Category: God

1.  Setup and Hospitality in the main lobby of the movie theatre went rather smooth this morning despite a few obstacles along the way. There were people missing from key positions and items missing from usual locations, but it all worked out in the end.

2.  I believe that we had from 20 to 25 new visitors to our church on this glorious Sunday morning for the two services combined. We even ran out of the new Life Pointe Church coffee mugs in-between the two services. Hopefully it will not be ‘one-and-out’ for our new visitors, and that they return next Sunday morning to claim their gifts and become regular attenders and eventually loyal and faithful members of our growing and loving church family.

3.  Pastor Paul was back in action after a week off up north, and it didn’t take long for the top of his face to glisten with sweat. His Information Booth was also back in action – minus the video on ‘the small screen’. (His laptop was ailing again.)

4.  Brother Jesse was also back in action, and back where he belongs – up on stage leading us in ‘Praise & Worship’ to kick-off each of the services. He was also proudly showing off one of his apparent Christmas presents from Chicagoland – a spiffy new sweater vest complete with a tie !

5.  Pastor Travis kicked-off a fresh new 5-week message series for 2008 and the new political year entitled ‘State Of The Church’. It’s all about what Jesus says about the Church and how we fit within it. Today’s theme – ‘A City On A Hill’. Hope is alive and well within our church !

Matthew 5:13-16 (New Living Translation – 2ND Edition):

Teaching About Salt And Light
13  You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor ?  Can you make it salty again ?  It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.
14  You are the light of the world — like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.
15  No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.
16  In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

1.  We were locked out of the movie theatre for about 20 minutes bright and early on this glorious Sunday morning, but then Pastor Travis suddenly disappeared and then reappeared – inside the main lobby. He let us in, and then we went to work to set up everything.

2.  At its peak we had up to 8 guys on the Hospitality staff greeting our church family at the front door. That’s right around our running average over the past few months. One dude arrived and ran through the ‘welcome line’ like a football player on a Sunday afternoon emerging from the tunnel.

3.  Phil J. substituted for the vacationing Jesse as the leader of ‘Praise & Worship’ this morning. He had us rockin’ and clappin’ hard with one of my new favourite worship songs “One Way Jesus”. (He is the only one that I could live for.) We also sang another favourite of mine “You Are My King (Amazing Love)”. CHURCH ROCKS !

4.  Pastor Travis closed out our 11-week likeus.tv message series. It’s not about success in life. It’s not about being great. It’s about our grasp and perseverance in faith. It’s about following Jesus. We are not promised perfect lives. We are saved because we persevere in His grace. It’s His grace that saves us. Persevering in the Kingdom is receiving the grace of Jesus and following Him.

5.  Ela Ortega was up on ‘the big screen’ with her life story. I’ve been anxiously waiting over two months to see her video, and it was so well worth the wait. I sat there in my comfortable theatre seat during the 10:30 AM service so totally amazed, encouraged, and inspired at what I was seeing and hearing from Ela. My eyes were all watery as well, as tears of joy flowed freely from them. She is what it is all about. She is the ‘real deal’. She is persevering in God’s Kingdom !