From Pastor Lee...

2007-04-03T09:17:00.000-07:00

you should see the stars tonight
how they shimmer shine so bright
against the black they look so white
comin down from such a height
to reach me now, reach me now

you should see the moon in the flight
cuttin cross the misty night
softly dancin in sunshine
reflections of this light
reach me now, you reach me now

and how could such a thing
shine its light on me
and make everything beautiful again

and you should feel the sun in the spring
comin out after a rain
suddenly all is green
sunshine on everything
i can feel it now, i feel you now

and how could such a thing
shine its light on me
and make everything beautiful

and you should hear the angels sing
all gathered round their king
more beautiful than you could dream
i've been quietly listening
you can hear 'em now, i hear em now

and how could such a king
shine His light on me
and make everything beautiful
and i wanna shine
i wanna be light
i wanna tell you it'll be alright
and i wanna shine and i wanna fly
just to tell you now
it'll be alright, it'll be alright
it'll be alright.

cus i got nothing of my own to give to you
but this light that shines on me shines on you
and makes everything beautiful, again.
it'll be alright, it'll be alright.

David Crowder

2007-04-03T08:35:00.000-07:00

"The hand of Christ is strong enough to uphold the heavens, and gentle enough to wipe away our tears."

William Barclay

2007-02-11T11:21:00.000-08:00

Jesus invites us to die to the world, not clutter our hearts with its trinkets.
Steven James

2007-01-06T13:09:00.000-08:00

"Christian is a great noun and a poor adjective."
Rob Bell

2007-01-04T17:27:00.000-08:00

It is a kingly act to assist the fallen.
         Mother Teresa

2007-01-04T17:22:00.000-08:00

The Bible says my King is a seven-way king....He's the King of the Jews; that's a racial king....He's the King of Israel; that's a national King....He's the King of Righteousness....He's the King of the Ages.....He's the King of Heaven....He's the King of Glory....He's the King of kings, and He's the Lord of lords. That's my King. Well....I wonder, do you know Him?.... David said, "The Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork. My King is a sovereign King. No means of measure can define His limitless love. No far seeing telescope can bring into visibility the coastline of His shoreless supply. No barrier can hinder Him from pouring out His blessings. He's enduringly strong....He's entirely sincere....He's eternally steadfast....He's immortally graceful....He's imperially powerful....He's impartially merciful....... Do you know Him?

He's the greatest phenomenon that ever crossed the horizon of this world. He's God's Son....He's a sinner's Saviour....He's the centerpiece of civilization....He stands in the solitude of Himself....He's august....He's unique....He's unparalleled....He's unprecedented....He's the loftiest idea in literature....He's the highest personality in philosophy....He's the supreme problem in higher criticism....He's the fundamental doctrine of true theology....He's the cardinal necessity for spiritual religion....He's the miracle of the age.... He's the superlative of everything good that you choose to call Him....He's the only one qualified to be an all sufficient Saviour...... I wonder if you know Him today?

He supplies strength for the weak....He's available for the tempted and the tried....He sympathizes and He saves....He strengthens and sustains....He guards and He guides....He heals the sick....He cleanses lepers....He forgives sinners....He discharges debtors....He delivers captives....He defends the feeble....He blesses the young....He serves the unfortunate....He regards the aged....He rewards the diligent....and He beautifies the meek....... I wonder if you know Him?

Well, my King....is the King....He's the key to knowledge....He's the wellspring to wisdom....He's the doorway of deliverance....He's the pathway of peace....He's the roadway of righteousness ....He's the highway of holiness....He's the gateway of glory....... Do you know Him?

Well....His office is manifold....His promise is sure....His light is matchless....His goodness is limitless....His mercy is everlasting....His love never changes....His word is enough....His grace is sufficient....His reign is righteous....and His yoke is easy, and his burden is light. I wish I could describe Him to you, but He's indescribable....He's incomprehensible....He's invincible....He's irresistible.

Well, you can't get Him out of your mind....You can't get Him off of your hand....You can't out live Him, and you can't live without Him....The Pharisees couldn't stand Him, but they found out they couldn't stop Him....Pilate couldn't find any fault in Him....The witnesses couldn't get their testimonies to agree....Herod couldn't kill Him....Death couldn't handle Him, and the grave couldn't hold Him. Yea!!!, that's my King, that's my King.

Father..."Thine is the Kingdom....and the Power....and the Glory....Forever"....and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever. How long is that? And ever...and ever...and when you get through with all the forevers, then.... AMEN!....AMEN!

S.M. Lockridge

2007-01-04T17:14:00.000-08:00

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.

Robert F. Kennedy

2007-01-04T17:07:00.000-08:00

Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?" I dream of things that never were and say, "Why not?"
George Bernard Shaw

2006-11-29T13:21:00.000-08:00

Something is radically wrong when the local church rejects a person accepted by Jesus...Jesus sat down at table with anyone who wanted to be present, including those who were banished from decent homes. In the sharing of a meal they received consideration instead of the expected condemnation. A merciful acquital instead of a hasty verdict of guilty. Amazing grace instead of universal disgrace. Here is a very practical demonstration of the law of grace---a new chance in life....

The story goes that a public sinner was excommunicated and forbidden entry to the church. He took his woes to God, "They won't let me in, Lord, because I am a sinner."

"What are you complaining about?" said God. "They won't let Me in, either."

Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

2006-11-29T13:18:00.000-08:00

A saint is not someone who is good, but who experiences the goodness of God.
Thomas Merton

2006-11-29T13:15:00.000-08:00

It is by grace you have been saved through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything you have done so that nobody can claim the credit.
Ephesians 2:8-9

2006-11-29T13:11:00.000-08:00

The church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners.
Morton Kelsey

Thoughts from MLK

2006-11-29T12:56:00.000-08:00

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.

Faith is taking the first step when you don't see the whole staircase.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

The hottest place in hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

2006-10-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

When we love the least
When we love the weak
When we love these
We love Jesus

Jesus brings a meal for tips
Jesus trying hard to quit
Jesus raising two alone
Jesus drives a heavy load

When we love the least
When we love the weak
When we love these
We love Jesus

Jesus with worn wrinkled hands
Jesus sows a patch of land
Jesus hides a tattooed arm
Jesus keeping dinner warm

Jesus waves a foreign flag
Jesus wrings a washing rag
Jesus leans on prison bars
Jesus swinging in my yard

When we love the least
When we love the weak
When we love these
We love Jesus

Jesus, Shaun Groves

2006-10-04T14:02:00.000-07:00

"...God is with the vulnerable and the poor. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house... God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives... God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war... God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them." ------------Bono

2006-10-04T13:56:00.000-07:00

Great love and great achievement involve great risk.--------Coach Steve Crouse

2006-10-04T13:53:00.000-07:00

Look among the nations and watch---be utterly astounded: For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you.--------Habakkuk 1:5

2006-10-04T13:50:00.000-07:00

Every generation needs a revolution.---------Thomas Jefferson

2006-10-04T13:45:00.000-07:00

Jesus calls men not to a new religion, but to life.---------Dietrich Bonhoeffer

2006-10-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

God doesn't need your ability; He only needs your availability. Are you available today, or are you too busy being beige?-------------------------------David Foster

2006-10-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------Jim Eliot

2006-10-03T16:19:00.000-07:00

"You guys are all into that born again thing, which is great. We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, I can tell you that you just have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy too...[And he paused in the awkward silence.] But I guess that's why God invented highlighters, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest." -----------------------------------------------------------------Rich Mullins

2006-09-10T14:30:00.000-07:00

Here am I! Send me!-----------------Isaiah 6:8

2006-09-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

Man is so made that whenever anything fires his soul impossibilities vanish.-------------------Jean de la Fontaine

2006-09-10T14:22:00.000-07:00

I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty and joy to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble.-----------Helen Keller

2006-09-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

Whatever you do, do it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.-----
Colossians 3:23

2006-09-05T09:18:00.000-07:00

Would you be willing to give your life to save the world if nobody ever knew your name?
Erwin McManus, Uprising

2006-09-05T09:15:00.000-07:00

Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.---------------------------------------------Proverbs 22:29

2006-09-05T09:07:00.000-07:00

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.-------------------------Thomas E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia, author of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, leader in the revolution to free Arabs from Ottoman and European rule, one of the most decorated soldiers in British history)

2006-09-04T09:22:00.000-07:00

We have put so much emphasis on avoiding evil that we have become virtually blind to the endless opportunities for doing good. We have defined holiness through what we separate ourselves from rather that what we give ourselves to. I am convinced that the great tragedy of life is not the sins we commit, but the life we fail to live.-------Erwin McManus, Chasing Daylight

2006-08-30T13:26:00.000-07:00

But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that an men are created equal ..." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. We we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremist for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime---the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists. --------------Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail (April 16, 1963)

2006-08-27T06:12:00.000-07:00

There is a place I visit you where no one else can enter. It's ours, and in this secret place the innumerable chaotic fireflies that fill my day fade off into oblivion as I watch the trail of their light disappear from my mind. Here I am, standing before a King who came off His throne to present to me love wrapped with encounters and deliverances—tied with a promise to one day reside with you.Here, in this place, there's no need to utter Your Name between every sentence because you and I both know you've won my affection.

You are the One who ravishes my heart.

The world wouldn't understand my passion created for a Stranger who wraps me in His arms every night the world leaves me empty handed.The crescendo of the chorus plays in my Spirit every time we meet. You're always waiting there— waiting for me to say I love you; and I can say it, with all truth, with every fiber of my being, with every scream that can come from my scratchy lungs, every tear that can pour from my weary eyes, every sway that can bend out of this body you made. You . . . You . . . You, the Son of man and yet the Son of God, you are the one I love. Every confusion that has clouded my mind and every feeble attempt to be fulfilled by ghostly things this side of heaven is destroyed. Clarity—as if the veil between us was torn in two—comes crashing in.

I see You, and I bow at the feet that walked the same dirt roads that I’ve stumbled on—the feet that were heroic and unfailing; the feet that stood before accusers that failed to see the love you held could turn mountains into wax and shatter every kingdom made by man.At these feet I bow, crying out as I finally understand what you've done for me, what you saved me from, who You chose me to be—though I know I’ve slapped your face more times than both my hands can hold. You pull me up from the ground and look at me.And that's when I understand all that lies behind me doesn't compare to the knowledge of this man who picks up all the shattered pieces in my heart by just a look.

This Man is why I am alive.This Man is the motivation for every move I make.This Man is the answer.And in this moment everything changes. This is the moment when all that was before will never be again. And the course I was walking forever changes. This isn't just salvation, this isn't surrendering; this is extravagance.In this secret place where I'm somehow standing before the most captivating man ever to live,I take the alabaster box that holds all I was and all I am and all I could ever be.Inside is every dream and every promise from you, every will and desire, every calling I have, and I break it before you.And give it to you.Because only you can fulfill each one of these precious things abiding in my heart only you deserve them, and each of these are second to the knowledge of you, my Bridegroom.And in this I say, have your way in me. Show me more of whom you are. Break open every bolted door in my heart and make me a lover of you.

Thoughts on Mercy

2006-08-15T18:40:00.000-07:00

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.---Matthew 5:7

Whoever lives in love lives in God.------------I John 4:10

2006-08-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

I am bound to reach the point where the want, infirmities, and sins of my neighbor afflict me as if they were my own, just as Christ was afflicted by our sins..."Bear one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2).---Dietrich Bonhoeffer

2006-08-15T18:32:00.000-07:00

You must take other people's wants and infirmities to heart as if they were your own, and offer them your means as if they were theirs, just as Christ does for you in the sacrament...(This is) being transformed into one another through love.-------------Martin Luther

2006-08-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

Like the Three-in-One,
Know you must become
What you want to save...
-------------Derek Webb

2006-08-15T18:27:00.000-07:00

I do not ask the wounded person how he feels; I, myself, become the wounded person.----Walt Whitman

2006-08-15T18:26:00.000-07:00

Learn to do good; Seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.-------------Isaiah 1:17

2006-08-15T18:15:00.000-07:00

The Hebrew word for "mercy" is "chesedh"; and it is an untranslatable word. It does not mean only to sympathize with a person...it does not mean simply to feel sorry for someone in trouble. "Chesedh", "mercy", means the ability to get right inside other people until we can see things with their eyes, think things with their minds, and feel things with their feelings...This is just what God did; He came to us, not as the remote, detached, isolated, majestic God, but as a man. The supreme instance of "mercy", "chesedh", is the coming of God in Jesus Christ.-----William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew

2006-08-15T17:53:00.000-07:00

God created the world out of nothing. When I realize that I am nothing, perhaps God can create something out of me, too.-------------Martin Luther

2006-08-15T17:47:00.000-07:00

Hate evil, love good.------------Amos 5:15

2006-08-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

Jesus sees His disciples. They have publicly left the crowd to follow Him. He has called them, every one, and they have renounced everything at His call. Now they are living in want and privation, the poorest of the poor, the sorest afflicted, the hungriest of the hungry. They have only Him, and with Him they have nothing in the world, but everything with and through God.-------Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

2006-08-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

Take your everyday, ordinary life---Your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life---and place it before God as an offering.--------------------Romans 12:1, The Message

2006-08-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

Go on up to the mountain of mercy
To the crimson perpetual tide
Kneel down on the shore
Be thirsty no more
Go under and be purified

Follow Christ to the holy mountain
Sinner, sorry and wrecked by the fall
Cleanse your heart and your soul
In the fountain that flows
For you and for me and for all

At the wonderful tragic mysterious tree
On that beautiful scandalous night you and me
Were atoned by His blood and forever washed white
On that beautiful scandalous night

On the hillside you will be delivered
At the foot of the cross justified
And your spirit restored
By the river that pours
From our blessed Savior’s side

At the wonderful tragic mysterious tree…

Go on up to the mountain of mercy
To the crimson perpetual tide
Kneel down on the shore be thirsty no more
Go under and be purified

At the wonderful tragic mysterious tree
On that beautiful scandalous night you and me
Were atoned by his blood and forever washed white
On that beautiful scandalous night…

Miraculous night

Lyrics by S. Hindalong
Performed by Smalltown Poets

2006-08-14T18:22:00.000-07:00

My life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus---the work of telling others the good news about God's wonderful kindness and love.---Acts 20:24

Stand

2006-08-14T18:19:00.000-07:00

To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise.---Martin Luther

2006-08-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

There's no point in having a platform to stand on if you're not saying things that are probably going to get you knocked off.---------------Derek Webb

2006-08-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

The days of kumbayah, pat each other on the back, "bless your heart" Christianity are gone...This is war. The cross of Christ is the dividing line of a great battlefield...The Father against the bully that threatens His child...The Lion against the snake...The Lover against the holder of hate...The Stone the Builders Rejected versus the poison men love and loathe...Good versus evil.

It's as simple as that. We must not be satisfied with keeping Jesus inside the four walls of the church. We must take up our crosses, and follow Him into battle. Our weapons? Our words, our hands, and our hearts. Our objective? Rescue. Rescue of the hurting and helpless. Our goal? Justice. Justice for all who are held in the bondage and strongholds of poverty, disease, homelessness, hunger, hurt, abandonment, anger, addiction, pain and abuse. Our passion? It must be His passion---to love God, and love people. Our mission? To change everything. Our heart? To love with reckless abandon.

Our King?

Jesus.

We must set him free. Set free the wild Lion of Judah, let His feet touch the earth outside of the walls of the cage that is "church on Sunday", and watch the very demons in hell quake in fear. If we would let Him out of the cage, we would see the world turned upside down.

2006-08-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

"From the days of John the Baptist until now," Jesus said, "the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it."------------Matthew 11:12

2006-08-14T17:48:00.000-07:00

Let me say, at the risk of sounding ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by feelings of great love.---------------Che Guevara

2006-08-14T17:46:00.000-07:00

I am convinced that Jesus came not simply to make bad people good but to bring dead people to life.-------Shane Claiborne, "The Irresistible Revolution"

2006-08-14T17:42:00.000-07:00

If Jesus preached on Wall Street what He preached in Galilee, we'd lay Him in His grave again.---Woodie Guthrie

2006-08-14T17:32:00.000-07:00

The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly..."My God!", you will say, "If I do that, my whole life will be ruined...How would I ever get on in the world?" Christian scholarship is the church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be "good" Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even more dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.------Soren Kierkegaard

Die to Live

2006-08-14T17:21:00.000-07:00

People do not get crucified for charity. People are crucified for living out a love that disrupts the social order, that calls forth a new world.-------Shane Claiborne