cause i’m loving MUSE! and i found out that the lead guitar and vocalist of MUSE,  Matthew Bellamy is the son of George Bellamy who was the rhythm guitarist for the British band The Tornados.

They are famous for this song.

That song is called “Telstar” and was a #1 hit in 1962, which leads us to this MUSE song.

Knights of Cydonia

The song features vocals from both Bellamy’s higher and lower ranges layered and both synthesised and live trumpet parts. The guitar sound in the song was inspired by “Telstar”. The song, taken in entirety, also bears a striking resemblance to George Bellamy’s composition “Ridin’ the Wind”.

Bellamy has stated that on the album in general he tried to create a vision of what is occurring in the song. For example, the bassline has a galloping rhythm depicting someone riding a horse.

David had a stone….but i’ve got a WahWah pedal….

Kids in the Hall at their best…

this post is part of the celebration over at Fred McKinnon’s blog

We had a great All Saints Day on Sunday.  we got some of our stage volume issues taken care of, but still have a few to cover.  we opened with…

I Am Free-Promise Keeper’s arr.  (this version completely rocks.  we did have some issues with projection.  substitute did this song the last time i was gone and didn’t do this version, so i didn’t think to fix the cue.  my bad)

Opportunities for Witness and Service

Stewardship Testimony

Welcome Time

Our God Saves-Baloche

Holy is the Lord-Tomlin

Everybody Praise the Lord-Brewster (offering.  they loved it again)

On All Saints Day, we read the names of those members who have passed away in the previous year.  we say their name and then ring a bell.  after the reading, we had set up some candle boxes for people to come and remember their loved ones who have gone on to be with Jesus.  it was a definite God moment in the service and came off much better than i planned or hoped.  i was beautiful to see whole families come up and light a candle. (in hindsight, the service was a bit schizophrenic with the big anthem and then the rocking offertory followed by somber moment and a vibrant sermon on “vision”.  but somehow those swings worked.)

Sermon-Steps to Building a Vision for Your Life (Pastor Nick challenged us to live up to our 10×12 capacity and not be satisified with a 2×4 kind of life.)

Amazed-Anderson (invitation)

had two more families join the church today.

how was your Sunday?

well i had some things to share and i’m waaaaayyy behind on blogging anyway, so why not?

i was revisiting Kyle Lake’s book [re]understanding prayer when i ran across this and thought it was interesting.

“there continues to be a great debate as to whether the miraculous continues to take place today.  Scripture provides no indication that miraculous experiences or supernatural modes of communication would cease with the ancient world or with the close of scriptural canon.  God is perfectly capable and continues to enact miraculous events and communicate via the supernatural today.  I fully believe God continues to communicate with us through the medium of dreams, visions and angelic visitations.  However the story of Aaron, Miriam and Moses provides a window into God’s end goal, His truest intentions.

In the twelfth chapter of the book of Numbers, Aaron and Miriam, absorbed in their own jealousy that God would speak to Moses and not them, were fuming.

1-2 Miriam and Aaron talked against Moses behind his back of
because his Cushite wife (he had married a Cushite woman). They said, “Is it only through Moses that God speaks? Doesn’t he also speak through us?”

   God overheard their talk.

 3-8 Now the man Moses was a quietly humble man, more so than anyone living on Earth. God broke in suddenly on Moses and Aaron and Miriam saying, “Come out, you three, to the Tent of Meeting.” The three went out. God descended in a Pillar of Cloud and stood at the entrance to the Tent. He called Aaron and Miriam to him. When they stepped out, he said,

   Listen carefully to what I’m telling you.
      If there is a prophet of God among you,
   I make myself known to him in visions,
      I speak to him in dreams.
   But I don’t do it that way with my servant Moses;
      he has the run of my entire house;
   I speak to him intimately, in person,
      in plain talk without riddles:
      He ponders the very form of God.
   So why did you show no reverence or respect
      in speaking against my servant, against Moses?

 9 The anger of God blazed out against them. And then he left. (Numbers 12:1-9, MSG)

Aaron and Miriam’s jealous reponse proved the were incapable of being the sort of people with whom God could freely interact–as He did with Moses.  Moses, characterized by humility, couldn’t have cared less who had the inside track on “hearing God.” For Moses, the ability to hear God wasn’t prized as being especially important in the eyes of God.  And this passage certainly seems to indicate that, from God’s perspective, a distinction was made between His speaking in visions or dreams and His speaking “intimately, in person, in plain talk without riddles.”

It becomes clear from the story that, though supernatural modes of communication were evident, they weren’t the ideal form of communication between God and the individual.  In fact, the story even tells why: God’s ultimate desire isn’t to create a relationship based on occasional, periodic experiences of ambiguity–dreams and visions.  His ultimate desire is to create an ongoing relationship of conversation….”

wow, am i seeking after dreams and visions or am i pursuing the kind of relationship with God that has the “ongoing relationship of conversation”?

do i crave the “special status” or do i care less about the “inside track”

oh that God would always speak to me.

to take my whole family to the theatre yesterday afternoon.

 i absolutely LOVE creativity in any form. and i LOVE exposing my children to it.  i want to get their creative souls flowing and dreaming.

we have a world class facility here in Lufkin called the Angelina Center for the Arts.  it has a beautiful and amazing theatre space called the Tom Temple Theatre (named for the man who funded and pushed for it) that has seen and will continue to see world class performances due to the tireless efforts of the Angelina Arts Alliance.

we had the privelege to attend a matinee performance of Cirque Mechanics production of Birdhouse Factory

it was an amazing show full of machines, acrobatics, trampolines and brilliant story and choreography.  the story was told using laughter, hand gestures and the word “Hey”.

i loved watching my 2 1/2 year old and 4 year old be entranced by the lights, sounds and movements of the show.  it was wonderful.  my favorite thing was when the trampoline crew was doing a very intricate, choreographed routine with split second precision and my 2 1/2 year old says, “I can do that”.  the trampoline, juggler and german wheel were the highlights of the show for me.

so it was great to see such a wonderful production and spend time with my family on a lazy Sunday afternoon in Lufkin.

here’s a demo reel of the show, we saw pretty much all of this.

this post is part of the blogfest over at Fred McKinnon’s blog

well I missed last week’s posting because i was floating down the Colorado River for 35 miles with some men from our church.  it was a great trip and i really enjoyed getting to spend some time with men from our church on their journey.  sleeping in a tent that was too short for me was quite an experience.  i made it back alive.

onto our services for this week the 25th of October.

we opened with a song we’ve been working on and planning to do since early September, and the band did an amazing job.

Everybody Praise the Lord-Lincoln Brewster (it’s a barnburner and our band tore it up.  special kudos to our lead guitar Jay Watrous.  he put a lot of work into this song and it was a joy to hear and see him play it for the Lord.)

Opportunities for Witness and Service

Welcome Time

Marvelous Light-Charlie Hall (got to hear Charlie do this live last Saturday, so it was really fresh on my mind)

All Because of Jesus-Fee

Glorious One-Fee

Revelation Song-Jennie Lee Riddle (we used the flexxworship backgrounds from Integrity for this song.  April did a beautiful job as usual.  felt the Spirit prompt to sing the chorus a couple of times after just voices.  great moment with the Lord)

Sermon-Are You Caught Up in the “Me-ism” Epidemic Now? (great sermon by Pastor Nick using the biblical story of Lazarus and the Rich Man.  we were able to use this video[thank you TubeSucker] to illustrate how nothing but Jesus matters.)

great service we closed with

Great is Thy Faithfulness -Brewster arr.

How was your Sunday?

this post is part of Sunday Setlists over at Fred McKinnon’s blog.

It was Children’s Sabbath so we had lots of children’s participation in the service.

We opened the service to get people in the room.

Let God Arise-Tomlin

Holy, Holy, Holy-Solid Rock Ringers (children’s handchime group)

Opportunities for Witness and Service

we used this video

Go Tell It On the Mountaintop-Children’s Choir (my 9 year old had a solo and she hit it out of the park)

greeting time

Prayer-Foster Mastin

Glorious One-Fee (offering.  one thing i pray for our church is that they will begin to take hold of worship and become the instigators so that i’m not always instructing them, that they learn we are fellow worshippers of Christ and we’re there to help them move towards the throne.  today they stood in the middle of this song and sang with no prompting.  they are standing and singing in honor of the King and i’m tearing up as i type this)

Scripture Reading-Kimberlin Arnold

Sermon-What Parents and Grandparents Owe Their Children

Take My Life and Let It Be-Tomlin (had a friend come up and tell me afterwards the way we did it was a prayerful lullaby)

another great Sunday worshipping our Great God with the people of First United Methodist Lufkin.

How He Loves…

i have to agree with some buddies of mine and say that Jared Anderson’s version is amazing.  Crowder’s is good too, but i think the Anderson version is the one our church will get.  i also love the Jesus Culture Music version with Kim Walker.

is because worship does not…”   John Piper

i love this song.  it might be in my top 10.  this video is amazing.  please watch it.

and as you do, remember how to pray for a lost and dying world using T.H.U.M.B

T-Tribal

H-Hindu

U-Unbeliever/Atheist

M-Muslim

B-Buddhist

people need to know the earth shattering news of the Kingdom.

thinking of creating my own arrangement to do in worship…

enjoy