Monthly Archives: December 2008

The Rock Church Worship Service

Posted on by
Reply

Paul

The Time Has Come (dance)
Medley
You Are So Good To Me
You Are Beautiful My Sweet Sweet Song
You Hold The Universe
All I Need Is You
Wonders
One Heart Under Your Blood
Came To Your Rescue
Be Lifted High
You Are Beautiful My Sweet Sweet Song

Jon

1 Samuel 1:1-11
Constant theme of barren women
Elkinah bestowed more gifts on barren wife Hannah than fertile wife Peninnah
Irritate – annoyed, bothered, pissed off
Hebrew: To thunder and roar with deep agony
Can’t even eat food
Barren women were viewed as less than
Couldn’t contribute to culture
Double portion meant more love, giving barren wife support
Build your life on the fact that I love you more than Peninnah
Hannah rose – made a desicion, moved into action
Goes into prayer
What kind of prayer soothes agony?
1 Sam 1:11-15
Lips move, no words – must be drunk
Pouring out her soul before the Lord
Pouring her heart into God’s reality
What do my deepest prolems look like compared with God’s blessing?
Bares her soul
Your heart, problems, pain melt in God’s glory
Identifies God’s attributes
No razor shall touch his head
Everything on the kid
In Israel you couldn’t just decide to be a Levite
Numbers 6 – Nazarite vow
Hannah pouring anguish into God’s reality
We tend to disconnect Biblical stories
The book is one story, one plot
Salvation through a child of your line, a Messiah
Physical deterioration because we wanted to fix it ourselves
Barren woman miraculously blessed
By bringing a child into the world, you’re taking part in God’s redemptive work
1 Samuel 1:18-20
Every experience is just a shadow of it’s true worth
Hannah prayed and she got her appetite back
Her face was lifted up
Prayed – peace – child
We mix that order up – money leads to peace, etc
Hannah’s child saved Israel
Pouring out our lives into His reality so He can use us
1 Samuel 2:4
2:10
Annointed translated as Messiah
Some think that means David; others think Jesus
Luke 1:46-55
Why is Mary singing like Hannah?
Isaac, Sampson, Samuel, John the Baptist – born to barren women to save the world (economics, politics)
Jesus took it a step further by saving the world from sin an death
Psalm 22- Jesus’ anguish
1. God works in our total inability
God responds to brokenness an hopelessness
I’m going to obey you
2. God will use your suffering, but you won’t fully understand it in your lifetime
3. God loves barren people
4. Most of our deepest disappointments come from pouring our hearts into other things that only God can give us

Paul

Be The Air

The Rock Church Worship Service

Posted on by
Reply

Paul

Praise Him (You are holy)
Make A Way
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
O Holy Night

Jon

Genesis 21:1-7
Key – 6
Made her laughter something redemptive
Gen 12
bless nations of the world
Messiah will fix it all
God gives a promise, but not a deadline
Life keeps ticking away
Abe hits 100
Gen 17:17 – God reassures him and Abe is incredulous
Scoffing laughter, sarcasm
Sarah hears, Gen 18:12, and is sarchastic
Lost belief in supernatural God
As we get older, faith gets harder
Intellectually skeptical
Afraid to hope – males us vulnerable…don’t want to get hurt…
We love control, we hate disappointment
Afraid of boredom…don’t want to wait
Start to close our hearts…get jaded

Laughter of addiction and fixation
Gen 21:8-10
Celebrations full of laughter
Cast out Hagar and son, they can’t laugh
Ishmael laughing AT Isaac?
Laughter turns to anger
Something wrong with this laughter…displaces God from the throne of our hearts, fromour center
If anything disappoints us, laughter turns to anger…
Temporary laughter, conditional laughter
Self-indulgence rooted in being buddies with your kids
Emotional death
Loving yourself through your child will fail eventually
Distortian of truth
Ways of avoiding rest, joy, rejoycing
Gen 18:9-15
God doesn’t ask questions because he lacks information…if we can answer the question, we get to the heart of the issue
Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?
These stories are there to encourage our faith

Take our eyes off the Isaac’s of our lives…off our past failures…they don’t define us….God wants to spin golden humility out of those past failures
Turns it into compassion and wisdom and skills…something beautiful and redemptive
In Christ you are a new creation

He who began a new work will finish it…God’s not done yet…
What is our Isaac?
What do I need to remove so I can be closer to God?
Isaiah 51:1-2
God makes Abraham sacrifice Abraham’s most precious thing
God made the far greater sacrifice with Christ
Rooted in Christ where our hope and faith will be established

Paul

Silent Night

Bolt

Posted on by
Reply

I thought I would be really dissappointed with the end result when Chris Sanders (voice/creator of Stitch (and Lilo)) was pulled off his own project, but with time (and various blog entries talking about the Disney precedent of replacing film directors if the story wasn’t popping right) I eventually decided that I wanted to see the film anyways. And boy am I glad I did. For all the whining and griping I did, this is an incredibly enjoyable film and a proud addition to the Disney canon.

Oooo! It’s a Jessie/Woody moment! Still a valid story moment, but it’s fun to see dogs and cats arguing like toys or real people. :D

A Lion Among Men (Volume Three in the Wicked Years) by Gregory Maguire

Posted on by
Reply

Having seen the paths of all the other original characters through the “Wicked” lens, Maguire now focuses his lens on The Cowardly Lion formally known as Brrr in order to re-examine the life and time of Elphaba and her descendants. Having already revolutionized him as a fop having his curls twirled by Nick Chopper the Tin Woodsman, Maguire now takes us through the life of Brr after he escaped from captivity as he wanders through life just trying to get by and always being discouraged.

As always, a delightful incursion into fancy and an interesting twist in silver shoes.

The Rock Church Worship Service

Posted on by
Reply

Paul

Here I Am To Worship
Mighty To Save
Hallelujah

Children’s Program
I want to know the true meaning of Christmas!
Me too!
We’re too busy!
Deck the Halls
Jingle Bells
Hark The Herald Angels Sing
Silent Night
Joy To The World

This year in children’s ministry: the Messiah
David v. Goliath
Isaiah
Winter: the Beattitudes
Easter: washing the disciples feet
Walk to Ammaus
The early church
Summer: memorize the books of the Bible

Presentation by John Mullens: board representative
Prayer for the staff (Jon, Lori, Paul, Matt)

More Than A Friend

Christmas Eve – communion service only

The Rock Church Worship Service

Posted on by
Reply

Paul

Come Lord Jesus
Baptism – Bailey from Jen and Bryan
We Will Wait Upon The Lord
Grateful Ones
O Come All Ye Faithful
Holy and Annointed One

Jon

Kevin Parsons started a Men’s Ministry
24 hour prayer

Friendship
A sense of community is instilled in humanity and Christianity
Ever been a complete fool in a crowd and a few people still embrace you?
1 Samuel 18-20
Keys to friendship
1. Consistent
18:3 loved him as his soul
Users – always networking, what’s in it for me
Your needs come second, their needs come first
Design was for friendship
Heart needs covenant relationships
Compassion, commitment…
Are we building relationships based on our own needs?
Real friends want to know your weaknesses
They gently correct you
Think of Jonathon…his needs disappeared to the background
Saw David’s role as the next King of Israel
Earned his father’s enmity by aligning himself with David
Loved him as his own soul
Stripped himself of his throne
Saw the call of God on David’s life
2. Vulnerability
18:4
Knows we’re not the hottest guy
It’s scary to be vulnerable
20:41 – David wept the most even though Jon sacrificed the most
How can we be this kind of friend?
Do you rejoice when our friends beat us?
Handed sword handle out
Because of Jonathon, David lived
John 15:12-15
That someone would lay down his life for his friends
David’s glory was realized by Jonathon’s sacrifices
Just like Jesus….He sacrificed all

Australia

Posted on by
Reply

I suspect that if Michael Bay had titled ‘Pearl Harbor’ ‘Hawaii’ instead the movie would have been very differently received…because (without having seen it in a while), that’s basically what happens in this film…an epic love story with personal hardships framed around the Japanese naval bombings in the Pacfic during World War 2. Well that and it’s a western.

Due to burning-the-midnight-oil-post-production the soundtrack is still forthcoming….curses! The music is really incredible…there’s even an awesome Australian swing number (banjo and didgeredoo!) while Hugh Jackman is beating people up. As well as Begin The Beguine and some stunning variations and choral versions of ‘Somewhere (Over The Rainbow)’.

1940′s Radio Hour – Irvine Valley College

Posted on by
Reply

*starts choking on cough drop*

They destroyed it.  This was probably the worst college production I’ve seen to date.  Which is unfortunate when you actually know people in the cast….because at some point you know you’re going to have to talk to them.  My biggest problem is that the show is supposed to be a radio broadcast in the 1940′s (gee, hence the title?)…and there is no way on God’s green earth that what we saw was capable of going over the air in any manner of acclaim.  There was enough dead air to bring a corpse back to life, there were people 20 ft from a mike thinking they were being heard loud and clear, there was foley going on 30 ft from the mike…it was disastrous…absolutely nothing like the show I saw growing up.

Mic troubles.

I didn’t care about the main character’s arc.  Johnny the singer was going through tough times financially so he quits, but I didn’t really care.

My one consolation about knowing people in the show?  I didn’t know the director…and that’s where all these faults truly lie…the director.  It’s his/her job to guide the show with a vision and this director’s vision was horribly flawed.

Laura and I were so frustated and upset at the end of the show that we did a 20 minute rant against the show in the car….I’m still not sure what to do with the recording…

Silk Stockings – MTW

Posted on by
Reply

Delightful!

Based on the short story Ninotchka by Melchior Lengyel, adapted into a film of the same name (with Greta Garbo) and later adapted to a Broadway musical with music by Cole Porter (his last Broadway musical) and later adapted to film with Cyd Charrise and Fred Astaire (in his last dancing role), this is actually a reworking of the movie musical placing it in the 60′s to capitalize on US/USSR relations at the height of the Cold War.  Having seen the other film versions, it is still a delightful story that stays delightfully true to it’s source material while still being relevant and romantic.

Starring Stuart Pankin as one of the Russian Arts Commisars.  I didn’t recognize his name at first either, but his voice and face made me go wait a second….then I realized he was in Honey We Shrunk Ourselves as Wayne Szalinski’s brother Gordon and he was Earl on ABC’s Dinosaur (you know….”not the mamma!”).  So that was a delightful treat.

BOO!  They did a Sarah Palin dig!  It just doesn’t seem fair that because of the unequal and biased media coverage we can make fun of Palin saying you can see Siberia from parts of Alaska but not President-Elect Obama for saying he’s been to all 57 states.  But mine was a small boo in the audience’s laughter.  Sigh.

Four Christmases

Posted on by
Reply

Rather similar to Meet The Parents, but uniquely hilarious in it’s own right. Full of brilliant and crazy family moments (including nymphomaniacs, violence-prone cage fighters and holistic cradle robbers), it also has a heart of couple’s therapy (as all good romantic comedies do). I say romcom because I believe it falls into the same category as Wedding Crashers, which was a raunchy romp revolving around romance.

OMG! It’s Tim McGraw! Wow…a great addition to a really stellar cast (yay Olive Snook)!