Here is a taste of February’s artist gathering at Ccada.
The ladies of our prayer shawl ministry met to crochet towards 1700 prayer shawls.
The Haas girls working on their newest drawings.
The morning ended with a housewarming for one of our long-time artists. This table was built by our reclamation artist, Sandy Freeman.
Today I want to finish up some thoughts I began a few weeks ago regarding how the church can better access the presence of God.
If you recall we have been talking about 4 keys that usher in the Presence. They are:
AND….
EXCELLENCE
Excellence in the arts
I have the privilege of ministering in the church I grew up in. That is not an opportunity many ministers can claim I suppose. One of the advantages it gives me is that I have been able to observe the move of God among us since the very inception of our fellowship.
Cornerstone was about a year old when I first visited. The one thing I remember about the fledgling congregation was the incredible presence of God I experienced when I walked through the doors. I was actually overwhelmed by the supernatural essence of love that I felt coming from the church. I also remember being absolutely entranced by the worship that was in the place. Honestly that is not something that should have happened.
In those days our worship consisted of a piano player who could only play three songs in one key, a worship leader who had never led before and whose repertoire consisted of mostly Christians campfire songs, a drummer, a bass guitar player, a clarinet player who had completed a grand total of six lessons, and a group of teenagers on various instruments who could read music but had no music to play from for the services. To say our worship team was sub par is probably being generous. But we did the best we could with what we had AND GOD SHOWED UP.
That right there is the definition of excellence- doing the best you can with the resources you have.
Excellence is not a standard; It is an attitude that God honors. We were excellent back in those days because we worked as hard as we knew how, with what we had, in order to do what God required of us.
Today excellence at Cornerstone looks a little different. Our three worship teams meet weekly at three different scheduled times to practice their worship sets before services. People are expected to practice at home before rehearsals and a certain level of musicianship is expected before a person comes on to the team. Our worship leaders must not only sing but read and play music to a certain level and that level is increasing as we move deeper into the work God has for us.
Excellence in the arts
God blesses excellence, which is the determination to use God-given talent to its optimum level, not the talent itself.
The presence of God honors people who approach the ministry with a desire to give it their best shot. He can make up the deficit between our natural ability and the required level of craftsmanship. What we must do is determine to give every ministry opportunity the best of what we have to offer. That is excellence.
I would love to hear your thought son this series.
Source: QUOTE (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
I have never had JAZZBERRY JAM. I have had Moxie jelly though. Does that count? Check out this wild flavor by clicking the capitalized link.
And here is the actual shade:
My match is…
Before taking part in this challenge, I would have called the roof of the Vermont Country Store “red”. Now I know better! 😉
Much has been said about judgment coming upon our nation. How does this view inform or change your consideration of that judgment.
Shoutin’ Saturdays is the post where we can all take a few minutes to make some noise at the top of our lungs for Jesus. Come on! Sing out loud with me and let’s build a culture of worship together!
If you are interested in connecting with the group Need To Breathe or if you want to see the locations of their upcoming concerts they can be found
What does a daily walk for a minister look like?
I started these posts to start making myself more accountable for the exercise I committed to doing at the beginning of the year. I have upped my game in that department. I am getting out and physically walking or exercising at least three times a week, which is better than zero times a week, but it is still not where I thought I would be.
Maybe my sights were set a little too high for a beginning, or maybe if I had set my sights lower I would be right where I was before, with nothing. I don’t know.
What I do know is that my life coach often says that if we say “yes” to one thing it means we have to say “no” to another.
What does a daily walk for a minister look like?
I guess it looks like going to sit at the bedside of a dying congregant and praying with her family. I guess it looks like visiting the ER and bringing another sick congregant the clothes they need before they go to rehab. It probably looks like visiting a local Bible college and meeting with prospective young ministers to start them on the road to practical ministry. I suppose it could even be sitting at a computer and writing blogs about ministerial life. It is about planning awards ceremonies for young ladies who have achieved great things in their Christian walks, and about calling leaders who are laboring hard for the Kingdom of God, to encourage them to keep going. At least that is what my daily walks have become in the last two or three days. I have to tell you I wouldn’t say “no” to any of these things even if I was offered a walk on the beach in Waikiki.
I will get back to exercising my body soon enough but for these last days it has been about exercising my faith. For me, that is enough to keep me going.
JE
But if wicked people turn away from all their sins and begin to obey my decrees and do what is just and right, they will surely live and not die. All their past sins will be forgotten, and they will live because of the righteous things they have done.
Ezekiel 18:21-22 NLT
http://bible.com/116/ezk.18.21-22.NLT
It is not to late to change.
This post is in response to The Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Seasons.
Life is always changing:
We grow.
We learn.
We laugh.
We play.
We pray.
We dance life’s dance.
And sometimes we fall.
Some of life we walk with others.
Some of it we walk alone.
But one thing we can surely know is that life like the seasons is all about change.
“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.” Genesis 8:22
This week Cee has challenged us to show her THE WEATHER IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD. Click the capitalized link to see weather from around the world.
I have learned a few things about the weather in my time…
Sometimes it’s easy to walk above our weather. At certain moments we think we have it all in hand and life’s little problems seem beneath us however irritating they might be.
Then there are those moments when the weather rises up and engulfs us. We can’t rise above it because it’s coming from above. We have to learn how to live in it one shovelful at a time.
But the truth is that whatever the weather is doing around us, whether the clouds are thick and gloomy…
Whether the rain is falling down or…
the sun is shining high, it is we who choose how the weather effects us. We decide if the snow and rain are blessings or barriers. We carry our own weather.
