IsaiahSix

The Jesus Storybook Bible

Gregory Pittman — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:30:25 +0000

One of the great things about social media is the ability to learn things you never might have known otherwise. Some of it is stuff you could live without; some of it is highly useful information, though.

One of the social media sites I use frequently is Twitter. It was through a fellow twitterer’s blog that I learned of a new children’s Bible, The Jesus Storybook Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones. Now, my family has several children’s Bibles. We don’t need anymore. But Rae’s recommendation was strong enough that while I was in our local Christian bookstore I picked it up. Since then, we haven’t used any other book for our family worship times.

The stories in the JSBB are written in such a way that children of all ages will stay engaged from beginning to end.

Someone would say, “How do you do?” and the other person thought they said, “How ugly are you!” It wasn’t funny. You could be saying something nice like, “Such a lovely morning!” and get a punch in the nose because they thought you said, “Hush up, you’re boring!” (from “A giant staircase to heaven”)

The illustrations, by famed artist Jago, are amazing. There are some stories you normally don’t see in children’s Bibles, “The girl no one wanted” (the story of Rachel and Leah), for example.

But my biggest appreciation for this book comes in the way that Lloyd-Jones points each and every story, including ones from the Old Testament, to the Christ event. Each of the 45 stories is recounted in such a way as to point with certainty to the Gospel. Brilliant. Here’s the ending to the story I quoted above, “A giant staircase to heaven.”

People could never reach up to Heaven, so Heaven would have to come down to them.

And, one day, it would.

The subtitle of the book is “Every story whispers his name.” Indeed they do. And that’s what makes this children’s Bible the only one you’ll ever need.

Impacting the Kingdom Through Worship,

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To Everything a Season

Gregory Pittman — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:30:31 +0000

Yesterday morning, I announced to the body of believers at Citadel Square Baptist Church, where I have served since 2002, that I have accepted a call to serve as the Associate Pastor of Worship at the First Baptist Church of Edgefield, South Carolina. To be sure, the last six years have been wonderful in many, many unforgettable ways. And, as is always the case, they have had their share of heartache. We leave behind many friends who will remain dear to my family and me for the rest of our lives. And we leave behind my favorite city on this planet; it has held that place in my heart since my family began vacationing here when I was just a boy. (Ok, I’m starting to sound old now.)

Life will be very different. I’ve always been a city boy. There are four–yes, four–Starbucks locations within walking distance of my current office. Where we’re headed, the closest Starbucks is a 25 minute drive away. But one of the many things we’re very much looking forward to is a different pace of life. No more 30-45 minute drives to church; we’ll live across the street. And we’re looking forward to building relationships with some spectacularly kind people. We’ve already begun to build friendships. There is a sense of excitement on both sides of this move.

As we go, we pray for the congregation of Citadel Square Baptist Church. We pray that God will use her for His glory and His good purposes to reach the city of Charleston with His redemptive message. We look forward with great anticipation to what He will do with us and through us in Edgefield.

Impacting the Kingdom Through Worship,

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WorshipGod08

Gregory Pittman — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 01:37:47 +0000

Bob Kauflin reports that there are 1450 registrants for next month’s WorshipGod08 conference. I will be there and I can’t wait. The 06 conference was incredible. If you have the opportunity to attend, you should consider registering very soon. Some of the break out sessions (which you have to sign up for at the time of registration) are already full. Make haste.

Impacting the Kingdom Through Worship,

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James White Video

Gregory Pittman — Sat, 31 May 2008 04:58:42 +0000

I originally posted this video on my ~~tumblelog~~ personal blog, which I maintain for things that don’t fall under the category of worship or for personal or family related things. It doesn’t really fit the scope of worship but it is such a great resource for understanding the nature of the doctrines of grace that I thought it would prove helpful here, too.

HT: John Samson

Impacting the Kingdom Through Worship,

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Pray for Steven Curtis Chapman and His Family

Gregory Pittman — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:47:18 +0000

Our prayers for comfort ascend to an almighty God on behalf of the family of Christian recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman. Chapman’s five year old daughter died after a tragic accident in which the Chapmans’ teenage son ran over his sister in the driveway of the family’s home outside of Nashville, Tennessee.

Impacting the Kingdom Through Worship,

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Florida Pastor Forrest Pollock Missing

Gregory Pittman — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:13:16 +0000

UPDATE: According to the Bell Shoals Baptist Church website, search and rescue crews found the wreckage of Pastor Forrest Pollock’s plane outside of Asheville, North Carolina, around 11:00 this morning. Sadly, neither Pollock nor his 13 year-old son survived the crash.

In an attempt to widen the circle of prayer support, I am reposting information found on several Christian blogs this morning. Please be in prayer for the Pollock family and for the Bell Shoals church family.

Forrest Pollock, Senior Pastor of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Florida, and his 13 year-old son, Preston, went missing while traveling in the Pastor’s plane from North Carolina early Monday morning. A search has been underway since late Monday evening (May 12, 2008). The church is posting updates on its website. However, they are asking for no calls to the church or to the family.

The church is providing updates on its website.

Impacting the Kingdom Through Worship,

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Dottie Rambo Dead at Age 74

Gregory Pittman — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:00:55 +0000

Dottie Rambo, gospel song writer, died early Sunday morning at the age of 74. She was on tour traveling to a Mother’s Day show in Texas when her tour bus ran off the road in Missouri and hit an embankment. Rambo was pronounced dead at the scene.

Rambo penned more than 2,500 songs and was an influential songwriter for the evangelical Christian church. Two of her well-known songs, “We Shall Behold Him” and “Behold the Lamb,” appear in the 1991 edition of The Baptist Hymnal.

Impacting the Kingdom Through Worship,

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10 Things a Man in Church Should Do

Gregory Pittman — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:51:14 +0000

When I was in seminary, I was one of the graduate assistants for the Oratorio Chorus, a 200+ voice choir made up of community singers and seminary students. During that time, I had the pleasure of serving with a few other graduate assistants. We put in long, hard hours producing concerts, managing logistics (logistics for a 200+ voice choir is murder; as a result, I can manage just about any project you give me now without blinking), rehearsing, and just about anything our director could throw at us. And yes, sometimes he did actually throw things at us, like the time we all told him we couldn’t be at one last rehearsal for a tour to Israel because we were flying to Chicago a day early to play around. We almost lost our lives that day.

In times like those, you develop very close, lifelong relationships. One of the guys I served with is now a worship leader in Georgia. Yesterday, Scott wrote a blog post entitled “10 Things a Man in Church Should Do.” I didn’t read it when it first came into Google Reader because I thought it was going to be a comical post and I wanted to wait until today to read it. It wasn’t comical; it has sound advice, a lot of which isn’t limited to usefulness for men. I encourage you to take time to read it.

Impacting the Kingdom Through Worship,

P.S.–Scott, if you ever find yourself moving to Charleston, you will need to know how to tie a bow tie.

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Kauflin Book Giveaway

Gregory Pittman — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:09:05 +0000

The folks over at Worship.com are giving away five free copies of Bob Kauflin’s new book Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God. They’re running four videos Bob recorded to talk about the book and at the end of the series, they’ll randomly pick five commenters to receive the free books.

I’ve mentioned several times here at IsaiahsSix.org how much I value Bob’s leadership. Although I have not yet read it, I am confident this is a book that needs to be on your shelf if you have anything at all to do with worship leadership. I encourage you to participate in the discussion at Worship.com.

Impacting the Kingdom Through Worship,

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Humility Courtesy of the Bible

Gregory Pittman — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:00:16 +0000

Mercy is not one of my spiritual gifts. In fact, I’ve mentioned that to a couple of friends recently. There’s a reason God placed my wife and me together. She’s the merciful one; I tend to give people as much rope as they ask for and stand back and watch them hang themselves.

Yesterday’s ESV Bible verse of the day was Matthew 5:7. “‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.’” It’s a short verse, but it hit me right between the eyes. It reminded me of those recent conversations when I joked–pridefully it seems to me now–about not being merciful. And it reminded me of the parable of the unforgiving servant. When a king called one of his servants in to settle a large debt, the servant could not pay the debt. The king ordered the servant and his family and all of their belongings to be sold in order to pay the debt. The servant fell to his knees asking for mercy; and the king granted it. Although the servant was simply asking for more time to pay the debt in full, the king forgave the debt altogether. But as soon as the servant left the king, he found someone who owed him a far less significant amount of money and physically assaulted him. Because the man could not pay the debt, the unforgiving servant had him thrown into prison, a punishment from which he had recently been spared.

When the king found out about the servant’s actions, he was furious. He said, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?”

Now imagine that it is Christ Himself saying these words to you. “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” Although we never could have deserved it on our own accord, Christ had mercy on you and me when He cried out on the cross “Paid in full!”.

Mercy doesn’t have to be one of my spiritual gifts–it doesn’t even have to be a strength of mine and I don’t even have to be good at it–in order for me to recognize the depth of mercy Christ has shown me and to demonstrate that mercy to others. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Impacting the Kingdom Through Worship,

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