Over the past few months I have not written much original material for the blog. To be honest, school has been a bit of a load and my workload at the church has been pretty high. While the church workload will continue to remain high, school is out now and I’ve got a couple of things in the hopper that I wanted to let you know about.

First, I’ve known of Joel Rainey for quite some time through the blog world. Thankfully, however, I got to meet him in person not too long ago. Joel forwarded me a copy of his new book, Planting Churches in the Real World. I’m excited about reviewing it and hopefully should have that review posted within the next week.

Next, speaking of new books, coming up on June 10th I will have a interview with Ed Stetzer and Philip Nation dealing with their new book, Compelled by Love. I’m part way through the book and it is outstanding so far. I’m looking forward to that post. Since that date happens to fall while we are all three going to be in Indy for the SBC Annual Meeting I am also attempting to arrange an audio interview. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we can arrange that.

Finally I’m beginning to work on a series of posts entitled “Mission Dei”. I find that a large number of SBC churches have no actual strategy in respect to missions methodology. A lack of strategic planning, in my opinion, leads to a lack of long term impact and allows for an unfortunate overexpenditure in regards to missions money. I want to help lay out a few principles that guide my thinking in regards to a comprehensive missions strategy for a local church. If you are from another church besides Frederick Boulevard, hopefully this will challenge you to think through your own missions efforts. If you read this from Frederick Boulevard hopefully this will help you to understand where we are going as a church in respect to our missions efforts. It should be an exciting series!

Finally, I’m going to leave you with a Weekend Worship video. It’s been a while since I’ve posted one but I recently ran across this new song from Chris Tomlin, City of God, and I’ve fallen in love with it. I wanted to share it with you as well. I hope you enjoy it this weekend.

On this Good Friday it is only appropriate to celebrate the cross. The videos below highlight Chris Tomlin along with Matt Redman leading “The Wonderful Cross” from Passion One Day back in 2000. It’s an incredible song that sings of the wonderful love Christ communicated on the cross.

If you will watch the whole video you will be moved, I am certain, as a couple of gentleman carry a cross towards the front of the stage area. Watching as people throw themselves at the foot of the cross is always a powerful reminder, in visual form, of our need to throw ourselves at the cross.

I hope it reminds you today to think about and praise God for the wonderful cross. Have a wonderful Easter!

This week, in lieu of music, I want to post a video that was uploaded today to the IMB’s new site, CommissionStories.com. The creator of this video emailed me today and alerted me to it and after watching it, I wanted to pass it on to you. It is a remarkable testimony of God’s grace in a very, very dark place. I hope it encourages you this weekend.   

For some reason, however, I am not able at this point to resize the video and make it fit here on MicahFries.com. So, it’s not posted here on my blog but I’d still like you to take a look at it. You can view it by clicking here.

This week for Weekend Worship I want to share with you something that God has been dealing with me about. I struggled, as a teenager, with trusting God. I worried about everything. The worry became so extensive that I was placed on prescription Zantac as a 16 year old and the doctor told me that I was in the beginning stages of a stomach ulcer. I asked God for the ability to trust Him and He gave it to me in supernatural ways. For almost 15 years now I have had the ability to simply trust Him regardless of what came into my life. Recently, though, the sin of worry has crept back into my life. I have struggled with trust and as I’ve been seeking God’s heart, my wife reminded me of a powerful passage from Philippians 4.

4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

As I read that again, I was struck by verse 7 which claims that God’s peace will “guard you hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” What a powerful statement! God is working to protect my heart and mind as I trust and rejoice in Him and His goodness.

This week, the song I want to post is a story of the amazing grace of God as we walk by faith. Jeremy Camp’s song, “Walk by Faith” is a wonderful song on its own, but when you listen to it and realize that he wrote the song after experiencing the loss of his wife to cancer after being married for only 4 months, it takes on an even more powerful meaning. I hope that you will enjoy listening to this song, and Camp’s testimony of God’s faithfulness, and that you will walk by faith this week.

Blessings!

This weekend I am excited as I think about the cross. I’m concluding a 6 week series this week by talking about salvation. We’ll look at the purpose of salvation, the passion of salvation and the perils inherent when we think about salvation. Next week we start a series of 3 messages that look at the cross in some detail leading up through Easter Sunday when we’ll conclude the series by seeing how Jesus cancelled the written code against us while on the cross. All of this studying has just driven my head and heart to the cross and so this week, for Weekend Worship, I wanted to post a song the reflected the cross and caused us to think more deeply about the cross.

This video, of the classic hymn “When I survey the wondrous cross”, is not typical in that it’s not a live video. In fact, I didn’t even watch the video when I played it. It is a great opportunity, however, for you to just sit back, close your eyes and think about the cross.

I hope it encourages you this weekend. I’ll see many of you on Sunday!

This week I am excited to talk about Jesus. As much as there is to talk about in our faithwalk with Christ, there is nothing more simple yet more profound than the person of Jesus Christ. Our faith rests squarely on the shoulder’s of His grace. The song this week is one that I’ve just recently found entitled “Glorious Impossible” by Worship leader, Carl Cartee. Cartee is very new to me. In fact, as of three weeks ago I had never heard him but I am quickly becoming a big fan. In an even more exciting twist, he has made 6 of his songs available online for free as a download. Check it out at his website www.carlcartee.com. The song Glorious Impossible, however, focuses on the person of Jesus and the impossible reality that He loves us and offers us His grace. It’s a powerful reminder this weekend that we are really nothing and He is everything. 

I hope it really encourages you this weekend! 

This week’s Weekend Worship features Charlie Hall. Although I’m a big fan of Charlie Hall for a long time now the reason I’m posting this today is because my daughter is sitting beside me and specifically requested Mr. Hall. This song, though, speaks so wonderfully to the need for relience upon God alone. I hope you enjoy this.  

This week, for Weekend Worship, I want to feature one of my favorite modern day songwriters and worship leaders. David Crowder is the Pastor of Music and Arts at University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. He also happens to be the frontman for the David Crowder Band. Finally, and most importantly, he is my daughter, Grace’s favorite worship leader. This video was taken while he was leading worship at the Passion ‘05 gathering in Atlanta, GA. The song speaks, as do many Crowder songs, to the greatness of God.

I’ve been contemplating the sovereignty of God a great deal lately. For a sermon a week or two ago I came across this quote by A.W. Pink:

The Sovereignty of God. What do we mean by this expression? We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the god-hood of God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can stay His hand or say unto Him what doest Thou? (Dan. 4:35). To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in Heaven and earth, so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will (Psa. 115:3). To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is “The Governor among the nations” (Psa. 22:28), setting up kingdoms, overthrowing empires, and determining the course of dynasties as pleaseth Him best. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the “Only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 6:15). Such is the God of the Bible.

What a powerful reminder of the greatness of our God! That is the kind of King that I want to serve! This song serves as a wonderful reminder of God’s greatness. I hope you enjoy it this weekend. I’ll see you in church on Sunday!