Archive for the 'praise' Category
August 30th, 2010 by Burlw
Yesterday was a great day! Not only at my own church – NewSpring (Greenville Campus) but also at many churches across the country. At Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC 581 souls are now bound for heaven after yesterday’s services!!! That is incredible. At NewSpring, 516 people gave their hearts to Jesus! I am sure that in the thousands of other churches that dot the landscape of our great country and around the world, God was doing incredible things! I would love to hear comments on what God did in your church this Sunday! If you don’t attend a church anywhere, I encourage you to find one in your part of the world to get involved in. God uses churches of all kinds! None are perfect, but if we are willing to be used by HIM, He will make things happen!
February 24th, 2010 by Burlw
Isaiah 40:12 says, “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
or weighed the mountains on the scales
and the hills in a balance?”
As I read this verse, it reminded me of Francis Chan’s video about being in awe of God from his book Crazy Love. By blog today is short…watch the video after reading this verse. Think about how all the universe is measured by the breadth (width) of God’s hand. One hand width is the entire known and unknown span of the galaxies! Then sit back and be in awe of our Awesome God!
January 27th, 2010 by Burlw
Sometimes in ministry, it seems as if all is going great! GOD is working beside you and accomplishing great things through you! Those are the Great Moments! Those moments are when hundreds of people pack the altars asking God to forgive them and take over their lives! Those are the moments when you lay hands on a cripple or even a dead person and they get up and walk! Those moments when you are seated next to someone on the plane and before you touch down there is a new name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life! So what about the other times? Those moments when our spiritual walk with GOD seems stagnant? What about when we don’t even feel like reading God’s Word and even praying over meals seems like a forced exercise instead of time spent with our best friend? As is clear from my taking some months off from writing on this blog, I just went through a time where my passion for ministry if not even my passion for the Lord was in a very low place. The great thing I learned is that GOD is the same in both places! HE still walked beside me each day even when I didn’t pick up the Bible to start my morning. HE still wanted to spend time with me. That was incredible! So, enjoy those GREAT MOMENTS, but realize that GOD is the same even in the not so great moments.
January 25th, 2010 by Burlw
Yesterday, I had a chance to see just a little bit of what the party in heaven must be like when someone comes to the Lord! NewSpring Church had a 10th anniversary celebration at the BiLo Center in Greenville, SC. Just being able to praise an ALL POWERFUL GOD along with 15,000 or so other people was incredible. The great thing was the altar call…over 350 people came forward to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior! The service was about 2 1/2 hours long and could have gone longer! During the altar call people clapped and cheered for those who were laying their lives down to let Christ take control of their destiny! For 15 minutes, 15,000 people were in unison praying for those down by the stage. For 15 minutes, there were no problems, no divorces, no debt, no tax issues, no kid problems or parent problems! For 15 minutes of Glory, people stood and cheered for the ALMIGHTY GOD who was GREAT enough to reach down and save not only those who walked forward but each of us who were cheering as well. We are ALL broken vessels saved by a LOVING GOD who cared enough to make a way for us to find HIM through HIS SON JESUS CHRIST! That was 15 minutes of GLORY!
September 21st, 2009 by Burlw
This morning, I had my usual spot on Monday and Wednesday mornings. In a seat in chapel at North Greenville University. As with any institution that has chapel services, some services are better than others. This morning’s speaker was a guy named Dr. David Garrison. Don’t let the “Dr.” fool you. He was very in touch with his audience and with the message the Lord had laid on his heart. His text for the message was Habakkuk 1:5 “Look at the nations and watch— and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” The stories of what God is doing in traditionally tough mission fields were incredible! God is doing amazing things around the world in ‘our days’ that seem to defy reason. Missionaries in muslim and hindu nations reporting hundreds of thousands of people accepting Jesus as their Lord and savior! I see God working here in the USA on a regular basis. We however usually don’t face being beaten or killed for our faith when we tell someone about Jesus. These men did face that, and GOD showed that HE isn’t scared! HE can overcome any obstacle! And HE is doing things that utterly amaze us! He is doing them in our day! And they are things that seem almost impossible! Praise the LORD!
August 3rd, 2009 by Burlw
Yesterday, the music was good, the sermon was well preached, but the amazing thing was the altar call. Some of you come from churches where it is very normal to see most of the congregation go forward at the end of almost every service. We aren’t one of those churches. It was amazing! Not sure exactly how many salvations we had in the mix as some were coming forward for salvation, others for re-dedication and others just to deal with something in their life. It was incredible to see the altar(Actually, we don’t have an altar, but the area up in front of the platform in the theater) so full of people that there were people in the isles! Just wanted to share a great day with you all! God was moving in some incredible ways!
July 5th, 2009 by Burlw
Yesterday at 5 Point Fellowship, we celebrated the 4th of July by having sort of a community party/festival that we give to the community for free. There were inflatable rides, bungee slingshots, a rock wall, music, popcorn, cotton candy, sno cones, face painting, hotdogs and most of all, lots of smiles for free! I, along with many other volunteers, was able to share the love of Jesus Christ with people in word, but also through what we were doing. I was really proud off all the people from the church that started setting up about 1:00 and didn’t leave until the parking lot and church were cleaned up at almost 11:00 at night! It was great to have so many hands pitching in, and when asked to do anything, no one said, “That’s not my job.” Every single volunteer pitched in where they saw a need! I love working with this bunch! For those who may read this who have never even heard of 5 Point Fellowship or even Easley, SC…Sorry the blog is a little off my normal fare…I just had to brag on my people!
June 8th, 2009 by Burlw
Ever have a day in which you are just glad that the Joy you have comes from the Lord and not from your surroundings. Yesterday, I found that a man I look up to in the ministry resigned his church due to moral reasons. Also found out that my parents surprised me by showing up a little earlier here in South Carolina. Both are big news to me. One had the potential to shatter a church, the other is a great surprise! Just two examples of information or outside circumstances that could have an affect on our mood. Our joy isn’t dependent on ouside circumstances or information. Psalms is full of verses about joy, but just two are Psalm 28:7 “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.” and Psalm 30:11 “You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,” Notice that in the midst of wailing and wearing sackcloth, there was the Joy of the LORD! The LORD is our strength, not the things happening around us. HE gives us joy! Have a day full of JOY, no matter what the circumstances.
April 13th, 2009 by Burlw
So, like most churches across the world, Yesterday was a larger than normal service for us at 5 Point Fellowship! Like I mentioned in my previous blog, we had added a Saturday evening service to take care of some of the extra seating. We still had more on Sunday morning even with the 250 people who gave up their Sunday morning seats to come on Saturday night! The greatest number isn’t the number of bodies who showed up, but the 20 people who gave their hearts to Jesus! Integrating new believers into the body of Christ is messy work! It just so happens that I love it! Surprisingly, I don’t much care for real babies and changing diapers and all that, but I love baby Christians! They are so full of energy and haven’t gotten their theology all screwed up yet! They just believe what the Bible tells them. And those who get saved often begin pouring over the Bible like a college student cramming for final exams! I love that! There are a million questions. Sometimes you laugh at the questions, but many times, those questions will really make you think! This blog is just to praise the Lord and say thank you to Him for all the baby Christians that were born in churches across the world yesterday! And a shout out to New Spring Church in Anderson, SC!(Where my brother in law attends.) Somewhere around 350 people gave their hearts to Jesus there! Praise the Lord! I would love to hear comments from readers on the great things God is doing in your church!
April 12th, 2009 by Burlw
Last night was the Saturday night before Easter, so we had an extra service. Our Sunday morning services have been fairly full, so to be ready for the extra Easter crowd, we announced that we would have a 6:30 service on Saturday. The really cool part is that over 250 people came! That is a lot of seats freed up for today’s service! I can’t wait to see what God is going to do this morning! As we remember Christ rising from the dead, remember that He is Alive and Well and working in our communities today! Have an awesome Easter!