Archive for November 2017

The Joy of Your Presence

2017-11-06 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Inspired by Psalm 84

O Father, how I love being in Your presence!
When I realize that I am with You,
all I am sings for joy,
body,
mind, and
spirit.

You are infinitely above me
in excellence,
in power, and
in holiness.
Yet when I am with You, I sense that
this is where I belong.
I know a freedom,
a rightness,
a rest in You.

This life is not easy, Father.
The needs never end.
There is weariness,
darkness, and
deep sorrow.
But when I realize that all of life is a journey to You,
everything changes!
Weariness turns to praise.
Darkness shines with Your unfailing goodness.
Sorrow is matched with an inexpressible joy.
Your presence lights my pathway every day.
But what is more,
You Yourself are the heaven toward which I travel.

O Father, absorb my
every thought and
every desire.
You are my joy,
now and forever!

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Psalm 84
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from Prepare Yourself for Worship

2017-11-03 Devotional with Hymn, Prepare Yourself for Worship No comments

Prepare for All Saints Day

Father, thank You for uniting us with Jesus, Your holy Son.
In Him, we are one with You
through the Spirit we share.
And as we are all one with Jesus,
we are one with each other as well.
We are one in Him with all God’s children of every
language,
culture, and
personality, of
every time and place.
By being one with Him in the Spirit,
we all become one in Him with each other.
Our oneness
with You and
with every other believer
is in Jesus Christ.

All this is Your doing, loving Father, and
we praise You!
We are in the early stages of this wonderful unity, and
we are just beginning to understand what it will mean.
We are warmed as Jesus speaks of us so glowingly as
His friends,
His family,
His body, and
His bride.
It seems that no one image can fully express His desire
for all of us to be together in Him
in the fullest possible sense.

Father of all,
help us to grow in this marvelous and mysterious unity.
We know it is Your loving desire for
each of us and
all of us,
so it is our desire as well.
More and more one in Christ,
and in Him,
more and more one with each other –
that is our prayer, Father.
One with You. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Christ and His Bride
Recording
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All Saints Day

2017-11-01 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Each year the Christian calendar takes us on a journey with Christ. We anticipate His coming during Advent and celebrate His arrival at Christmas. During Epiphany we receive Him as the Light of the World that has entered our darkness. Through Lent we walk with Him on His road to the cross. We witness His triumphal entry, His crucifixion, and His glorious resurrection during Holy Week and Easter.  We stand with His disciples as they watch Him return to His Father on Ascension Day. We are among them as the Holy Spirit gives birth to the Church on Pentecost.

Then during Ordinary Time, this Spirit patiently forms us into the people of God. Near the end of that time, only weeks before we crown Jesus as King of all Kings, we are given a glorious overview of what it means to be His Church, His Body, His Bride. This is the purpose of All Saints Day. “Saints” literally means “the holy ones”. On All Saints Day we consider what it means to be “the holy ones,” members of the Church Universal spanning all ages, nations, and human divisions.

On All Saints Day we read Isaiah’s description of the great banquet where all God’s people will feast together and death is destroyed forever (25:6-9). We share Daniel’s vision of the coming and goings of the various earthly kingdoms, culminating in God’s saints possessing His eternal Kingdom (Daniel 7:1-18). We are given a foretaste of our destiny as we welcome the King of Glory into His holy temple (Psalm 24) and as we watch Jesus raise Lazarus (John 11).

We sit on the mountainside and listen to Jesus describe what it means to live in the Father’s presence, now and for all eternity (the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-12). And with John we watch as Christ’s pure and lovely Bride descends for unending union with her Husband (John 21:1-6).

All Saints Day is a chance to revel in our oneness with Christ and all His holy people. In this dark and difficult world, it is a reminder of who we are even now and who we are surely becoming in Him. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Revelation 21
Recording
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