Friday is here but Sunday is coming!
Here is a great way that a very creative person put together thoughts about today. Today is the day that Jesus gave His life for us. A day that has changed my life forever, how about you?
Remember life is not about waiting for a funeral but living everyday as it is a PARTY!
Superbowl Sunday
Hey guys and gals let’s take a few moments and let everyone know who you think is going to win the Superbowl.
Do you need encouragement?
Ever have one of those days where you just wish some one would acknowledge that you are doing a good job at whatever it is your doing that day? I mean maybe if you are a stay at home mom, that your husband or kids would just tell you that you are doing awesome and that they love their home. Wouldn’t that be nice? I mean how about husbands that work away from home and are gone for a couple of days, that when you get home you hear from your wife and kids that they missed you and want to be with you. Instead, you get the list of broken things in the home and dad you promised to take me to the store. Don’t you want to be encouraged? How about for those high school and middle school students that are taking on the world in school. That when you get home you hear that you were missed and that is there anything that your parents could do for you while you do the 12 million hours of home work. But instead you hear about the chores that aren’t done or about how you missed one thing on the project and it wasn’t the grade that your parents had hoped for in that class. Don’t you want more encouragement?
I recently was sitting and working away and was kind of having one of those days, where I just wanted to hear I was doing a good job. That things were going well and that even though my emotions were getting the better of me, that God is the one in charge I am not, and today was better than I thought. When I looked up at the huge wipe board in my office and saw this:
Morgan making her dad's day!
There she left me a little note just telling me she loved me. What a great reminder and an encouragement to me. It made the rest of my day just hinking about how my “favorite youngest daughter” loved me. Maybe that is what you need to hear too? Maybe you need to know that from not just the people around you but from God himself. You see God being the great dad that He is even knew that was important. Look at what he said to His son:
Matthew 3:17 (NLT) “And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved son, who brings me great joy.”
Guess what you are His kid and you too bring Him joy. So even if you can’t see it on the wipe board in your office know that God loves you and He wants you to lean into Him and hear I Love you, your doing a good job.
Hope that you are encouraged! Maybe this is something you need to share with someone else? Go encourage someone, maybe on their wipe board.
Christmas Eve Gatherings at Elevation
Share this with the people you want to invite to Elevation Christmas Eve
Just wanted to be able to share with you the tickets that we had made for Christmas Eve Gatherings at Elevation Christian Church. I know that this is a chance for you to invite people. We are going to have a great time with weekend at 4:30PM and 6:00PM. www.elevationcc.com
5 Days of Twittermas
As we head into the final week before Christmas we want to be a team and a church that is living a generous life. So we have come up with the idea of 5 days of Twittermas. From Tuesday Decemeber 20th until Saturday Christmas Eve December 24th we will be twittering where you can pick-up gift cards to different places through out Aurora, CO. We will take a picture and then twitter the picture as well as where we are placing the gift card for who ever is the first one to get there. It is a special way that we want to share the Christmas Season with people all over Aurora, CO. So if you are going to participate in the 5 Days of Twittermas then you need to go and follow @Elevationcc on Twitter.
It is the time to give and give generously.
UFC Fighting and Man
Here is a unique video where Pastor Mark Driscoll talks about MMA and how it equates to the everyday man. If you know me at all then you know exactly what I think about what Pastor Mark says. But I am curious to what some of you think. Share your thoughts and comments below.
Creative Crisis
Over the last couple of months I had really had trouble being creative. I was spending more and more time going what am I going to do? How am I going to present this? What is something that will enable people to have fun and get caught? I was even just trying to make sure that I was just getting the simple things done. I was in a bad state when it came to being able to think or act creative. But then I was given some great help from the people who work alongside me at Elevation.
It started with finding out all of the things that I was doing on a regular basis. Then it was seeing the things that I needed to be able to hand off to other people. Then the process began where things were being taken off my plate. This is what I specifically heard about my life, “A Creative Crisis comes from a claustrophobic condition.” I had allowed my laugh to become so claustrophobic with the things in my life that I was then in a creative crisis. No what happens in this crisis? I had so much noise going on that I was unable to hear what God was teaching me and telling me. Maybe you are in the same place. Maybe you are having a creative crisis in your marriage, maybe it is a creative crisis in your school work, your job, your time. It is because maybe you are doing so much that you are unable to get creative. So I encourage you to build more margin in your life. I encourage you to realize that there are things in your life that you can either stop doing or enable others to do with you or EVEN for you.
What is causing the “claustrophobic condition” in your life? I ask you to pray and ask someone who you trust, a lifting partner on what you need to change. I also know that there are some of you going I don’t need to do this, well then ask your wife, your husband, how about your kids. I know that they will tell you.
This Weekend at Elevation
I am so excited that this weekend we are having some very special and awesome people share their story during our services at Elevation Christian Church in Aurora, CO. You are not going to want to miss hearing all that has happend in their life and thier marriage over the last year. So with that we are finishing up our series called “I Want A New Marriage” and we want to do something special. We want to make sure that we are not just a church that talks a good game but really puts our money where are mouth is when it comes to enabling people to experience life change. So this weekend during our services we are going to give away a “NIGHT OUT” we have purchased meals and a movie tickets for two lucky people that come this weekend. The meals are for Chili’s, On The Border, Macaroni Grill, or Maggiano’s. The movie theatres are Regal Cinemas, United Artist Theatres, and Edwards Theatres.
We have been talking about making sure that we are loving and caring for the people in our lives. We know that right now for people it can be a huge financial burden just to be able to afford to go out. Well now that is not going to be an issue because we have taken care of that for you. Who knows maybe we could talk Ryan Graham into being your driver. (That is a joke, not happening) Make sure that you get to one of our services this weekend at 9:00 & 10:30AM at Dalton Elementary School in Aurora, CO. If you are a really nice friend you might even invite them to come with you so that they have a chance at winning as well.
True Grit
Last week my wife and I went on our Thursday night date and we chose to go to see the movie True Grit. I was excited to see this movie because I remember the original with John Wayne as a kid because my dad is an older movie fanatic. But I knew that the story was going to be a little different because this one was to be more like the book then the previous film. I have to say that I really enjoyed the movie it was a great time most importantly with my wife.
But there was a particular scene that really stuck with me and I have yet to really shake it. It is where the character Rooster Cogburn is explaining to the character Maddie Ross about an encounter where he had to go up against four guys by himself. In the conversation he said that he put the reigns in his teeth and pulled both pistols and went at them. (Which is the iconic scene of John Wayne) But he goes on to say that he did it because he knew that if he attacked them first and went after them they would be confused and would run and he would be able to beat them.
I have been thinking ever since last Thursday that this should be the way that we live our lives as followers of Jesus. We should be constantly taking on the enemy and not backing down. We should be the ones that are going after the enemy and causing him to have to back down. Not because we are stupid but because of Jesus we know that we don’t go alone. We will always have the power of the living God in us as we go. As followers of Jesus Christ we should be known for our TRUE GRIT.
Let the Bodies Hit the Floor!
Ok, I just had to put this video on the BLOG because I think it is hilarious. Tyler and I watched this and just laughed. One because of the song and two what is happening in the video. This is what we want to see everyday at Elevation! (APRIL FOOLS DAY)
Special St. Pat’s Day Video
Since many of you shared how much you enjoyed the first video that Tyler made. He has chosen to bring you some more for St. Pat’s Day. I hope that you enjoy his video as much he enjoyed making it for you. This is another creative opportunity for me to really be proud of my kids and the way that they use their abilities. This one is really fun! Enjoy.
What a story!
We met Nick Vuijic several years ago in Arizona and what a meeting it was. He came and spoke to the students at the church that we were working with at the time. He shared the amazing story of what God has done in his life and how he had given a great chance to share with people about who Jesus is in his life. Take a look at this short video of an amazing man.
Facebook a Faith Feature
Ok I get a hard time from lots of people about being on Facebook to much. Well I have to be honest I am facebook through my phone and I love being able to do it. In fact I think that this is a great opportunity in this day and age to be able to share life with people all over the place. It is an opportunity to not only talk about life but how faith and your life meet.
It is an awesome place to be not just a fake person but a real person that walks through life in faith. The question that I have is what are the ways that are you using Facebook to reach people with the gospel? How are you using a great tool to let people now about what God is doing in your life? If you are not what can you be doing? There is nothing holding us back but our lack of creativity.
Emergency Video Post
Here is one of the best youtube videos that I have seen all year enjoy and Merry Christmas.
Even Santa can get to Jack – How about you?
Creative Worship
I find myself lately being more and more sensitive to what does it mean to “worship”. For most of the western culture it is what we do on Sunday morning before we go home and watch sports where the “real worship” happens. It is also seems “worship” is tied to the music that we sing, whether hands are lifted up in the air, or if it is from a book of songs, or on a projector. We have created such a christian culture of worship that I wonder if we are really worshipping at all. What if worship was the way that you spent your day? What if worship was the job that you went to everyday? What if worship was being the dad or mom that your kids so desperately need and want? What if . . .
As I read this last week in the book “Primal” this statement really has been bouncing around in my heart: “Have you ever noticed how many times Psalms tells us to sing a new song? That creative command is repeated no fewer then half a dozen times. Evidently God gets tired of old songs. He doesn’t just want you to worship Him with your memory; He wants you to worship Him with your imagination. Love isn’t repetitive. Love is creative. As love grows you need new lyrics and new melodies. You need a new song to express new dimensions of love.”
What if the new song that you were to write was with your life? What if the notes where the actions of your day? What it the song was the way that your life impacted another’s and that life then impacted another and became strong along through out the week like the notes on a page. As I continue to walk through my life I wonder am I more living, loving, or worshipping God out of what I have already experienced compared to what I could experience. The question that I have chewing on is “What if worshipping God was less about the song and note. And more about the action and heart that came with life? What if we were able to use our imagination to see worship more outside of the hour on Sunday and more about the other 24 hours that we spent living life?
May you today live a life of creative and imaginative worship through out your day.
Great Speech
I just thought that I would share a really great video of a little boy. If you are a fan of the movie “Miracle” like I am then you will love what this little boy does. I don’t know if it is powerful as the way Herb brooks delivered it but this little boy is to awesome. Just enjoy.
The Players of the Game
Why is that so many people say they don’t want to come to church? Here are some people who are in the game of life but for one reason or another feel like it is better to play alone. Maybe their story is the same as yours, maybe their is someone in your life that you have said the same words.
There are NO PERFECT PEOPLE in the church. There are no perfect players in the game of life, that is why we need each other. That is why we need to be the church team that gets people just like this from just being spectators when it comes to knowing Jesus. It is our prayer that Elevation Christian Church will be that team.
Anointed Fighter
I am so excited to be a part of this exciting new ministry called “Anointed Fighter”. I have had the awesome opportunity to be able to talk with Danny White the leader of this ministry and see the amazing material that he is creating for discipleship that goes along with MMA. It is my prayer that this ministry achieves great things when it comes to reaching men with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Check out this promo video for an event that they are doing in Detroit with Life Christian Church. Because we all know that life is a true daily fight, but we know that Jesus has already won the BATTLE.
Music Monday
What an awesome thing to be a part of last night. The global concert of U2 shown on Youtube and in conversation with Twitter. This is just another way to showcase what technology can do and how we can leverage that technology to reach the world. May we someday be able to do the same as U2 has done with this concert as we share with the world the gospel of Jesus Christ. By the way U2 rocked the house.
By the way notice the choice of song? Can you say Elevation! I thought you could.
Paul Wright & Rootdown
So this last Friday we had Paul Wright and Rootdown play at our church for a very intimate concert. They were full of energy and they did a great job of making the students and families at the concert feel special. You would have never know how many people were in the building. Which I did as I watched ticket sales. But they were there to share the love of Christ with the people that were there and they made the night awesome. Why? How can I say that?
First as a Dad my kids love Paul and the guys they can not wait to hang around them. These guys make the people around them so comfortable and they are FUN. They don’t take themselves and what they do so serious that they can’t enjoy the people around them. That is something that I have to say I love about these guys.
Second as a Pastor to Students the kids of our church want to have these guys around. This last concert was a younger crowd and I have to say that it worked out great because the came back to church on Sunday with a new excitement for being a part of the student ministry. They saw that you can have fun in a worship sense and they were acting that way Sunday. Thanks to the guys for leading our students in this way.
Finally as a friend I am so encouraged to know that these guys are out their touring and sharing their gifts and talents. I am so proud of the men that they are and the way that they are serving Jesus in what they do. I pray that that everyone who gets to hear these guys or just hang out with these guys are able to to catch a glimpse of what it means to serve Jesus with all that you are and who you are. Thanks guys for a great night.
Music Monday
There are some songs out there that I think that are really great at challenging me to think about who I am and how I live my life. This is one of those songs take some time to listen as well as watch, then think about how does your life reflect the lyrics. Have a great day.
Brandon Heath “Give me your Eyes” what a great song to cause us to think about how the way we live our life is a reflection of what we believe about Jesus and who He is to the people around us.
Prayer Doodle
Created by Andie
Here is something that we received from a very special friend from our time in Arizona. This is her way of praying for you she doodles way she takes her time to lift you up to the Lord. We received this in the mail and it is one of those amazing things that the Lord sends your way to encourage you. In fact it is hanging on our refrigerator and anytime that I am feeling a little discouraged or unsure it is a way that I am able to be encouraged. Thank you Lord for using our friends special gift to encourage us and lead us to new and creative ways of praying for those around us. Thanks Andie for sharing your gift with us and using it to glorify Jesus.
Family Game Day
We try to make sure that at least one day out of the week we do something as a family. So one day Danielle decided that she was going to put together the Bloyer Game Day. So what we ended up doing was spent the whole morning without Tv, ipods, cell phones, and computers. It was a great way to enjoy our time together and it was all put together by my 16 year old daughter. What are you doing to take time to be with your family? What are you doing to allow your children to take some moments to lead you? Are you treating your children as the gift that they truly are in your life?
