What do You Worship?

What is worship? You can find many definitions that are very good. But simply put, worship is acclaiming something so worthy, with words and actions, that you’d give up anything for it. If I “worshipped” a tree, then nothing in this world could take me away from that tree, and nothing in this world would be greater to me than that tree. So I ask the question, to everyone and myself; what do you worship? What do you acclaim to be the most important thing in your life? What would you do anything for? What would you give up anything for? When someone looks at your life, what would they say you worship? What would they say you value above everything else in life? It is easy to tell what America worships. Just look around. What do people spend the most money on? What do people give up their time for? Football? Golf? Shopping? Or is it money? Do people spend most of their efforts in life trying to make one more dollar? We think, “No I only worship one thing, God. I’m not an idolater.” But are you? Am I? Is the most important thing in your life really knowing Christ and making Him known to others? Is the one thing that you look forward to above anything else, seeing Jesus Christ face to face one day? If it isn’t, then there must be something else more important. Church, I beg of you to ask yourself this question, “Do you treasure Christ above everything else in life?” When Christ calls us to follow Him he asks us to value Him above everything else in life. What do you worship?

“God let me not look upon anything in this life as more valuable than You. Let me live my life seeking to know You deeper, love You stronger, share You more, and treasure You above all.” -Amen

a quick thought...

The Apostle Paul prays this for the church in Colossae.

"And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God."

This is my prayer for the members of our church and is my prayer for myself.

A Pastor Of Mine

On Kyle's blog he has mentioned who his personal pastors are. I want to mention one of mine...

BOB KAUFLIN

Bob is the director of Worship Development for Sovereign Grace Ministries and is currently ministering at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersberg, Maryland. I have not met Bob, I'd like to, but I have spent many hours watching, reading, and listening to his wisdom and his truth-filled worship leading. Bob has taught me that every word matters in worship, whether spoken or in song. He values truth and meaning and also recognizes that the Bible teaches expressiveness. Bob is a very wise and passionate worship leader and is a major influence on my life and worship leading.

Lacrea and Tedashi

Mars Hill Church was blessed to have Lacrea and Tedashi, hip-hop artists, join them for worship recently. The lyrics are powerful and I'm sure it was an awesome time of worship.
Check it out.


'Send Me' - Live at MHC | Ballard from Mars Hill Church on Vimeo.

2008 Olympics

The 2008 Olympics have been fun to watch so far. I never really thought I would really get into watching them, but I have thouroughly enjoyed them. Many have probably seen already, but this clip has been the highlight when the U.S.A. men's 4x100 relay, let by Michael Phelps, comes from behind to beat France. It was a sweet victory.

Watch it here.

Yes... I know!

Yes... I know! I am probably the world's worst blogger. Maybe it's because I am somewhat of a perfectionist in some areas of my life. Blogging is one of those areas. There have been many times when I thought I had something good to say so I would start typing. I would get about 3 paragraphs in and then come to the realization that what I am saying doesn't sound as cool as it did in my head 5 min ago. See. I am doing that as I type. I just thought to myself, "why am I writing this blog... it is dumb." That's the struggle. That's the internal blogging affair that's going on in my head.


Hey. Colorado was awesome. It is unmistakable that God is constantly revealing Himself throughout creation! I had a chance to go on a 15mile backpack trip while I was there. I did it. It was hard. It was probably the hardest physical thing I've ever done. It was worth it though. 7 miles on rugged terrain uphill all the way. I really challenged myself, something that don't do enough. It was rewarding to conquer the challenge. Many times God wants to challenge us in our faith and in our lives. Are you up for a challenge? I am. I just got down from a mountain.


A few pics from Colorado...








From 13,000 feet.





Yes. I am sitting in the snow! In July.

Summertime!

It's summer time... and I love it! I'm even wearing a hot pink shirt today, you should see it!

Well, I want to send out a big thank you to those who took part in Rock The Park this past Saturday. It was hot, we were sweaty, but it was a great time of worship and fellowship in the community! A shout out goes to the band. They have been such faithful worship leaders each and every Sunday and went over and beyond to make sure Rock The Park was a success. Next time you see one of them please thank them for investing their gifts in the church and for their commitment to the worship ministry at Rockway.

Kacie and I are very excited to be leaving on a plane to Peru this coming Sunday. We will be on a mission trip with "To Every Nation" traveling to Trujillo and Cuzco, Peru for about 12 days. We are expecting God to do wonderful things in the lives of those in Peru as well as in the lives of those on the team. Please keep us in your prayers during the next couple of weeks, and we will certainly miss everyone at Rockway while we are out.

Rockway, let's remember who we are. We are people with a mission, a mission to reach others for the sake of Christ. Let's continue to look for opportunities to serve others and as a church be "missional." There are real people with a real need for Christ in our community and around the world, so let's be a real church who shows the real love of God to everyone.

Have a great week!

What is it?

Let me start this post off by saying that I love my dog. I wouldn't give her up for any other dog.
That being said, let's begin.

It was the first weekend of the month, February to be exact. Those who know East Texas know this weekend as one thing, "Canton." There is never any other reason to go to Canton except for first Monday weekend where they have their GINORMOUS trade days going on. So if you ever hear someone saying, "I'm going to Canton," you can be sure they are not going to visit, they are not going to Splash Kingdom Water Park (the largest water park in East Texas), and they are not going because they found a nice vacation on hotels.com. They are going to spend all day walking many miles rummaging through the world's largest swap meet.

It was myself, Kacie, and her parents on this adventure, and we had one purpose in mind - to get a puppy! (and to buy something from the antique shop where we had a gift card, but that's beside the point) When we arrived in Canton we headed off to the area down the hill called "dogtown." Basically this is the world's largest dog swap meet. We searched through every store, every booth, and looked in every crate to find the puppy that was "the one." After much time and many conversations of, "it will call out our name when we see it and we'll just know," we found it. A cute little black, white, and tan puppy called out our name. She was a puppy like no other puppy in Canton. We didn't recognize the breed when we saw her, she was just so darn cute and not too expensive. A few minutes went by while we were standing over the crate holding the little black pup talking to the owner. The conversation went something like this...

jonathan: "how old is she?"
owner (let's call her Gertrude): "7 weeks"
jonathan: "how many siblings does she have?"
gertrude: "3"
jonathan: "does she have any problems?"
gertrude: "no."
jonathan: "did her parents have any problems?"
gertrude: "no."
jonathan: "what kind of dog is she?"
gertrude: "a Norwegian terrier Maltese mix"
jonathan: "oh that's interesting, i've never heard of that"
gertrude: "my daughter has one and she is the best dog ever"
jonathan: "oh really, what do you like about this mix so much?"
gertrude: "oh... I just love it. I love dogs. Their cute."
jonathan: "We'll take it!"

So, I handed her the cash, she gave me her shot records and we were on our way. She was so cute, so soft, so quiet, so nice, and just an adorable puppy. (it was at this point when we named her Bella) After talking about Bella's unique breed for a while with my inlaws, I had a revelation. "There is no such thing as a Norwegian Terrier, there is a Norwich terrier but not Norwegian. That owner must have said 'Norwich' and we all just heard 'Norwegian'."
So it was solved. We got the cutest little puppy in the world. She was a Norwich Terrier Maltese Mix.

Here's what she looked like:




















I think all of you could agree. Bella was a cute dog!



Months have past now. Months of taking Bella to the vet, the girls oooing and awwwing over her, and absolutely no one having ever heard of a Norwich Terrier Maltese mix. The vet told us, "uh... I don't think she's got any Maltese in her, definitely some kind of terrier, maybe Norwich." I was convinced however that I could find a picture on the internet of a dog that looks just like Bella. I've spent hours and hours on Google Images trying to find this. I can't find a sing dog in the world that is a Norwich Maltese. Weird! Well, at least she's cute.

I had a new revelation. It happened yesterday. I was cleaning my desk at home and I opened up the envelope with Bella's shot records that Gertrude had given us. My eyes caught something weird, again! Gertrude had written "Malteses" as the breed.... TWICE! Now I'm no vet but I do know that a pure white toy dog with long hair is called a Maltese and not a Malteses. Something fishy is going on here. If I were to go by what Gertrude said in Canton combined with what the shot record said Bella would be a Norwegian Terrier/Malteses. Now that is an interesting breed.

So I am now convinced that our dog Bella is NOT what we thought she was in the beginning. In fact she doesn't look like she looked or look like we thought she would look. She has grown a beard, a mustache, a very large unibrow, and has ears like DUMBO! Oh yeah, and Gertrude had no idea of what she was talking about.

Please help! If you know what kind of dog this is I WANT TO KNOW!

Here's the most recent picture of her, in fact I took it 20 min ago.




















And if you say, oh she looks the same.... here you go:

Your Name!

Hello blog world! I have definitely been in a comatose state for the past month, as this is my first blog in a long long time. I apologize for this. Blogging is simply not a way of life for me, but I am trying to make it that way.

As a worship leader I run across many new and popular "worship" songs almost everyday. Some of them have an awesome instrumentation, some of them have wonderful lyrics, and most of them are written by men and women truly seeking the face of God and seeking to worship Him to the fullest. However, it is quite rare when I happen upon a song that simply possesses POWER! I did that yesterday. Now, I have heard this song before but I guess I never really sat down, listened to it, and let it soak in. The song is entitled, "Your Name" written and performed by Paul Baloche, a worship leader who I have the utmost respect for. As I listened to the song and felt its power I began to wonder what separates this song from all the others. It wasn't until now that I realized what it was. This song simply declares the name of Jesus. And there is power in that name. Listen for yourself and spend five minutes worshiping as you hear this powerful song.

Words from Jeremiah

It's funny how when you ask God to speak to you through His word, He does it. That was my prayer this morning as I was reading in Jeremiah, and it happened...

Jeremiah 2:10-13
10 “Go west and look in the land of Cyprus;
go east and search through the land of Kedar.
Has anyone ever heard of anything
as strange as this?
11 Has any nation ever traded its gods for new ones,
even though they are not gods at all?
Yet my people have exchanged their glorious God
for worthless idols!
12 The heavens are shocked at such a thing
and shrink back in horror and dismay,”
says the Lord.
13 “For my people have done two evil things:
They have abandoned me—
the fountain of living water.
And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns
that can hold no water at all!
(New Living Translation)

In this passage God is telling his people how dumb they are! They are dumb because: 1) people aren't supposed to trade their gods for new ones - its not a card game; and 2) if it was a card game and you possessed THE card that trumps all other cards, YOU WOULDN'T TRADE IT! The Lord is saying to His people, "The heavens are SHOCKED (appalled) at such a thing! You have traded your Glorious God, the God who trumps all other gods, for worthless idols!

So I was reading this and I was like, "yeah, go God! tell 'em how it is!" Then I realized that I am one of these people that he is talking about. No, I don't sit around with friends and trade my Zeus for your Athena, or my Ra for your Apollo. But I do go throughout my day and with my actions I say "my comfort is more important than God," or "my reputation is more important than God." Without realizing it I am trading my Glorious God for a little "g" god called ME! I put myself on the throne.

I believed God is SHOCKED and APPALLED by what I'm doing. I feel Him saying, "Am I not big enough, not good enough, and not faithful enough? Am I not a God who trumps all? Am I not a God who trumps YOU?" The truth is, He is so big, good, and faithful, that I can't even totally comprehend it! My prayer today is for myself and for everyone who happens to read this. I pray that I(we) will constantly be evaluating who's on the throne. Is it me or is it God?

Praise: His gracious choice.

Here's a video from a worship leader who I highly respect and look up to, Bob Kauflin. Though he has no idea who I am, I consider him one of my mentors.

Consider his exhortation to his church about praise, God's gracious choice.

Glory Revealed!

Last night Kacie reminded me that there was a lunar eclipse outside. It was a cool sight to say the least. I grabed my camera and ran outside to capture a shot of God revealing Himself through His creation. How could anyone deny a magnificant creator after viewing our universe!

Check it out!

It's Real.

Fellow followers of Christ. I beg you to take 20 min out of your day and watch this sermon by K.P. Yohannan. God is real! The Gospel is real! Eternity is real! Will we give it all up for the cause of Christ?

The Valley of Vision

I just began reading a book that I picked up the other day. It is called, "The Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions." Here's an excerpt of the opening prayer:

Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.

Oh how the world would change if we would surrender to this way of living.

Overwhelmed with Love

Greetings Rockway and all of those randomly surfing the www.

The past few weeks in my life have been quite busy to say the least. However, they have been amazing. As most of you know, on December 15th I had the joy of marrying the most beautiful and spectacular woman in the world. It was a moment that I have been looking forward too for many years now, and I am so blessed to have Kacie in my life. Though the wedding ceremony was amazing, and the honeymoon was exciting, Kacie and I have simply been overwhelmed with the amount of love we have felt from Rockway Church. Helping us purchase a refrigerator, sending cards, offering prayers, attending the wedding, and stocking our kitchen with food before we got home have all been genuine expressions of your love and your friendship. Thank you so much for all that you are and all that you do! Kacie and I sincerely feel that we have a family here in Mansfield.

As a new year has come upon us let us look at it as a clean slate. Let's be who we were created to be and glorify the Father this year. Let's seize the opportunity that we have as a church to reach each other, reach the community, and reach the world. Let's not regret this year. Let's be sensitive to God's leading, available for God's calling, and proactive in sharing HIS love.

JH