Prepare for Worship – Managing Our Money Wisely, Part 1 (Jan. 3-4)

As you can tell by the number of posts I have NOT published in the past week or so…the holidays can be hectic. Therefore, many of us can be rather grateful when January rolls around and we can get back into a normal and, hopefully, less crazy routine. Then we get the Christmas bills.

This week Pastor begins a two-part message that will conclude after the Haiti mission trip on Managing Our Money Wisely. This addresses what is probably one of the biggest problems that we have in our society – the drive to have and get more! Unfortunately, we in the church are not immune and the financial crisis our country is facing only creates more stress on everyone. But God has instructions for us when it comes to how we acquire and use our money. Join us for a taste of God’s all-surpassing wisdom in these financially tough times. 

Scriptures:

Old Testament:  Proverbs 3: 5-10
New Testament:  1 Timothy 6: 8-19
Gospel:  Luke 16: 9-13

Songs:
Sunday, Jan. 4
Gathering:  “O Come, All Ye Faithful”
Opening:  “Forever”
                 “Worthy Is the Lamb”
Communion:  “All Who Are Thirsty”
                       “Awesome In This Place”
                       “You Are My King (Amazing Love)”
Offering:   “Hear Our Prayer”
Closing:    “Lord I Lift Your Name on High”
Sending:   “Be Glorified”

Saturday, Jan. 3
Opening:  “Forever”
                 “Worthy Is The Lamb”
Prayer:     “All Who Are Thirsty:
Communion:  “You Are My King (Amazing Love)”
Closing:    “Lord I Lift Your Name on High”
Sending:  “Be Glorified”

Still glowing…and glowing…and glowing…

Pastor mentioned the glow sticks that Sue had for the kids on Christmas Eve. They were great. The kids loved them and got to participate without having their parents figuring out how (in our case, at least) to keep track of four extra candles! A super idea!

My understanding of glow sticks is that they typically last for about 6-8 hours after being activated – unless, of course, you put them in the freezer and forget about them for months…or years.  :|  Isaac’s, however, seems to be defying all known science. It’s still glowing. Dimmer, yes…but as of 12:45pm on Saturday afternoon, I could still get a blue glow when I took it into a closet. If you clock that from 4:45pm on Christmas Eve when it was activated (give or take a few minutes), that means this thing has been glowing for 68 hours straight! No freezer, no other help. It sits in his bed all day and when he goes to bed it’s there glowing and waiting for him.

I don’t know about you, but I’m impressed! Make that amazed!!! Sue must have gotten these things from the Energizer Bunny…I mean, come on, doesn’t there have to be a record in there some where?

Hear Our Prayer

Even in contemporary worship, there are some traditional elements that creep their way into the services. At least, that seems to happen at First Trinity. Some of these elements extend out of our doctrine – such as the Confession/Absolution of sin, the Lord’s Prayer, or the Apostle’s Creed. Others are more practical ways to keep the congregation involved in the worship service.

One of those more practical items is the congregational response we use during a time of corporate prayer following the Confession. As our prayer partner finishes praying for a request, they will say “Lord, in Your mercy,” and the congregation will respond with “Hear our prayer.” It signifies the close of one prayer and the transition to another request.

Well, the practice that crept into our contemporary worship has now crept into our home. When we put our kids to bed each night, we have a routine that includes a devotional time. For Caleb and Samuel, that devotional time includes recounting a “high-” and a “low-” point for the day. When we pray about these, I have Caleb pray for Samuel and vice-versa, and then I close out (when I am home at bedtime.) Of their own initiative they have decided that, instead of saying “Amen” and finishing their prayer, they will say “Lord, hear our prayer” so that the next person knows it is time to start. Hmmm…I wonder where they got that idea!

That’s one of the great things about regularly worshipping with a body of believers. It doesn’t matter if it’s 20 people or 2,000; if it’s contemporary, traditional, blended, Gen-Ex… There’s always a habit that we can take home that will help us commune with God and exercise our faith more consistently outside of the regular Sunday observance.

Worship Debrief – “The Story of Christmas, Part 1 – Herod” (Dec 20-21)

It’s late Sunday night (okay, early Monday morning!) and the house is in complete disarray as we have rooms prepped to receive our new windows on Monday. It’s amazing what you find under couches when you have 4 boys!!!

 

What a weekend this was for worship! With snow storms like we had you can never tell how many people will be there…including your staff! But all was good and we got to really dive into the transition from Advent to Christmas as Pastor started “The Story of Christmas.” Part 1 this week focused on Herod – who is not a common character in Christmas sermons – and finding God’s power in Christmas.

 

Saturday, 12/20 – 7:00pm:

-         Mostly familiar faces this week. Kind of unusual in a service that typically gets a lot of visitors.

-         We had the privilege of hosting Addison Christ’s first worship experience! Pam S. held her for the first half of the service, at least. Only a few weeks old, and already she’s leaving mom and dad to sit with friends!

 

Sunday, 12/21 – 11:15am:

-         Snow definitely kept people away this morning. Not that I blame them. Driving down from Niagara Falls with the family in the van was a bit of an adventure.

-         We were disappointed when we got to the church and heard that the Christmas Program was cancelled. Look for pieces of the program to appear at services throughout the week.

-         I just couldn’t get into worship this morning – the band felt off. However, I’ve found that on the mornings I’ve felt off I get more feedback from people who were blessed in worship. So, bring it on. I love hearing how God works through our weaknesses.

-         Sue Steege never ceases to surprise me. I knew the song that Sue sang with the kids for the children’s message – “You’re powerful! You’re unshakable!” I knew the song from a band called Skillet. Bet you didn’t know that Sue has a hidden “Rocker” side to her (I didn’t!). Check out the original band’s version of the song…and stick it out to the end to hear that chorus!

 

I’m thankful to God for the safe travel to and from church for all who were in worship. Even on the highway – which was relatively clear – the blowing snow made driving tricky. But God is good…no, God is great! All the time.

Proud Daddy Moment:

Let’s face it…as parents our kids make us proud. OK – they drive us crazy too. But we usually don’t have to look too far to find accomplishments we can be proud of – however great or small. Our family had a pretty great accomplishment to be proud of this week. Actually, the accomplishment was last spring, but the acknowledgement came this past Thursday.

Caleb, being in 3^rd grade last year, took the ELA (English Language Arts) and EMA (the math equivalent of the ELA) test and scored very well. In fact, he scored a perfect 780 on the Language Assessment! That’s 100% – no wrong answers! That is impressive…at least to someone like me who did well in school, but never aced one of those tests. So, on Thursday the Niagara Falls Board of Education recognized in a special meeting all the students in the district who achieved perfect scores on one of these assessments.

I won’t say it was a nice ceremony because there wasn’t much ceremony to it. But, each child was called forward individually to receive a plaque from the Superintendent and shake the hands of the board members. Their name, school, teacher’s name, and score were projected on a screen, and the parents were acknowledged as well. They also had a camera set up to photograph each student receiving their plaque. So, it was a nice little bit of notoriety for the kids. And Caleb loved it!

It was a “Proud Daddy Moment.” One of those times to say – even if to myself – “Hey, that’s my son up there!”

Prepare for Worship – “The Story of Christmas, Part 1 – Herod” (Dec 20-21)

We have reached the 4^th and final weekend in Advent and Christmas is now upon us. Beginning this week and going through Christmas Day, Pastor is beginning a 3-part message that tells “The Story of Christmas.” This weekend we look at Herod and his role in the Christmas story.

The readings for this week:
Old Testament:  Isaiah 40: 27-31
New Testament:  1 Corinthians 2: 1-5
Gospel:  Matthew 2: 1-12

Make plans to join us this coming week for any of our Christmas services. The schedule is as follows:

Christmas Eve: “The Story of Christmas, Part 2 (Mary & Joseph)”
5:00pm Contemporary Candlelight Service
7:00pm & 11:00 pm Traditional Candlelight Service

Christmas Day: “The Story of Christmas, Part 3 (Jesus)”
10:30am Traditional Service with Communion

Sunday
Gathering:   “Everlasting God”
Opening:     “Shine, Jesus Shine”
                     “Come, O Long Expected Jesus”
Communion: “Spirit Fall on Us”
                          “Breathe”
                         “Holy and Anointed One”
Offering:       “Mary Did You Know”
Closing:         “Angels We Have Heard on High”
Sending:        “Emmanuel”

Saturday
Opening:  “Everlasting God”
                  “Come, O Long Expected Jesus”
Prayer:    “Holy and Anointed One”
Closing:   “Angels We Have Heard on High”

Worship Debrief – “Capture the Moment” (Dec. 13-14)

For the 3^rd week in Advent, our focus was to “Capture the Moment” this Christmas. Looking at the example of Mary (sister to the ever-busy Martha) in the Bible, we need to take the opportunity to stop and enjoy what’s happening around us. For many of us, that means we need to “Sit” (slow down), “Listen” (open up to God), and “Choose what is better” so we don’t miss the moment.

In other news:

Saturday, 12/13 – 7:00pm:

• Donna and her son, Joseph were received as new members this week. They are “regulars” at this service and Joe is in a wheelchair. He had the biggest smile on his face when he was up front with his mother and Pastor!
• We’ve taken to playing a song after the service (like the band does on Sunday), even when there’s only a handful of people around to “usher” out of the sanctuary. This week, people hung around in the sanctuary and visited while we played. It was a nice change.

Sunday, 12/14 – 11:15am:

• New members were received in this service as well. It’s always great to see the new people joining the church and see how our congregation is growing.
• Darcy told me that the band’s volume was “very quiet” this morning. I didn’t notice the same level of participation this week as others…this could be why.
• I was also told that the words for the second verse of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” were different on the screen than the band sang. I thought I had changed that (did for Saturday). Sorry!
• “You Are Holy” is a congregational favorite. Unfortunately the band had bouts of non-togetherness during that song this morning.
• Still, I thought it was a very enjoyable service this morning.

Let me know your thoughts! I trust that God will meet you in worship whenever you come to His throne, be it on the weekends at First Trinity or in your own personal time of worship.

218 X 6

218 views in the first 6 hours.

That’s what my last post generated when it hit cyberspace. I don’t typically pay much attention to stats, but that just throws the graph that WordPress provides for me way out of whack! And it was just a simple post about my birthday party – what’s up with that??? I’m guessing I just happened to hit a tag that is a popular search word, and people checked it out but didn’t stick around. Still…it was quite the surprise.

Here’s hoping for more readers!

Happy Birthday to…um…me.

For those who don’t know, my birthday was yesterday – my 39^th birthday, to be exact. Like, my real 39^th birthday…the first of many, I’m sure!

What I didn’t know was that my wonderful wife, Darcy, was planning a nice little surprise party for me. I should have known something was up – they’ve been something of a sporadic habit – but had no clue and was completely surprised. What I thought was going to be a nice evening at home with the family and steak dinner turned into a wonderful evening with just over 20 friends and family. And I even still got the steak dinner!

It was a great night and I’m grateful for the wonderful blessings that God has bestowed upon us. I’m looking forward to many more 39^th birthdays!

Finding God in the Little Things

I lost my front license plate on Wednesday. I knew it was imminent – the plate had been hanging at an angle for a while – but my attempts to fix it had run into my lack of “handyman” experience when faced with stupid designs. What do I consider a stupid design? Back in ‘96, Honda placed four holes in my car’s bumper cover presumably to hold the license plate. But these holes are too big for standard plate screws and the only way I could attach the plate 5 years ago was by the V-shaped bracket that hung under bumper…a bracket that had since corroded to the point where it broke. Go figure!

Naturally, this occurred during a week that was already crazier than normal. However, God isn’t phased by such things. Normally, a lost plate requires a trip to the DMV, a completed and signed registration application (NYS MV-82), surrendering the remaining plate (in my case), and an $18 fee. If I don’t want to pay the fee, I need to have a police report as well. However, I knew where the plate fell off (I heard it!) So a quick web-search for a local Thruway Authority number and a couple of phone calls with some remarkably helpful people retrieved my plate and saved me the hassle of the DMV.

As for getting the plate back on the car (because, as mentioned above, the holes were too big for standard plate screws and the bracket is now gone); God wasn’t phased by that either. A frustrating trip to Lowe’s out by the church forced me to wait until I got home…at 8:30 that night. Then, after a brief and useless stop at Walmart, I was blessed with a string of green lights as I tried to reach Home Depot before they closed at 9. A helpful associate was waiting for me, and 74 cents later I had two screws that held my plate firmly to the car with only 5 minutes of labor.

God is present in the little things. This could have been a long involved project, all the while leaving me to drive with an illegally positioned plate – something I am not prone to do! But where many may just see a bit of good luck, I see a God who wants to bless us and works things out for us when we strive to seek what is right.