Friday, July 31, 2009

"What Is This?"

Today's title is taken right out of Mark 1:27. It's the question that people ask after their (otherwise) ordinary worship service is turned upside down by two unusual events, of which Jesus is responsible for both. First, he teaches with such authority that the people are blown away. They obviously weren't prepared for this kind of teaching when they arrived at the synagogue that morning. And second, he casts a demon out of one of the people who was actually there attending the service - and it doesn't go out quietly! I doubt that the Order of Service included that. Imagine how that would look in a bulletin...

Opening Prayer
Psalm Reading
Hymn of Praise
Welcoming Guests
Sermon
Demonic Interruption
Loud Exorcism, complete with convulsions and screams
Benediction

No, I think it is pretty accurate to say that the members of that synagogue had a service that they would not soon forget. This is what we will look at this Sunday as we continue our walk with the Savior through the gospel according to Mark.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

"Stretch Out Your Hand To Heal..."

This Sunday we will wrap up our series "We Believe In The Holy Spirit" by looking at an early church prayer meeting and asking some very important questions: What did they pray for (big hint - the title of this post!)? What was their expectation that God would really hear their prayer and act? Did they believe that God moved in mighty power? How does this compare with our prayers? Do we believe that God not only did great things, but that he still does amazing things?

We will consider all of these questions as we examine Acts 4:23-31 together.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

"Informed Passion"

I admit it, I cruise ministry blogs often. It's one way that I keep up with what's happening in the "church catholic" (the universal Christian church around the world), make new ministry connections, and also how I gather resources for our own local church. While on one such "cruise" I bumped into this little phrase used to describe a worship resource: "Informed Passion". (you can visit this resource here)

It jumped off the screen at me and made me immediately think of what we are trying to do here at SHF. We don't want "uninformed passion" where a worship service is "red hot" but nobody really knows why. And we certainly don't want "informed non passion", where the worship content is all proper and orthodox but nobody seems to care (think - yawning through Amazing Grace).

No, we strive for informed passion. We want to be increasingly informed about the gospel so that we will respond with much passion for the Savior!