King’s Dominion

Psalm 103:13-19

To know that we are loved from everlasting to everlasting is mind blowing. That from the time God was here to all of eternity, God will reign on high. According to Psalm 103 all we have to do is love one another as he first loved us. If we love as God loved us, then we will receive the grace and mercy and righteousness of the Lord.
In worship there is this idea of surrender. It is understood that when your hands are raised toward the sky, that this means you are offering your heart to the Lord allowing him to come in and change you from the inside out. The love of the Lord is so gracious and bountiful. He covers all sins and wipes your slate clean. We are recreated when he forgives us.
Vulnerability is also intertwined in the idea of surrender and worship. You are allowing yourself to be changed and transformed through God into a creature that deserves to be in the presence of the Lord. And to think that it is so simple… all we have to do is love and allow ourselves to be VULNERABLE.
So now the question remains: Are you going to offer yourself completely and allow God to move in and transform you or are you going to be remain separate and unattached from the living God and the grace he wants to give?

Timothy Walker

God Uses the Bad Things in our Lives to bring Healing

Last night on the bus ride from The Children’s Home to our new hotel in Richmond, Virginia we were given the opportunity to share where we saw God this week. This is my first C.H.R.I.S.T Choir tour and I was super excited to be able to share this week with some of my closest friends. The very first performance on tour was in Roanoke. Everything was going great and I was having an amazing time, until I started to feel very sick. I had to run off of the stage during “The Word is Alive,” and I was so disappointed. I learned how much our choir cares about each one of their members. I was feeling better and performed for the second service. Then, we traveled to Centerville for an evening performance. I got off the bus feeling very ill and didn’t know if my stomach would be able to handle to wonderful taco bar that the church had prepared for us. So, I didn’t eat which led to Mrs. Susan not allowing me to perform in the service. By this time I was so upset with myself. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t get to feeling better. I was so excited the week before and felt that God was going to do something amazing. This was not what I had expected. I sat in the front row and watch the choir perform. I was so amazed by how wonderful our choir was. We had forgotten the normal attitude of a choir that everything must be perfect and uptight. Instead, the choir was moving, and some were even crying. I lost it. As soon as I saw tears in Julianne Knox’s eyes and heard Kayla Ketron sing “Your Name” I was done for. I began to cry and smile at the same time. I saw God in each one of the members of C.H.R.I.S.T Choir. It was then when I realized that God had done something amazing through my own friends. My feeling for worship was rejuvenated and I was reminded that sometimes God uses the bad things in our lives to bring healing. This week has been one of the most amazing weeks of this year, and I am so happy that each one of the members and chaperones that are on the trip have used their talents to reveal God, not only to the ones we have been singing to, but also to one of their own.
Valerie Cashin

Let's Get Dirty

It seems everytime we look at something and say"I don't want to do that!" or "I'll do any job except that one!" That's what we end up doing, and one of two things come from it. One you complain the whole time and be upset and when you do it you see God through it.

Monday was service day and to be honest it was the day I had dreaded. I got assigned to Novaco which stands for Northern Virginia Coalition. It was a woman's shelter for women, suffering from domestic abuse. We were doing landscape and yard work around their safe house. We got there and start talking about who was going to do what. They explained about cleaning the windows, the porch, trimming the hedges and I was thinking I can do that! Even the thought of spreading mulch sounded great. But then there was the weedy thorny bit of bug infested and who knows what else in there, bit of land by the fence. First off I looked at it and thought"Ok Kate just make sure not to get that job." But.......did you guess it? I got that job.

I started thinking about the song by Audio Adrenaline. It talks about getting dirty for Jesus. And that is what we were there for. To get dirty and be the hands and feet of Jesus to who we were serving. So me this big girly girl, who screams "bloody murder" at the sight of a bug and freaks out over dirt was down cutting thorny vines and regular ones getting dirty for Jesus. And I found that I really loved it. To this day (Wednesday) my best memory from this trip is the Service Day. I found myself wishing it was longer. In challenges we grow stronger and see more and more of God's face.

Romans 5:3-5
"We can rejoice too, when we run into problems or trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance, and endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love."

Kate Hood

Tuesday...Another Great Day

Another great day. Today we divided up and went to various museums; Holocaust, Newseum, Natural History, American History, National Gallery of Art, and the Archives. It was touch and go on whether we would be able to visit the Holocaust but because of the willingness of several chaperones who were willing to battle D.C. traffic and navigate the Metro all were able to attend. I heard great reports from many.

At two o’clock we gathered at the base of the Lincoln Memorial and 125 voices filled the air as the CHRIST choir performed four of their songs from their musical. We had several parents and family members in attendance. Then we rushed back to the hotel with only an hour for everyone to shower and get ready for our Kennedy Center theater performance of “Sheer Madness”. Everyone was dressed to the nines, the young men looked handsome and the ladies were all lovely. I met a lady originally from Montgomery that was now living in Washington she came up to Emily Edwards and asked where we were from. When Emily told her she said she knew we must be from the South because the girls were much prettier there.

“Sheer Madness” kept us laughing and involved us all in the solving of a mystery. It was great fun! Then we had to kill some time so we drove by the White House and the Capitol. Some of us even got to the see the Presidential motorcade as it zoomed by with all of its entourage.

Then to Silver Diner where we enjoyed great fellowship and food.

Sorry we have not been able to blog as much as years past it has been extremely busy and I am trying to be “Chill” with the kids about blogging.

I hope to post some pics and video of us singing tonight.
Mary Lynn

The meaning of the lyrics

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Being on drama team is certainly a different perspective then singing with the choir. When we're in between skits behind the lattices, listenting to the songs, its much easier to think about the meaning of the lyrics. Certainly the music itself lends tremendously to the emotional interpretation of the songs, but being able to cogitate intellectually about what is honestly being stated as the truth in these songs is made easier to comprehend when one is not only able to sit and think, as in sunday morning services, but when one must sit and think. The lattices are thin, and it can be distracting to the audience if they glimpse dancing and jumping through the lattices.

Franklin Wetzel

Good Stewards

I would like to add that not only was it a month's worth of work that the kids did. It was about 25,000 lbs of sweet potatoes and rutabagas that we sorted through. Also on of the coolest things was that when we went to lunch Jimmy Aycock suggested and Dr. Hatcher communicated to the kids that they might consider trying to be conservative with what they got to eat and that we had $400 available to spend on lunch for them but if any money was left over we would donate it to the Mid-Atlantic Gleaning Organization. The kids were great at the end of the meal we counted the money and were able to present to Pastor Hall $176!
Mary Lynn Botts

Service Day...to be continued

Before today, I had never heard of gleaning. Going into service day I thought that we would be out in a field picking vegetables or something along those lines but little did I know that we would be sorting loads and loads and loads and loads and loads of sweet potatoes and rutabagas! I’m not really a fan of sweet potatoes as it is, but after today I can honestly say that I can live without seeing another sweet potato in my whole life. And as for rutabagas, I’ve never tried one and I never will because the loads and loads and loads and loads and loads of moldy rutabagas made me instantly have a hatred for them. But through all the smells and smooshy vegetables, this experience was wonderful because all the effort that was put into today is going to feed the less fortunate people in Washington. The five hours that we spent today are equivalent to a month’s work for the people at the warehouse and the presence of God
To be continued…..
Emily Gaines