What thanksgiving is teaching me…

26 days ago I started on this little journey that was initiated by a friend of ours, that each day I would post something that I was grateful for in the 25 days approaching Thanksgiving. Below are just a few things that I’ve taken away from this little exercise.
– That you can give thanks in “Everything” no matter what we may be facing. Regardless if we are standing on the mountain top enjoying the view, or in the darkest of valleys enduring the most difficult of trials.
– I found myself talking to Him more than usual. I believe He so wants to hear from me/us more and more.
– I found that I was more grateful for the little things in my life, and was seeing them more often through these last 25 days.
– I was told (unannounced) that I seemed happier? Interesting…
– It felt like I was more aware of the needs around me.
– I saw more of the things in me that i don’t like and want to change. Lord help my heart never become satisfied with where I am, but allow me to always be open to your love, correction, and change in me – amen.
– I felt like I was able to see more in others and then communicate what I saw that could be uplifting and encouraging.

Jesus modeled for us what it meant to live a life of “Thanksgiving” all throughout His life, and that when we operate in this spirit, it releases the Supernatural (check out this recent message). The Apostle Paul declared to us that not only were we to give thanks in everything, but that, it’s the will of God for our lives in Christ Jesus. He wants us to LIVE this life of giving thanks in all/everything that we do. And as we continue through this season of Thanksgiving, may we use this time as a launching pad to a lifestyle, rather than just a season. When we think of what He has done for us, would living a life of thanksgiving, be to much to ask?

Living life Together…

25 Days of Thanks

You might have seen my Twitter updates these last few days, and if not, I wanted to give you the scoop on 25 Days of Thanks.
Friends of ours Ben & Katie Rye started this a few days ago, and I was so encouraged and touched by it I asked Katie, “hey can I join the party,” and of course she said, “absolutely not.” Just kidding, she said “PLEASE, join me in this little expression of gratitude, as we give thanks from now until Thanksgiving day.” SOOOO, we have joined. If you get a chance go here and read the story of Ben & Kate, it will move you, challenge you, and give you hope and faith about life and committment. They have modeled for my family and I what it means to be COMMITTED, and have brought a whole new definition to the expression, “Thankful.”

So as we approach this time of the year again, it gives us the opportunity to look and see how blessed we truly are, for some it may easy to get into this position of thankfulness, for others it may be more difficult due to circumstances or just the unexpected. May we never loose sight in the simple fact of what Jesus has done for you and I, “Philippians 2:5-8 (The Message) Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.. He gave everything, so that you and I could have everything, HIM! May we be reminded this season, that Jesus is enough, and has always been enough, no matter how great the mountain top may be, or how low the valley is, HE IS ENOUGH! May we ENCOUNTER Him this season in ways that we never thought possible.

From a grateful heart…

Courageous Leaders

Over the past 15 years at Church of Livingwater my personal life, my family’s life, has been greatly impacted by the core values that we choose to pursue and grow in called,
I.E.C.C.R.
Integrity: To the Word of God: Living beyond reproach, or the entire ministry will be jeopardized.
Excellence of Effort: Giving your highest effort in all that you do.
Courage: Facing and conquering your fears. Believing God’s every promise in every circumstance. Taking risks in order to extend the kingdom.
Consistency: Doing what you promise. Being dependable people who help one another.
Relevance: Willing to alter style and preference to reach the next generation(s) without compromising the Word of God. Addressing real problems in practical and effective ways.

Over the past year and half, our church family has courageously stepped into a whole new venue and, “taking a risk in order to extend the Kingdom of God” as we have been holding services at Regal 16 theaters in Lacey. Because of Gods blessing on what He is doing, this past Sunday we were positioned to “RISK” again, and open a second theatre for ADULTS, due to continued growth and the need to care for our family. Well we did it, and man did He show up! Both theaters were comfortably full, two amazing worship bands, two teams of just about everything. But here’s what I really want to say, the remarkable COURAGE, of amazing leaders, who have the ability to SEE beyond themselves, to RISK, that in hopes peoples lives will never be the same because of an encounter with Jesus Christ. I take my hat off, and I am humbled by the fact that I/we get to partner together with such courageous people as you (and you know who you are). My heart is overwhelmed with gratitude for what the Lord has allowed us to be apart of, thank you Livingwater family, thank you Regal leadership team, I believe that the best is yet to come!

To all you courageous men and women…HOO-RAH!

Pastor Tim

Taking time to remember

This past weekend as you all know was Memorial Day Weekend, and as a church family, can I say that our team (shout out to all those who worked so hard to make this so good) did an outstanding job of communicating the heart behind those who have gone before us, and who have given the ultimate sacrifice,THEIR LIVES. We not only took a moment of silence to remember what they had given, but we also had active duty Soldiers, Pray, and bare their hearts for there country men and women, it was tremendously moving!
We also took to time to honor the ONE who gave the ultimate sacrifice for you and I, Jesus! We looked back into Hebrews 11 & 12 and walked down the “Hall of Faith” and remembered those who have given their lives, and have gone before us so that we could posses what it is that we have today, or Faith.

Here’s a little glimpse for reflection into some ways that we can remember their sacrifice in a practical way form Romans 12:1-3, I entitled this message “Standing on the Shoulders of others”…

– Recognize that their lives declare to us that “We Can!” We need to remember those of old who have gone before us, but also, those who gave us the life in Christ that we now posses, and remember what they’ve done, and continue to do!
– Get rid of (throw off, and we did literally in the service) anything that would stand in the way of what He is wanting to accomplish in our lives. The sin that is so easily ensnares us, WE MUST throw off so that nothing will stand in our way, so that we can run this race that is before us.
– Recognize that Jesus is enough, to help us be what He’s always called us to become. Bottom line, we MUST study Jesus’ life. there are no short cuts here, we must become students of His life.
– Run in such a way, that we prepare our shoulders to be stood upon by those who are coming after us. And how do we do that, remember that Heaven is our home, and that our lives count beyond just us. There are those that are right behind us that need help seeing what we see, so let’s make sure that are shoulders are ready, so that others can see clearly to.

Missions Update

A couple of our students have been journaling our trip, on behalf of our blog, and have done such a great job, i have inserted some of their thoughts to share with you below, but first…

Our Anthem students have been amazing, from serving their hearts out for the people of these specific communities, teaching and preaching the WORD, leading worship, praying for the sick, and the broken, on and on i could go! I have to say that one of the the things that stands out to me, has been the demonstration of the “Fathers Heart” the need here to understand how much He loves us (them), has been daunting, the lack of “father” and his presence in the lives here in some cases are completely non existent. At the retreat (we put on a retreat for about 50 young people) we did, we broke up the students and adults into multiple small groups, with a bilingual person in each one and asked them this question, “talk about for 90 seconds your relationship with your biological father, you can talk about anything?” the dominating response was, they couldn’t or didn’t want to talk about him, but when probed, it was, “he’s never around, never loved me, i hate him, he did…to me etc. Many tears, fear of opening up, not knowing that things could be different, but WOW, the Lord began to reveal His heart for their lives, the teaching on the topic of Fathers heart, and the topic of forgiveness, and then the ministry time was remarkable. THANK YOU JESUS!

These last few days have made me even more grateful for the Fathers in my life, for my wife (there’s know one like you baby), and my 5 sons that i’ve had the amazing opportunity and the privilege to be called father in their lives. Thanks guys for the way that you have transformed my life, I will never be the same, NEVER, because of your lives in mine, THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU!

Enjoy a few more perspectives and some great pictures…

The team sets out on a 7 hour bus trip to Pendrenales, Dominican Republic, to minister to the youth of the community. This time allowed for the two teams, Anthem and Legado, to unite and get to know each other. Along the way, we drove through our own little paradise. The beautiful, Caribbean ocean was on our left with the green, lush mountains to our right, and we were also surrounded by thousands upon thousands of small, white butterflies for miles! It was clear that we had been put under God’s covering and protection.

Upon arrival at Pendrenales, we arrive at the hotel and immediately jump into the pool for a quick cool down, for the girls at least. The guys preferred to practice their manly, tap out skills in the pool. We kicked it off with a powerful worship service directly in the middle of one of the main streets in the community. This included powerful worship, evangelism through dramas, and concluded with prayer and ministry time. The many Dominicans living in this area were quite curious of these outsider’s arrival and came out to watch the show. We all tend to stick out a little in the DR, but they all love to see the Americanas!

To begin our second day in Pendrenales, we all got to worship together by serving the community. We painted the public park walkways and gazebo. Our very own Mabel volunteered and asked to clean the bathroom; God bless her! Those who lived around the area were pulling up chairs outside the fence to sit and just watch us work. There was also a group of those who wanted to come and help us paint, especially the kids. Their willingness to serve and help was very humbling. Despite the language barrier, coming together and worshiping Him through service is a language that we are all able to understand.

As the afternoon comes to an end, we are preparing for the youth retreat that was to begin that evening; thirty kids had signed up to attend. The service was scheduled to begin at 7 PM and at 7:30 only 3 kids had showed up; the enemy was battling against us. The entire team began interceding for the children to come, while Megan anointedly played the keys. Within minutes, the kids began pouring through the doors, so much that we ran out of chairs. Hallelujah! The worship was amazing! There is just something that happens in your spirit when you can completely give yourself over to the immense amounts of sweat that is pouring out your body as you are worshiping your Savior! Praise the Lord! Logan was quite literally glowing as he played the (drum name). Pastor Tim brought a powerful message about our heavenly Father, and the youth retreat had officially began.

Be looking for more updates soon…

Anthem Missions Trip 2010

Well we made it! We left last night about 10:30p.m. and arrived in Santo Domingo DR, today at about 1:30. All went well, safe flights (although not without a few sky speed bumps), but exhilarating at times. We leave tomorrow for the DR/Haitian border where we will be partnering with the our latest Foursquare church plant in the DR. We are of course joined by our very own Foursquare Missionaries Rich & Kirsten Root, who were also sent out directly from our church family at Livingwater.
God is up to some amazing things over the next couple of weeks, and we will try our best as technology allows to keep you posted on.

Please pray for God to POUR out His Spirit upon all that we put our hands to.

Expectant!

Here are a couple of shots thought you might enjoy…