Grand Canyon Backpacking Trip (Part 2)

On day 2 we hiked down the Cottonwood Creek trail to a spring.  The trail descends about 750 feet in a mile and a half.  It was very steep and narrow on the way down.  We found the spring just in time…I only had 16 ozs of water left.  We then picked up the Tonto trail and walked it all the way around the Western arm of the Horseshoe Mesa.  The goal was to complete the loop and walk to Miner’s Spring on the Eastern arm, but in our haste to outrun a small thunderstorm we turned right too soon.  This decision led us up a very steep trail to the top of the Western Arm.

Before Sunset we explored a few mines around the top of the Eastern arm of the Mesa.  Then Day 3 we hiked back up the 3 mile Grandview trail.  I did not remember the trail being quite so difficult on the way down?  This was an amazing hike.

Backpacking the Grand Canyon (Part 1)

This is the first day of our Grand Canyon trip down the Grandview trail to Horseshoe Mesa then out to the Western arm of the Mesa.  The views were breath taking and every step had to be measured.  The terrain was listed as precarious and strenuous…I would agree with both descriptions.  Thank you to Larry and Sara Pugh for this opportunity of a lifetime!

“Fuel” (Week 3 Sermon)

Ephesians 5 paints a beautiful picture of how much God loves His people.  He compares it to the relationship between Husband and wife.  We the church are a chosen bride for Jesus.  But what have we done with this great romance?  How have we treated His love?  We have become an unfaithful, adulteress spouse to the one who gave His life to be in a relationship with us.  We’ve trampled on his sacrifice.  But here’s the beauty of the picture…God chose and chased us while we were unfit and He continues to love us in spite of our infidelity.  It’s time for the church, followers of Christ, to renew our vows and reclaim our pure garments.  Time to stand on the promise that nothing can stand against His church as long as we stand on the promise and power of Jesus.

Click HERE to listen “Wedding Gown” Sermon

Bonus:  This was read as an intro to my sermon.  Thank you Aubrey and Lindsay for wearing the wedding dresses on stage.

“Here comes the Bride, beautifully dressed in white.  Stunningly clothed in her radiant garments that have been designed for this glorious day.  We the church are the bride of Christ.  We have been chosen, chased and courted by our God.  A beautiful romance of sacrifice.  God so desperately longed for this relationship that He willingly gave up what was most valuable and precious to Him…His son.  Christ gave His life so that we, His bride, could know Him intimately and passionately.  And what have we done with this great romance?  How have we treated this breathtaking abandonment?

We have abused, squandered and trampled on His love for us.  We have broken the commitment of our vows.  We have been unfaithful and adulteress to our loyal groom.  Our relationship is stained and decaying because of selfish, lustful, greedy, and lazy efforts.  We have replaced our devotion with apathy.  Substituted true love for temporary pleasure.

Blemished and unworthy, broken and filthy!  Our God remains unwavering in His affection.  He calls out to His Bride with a heart of forgiveness.  No insult is too great, no offense is beyond His grace.  He loves us!  Christ’s blood shed on the cross purifies our sins, and makes up for our insufficiency.  Patiently He waits for us to walk down the aisle.  Passionately He endures until we dress ourselves in snow white garments, and say “I Do”.

Josh Parrish

A little wisdom from a little Princess…

I have the privilege of waking my kids, getting them ready, then dropping them off almost everyday of the week.  I love the adventure of waking them up.  I try to be creative and use different techniques like dance parties to the Beastie Boys, playing drums, throwing stuffed animals at them…and throwing our live animals at them.  :)

My favorite part of the day is our car ride to school.  We begin with some rock n roll and head banging to get the blood flowing.  Then we always pray together.  I love to pray with my kids!  Me and my son (6) always choose a fruit of the spirit and pray that God will allow us to have and use it on that day.  My little girl (3 1/2) however has a mind of her own.  She does not conform to the system and chooses to be independent.  She is teaching me something new about prayer every morning.

It’s simple and I missed it for a long time, but it was so powerful once I finally clued in.  She begins every prayer with “Thank you God”!  That’s it…I told you it was simple.  Every sentence of her prayer, both praise and request, start with “Thank you God”.  She is trusting that no matter what she asks for or says to God is going to be taken care of.  As adults we learn to tag on something like, “we thank you in advance for hearing us and answering our prayers”, but my little girl has taught me that every line of our prayer should be full of expectancy and gratitude.  My little diva princess has reminded her daddy what an honor it is to pray, and how much we can depend on God to hear us when we speak to him.

Pics of our new Stage Set up (9/09)

We are using 8 color changing LED par cans hung on radio antenna trusses, and 2 follow spots suspended in the back of the room.  There are also 5 LED color changing/motion tubes hung up behind the drums.  Simple and clean is something we strive for in our stage design.

“Fuel” (Week 2 Sermon)

Church used to dictate culture, but Times have drastically changed.  In the Bible if you were a follower of Christ then it was assumed that you were part of a church.  Christians committed themselves a community of believers on a regular basis.  In our modern day world we have become too busy and consumed with life, and participation in church has waned.

Even though our commitment to church has taken a down turn, the importance of church remains the same.  In this message we define “church” and answer the question “Why do I need church?”.  We also answer “Why does the church need me?”.

Click HERE to listen to “The High Octane Life” Sermon

“Fuel” (Week 1 Sermon)

Happy One Year anniversary to Awestruck Church!  As we launch into our second year of ministry we wanted to establish and define “church”.  I am so excited to see what God has in store for this year as we strive to become the church that He has called us to be.  

Click Here to listen to Week 1 Sermon from “Fuel”

“Conversation” (Week 4 Sermon)

Prayer is not a spiritual gift or something that only special get to do.  Prayer is something that most people find important, but don’t do it enough.  It’s one of those things we should do more often, but we get to busy and bogged down with the tasks of life and forget to stop and spend time with God.

In this message we discuss reasons we don’t pray enough, and some practical steps to get us on track to spend more time in conversation with our God who desires our time and our love.

Click HERE to listen to “A Practical Guide for Prayer”

“Conversation” (Week 3 Sermon)

God is powerful and mighty.  He is worthy of our respect and awe!  This amazingly glorious God is also a very intimate savior.  He wants to be close with us.

The beauty of prayer is that it is the conversation that gives us backstage access to the inner workings of our God.  Prayer is the conversation that takes us from our salvation experience into a relationship with our savior.  He wants to speak to us through the intimacy of a whisper.  

Click HERE to listen to “Backstage Pass”

Video of Micah’s 1st Day

Two days in and Micah is still loving school!  Here is a little montage of his first day from leaving the house to the trip home.  He gives us a recap of the day at the end.  I’m not sure what “Beefy Nachos” are, but they sure made his first day a lot more enjoyable.