Apr 5 2010

How’s Your Prayer Life?

Lord willing, in two weeks I’ll be preaching a sermon about prayer at the West University church.

I feel somewhat inadequate to preach on prayer.  Probably because its one of the things I struggle with the most in my private life.  Sure, I can lead a public prayer.  I can say one as long as short as you’d like me to.  However, when it comes to personal prayer life, it is definitely waning.

Maybe that’s because I get so caught up in life, that I forget to pray.  Maybe, its because prayer takes time, and I feel like I don’t have time.  Maybe, its because I feel I don’t need to have conversations with God.

Or maybe, its simply because I just don’t pray.

I am placing an informal, private poll below on prayer life.  I would love for you to just check one of the following options below.  It would really help me in my sermon prep if you could comment on either this blog post or on my facebook post about your prayer life.  If you don’t want to comment, that’s fine, but please at least place a vote in the poll below.

Apr 4 2010

What its about today

Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate. “Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.

“Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied.

The chief priests accused him of many things. So again Pilate asked him, “Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.”  But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.

Now it was the custom at the Feast to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.

“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.

“What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.

“Crucify him!” they shouted.

“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!”

Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.

It was the third hour when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS. They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!”

In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”  One man ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”…

…When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.  “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ ”

Mar 30 2010

Singing During Communion/Lord’s Supper Time

Please take a moment and vote in the poll below.  I would love to hear some comments as well as why you selected what you did.

I’m interested in how people take Communion, and what you do to help reflect on what you are doing.  I personally love to sing during Communion, because it helps me focus.  For years, I’ve tried the prayer during the Communion time, reading the scriptures, thinking or reflecting with my eyes closed, and so on.  It just seems like for me, being such a music person, that this is what helps me.

A few years ago, there was a large debate at the Freed Hardeman Lectureships in their Open Forum about whether or not it was scriptural to sing during Communion.  I’d love to hear from people why they feel it is unscriptural to do such a thing.  For those who feel like it should not be done, please elaborate as to why.  This is not a debate, nor is it a place where we’re trying to prove you wrong, its just a place for input.  Thanks for voting!

Mar 27 2010

What do you worship?

Taken from the Louie Giglio book “The Air I Breathe”:

You, my friend…are a worshiper!

Every day, all day long, everywhere you go, you worship.  Its what you do.  Its who you are.

We all are worshipers, created to bring pleasure and glory to God who made us.

I don’t know if you consider yourself a “worshiping” kind of person, but you cannot help but worship – something.

Its what you were made to do.

Should you for some reason choose not to give God what He desires, you’ll still worship something – exchanging the Creator for something He has created.

Think of it this way:  Worship is simply about value.  The simplest definition I can give is this:  Worship is our response to what we value most.

That’s why worship is that thing we all do.  Its what we’re all about on any given day.  Because worship is about saying “This person, this thing, this experience – is what matters to me.  Its what I put first in my life.”

That “thing” might be a relationship.  A dream.  Friends.  Status.  Stuff.  A name.  Some kind of pleasure.  Whatever name you put on it, this thing or person is what you’ve concluded in your heart is worth most to you.  And whatever is worth most to you is – you guessed it – what you worship.

Worship tells us what we value most.  As a result, worship determines our actions, becoming the driving force for all we do.

So how do you know where and what you worship?

Its easy.  You simply follow the trail of your time, your affection, your energy, your money, and your loyalty.  At the end of that trail you’ll find a throne; and whatever, or whomever, is on that throne is what’s of highest value to you.  On that throne is what you worship.

Not too many of us walk around saying “I worship my stuff.  I worship my job.  I worship this pleasure.  I worship her.  I worship my body.  I worship me!”

But the trail never lies.  We may say we value this thing or that thing more than any other, but the volume of our actions speak louder than our words.

In the end, our worship is more about what we do than what we say.

Mar 26 2010

Sermon in Song

This Sunday, we’ll be doing something a little different at West University Church of Christ.  I currently serve as the Associate Minister, but I also serve as the Worship Minister.

Many people have different philosophies on worship.  Should we use a praise team?  Should we use instruments?  Should we raise our hands?  Should we clap?  Should we kneel?  Should we use a song leader?  Is there a difference between a song leader and a worship leader?

We will be focusing on worship this week at our assembly.  Recently, I posted a poll about how long my readers feel the average sermon should last on Sunday morning.  One of the options I gave was to have more songs and scriptures, intermingled with sermon points in between.  That is what we will be trying this Sunday.

I’m eager to see how people will receive this.  I feel that many of us, when we “go to church”, expect a certain thing.  We feel that there is only way to do that certain thing.  If we don’t do that certain thing, many feel that we haven’t worshiped properly.  I suppose that’s my question — is there a certain way you have to worship?

We will be singing many new songs, many old songs, and many favorite songs.  If you have a chance to stop by the West University Church of Christ at 3407 Bissonnet Street in Houston, TX, please do!

Mar 23 2010

Odes of Solomon

Taken from the Odes of Solomon – 41

Let all the Lord’s children praise him,
And let us appropriate the truth of his faith.
And his children shall be acknowledged by him;
Therefore let us sing in his love:
We live in the Lord by his grace;
And life we receive in his Messiah.
For a great day has shined upon us;
And marvelous is he who has given us of his glory.
Let us, therefore, all of us unite together in the name of the Lord;
And let us honor him in his goodness:
And let our faces shine in his light;
And let our hearts meditate in his love,
By night and by day.
Let us exult with the joy of the Lord.
All those that see me will be astonished.
For from another race am I.
For the Father of truth remembered me;
He who possessed me from the beginning.
For his riches begat me, and the thought of his heart:
And his Word is with us all our way,
The Savior who makes alive and does not reject our souls:
The man who was humbled, and was exalted by his own righteousness;
The Son of the Most High appeared in the perfection of his Father;
And light dawned from the Word
That was beforetime in Him;
The Messiah is truly one;
And he was known before the foundations of the world,
That he might save souls for ever by the truth of his name:
Let a new song arise from them that love him.  Hallelujah.

Mar 21 2010

Time for a Sabbatical

Okay, so sabbatical probably isn’t the best choice of words, but let me sum it up like this — I’m taking a break from some things.

Actually, this is a sabbatical to be more productive.  I have found myself checking facebook, emails, goofing off a lot more than I need to be.  I have found myself glued to the television about the Health Care debate.  It has been eating into my personal time with God, time with my family, and time spent working for God.

Don’t get me wrong, none of these things are bad in and of themselves, but when you find yourself turning to your phone to check facebook statuses, check your email, look at a sports score, etc. — it consumes too much of your time.

So this week, if you see an update on facebook from me, it will be for one of three reasons:

1.  Automatic update from this blog
2.  Accountability post for working out (which I always do right before the workout)
3.  Some sort of emergency prayer request

Basically, its a self imposed internet shortage.  I’m in charge of our worship service on Sunday in its totality.  So, I owe it to the people who worship at West University to limit distractions and help them gain their focus in the service on Sunday.

I’m going to focus this week on taking a sabbatical from the world, and spend my time focusing on God and what I can do for Him.  Feel free to join me.

Mar 9 2010

How long should the Sunday morning sermon last?

Our Senior minister and I just had a long discussion about sermon length.

Some thoughts from the meeting:

1.  Some of the larger denominational churches that are rapidly growing often have ministers/pastors that speak for upwards of 40-45 minutes.

2.  The human mind doesn’t comprehend much past 20-25 minutes in one time frame.

3.  In order to get deep into the word, you sometimes have to preach a lot longer.

4.  People who get distracted/fall asleep/etc. are going to do that in a 10 minute sermon or a 50 minute sermon.

Please take a moment to vote in the poll, and leave a comment if you’d like about why you chose that, or add something new.  Thanks!

Mar 5 2010

Friday is always Friday, No Matter What

No matter what, you can’t take Friday away from me.

For the past 9 years or so, I never took a regular day off from work, except on Saturdays.  Every church I’ve worked for has allowed me to take one day off during the week, plus Saturday.  I never routinely took my day off.  Sometimes, I would just come home early from a day at the office, but I never really did much of that.  If Kristen was working, what was I going to do with my day off?

Since coming to Houston, I have realized the value of a day off.  Most of us on staff take Fridays off, and it has really helped make it feel like what a weekend used to be like.  I take Friday and Saturday off, but its back to work on Sunday.  Well, really I usually end up with something to do with church on the weekend also, but I don’t mind, so long as I get my day off on Friday.

It has really helped rejuvenate my spirit.  It has helped me refocus my attention.  It gives me much needed rest.  I go to the gym and get an extra long weight session in for the week.  I get to do some things around the house.  I have time to pray, meditate, and sometimes fast.  I have a chance to listen to God.  It has given me so much.

You know, God rested.  It doesn’t always make sense that God rested.  I mean, He is God.  He created rest.  I can’t entirely comprehend it.  However, its kind of neat to think about our God, taking it easy for a day.  Don’t get me wrong, God never stops loving, working, creating…but I’m sure He still takes a breather every now and then.  If for no other reason, its to stop and look at his creation, maybe re-evaluate it, relish in it, soak it in, or cry over it.

Ecclesiastes tells us to seize every moment we have.  How will you seize today?  How will you relish in the day that God has given to you?  May God bless all of us this weekend.

Feb 27 2010

Welcome my wife, please!

Kristen has finally decided to start her own blog.  Her blog is entitled “Work in Progress”.

You can visit her blog at www.widickfamily.blogspot.com and welcome her to the world of blogging!