PROLOGUE | ALL ABOUT FIRE"Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it... The LORD said to the man clothed in linen, ‘ Go in among the wheels beneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city...’ Then one of the cherubim reached out his hand to the fire that was among them. He took up some of it and put it into the hands of the man in linen, who took it and went out. Under the wings of the cherubim could be seen what looked like the hands of a man."—Ezekiel 1:13; 10:2-8

About us | January 2009We are people who believe in praising God...

• Because praise is what we do
• "May the peoples praise you, O God, may all the peoples praise you. Then the land will yield its harvest and God, our God, will bless us. God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him" (Psalm 67:5-7).
• As creatures of God born from above, we have been created and recreated for praise. While praise and worship styles vary, and incorporate a variety of expression shaped by culture, tradition, theology, and more, you will find common factors always present. For example, with the Spirit of God within, sincere praise of every sort rises to God from the heart, mind, mouth and hands of God's children like the flames of a fire reach upward. Even if seeing is not always believing, perhaps in this case seeing is worth more than words. So we invite you to see in the following video. Through videos such as this one, both here and throughout this website we will be sharing various worship styles, some enthusiastic and exuberant, others quieter and introspective. We are not endorsing one over another. But we invite you back for other visits to see what comes next! In the meantime...

• ALL GOD‘S CHILDREN SINGING—HE REIGNS

• We praise him...For the power,
• presence, and promise of renewal, the fruit of his new creation. We are a group of people interested in the work of God in and through people around the world. We believe especially in ‘believing’ people who comprise the Church of Jesus—that is, We believe in the global family of the body of Christ, the church of Jesus.
• Why? Because the family of God is fruit of his new creation, eternal and trans-national. It comprises now a family of nations who will be together forever in a New Heavens and a New Earth. So we believe that how we care for one another now matters forever. We will meet face to face, before the face of Jesus, and have to face up to then how we have treated one another now. Loving our neighbor and one another implies action reaching far beyond stained-glass windows and borders of nations.
• For this reason, we focus on empowering the church around the world beginning where we are that together we might focus on the task of bringing glory to Jesus through worship, praise, service, and witness.

• We praise himFor the power of the good news of Jesus
• We believe in the above and what follows because we believe in the power of the good news, the gospel of Jesus.
• Unlike the myth of ideology, the Good News is a Person. As believers, we do not convert people to an ideology of Christian theory, but introduce them to the Person of Christ himself who is the Lord of history. We demonstrate this as the Lord of History lives in and through us by faith backed up by deeds. The good news, then, becomes a "living out" of the truth of the Presence of the Person of Jesus in proclamation, signs, wonders, miracles, and the good deeds of love in action.
• The difference between the Good News of Jesus and any ideology, then, is the gap between Reality and myth. Showing this to the world requires that we close the gap between the truth of Jesus and myths of religion by revealing Jesus in deeds of real faith.

• We praise him...For power and fire of the Holy Spirit who enables grand symphonies of praise with purpose preparing for great victories to come
• This means We believe in the fire of the Holy Spirit expressed in anointed worship that glorifies God in what he has done even as such worship prepares the way for his coming into what he will do. The fire of the Holy Spirit expressed in worship results in an anointing that, as Ezekiel saw, releases "burning coals" of fire "over the city"—in fact, over the "cities," plural, for we see Jesus whose "eyes were blazing like fire" walking among the "lampstands" symbolizing the churches in the cities of the Revelation—not to burn up, but to purify his people resulting in power to accomplish his will in us and in all the earth. From ancient times the people of God believed this and so entered into anointed worship:

• Praise the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

• He wraps himself in light as with a garment...He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants.Psalm 104: 1-4

• "Run, tell that young man, ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of men and livestock in it. And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will be its glory within.’"Zechariah 2:4-5

• Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth...

• let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;

• they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth.—David, Psalm 96; see, 1 Chronicles 16:23-33; ref. 1 Chronicles 16:1-7 and entire chapter; here again, perhaps seeing will assist in understanding. See...

• TREES OF THE FIELD WILL CLAP THEIR HANDS

• Thus, we praise him...For the power of his word
• His word changes us and those around us. By the power of God's word through the Holy Spirit God is changing us into people who are able to bring glory to him by releasing positive change into the world around us beginning with our local communities.

• And we also praise him...For the power of fellowship in a community of faith
• In West LA, we worship with the people of Marina Cathedral, meeting in the Radisson Hotel located at 6161 Centinela Avenue, in Culver City, California. You will find us gathering for worship any Sunday morning at 10:30am. Join us.

• MARINA CATHEDRAL—Get map and directions

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