God You Reign!

You paint the night
You count the stars and You call them by name
The skies proclaim, God You reign
Your glory shines
You teach the sun when to bring a new day
Creation sings, God You reign

God You reign, God You reign
Forever and ever, God You reign

You part the seas
You move the mountains with the words that You say
my song remains, God You reign
You hold my life,
You know my heart, and You call me by name
I live to say God You reign

Hallelujah, Hallelu

God You reign, God You reign
Forever and ever, God You reign

Amen!!

We serve God by serving others

The world defines greatness in terms of power, possessions, prestige, and position. If you can demand service from others, you’ve arrived. In our self-serving culture with its “me first” mentality, acting like a servant is not a popular concept.

Jesus, however, measured greatness in terms of service, not status. God determines your greatness by how many people you serve, not how many people serve you.

It is possible to serve in church for a lifetime without ever being a servant. You must have a servant’s heart.

How can you know if you have the heart of a servant?

In Matthew 7:16 Jesus said, “You can tell what they are by what they do”

How do you know when you are old?

When I was young, I remember looking at old people and wondering when that magic switch got turned on that made us like them. Seriously, I thought that you had to turn into to someone else. I fact when I was in school a thirty year old would have easily fit the bill as an old person to me. Now that I am a few year south of 40 I am starting to see more evidence of the inevitable.

Last week I was working with Redd on a few licks for a Lincoln Brewster song. As I talked him through the notes and progressions it dawned on me that even though I could identify every note, and my mind was willing, my hands did not seem to want to express that on the fret board like they used to. I have always done well copying other people and their guitar solos. But I rarely play lead guitar anymore so these notes were not easy for me. Am I off of my game or truly washed up?

The boys make me feel old most of the time. After all, my oldest is in High School already. In fact, one of the kids in youth group last night is 18 and graduates on Friday. I immediately thought, “wow 18 years ago I graduated”. Where did the time go?

If you had asked me how old I felt during the first Ultimate Frisbee season 2 years ago, I would have told you that I feel really old. My body was not handling it well. I felt wore out and beat down. But by the start of the second season, I had lost over 50 pounds and I was in much better shape. So I didn’t feel the wear and tear on my body at all, I felt young again. At least my body did.

So what is it? What is the secret to staying young?

Is it being able to do what you have always done?
Is it a state of mind?
Is it the shape of your body?

Whatever it is, I am in serious doubt that we all agree. My picture last night on my 365 project reflects the song lyrics of George Jones saying “I don’t need your rocking chair”



How do you feel? I would love to hear some feedback from you. I think these say it best…..

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter. ~ Mark Twain

Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. ~ Chili Davis

In the Light

Remember those science projects that they would have us do in school. I remember one where they wanted us to see the effect of light and darkness on the growth of seeds. So they gave us some marigold seeds along 4 Styrofoam cups and some dirt. They told us to put 2 cups in the closet where they was no light at all and two cups in the window sill. For a few hours, the plants in the dark and the ones in the light are quite similar. Two tiny green leaves break through the soil and begin to grow. Within a couple of days however, the plants in the closet turn yellow and begin to die, while the ones in the light grow and get more and more leaves. The experiment proves that plants have to absorb light in order to have the energy needed to grow, bloom, and make seeds.

The same is true of our spiritual lives. We need to live in the light in order to grow and become fruitful. Galatians 5:22-23 describes spiritual fruit ~ love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These attributes are in stark contrast to the ones Paul listed as acts of the sinful nature: jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, envy, etc.

D C Talk sang it like this “I want to be in the light, cause You are in the light”. Enough said. I want to be wherever Jesus is.

Lord may all I do be pleasing to You!! Amen

What are you listening to?

How cool was it to have Anthony Evans here with us again. Last night in my quiet time I was asking the Lord to bless Anthony Evans’ ministry and the families of the men who had just spent their weekend here ministering to us. Then, being a musician myself, I started thinking about how the economy might impact the music industry. I bet is a real hard time to be in the concert business. Or even the music business in general. After looking around a bit online, I was shocked to find out that several Christian artists like Chris Tomlin and Israel & New Breed sell out the most of the large secular venues like the Sears Center in Chicago. A venue that’s recently hosted The Killers, Foo Fighters, and Lil Wayne.

Seeing a Christian artist playing a sold out arena is evidence that worship music is a big, big time business. Worship music is not only reaching the church audience but it is clearly getting out into the secular world. But did you know that even though music will fill up roughly half of the time that we spend inside a church building, some Christ followers think very little about what they are listening to.

There are a lot of amazing songs and artists coming out of the worship movement right now, and a lot of incredible work being done by worship leaders at local churches. Since I started attending FAM almost 10 years ago I have attended numerous seminars conferences and gone into literally every kind of church and scenario that you could dream up. Let me tell you, there are all types of people listning to all types of stuff.

We are blessed to attend a church where the leadership and worship leaders are mindful that God wants to speak to us not only in corporate worship but also in Godly music in general. This is where I want to challenge you a bit. How much do you think about what you are listening to? Are you even mindful of the impact of the songs that you listen to?

I encourage you to think carefully about what you are listening to. Try to find music that will speak to you and bring blessings into your life. Try to find music that takes you somewhere other than to an old memory of a “you” that should have died a long time ago. Martin Luther said it like this............

“I have no pleasure in any man who despises music. It is no invention of ours: it is a gift of God. I place it next to theology. Satan hates music: he knows how it drives the evil spirit out of us”.

Blessings, dave