New Hope@Worship 29 Mar 2009

Yes,it's Tuesday and I'm finally getting around to Sunday's recap. :)

The fifth Sunday of the 40 day preparation for Easter (AKA Lent) continued this week. An incredibly challenging passage of Scripture combined with a strong sense of urgency on my part and came together to bring us to the presence of God. I used a video before and after the message (Christ Daughtry - "What About Now?" and Steven Curtis Chapman "What Now?"), so there shouldn't have been any question where I felt the Holy Spirit was guiding us.

It really helped me to immerse myself in that passage each and every day. Added a lot of time, but was so worth it.

The musical part of our worship was:

Your Grace Is Enough
How Great Is Our God
Amazed (Lord I'm Amazed) (with a very sweet and special solo by Celeste)

Come Just As You Are



Some of the comments I received and the chatter I heard after were very encouraging. If a group of people seriously pursued God's heart-work... wow.

What About Now?

I've read the text for tomorrow again and again and again. I've tried to imagine the scene John describes. Tried to put myself there. As one of the disciples, one of the Pharisees, one of the Greeks, one of the crowd.

Only one man there understood what was really happening that day.

The Pharisees thought they had lost. "Look, the whole world is going to him."

The disciples, as usual, were clueless.

The Greeks, confused.

The crowd, flush with the emotion of the entry, but beginning to realize that their "Hosanna" cries didn't produce the king they wanted, waited.

Jesus knew it was His time - NOW.

Lord, I pray tomorrow morning is one of those "thin places" my Celtic brothers experienced,when heaven and earth draw nearest. I pray that the same focused attention you paid to God's timing is spread to our church family. I pray that the same heart for "whatever it takes" that you showed that day would flood our hearts.

And that we leave, not following your teachings as interested students would, but following you, as committed disciples. Wherever that might lead.

How Do You Explain Christianity's Impact?

Ray Steadman on the passage for tomorrow:

"If he had not died we probably would not know any more about him than we know of any other great religious leader, like Buddha, Mohammed, or Confucius. We may not have heard of him at all, so meager were the results of his teaching.

Only a relative handful stood with him to the end. Because of the cross he was able to do something he could never have done otherwise: He was able to share his life with millions of people.

How do we explain men like Luther, Calvin, Knox, Zwingli and others who changed the entire Western world during their lifetime? How do we explain the impact of men like the Wesley brothers? In our own day, how do we explain the change in the hatchet-man of the Nixon administration, Charles Colson, who is now changing the prison system of this country in the name of Jesus? How do we explain Solzenityn, Mother Teresa, and millions who daily evidence an altered life, a changed outlook?

All has come about because of the cross of Christ.

God is saying to us in this account that the only way to true glory is to die."

Planting the Seed

We all have a life that we’re rather attached to, with people, places, things, and activities that we are comfortable with. My life may not be perfect, but it is familiar. And it’s mine. The Lord invites me not just to give up dessert for a few weeks, but to give up myself. He asks me to die to my own plans, my own will, and put my destiny entirely in his hands. Incidentally, that is what baptism is supposed to mean–that it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me (Gal 2:19b-20). That I’m no longer in the driver’s seat, but I’ve put Jesus there. That all that is dearest to me, I’ve put on the altar, and will only take it back if the Lord gives it back.

Why would we do such a radical thing? Only if we truly believe that planting the seed of our lives and dreams in the fertile soil of the Lord’s vineyard will produce much fruit. That we, like the apostles, will grow to be more than we’d ever hoped we’d be. That he would do through us, as through them, more than we’d ever dreamt possible. From Here

Unless...

From Dr. A. W. Tozer, the great preacher of a few decades ago:

The cross is the symbol of death.

It stands for the abrupt, violent end of the human being.

The man in Roman times who took up his cross and started down the road had already said goodbye to his friends. He was not coming back. He was not going out to have his life redirected. He was going out to have it ended.

The cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing. It slew all of the man completely and for good. It did not try to keep on good terms with its victim. It struck swift and hard and when it had finished its work the man was no more.

That evangelism which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of man is false to the Bible and cruel to the soul of the hearers.

The faith of Christ does not parallel the world. It intersects it.

In coming to Christ we do not bring our life up on to a higher plane.

We leave it at a cross.

The grain of wheat must fall into the ground and die. That is the beginning of the gospel.

Wow... This Coming Sunday'sText

Fifth Sunday in Lent: March 29, 2009
Text: John 12:20-33
20 Some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration21 paid a visit to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee. They said, “Sir, we want to meet Jesus.”22 Philip told Andrew about it, and they went together to ask Jesus.
23 Jesus replied, “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory.24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.25 Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.26 Anyone who wants to be my disciple must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me.
27 “Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But this is the very reason I came!28 Father, bring glory to your name.”

Then a voice spoke from heaven, saying, “I have already brought glory to my name, and I will do so again.”29 When the crowd heard the voice, some thought it was thunder, while others declared an angel had spoken to him.
30 Then Jesus told them, “The voice was for your benefit, not mine.31 The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out.32 And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”33 He said this to indicate how he was going to die.
John 12:20-33 (NLT)

Pray with me,that we are working as He is.