time to retreat...

in a few hours, i will be heading up to NH with the guys for a few days of fun and hopefully some spiritual growth... I am bring my 3 Stooges box set fir us to watch. hahahaha

Agenda:

Thursday - on road and get up there around 7-8, and then chill out.

Friday - morning, hang out and play some frisbee or basketball.. maybe swim if i am brave..

afternoon, start of sessions - 7 seasons of a man, some dinner, another session and then some down time

Saturday - morning, breakfast, a few sessions, lunch, some free time and then some sessions and then dinner and then home.

then home saturday night around 11...

so, i will be offline and far away from computers for the weekend. bye bye real world!!!

God bless you all and have a great weekend.

Tony

recovering from long weekend..

Memorial Day weekend.. ok.. kickoff to summer.. it was good. beautiful weather, awesome family and friends.. just great. Corrina had a HUGE case of posion ivy, but it was settling down yesterday so she could have some fun at my sister in law's cookout. We played some volleyball and some basketball where Di was a scoring machine.. awesome!

I have been slaving by the pool, trying to get it open.. hopefully it will be good to go by this weekend. Got my new grill built and me and Cassidy test drove it with some hot dogs stuffed with cheddar cheeze.. A+.. love the new grill! Busy busy.. but all good stuff!

also, this weekend coming up is the Calvary Men's Group retreat at Singing Hills in New Hampshire. Should be good. We stay in a nice cabin and get just relax and swim and play some frisbee golf and eat Little Debbies.. ahhh, should be good. We do some spiritual stuff as well. hahahaha.

Setlist from Sunday.. lets see...

Beautiful One

Light the Fire Again *broke a string, had to switch from Ibanez to Martin acoustic

Take My Life

Come, Now is the Time to Worship->

Holy Spirit jam->

You Are Worthy of my Praise

I Walk by Faith

altar song was When Its All Been Said and Done

The string breaking in the second song threw me. I had trouble getting focus. The devil was playing his tricks.. bah.. those weeks happen. So, right back at it. Rehearsal tonight... should be fun!

Hope you all had an awesome weekend

God bless

Tony

TGIF video Vol. 3

ahhhh, another classic.. This one is from the Gaither Bluegrass show... Its the Del McCoury Band, the best bluegrass band going today, in my opinion...ENJOY...



Have a wonderful LOOOOONNNNGGGG weekend. Memorial Day.. the kickoff to summer

God bless!
Tony

just a quick thursday entry...

First off.. Go Celts!!!! Game 2 TONIGHT!!!

Also, I don't think I have ever posted my church's website..

http://www.calvarydudley.net/

God Bless!!!

Tony

wednesday worship talk

Howdy everyone. I have kind of drifted away from worship talk for awhile, but i did warn you i will ramble. So, i rambled off worship for a bit. Lets get back to it. I saw a funny online poll yesterday which asked if the church's music can keep you coming to church or drive you away. hmmm. The guy who started the poll had something against church organs... i wonder how he feels about banjos. well, it got me thinking. I think the most important thing is that you remember that this is for God, not you. Worship time in church is to worship God and please Him, not please you. When I visit churches or conferences that have times of worship, i pray that the Holy Spirit will work in my heart that I will focus on God, no matter what! If your heart is right and open, you will be able to worship anywhere.. but it is nice to be able to worship God and feel comfortable enough to express yourself and be free to be yourself. so, we continue...

God created all music. Music can't be evil.. some lyrics can be, but music (chord structure, melody, rhythm, etc) can't be. So, I believe it is important that each individual can find a church that has music that they can relate to and feel comfortable to worship God with. If you find the music being played at a church is really getting in the way of worshipping God then go find another church. There are so many Bible believing churches out there to pick from with a wide variety of music styles from contemporary to old hymns. There is a church out there that is playing music that you can connect with and worship God with. Each week at Calvary, I really pray about the music that we play each week and I truly believe that God has a hand in picking the songs we do. So, we mix it up. I like hymns (they can get wordy, but the messages are awesome), but I will usually rearrange them. I like to have a little bit for everyone, a couple rockin tunes, a hymn, a slower more reflective tune. The most important thing is that you worship God. The worship of God is what pleases Him. He hears your heart, weather it be to a rock and roll beat or a traditional organ driven hymn. Just worship Him. Go find a church that you feel comfortable with the music. But remember, it needs to be a Bible believing church. Never substitute the Word of God for some cool style of music. Church's first priority is preaching the truth straight from the Bible. If that is in order, then deal with the music. right on!

To close, here's a wonderful worship oriented Psalm.. Psalm 150.

Psalm 150
1 Praise the LORD.

Praise God in his sanctuary;

praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;

praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,

praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with tambourine and dancing,

praise him with the strings and flute,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,

praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD.

God loves you all and loves to hear you worship Him. So, Sunday.. get out there and find a church and worship the Lord!

Bless you all

Tony

The Roman Road

The Roman Road to Salvation....
It is a group of Bible verses from the book of Romans in the New Testament. If you walk down this road you will end up understanding how to be saved.

Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
We all have sin in our hearts. We all were born with sin. We were born under the power of sin's control.

- Admit that you are a sinner.

Romans 6:23a "...The wages of sin is death..."
Sin has an ending. It results in death. We all face physical death, which is a result of sin. But a worse death is spiritual death that alienates us from God, and will last for all eternity. The Bible teaches that there is a place called the Lake of Fire where lost people will be in torment forever. It is the place where people who are spiritually dead will remain.
- Understand that you deserve death for your sin.

Romans 6:23b "...But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Salvation is a free gift from God to you! You can't earn this gift, but you must reach out and receive it.
- Ask God to forgive you and save you.

Romans 5:8, "God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us!"
When Jesus died on the cross He paid sin's penalty. He paid the price for all sin, and when He took all the sins of the world on Himself on the cross, He bought us out of slavery to sin and death! The only condition is that we believe in Him and what He has done for us, understanding that we are now joined with Him, and that He is our life. He did all this because He loved us and gave Himself for us!
- Give your life to God... His love poured out in Jesus on the cross is your only hope to have forgiveness and change. His love bought you out of being a slave to sin. His love is what saves you -- not religion, or church membership. God loves you!

Romans 10:13 "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved!"
- Call out to God in the name of Jesus!

Romans 10:9,10 "...If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."
- If you know that God is knocking on your heart's door, ask Him to come into your heart.

Jesus said,
Revelation 3:20a "Behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him..."
- Is Jesus knocking on your heart's door?

wow.. good stuff! No church can save you, no ceremony or ritual, no human.. This is the way to Heaven! It seems so simple but so hard to grasp. God loves you and died for YOU!

I pray that everyone reading this will find a local bible preaching church and hear God's word being preached for themselves. Church is a place that believers can go and be encouraged, be held accountable and be unified for God and His purposes.

Lord, I am a sinner and thank you for dying on that cross for me.

Jesus is knocking.. let Him in!!!!

Peace

Tony

Sunday service and more...

Cock a doodle doo.. monday morning.. rise and shine!!!!

Wow!!!! well, first the setlist from yesterday
History Maker
Blessed Be Your Name
Your Love Oh Lord
How Great is Your Name
Victory in Jesus
Great and Mighty is He
and for the altar call, Jesus All for Jesus

very powerful time of worship. I felt led to call the congregation forward to worship together in the front of the sanctuary. Since I always keep my eyes closed, I didn't see it, but I felt it. A bunch of people came down and held hands and waved flags and really had a wonderful time of worship. Gettin' unified. good stuff. had some technical gremlins during the pre service rehearsal. nothing a changed chord and a new battery in my equalizer pedal didn't cure. The key was I didn't let it ruffle my feathers.

Last night I practiced my guitar for little over an hour. It was great. Trying to work up some new songs and just connecting with my guitar. I really want to dig in more with my guitar. really practice and work on stuff. The worship band is really sounding great and I know I have to keep up on my game. I need to get practicing. It was easier when it was just me strumming my acoustic guitar, but now with drums and keyboards and bass, I need to be on my A game all the time. its great. I need to write some songs tho. I feel like I have stuff I want to say, just need to get to it. My wife is trying to watch less TV. I will try and encourage her by staying away from the TV as well (until right before bed) and I will take that time to play my guitars and hopefully write some songs. well, that was a good monday morning ramble. ahh, i need my oatmeal.

May God bless you all with a great week

In Him

Tony

TGIF Video Vol. 2

TGIF is right.. oh man. come on weekend!!!!

here's a couple little videos to go with yoru morning coffeee..




These are so powerful in its rawness!!!!

Have a great weekend and God bless ya!
Tony

vision...

So, I have been praying alot about a vision statement for the worship team... what does God want us to do and all that good stuff... so, after lots of prayer and writing about 100 of these, here is the current vision statement for the Calvary Assembly of God Worship Team.

The Calvary worship team desires to lead the congregation, by example, into a Spirit filled and biblically truthful time of worship to God. We will be a prayerful group that wishes to please God first, providing a relevant, contemporary worship service with an atmosphere of freedom to express our devotion to the living God thru the individual gifts He has given to us.

nice to see it written out... also.. I wanted a theme for this coming season. Try to fire up the troops... so, I am issuing a declaration that the Summer of 2008 will be the Summer of the Spirit. The worship team will focus on the Holy Spirit, pray for the Spirit to fill us, work thru us, touch the congregation, just have total freedom in our worship and in our church. Hopefully this focus on the Holy Spirit this Summer will be just a starting point. The worship team wants the Holy Spirit to be involved in everything we do from here on out. We want the entire congregation to be seeking the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is a new day, a new beginning, a fresh annointing of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives in all believers and is a free gift from God to empower us, to help us, to guide us.. Are we really tapping into that. We need to. We cannot do anything without God.

Not by Might, Not by Power, but by My Spirit sayeth the Lord..

Amen!!!!

So, if you are the praying type, which I hope you are, please include us in your daily prayers..

- pray everyday for the Calvary worship team

- pray for the worship team to be annointed in the Holy Spirit at all times

- pray that the entire congregation of Calvary AG in Dudley, MA will be filled with the Holy Spirit

- pray everyday for the Holy Spirit to fill you and empower you and work with you

awesome! have a great day..

God bless

Tony

SNED Missions Dinner...

Well, last night I had the opportunity to go to the Southern New England District Assemblies of God Missions dinner. I went with Di and Pastor Patrick and some other leaders from Calvary. It was held at the Crown Plaza in Worcester, MA. It was great to see a ton of people from all the Assemblies of God churches in southern New England. I saw alot of my teachers from my Berean Ministry classes. It was cool to see how our churches are really giving and supporting the spread of the Gospel to the world. We are all called to missions, either by going or by supporting their work with money or prayers or hopefully both. The Worship Team from Zion Bible institute was there and they were great. I was feeling kinda blah from my allergies. My head was weighing in at 120 lbs. ugh. But the guest speaker was from Missouri and he brought a great message saying "If Coke Can, We Can!", showing us that Coca-Cola is EVERYWHERE. All around the world and we need to get the gospel to all the world. The one quote that really stuck with me was from an executive at Coke in the 1920's. He said "Before everyone dies, I want every person in the world to have atleast tasted Coke." Amazing. A simple but very profound dream. We need to have that same passion and that same dream that every single person gets to hear the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus before he/she dies. We need to get out there and start sharing that Good News!!!! With friends, neighbors, people in the grocery store, everywhere. We all can do our part. Not everyone has to jet off to China or India.. just when you go out and do your day to day things, pray that God will open doors and give you the right words to say to help people come to know the love of Jesus. One last quote from last night.. on the night years back when Michael Jordan scored 69 points in 1 game, a rookie player was on his team and scored 1 point, his first ever NBA point. They asked him how it feels to score 1 point while Jordan scored 69.. and the kid said, "I will always remember this night as the night me and Michael combined for 70 points!!!" We need to do our part, even if it is just that 1 point and God will do the rest, God will score the other 69. Give God a little and he can do so much. Give God nothing to work with and that is what you get.. NOTHING.

Rock on... not an easy task but we can do it together!!!!

be good.. and now for something completely different.. John Hartford on the banjo...


God bless everyone!!!
Tony

On fire? hmmmmm

Good Monday morning to y'all...

Something amazing is happening. The service yesterday was so amazing for me that its hard to put into words. I truly felt transported into God's throne room and I was right there worshipping the Lord. I was on another plane. I felt so filled with the Holy Spirit. It was beautiful. I prayed that I could remain in that state.. some day.. some day..

Before the music started yesterday, I spoke to the congregation about Revelation 3:16
So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.

I challenged the congregation, are YOU lukewarm for God. God will spit you right out of His mouth. He wants our best, He wants our first fruits... He does NOT want the half hearted, the leftovers. He does not want mediocrity! God created you and knows your abilities and what you are capable of. He never asks you to do more then He knows you can. So, it is our choice whether we are mediocre towards God. Instead of being lukewarm, He wants you to be on fire for Him. He wants you to be passionate for Him. And when you are passionate about something, you put it first. Your favorite sport team, your favorite hobby. These things take priority in your life.. God wants to be our priority. He wants to be first in our lives. Don't be lukewarm!!!! Don't be the one God spits out of His mouth in disgust!!!

So lets get on fire this week...

God bless you all

Tony

TGIF Video Vol. 1

I was thinking.. ahhh Fridays.. Tony, share some cool videos..

This one is so good... hope you enjoy..


Have a great weekend
God bless
Tony

A healthy fear...

top of the morning to y'all....

so, my beautiful wife was preparing her small group study on the first part of the Book of Revelation.. powerful stuff. Got me to thinking... we know God is love and cares for us, wants to bless us, wants the very best for us. Thats awesome, BUT... God is also just and that is the thing that upsets people and scares people the most. he sent his son Jesus to die on the cross as a payment for all of our sins. The Bible says that ALL have fallen short of the glory of God. No matter what we do, it can never be good enough for God. So, Jesus came and sacrificed His blood as payment for our wrong doings. So, all we have to do is except Jesus as our personal Lord and savior and the debt is paid for sins. God, the judge sees that our sins are paid for and we have access to paradise for eternity in heaven. I think that is a good deal..

Well, what if you don't except Jesus as your Lord and savior. well.. God the judge will.. yup.. judge you. In Revelation, it says that all who believe in Jesus as their savior as their savior will ascend Heaven and be with Him. That is for living and dead. He has prepared a place for us. But Revelation also speaks about what happens to those who do not believe in Jesus as the savior.. and that will be eternity in the lake of fire. You either follow Jesus or Satan. Those are the choices folks.. Jesus says if you are not for me, then you are against me.. so, if you are not for Jesus, then you are against Him and for Satan.. Once you realize this, hopefully the choice is simple. Lets see, the Jesus side is being completely forgiven for your sins, Jesus having paid for them, having a relationship with God thru Jesus and the power or the Holy Spirit, being blessed in this world and then eternity in Paradise with Jesus and God and all the believers or the Satan side which is to continue living in sin here on earth, with no payment for your sins, so you feel guilty, deep down you do, not having that love, peace, comfort that comes from God and Jesus, then at the end.. the lake of fire.. hmmmm, Heaven or lake of fire, Love and peace or guilt and being afraid.. I will take Jesus , how about you.

I know it seems like doom and gloom, but I love my family and friends and I want them to have all the wonderful things that comes from excepting Jesus. I want to see you all in heaven. And I have heard every excuse in the book.

I believe in Jesus, but I hate church

- well, the Bible says that we should gather together with other believers. If you don't like your church, find a new one, get connected. These are the brothers and sisters that will help you on your walk with the Lord. We cannot do it alone. We all stumble and fall and sin every day. We need other Christians to help us, encourage us, counsel us.. get to church..

Jesus is make believe

- Nope, sorry. Many historical texts make note of the man Jesus. He was a real person.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus

I believe Jesus was a great teacher, but he is not the Son of God so he didn't pay for my sins

- I could talk for days on this one, but lets talk quickly about it.. Well, since we have stated above that Jesus was a real person, we can say 2 things about His teachings. Either He was who He said He was, the Son of God or He was a complete lunatic. So, lets look at each side. Jesus as lunatic and a liar. He went around healing people, teaching about God in heaven and God's good works and blessings, bringing harmony and peace and showing love. Does not sound like a madman to me. Was He lying when He said He was the Son of God. Well, look at the cruxifiction. These events are well documented. He was arrested because He was said to be a liar and said He was the Son of God. He was beaten to almost death, then was nailed to a tree and suffered a slow painful death. On the cross, it is documented that when He spoke, He spoke to God to forgive us for making Him go to the cross. Even to the very end of His life, he stayed true to what he said that He was the Son of God. How far would you take a lie? Do people die for what they believe in or to keep covering up a lie? So, the otehr side is we belive that Jesus is who He said He was, the Son of God.. We have the Bible that we can read the whole story, 4 different accounts, The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This is also where faith comes in. Believing in Jesus requires faith. We never met Jesus, we never heard him teach or speak. We are relying on written texts and FAITH!!!! Faith grows as well by the Holy Spirit inside you when you except the truth of Jesus. They call it a leap of faith.. its true. You need to go against what the world says and believe. So, you can read the proof, you can read the Bible, but faith is the key. Have faith. If you believe in Jesus, look what you can gain. Jesus died on that cross for our sins and then rose on the Third Day, that first Easter, so that we can conquer the grave and death will have no hold on us, we will live forever with Jesus. We need to have faith in those events. Pray to God to show you. He will open your eyes.

I am good enough. I just try to live my life the best I can, being nice to people and blah blah...

- This one is good. You are good enough. By whose standards.. by God's standards or by your own. Did you not sin today, yesterday. Did you talk about others behind their backs, did you gossip, did you lustfully look at another person, did you lie, did you steal, did you get drunk, did you swear, did you.. well, you get the point. we all sin, we all continue to sin. we are not perfect so that is why we need Jesus. Not an option, we NEED Him. You are not good enough. Until we except Jesus, we are separated from God, far off, like the sheep who wandered off. With Jesus we get called home, the lost sheep who is now safely back with the others, protected and cared for. We need to all realize this. We are not good enough for God, that is why blood was shed for us. A sacrifice of blood was needed to bring us back to favor with God. So, get over yourselves. We all fall short. Me, you, your pastor, neighbors, friends, family.. no one is perfect but Jesus.

and so on...

Part of being a Christian is to share the good news, the good news is the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is He came to die for all of us, every single one of us so that we could have total forgiveness of sins and have a relationship with God and have eternal life with Him in Heaven. So, i have now told you the good news. I cannot force you to believe, i can not make you do anything. Now it is between you and God. If you want this, just ask God, tell God. His Holy Spirit will enter into your heart and start to live inside to help you and guide you. A new morning.. This could be the day of new beginnings. weigh your options and really think and pray about it. No one will know when Jesus will return. Jesus says that in the Bible, no one will know the hour or minute of my return. Could be today, tomorrow... no time to lose...

God bless you all

In Him

Tony

setlist for Sunday..

Howdy...

ladies.. the setlist for Sunday will be...

Let Everything that Has Breath

Holy is the Lord

God of Wonders

Open the Eyes of My Heart

Days of Elijah

offering - Its No Longer I that Liveth

altar - Who am I

Thats all I got for now. Worship Team, enjoy your night off.

God bless and have a great day

Tony

Joy!!!!

Yesterday was just an awesome experience of joy for me. It started during the pre-service run thru, carried over into the pre-service prayer and then right on into the service. I was so glad to be in God's house, singing and worshipping Him. It was awesome. Nothing new happened, we didn't really play any new songs. It was my attitude of gratitude. I was just thanking God for everything, my family, my hosue, food i get to eat, my pastor, my church family. Sometimes, we need to kick start the feelings of joy and happiness and then God and the Holy Spirit just take over. While we were playing There is No Other Name, I just started strumming and jamming along what I heard in my heart and the whole church broke into an Amen chorus.. it was quite amazing. It was beautiful. The Holy Spirit was there and in control. Good Stuff!!! Here is our setlist from yesterday:

Awesome God

We Want to See Jesus Lifted High->

I Heard the Sound of Voices->

There is No Other Name * with Amen chorus->

I Saw the Light

Awesome God reprise

and for the altar time, Breathe

Ok, some geeky guitar stuff.. for Breathe, I used my 12 string acoustic and ran it thru my Alesis AcoustiFX Acoustic Guitar Multi-Effects Pedal with a nice swirling speaker sound.. kinda vibey.. I thought it was cool. I also had Leah on piano playing with a voice effect. Mixing it up..

So, no rehearsal tomorrow.. Cassidy will be bridging into Junior Girl Scouts from Brownies.. go to be there for that.. I will post the setlist for Sunday sometime tomorrow or early Wednesday.

and remember Mother's Day is this Sunday.

have a great day.. look at that sun shining.. oh man..

In Him..

Tony

some rehearsal jams...

I am getting tired and want to go to bed, but here are a few jams from our rehearsal tuesday... hope you enjoy..

i heard the sound of voices

there is no other name

i saw the light

peace and God bless!
Tony