Posts Tagged ‘Revolution Church’

Reflections on Easter

Monday, April 13th, 2009

I remember as a little girl the excitement of Easter. The candy, stuffed rabbits, new shoes, and dresses. We very seldom got new cloths or shoes, but we knew that every Easter we would get both. As a child I did not think much about it, it just was. As an adult I continued the tradition, I would get so stressed out about a month before Easter about having to go to the mall to find the perfect outfits for each member of the family.

Then something changed….

We started going to Revolution Church about 2 years ago. They are a come as you are kind of church. So last Easter was our first Easter with them. It felt strange not to go shopping for the perfect dress and matching shoes and bag. I almost did, but decided not too. I went to church in an outfit I would wear on any given Sunday. And guess what Easter was still Easter, with or without a new dress and shoes.

This year I did not even give Easter shopping a thought. It is just not part of my thinking anymore. I had no desire for a new outfit and shoes. I just wanted to be at church to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior. I did not even buy the expensive frilly dress for Madilyn even though she would have looked so cute among the ruffles. Easter is not about how you look or what you wear. It is about Jesus, taking on the sins of the world and dying for us so that we could be saved.

This weekend a lady from my college years came to mind. I used to help clean her house with a group of girls. I offered to take her to church since she could no longer drive. Her response to me was, “I would love to go but I don’t have anything decent to wear.” She was right the church we went to frowned upon not being in “Sunday Best.” Getting ready for church was a chore, I felt I had to look perfect, no wrinkles in the dress, or scuffs on the shoes. Now when people tell me that I just laugh and say “what you have on is fine.”

I wonder how many people never go to church because they fill like they don’t have a thing to wear. It is a shame that people are dying and going to hell because they feel that due to their appearance they can not go to church. It is refreshing to see that some churches are waking up and seeing that it is not what is on the outside, its whats inside that matters. God loves us all, no matter what we are wearing.

This Easter despite the family being ill with allergies, was one of our best Easters yet. We put aside the man made traditions and focused on the true meaning of the day. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with Easter outfits, baskets and egg hunts I’m just saying that sometimes we need to step back and really focus on whats really important in our lives and the lives of others. I would hate to go to a church where people felt unwelcome because they could not “fit in” because of their attire.

Random Thoughts

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

Life is moving on as it should. Sometimes I wonder when or if things will ever slow down for us as a family. I have not had much time for blogging so today I will post some random updates.

  • Madilyn is now almost 8 months old and doing great.
  • We have received her new birth certificate in the mail as well as the final adoption decree.
  • I finished my Financial Resources class at KSU and am now 3 credits closer to graduation in May.
  • Work got really busy for me. Too busy in fact.
  • Now not only working at Creekview, I am also working at SHS. The lady who does my job their is on medical leave. So I have to divide my time between two schools. It has been challenging, but I am making it work. I think:)
  • I decided I hate my body and how I look. So I have reactivated my Gym membership. Last week I went 4 times. I plan to continue to go on a regular basis.
  • I got a new “Hot” and “Sexy” hair cut. Hot and sexy were the words used by my much younger college classmates. Made me feel good. The style is much easier to maintain and is more hip. Changed my haircolor, it is much lighter now.
  • Decided that short jeans just don’t work and went with average. So now i wear heels with jeans and feel like I look so much better, just by making that change.
  • Spent my entire winter break working on KSU work and myself.
  • Joe Sangel spoke at Rev this morning. He did a great job talking about “Being debt free is Sexy.” David and I are working really working on becoming debt free for our family. We attended a class offered by him last year and learned a lot.
  • Praying about Caleb’s school situation. Tuition at his school is going to be around $8500 next year. This is getting out of our range. Looking at a situation where he may be home schooled part time and in class part time. Cost would only be $250 per month instead of the current $800 a month.
  • David’s business is going very well. He has had to hire several more contractors and work continues to come in.

Need to update more often, but life keeps getting in the way.

Naked Week 3- The Naked Bible

Monday, January 26th, 2009

The sermon for Revolution this week was the The Bible reveled. Only about 1 in 10 chrisitan read their Bible on a regualar basis. The just of the sermon was that God’s word is important and that we should make time to read it on a daily basis. Gods word is a communication tool that we should utilize to live our lives with. We can not depend on a sermon every Sunday to substain our walk with Christ.

Good message, and one that I need to listen to. I need to read my Bible more and I need to listen to what God is telling me when I read.

NAKED- WEEK 2 NAKED PRAYER

Monday, January 19th, 2009

This week Revolution church focused on Prayer. “Prayer is a mighty ingredient in our lives.” Stats show that the average Christian only prays less than three minutes per day.

Why don’t people pray more?
  1. They are not sure how to pray
  2. They get bored or distracted while they are trying to pray
  3. They think their request/needs are too small for God
  4. They are not sure that prayers make a difference
How should we pray?
  1. With unfiltered honesty
  2. About everything that matters to you
  3. Go to God continually
  4. Shut up and listen
Scriptures
  1. Jeremiah 3:3 (call unto me)
  2. Psalms 5:1 (Give ears to my words)
  3. Psalms 5:2
  4. Psalms 5:3 (hear my voice)
  5. Exdous 5:22 (Moses to God= “I do not understand)
  6. Matthew 6:5 (don’t pray like hyprocrits)
  7. Matthew 6:7 (don’t babble like the pagans)
  8. 1 Peter 5:7 (Cast all your cares upon me)
  9. 1 Thes. 5:16-18
  10. 1 Samuel 1:12-13
  11. 1 Kings 19:13 (a gentle whisper)
  12. John 10:27 (My sheep listen to my voice)
We need to pray and communicate with God. We are his children and he wants to hear from us.

Rough Week- Jan 11-17

Monday, January 19th, 2009

This week has been a rough week. It has been overwhelming and emotionally draining.

My friend Julia lost her husband this week. His death was unexpected. A couple in our church lost their 14 month old daughter. And our church is in the air as to if the city is going to let us stay in the convention center.
Julia will be a rock in her loss she is a strong woman. While Joe’s death was unexpected Julia knows it was in the plan written for his life and hers. I went to the funeral in Albany, and was touched by the many people who were there and the things that were said about his life.
The family at church amazes me with their faith in God and ability to continue on with life. They will be in my prayers for the weeks and months to come. I don’t know that I could be as strong as they are if something were to happen to one of my children.
As for our church and our meeting location. We will be a church no matter where we meet. The stumbling blocks that we are facing will only make us stronger. As of today we can stay in the convention center, but who knows what will happen in the weeks and months to come.
I am glad this week is over and hope that the coming weeks will be better.

NAKED- Week 1 the Naked Truth

Monday, January 19th, 2009

Revolution Church is getting naked this January.  Excited about this series, Gary is striping christianity back and bringing it back to basics.  

Week 1- The Naked Truth
There is only one way to get into heaven.  So many times people think that “good works” will get them into heaven.  Well in part 1 of the Naked series Gary Lamb gave good reasons why good works don’t get one into heaven and why there is only one way in.
Reasons we love the the “Live Good Theory” 
  1. It’s a fair system
  2. You will make the cut
  3. Motivates you to live good
  4. It is consistent with the idea of a good God.
Problems with the “Live Good Theory”
  1. There is no clear standard to check progress
  2. We don’t know the grading system
  3. It makes a liar out of Jesus 
Scripture used in sermon:
  1. John 14:6 (only 1 way)
  2. Romans 3:10 (no one is without sin)
  3. Romans 3:20 (good is not determined by the law)
  4. John 3:1-8 (no one can see the kingdom unless he is born again)
***Its not about what we are doing it is about what has already been done (Jesus dying on the cross for us).
Final Thoughts
  1. Everyone is welcome
  2. Everyone gets in the same way
  3. Everyone can meet the requirement

RevoluntianaryLove.TV- The Sequel Week 2

Monday, December 15th, 2008

I was glad to see the amount of items collected for the women’s shelter. Five truck loads of needed items were given to the shelter. The children of the church also collected 50 bags of items for MUST Ministries. The children were so excited to bring there bags to give to others who are in need.

WEEK 2: The topic today was Unselfish Serving. Another topic I needed to hear. Not that I am selfish with my serving, but sometimes I wonder when others will get up and step up to the plate. But you know that is between them and God and I don’t need to worry about what others do I only need to worry about myself.

So Gary presented the 4 A’s of Unselfish Serving. I hope that I remember them correclty.
Assessment- Assessing the need for service
Action- Taking action and serving where needed
Attitude- Having a positive loving attitude while serving
Awesomeness Knowing it is awesome to serve others and to be a blessing to others.

At the end of the service they passed the offering baskets again. This week the cards contained Random Acts of Kindness. Can’t wait to hear what people do with these cards and the reaction that they have.

Next week they will be collecting the annual Christmas offering. I hate to miss the service next week, but we will be having some time as a family relaxing and playing in the sun. However, we will mail our Christmas Offering to the church prior to leaving.

RevolutionaryLove.TV- The Sequel

Monday, December 15th, 2008

“RevolutionaryLove.TV- The Sequel.” Last year Revolution Church did a series called Revolutionary Love. It was great and I am glad that we are revisiting the series.

Week 1: The message today was about Sacrificial Giving. Boy did I need to hear this. David and I had discussed and prayed about what gift we should give to the church for the Christmas offering. After making a decision we felt good about we were dealt a financial blow in the amount of $6000 in attorney fees for Madilyn’s bmom. We had $1700 left in our adoption escrow account, and our attorney sent this to the other attorney prior to Thanksgiving. Once we returned home from our Thanksgiving Break we had a message from the attorney wanting to know when the remaining $4300 would be paid. She wanted her money now. We bit the bullet and sent the rest of the money not really knowing how our fiances would play out for the rest of the year.

After hearing the message on sacrificial giving we decided that the amount of money we had decided to give the church was STILL the amount we need to give. Well we like most people do not just have this kind of money sitting around (especially after spending so much on the adoption). We will be giving sacrificially… meaning we are going to cut out other stuff to make this gift to the church happen. We are going to sacrifice and give to God what we know we need to give. We know God will take our gift and do a great work with it, and we will be blessed by giving.

At the end of the service the offering plates were passed and we each drew a card that contained needs of a local women’s shelter. We drew diapers, toothbrushes and aspirin. I told Caleb that since he had drawn the card out of the offering plate that he should use his own money to help meet the need. He is such a stand up kid. He gets $20 a month, pays $2.00 in tithes leaving him $18 for the month. He decided that he would give $10.00 to help purchase items for the women’s shelter. He could have been selfish and offered less but he gave 1/2 of his monthly allowance to this cause.

Caleb and I went shopping and purchased 2 bags of diapers, 20 adult toothbrushes, 8 children’s toothbrushes and 8 bottles of aspirin. At the checkout the cashier smiled a toothless smile and said, “you must have some headache.” I told her our church was collecting items for the women’s shelter.” She looked like she was about to cry and said, “Thank you, they helped me when no one else would.” WOW…..

Church Haters

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

Recently our church started a new location in an industrial park. Prior to starting the church the pastor made sure that noise level would not be an issue with the county. We have been meeting in our new location for 7 weeks. For the past several weeks the neighbors that have property that border the church have called the cops. Tonight they called the cops twice on our youth service. Not real sure what we are going to do. We were told that we would not be in violation of the law because the church is in an industrial park. I guess my problem with this is that if we were a business the neighbors would have the noise everyday of the week and would not complain. Right now the noise is only for a few hours about 3 days a week.

Revolution Church

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

For the past 4 weeks the men of the church got beat up with our series called “Ultimate Fighter, the temptations men face…. Sex, Money and Power.” The series was really good and was a challenge to men to step up and be the men God created them to be.

Today we start “Beautiful” a series aimed at women.