Journey Progress as of March 31

March Monthly Target and Given

 

March Pledged and Given

 

Monthly Giving Amounts as of March 31

Acknowledging His Pleasure

WORSHIP MATTERS

Acknowledging His Pleasure

Pastor Mark Johnson

April 20, 2008

 

Hebrews 12:28 

For the last few weeks our attention has been given to worship. 

Today we want to really get clear on the expression of worship.  What is pleasurable to God?

What do you give someone who has everything? What they want or what is practical for them.

When it comes to expressing worship, What rights do we have, certainly we cannot say. ‘God I will worship you however I want.’

 

John 4:23 

Four Expressions

• With our bodies 
• With our voices
• With our minds
• With our spirits

 

What is acceptable worship with our bodies? 

• Psalm 47:1-2  Clap your hands
• Psalm 63:4 Lifting up our hands
• Philippians 2:9-10Kneeling in worship
• Nehemiah 9:5 Standing in worship
• Psalm 149:3 Dancing in worship

 

What about the voice?

 Psalm 149:1

 

More than 10 of the Psalms start with “Praise the Lord.” 

It is an order.

We are told to shout, sing, and speak praise and worship to God.

Psalm 150:6

John 4:23

Worship in Truth

From our Spirit

John 4:23; Micah 6:6; Hebrews 13:11   

 

 

District Prayer Needs 4.22.08

Cecil “Pete” white, 87, father of Greg White of Carlinville, went to be with the Lord Friday evening, April 17. He had suffered a severe stroke 4 years ago that left him paralyzed on one side. Please keep this family in your prayers.

Becky Barnett, pastor at Manlius, called with an update on their current situation. (The family home was destroyed by fire on March 5.) They have moved into a different rental property. The insurance campany declared their home a total loss, but they will be unable to rebuild anytime soon due to being under-insured. Becky asks for prayer that their financial concerns will be resolved and, most of all, that her children will heal from psycholocial trauma they have experienced.

Bill and Kim Snider Update 4.15.08

Dear Friends,Warm greetings!

Thank you very much for praying with us for the nationwide broadcast of the Rebound movie in the Philippines on Good Friday evening.  This week, we received some initial numbers from the GMA Television Network.  Of the total number of televisions on during that time, we had over 30% of the audience. Simply put, 4 to 5 million people were watching Rebound across the Philippines!  The prayer and counseling center received many calls.  Over 40 people received Christ in a short period of time during the movie showing. Calls continue to come in.  The website received many “hits”.  The movie is now available in the marketplace and already, we are hearing many groups using it in community and youth outreaches.

On April 26^th at 7:00 p.m., we are doing an evangelism outreach in the town of Calatagan where Rebound was filmed.  The community leaders including the town mayor are very excited about our coming.  There will be lots of publicity.  We are praying that several thousand people will come to watch the movie that was made in their hometown.  Please pray for this outreach.  My dream is that we can see dozens of Bible studies established and very soon, a local church.  There is no Assemblies of God church and only one small evangelical work in the whole town of Calatagan.  Thank you for praying with us.

 

Thank you so much for your support and prayers.  Have a great spring!

Yours in Christ,

Bill Snider

 

 

 

 

Acknowledging His Place

WORSHIP MATTERS

Acknowledging His Place

Pastor Mark Johnson

April 13, 2008

 

Psalm 18:2-3

 

• The Bible proclaims that God is worthy of praise.
• God is worthy of worship because of His awesome power.
• God is worthy of worship because of His awesome love.

Psalm 19:1-3

The creation of God speaks His praise.

Exodus 20:1-3

 

• The compartmentalized life:
• WORK (or career)
• OTHERS – this represents family and friends
• PLEASURE
• SEX
• $$ MONEY $$
• GOD

 

Here is the call from God – for worship to be real, in life and expression of heart. God must occupy His rightful place in our lives.

Why is first place the rightful place?

1. He is the awesome Creator of our lives.
2. He is the awesome Lover of our souls.

 

 

• When I put Him in the right place, He impacts all the other places. Just being in first place is not enough. I can still keep Him out of areas of my life.
• For God to have His rightful place, I must love Him. Love for Him invites Him into every area of my life and His mark impacts my entirety.
• He does not just want to be on the top shelf. He wants to be all in all.
• He desires a people who look at His powerful creation and see His awesome love on the Cross and who respond in worship by wisely bowing our
• will and character to His.

 

Jesus spoke to this issue in Matthew 22:36-38. This statement of Jesus is directly out of Deuteronomy 6:5.

 

• The word for love in Hebrew is “love that recognizes and chooses to follow that which is righteous, noble, and true, regardless of what one’s feelings in the matter might be.”
• True worship is a decisive love that puts God in control of my life by giving Him my whole heart, soul and mind.
• How do I know if I am a true Christian?

John 14:23-24

Listen to the Psalmist. Psalm 63:1-8

 

Acknowledging His Prominence

WORSHIP MATTERS

Acknowledging His Prominence

Pastor Mark Johnson

April 6, 2006

• The Bible says that our life is supposed to count and that there is an important, even eternal, job that was created just for you.
• The problem is that those gifts lie dormant or misused within us until the presence of God is added to our lives.
• Prayer and worship bring us into the presence of God.

Psalm 18:2 – 3

• The Lord is worthy of praise.
• Worthiness has to do with what someone rightly deserves.
• The principal Old Testament word used in 94 places means “depress,” “bow down,” “prostrate“.
• Worship is about acknowledging God’s rightful place in our lives through our daily actions and spiritual expressions to Him.

Hebrews 12:28-29

• Have you ever thought about God’s ability?

Hebrews 11:3    

• Everything we see, feel, smell, hear and taste has the mark of God on it.
• When you know that, you know that God is awesome.
• Worship must begin with an acknowledgment of God’s prominence. He is of primary importance to our lives.

BUT DOES HE DESERVE OUR REVERENCE?

• God is not only awesome in power, He is awesome in love.
• In worship we are called to acknowledge our dependence on Him. We are called to recognize His power. Real worship also flows from acknowledging His love.
• This love is clearly expressed in John 3:16.
• His intention is clearly spelled out in Jeremiah 29:11.
• God is worthy of worship in awe.
• God is worthy of my worship in reverence for His love.

This is the foundation of true worship: a mind that acknowledges Him, and a heart of thanksgiving crying out to Him. 

Prayer Requests 4.8.08

• A co-worker of someone in the church has alot of recent health problems. He’s 34 and has eye problems and pains in his chest that might be arthritis.
• The father of someone in the church is in intensive care. The son would like prayer for him to be healed and to live a much longer healthier life.  
• An attendee of Calvary reuqests prayer for God to move in her life financialy, physically and emotionally. She prays that God would bring better things into her life to bless her and her family. She needs strength each day after the loss of a family member.
• A man in the church requests prayer that he will grow stronger in Christ and to be a better husband & father. He also requests prayer to find a good job to help support  his family.
• A 29 year-old woman has a brain tumor and is having surgery on June 10. Her mother-in-law requests prayer for her regarding this as well as prayer that her family would start attending church. They are Christians, but don’t attend anywhere at this time.
• A congregation member reuqests prayer for finances.

Worship Matters

Check here throughout the Worship Matters series for notes and other resources.

Amanda Barber Update 4.4.08

Dumela! (That is “hello” in Setswana) I hope all is well with each and everyone of you. I know it has been a while since you have heard from me and for that I apologize. South Africa is having many electrical supply problems. There has been such tremendous growth over the past few years, that now there is not eough power to supply the entire country with power all at once. We are now in a load shedding stage where they shut off power in certain areas at certain times to supply other areas with power, and power cost are suppose to increase by at least 50% in the next few months. The country desperately needs prayer. Some say the government foresaw this problem a few years ago, and chose to spend money elsewhere instead of creating a plan. Who know, though. So, I’m sure you can see the problems this is causing. So, please keep South Africa and it’s government in your prayers. I say all of this to say, that this makes it very difficult for me to update my blog, being out in the bush, and being without power. Right now I am having problems with my website, so until i get it fixed I will be communicating with all of you via email. Due to the way internet work here I will only be able to attach a couple of photos to the emails. We pay by the MB here and pics take up a lot of space. Once I have fixed the bug with my site, you will all be able to see more pics and read more about missions life in South Africa.

Well, there is definitely never a dull moment living here is South Africa. I awake every morning to the sound of monkeys jumping on my roof, and digging through my trash bin. I have to put very large rocks on the lid so they don’t get in and make a huge mess. I have bravely defended myself from a bat in my room, well……not really bravely, I kinda ran out and made Tom come over and take care of it for me. He hit the bat with the lid from a rubbish bin, while I sat cowered down in a corner. I have seen my first snake, and surprisingly did not freak out. I calmly ran to get Tom and then stood a great distance away while he killed it. Good thing Tom’s around, huh?!

We had our first conference in February, and what a success! We had over 120 delegates, most of which were new to Children’s Ministry and new to JR. They were sucha and exciting and lively bunch. It was great to see people so fired up about Children’s Ministry. We have another conference coming up in April, so please pray that we have a great turn out for this one too.

The Baby Shelter is doing well. We have had several babies adopted into forever families over the past few months. Most of them had been with us for months, and in some cases over a year. It was truly an answer to prayer to see these little ones be adopted. I was able to meet little Joshua’s adopted parents, when they came out to JR to see where he had been staying. It is so hard to see these little ones go, after they have been apart of lives for months, but the minute you see them placed with their forever mommies and daddies, makes it all worth while. Right now we have a toddler in our shelter named, Siphewe. Siphewe has been with us for over a year now, and has seen so many of her little brothers and sisters be adopted. When Joshua left with his family, we were all standing outside the shelter and we said to Siphewe, “Siphewe, come tell Joshua goodbye”, and without a word her shoulders sunk down, and turned around and walked away. Siphewe has been a part of prayers for months now, so I ask that you all please keep her in your daily prayers, and pray that she will soon be adopted.

It is truly great to see what all God is doing here. Thank you all for all your prayers and support. Without them non of this would be possible. If there is ever anything I can pray with you about, please just email me.

Love,
Amanda

PS- I apologize there are no pics with this newsletter, the internet is being very slow for some reason.

District Prayer Needs Update 4.4.08

Georgia Corlew, mother of Ray Corlew (senior adults pastor at Rockford First AG), passed away Wednesday in Morris, IL.

Rob Mitchell, pastor at New Life Fellowship Ministries in Tinley Park, requests prayer for his daughter, Sara, and her son Adam Daniel, who was born on Monday. At the time of her C-section, she had a viral infection that may have been passed on to her son. Also, Adam was born with a small hole in his left lung. During the birth, he apparently swallowed some fluid, which created an air pocket which caused pulmonary stress (high blood pressure of the heart). He has been transferred to Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, where he on a ventilator, sedated to keep him still and receiving medication to keep the blood pressure low. It is a complicated situation which could be fatal. Please keep Sara and Adam in your prayers.

Gene Cowsert, retired minister from West Frankfort, was discharged from the hospital this morning after doctors successfully shocked his heart yesterday. His heart is back in a healthy rhythm. Please pray that it will remain in this state.