weekend report - summary= A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

A BIG shout out to all the volunteers that worked SO hard to make this weekend a great blessing!  Serving the body together - nothing better!!

Our youth once again brought the house down with not only their ability on NUMEROUS instruments, but mostly with their obvious personal relationship with and understanding of the Lord!  Following intense preparation and practice they showed us old folk - how to worship freely and authentically!!  So good to be in the House this weekend!

We are teaching through I Corinthians - so we had a teaching on giving.  Tough subject done really well! Thanks to Wendell!

Our Setlist:


We Are The Free - Redman
How Great Thou Art - Sublime
God of Wonders - Kutless
The Stand - Stanfill
All My Fountains - Tomlin
Geico commercial (announcements)- We went with risky on this one, using our worship guy as a ballerina!

Message:  I Corinthians 16:1-4    Wendell Anderson
We Are the Free - (Exit Song) Redman

To watch our services LIVE or from the archives - go to www.crossroadswired.com

To see what other ministries used in their services go to www.theworshipcommunity.com

Have a blessed week!!

heading home

Our Cambodian team is heading home right now.

I have missed my hubby very much - cannot wait to see him!

Any time you go away, especially on these type of ministry trips it changes you.  It changed me last year!

So I wonder what changes each of them will come home with?

• encouraged?
• excited?
• more appreciative of what we have here in the states? (that was me! among much more)
• thankful they got to witness first hand how God has used Crossroads' internationally?

So many ways it can change you.

Really, that word 'change' is what the Christian life is all about.  Constant change - never being satisfied with where we are spiritually, or in our relationships, or with our life in general.  Always moving toward Him - pushing toward the goal - as we head home to be with Him and lay our crowns at His feet...

We are truly all heading home.

encouraging a friend

I had the chance to spend an hour with a friend this week who I had not been able to connect with for a while.  She is having some family struggles and just needed some encouragement.

It was an easy conversation - just catching up and discussing our jobs and life.  Some relationships are a delight, some continue only out of obligation.  This relationship is a delight!

The whole time she talked I realized how much I value her friendship and how much I would love to spend more time than I do with her.  Old feelings of guilt rose to the surface as I realized how much I need these friend relationships and how often I neglect them.

Running is the word that comes to mind when I look at myself.  What am I running after ...who is running after me trying to catch up, trying to get just a moment of my time?  I don't know because I rarely look back.

I picture Jesus moving slowly.  The crowds often surrounded Him as he moved from place to place.  I cannot think of any passage of scriptures that make it sound as if He hurried anywhere.

I'm going to try it again - I will begin to walk slowly...ok, maybe slow-er ...and maybe even look back.

are dating services ok

I don't know...  I have friends that met their spouse that way, but I have never looked closely at any of the dating - matchup services offered on line..obviously, I've been very happily married for 33 years.

Recently however I heard Christianmingle.com's advertising on TV and was very bothered by it.  Here is the verse that they used.

Psalm 37:4  Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Talk about taking a verse out of context - this passage of scripture is encouraging Christ followers not to worry about the fact that it seems that the wicked prosper while the righteous struggle.  It is not promising that we will get whatever we want or ask for!

It makes me sad when people play on the needs and desires of others and twist scripture to fit their needs or their profits.

So what do you think?  If we believe that God has created a plan for each of our lives as Christ followers can we trust him with everything?

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. -Psalm 37:4

what I learned today

Getting rid of junk is a good thing.

I completely gutted my attic.  Of course no one can understand exactly how overwhelming this was unless you saw what I started with.  Can you say 2 full days?

Every since our daughter got married over a year ago many things have been added to the attic...mostly right inside the door.  23 years of kids toys, school trophies and awards, tons of certificates and then the college books came home..everywhere!

Now I am happy to report that everything in the entire attic has been unpacked, repacked in tubs, labeled and stacked up. I can walk the full length of the attic and find everything!

I completely filled my car twice with trash and sent an entire car load home with my mom for the Ashland Christian School garage sale...so what does this have to do with 'what I learned today'?  It feels like I am learning to care less and less about possessions.  I don't want as much.  I want to buy less, own less and not be tied to stuff at all.  Maybe just my age...I would like to believe that my desires have turned more and more toward the Lord and realizing this world has little I value or care about beyond my family, friends and our amazing church family.

Less really does feel like more!

my day off

When I woke up today, for some reason the idea of our bodies being the 'temple of the Holy Spirit' was on my mind.

Some Christian young adults I had talked to recently said they were going to see a movie that I personally would have chosen not to see.  This made me wonder once again - how easy it is for the world to see the difference between people who profess to know the Lord and those that are lost.

Just a few minutes after I woke up pondering these things,  I got on line to see what Pastor Tim and crew were up to in Cambodia and found these pictures.  They were literally inside the temple.

Inside the monastery.

How amazing that God had this divine appointment already set up when the team headed for Cambodia.  These men live set apart, caring for their temple.  They are in a way - prisoners to this place because of their vows to live this way.  Set apart.

How different the freedom Christ gives us when we are in relationship with Him.  And yet most of the time we don't live as if WE are HIS temple.  Just as these men protect and worship idols, we have our own temples full of idols daily.

We watch whatever is on TV without discretion, we read whatever we want without discretion, we fill our minds with the violence of very realistic video games and music as if we are free to do whatever we please with our day.

We, like these dedicated men made a vow.  A vow to let Jesus fill our lives and body with His presence, to live as if we exist only for him.  Do we?  Do I?

Are we really so different from these men who fill their lives with false things - temporary things?

WEEKEND REPORT

WOW - WOW - WOW!  Seriously...Holy Spirit filled worship...a message I cannot  adequately describe delivered by an amazing man of God!  So good...

Our Setlist:

Undeniable - Koz

Announcements -

We have been using a series of 'geico' commercials during our taped announcement segments to advertise our new Crossroads APP and our data base "My Crossroads" and our new website www.crossroadswired.com.

I Stand Amazed (How Marvelous) - Tomlin
Jesus Paid It All - Passion
God Be Praised/Our God Reigns - New Life
All My Fountains - Tomlin
Communion Message:  Deering Dyer
Bekoflow and Breath Out - instrumental during communion
More Than Amazing 
Our God Reigns 


To watch our services live or watch the archive go to www.crossroadswired.com

To see what other ministries used in their setlist go to www.theworshipcommunity.com