This is quickly getting up there in my "favorite songs" list…I hope you enjoy it and worship along with it!

Thanks for the recommendation Philip Sanders!

But I should. We should.

What is confession? What is repentance?
When we confess our sins to God, we are saying “God, you are Holy. I am not. You are pure, and I am stained with sin!”

When we repent, our heart cries “God, I will turn from my sin. I will stop putting my own desire above what honors You. Destroy my sin and help me to bring glory to You with my actions as I depend fully on the cross of Christ!”

That, my friend, is worship.

How do you feel after putting a specific sin to death? Read the following scripture. I would love to hear your thoughts.

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.” – Colossians 3:5-6 ESV

Thanks for reading!

“Glorious Day (Living He Loved Me)” – Casting Crowns
- This song is actually a more contemporary arrangement of a hymn. It starts with the birth of Christ and takes us all the way to the second coming of Christ. I really enjoy singing the Chorus of this song about the glorious return of Christ.

“Called By Your Name” – its on Joshua Spachts(Ekklessia Music) Album: “We Proclaim”
- A great song focusing on Christ plucking us from death, giving us life for the first time, and the implications of that on how we live.

“New Song We Sing” – Merideth Andrews
- This is a very joyful song. The content matches it’s pace as it focuses us on the joys of being a new creation in Christ.

“To The Cross” – Jadon Lavik
- This song captures the somber and humble approach to the cross which we should have in light of our shameful sin.

“All Because Of Jesus” – Casting Crowns
- This song is packed full of God’s glorious attributes. It allows us to focus on God’s glory, and delight in the life He has given us through Christ.

“Completely Done” – Sovereign Grace Music
- “The old is gone, the new has come, what You complete is completely done”. That first half of the chorus about sums it up. This song is saturated with assurance of salvation for believers in Christ.

I hope this is a good resource for you and your life of worship!

What happens sometimes is that we get so focused on keeping the programs running that we can forget about caring for the people the programs were meant to serve in the first place. What happens when heartbreaking news happens over the weekend, and we have to shepherd the people through reacting to this on Sunday morning?

Do we try to just fit a hurting congregation into our normal programs? Are we willing to put everything we’ve planned for aside to minister to a present need?

When I look at the ministry of Jesus, I am both encouraged and convicted.

Encouraged to see how Christ was willing to stop everything to minister to a woman who reached out and touched the hem of His garment.

Convicted to realize how my reaction might have been to think “Ministering to this woman was not part of the agenda on this journey.”

Now, you might be thinking that there is no way we wouldn’t have helped this woman, but I see little snippets of this all too often.

A child is crying and the mother is overwhelmed, yet the father sits focused on the sermon hoping she will solve it by taking the child out of the auditorium.

A musician is clearly struggling with their heart from a tough day, yet rehearsal goes on as if nothing is wrong.

A group of believers is heading to lunch after church, yet they pass a homeless person asking for food without missing a beat.

Yes, I know this might seem like I’m throwing stones, but each of these are specific situations where I was the culprit.

These are just some thoughts I’ve been having lately. I hope it causes all of us who read it to think through this: “Are we willing to break our programs to care for people?”

Thanks for reading.

"Uneclipsing The Son" written by Rick Holland

I know that a lot of people measure a good book by how hard it is to put it down. The more it draws you in, the better. I think the best thing I can say about this book is the exact opposite. All throughout the book I couldn't help but to put the book down, stop reading and think about Christ.

If that alone doesn't make you want to read the book, I'm sorry, because nothing more I can write will be as enticing. If you have read it, I would love to hear your thoughts on it!

Uneclipsing The Son from KRESS Biblical Resources on Vimeo.

Sure, there's nothing inherently wrong with being entertained, but I can't help but feel like we as believers are robbing ourselves by spending so much time seeking the entertainment. After all, we are called to a higher mission, as  2 Timothy 2:4 states:

"No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier."

So how do we "detangle" ourselves from the world that is constantly crying out for our attention?

In 1918, a missionary read a tract entitled "Focused" to a friend, Helen H. Lemmel, that contained the answer to that question. The tract stated, "So then, turn your eyes upon Him, look full into His face and you will find that the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness."

Ironically, Lemmel was blind, but her soul was deeply impacted by the words she heard. She immediately began to write and sing in her soul the chorus of the hymn now known as "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" (which can be read and heard here). She wrote the verses within the same week.

Do these words have the same impact on your soul? I pray that we would all be willing to stop looking around and start looking to Christ, the One whose radiance is brighter than any flashing lights this world has to offer.

What does the word “Grace” make you think of when you read it? What feelings do you get? Where does your focus move to?

If you are like most Christians, you can read that word in the middle of a verse in your bible and pay no more attention to it than any other word you just read.

I know I do that.

While flying back from the WorshipGod11 conference yesterday, I started to read through a book written by Rick Holland titled “Uneclipsing the Son”. In the second chapter of his book Rick Holland illuminates how amazing Gods love is for us, that He should die for us. For me. For you.

The reason why it is so amazing is because He died for those who did not deserve it. For me. For you.

But the bible goes further.

Christ died for not only those who do not deserve it, but He died for His enemies. For me. For you.

Not only did we not deserve it then, and we don’t deserve it now, but we won’t deserve today after church. We won’t deserve it tomorrow after sharing the gospel with those we interact with. We won’t deserve it when we die and stand before our Holy judge.

Yet He still hung in agony under the wrath of God. For me. For you.

That is why it is amazing.

That is why it is Grace.

For me.

For you.

“9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

11Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” – 1 Peter 2:9-12

The gathering is not a break from our mission. We gather in part for mission, and then we scatter, in part, for mission.

Our mission is “go and tell” and “come and see”.

2 things that will help us understand our mission for gathering:
1. Who we are. v9
- We are a chosen race.
- We are a royal priesthood. Special access to God. v5
- We are not spectators at an event.
- We are a Holy nation
- We are His possession

2. What we do. vv9-12
- Proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Proclaim: to declare, to tell, to recount His all that God has done.
- It is possible to praise and get others caught up in what you are praising.
- The praise of God is vertical, but with horizontal invitation. Psalm 96, Psalm 105

“Doxological evangelism” – Sharing who God is to others through praising Him.

We should be showing up to the gathering knowing God is worthy.

Let the testimony of the unbelievers who gather with you be, at the very least ‘I’m not sure if I believe in Jesus, or see the significance of the cross, but they do.’

We are commissioned to gather.

Our gathering is not the pause button for mission.

“Our gospel witness is amplified when the people of God gather in the presence of God to proclaim the excellencies of God.”

2 most important spiritual disciplines:
1. Intake of the Word of God
2. Prayer

This will be a focus on prayer.

The universal problem with prayer: We say the same old things about the same old things every time.

Those whom have the spirit of God dwelling within in them want to pray. Although this is true, our methods and flesh fight that desire with distractions and disinterest.

To pray about the same old things is normal. The problem is that we say the same old things.
- family
- future
- finances
- work or school
- church or ministry
- “current crisis”
These are the things that your life is comprised of.

What is the solution?
Whatever it is, it must be simple. If it were not simple, then those who live in very simple and non-priveliged society’s would never be able to pray in a meaningful, satisfying way.

Solution: Pray through a passage of scripture, particularly a Psalm.
Try using the “Psalms of the Day” method.
- Scan 5 Psalms, and pray through one of them:
- Add 30 to the day of the month to find the 5 you will scan through each day.
- As you read through the Psalm, line by line, pray about what comes to mind. This is not a method that should be used in a group, corporate, or teaching setting. That will cause for misinterpretations and false, out of context, teaching of the Scriptures.
- In the Psalms, God reveals to us how He wants us to praise Him.

God gave us the Psalms so that we can give them back to Him.

“The is a Psalm for every sigh of the soul.”

2nd best place to pray through Scripture is the letters to the churches, because you have so much compacted in each verse.

3rd best place: narrative passage

If ever teaching this method:
- Have those you are teaching try this immediately, and it will stick.
- Get feedback after they try it.

Biblical examples:
- Jesus in Matthew 27:46
- Jesus in Luke 23:46
- The church in Acts 4:23-26

“We should pray when we feel like it, because we should not miss such an opportunity. We also should pray when we don’t feel like it, because it would be awful to stay in that state of being.”

To often we use the word “Worship” without including the object of the worship.

Wrong statements on what our worship of God entails:
- We worship what we ascribe ultimate value to.
- We worship God because He is worthy, not because we get something out of it.
- When we sing songs about what God has down for us, that is man centered.
- God likes our worship best when we block out everything and everyone around us.

Edification: to build up. Involves instruction, and involves someone or something be strengthened.

“When we edify the church by magnifying Christ, we glorify God.”

2 Corinthians 14:1-33

1. When we gather, we edify each other.
- 2 priorities to edify each other:
Love: without love it means nothing.
- we lack love when we are not sensitive to what others are going through.
- our demeanor during the corporate gathering with the saints effects those around us.
Intelligibility: people should know what we are doing.
- is there too much christianize?
- do intros to songs make sense?
- do newcomers understand what you are doing?
- the service should not be confusing. It must be clear.
- where do contributions from the congregation fit into the gathering?
- keep lighting to a point where people can see each other. How do we know we are edifying one another if we can’t see each other?
- at some point in the meeting, try to always have an a Capella section.

2. God edify’s His church.
- God is seeking to make us corporately, not just individually, like His Son.
- when we gather, we should be expecting so much more.
- God uses our meeting for our sanctification through Jesus Christ.

Our strengthening as churches comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sing it. Share it. Preach it.

One day, everything will be united around Jesus Christ!