend this album to you. I've very rarely ever completely flipped out over a CD like I did this one. Rise is the opening track, and they had me sold after track two, which is the song "Song of Hope" that we played last week at the "Response" service. We'll actually be doing that song again next week, too.
At any rate, here's the CD and a link to their website (as of this writing, the CD is on sale on iTunes for only $7.99!), as well as the Amazon page for the CD. I hope you find this CD as nurturing as I have!
"Give Yourself Away"
Robbie Seay Band
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