Monthly Archives: August 2012

Share Your World With Cee Cee Pt. 19

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Catching Up is fun. I get to answer eight questions this week instead of four. Here we go! Next round:

  1. What calms you down?
    Prayer. I love to sit under the sound of soft worship music and commune with God!
  2. Whats your favorite fantasy sandwich?  Spaghetti sauce and peanut butter. It’s really good you have to try it!
  3. What was your nickname growing up either as a kid or now?
    J is my nickname probably because my real name (Joseph Elon Lillie V) sounds really pretentious. My youth group has dubbed me simply Pastor Wrinkles.
  4. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Burnt Sienna. I just like the way it sounds. 🙂

Here are a few more Holland pics:

The old gatehouses at the locks have been converted to apartments

Ancient cathedral sanctuaries were built in the shape of crosses. This is the ceiling at the center of the cross.

Share Your World With Cee Cee Pt. 18

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I am so glad Cee is back with her questions. I have been away for a bit myself on ministry assignment. So I am just getting caught up on all my blog reading (man my friends have been prolific in my absence!). I am very excited to be back answering these questions! So here we go:

 

  1. What is your favorite comfort snack food?
    Most anything involving chocolate cake and cream frosting. SuzQ’s with a tall glass of ice-cold milk are my all time favorite!
  2. At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive? Probably on my flight to Holland to visit my sister. The prospect of discovering a new culture was soooo exciting!
  3. What is your favorite outdoor activity?
    Gardening. Although this year schedules has left me little time for it.
  4. If you could have your own TV channel, what would it be about? That’s simple; It would be a God/mystery/SciFi Channel. 🙂

Here are a few pics I took in Holland:

Dutch church along the Zaan

Warning In the Wind by JE LIllie

 

Pastor Wrinkles: Chapter Charts Pt. 110

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During the life of Joshua the people of Israel lived lives of almost constant victory because Joshua kept pushing them to trust the Lord and obey God in His directives. But   obedience was never really in their hearts. It was all just part of following the leadership. When the leader was gone so was the passion for God…so was the victory.

Here’s what I see in today’s chapters:

Judges Chapter 2 sermon topics/ titles:

1. When God Stops Driving: Judges 2: 1-5

2. Letting the Memory Of God Die: Judges 2: 10-15

3. Do You Need a Judge? Judges 2: 16-23

Judges chapter 3 sermon topics/titles:

1.Teaching Us to War: Judges 3: 1,2

2. Is Your Sword Secret: Judges 3:12-16

3. God Will Use What’s In Your Hand: Judges 3: 31

Now tell me what you see in these chapters. 🙂

Pastor Wrinkles: Chapter Charts Pt. 109

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Today with our chapter charting exercise we leave the book of Joshua and move onto a very dark time in Israel’s history when “every man did what was right in HIS OWN EYES.”  How many times I have stumbled because I went my way thinking it was better than God’s way!

Here is what I see in today’s chapters:

Joshua chapter 24 sermon topics/titles:

1. Presenting Yourself Before God: Joshua 24: 1

2. When Prophecy Is A Memory: Joshua 24: 2- 13

3. Now Fear This! Joshua 24: 14

Judges Chapter 1 sermon topics/ titles:

1. God’s Payback: Judges 1: 1-7

2. Ask For the Springs: Judges 1: 11-15

3. The Promise Of God Involves Giants: Judges 1: 20

Now you come up with three sermon topics or titles you see in these chapters! 🙂

Heaven Pt. 75

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Smoke poured from his nostrils; fierce flames leaped from his mouth. Glowing coals blazed forth from him. He opened the heavens and came down; dark storm clouds were beneath his feet. Mounted on a mighty angelic being,  he flew, soaring on the wings of the wind. He shrouded himself in darkness, veiling his approach with dense rain clouds. A great brightness shone around him, and burning coals blazed forth. 2 Sam. 22: 9-13

There are some pictures of God in the Scripture which shake me to my core. This is one of them. The idea of God rising from His throne, shaking out his robes in anger and riding on the wings of the wind to my aid is incredibly encouraging but I have to admit a little terrifying as well. You see, Where God is His glory goes before Him and there’s something about glory that really conflicts us as humans. Don’t get me wrong I desperately want His glory but in the times I have run up against even a few drops of this heavenly stuff  far from being the conquering pastor-guy I would like to envision I ended up lying on the floor unable to do anything but weep and cry “Holy!”…Like I said incredibly encouraging and a little terrifying all at once.

Have you ever had an experience like this with the Lord? Tell me about it.

C.cada Update August 2012

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I was looking back at some of our community posts from a year ago. So much changes in a year! Our name has changed from C.C.A.C. (Cornerstone Christian Artists Community) To C.cada (Cornerstone Christian Artist’s Day Apart) and we have streamlined our vision from: Pray, plan and perform to Encourage, equip and activate.

Through every change God has been faithful to move us as a community forward into what He has for us in ministry. The goal is to use art to build the kingdom.

In our morning discussion this month the question was asked, “What is creativity?”

Here are some of the definitions we came up with.

Using common things to produce uncommon results.- Mike Murphy

What happens when the mundane becomes unacceptable -Don Haas

I love these! So much in life rises to stymie our creativity. But one of the greatest hindrances to the Christian creative flow is focusing on results before obedience. When we focus more on the result than on our obedience to the inspiration of God we usually end up bottle-necked by fear or lost in selfish pride. But if we can somehow suspend  our worry about the endgame and turn our eyes to obey the heavenly vision then we will end up in artistic victory!

Here are some artistic victories from this month.

SKY VBS- You may remember many of our artists helped construct the VBS set and worked with the 170 plus children who showed up for the week of day camps. We saw forty children give their hearts to Jesus this year.

C.cada worship board- This month’s art board,”Portrait of a Family” was created by Sandy Freeman

 

 

 

 

 

Worship leading opportunities- I was invited to lead worship at the local visiting nurses day program and my daughter Amanda and I were privileged to minister in music for a week at the Connecticut Special Touch Getaway.

National Fine Arts- One of our very own Lillian Lapoint was invited to sing at the Assembly of God National Fine Arts Festival in Kentucky! Congrats Lillian! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can hardly believe all that God is including us in! We are truly blessed!

How has God included you in His blessing this month?

 

…But God is

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In the last two years I have learned just how frail I am. If ever I had reason to be proud in my self that is all gone now. I have lost every illusion of personal strength…but then they were only illusions anyway.

I have learned that by myself I am not strong…But God is and that’s no illusion! My God is a strength that cannot fail. I  gladly trade all my illusions of personal strength  for the truth that I am only strong when my God stand with me!

Heaven Pt. 74

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“In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry [did enter] into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth.” 2 Sam. 22:7,8 KJV

Stand strong Christian! God has heard your cry. David had to wait 15 years for His answer but in this song he tells us the answer was worth the wait!He tells us all the pain and frustration poured out in those long days dissolved in the moment God rose to vindicate! God will rise for you like he did for David. In the day of your answer all the  questions will at last be settled!

Heaven Pt. 73

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“And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that [was] under him went away.” 2 Sam. 18:9 KJV

Absalom had rebelled against his father, King David. The young man had risen up against his king in bitterness and had stolen the kingdom from David. The  Bible says, in front of all Israel he shamed the king by sleeping with the king’s concubines on the roof of the palace. Then he took to the battle field determined to deal the death-blow to David. Fixated on destroying his father’s forces Absalom instead ended up hanging from a tree by his hair…by his pride.

In all truth Absalom was hung out to dry long before he got caught in the tree by his hair. His bitterness had made him a slave to hate and defeat long before his luscious locks caused his untimely demise.

How many times have I gotten hung up between Heaven and Earth unable to move one step closer to God because of unforgiveness. I read stories like those of Absalom and wonder how different it could have been if Absalom had just turned the issue over to God. Admittedly it was a pretty serious issue (the rape of his sister by his half-brother) that caused his bitterness. Even so as he hung there suspended from the bonds of poetic justice I wonder if Absalom ever realized the price for his hatred was too high. I know the story makes me realize the price is too high for me. I will not hold a grudge large or small. I must forgive at all times so that someday I will not be held up to destruction by my pride and glory.

Have you ever been bound by bitterness? How did you escape?