Preparing To Rejoice In Him // August 12, 2018

PREPARE YOUR HEART FOR WORSHIP ON AUGUST 12, 2018

REFLECTION

“Anger is the result of love. It is energy for defense of something you love when it is threatened. If you don’t love something at all, you are not angry when it is threatened. If you love something a little, you get a little angry when it is threatened. If something you love is an ultimate concern, if it is something that gives you meaning in life, then when it is threatened you will get uncontrollably angry.” ~Tim Keller

We like to convince ourselves that our anger tells us more about the flawed people we live near than it tells us about ourselves. But there is simply no denying the harsh reality of the Bible’s hard-to-accept message— we are our own biggest problem. We are the thing with which we need help. There is no greater danger than the danger we are to ourselves. We need help, help that we cannot give ourselves.
– Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies

CALL TO WORSHIP :: 1 JOHN 4:9-10 (ESV)

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (ESV)

WORSHIP IN SONG :: HIS MERCY IS MORE

What love could remember no wrongs we have done
Omniscient all knowing, He counts not their sum
Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore
Our sins they are many His mercy is more

Praise the Lord
His mercy is more
Stronger than darkness new every morn
Our sins they are many His mercy is more

What patience would wait as we constantly roam
What Father so tender is calling us home
He welcomes the weakest the vilest the poor
Our sins they are many His mercy is more

What riches of kindness He lavished on us
His blood was the payment His life was the cost
We stood ‘neath a debt we could never afford
Our sins they are many His mercy is more

CONFESSION OF FAITH :: Heidelberg, Q. 37, 38, 39

Q. 37. What do you understand by the word “suffered”?

A. That during his whole life on earth, but especially at the end, Christ sustained in body and soul the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race.

This he did in order that, by his suffering as the only atoning sacrifice, he might deliver us, body and soul, from eternal condemnation, and gain for us God’s grace, righteousness, and eternal life.

Q. 38. Why did he suffer “under Pontius Pilate” as judge?

A. So that he, though innocent, might be condemned by an earthly judge, and so free us from the severe judgment of God that was to fall on us.

Q. 39. Is it significant that he was “crucified” instead of dying some other way?

A. Yes. By this I am convinced that he shouldered the curse which lay on me, since death by crucifixion was cursed by God.