Don't Waste Your Life Audiobook

Each month christianaudio.com offers a free downloadable audiobook. This month they have made available Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. I read this book a few years ago and it changed my way of thinking about who I was living this life for and what I was created for. I recommend checking this book out.

Hymns on Sunday - Red Mountain Church and Indelible Grace

This week I want to make you aware, if you are not already, of noisetrade.com This is a website that is any artist can put up and freely distribute their music online. Noisetrade.com has a variety of music genres including Christian music and hymns. To get the music you must provide a little info (email address and zip code) - your download link/code will be emailed to you, but that's it. Oh an it provides a way to share what you are downloading on facebook and twitter to share with your friends.

Anyway, now that I have plugged noisetrade, I want to commend to you a couple of albums available. The first is a group from Red Mountain Church in Birmingham, AL. I became familiar with them a few years ago and totally got into the music they were putting out. I bought this album a while back but now it is available in it's entirety

It is "Help my Unbelief" by Red Mountain Church

Another album that I'd like to commend to you is Arise my Soul by Indelible Grace. What is offered on noisetrade is just a sampler, but it has several great songs that I hope wet your appetite for other Indelible Grace albums. Indelible Grace have put out several cds over the last few years that take many old hymns and put them to a new tune or bring a not so familiar hymn back into light.

Why I appreciate my pastor and his wife

Before I was a Christian I thought being a pastor would be a cush job...Sit around, go visit people, preach a few minutes on Sunday morning, do funerals and weddings. I know much better now that that is not the case, at least for my pastors. I realize that the work/service they do is much more than that. I know that I do not know all they deal with, the joys and the struggles. But I do know that it's not just a job that you check in at 8 and out at 5 and don't really have to think about when you go home.

There are a lot of things I could say about my pastor, but these are a few specifics reasons I appreciate him and thank God for placing him in Lakeshore and giving him a heart to proclaim the gospel and reach the community.

• He is dedicated to glorifying and exalting Christ.
• He decided to stay at Lakeshore Baptist Church when there was nothing here but the Lord, His Word, and the members of Lakeshore Baptist Church
• He sincerely loves the local body of believers and the gulf coast community.
• He loves the Word of God, committed to the doctrines of grace, preaches the Word expositionally, and proclaims the gospel in every sermon.
• He loves his wife and his children,
• He's a great leader and takes seriously the shepherding of the flock and caring for our souls.
• He's led this small congregation to have a heart for mercy ministry married with the gospel.
• He's not only pastor, but also contractor, architect, counselor, friend, father, husband, mentor...the list could go on.
• He stands firm to the Truth in the hard times and doesn't break to meet the complaints just to make people happy, but he listens to the concerns and questions of the congergation and addresses what does arise.
  
• He has a heart to see all in Hancock County come to Christ.

I could not go without mentioning Courtney, Pastor Don's wife. I've learn a pastors wife's 'job' is not always easy. She see her husband and her pastor in his highest and lowest moments. I could go on an on about Courtney as well, so this is no where near an exhaustive list but a few reasons I appreciate her.

• She's taught me a lot in many areas of life
• She's a great wife and mother.
• She's loves God's word.
• She stands firm in truth and doesn't beat around the bush to make sure truth is known.
• She's been there for me in tough times.

Thank you both, Don and Courtney for your service to God and Lakeshore Baptist Church. Love you guys.

Why should you appreciate your pastor?

I ran across the blog Created to Give God the Glory earlier this month when I remembered October was Pastor Appreciation Month. I wish I did not need a month to help me to remember to appreciate my pastor, but I feel we and especially me, all too often forget to express my appreciation to him and to the Lord for him.

I thought this blog did a great job of explaining why we ought to appreciate our Pastor's. Here's a bit of what this blogger had to say.

Pastoring a local church is the hardest job in the world...Why?
1. The pastor carries the burdens of the people and is responsible for their souls before the Lord.
2. He does his best to help these people. Most of the time they completely ignore everything he tells them to do.
3. Church members tell the pastor how the church ought to be run. They have taken the point of view: "I have been in church, therefore, I know how to run the church."
4. Members take the church's highest peaks and try to say that was the standard
5. There are some members who always hide in the shadows. They will be quiet until they see something go wrong.
6. Pastors are not psychic.
7. Pastors cannot be at two places at one time.
8. People are sometimes incredibly unreasonable and the pastor has to let it roll off his back.
9. The pastor is expected to present a dynamic sermon each week.
10. Your pastor does all of this for the Lord. I promise you; he doesn't do it for the money!

I think these reasons and his examples are reminders for us to appreciate and encourage our pastors more frequently. Before the month is out, Lord willing tomorrow, I want to share publicly the reasons I appreciate my pastor, Don, and his wife Courtney.

Why Memorize Scripture?

I spent a lot of time in my first few years as a Christian memorizing scripture. I'm not claiming to be any sort of super Christian. All I knew right off was Christians need to memorize scriptures for many different reasons. The one reason I quoted most often from ps 119 - I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

I've gone through periods of time in the past couple years that I have been on the ball, memorizing scripture, hiding those words in my heart. Unfortunately there has been a lot of time I've neglected memorization. I saw this sermon clip today and was convicted about my lack of time and effort put into memorizing the most important thing I possess. Be encouraged by the words spoken by Pastor John Piper and may it prod you to memorize the words given us by our Holy God.

Hymns on Sunday - Page CXVI Hymns I & II

There are so many great hymns and I am thinking about beginning a new idea for blog posts on Sundays that will highlight hymns, share the stories behind the hymns, or put resources in your hands to hear, learn, and enjoy hymns of old and the not so old. We'll see if I stick with it, but I have some ideas to get me started.

So to kick off this blog idea I want to share with you hymns from Page CXVI. I've enjoyed listening to Page CXVI hymns put to and they have just made them available for streaming on blogs and I would like to share them to you.

From Page CXVI Hymns I



Chord charts for Hymns I can be found on the Page CXVI blog

From Page CXVI Hymns II



Chord Charts for Hymns II can also be found on the Page CXVI blog