Here are two incredibly powerful and fresh songs, both formed from the ideas of us being skeletons in God's presence. Though the songs each have a different focus, the metaphor of both is incredibly powerful, and moving. They are both reminders to me that God wants our honest imperfection rather than our cloaked religiosity...only then can He begin to work...

John Mark McMillan wrote the worship anthem "How he loves" (click here to watch a version of the song). Skeleton Bones is his latest offering. The lyrics are below, so you can worship along with the video.

This song is written by Brian Houston and is available from the difficult to track down album "Hurricane" by the Hudson Taylors (Brian with Noel Richards and Wayne Drain). This is a powerful song, based on this passage in Ezekiel. This song reminds me to take my eyes from what is visible and to ask to see life's situations with eyes of faith:"Where you see bones, I can see the army". May this song bless you. 

Where You See Bones

Verse 1
When the ones you love and trust
Hurt and destroy you
Though you may be discouraged
Certainly don't think of giving up
When you are broken
When you are wounded
Forgive those who persecute you
For it's alright to be broken
And it is no shame to cry
But I do not want you to remain
In that place of brokenness
Even though I am in that place with you
Still I do not want you to stay there

Chorus
Where you see bones
I can see the army
Where you see floods
I can see the shore
Where you see dry winds blow
I see the new life grow
Where you see the clouds in your way
It is the Lord

Verse 2
Like I delivered Moses
Out from the desert place
So I will lead you through
You will see a fire in the night
And a pillar of cloud in the day
And I will go before you
And if you can forgive
Then when your soul is really mended
You will see there is gold pure gold
Real gold of great worth in your life
But I do not want you to remain
In that place of brokenness
Even though I am in that place with you
Still I do not want you to remain there

Bridge
No no no no
I do not want you to remain
In the land of your affliction
No no no
I do not want you to stay there
In the land of your broken dreams
For you see for you see

Chorus
Where you see bones
I can see the army
Where you see floods
I can see the shore
Where you see desert winds blow
I feel the new life grow
Where you see the clouds in your way
It is the Lord


CCLI Song No. 3758870
© 2001 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)
Brian Houston
For use solely with the SongSelect Terms of Use.  All rights Reserved. www.ccli.com
CCLI License No. 108200

Shrove Tuesday Prayer (Feb 16 2010)
Pancake Supper: 5:30-7pm
Shrove Tuesday prayer and contemplation: 7pm - 9pm
If you're not a regular attender of Cornerstone, you are welcome to attend our pancake supper and prayer time. The address and mapquest link to the church building can be found on this website under "Where to find us".

Shrove Tuesday
The purpose behind Shrove Tuesday is to prepare oneself through the traditional means of repentance and absolution before embarking on the soul-changing journey of Lent. Whereas Roman Catholics may seek absolution through a priest, as Wesleyans (an evangelical Protestant Denomination), we believe that we find our forgiveness and cleansing through Jesus Christ alone (see here).

However, we can learn from our Catholic brothers and sisters in their regular practice of confession. We Protestants don't do confession very well - an unfortunate casualty to the Reformation. In fact, confession is an alien concept to many of us or, at best, a dusty tome we dutifully pull down from the shelves every once in a while. As a result, we walk around with many unnecessary cares, sin, cobwebs and frustrations tucked away in the nooks and crannies of our soul.

God, the perfect Gentleman continually offers: "Let me take that for you". But we're so used to the extra weight, that it becomes normal. If only we knew the new "normal" Christian life that God has for us!! The freedom from sin and the guilt of sin, the liberty from pride and self-sufficiency, the grasping of the reality that God has called us to cast all our cares upon Him because He. Cares. For. Us.  (1 Peter 5:7).

The means  that God has given us to release all our sin, junk, anxiety and reliance on self to Him is confession (1 John 1:8-9).

Confession
God created us to be confessors - confessors of His greatness and confessors of our sin, weakness and need of Him. He created us to be free, to cast off the sin that so easily entangles us (Hebrews 12:1) and to live lives of freedom (Galatians 5:1). So tonight, is an opportunity, in an atmosphere of candlelight and quiet to clear our lives once again of self and to allow God to fill us with Himself.

Prayer Stations
There will be prayer stations set up around the room, each with a different prayer focus. With candle light and quiet background music, I'm hoping that this will be a time of quiet and personal connection between us and God. There will be a freedom and a space in this time of prayer in a manner that perhaps you've never experienced. As we move around the room, using our senses of touch, smell, sight, hearing (and perhaps even taste), we will allow God the Holy Spirit to minister to us as we worship Him.

I hope to see you there!

Lent:(17 Feb – 4 April)
In Christian tradition, lent is the period of the liturgical year leading up to Easter.
The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, penitence, giving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion (suffering) of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The liturgical fasting emphasized eating plainer food and refraining from food that would give pleasure: In many cultures, this means no meat, dairy, or eggs. Other common things to give up include chocolate, sweets, coffee, alcohol, smoking, TV, the internet, Facebook. In fact, anything can be given up that enables a greater focus on Christ and His sacrificial death during this time. Other believers add something into their lives to enhance this focus on Christ, such as prayer, reading scripture, acts of service.

Shrove Tuesday:(16 Feb) Pancakes and doughnuts are associated with the day preceding Lent because they were a way to use up rich foodstuffs such as eggs, milk, and sugar, before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent.

As a family at Cornerstone, we will be celebrating this event together with a pancake supper next Tuesday, from 5:30pm – 7pm. After the pancake supper we will have a time of “Seeking His Face” prayer in the sanctuary to prepare us for the season of Lent. This looks to be an extremely poignant and moving evening as we join together to observe this historical time in the church calendar.

Ash Wednesday (17 Feb): The first day of Lent and occurs forty-six days (forty days not counting Sundays) before Easter. This year, Ash Wednesday (the beginning of Lent) falls on 17th February.

Free devotional book: On Sunday we are going to be making available a Lent-based devotion by the contemplative Christian thinker and writer Henri Nouwen. The devotional is called “Christ our Hope”. This devotional is free for anyone who wishes to use it, consider is a gift from Cornerstone to enhance your relationship with Christ during this season, whether you choose to fast in some way, or not.. I look forward to hearing your insights or thoughts as we go through this season of Lent together.

Information mostly taken from www.Wikipedia.com (with extra notes from Dan)

Somewhat mysteriously, I ended up on an email list from which I received this link today. It's a pretty nice and simple website, with images and scriptures. If you click on the tab "photo album", you can move through the pages of images and scriptures. I just set one as my desktop background by simply right clicking my chosen image and choosing "Set as desktop background" - what a great reminder of God's word for when you're working or relaxing at the computer. The picture to the left is one example