"ALIENS" - NE CAMPUS MINISTRY RETREAT SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIP

This morning we had an AMAZING time of worship at the FALL 2011 NORTHEAST CAMPUS MINISTRY RETREAT in STAMFORD, CT ! Here are a couple MP3s from our worship service.  I was especially inspired by the energy of the congregation on these two songs, "Forever" and "Men Who Dream" ...

There is one point in "Forever" about 3/4s of the way through the song where the band drops out completely and you hear the whole church sing "His love endures forever" and it just always gives me goosebumps !!! I love hearing the church sing and praise and honor God !!! Truly His love endures forever, amen.

But for some reason I feel like "Men Who Dream" was particularly impacting on a personal level this weekend.  I have heard this song - and loved it - many times growing up, however I don't think it has ever connected me to God the way that it did this weekend.  Lately I have been studying out the books of Isaiah, Ezra, Esther, and Nehemiah in my chronological bible for my quiet times.  In the book of Ezra, after years of captivity, the Israelites were allowed to return to Jerusalem - to their home ! They were finally able to rebuild the temple of the Lord, and after a little bit of drama and a few regal correspondences, they end up not only getting PERMISSION but also getting FUNDING from the Babylonian government to rebuild the temple !!! When you read these books, you feel the passion of these people - Nehemiah, Esther, Mordecai, Ezra, Isaiah - to see the promised restoration...

Fast forward a few thousand years and its amazing how we can still relate to this passage.  Many things have happened in our church in the last 10 years.  We have seen great things and some not so great things.  But sometimes, like how Nehemiah felt about Jerusalem, it breaks my heart to see where the church IS at compared to where it WAS at - to what I have seen that it can be: the zeal, passion, fire, and love.  It has been hard seeing what the church has gone through in the last 7-8 years knowing what the church CAN and SHOULD be.  And AMEN! we know Romans 8:28 says that in "ALL things God works for the the good of those who love him", and that there were much needed changes that had to take place ... but just like the remnant in Babylon longed to see the glory of the temple restored, there are some of us who long like Nehemiah to see the wall rebuilt ... who long like Paul to see the Gospel spread ... to see the kingdom advanced ...

And what was exciting to me was to worship this morning in a room of somewhere in the range of 500 campus students who have this same desire ... To be used by God to see great things happen once again and to see the wall rebuilt ...

"Captives came

Back into Zion

From their freedom

Came a scheme

While the city

It lay in ruin

We believe

They had a dream ..."

Let us never stop dreaming for God ! Amen.

LISTEN BELOW:

FOREVER

MEN WHO DREAM

(NOTE: To download MP3, right click link and select "Download Linked File")