Quotes About Prayer

Here are some general quotes regarding prayer. Tomorrow I intend to post quotes about prayer in relation to preaching.

"When a local church ceases to depend on prayer, God ceases to bless its ministry." Warren Wiersbe

"When we depend upon organizations, we get what organizations can do;
When we depend upon education, we get what education can do;
When we depend upon man, we get what man can do;
But when we depend upon prayer, we get what God can do." A.C. Dixon

"When I fail to pray, the best I can do is the best I can do. I forfeit my spiritual potential. But when I pray, the best i can do is no longer the best I can do. The best i can do is the best God can do. And He is able to do immeasurably more than I can ask or imagine." Mark Batterson

"The condition of a church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer-meetings." C.H. Spurgeon

"Church members who never pray for the good of the church, have no love for it;" C.H. Spurgeon

"Praying will make you leave off sinning, or sinning will make you leave off praying." C.H. Spurgeon

"We have our requests, not always as we pray, but as we would pray were we wiser." Robertson Nicoll

Quotes About Worship

"The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied." Jonathan Edwards

"Worship is all about consciously reflecting the worth of value of God." John Piper

"Worship is an active response to God whereby we declare His worth. Worship is not passive, but is participatory. Worship is not simply a mood; it is a response. Worship is not just a feeling; it is a declaration." Ronald B. Allen and Gordon L. Borrror

"Reverent corporate worship, then, is not optional for the church of God . . . Rather, it brings to expression the very being of the church. It manifests on earth the reality of the heavenly assembly." Edmund Clowney

"As angels find it their highest joy to praise god continually, should we not also delight each day to sing God's praise, counting this as the highest and most worthy use of our time and our greatest joy?" Wayne Grudem

"The alternative to worship is apostasy." William Lane

Here is one that was just "published" the day after I initially posted these quotes:

"We can worship God by serving our neighbors, but once a week we are called to serve our neighbors by worshiping God." Kevin DeYoung

Event Filled Week

My daily commute involves walking from my living room to my basement. That commute got slightly longer recently when my study moved one room farther away in the basement. One result of working from home is that there are some weeks in which I don't get out of the house much. This past week was not one of those weeks.

After church on Sunday I was able to take my two youngest daughters to Great Adventure. They loved the rides (well, most of them). On Monday I went with my younger son to his first Yankee game. We took the ferry to Manhattan and then took the subway up to the Bronx. The Yankees made the night special by winning the game (most people probably thought that it was special that a monument was unveiled in Monument Park for George Steinbrenner and that Joe Torre, Don Mattingly, and a bunch of other famous Yankees were there, but my son just wanted the game to begin and was happy that we won).

On Tuesday I headed to Pennsylvania for yet another interview in my ordination process. That night we had a great Bible study at the church which also happened to be well attended. On Wednesday I met with the pastors in the denomination who are most local to me. Thursday night was soccer games for my boys. Friday found me driving to Cape May, NJ for a meeting for a church plant in our denomination. Friday was the longest drive, but was actually far less tiring than Tuesday's trip to PA because my dad let me borrow his car. We have two more soccer games on Saturday morning.

In case you were wondering- I love my commute, but I also enjoy getting out of the study and doing other things.

Too Funny Not To Share

The best lines are near the end. I enjoyed this clip, so I hope you will also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=libNMEbv3_M&feature=player_embedded

Building Update

The Building Committee at Grace Church continues to work. Right now the committee has most of the plans made for an addition to our current chapel. The addition would seat 120 people and have bathrooms and some kitchen space. It would be connected to our current sanctuary, but that sanctuary would become classrooms. The building would be able to be seen by the road since it will be tall and since the parking lot will sit right in front of the building and extend a bit into our current front yard. Much of the yard would remain, but some more trees from the tree line would have to come down to accommodate the flow of traffic. Also to accommodate traffic, the current driveway would be widened so that cars could enter and exit at the same time- quite a novel idea, don't you think?

At this point in time the site engineer has already provided us with the basic overview plans of what the property would look like when the addition was completed. That is the picture at the top of this page. The completed plans should be able to be reviewed by the committee at our October meeting.

While the engineer decides what the property layout will be, it is the job of the architect to plan the inside floor plan for the new building. That is exactly what our architect is in the process of doing for us. We should have some preliminary results from him in the next couple of weeks.

Once we approve the engineer's final plans (which require some interaction with the DEP first) we will be about ready to apply for our permits. All of this is a long process, but it will be worth it when we are able to gather and worship in a building that suits our needs.

Worship Songs

I found this post both entertaining and enlightening. I trust you will do the same. You have to look at the links to fully appreciate the intent of the "worship rant."

http://firstthings.com/blogs/evangel/2010/08/rant-worship/