Last Wednesday, July 26th, we were graciously invited to lead worship for a mid-week service at New Beginnings Cathedral of Worship (www.cathedralofworship.org) in Aurora, Colorado. Our friends Lewis and Tammy Brown are the youth pastors @ NBCW. Lewis is an incredible Hip-Hip artist as well (www.proxymc.com) We had an amazing time there! I was talking to Tara and we agree that we haven’t experienced God’s presence like that in quite a while. They asked us to come and lead 3 songs for them that evening (Tara, Stormie (Tara’s sister and a great bass player), and Joe Marsala (great drummer) and Hunter went) and we ended up worshipping for over an hour and a half! At the beginning of the service, I encouraged everyone to join me in ministering to God during the time of musical worship. The word “minister” means to wait on, serve, like a waiter at a restaurant. I asked if anyone had been to a really good restaurant where the service was great, to which most nodded “yes”. I said, “The reason that it was good is because the waiter kept their eye on you… when the glass started getting low, they were right there to fill it, they were polite, etc.” I said, “Let’s keep our eyes on God as we sing instead of keeping them on the music.” I think that we have the tendency to “worship the worship”, and by that I mean that if we don’t know the song or if it sounds bad it keeps us from worshipping. The converse is also true… if we know the song and it sounds good, we get into it… but what are we getting into anyway? The good music or our God that deserves the highest praise we can offer…deep, genuine, heart attitude praise? Anyway, the first song, one of my pedals cut the sound out entirely 2 times! The second song another time… this had never happened to me before and I found myself not waiting on or ministering to God, but focusing on the music… ironic. So, the third song, I just told God under my breath, “I don’t care anymore, I’m going to focus my attention on you.” We began to sing a great song by Kate Miner, called “Holy Spirit Come” and He did. We sang that song for about 20 minutes and during it, people started weeping and crying out for God to forgive their sins, and for His presence to come. People were strewn out on the chairs, on the floor, in the aisles. Then the pastor came up and began to lead His congregation into even deeper worship… during which my amp went out completely… so I just put my guitar down and told God that if anything good was going to happen, it was going to be because of Him, not us. The rest of the service continued to be amazing. After the service the pastor told me that what happened was a continuation of what happened there the prior Sunday morning. He just laid down his message and worshipped God… How often does that happen? Why not? By the way, the subject of the sermon, which Tammy was going to preach that night was, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” and there was!
They invited us back to worship with them on a Sunday, and Tara and I were so blessed by them and their generosity!
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...On the road 1 Comment
Last Wednesday, July 26th, we were graciously invited to lead worship for a mid-week service at New Beginnings Cathedral of Worship (www.cathedralofworship.org) in Aurora, Colorado. Our friends Lewis and Tammy Brown are the youth pastors @ NBCW. Lewis is an incredible Hip-Hip artist as well (www.proxymc.com) We had an amazing time there! I was talking to Tara and we agree that we haven’t experienced God’s presence like that in quite a while. They asked us to come and lead 3 songs for them that evening (Tara, Stormie (Tara’s sister and a great bass player), and Joe Marsala (great drummer) and Hunter went) and we ended up worshipping for over an hour and a half! At the beginning of the service, I encouraged everyone to join me in ministering to God during the time of musical worship. The word “minister” means to wait on, serve, like a waiter at a restaurant. I asked if anyone had been to a really good restaurant where the service was great, to which most nodded “yes”. I said, “The reason that it was good is because the waiter kept their eye on you… when the glass started getting low, they were right there to fill it, they were polite, etc.” I said, “Let’s keep our eyes on God as we sing instead of keeping them on the music.” I think that we have the tendency to “worship the worship”, and by that I mean that if we don’t know the song or if it sounds bad it keeps us from worshipping. The converse is also true… if we know the song and it sounds good, we get into it… but what are we getting into anyway? The good music or our God that deserves the highest praise we can offer…deep, genuine, heart attitude praise? Anyway, the first song, one of my pedals cut the sound out entirely 2 times! The second song another time… this had never happened to me before and I found myself not waiting on or ministering to God, but focusing on the music… ironic. So, the third song, I just told God under my breath, “I don’t care anymore, I’m going to focus my attention on you.” We began to sing a great song by Kate Miner, called “Holy Spirit Come” and He did. We sang that song for about 20 minutes and during it, people started weeping and crying out for God to forgive their sins, and for His presence to come. People were strewn out on the chairs, on the floor, in the aisles. Then the pastor came up and began to lead His congregation into even deeper worship… during which my amp went out completely… so I just put my guitar down and told God that if anything good was going to happen, it was going to be because of Him, not us. The rest of the service continued to be amazing. After the service the pastor told me that what happened was a continuation of what happened there the prior Sunday morning. He just laid down his message and worshipped God… How often does that happen? Why not? By the way, the subject of the sermon, which Tammy was going to preach that night was, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” and there was!
They invited us back to worship with them on a Sunday, and Tara and I were so blessed by them and their generosity!
Posted by davepowers under
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Tonight we celebrated my niece, Guini’s birthday. After being attacked by carnivorous bees for the better part of an hour, (yes, we all witnessed them sawing off pieces of chicken then fly away… I didn’t know that bees were carnivores) we decided to play some kickball. It was totally fun… our team was smearing the other team into the ground and then IT happened. We were in the outfield and Rocky’s finance`, Jovan, was up to kick. She kicked the ball right between 1st and 2nd base and I sprinted up to grab the ball and tag her out. As I scooped the ball up, I thought, “I probably shouldn’t throw this at her, I’ll just tag her out instead.” So, I ran over to her, and somehow, when I thrust the ball in her direction, she dodged it… and it completely stunned me to see her continue to run toward 1st base UNTOUCHED! So I turned and hucked the ball at her, and just as she landed on the base she turned her head to look at Rocky and rejoice at her accomplishment and WHAM! Right on the side of the face… on the ear… with one of those rubber kickballs… and she began to cry… and I felt like a moron. No moral of the story here except, “Don’t throw a rubber kickball at someone’s head.” And so, for the rest of the game I felt horribly…..except when I kicked that home-run, but every other time I felt really bad! See, what a jerk!!! Sorry Jovan! Have Rocky put some ice on that backward Wilson emblem that’s on your cheek.
