January 30, 2010
Welcome! Our church is really excited to begin this new chapter in our ministry online. We believe God wants us to be more intentional about communicating who we are to all people. You see, just like you, God has blessed us with unique and wonderful gifts and insights into who He is, and we want to be able to share those gifts with you.
Right now we’re starting with our Leadership Team. Each of us will be blogging about our relationship with God, our ministry and anything else God shares with us. We hope that these blogs bless you, but even more, we hope that they stretch your understanding of who God is.
Our banner verse for 2010, the verse that God gave our pastor to help us focus our minds on what God wants to accomplish this year, is Isaiah 55:1-3:
Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.
So each of us will be asking God to illuminate this passage in the context of our lives, our ministries, and our walks with Him, and we’ll be sharing that with you. But all of this is to focus on the great gifts that God has given us, not how great we are for having such wise, deep insights. We’re just average, everyday people, your neighbor, your doctor, your homebuilder, your network administrator, your friend. We’re just normal people who have begun to experience God in a tangible way, communicate with Him, not just to Him, and walk with Him through our lives, learning to become His children.
Sometimes we’ll be wrong, and we encourage you to let us know when you think so, but you’ll notice that comments are off on this blog. We discussed how we should communicate with people on the blog, and we believe that there are too many opportunities for miscommunication and misunderstanding in such an impersonal and anonymous method of social interaction. I’ve seen far too many fruitful discussions turn into petty name-calling and bickering over subtext and inferences. So we chose to limit these discussions to email. Each of our blogs will have a contact link, and you can email us directly with any questions or comments, and we’ll do our best to answer them. We want very much to learn how God is using this ministry, but not at the price of detracting from what should be the only focus of our site: who God is and what He is doing at CrossLand Community Bible Church.
I hope that you find the time you spend on our website to be encouraging, uplifting, thought-provoking, conscience-pricking, mind-expanding, and even fun! After all, a relationship with God should be filled with and characterized by love, joy, peace, and hope. And God’s faithful love will be the majority of what we focus on this year, so my prayer for you is that you will experience in powerful and new ways the mighty, tender, powerful, awesome, gracious, unconditional love of YHWH, the almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jennifer, Windy, John, Ron, Adam, Buddy and you.
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January 27, 2010
So, if you forgot to put shoes on would you leave the house or go back and put them on? That was the question that Buddy asked me this week when we were meeting about the worship plan. I responded with no, I would go back. Well, this living water that we receive from the Lord when we come and listen is JUST as important. It is free, it satisfies, and we need it in our lives. How exciting that He gives it to us so easily and without measure! We are going to be hearing a lot more about this concept is the sermon this week. It is one not to missed!
Our focus song this week is All Who Are Thirsty. Here are some of the lyrics: “Dip your heart in the stream of life. Let the pain and the sorrow be washed away, in the waves of His mercy…” I KNOW that some of what of what He will tell me when I come to Him will be about my feelings of pain and sorrow. I know that He wants to wash them away. Isn’t our God great? Doesn’t He love us so much?
All Who are Thirsty
All who are thirsty, all who are weak, come to the fountain, dip your heart in the stream of life.
Let the pain and the sorrow be washed away in the waves of His mercy. As deep cries out to deep
We sing: “Come Lord Jesus come, Holy Spirit come,” to all who are thirsty.
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January 19, 2010
[Note: this is an example of what we call "dialoguing" with God, a written prayer in which we listen and write what we believe God is saying to us. To learn more about this, please check out our Vision or email us with questions.]
Good morning Lord. I praise you for your promises and mercies. Lord God, Jesus you are worthy of ALL my worship, praise and adoration. You have given me life, without you I would be in utter darkness and despair. Knowing you Jesus..knowing you.. there is no greater thing. You are my all, you are the BEST, you are my joy and happiness. I do love you. Please forgive me for looking to other things to satisfy. These things are so temporary, so fleeting really and yet such a temptation!
Jennifer, I forgive you. I really do want you to come to me and listen more. If you turn away from the things that want to rob you of my fullness, finding me is the easy part. I want to be found. The hardest thing is seeing how icky and unsatisfying the things that you chose apart from me really are.
Yes Lord. It is so easy to say things like” I deserve this” or this is” a little something fro me” without realizing or truly understanding that the BEST for me is time with you. Doing for myself what is really good and a treat for me would be you. I need to change my way of thinking really Lord. The best favor or service I could do for myself is you and the life that you give. Will you talk to me about this word Life?
Yes Jennifer, don’t you love how I communicate with you?
Yes Lord. I love how you tell me to come and listen with ears wide open. This gives me the picture of everything you say having entry and me being open to hear everything. If my ears are wide open everything makes it in! It is when my ears are receptive to ALL that you say that I find life. Will you explain this to me more?
Yes Jennifer. What I really want to show you here is that to find life you must be willing to be a good listener…a thorough and complete listener. I do not want you to feel like you have to do something performance based here because that is not the deal. As we have talked about before…this gift of life that I give you is not something that you can buy or earn. This is something that you receive because of who I AM.
Yes Lord, This is what is so beautiful and astounding about all of this . Who you are IS LIFE, is THE FINEST, is A KEEPER OF PROMISES. You are everything good, right, honest, true, merciful, etc……
I AM, Jennifer. I am everything you/man will ever need. There is nothing you desire or need to enjoy life and find rest, peace and deep lasting joy that you do not find in me. I am your ALL! I can be trusted to be all. I do want the next Sunday School curriculum to be about who I AM. Jennifer, it is so important to know who I am because all that I am is yours/theirs. Knowing me and who I am is the greatest thing. The children at Crossland can count on and trust who I am . I want to show them this year more about who I am. Last year with nothing is impossible they saw much of what I can do, want to do, and will do for my people. This year I want them to see who I am and how coming and listening and knowing me, who I am, is what brings deep joy, understanding and confidence. I want them to have an unusual confidence in who I am and and unusual trust in me because they know who I am. The result of this is LIFE. A very abundant life. This is what I have for them.
Wow, Lord. This is wonderful. Thank you. Lord I sense that you want the children to worship you this year, to bring glory to your name.
Yes Jennifer. This is true. I so want them to worship me deeper. As the children know me they will be able to praise and worship me more. Most children know the CTS part of ACTS prayer model. Many do not know how to praise me and worship me because they do not really know who I am. You know worship is what brings me close and brings you into my presence. If we are asking the children to come and listen you are giving them a wonderful knowledge of who I am that will help them to worship which leads to coming into my presence and makes it easier to listen.
Yes Lord, Thank you so much. We want to lead them to you. Thank you so much for showing me this am how you desire to do this. Your ways are wonderful. You really are wise!!
You really are funny Jennifer! You make me smile. You know there is nothing I would not do for you don’t you?
Yes Lord. I do know. The trick is keeping me in a place of belief —not just knowledge of this.
That is so true Jennifer. That is why the coming and listening is sooo important. The belief, the life comes by listening. In the belief in me is the life. You know when people first believe in me/Jesus there is such a faith required and such a drawing of the HS that occurs. The problem Jennifer is that all too often after the intial “belief” my people stop believing in me, who I am, and instead go into a knowledge of me. A relationship is what keeps my people believing and the believing keeps you alive. How can you believe in me if you do not spend time with me and know me? How can you believe and trust deeply someone that you do not spend time with and know? I want you/my children to know me and receive what I really want to give you. Please come, please listen! Please do not rob my kingdom and my people of what I desire to bring them through you / my people when they come and listen.
OK Lord, I am so sorry for the way that I hurt you, the way that your people hurt you because we do not take time to know you and share what we know with a world that desperately needs you….even though often they do not see their need. Open our eyes Lord “wide open” to see our need. Then out of your mercy would you speak to us would you give us the courage we need to come to you with ears wide open. Ears ready to hear and receive. Oh the life we are missing all because we will not listen. Please forgive us Lord for the ways we reject your goodness. Jesus there is no sweeter name.
Listen to the song Jennifer… No Sweeter Name-Kari Jobe Write down the words now.
No Sweeter name than the name of Jesus. No sweeter name have I ever known. No sweeter name than the name of Jesus. You are the Life to my heart and my soul. You are the Light to the darkness around me. You are the Hope to the hopeless and broken, You are the only Truth and the Way. JESUS, JESUS, JESUS.
Yes Lord. Thank you for that song. Jesus there truly is no sweeter name and no greater name than yours. In your name there is life, light, hope, healing, the truth, the way…Jesus you have fulfilled every promise and every need.
Yes my bride. I JESUS am life. I bring all that you ever need and I have done all that will ever be needed for you to know me and my Father. Jennifer I love you so much and love your hunger and thirst. I love how you see your need for me and how you come and listen. My bride this year I have much more to tell you and many more opportunities for you to see your need so that you will come and know me more and more.
Jesus, I cannot wait. I love you so.
I love you too Jennifer. Oh so much. Are you excited about the curriculum?
I am Lord. I cannot wait to discover with the children and teachers more and more of who you are. I want to know you more. The more I know you the more I love you. Loving you and being loved by you is the BEST!
Yes my bride. It is isn’t it? Lets go do what we need to do today together ok?
OK!
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January 17, 2010
So I find our banner verse really exciting! I am looking forward to hearing so much from the Lord this year about these verses, and singing the songs that God chooses for us to illuminate some of these challenging concepts. This week one of the things we will be talking about is what we turn to instead of God. This, I know, will be so convicting to me, but something that I need to hear and grasp. What unhealthy food am I spending my money on? What am I toiling for that is worthless and even harmful? I know that the answers may be hard to hear. However, my heart truly desires to get milk and wine for FREE! What a deal! I want the Lord’s sustaining, tasty, and healthy delicacies.
What do I have to do to get these things? Do I have to say the right prayers? Fast? Tithe? Read my Bible? No. Those things are all good, but the Lord says that we must…Come. Come! Come and listen to Him. We don’t have to wait. We don’t have to “be in a good place.” We don’t have to have a certain amount of time. It doesn’t matter if it’s been days…weeks…months…years…our Father doesn’t care. He wants us to come to Him!
One of the songs that the Lord has given us this week is Knowing You. Here are some of the lyrics:
“All I once held dear, built my life upon, all this world reveres and wars to own, all I once thought gain I have counted loss, spent and worthless now compared to this.”
I think that this applies to our banner verse. What we have bought in the past, what we thought was for our gain, what we spent our money on, is worthless. The lyrics say that they are worthless compared to “this:”
“Knowing You, Jesus. Knowing You – there is no greater thing.”
When we come to the Lord, when we listen to Him, we will know Him more and more. I encourage you to make this song part of your devotional song this week. In preparing for the sermon, ask the Lord to open your heart and prepare you to see the things that you spend your money on. Come to Him this week, and listen. He will never let you down!
Here are all of the lyrics to Knowing You:
Knowing You
All I once held dear built my life upon
All this world reveres, and wars to own
All I once thought gain I have counted loss
Spent and worthless now, compared to this
Knowing you, Jesus knowing you
There is no greater thing
You’re my all you’re the best
You’re my joy, my righteousness
And I love you Lord
Now my heart’s desire is to know You more
To be found in You, and known as Yours
To possess by faith what I could not earn
All surpassing gift of righteousness
Oh to know the power of Your risen life
And to know You in Your suffering
To become like You in Your death my Lord
So with You to live and never die
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January 15, 2010
A letter to everyone, but a special message for my worship team as well!
What does this year’s banner verse tell us? For one thing, it tells us that we have nothing. That all of the things that we toil for, that we hold dear, that we deem important, do not satisfy us and are worthless. As a worship minister, that puts an interesting spin on things. For my team and me, God has blessed us with talents that we get to use every Sunday to worship Him, and help others worship Him. So, does that mean that those things are worthless? I appreciate the talents of my team, and WANT them to feel proud of themselves when they do well. We toil, we practice, we sometimes hold dear the talents that God has given us. Hmmmm.
The verses also tell us that if we just come to the Lord, He will give us all that we need – wine and milk for free and food that truly satisfies. How does this tie in with the question above? First of all, let me say that I am convinced that the Lord Almighty is overjoyed with offerings of praise, and pleased with the continual sacrifices that my team makes to practice their craft to bring glory to Him. So how do we figure out how these things reconcile?
I believe that trying to lead in worship is empty without coming to the Lord first. A bold statement, I know, but the only one that can fit with these verses that God has chosen for us to focus on. If we hold on to or focus on our rehearsal time, our talent , our focus to “get things right,” even our own personal worship time, we will miss out on so much of what the Lord has for us, and on what He has for His people. As the worship leader, I have started getting up early (very difficult for me!) on Sunday mornings to have some extended time to dialogue with God – for me to go to Him, and them listen to what He has to say to Me, and what He wants to say to our Church. It is amazing the things that He has to say!
This is something that the Worship Team will be focusing on for 2010. Not necessarily the getting up early part, (I know of one person at least who would have words with me on that subject!) but in going to the Lord and really listening to Him before we rehearse, and before we lead on Sundays. This is an exciting process that has revolutionized my worship, and I want it for everyone!
I love the Lord’s free wine and milk, and I don’t want to go back to gobbling down my fast food that I toil for that will make me feel sick. Have you imagined what the Lord’s “wine and milk” would be for you? I enjoy thinking about my “perfect meal” and putting it in place of wine and milk. I know that it is a metaphor, but I still like to think of my Father sitting down with me to my perfect meal!
Let’s jump into 2010 without reservation! I can’t wait – both for my team and for you. Let’s do some awesome worship this year!
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Central to who we are at Crossland, and at the core of everything we do, is our overwhelming desire to be a listening church. In accordance with this, the prophetic ministry’s chief calling is to aid the church, the leadership, and the individual members as they seek the Father’s heart and listen for His voice in their lives and in their ministries. By seeking words of encouragement, comfort, and edification for each other (1 Corinthians 14:3), we receive some of the richest blessings our Father desires to give us.
As believers, when we hear the Father speak His heart to us through others, especially after we have first sought Him diligently ourselves, we are able to receive from Him in more powerful ways than is usually possible on our own. Often, these words from our brothers and sisters bring a needed clarity or depth of understanding to the things we have been hearing or sensing from God. This happens in a variety of ways… from the sharing of a single word or simple Bible verse to the sharing of a message that is pages long. It happens during organized intercessory and prophetic prayer times, and it happens as God calls us to pray for someone while driving down the road. By putting ourselves in a position to be used by God in this way, and by keeping ourselves open for God to use in this fashion, the prophetic ministry helps our church, as well as each of her members, receive all that God desires for their lives.
As a primary focus for 2010, just as in 2009, God has given the prophetic team the charge of “facilitating” our banner verse. As we move through the year and as we continue to see more fully the depth and breadth of the blessings God has in store for us through our banner verse, the prophetic ministry will be actively involved.
In pursuing God concerning our banner passage, I feel He has already impressed upon me His desire for our church to experience His love to even greater depths than we have ever imagined. He further desires us to step fully into the covenant of His everlasting love and receive the abundance only He can offer. As we find our true identity in His love, He will give us the opportunity to lead others to experience the same. He promises to lead us out in joy and in peace as we experience the best He has to offer.
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The challenging and rewarding study of God’s word,the Bible,is another part of God’s vision for Crossland. Our desire is to allow God to teach us from His word,as we meet in His presence on Sunday morning. This is a great aid and motivator in moving us along in our seven point vision. This class not only equips us to draw nearer to Him and His will for our lives, but also to each other, as we study together and share in interesting discussions.
Currently, we are studying the book of James. We are pursuing discernment of this book’s potentially life altering passages on the practical applications of God’s truths and His insight into our goal of spiritual maturity. This study will continue through April and all are welcome to join us at any time.
We meet at 9:30AM Sunday mornings in the northwest corner of the worship center.
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