Our friend Kent Henry will be ministering at CIL this Sunday (December 30) in both our 9:00 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. services.  It’s Family Sunday, so the elementary students will enjoy the worship and teaching ministry that Kent will bring.

If you never heard Kent minister before, he will bring a passion for worship and the presence of God.   His ministry is focused towards engaging Christians in deeper worship and devotion to Jesus.  He has been to CIL several times in the past, but hasn’t been with us for a couple of years.  Come this Sunday ready to be refreshed in the Lord!

Here is his biography:

For over thirty-five years, Kent Henry’s ministry has been totally devoted to worship leading and training. He has led worship on six of Integrity Music’s Hosanna! recordings, including: My Refuge, The Secret Place, and So Close to You. He has also produced 22 of his own worship recordings, including: Captivated, Bulletproof, Jeremiah 29:11, Children Worship!, The Psalm Series and Dance in the Glory.

Kent holds B.A. degrees in Music, Religion and Management from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. For the past thirty years Kent has been traveling and ministering through “The Worship Seminar” and “Fresh Fire” meetings to thousands of worshiping believers around the world.

As January quickly approaches, I hope you are considering a plan for your devotional live.   If you don’t have a plan to read your Bible, you probably don’t read it as much as you think you do.  During 2012 I changed up my Bible reading plan by using the One Year Chronological Bible, and I really enjoyed the experience.

Here are some positives:

– The Chronological Bible helped me understand the Bible better.   Every Bible is organized according to book types, and not by a time-line.   The Chronological Bible follows a sequential time line that gives you a better understanding on how the books correlate.

– It builds your faith to see how Scripture confirms Scripture.

– You can get this on a Kindle, which allows you to read it on the Kindle, laptop or iphone.   This helped me keep up with my reading, because it can be tough to stay faithful.

– The one year system builds in an accountability system to help you realize how faithful you are being.

– I chose the NLT because the Old Testament gets so laborious at times, the NLT keeps it readable.

Here are some challenges:

– You can feel schizophrenic at times, jumping from Genesis to Job to Psalms, back to Genesis in one reading.  It didn’t really bother me, but I could see how it could be unsettling for others.

– Like any one-year Bible reading plan, it can feel like a chore at times.  You just have to guard your heart against this reality.

– The biggest draw back is you don’t actually get to the New Testament until October.  That was way too long for me to wait.  This year, I’m going to keep on the plan, but simultaneously read the New Testament in the ESV starting in January.

That’s my opinion, hope it helps!

On Wednesday (December 12) we will have our annual Christmas open house from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. with a special visit from Santa Claus.  Come by and wish your church family a Merry Christmas, and have your little ones take a picture with Santa.

It’s going to be a lot of fun – I’ll see you there!

On Sunday, December 9th we will have our second Sunday of Advent as we look at the subject of Love.  No other subject has more power than the potential in Love.  The enemy wants us to be busy, religious, self-absorbed people, because Satan understands the power of love.  The Christmas season should be a regeneration of love for all that is special to us – family, friends, faith and Jesus!

We will experience corporate communion in both of our services!

Join me at 9:00 or 10:45 a.m. to experience the power of His love!

Don’t miss this Wednesday (December 5)!  It is an important night for a few reasons:

–  First Wednesday Worship.  The adult service will be all worship.  This is one of the most uplifting services of the month.

–  ExitSeven Youth:  We’re finishing our last youth service of the year with a great service planned!  One of my best friends is scheduled to speak, so our students will be challenged during this great service!

–  With the holiday schedule, it’s our last mid-week service of 2012.

–  After service we will have a business meeting in which church members can vote to ratify new Leadership Board members for 2013 –  2014.  The names being presented are:

Chip Johnson
Lee Moseley
Charles Watson

– We get to do this!   Church is a privilege  not an obligation!   It’s a big Wednesday night, because our God is with us when we gather in His name!

ADVENT is a word with Latin roots, meaning “coming.”   Advent designates a period before Christmas when Christians prepare for the celebration of Jesus’ birth. This practice may have begun in some churches as early as the late fourth century.  Sermons focused on the wonder of the Incarnation. By the Middle Ages four Sundays had become the standard length of the Advent season. Since then, Advent has been considered to be the beginning of the church year.

At CIL, we are introducing the concept of Advent in my current sermon series.  Yesterday (December 2), we started with the theme of “Hope.”   We’ll continue with the following themes during this Advent Season:

December 9 – Love
December 16 – Joy
December 23 – Peace

I desire for these themes to prepare us for a Jesus-centered Christmas!