There is a rare and out of print Christmas cd that you have to have in your collection. It is titled Joy and is recorded by Bebo Norman, Ed Cash and Levi Allen. This was put out in 1997 and is now hard to find. You can download the album from itunes, but good luck finding a cd.
Go out and get this album today. This is the best Christmas album I have ever listened to, and I've gotten a lot of my friends hooked on it too.
This is a collection of eclectic music, all with the foundation of acoustic guitars. Enjoy!
Most of the time, as the Christmas season approaches, our schedules fill up rapidly with parties, shopping outings and other festivities to celebrate the holidays. Unfortunately, most of us lose focus as to the real meaning of the season. We do not do this maliciously, we just get busy, and other things become our priority.
Each year as Christmas draws near, we hear the word Advent used. However, if you’re like me, you’ve never quite understood what the word fully meant, or how to observe the Advent season. So this year I created a Daily Advent Devotional. The link is below:
Advent has been celebrated since the year 400, and marks the beginning of the Christmas season. The word “Advent” means arrival or coming in Latin, and represents the approach of Christ’s birth (and fulfillment of the prophecies about that event); and the awaiting of Christ’s second coming. It is composed of the four Sundays before Christmas Day, starting on November 30th.
The theme of readings and teachings during Advent is often to prepare for the second coming while commemorating the first coming of Christ at Christmas. These readings direct our thoughts to the first coming of Jesus Christ as Savior, and to his second coming as Judge.
In Max Lucado’s book God Came Near, there is a short story titled “The Arrival”. It takes us through the environment of what it might have been like at the time of Christ’s birth, and shows how people weren’t intentionally neglecting the coming of the Messiah, they just weren’t preparing themselves for the arrival, and they missed it. Lucado then brings the story to the 21st century and closes the story with this powerful line, “Those who missed His majesty’s arrival that night missed it not because of evil acts or malice; no, they missed it because they simply weren’t looking. Little has changed in the last two thousand years has it?”
Lucado’s words sting because we too have missed the real meaning of Christmas, and turned to secular materialism instead. I believe the remedy to recapturing the meaning of Christmas is by preparing ourselves daily and returning to the rich tradition of the church and observing Advent for the four weeks before Christmas in our churches.
I pray this will help enrich your Christmas season this year, and help prepare your heart for the arrival of our Messiah, Jesus Christ.
So it's been a while since my last entry, and I wanted to bring you up to speed on what's been going on at Cherry Hills.
This past Sunday night we just wrapped up a 4-week series called "The Least of These." Big props to Matt Bortmess at Rochester Christian for sharing the graphics with us.
We looked at the issue of social justice and Jesus' concern for the poor throughout the series, and asked people to give in several tangible ways, leading up to Thanksgiving. The results were unbelievable.
First, we put a shoe box under everyone's seat in the worship center and asked them to fill a showbox for Operation Christmas Child. People ended up returning 802 shoeboxes for children around the world!
Next, we asked people to take a "Limit Your Consumption" challenge for 5 days (Nov. 16-23) and eat only what 90% of the world eats (oatmeal, rice, beans and tortillas). Then with the money saved from eating on $2 a day, bring a bag of food for Contact Ministries and Salvation Army and/or bring an offering to give to Compassion International's Global Food Crisis.
On Sunday night at our Thanksgiving Service, people brought over 400 bags of groceries for local ministries, and I think over $2000 will be collected for the global food crisis.
I'm blown away by the generosity of God's people, and truly believe that if we'll look to Him this Thanksgiving we'll be filled with joy and generosity because of what the Lord has done for us. Happy Thanksgiving!
I've written a lot about new albums coming out this fall, but this is a great fall for good music being released.
Just a few weeks ago one of my favorite bands released their third album. The band is Ten Shekel Shirt and the album it titled Jubilee. To listen to some tracks, click here.
I think this is their best album to date. There probably isn't one corporate worship song on this album, but for personal listening it's awesome. I keep listening to it over and over. They have some deep lyrics and tight harmony.
I think you'll like it. Let me know if you pick it up and what you think.
Several weeks ago Joe Horness came to Cherry Hills to lead a worship seminar and teach on Sunday morning.
I've heard this teaching before, but it's one of the best I've heard on the importance of leading others in worship.
Joe teaches that the goal of leading people in worship is to get their hearts engaged with God. And he goes on to say that the way to do that is to paint a great picture of God!
I've written before on this blog that our worship is a response to the character, the works, and the grace of God. So it makes sense that if our worship is a response, we need to lead people in responding to God by painting a great picture of God for people.
To do that (paint a great picture of God) Joe gave some suggestions that have helped me for years while planning and leading worship:
Teach well - what does it mean to see God.
Bring your best offering (Malachi 1).
Use the spoken word (calls to worship, ask a compelling questions, tell a compelling story).
Use Scripture - anytime we can replace our words with God's Word is a good thing.
Pray intelligent prayers.
Pick songs that help paint a big picture of God (objective songs, not just subjective).
Recapture the use of art and visuals in helping people see a big picture of God.
I picked up Charlie Hall's new cd, The Bright Sadness a couple of weeks ago, and it has taken a few listens to grow on me, but I have to tell you, this is a great cd. I'm not sure there are many corporate worship songs on this album like there was on his previous album Flying Into Daybreak, but I keep listening to this cd over and over in the car.
If you like Crowder and/or you liked Steve Fee's first release Shine, I think you'll really like this album. To check out reviews or listen to samples you can click here.
At Cherry Hills our mission can be summed up in 3 words - Reach, Build, Send.
Last week I shared a video with you that focused on the Send mission of our church. This morning, I want to share a really ridiculous video that we showed on Sunday that heats up the Build mission of our church. This video was used to promote Wednesday Night and Sunday Morning Classes coming up. We believe right now, these are the two best opportunities we can provide as a church to help build you up in your faith. We call these opportunities Next Steps.
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