My first blog

I'm officially a blogger! My prayer is that this forum will help you get to know me and the other pastors a little bit better as we share our thoughts and life experiences and that you, the reader, will be encouraged as you endeavor to walk in the truth. Until next time...

Dan

Administrivia

A couple notes about the format of this blog:

All three pastors (Dan, Sam, and Tim) will be writing on here from time to time. We will use different font colors for each pastor, as well as including a picture of that pastor with their family...hopefully this will help you know who's writing what.

Also, we have not enabled comments on this blog. You are more than welcome to e-mail any of us with any questions, thoughts, or responses to what we write, as well as ideas for future topics. However, no comments will be made public on the blog itself. You can find each of our e-mail addresses on the staff section of our church homepage (see link to the right).

Psalm 96

I've really enjoyed teaching this quarter's Sunday School class about Worship and Music. This past week, we spent the time immersing ourselves in the Psalms, a Biblical blueprint for worship. It's amazing how many of our hymns and choruses are taken almost word-for-word from the Psalms. Here is one of the passages (Ps. 96) that really stuck out to me from this week's study, taken from Eugene Peterson's "The Message":

"Sing God a brand-new song! Earth and everyone in it, sing! Sing to God– worship God! Shout the news of his victory from sea to sea, take the news of his glory to the lost, news of his wonders to one and all! For God is great, and worth a thousand Hallelujahs...God made the heavens- royal splendor radiates from Him, a powerful beauty sets Him apart. Bravo, God, bravo! Everyone join in the great shout: Encore! In awe before the beauty, in awe before the might. Bring gifts and celebrate, bow before the beauty of God, then to your knees – everyone worship! Get out the message –God rules!"

Amen. I hope I'm focused on taking the news of His glory to the lost this week! "Get out the message -- God rules!"

Tim

We've started a blog!

This post is a test for our new blog. We (the pastors at Cornerstone Baptist, Springfield, Ohio) look forward to the possibility of using this website to communicate with friends both from our congregation and from outside. God bless.