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you can extend the Christmas season for a little while longer.
(rss readers, come watch the video)
One Hundred Percent of your donation goes directly to what you designate.
you can make a difference.
one dollar can make a difference.
maranatha.
i’m not sure if i’ve positively identified our volunteers @ calvary hanford before, so today’s post is for them.
i know what some of you are thinking: ‘can’t you just look through your other positive posts?’
to you i say: yes, i COULD do that, but i’m not going to. if you want to undertake that project, feel free.
i know what some others of you are thinking: ‘aren’t volunteers just people who come a little early on sunday mornings to eat free donuts and drink free coffee?’
to you i say: no. not at all. if that is what your volunteers do, then you haven’t given them enough work.
we’re a mid-sized church. we’re not huge. we’re not small. we’re right where God wants us to be.
but, for a church our size, i’m happy to say that we have a very small staff.
i think this is beneficial for a couple of reasons. first, it keeps our staff busy. a busy church staff is a very, very good thing.
second, it gives lots of people a chance to volunteer. and, @ calvary hanford, we have unbelievable volunteers. tons of them. people who do all sorts of important jobs, from greeting (a more…traditional church volunteer position) to scrubbing toilets during the week.
we have people who teach our kids on sundays and wednesdays and people who vacuum our campus on their days off. we have people who lead worship (for free) and people who mop our kitchen floor.
we have volunteers that cut our grass and pick up leaves and we have volunteers that manage and work our bookstore before and after services.
our volunteers change trash bags. they move stacks of chairs. they pour the coffee. they go get the donuts. they come in on their lunch hour to help with our cafe outreach to the high school. they get on ladders and they get on their hands and knees to get the job done.
they come early.
they stay late.
they do it all for their Lord and to improve the ministry of our church. they make it possible for us to do the things we can do.
we don’t have a position for every aspect of what we do.
we don’t have a payroll of dozens of people.
we don’t have a fancy title for people.
and still, for over 20 years the Lord has been faithful to move in His people’s hearts and stir them up to serve in important (if not always prestigious) ways.
our volunteers blow my mind. and they are the best in the business.
thanks to everyone who helps out once a week, once a month, once a year or just once.
maranatha.
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Jesus Is Extravagant.
whether speaking of His grace or His mercy, His sacrifice or His many gifts to us, His activity in our past or His plan for the future, all of it is extraordinary, abundant and humbling.
i want to take a little more time here and there to highlight our Savior’s wonderful extravagance.
today, being inspired by some thoughts from my church’s verse-by-verse study through Colossians, i’d like to speak on Christ’s extravagant grace.
it is His grace that brings us unmerited value and worth in the eyes of God. it is His grace that extends to us what is deserved only by Him.
here are a few words from my dad’s transcript yesterday:
that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful
in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Colossians 1:10“Worthy” is a word I can stumble over. In so many ways I am not “worthy” of the name ‘Christian.’ But that is not how Paul is using the word.
Remember, he is not talking about earning or deserving God’s will. He’s describing God filling you.
The word “worthy” here means worth as much. He’s saying that your “walk” is worth as much as that of the Lord’s when He was here.
Jesus’ grace, given to us, is extravagant. not just covering sin, but transforming us into individuals who are of glorious value to Himself and His Father.
God. Is. Good.
blessings.
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ok…so it has been a few days since my last post. this conflicts with my usual never-more-than-36-hours-between-posts policy. for that, I am sorry.
the truth is, if you didn’t know, it’s been the week of Christmas and i’ve been enjoying friends, family, church, food, driving and sleeping in.
those elements, mingled with a lack of internet access at home, has produced a gap in posting.
i’m not sad, but I hope you’re not sad either. come sunday we’ll be back to daily posts about all the regular stuff.
so there you go. even now i’m scratching out this entry as I stand in line @ Target, where kelly and I got some screamin’ deals on 50 percent off Christmas decor.
I hope you had a great Christmas and I hope you come back to read again.
blessings and maranatha.
mr. mundy and i wanted to take today’s post to thank you guys for supporting the With Us EP. we are honored that over 200 of you downloaded the EP and sent us lots of great encouragement.
specifically, we’d like to thank those of you who linked to us via your blogs, twitter accounts or elsewhere on the interweb.
in no particular order:
- mr. mundy (of course)
- mike fast
- liege davis
- becky kruse
- brody harper
- daniel renstrom
- random acts of emily
- cosima @ worship1.org
- dana pellerin (check out luke’s song With Us in a video by dana!)
- pat callahan
if i missed a link, please let me know by commenting below.
there’s still time for you to listen to the With Us EP (like…50 or 60 hours if you start right now).
blessings, merry christmas and maranatha!
merry christmas.
today, you can do a little more shopping (aren’t you glad???).
it’s easy and secure and it will yield wonderful benefits to the recipient.
we’ve talked a few times this month about Gospel For Asia and Samaritan’s Purse, and i’d like to talk about them once again.
i want to encourage every believer who reads this post to pray for the work of the Gospel in the 3rd world.
i also want to encourage you to think about if you can fit a gift or two for one of these organizations into your budget this year.
@Samaritan’s Purse, 89% of your donations go to the ministry.i that’s an amazing number.
@Gospel For Asia, 100% of your donations go directly to the field. ii 100%. every time. that’s a miraculous number.
today we’re highlighting a few $5 gifts that can make a difference in the life of someone on the other side of the world, a gift that can further the work of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
buy a musical instrument for a native missionary team – $5
buy a blanket for a cold family – $5
buy VBS materials for a local village – $5
provide a week’s worth of milk for a hungry child – $4
these are just a few, simple gifts that we can give.
Gospel For Asia and Samaritan’s Purse have a wide variety of ministries that you can partner with. they range from gifts like those above (some for as little as $1) to large projects like digging wells or building a church (upwards of $20,000).
kelly and i plan to buy our last christmas presents tomorrow from these wonderful organizations. we feel led in a few ways, but specifically the Lord has put it on our heart to partner with Samaritan’s Purse to rescue a child out of bondage and abuse:
“Each year, over a million children fall prey to human traffickers. Some are forced to serve as soldiers, work in sweatshops, or perform menial labor—but many more are enslaved in the worst kind of exploitation and abuse. Samaritan’s Purse works through Christian partners worldwide to help children avoid exploitation and to rehabilitate those who have endured bondage. As we share the Good News of Jesus Christ, many are discovering ‘the glorious freedom of the children of God’ (Romans 8:21). With your donation, a vulnerable child can receive the compassionate care, safe shelter, training, and counseling needed for a fresh start on a new life.”
oh how the Lord loves you and me.
have a wonderful christmas.
maranatha.
click to enlarge
i’d like to see what your blog has been saying.
then tell us in the comments.
blessings.
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i don’t want to go more than 36 hours at a time without posting, if possible.
so, here’s your awesome saturday post.
enjoy.
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i’m not great with graphic design, but i try to keep learning techniques and things so that i can get more skilled.
this week i learned some new photograph editing techniques for photoshop (click photos to enlarge):
original photo:
photo with some amateur stuff that i already knew how to do:
photo with a few new techniques i picked up this week:
i need to get a good instructional book and a 96 hour block to learn things about photoshop.
anyone have any good graphic design study resources that i can learn from?
here’s a video to illustrate some of the more drastic photo-editing capabilities of adobe’s wonderkind.
the music is terrible and annoying…so just mute it…
blessings
