Month: February 2007

Bible

The Hope Chapter

Chris

We often hear 1 Corinthians 13:13 quoted: “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (NKJV).  We’re quick to remember that 1 Corinthians 13 is Paul’s great discourse on love.  And Hebrews 11 is the chapter on faith, regularly referred to as the Hall of Fame of Faith.

Have you ever wondered where the chapter on hope is?  It’s a strange thing, I know, but who talks about the “Hope chapter” like we throw around the love chapter and the faith chapter?  Maybe it’s easier to pick up on love and faith than it is hope, and I’ll get back to that a bit later on.  I think I found that hope chapter this week in my devotional reading.

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Book Reviews

“Worship Theory” Excerpt

Chris

My latest posts have only strengthened by desire to get Worship Theory into the hands of worhipers, worship leaders, church leaders and pastors.  There isn’t a single person who lifts their hearts to God that would not be encouraged and challenged by the concepts in this book.

Unfortunately, the publishing community is not quick to snatch it up.  So I have decided to give you the opportunity to read one of the chapters.

Continue reading ““Worship Theory” Excerpt” →

Ministry

Follow Up: Law of the First Date

Chris

Yesterday I met with a fellow pastor and was showing her around the site a little bit.  As I explained to her the Law of Dynamic (a.k.a. Law of the First Date), she asked me if in following such a method, would we be in danger of trying to force the Holy Spirit, or force human reaction, and actually remove the leading of the Holy Spirit.

As I started to understand what she was asking, and though I responded a little bit then, it seemed like a great opportunity for a follow up post.

Ministry

Law of the First Date

Chris

My latest book, Worship Theory, had a working title, The Laws of Worship.  As I considered what I was writing, the perspective I was writing from, and the fact that I have to admit that I don’t know everything, I ended up changing the title and cutting some of the content.  Some of that content were “laws” I try to follow and encourage others in when leading worship.

One of these laws can be entitled, The Law of the Dynamic, and it states “A worship service should employ and be a mixture of the different levels of music.”

Continue reading “Law of the First Date” →

Christian Living

Choose the Cross

Chris

As I toy around with ideas for my next writing project, I tend to start elaborating on some of the concepts running through my mind. Here is one of those “start-up” ramblings.

So often we bypass the Cross in our lives.  Sometimes we don’t mean to, sometimes we do.  Take for instance, a benign occurrence one day.  I received two free devotional booklets from an international publisher of devotionals, the kind they send out in an effort to get pastors to purchase a case of them for their congregations for the days leading up to Easter.  A friend of mine was with me when I opened it up, and I offered him one.  One was titled after the blessings of the Cross, and the other for blessings for day to day.  I honestly don’t know why he chose the latter of the two, but you have to wonder how many decisions we make that avoid the Cross each day.
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Faith

Elementary Worship

Chris

The author of the book of Hebrews told his readers, “you need someone to teach you again the first lessons of God’s message” (5:12b, NCV).  In my wandering thoughts this week, I came to think about worship as one of these first lessons, or “elementary principles” (NKJV).

You see, we talk a lot about reading our Scriptures, praying, having our devotional times with those classics by Charles Spurgeon or Oswald Chambers.  But what did people do before the printing press brought books to be available to the masses?  What about when the Scriptures were only in Latin, and the average person couldn’t read, much less read the Bible?  What did these people do for their “devotions”?  Surely we cannot say that they didn’t serve God, did not truly know Him because they didn’t read their Bible or have My Utmost available to them. 
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