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2017-06-02 Devotional with Hymn, Prepare Yourself for Worship No comments

Prepare for Pentecost

Father, thank You for the gift of Your Spirit,
the Spirit of Your holy and beloved Son,
Jesus Christ.
What a magnificent Gift!
He is enriching my life in ways beyond my
counting or
comprehending.
He is breathing Christ into
my mind,
my desires, and
my daily actions.

But Father, You have taught me that my relationship with You
is a dynamic one.
Your Spirit is not a one-time Gift.
He is Your living, breathing presence.
Like any relationship,
ours is a living stream:
it flows continually, or
it becomes stagnant and
begins to dry up.
I want Your Spirit in me to be
a well of water springing up to eternal life. (John 4:14, NASB).

Father, thank You for the Gift of Pentecost.
May everyone I encounter be
refreshed and
nourished by
Your Spirit flowing through me.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Breath of Life
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2017-05-26 Devotional with Hymn, Prepare Yourself for Worship No comments

Prepare for Ascension Day

Father, thank You for the ascension of Jesus.
He is once again in Your intimate presence,
breathing the love and peace that were Yours
from all eternity.
We share Your joy in His return!

His ascension assures us that His work here is complete.
The perfect human life has been lived.
The full and final sacrifice for all our sin has been
offered and
accepted.
At Your side He is ruling all history and all reality with
perfect wisdom,
perfect power, and
perfect love.
Once again He is bathed in the glory and magnificence
that are uniquely and rightfully His.

As He is parted from us, You reassure us that
You will be with us forever.
You remind us that
You will soon pour out Your Spirit on us, and
Your Son will one day return
just as we have seen Him go.

By His ascension, You have exalted the crucified Christ as
Savior,
Lord, and
soon-coming King.
Father, we praise You!
Today help us celebrate this glorious reality.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: The Glorified Christ
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2017-05-19 Devotional with Hymn, Prepare Yourself for Worship No comments

Father, We Need You

Father, our needs drive us to You.

We need to see Your greatness.
We need to see You in all Your magnificence.
For without seeing You,
we lose perspective and
quickly get out of focus.
Our thoughts are overwhelmed by the twin evils of
fear and
pride.

We need Your wisdom.
In our eyes,
the present is deeply distorted, and
the future is complete darkness.
We need Your light.

We need Your holiness.
We are too weak to even desire what is right,
much less attain it.

But most of all, Holy Father,
we need You.
We gather because
we need You.
We need You
with us,
within us,
leading us,
enfolding us,
uplifting us.

We gather with our Christian brothers and sisters,
because through them, we hope to sense
Your smile,
Your touch,
Your teaching,
Your fellowship,
Your encouragement.

Merciful Father, be near.
We need You.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: We Need You, Holy God
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2017-05-12 Devotional with Hymn, Prepare Yourself for Worship No comments

Living Praise

Omnipotent Father
worthy of all praise,
we worship You most eloquently,
not by what we say,
but by
what we do and
who we are.

You created us for this purpose.
You redeemed us and
transformed us sinners into brand new creatures.
You did so that others,
in realms and ages far beyond our own,
might wonder at
the glory of Your grace (Ephesians 1:5-6, 12),
the riches of Your kindness (Ephesians 2:7), and
Your amazing, many-sided wisdom (Ephesians 3:8-11).
You made us who we are
to show others just how
great and
good and
gracious You are.

O Father,
I want to praise You that way!
I want to glorify You that way!
I want others to
see me and
worship You.

Help me to praise You that way
today,
among Your people.
And as we worship together,
prepare me to glorify You
all week long.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Make My Life a Holy Fragrance
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2017-05-05 Devotional with Hymn, Prepare Yourself for Worship No comments

Father, Receive My Gift

Father, You are beyond all need.
You are full to overflowing.
All that is flows from You and
is forever nourished by You.
Your nature, Your joy is
to give,
to share,
to bless.

Your resources are endless, and
Your authority is complete.
You simply speak, and it is so.
Your will is the power that fuels all reality.
Your love is the music that makes the universe dance.

You are not impressed by our material gifts.
You are like a great-hearted king
to whom a child joyfully, lovingly brings a penny.
The penny is worthless.
The love is priceless.

Father, my Father,
that’s what I want to give You:
I want to daily bring You my love.
Like the alabaster perfume,
like the widow’s mite,
I want my life to be a gift of love,
worthless to the world, but
priceless to my loving Father.

Let all my “accomplishments” be like
a child’s drawing.
Receive the love they express, Father.
Receive the worship,
simple but sincere.
Receive the gift
because it is all I have.
I offer it joyfully, thankfully to You.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: As Simply as a Child
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2017-04-28 Devotional with Hymn, Prepare Yourself for Worship 2 comments

When I Worship You

Father, when I worship You, I simply, honestly acknowledge Your reality.
You are, and
You are who You say You are.
When I worship You, I acknowledge
what You have done and what You are doing.
Worship doesn’t require advanced intelligence or complex reasoning.
When I worship, I am responding in simple faith
to You and to the truth about You:

You are the Creator.
All that is flows from You.
I flow from You, my Father.
You are eternal.
You envelop all time, all the past, present, and future.
You are the First and Last, the Beginning and the End and
everything in-between.
You are All-in-all.
You are holy.
You are pure, and
You are transcendent.
You are separate, high above everything and everyone else.
You are our Redeemer,
our Savior,
our Sacrifice.

Father, when I worship You,
I am drawn deeper and deeper into Your magnificence.
When I focus on You,
I think and talk less about myself and
more about You.

And Father, worship is contagious.
As we worship, we draw each other into that worship.
Worship will crescendo until
one day it envelops all creation (Revelation 5:8-14).

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Revelation Worship
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2017-04-21 Devotional with Hymn, Prepare Yourself for Worship No comments

Seeing a Greater God 

Even after many years of following You, Father,
much of my life makes no sense in light of
who You are.
You are perfect power,
perfect wisdom, and
perfect love.
Yet the faith I live is so weak.
My thoughts and actions proclaim a God who is
only a vague shadow of You,
a God who is
limited and
unreliable.
So much of me is still unmolded by the truth of
all You are.
My daily walk is clouded by
ignorance,
fear, and
self-centeredness.

Almighty Father, I long to know You in a way that is
all-transforming.
I want to respond to You
always,
constantly,
for all You are.
I hunger to think and speak and walk
each moment
in the light of Your full greatness.

Continue to draw me to Yourself.
Through
prayer,
Your Word, and
Your loving discipline, Father,
help me to
see You more clearly and
trust You more simply.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: High and Holy Sovereign God
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2017-04-14 Devotional with Hymn, Prepare Yourself for Worship, Uncategorized No comments

Prepare for Easter

Father, as I celebrate this Easter season,
teach me what it means to live as
an Easter person
in this present world.

Everyone here is facing
inescapable death.
Help me live Your resurrection life among them,
glowing with
hope,
purpose, and
joyful anticipation.

Here sin seems inescapable.
Failure is considered inevitable.
Help me live as one set free from sin,
fully forgiven and
fully empowered for triumphant living.

Here, as we face the future,
we are gripped with
helplessness and
despair.
May I walk in the bright confidence of Easter.
Help me live as one whose eternal, glorious life in You
has already begun, and
will never end.

Father, may lost and hopeless people
sense the beautiful reality of Easter
in me.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Alive in You
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2017-04-07 Devotional with Hymn, Prepare Yourself for Worship No comments

Prepare for Holy Week

Father, prepare my heart and mind for Holy Week.

Help me to
cheer,
rejoice, and
sing praise
as Jesus comes to us triumphantly in the face of death,
proclaiming Himself our Messiah!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!

Help me share His burning zeal for His Father’s house.
And may He cleanse my heart as well whenever I allow
life’s busy-ness to crowd out prayer.

Open my ears and my heart, Lord,
as Jesus urges us to
pray boldly and
patiently endure the persecution that will surely come.

Infuse my life with the fragrance of love
as a woman models how to
lavishly worship Jesus,
with no thought of self,
holding nothing back.

Humble me and
challenge my concept of ministry
as our Master takes on Himself
the lowest,
most menial,
most irksome service to His disciples.

Then, Father, help me watch with new eyes
as Your only Son
sweats blood in the garden,
silently endures brutal injustice, and
dies willingly under indescribable torture.
Impress Your love in a fresh way on
my mind and
my heart.
Make me ready once again to
receive it and to
pour it out on others.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: As You Love
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2017-03-31 Devotional with Hymn, Prepare Yourself for Worship No comments

God Far and Near

Infinite God,
You come to me from
far beyond and
high above my knowing.

You display Yourself,
You flaunt Yourself,
You parade Yourself
through this physical world all around me.
You help me
glimpse You and
experience You and
begin to know You
through the senses You have given.

Infinite God,
personal God,
You come to me
in Jesus Christ,
in skin and fragile flesh and bone.
You make Yourself just like me and
even call Yourself my Father.
You come to invite me,
to draw me,
to bless me back to Yourself.

Transcendent God,
present God,
personal God,
God so high above yet inseparably close to me,
I turn to You now in simple response,
in desire,
in hope,
in surrender.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: My Loving Father
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