How He loves us…moved to tears

If you were there on sunday morning, you know that we played a song called “How He loves us.” I posted a youtube video of it in an earlier post “Why can’t our worship services be like this?” It is one of the most moving songs i’ve eve encountered. The video moves me towards tears every time. I asked Jess to share an emotional prayer in a breakdown of the song. Little did I know she would open up herself and be vulnerable in front of the whole congregation. This was awesome. She was crying, it moved me to tears and I don’t know how the rest of the team did, but I was caught up in the moment. Don’t glaze over it. Think about it. Pray it. Sing it. Oh, how he loves us so…

How he loves us:

He is jealous for me
Love’s like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great your affections are for me.
Oh, how He loves us so
Oh, how He loves us
How He loves us so.

So we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If grace is an ocean we’re all sinking
So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss and my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way

That he loves us,
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves us
Woah, how He loves

set-

• Because of you :: The Bridge Band
• Everyday :: Lincoln Brewster arrng.
• How he loves us :: Mark McMillan, Kim Walker Arrng.
• Never lose the wonder :: Tm Hughes
• Refiner’s Fire :: Brian Doerksen
• Blessed be your name :: Matt Redman

Birthday ACF

Yea, i snuck past most people with my birthday on an ACF night. I got tired or 92 wall posts from people I haven’t talked too since 6th grade, so I took it off facebook. It felt nice actually. There was no better place I could have celebrated my 23rd, than being at ACF worshiping and in fellowship. I was also happy i got to watch LOST afterward, haha. I was able to be in a sincere place of worship wednesday night, which was awesome. We played some upbeat, “rocky” type songs. I felt like the messages in them were great and I know we have had a few complain that they couldn’t sing them, or some lame excuse like that, alas, we pressed on and I think it turned out well. Singing “you are bigger than we let you be,” “undivded here’s my heart it’s yours,” “let me sing, louder than creation to you, for the pain  you bore in your body, to bring my soul to you,” and “Our God is a God who saves, let God arise” all in one night is pretty worshipful to me. Throw in a “Lord i’m amazed by you” and that’s a full night!

Attendance seems to be fluctuating on the lower end recently.  I hope everybody is alright and haven’t left us for good!

Pete Horning comes in 5 days!

• Our God is Love :: Lee Mcderment
• Let God arise :: Chris Tomlin
• Let me sing :: Todd Fields
• Undivided :: Elevation Church
• Amazed :: Jared Anderson

worship night post #2

This took too long, however, i did feel it worth mentioning. Worship night was great, shout out to Dave Walker and his crew for giving up their time and talents to give us a great worship experience. One of Dave’s ideas was to have a foot washing station. I’ll be honest, Aaron and I were hesitant. We agreed, but then we didn’t believe many, if any, would want to do it. Props to Aaron and Dave who described its function and metaphors greatly. We put out one tub thinking, “no way there will be a line for foot washing, we will only put out one tub.” Pfff, we were wrong, there was a line! It was wild and really cool to see God’s people serving one another in one of the oldest, most scriptural ways.

I enjoyed running sound and watching people worship at times, it is a very freeing experience. i loved having a full glance at the room so that i could see all the stations at work: Journaling, Prayer Garden, Scripture reading, Foot washing, Confession. It was a great night to take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy God’s presence. You could push your own walls at your own pace to experience God in different ways. I think the worship nights have worked well for ACF, and I hope they continue them. It is a great change of pace and sometimes its good to simply worship Him for who he is. Obedience was a great theme of one of the prayer times, I personally, think we all need to pray for that more.

100 Thomas

God digs alliteration. It was a Tomlin worship sunday. and we were moved to Thomas. Hilarious, I know. On a serious note, i really enjoyed church in Thomas today. I don’t know what you all thought about it, but I thought it was real cool. No goofy over-sized stage. Powerpoint so large you can’t help but notice. Seats that point at screen or up versus at stage. A dark enough environment that people can worship with a more free spirit. I don’t care what people say about the light coming in from the window at Alumni Hall being a good thing, they are wrong. Light kills peoples personal worship. Should it? no, but we are stupid. and since that isn’t changing anytime soon, I suggest we find ways to compensate. And When has anyone seen a church through the windows and run in to become a four year member? doubtful, we should close the blinds, but that’s an argument that probably won’t go anywhere. I think we should move to 100 Thomas, haha. Sure, there are drawbacks, but i think the good things offset the back better than alumni hall. 

It was such an awesome time of worship for me and i don’t often hinge on the congregation since we aren’t the most charismatic bunch, but today was the best response to worship i’ve ever seen from ACF. That only encouraged me to engage with the Lord more as i enjoyed worshipping with friends and community. How sweet is that?….very. 

dwelling point this week: trust. and concept of “God taking care of us.” God promises to be faithful and provide us with our daily bread, however he does not promise success. I restate that, he does not promise financial success, as we Americans have labeled it. Spiritually, He promises we will thrive as long as we are following after Him with all we have. I have to let go of the American thought process and come to terms with the fact that God might not bless me financially. How do i learn to trust regardless? God is faithful. I can say that now. I want to say that always. That is my journey currently. How’s yours?

tOmLiN SeT

• Forever
• How great is our God
• Unfailing love
• Wonderful Maker
• Unchanging
• Your grace is enough

Worship night post #1

I will be brief: God is good. He shows up when His people call on Him by name. God showed up tonight. Dave lead us through some great, genuine worship. If you were there, you know what i’m talking about, if you weren’t, then it couldn’t be a bigger your loss statement than this…however, refer to earlier…God is good.

more details later…

Three fellowships in Two Weeks

I have done it. I went to Cru, Navs, and ACF within a two week period. It was a long journey, but i am back. I made it. My findings are unique. I know i have a very hard time resisting the urge to compare, contrast, or….judge. Yes, I am a judger. It is my biggest sin, or at least most predominant. To counter that, i will display self-control by not posting anything hating on anyone (because i’m sure God simply gives me a check for sin and check for fruit of spirit and since they cross each other off, I’m still saved…joke) However, i have one frightening fact for all three of us. We still suck at welcoming and outreach! No one said a word to me at Cru or NAVS, and my fear is that people who have visited ACF for the first time have experienced the same thing.

I have so many questions and frustrations. Where is the balance of community and outreach? Is there a guideline to follow in the Bible? Who is willing to admit their own selfishness is the reason that they aren’t as welcoming? How did Jesus manage to love the disciples and love the tons of people he ran into daily so effectively, other than the obvious answer, He’s Jesus? Do we even understand the proper persepctive of community? I know it’s more than just people who get together and like talking to one another. What about the aspect of community where people gather genuinely in the name of Jesus to grow, lift His name, and pray for others?

How does one…me…get so cynical at times? I know, for me, it’s also easier to focus on the negative things of ACF or stuff in general than it is to focus on what’s going well. I guess i’m just not really aware of ways that God has really impacted people through ACF. I mean really impacted. I know my life would suck if it wasn’t for ACF and how God has ministered to me through the people here and in the past. I don’t get that sense from people now as much as i used to in earlier years. I feel like there is a lot of surfacey type reasons for coming. “i made friends there”, “I like to hang out with my friends”, “I can’t go to ACF tonight, i have to study”, “I don’t feel like going (cuz it’s all about me)”

ACF wasn’t created so that people could make friends with similar backgrounds. It wasn’t created as a convienience to get a Jesus fill. It wasn’t created for people to feel like they can’t come because they are too much of a sinner….It was created as a place where students would come out of priority, desire, passion for what God has in store. For what God would do through others there, or better, for what God would do through them to help others. A place where one body comes together to conform to one voice as we lift His name in Praise.

This was semi-long. If you got this far, congratulions. You are one of the few. I heard you are suppose to feel better after your journal your “rants.” So, if that’s the case, than the long-winded blog entry pushed people away from actually reading it and thinking i’m an awful person and yet, i always got to get it out of me. Two birds with one stone and three fellowships in two weeks. Do that math…

Never go to bed with spandex and a XXXL sweatshirt…

It’s true. It is not a myth. If you go to bed with spandex on your legs and a XXXL sweatshirt, you will wake up achey, sick, and miserable (though i credit achiness to broomball). I was cold after broomball and i thought it was a good idea at the time. False. Bad idea. I woke up in hour increments sweating trying to take layers off. Then i woke up for worship practice and had to sit still on my bed after my shower because i thought if i were to move, i would vomit. Crazy. I’ve never been that kinda sick, so getting through worship was interesting. But God is good and I felt like the team picked up my slack and worship was pretty solid. Any reason we can find to sing “Great are you Lord” is a great reason in my book…and His (haha, stupid christian joke). 

Just for fandom info, I’ve been listening to the Fray’s “You Found Me” like a thousand times this week. Really catchy. Wish it didn’t seem so against God, I’d like it more. Disappointing.

Lost and and Insecure, you found me, you found me.

That’s how i feel God finds me sometimes. WIthout a clue what i’m doing or what i should be doing. Scanning through bible verses that tell me how to live, as i struggle to remember them and can’t possible do it all right. God finds me when i’m unsure of who i am…lost. Without God finding me, there would be no continuation of the story. The story God lives through me every day….my life….it’s not my own. Your life isn’t your own either….I promise

set

• Hands of the Healer :: Eddie Kirkland
• Did you feel the mountains tremble :: Delirious?
• Heart of Worship :: Matt Redman
• Great are you Lord :: Brian Lusky
• Sing to the King :: billy foote & charles silvestor horne
• Power of your Love :: Geoff Bullock

Worship from the heart

Sometimes, it all clicks. Sometimes I am in a place of genuine worship and I get lost in it all. The music fades to the back of my mind and i get caught up in the emotion and the words and my heart seems to be in the right place to worship. God has been good and faithful to me as i have per-sued Him the past few weeks, and being in the word and prayer definitely helps my worship life tremendously. Otherwise, i just couldn’t turn it on because i’ve done it before. It was a blast to worship with you all this past wednesday. I can only pray and hope for more times like that for this semester. We attempted some free worship in the beginning on the set and I hope that was a good time for people to honestly sing what is on there hearts. I think it is good to do that every once and a while. Anyway, nothing but good thoughts and emotions from me regarding wednesday, I hope the same for you all!

• My Glorious :: M. Smith
• God of Where I Am :: C. York
• Holy is the Lord :: C. Tomlin
• The Stand :: H. United

Crazy for Crowder

Hebrews 11:6 – without faith, it is impossible to please Him…

psalm 62 – For God alone my faith waits in silence…

anything else in your life worth silence? time? effort? patience? listening heart? all at the same time?…My faith waits in silence, deep concept, can’t say i’ve mastered it, can say i need to try it more.

Jeremiah 29:13 – You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart

Love this scripture. Seeking seems vague, but this is put into perspective. Unless your whole heart is into something, you cannot really find it or realize its potential, etc

Christianity and Atheism both takes faith because they are both believing in something bigger than themselves.

cs lewis quote about hypocrisy with atheism. “I don’t believe that God exists and I hate him for not existing.”

Faith in something seems vastly more worth it than faith in nothing…

I went to a breakfast buffet at the Nittany Lion Inn with the CMA top tier folks and some ACF leadership after church…AWESOME. i realized how great buffets are, especially when bacon is involved. I am still stuffed! great times!

Crowder Set

• Here is our King
• He was there
• Wonderful King
• O Praise Him
• Wholly Yours
• No one like you