Living His Mission » Worship http://jeff.lhcsj.org Thoughts and stories from Jeff Gates on missional life Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:35:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 My 20/10…a poet and didn’t know it… http://jeff.lhcsj.org/2010/01/12/my-2010-a-poet-and-didnt-know-it/ http://jeff.lhcsj.org/2010/01/12/my-2010-a-poet-and-didnt-know-it/#comments Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:33:09 +0000 Jeff Gates http://www.lhcsj.org/jeff/?p=108 Hey all,

If you are part of the Living Hope family you will know that we are encouraging you to give 20 minutes a day to reading the Bible and 10 minutes to prayer and contemplation on what you’ve read. 20/10 Vision. Not real clever or out there…but it works.

I was reading Psalm 9 and read that in the original Hebrew it and Psalm 10 were one psalm that was an acrostic. Each stanza began with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Can’t read Hebrew, but I believe it. So…I thought…being somewhat sleep-deprived and up for something new…I should do an acrostic.

So here it is for your viewing pleasure. Maybe you want to give it a go. If so…share it…post it in a comment for all the world (my blog-reader world is not very big) to see. And away we go!

Amazing are You Lord
Before You are all flesh & all creation
Creation sings Your praise forever and ever
Delight…my delight and the delight of the world is in You alone
Everlasting to everlasting is Your name
Forever I will praise Your name
Generations will praise You
Households will bow down in worship to You
I am found in You alone
Jesus…wow…what can I say?
Kindness upon kindness is in Your right hand and it has led me to You
Lavish are You with Your love
Men – all men and women will one day bow before You
Nations will stream into Your great city
Oh the joy that is found only in Your presence
Patient…oh so patient are You with me
Q on Star Trek is nothing compared with You…ha ha…hope you laugh at this too
Righteous and holy are You
Satisfying to my soul is Your smile to me
Terrifying in righteous wrath
U have satisfied Your wrath in my Savior
Victorious King is Your name
Wonder of wonders
X-alted and true
‘Yes, yes’ does my heart cry to You
Zebras shall dance and so shall I in Your presence!

]]> http://jeff.lhcsj.org/2010/01/12/my-2010-a-poet-and-didnt-know-it/feed/ 0 Bob, Xtended family & worshipping Jesus http://jeff.lhcsj.org/2009/12/22/bob-xtended-family-worshipping-jesus/ http://jeff.lhcsj.org/2009/12/22/bob-xtended-family-worshipping-jesus/#comments Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:36:56 +0000 Jeff Gates http://www.lhcsj.org/jeff/?p=89 Gang,

Good Tuesday morning to you. As promised, here is the address for Bob & Carolyn. Feel free to send a card or a letter. As I mentioned Sunday, Bob is in great spirits and Carolyn, as always, is trying to keep him straight.

Bob & Carolyn Stricker
1115 Stillwell Ave
Tillamook, OR 97141

If you’ve ever wondered how to serve extended family over the holidays with the love of Jesus…this is a good article on that subject and he doesn’t beat around the bush about our privilege and place as followers of Jesus. http://www.russellmoore.com/

Here’s a great video of a spontaneous outbreak of worship. Give 5 minutes, stop everything else, watch it and worship Jesus! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDmibnRyhj4 Danny is a homeless man who “interrupts” the planned video!

Don’t forget our Christmas service Wednesday evening at 7pm. Bring your friends and let’s worship Jesus together. This is Love!

Have a stellar Tuesday…remember…people are waiting to Know Jesus.

John 4:34-36 (English Standard Version)

34Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

PS – IF LIVING HOPE IS YOUR HOME…WATCH YOUR INBOX LATER TODAY FOR A SPECIAL GIVING OPPORTUNITY DURING OUR CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION WEDNESDAY EVENING WHICH WILL SERVE ONE OF OUR LIVING HOPE FAMILY MEMBERS.

]]> http://jeff.lhcsj.org/2009/12/22/bob-xtended-family-worshipping-jesus/feed/ 2 The shadow proves the sun…(kudos to Mike S) http://jeff.lhcsj.org/2009/10/13/the-shadow-proves-the-sunkudos-to-mike-s/ http://jeff.lhcsj.org/2009/10/13/the-shadow-proves-the-sunkudos-to-mike-s/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:59:57 +0000 Jeff Gates http://www.rhythmsofgrace.us/jeffgates/?p=50 I grew up with football. It surrounded me . My dad was a coach. I didn’t grow up a PK(preacher’s kid) like my kids now are…I grew up a CK(coach’s kid). He coached all sports and I went on many a bus ride as a young child…most of them with the girls teams my dad coached…but that’s definitely another story. Someday I’ll share what I asked one of his girl athlete’s when she babysat for me:) But now…football!

I used to love when the coaches would gather at our house after a game or practice. I loved the smell of those nights…the football talk…losses commiserated…and victories celebrated. I remember going to the games with my mom. Yelling with the crowd. Never getting to run crazy with the other kids under the stands. We were there to watch the game. I remember when my dad coached with his hands bandaged and his eyebrows gone! They had fueled the homecoming bonfire with gas and he was too close when he lit it.

And the celebration of sport and team! Hands in the air. Yelling ’til our lungs were worn out. Stomping on the bleachers ’til they created a deafening roar. What fun. What joy. With the team. With the crowd.

Why don’t we worship Jesus like that? When we gather together in our churches why don’t we worship with that same passion, zeal and fervor? Why don’t we throw our whole bodies, our whole voice, our whole being into corporate worship? Up on our toes…hands held high as if we were reaching heaven itself. Jesus is worth it. We see from how we celebrate at sport or other performance that we are capable. Let’s go for it! Who said church should be a quiet place? God didn’t!

Let’s celebrate the shadow…I do! But with a greater intensity let’s celebrate the Son. Let’s get close (yes, really close…God made us for that)…let’s get singed by the fire of our Holy God…so that we might be changed!

The shadow proves the sun (I heard it from CS Lewis…and Switchfoot put it to music). What’s in us to celebrate the things of this world prove it’s in us to respond to God in the same way. If you’re a follower of Jesus it’s in you. It is! Let it out. Let the world know that Jesus is the greatest thing!

]]> http://jeff.lhcsj.org/2009/10/13/the-shadow-proves-the-sunkudos-to-mike-s/feed/ 0 A refreshingly amazing and stunning God! http://jeff.lhcsj.org/2009/08/04/a-refreshingly-amazing-and-stunning-god/ http://jeff.lhcsj.org/2009/08/04/a-refreshingly-amazing-and-stunning-god/#comments Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:16:38 +0000 Jeff Gates http://www.rhythmsofgrace.us/jeffgates/?p=47 I seem to go through phases with the words I use to describe God and pray to Him in thanksgiving. These words were the ones that struck me today. He is amazing…that’s a recurring word that I seem to come back to time and again. Ultimately I find myself lost for words to pour out my heart to God. That is when I am so thankful for the heavenly tongues He gives me to pour back to Him in praise. What a crazy amazing God He is.

Today at Living Hope we looked at 1 Peter 2:4-12…absolutely stunning. Why would the God who created everything…which includes us…say such amazing things about us and not just say them…but mean them and make us into them? A royal and holy priesthood! Us? You’ve got to be kidding me. I know me:) And I know my race. He is a crazy God. To take the very creature who betrayed Him…rejected Him…did not trust Him that the garden was enough…and now make us into living stones built into a holy priesthood in the image of Jesus. I can only be stunned.

God keeps going. He’s serious about His business. He’s serious about His Son. He is making for His Son a people. A holy nation…what? No way! We were not a people and now we are. Blow me away…won’t you. Does that refresh you? It does me and should refresh us as His church. Receivers of mercy made to proclaim His excellencies…how can we not…so that all the world will know and worship Him as God. Stunning…amazing!

I shared this morning…how as I travel farther from the date of my entry into His kingdom…my day of salvation…that I am more stunned that He saved me. I am more aware each day that I am a wretch in need of a Savior. I’m not even sure I’d save myself. And as I am stunned by who I am…I am more stunned by who He is and that He saved me. Will it be like this forever? Will I grow in my awareness of how little I deserve His grace and mercy…and more and more in my thankfulness for it? Will I grow more and more stunned by how wretched I am and how great He is? I hope so! There is no glory in me except for what He has now given to me. God to me…crazy. I deserve to die…yet Jesus did. I am refreshed in this life. Are you?

What a strange and wonderful thing when we become less…think less about ourselves…and think more of Him and about Him. Dude! Can it get any better…oh yes it can…and I look forward to the forever journey! Do you?

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