Worship In Song : Song List for Each
Reflection
“The promise here is that, no matter what awaits us at the moment of death, in this moment and in every moment we can experience resurrection, our lives liberated from the slavery of death. Through this resurrection, we are no longer self-interested survival machines driven by fear, pushed and pulled by our survival instincts. Neither are we neurotically chasing an illusory vision of “success” as an attempt to matter in the face of death. Rather, by dispossessing ourselves in baptism, by denying ourselves and taking up the cross of Jesus, we ground our identities in Christ alone and count everything else as “rubbish.” And in doing this—in dying to the world—death loses its hold on us, loses its moral traction to scare or shame us. Death has been defeated in the midst of our lives and Jesus’ resurrected life becomes tangibly present within our own. Slavery to the fear of death has been exchanged for the freedom and capacity to love.” ~Richard Beck. The Slavery of Death
“You don’t have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, perhaps just one, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing. If you want your life to count . . . you don’t need to have a high IQ. You don’t have to have good looks or riches or come from a fine family or a fine school. Instead you have to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things — or one great all-embracing thing — and be set on fire by them.”
~John Piper
“Rather than depressing you, all of the death and impermanence around you is meant to open your eyes and inform your heart. It is meant to call you away from the delusion that this life is all there is and that you can find your identity, meaning, and purpose and your deepest inner sense of well-being from things that so quickly die.”
~Paul David Tripp, Forever
God Calls Us To Worship :: 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
[9] But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. [10] For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (ESV)
Worship In Song :: Come Behold The Wondrous Mystery
Come behold the wondrous mystery
In the dawning of the King
He the theme of heaven’s praises
Robed in frail humanity
In our longing, in our darkness
Now the light of life has come
Look to Christ, who condescended
Took on flesh to ransom us
Come behold the wondrous mystery
He the perfect Son of Man
In His living, in His suffering
Never trace nor stain of sin
See the true and better Adam
Come to save the hell-bound man
Christ the great and sure fulfillment
Of the law; in Him we stand
Come behold the wondrous mystery
Christ the Lord upon the tree
In the stead of ruined sinners
Hangs the Lamb in victory
See the price of our redemption
See the Father’s plan unfold
Bringing many sons to glory
Grace unmeasured, love untold
Come behold the wondrous mystery
Slain by death the God of life
But no grave could e’er restrain Him
Praise the Lord; He is alive!
What a foretaste of deliverance
How unwavering our hope
Christ in power resurrected
As we will be when he comes
Confession Of Faith :: Belgic Confession, Article 22
We believe that for us to acquire the true knowledge of this great mystery the Holy Spirit kindles in our hearts a true faith that embraces Jesus Christ, with all his merits, and makes him its own, and no longer looks for anything apart from him.
God’s Word Preached :: Colossians 1:21-27
[21] And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, [22] he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, [23] if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Paul’s Ministry to the Church
[24] Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, [25] of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, [26] the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. [27] To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (ESV)
- Posted in Worship