BabuLife

Worship Recap: 7/6/08

This was a pretty big Sunday.  Kicking off the 3 week series "Reach" with my Dad was a thrill for me.  After the first service a few folks grabbed me and Dad asking "What about that one part of your story" or "Why didn't you talk more about your service in Fatah?"  With such a limited amount of time (30 minutes) my dad elected to run with the portion of his story that reflected the theme of the new series.  He shared the story of how one man took time to reach out to my Dad and after 19 years, was able to lead him to Christ.  Between services, my Dad modified...and delivered.

To those of you in the first service, you may want to listen to the audio file we uploaded.  You can listen to it on the podcast feed here.

Worship music was quite "exhilarating" today.  With no rehearsal this past week, we crammed this morning during audio checks...and as usual the band pulled it off well.  Lynnora was back from her short term mission trip to play the fiddle with us.  She filled in a lot of space missing with the lack of keys. Great job team!  And to Video Doog who pulled another great video bump using U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name"...awesome job!  Maybe he'll post the video with all the great pics?

Funny story - Addie (my wife) said a visitor mentioned to her (apparently someone who plays guitar) that I played the same six chords during each song.  The wonders of a capo. :)  Just so you know...I never claim to be a guitar aficionado...but I can sure change my capo really well.

Here's our worship setlist. Don't forget, you can purchase the songs on iTunes by clicking the titles:

• Yesterday, Today and Forever (E) by Vicki Beeching
• Salvation is Here (B) by Hillsong United
• Son of God (G) by Starfield
• Mighty to Save (A) by Hillsong United
• Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) (E) by Chris Tomlin

Thanks to all who came.  It was pretty nifty seeing some of you who read BabuLife and are not a part of Grace visiting us this morning.  I hope you enjoyed it and left encouraged to reach your neighbors for Christ.

-Babu

Happy Independence Day USA!

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Read it all . . .

Grace Microcast Notes - 7/2/08

This week I sat down with Grace Church's Missions Director to talk about the upcoming series beginning   this Sunday, July 6 called "Reach".  Dean Callison shared some great insights into the missions work at Grace and our desire to focus attention on ways we can minister to "unreached people groups" of the world.

Listen
Subscribe in a podcast reader or listen here.

Links
www.HopeForIshmael.com
www.OnceAnArafatMan.com - Links to Tass Saada's organization and blog for the upcoming book.

www.TheTravelingTeam.org - Link to Claude Hickman's organization.

www.1615.org - Link to Matthew Ellison's organization

www.AvantMinistries.org - Link to the church planting organization.

Contact
Email the Grace Podcast at [email protected] or give us a call and leave a voicemail at 206.426.5394. We might even play it on the cast!  We'd love some feedback and topic suggestions.

 

Video Fun: Gnarls Vader Flashback

One of my favorite performances.  This was the 2006 MTV Movie Awards.  A little Thursday fun before the holiday weekend. Gnarls Barkely performs "Crazy".

Speed Bumps

"Friendships are like speedbumps...just little bumps in the road causing you to slow down while getting to your intended destination."

There are things I regret doing and saying in my life...this is one of them.

In our lives we experience many friendships that come and go.  Some of us build walls to keep our distances from those we actually care about.  Why do we do this?  For me, I came to a realization in my life that I have a fear of being let down.  I've been let down in my childhood by friendships.  Wounded by people I've let into my world only to have them disappoint me.  The result was a person who always remains guarded, always avoids dealing with conflicts and dismisses friendships easily when they move along.  This isn't healthy.

As I've grown in my personal relationship with God, I've learned that friendships in the Body of Christ are essential to the Christian walk.  We were never meant to walk alone, we were never meant to deal with trials on our own and we were never meant to abandon those who God put in our paths.  People are NOT speedbumps.

Proverbs 18:24 A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Just a thought to chew on this Wednesday.  Do you need to rethink your view on friendships?

Meet a Former PLO Sniper

This Sunday my Dad's coming to Grace.  As we begin a three week series on world missions, my Father will be coming to share his story, heart and encouragement to the church in it's need to reach the muslim world.  With a book coming this Fall called "Once an Arafat Man", it may become more difficult to get the opportunity to have him speak so I hope many of you Gracer's are able to come.  With it being a holiday weekend I know there might be pockets of you traveling.  As always...you can tune into the podcast to hear the message.

Here's a snippet of the upcoming guests over the next three weeks.

• July 6: Tass Saada - Former Muslim PLO Sniper and author of the upcoming book "Once an Arafat Man". www.OnceAnArafatMan.com www.HopeForIshmael.com

• July 13: Claude HIckman - Author of "Live Life on Purpose" and member of TheTravellingTeam.org.

• July 20: Matthew Ellison - Founder of "LifeLine Missions" and member of 1615.org.