Sunday Nite

It was "spring-forward" day at hyde park - you know, the day that multitudes of people forget to set the clock forward and miss church...

I gotta tell you, I felt that it was an amazing day!!! Week 2 of the "God's Stimulus Plan" and I have to feel that some of you are just a little bit closer to your "bailout" - are you ready?

I'm pretty pumped this evening - after seeing a great tarheel win this afternoon against the Dookies I just feel great. It's beautiful outside feeling like spring, beautiful spirit in the house at church today, feeling good. This is a good day!

Here are my thoughts this evening:

• We decided that the house might be a little "sleepy" this morning being that we lost an hour - we decided to start the service fired up (even more so than usual ) and it was just a great, great feel all day long.
• We debuted the "new" song by Lincoln Brewster (hey - it's new to us ) "Today is the Day" - what a really great song! Good, fun, uptempo tune based on Psalm 118:24. Decided to "teach" it this morning rather than just jump into the new tune which is always fun. I love getting people outside of their comfort zone and singing "oh-oh-ohoh - oh-oh-ohoh" at the top of your lungs will do it!
• Do my smiley faces show you how good I feel tonite?

•  ²³ the LORD has done this,
         and it is marvelous in our eyes.

   ²⁴ This is the day the LORD has made;
         let us rejoice and be glad in it.

• Our music today: "Today is the Day" (Lincoln Brewster - Praise Charts arrangement), "Counting on God" (Desperation Band - New Life Church arrangement), "How Great Thou Art" (Newsong version), "You Are My King" (G3/Robert Elkins Arrangement).

• Loved the roll-in video, "God's Pie". How many people are just like the dude in the vid - looking at God's portion and eating it right in his face? A comedic look at a very sad commentary. Amen? (the video is posted at the bottom of this post).

Pastor's message was great this morning. So proud of the job that he did preaching about such a touchy subject. A couple of notes I wrote about the message:

• "God's Stimulus Plan is this: give and it shall be given unto you. Why? Because Jesus said, "it is more blessed to give than to receive."
• "The way we activate this principal is to 1) give to Him 1st,  2) give to yourself (meaning to save money) and 3) live on the rest".
• I thought to myself that if people would activate this principal we 1) wouldn't have to teach it as much and 2) people would actually WANT us to to teach it as often as possible because they would want others to be free like they are. People don't want this teaching because they aren't free and aren't willing to do what it takes to get free.
• "Financial decisions follow the law of the harvest: sow today > reap later > reap greater."
• "Your money is a tool - use it to bring glory to Him. In other words, your stuff is a tool to be used by God."
• Pastor likes to use the word "mammon", because it's the word found in his version of the bible. I found myself wondering if everyone in the service I attended was "sure" that mammon meant money? I asked Madison, who was sitting with me, if she knew what it mean - she didn't. She whispered to me, "no, i'm not sure what mammon means but I know that it sounds a lot like Salmon".
• I hope that you started the "Good Sense Budgeting Class" this morning. If you didn't but are convinced you need to, let me know today!
• I had the amazing opportunity to be a part of some major spiritual stuff this morning! God is SO good and is working in people's lives... thank YOU, Lord, for allowing me to be a part of your work here on earth.

Let's have an amazing week representing Him!

Comments

[Mitchell Cain]

Counting on God was the piece that has taken ahold of me and is still shaking me! Great selection.

[mike p]

"Cause my faith is on SOLID ROCK - I am counting on God!"

Agreed.