Morningside Baptist Church |
Morningside
Baptist Church 2900 S. Eighth Avenue Yuma, AZ 85364 928-344-2360 |
Worship
Through Music |
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More
of Him and Less of Me |
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| December 2009 | ||||||
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Luke 2:6-7;13-14 What an awesome sight that must have been. The sky full of angels praising God! Christmas is my most favorite time of year, with
all the decorations, the lights, and the cool weather. I love the
Christmas season. Even with all the beauty, and festivity of the
season, may we not lose sight of the reason for the season: Jesus
Christ, the Messiah, our Redemption was born. Born to die for the
sins of the world He so loves! The Celebration Choir, Drama Team, & Kids Kount will present our Christmas pageant, “Bethlehem Star” on Sunday December 13th at 10:50 am. I am excited about this ministry to our community. Please pray that those who do not know Jesus Christ as Savior will accept Him this Christmas season. Lori, Becca, Anna, Allie and I wish you and your family a most blessed Christmas season.
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| Music
opportunities: |
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| Celebration Choir: Wednesday practice at 7:30 pm in the Sanctuary. Audition is not required. Everyone in the ninth grade and up is welcome to come sing with us. | ||||||
| Youth Band: in the Sanctuary. Audition is not required. Everyone in the ninth through twelfth grade | ||||||
Audio
- Visual Team (Multimedia):
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November 2009“With Thanksgiving to God”Psalm 100: 1-5One of the most moving moments in American history took place on
April 5, 1621. It was on that day that the little band of Pilgrims
stood on the shore and watched the Mayflower, the ship they had
left England on, sail from Plymouth harbor back to England. Not one of the Pilgrims left boarded the Mayflower when it sailed back to England. Not one of them choose to return home. They were staying in America. For they had come to build a new social order under the leadership of God. They were an unusual group, those Pilgrims who came to the New America. They were devout and committed. They had nothing of this world’s goods, but they rich in their faith. They had a trust in God. And when they came to America, they brought with them the Bible, the King James Version which had been translated just nine years earlier. And when they built their homes, the center of the home was the Bible. When they built their church and school, the Bible was the center of their worship and education. In the fall of 1621, Gov. William Bradford announced a Thanksgiving service. The fall had brought them food to eat, and when the harvest had been gathered they spent 3 days rejoicing before God. They had invited the Indians, and that was the beginning of thanksgiving in America. Gov. Bradford was following the spirit and the feast days and the offerings in the Bible, when he proclaimed a Thanksgiving that first fall harvest in 1621. In the book of Leviticus, the feasts and offerings are described. “The Peace Offering” found in Lev. 3 & 7, is an offering made to God as an expression of thanks. It is also referred to as the “Thanks Offering”. This was the only feast in which the worshiper participates, and it could be offered to the Lord at any time. If a man wanted to praise God for what God has done for him, he went up to the house of the Lord, brought an offering. It was sacrificed and prepared by the priest and was eaten on the grounds by the family, their friends, and by the priest. It was a thanksgiving feast just praising God for His wonderful goodness.
I hope that you will take some time this month as our hearts are drawn to an attitude of thankfulness, to stop and take time to thank God for His many blessings. From my family to yours, our prayer is that you will have a Happy Thanksgiving Season!
We would like to have you join us. If you sense God leading you to be a part of this ministry, please see me. I would love to visit with you and have you a part of our musical family. We rehearse each Wednesday evening from 7:30 – 8:30 pm in the Worship Center, and childcare is provided for all rehearsals.
Thanks to Jay Vance, Diana Coulter & Shirley Roedder for providing the music for our ministry to the residents of Emerald Springs, and Palm View Nursing Home each month!! Keep worshipping Him! |
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October
2009
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is a spirit, and His worshippers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24 NIV  |
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| September 2009
Psalm 100 is one of my favorite Psalms. Praise to God seemed to flow from David’s heart. David truly adored God. Jesus told us in Matthew 12:34 that ”The mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” It is obvious that David’s heart was filled with praise and love for God. We also know that David’s life was not without difficulties. It was in those difficult times that David was able to place his hope in God. It was through the small steps of worshiping God in those difficult times that his adoration of the Lord became deep and intimate. I would encourage all of us to follow the example of David. Praise God in those difficult times, place your hope in God. Then we can enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! The Celebration Choir experiences a great time of worship and renewal! Each week we gather for rehearsal, to prepare ourselves to share our musical message each week. We would like to have you join us. If you sense God leading you to be a part of this ministry, please see me. I would love to visit with you and have you a part of our musical family. We rehearse each Wednesday evening from 7:30 – 8:30 pm in the Worship Center, and childcare is provided for all rehearsals. We have begun rehearsing for our Christmas Pageant, “Bethlehem Star” and it is not too late to join us. This will be a musical drama. I will be in need of those who can act. If you are interested, please see me for more information. It is a joy to serve you, and I am grateful God has allowed us to be a part of the body of Christ at Morningside Baptist! |
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| August
2009
“Praise
the LORD in song, for He has done ex cellent things; let this be
known throughout the earth. Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant
of Zion , for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” Here is an excerpt from his book:
Dr. Gaines has prompted me to do some soul searching. Does God
receive pleasure from my worship? From our worship? The prophet
Isaiah records what God had to say about Israel ’s worship: Bro. Ken Hedstrom |
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July 2009 “Bless
the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul and forget not all His benefits.”
Psalm 103:1-2 |
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June 2009
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May 2009 "The LORD is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him” Exodus 15:2 NIV
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| April 2009 “Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are seeking Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him” Mark 16:2-6 NIV What an awesome sight that must have been! These women arrived at the tomb to finish preparing Jesus’ body for burial. And what did they find? An empty tomb and an angel greeting them. The angel gave them the most exciting news of all the Resurrection of Jesus Christ! The body of Jesus was not stolen… Jesus was resurrected! Because He lives, we can have life. Because He lives we can have hope. Let us take time this Easter season to share that same Good News with those God brings into our path. I am grateful to our Celebration Choir for leading us in worship each Sunday morning. What a blessing is to work with this wonderful group of musicians! If God is leading you to be a part of this music ministry, we would love to have you join our musical family. The Celebration Choir rehearses each Wednesday evening from 7:30-8:30 in the Worship Center. Small Groups are alive and well here at Morningside!! We offer Bible study classes each Sunday morning at 9:15. If you are not currently attending a Bible study class, I encourage you to begin this coming Sunday. There is a class just for you and your family. Saturday, April 4th we are going to have our first Small Group leadership Team meeting and lunch from 11:30am – 1:00pm in the Fellowship Hall. If you are a teacher, helper, or serve in any way in our Small Groups, this is for you. I would love to get to meet you and share my heart for Small Group Ministry. If you have any questions, concerning our Worship & Small Group Ministries, please contact me, at the church office, 344-2360 or on my cell, 246-7077. I am grateful also to God in bringing my family and me to Yuma, and to Morningside! It is a joy to serve you, and I am looking forward to what God has in store for us as we experience Him! Lori, Becca, Anna, Allie and I wish you and your family a blessed Resurrection Season. Bro. Ken Hedstrom |
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March 2009 Diana
Coulter filled in one Sunday as music worship leader the next as
pianist. She did well in both. |
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| February
2009
Hello Church Family! “Persevere in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” Col. 4:2 Please continue to hold Pastor Taeger, the Personnel Committee, Ken Hedstrom in your prayers as we continue to seek God’s will for the life of our church as we consider Ken for our full-time Worship Pastor position! God has a perfect plan in place for Morningside; please pray that we continue to work within His will to fulfill that plan. There are a couple of sayings that come to mind when I begin to review this month – “Many hands make light work” and “time flies when you’re having fun!” We have begun the New Year with action. Operation Breakout is truly breaking out and with all of us supporting this vision we will see the amazing things God is able to do with a willing heart. Being with such a great group of people makes the work that we are doing a lot of fun too. Once again we were able to share in a time of prayer, praise and ministry at Emerald Springs and Palm View. Pastor had some jokes to share with us, that got us all laughing in the morning and started worship off with a smile. Lynda and James Foust joined us at Emerald Springs. Lynda played the keyboard as Stan Nelson played guitar and I sang. Kathryn Mae (age 2) gave us a heartwarming verse of “Jesus Loves Me” as her contribution to the morning’s worship. At Palm View, we met with Shirley Roedder, who provided a great harmony part to our singing. I am always so pleased when Stan, Shirley and I are able to work together to have a song come together in beautiful harmony and praise. We are looking to God, to how He will help us break out of our status quo position and into the fruits He has for us. Sharing the love of Christ and the message of salvation should be first and foremost in our minds at all times and I am excited that we are being led in that spirit. Praise God for He is good and good to us!! Come and join us as we sing on Wednesday nights in preparation for Sunday Worship. We meet in the Sanctuary at 7:30pm and usually last about 45 minutes to an hour. The worship that we give is not commanded to be in tune or on beat but joyful and from our hearts! If you can worship God with all your heart, we would encourage you to come be a part of the Choir, because it’s HIS Choir! In Him! |
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January 2009 Hello Church Family! “Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praises”. James 5:13b IS anyone happy? We can be so quick to throw up a quick prayer when we need God’s help or healing. How much time do we spend praising Him when all goes well? I have to confess, I don’t do it enough. Our life is very blessed and I need to be singing more songs of praise to God for the blessings He has given us. Another month has flown by! Time flies when you’re praising God with such a great group of people. The choir is a very entertaining group to be with every Wednesday. I have a hard time keeping them on track sometimes but it is wonderful to know that they are a strong group that holds each other in prayer. If you even enjoy singing in the shower, you should come Wednesday to practice. The next time we meet is January 7th at 7:30pm. We had another opportunity of sharing at Emerald Springs. And this time we were joined by Lynda Berge on the Keyboard! Audrey and Kathryn Mae sang “Away in a Manger” for the residents. No surprise that it was the favorite song of the morning! Later in the month, Stan Nelson and Shirley Roedder went to Palm View and shared in a time of music with them. Sunday, December 21st went very well. The Kidz Kount, Michael Santos, Suzanne and Jennifer Kooistra and the MBC Choir shared some special music with us. I am so pleased with how everything came together! The Choir worked very hard on their piece and the whole song sounded wonderful. I just want to thank everyone who participated: it was amazing to watch all the practice come together into a morning of worship. I hope that you had a very blessed Christmas and welcome the New Year with the hope of all that God has in store for you. Christmas, the birth of hope, was the first step on the journey to Easter, the fulfillment of hope. That knowledge is the very thing that makes us happy and gives us the reason to sing songs of praise. In His service, |
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December
2008 “Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods”. Psalm 95:1-3 The Psalmist captures our reason for worship. We have the opportunity to come before the great God, the Rock of our salvation, the King above all gods with our thanksgiving and joy. How fitting for this season! How blessed we are to come into this season knowing that God provides abundantly. Give Him thanks! What a wonderful month of opportunities this has been. Lynda and I have worked out a great schedule that allows us to really prepare for worship on Sunday. The choir is working on our special Christmas music. God has brought some people to our church with wonderful musical talent that we are excited to plug in and use. At Emerald Springs, it was another joy-filled time of sharing with the residents. Pastor, Stan Nelson, Louise Gonzalez and I started off our morning with praise and worship and then breakfast. I had our daughters, Audrey and Kathryn Mae, with me. They had a fun time with Pastor (or ‘PASTOR!” to Kathryn Mae) and they were really loved on by residents. It thrills me every time we are there singing and I can hear people singing over their coffees. If you have not had the chance to join us, I would strongly encourage you to wake up and sing with us! When we went to Palm View the next week, Pastor, Stan, Shirley Roedder and I, along with Audrey and Kathryn Mae again, enjoyed sharing in a time of worship there. It’s a very dynamic morning; Pastor sharing God’s word, Stan on guitar and Shirley and I bringing up the melody. I got a big kick out of the people who thought that that Pastor had brought his daughter (me) and grandchildren (Audrey and Kathryn May) with him! Sharing the love that Jesus gives us with those who are so receptive just makes it that much easier to love. Loving the residents of Palm View comes easy. While reading “Serving in Your Church Music Ministry” by Randall D and Paul E. Engle, this interesting thought was shared, “no earthly occupations will be needed (in heaven), save one: church musicians.” ‘Musicians’ here is talking about all of our musical worship, not just those who play instruments. It is true! In heaven we will have no need for lawyers; our judgment will have been given. We will not need doctors; our wounds will have been healed. Don’t get me wrong, we still need these jobs on earth but we will be spending eternity worshiping our Creator. It is said among theatre folk “You practice how you perform.” It made me think – how am I practicing? It also made me think ‘Can we sing off key in heaven?’ I don’t believe we can, so we shouldn’t let our off key singing stop us from bringing our best praise while we are here either! We all make an eternal decision when we choose to give our life to Christ. Now we get to take it one step farther and “practice” our worship while we are here for our everlasting worship in heaven. I truly hope that excites you as much as it does me! Choir practice is Wednesdays at 7:30pm in the sanctuary and we would love to have some more smiling faces join us. It is always a joyful time of sharing and praising. I am very excited about what the next month will have in store for our church as we approach Christmas! Please keep the Pastor, the Personnel committee and the people that are being reviewed to take this position in your prayers, that they will be guided by God’s hand in seeking His will for Morningside. God does amazing work when we open up our hearts to His perfect plan and submit to it. In Christ’s
love, |
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