Archive for April, 2005

This Sunday, May 1st, our congregation will begin 40 Days of Prayer and Fasting. Members are signing up to fast for at least one day, so that as a church we will be praying and fasting for 40 days.

Last Sunday, we used our Sunday morning assembly to have a prayer service. Normally, because of seating and parking limitations, we have two Sunday morning services. But last Sunday, we squeezed everyone in for one service, and we spent most of our time together in prayer. It was wonderful. Everyone seemed to be blessed and encouraged by what we did. Above all, God was glorified by it.

This is all part of the series I’m preaching on Revival. We are getting serious about humbling ourselves, praying and seeking God’s face, and turning from our wicked ways (2 Chronicles 7:14) in hopes that God will visit us powerfully and bring Revival to His people here in Ashland, Ohio.

I am currently preaching a series on Revival (our theme this year is ‘Revive and Come Alive in 2005′). In my sermon two weeks ago I referenced Psalm 66:18 where David said: “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” God has not let me forget this passage — He just keeps putting it on my heart. He has made me deal with it.

Yes, we all sin. We all sin every day — and sometimes we make the same mistake time and time again. But I think that’s different from actually “cherishing” sin. I can certainly think of times in my life when I have not just sinned, but have really cherished sin. I looked up the definition for cherish and two things in the defintion stood out: ‘hold dear’ and ‘entertain.’ Isn’t that what we do with sin sometimes? We entertain it and hold on to it dearly.

David speaks of God refusing to listen to our prayers when we cherish sin. How many of my prayers have been rejected because I continued to entertain sin? How many blessings did I forfeit because I was holding dearly to my sin?

O God, please forgive me. Give me strength. May I be absolutely ruthless about letting go of sin.

My wife and I went with some friends from church to see Casting Crowns, Chris Tomlin, and Steven Curtis Chapman last Saturday in Cleveland. It was a great show — more than that, it was an awesome time of praise and worship. Steven Curtis Chapman was the headliner, and he did a great job (though he talked too much). But we were blessed even more by Casting Crowns and Chris Tomlin — especially Chris Tomlin.

All I knew about Chris Tomlin was that he had written a lot of worship songs. But he was great in concert — definitely a talented worship leader. His song “Indescribable” is a powerful worship song (I bought it from iTunes today). I’m going to try to get the music to it, and include it in our songbook supplement.

In honor of President Bush’s iPod Playlist being published (read about it here, I thought I would post mine. Actually, I have several playlists (I have about 700 songs on my iPod) — but this is the one I presently use when I run:

Song Title | Artist

Creed | Third Day
I Have Come to Worship | SonicFlood
On My Own | Barlow Girl
Stay | Jeremy Camp
Lose This Life | Tait
Things Like You | Sanctus Real
Gone | Switchfoot
Never Alone | Barlow Girl
Open the Eyes of My Heart | SonicFlood
Jesus Is Just Alright | dc Talk
Mirror | Barlow Girl
Glory Defined | Building 429
O Praise Him | David Crowder Band
She Walked Away | Barlow Girl
If Loving God Was A Crime | Big Tent Revival
Carried Away | SonicFlood
Voice of Truth | Casting Crowns
I Still Believe | Jeremy Camp
Lord (I Don’t Know) | Newsboys
Everything About You | Sanctus Real
Colored People | dc Talk
I Want to Know You | SONICFLOOd
Meant to Live | Switchfoot
Understand | Jeremy Camp
This Is Your Life | Switchfoot
Lose This Life | Tait
Angus Dei / Worthy | Third Day
Jesus Freak | dc Talk
Consuming Fire | Third Day
This Fragile Breath | Todd Agnew
Dare You To Move | Switchfoot
Lord I Lift Your Name on High | SonicFlood
If We Are The Body | Casting Crowns