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Advent Week 2 (2013)

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So you’re in Target, or Walgreens, or in the mall, and you start hearing Christmas music like “Angels We Have Heard On High”. You might think: Christmas carol time! But wait… remember that many of these songs are actually worship songs for the newborn king Jesus!

Often times we forget the true meaning of Christmas. We get caught up in the shopping frenzies, sales, presents… and then we have church. We think there’s a schism between “sacred” and “secular” around this time. Going to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular shocks some people when (spoiler alert) they talk about the Nativity of Jesus. But Christmas is what Christmas is… it is about Christ.

Last week, a popular article/blog on Switchfoot was trending on social media sites: Why Switchfoot Won’t Sing Christian Songs

During this second week of Advent, we would like to challenge & encourage you to be more Christ-like and to make Christmas about Christ. Advent isn’t about the arrival of your Amazon Prime order. Advent is about the arrival of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who didn’t come to die for our gifts but for our sins – which is the greatest gift of all!

Reflection Song: Only You

Advent Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

Advent Week 1 (2013)

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Isaiah 40:1-5 says to “prepare the way for the Lord” – to make straight paths for our God. On this first week of Advent, we focus on “hope”. By definition, hope means a feeling of expectation or desire for something to happen.

It’s hard to believe that Christmas is less than 4 weeks away. But as we begin this season of Advent, we have an expectation for Jesus – an anticipation for His birth as God’s glory is revealed. So instead of hoping for that thing you didn’t get during Thanksgiving weekend, or hoping for other things this Christmas, let us put our hope in Christ. Let us put our faith in God’s promise, believing, so that we will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

As we start with Advent Week 1, may we make straight paths for the Lord, clearing away all the distractions of what the mall might make us think of Christmas. Instead, may we make Christmas about Christ, as it should be.

Reflection Song: Prepare The Way

Advent Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

“If Only” (A Thanksgiving Blog)

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In the book of Exodus in the Old Testament, God uses Moses to lead the Israelite slaves out from Egypt. Yet on the fifteenth day of the second month since they came out of Egypt, all the Israelites did was complain to Moses:

“If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” (Exodus 16:3)

How quickly their celebration in freedom turned to complaint! Moses reassures the people that God hears their grumbling and surely, soon after, God provided manna and quail. But really, what good was their grumbling and complaining? Of course our God who freed them would surely provide, if not already! God who showed His power through ten plagues. God who parted the Red Sea. God who delivered them from bondage and oppression. Their grumbling was part of their forgetfulness: “if only we had stayed”, “if only we had food to eat”, “if only”, “if only”, “if only”… “If only” they remembered God’s provision! I mean, how could they forget?

With Christmas just around the corner, it’s easy for us to overlook Thanksgiving and what we’re thankful for. Time to time, we might find ourselves grumbling with complaints, regrets, or even “if only I could get this or that for Christmas”. There’s no need to look back on our lives and think how it “could be”. Let’s not forget to be grateful for what God has done, is doing, and will do in our lives. It’s not a matter of “if only” – since we are in Christ, all things are possible with God and through God.

Hopefully the only grumbling this Thanksgiving will be coming from our stomachs before dinner. Let’s be thankful: Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Church Anniversary

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It seems like October was the month of church anniversaries this year. All over Facebook this month we saw churches in our area celebrating another year of ministry. We were honored to be a part of our home church’s 41st Anniversary Revival at KCCNJ with guest speaker Pastor Sam Choi.

It’s amazing to look back at the 41 year history of KCC and realize how faithful God has been through the thick and thin. What’s even more amazing is the ability to look forward, trusting in Him to continue providing for the church. We enjoyed celebrating with them this past weekend with songs of praise & thanksgiving. Here are some of those songs:

Dead In Our Sins

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A couple of weeks ago, I had slept weird one night and developed an incredible back/shoulder pain that was so painful for at least 3 days… I hadn’t felt this sort of pain in my back for a few years! Usually it would stop by the end of the first day, but in this case it only got worse by the hour. Stretching, massages, aspirin, Icy Hot… nothing seemed to work.

Thankfully, it eventually healed thanks to prayer and diligence. I had to take it easy the next few days, but it made me think about how grateful I was for this life – I mean, if God is able to heal us from our hurt, illnesses, pain, injuries… He’s quite an awesome God!

But the Bible says that we were dead in our sins and God made us alive with Christ! Can you imagine? We were dead in our sins, dead in our old ways, dead in our old selves… but God, through grace, saved us and raised us up with Christ! How much more awesome, more merciful, more loving, and more amazing is our God now? It really puts into perspective the little things in our lives and amplifies the bigness of God that He ought to have in our lives.

Ephesians 2:1-10 is for anyone today who has any pain or hurt (not only physical) that is slowing them down from thanking the Lord, or worshiping Him wholly today. Remember that if God has made us alive in Christ, then we’re dead to our old ways and now living for Christ! We hope you can be joyful today in our God who is rich in mercy and grace!

Reflection Song: Christ Is

The Record Publicity Photos

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Last year, our local newspaper The Record contacted us about our Kickstarter for Unending Praise. They interviewed us for an article and took some photos (almost exactly a year ago). We’ve been using some of these photos throughout our pages and materials but thought we’d share the rest for “Throwback Thursday” today! Unfortunately our fourth member Charles wasn’t available for the shoot that day… But click the image below to see the gallery for yourself on our Facebook page. And it’d be great if you guys can continue to share our Facebook page to help us get to 200 likes! We’re planning on some more giveaways and free things to give out before Christmas!

My Life Is Not My Own

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“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

This was the theme of our praise night this past Friday as we wrapped up School Of Worship and yet another summer. What we do with our lives ought to be worship to God with every moment we have otherwise it ends up being empty, meaningless, and inauthentic worship. Our night of worship was more than just singing – it was filled with praise, prayers, scripture, and celebration from the people of God!

The Word I shared in the middle of the night was to offer perspective on the fact that our lives are not our own, but they belong to God since we were bought at a price. Our lives should be lived to testify the good news of His grace because of Jesus Christ (Acts 20:24), which includes when we worship on Sundays, Fridays, and every other moment in between as we live these lives for Him.

It was a powerful night of praise for all of God’s children. It was a great privilege to lead with our band one more time before the new school year starts. These days there are so many things saying that it’s okay to do whatever you want with your life, with your bodies, with your actions… but I hope whether or not you were with us at the praise night, you can look forward to this new school year with intentions of bringing glory, honor, and praise to God in all that you do & all that you are! Our lives are not our own!

Radio Single

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Our friends at MMGI & CCMNI have put our next single “You Are Greater” on nationwide radio! You might remember we briefly mentioned it in May, but today we started on the charts at #7!

Let’s see if we end up on the radio on the East Coast too! Please comment below if you’ve heard us on AM, FM, XM, or Internet radio stations…

Meanwhile, our first single & title track “Unending Praise” is continuing to get airplay on stations like Jango. Thanks for all of your continued support. Don’t forget, our music is available for download in our Store and on iTunes too.

Cornerstone Church Retreat

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Last weekend we had the privilege of joining Cornerstone Church on their family retreat (check out Dry Bones), leading praise for the adult congregation. We hadn’t seen many of them for almost 2 years so it was great to reconnect with them again!

It was actually so familiar that I almost forgot to introduce ourselves to them! (Just in case, although many probably knew us for the most part!)

Cornerstone has always been a blessing to us – a special close relationship that’s hard to match. They’ve always supported and encouraged us and this retreat was no different: I did an inventory check earlier this week to organize our merchandise and to my surprise, they nearly wiped us clean of our t-shirts! We only have 2 t-shirts left (both size S)! So if you’ve been waiting for the right time to buy that t-shirt in small, now’s your chance…

Pretty soon we’ll have a new t-shirt design ready, so we hope you’re excited about that!

Meanwhile, if you’re in the Hasbrouck Heights area and are looking for a church, why don’t you check out Cornerstone Church?

Until next time, Cornerstone (hopefully sooner than later)!