Wow! what a long but good day.  Today started as soon as I took James to the bus stop, came back and got showered and got ready for the day.  I have a few plates spinning in the air right now.  First, I had to get ready for Mosaic this evening, which meant setting up the projector and screen and sound system.  Mosaic is our “portable” church.  Then there was getting the bulletin and Easy Worship slides ready for this Sunday.  In addition, I had to put together our cluster Good Friday service.  The seven Wesleyan Churches here on the Southside of Virginia are getting together for a combined service next Friday.  I put the finishing touches on that today.  Once all that was done, we filled the church van with gas for tonight, brought the van home and then Pam and I went to visit a shut-in and then attended the funeral for one of our Mosaic student’s grandmother.  I was really surprised when this student called needing a ride tonight.  It is so cool watching students mature spiritually and emotionally right before your very eyes.

We got home just in time to put the finishing touches on this evening.  James and I went over the order of worship and practiced the songs.  Both James and Anna do a great job with the projection software.  One of our staff was sick, so we ended up driving the van tonight.

I think tonight’s worship time went really well.  I introduced worship with two videos.  The first was Steve Fee’s “Burn for You.”  I followed that up with a video about worship and surrender.  Then we sang “Holy Is the Lord,” and “Agnus Dei.”  While we were visiting our shut-in today, I read Psalm 103 and it came to new life today.

  1 Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
2 Let all that I am praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.
3 He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
4 He redeems me from death
and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
5 He fills my life with good things.
My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!

 6 The Lord gives righteousness
and justice to all who are treated unfairly.

 7 He revealed his character to Moses
and his deeds to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
9 He will not constantly accuse us,
nor remain angry forever.
 10 He does not punish us for all our sins;
he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.
11 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him
is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.
12 He has removed our sins as far from us
as the east is from the west.

Those last three verses were powerful enough that I wanted to share them with our students during worship tonight.  You could have heard apin drop.  Then we sang, “The Wonderful Cross.”  It was just a powerful night and like I said before, I am beginning to see signs that we are making a difference and that makes it all worth it.  Carp Diem!