So many different sounds and styles.
So many different ways to praise Jesus.
In the last few weeks Jean and I have experienced a wide array of different worship experiences.
In Pastor Zake's church in Swaziland, African worship was a "total being" experience.
Back in Baton Rouge it was an immersion into praise with the voices and songs of our dear friends.
In Sydney, Australia it was an explosion of Hillsong music, Delirious! worship and praise, and Alvin Slaughter's powerful voice extolling Jesus.
At the Commissioning Service for new missionaries in Springfield, Missouri, we heard the familiar sounds of the churches we grew up in.
Mile after mile of Bill Gaither CD's on our car stereo.
And tomorrow we'll be with our friends at Cowboy Church in Henrietta, Texas--yet another style of profound worship of God.
All styles different. All flowing from deep wells and lifting the worshipers into God's presence.
Makes me think what it must be like for God to hear it all. Must be like an orchestra--all different sounds blending in a global concert of praise to Him.
I love it!
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Friday, July 28, 2006
THE POWER OF GOD-GIVEN VISION
We stood there in goose-bumps.
It was last Wednesday night at Celebration Church in Round Rock, Texas. Pastor Joe Champion was interviewing Jean and me.
Our minds went back a few years to a meeting with Pastors Joe and Lori when they announced that God had given them the vision to start a church in Round Rock, Texas.
Awash in goose-bumps, we remembered the Champions' words.
"We don't know anybody there but we are going and intend to spend the rest of our lives there."
Now just a few years later thousands of people--many of them business and community leaders--have embraced the vision. They have more than a hundred acres right on I35 and have clear and continuing vision to build a ministry that truly impacts the world.
I wish every God-called person with a vision could experience this awesome church. It's worth the trip to be there and to absorb the spirit of this leadership team.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Forty Days
Many times people say they'd love to help Children's Cup, but they just don't have the budget.
Well, there is something you can do that doesn't cost anything: PRAY.
Would you like to join Children's Cup in our Forty Days of Prayer for the Children?
Check out our special website for further information. It's free. And you will make a huge difference in a bunch of kids' lives.
Check it out here.
And your kids can get in on the action as well. This will make an impact on their lives. Check out the website together.
One day in heaven you'll meet a lot of people who will thank you for taking time to include them in your prayers. They'll tell you that it made the way for them to come to know Jesus and know hope for the first time ever.
Bless you for joining us in these 40 days, starting August 1, 2006.
Friday, July 14, 2006
THE BLOOD CRIES OUT
Eden’s blood-soaked soil cried out against Cain.
The blood of slain prophets testified against religious bigots.
History’s town squares still remember the ashes and blood of the Spanish Inquisition martyrs.
Crusaders butchered across Europe and the Middle East falsely using Jesus’ name.
The beaches and fields and cities of two world wars have not forgotten the blood of nations’ sons and daughters.
Holocaust furnaces still reek of the blood and ashes of 6 million Jews.
Stalin’s Russia is embedded with the blood of several million of its own people.
Korea’s gelid mountains blotted up so much war blood.
How can one make a list like this without leaving out thousands of events and millions of people? Surely you have thought of more for the list.
Maybe it’s too much and you want to quit reading this...
The life-blood of blacks and whites murdered by Mau Mau fanatics and other haters permeate the dark soil of African jungles—including my boy-hood hero Jay Tucker and fellow missionaries in Zimbabwe..
Mao Tse Dung’s millions of victims spilled their blood into China’s lands.
Vietnam knows the blood of my friends and just last week added the blood of my younger brother as Agent Orange took his life..
Pol Pot’s insanity reddened the ground of Cambodia with millions of corpses.
Idi Amin butchered thousands.
Twin evils of famine and Jesus-haters have wetted the desert places of Africa with Christian blood.
Madman Saddam opened blood-gates into Babylon’s ancient soils.
Today, like most other days, Jesus-haters cut off the breasts of Christian mothers so they could not feed their babies in Sudan.
And just weeks ago Jean and I walked in the blood saturated abyss of genocide in Rwanda where a river of blood from 1 million lives drenched the land.
I can’t stop thinking about the blood.
Who can name a place that has not been bathed in human blood?
And even pandemic diseases like AIDS target the blood. Witch doctors tell men with AIDS to rape a virgin or a white person and the spirits will heal them. Their vile deeds infect innocent blood with HIV and the devil giggles in delight.
Shed blood is the hallmark and stench of evil.
Hell hates the blood. For the devil, Golgatha’s blood was his final defeat. It has never stopped flowing. Redemption’s arteries still gush.
Every drop of human blood the devil spilled in glee is much more than an evil toll, it is a down-payment on Heaven’s purchase. This world was Blood-bought at Calvary. A Greater Blood, His Redeeming Blood answers the cry of human blood.
Awesome the thought, God directs the current of that river of Blood through our human hands. Jesus’ blood is the ultimate currency, freely given, by which we can redeem—purchase back—the souls of men.
How dare we fail to invest it? Hoard it? Squander it? Ignore it?
To do so stains our own hands with the blood of the ones we refuse to tell.
The Blood cries out. Let’s answer the call.
The blood of slain prophets testified against religious bigots.
History’s town squares still remember the ashes and blood of the Spanish Inquisition martyrs.
Crusaders butchered across Europe and the Middle East falsely using Jesus’ name.
The beaches and fields and cities of two world wars have not forgotten the blood of nations’ sons and daughters.
Holocaust furnaces still reek of the blood and ashes of 6 million Jews.
Stalin’s Russia is embedded with the blood of several million of its own people.
Korea’s gelid mountains blotted up so much war blood.
How can one make a list like this without leaving out thousands of events and millions of people? Surely you have thought of more for the list.
Maybe it’s too much and you want to quit reading this...
The life-blood of blacks and whites murdered by Mau Mau fanatics and other haters permeate the dark soil of African jungles—including my boy-hood hero Jay Tucker and fellow missionaries in Zimbabwe..
Mao Tse Dung’s millions of victims spilled their blood into China’s lands.
Vietnam knows the blood of my friends and just last week added the blood of my younger brother as Agent Orange took his life..
Pol Pot’s insanity reddened the ground of Cambodia with millions of corpses.
Idi Amin butchered thousands.
Twin evils of famine and Jesus-haters have wetted the desert places of Africa with Christian blood.
Madman Saddam opened blood-gates into Babylon’s ancient soils.
Today, like most other days, Jesus-haters cut off the breasts of Christian mothers so they could not feed their babies in Sudan.
And just weeks ago Jean and I walked in the blood saturated abyss of genocide in Rwanda where a river of blood from 1 million lives drenched the land.
I can’t stop thinking about the blood.
Who can name a place that has not been bathed in human blood?
And even pandemic diseases like AIDS target the blood. Witch doctors tell men with AIDS to rape a virgin or a white person and the spirits will heal them. Their vile deeds infect innocent blood with HIV and the devil giggles in delight.
Shed blood is the hallmark and stench of evil.
Hell hates the blood. For the devil, Golgatha’s blood was his final defeat. It has never stopped flowing. Redemption’s arteries still gush.
Every drop of human blood the devil spilled in glee is much more than an evil toll, it is a down-payment on Heaven’s purchase. This world was Blood-bought at Calvary. A Greater Blood, His Redeeming Blood answers the cry of human blood.
Awesome the thought, God directs the current of that river of Blood through our human hands. Jesus’ blood is the ultimate currency, freely given, by which we can redeem—purchase back—the souls of men.
How dare we fail to invest it? Hoard it? Squander it? Ignore it?
To do so stains our own hands with the blood of the ones we refuse to tell.
The Blood cries out. Let’s answer the call.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
HILLSONG CONFERENCE "OVER THE TOP" "DOWN UNDER" IN AUSTRALIA
Music by Hillsong, Alvin Slaughter and Delirious took us into God's kinetic presence.
Praise and worship gushed and erupted and swept the arena in waves.
Challenging messages by world-changers--including our Pastor Dino Rizzo-- took 35,000 Christian leaders from over 70 countries to higher levels.
Nothing like it!
The Hillsong executives and 4,000 Hillsong volunteers (some taking vacation time to work free for the conference) have hosted us with precision organization and Christ's love that is very obviously genuine.
Now I understand why Hillsong's Hope:Rwanda 100 Days of Healing has made such an impact on Rwanda. It was birthed in this environment. Hillsong's leaders and workers in Rwanda went there fresh from this place of fire.
Consider putting this conference on your agenda for 2007. Contact www.childrenscup.org or www.healingplacechurch.org or www.hillsongconference.com for details.
Praise and worship gushed and erupted and swept the arena in waves.
Challenging messages by world-changers--including our Pastor Dino Rizzo-- took 35,000 Christian leaders from over 70 countries to higher levels.
Nothing like it!
The Hillsong executives and 4,000 Hillsong volunteers (some taking vacation time to work free for the conference) have hosted us with precision organization and Christ's love that is very obviously genuine.
Now I understand why Hillsong's Hope:Rwanda 100 Days of Healing has made such an impact on Rwanda. It was birthed in this environment. Hillsong's leaders and workers in Rwanda went there fresh from this place of fire.
Consider putting this conference on your agenda for 2007. Contact www.childrenscup.org or www.healingplacechurch.org or www.hillsongconference.com for details.
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