Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! God Almighty, Maker of all things, we praise Your ineffable wisdom and power, Your kindness and mercy, Your justice and law, Your Son and Your Spirit. We thank You for receiving our worship now. We confess that You are the God above …
A Few Tattered Rags
Not only must the Church throw down idols, but the Church is called to throw down idols using God’s appointed instruments for doing so. We are to pull them all from their marble pedestals, but what ropes are we to use? In the apostolic era, the word of God was preached with great boldness, and …
Two Questions
There are two great questions that should be answered in your minds as you come to the Lord’s table. These questions should not just be answered at one point in your life, but rather should be part of your conscious heart and mind each time you approach the Table. The two questions are these: what …
Marriage As Manifest Glory XXIII
INTRODUCTION: James tells us that the tongue is an unruly member. If we can control the tongue, he says, we can control anything. At the same time, the Bible teaches that the tongue has tremendous power for good. We destroy with our words. We build with our words. THE TEXTS: The wise in heart shall …
Living Wisdom
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! We praise Your name, oh God, for You are the living and triune God. The idols have mouths, but do not speak. You have no physical mouth, and yet You speak the eternal and everlasting Logos, the Word over all, the Word …
False Peace With False Gods
God has assigned a task to the Church in the world, and that task is to throw down all idols, and to establish the right worship of God throughout the earth, from the River to the ends of the earth. But looking around, we have to come to grips with the fact that idolatry in …
Life Devouring Death
The psalmist praises God because God prepared a table for him in the presence of his enemies. Surely this would include the presence of the great enemy, death. Now rightly understood, this table is the central example of that gracious provision, and rightly understood, this table is one of the great weapons in the arsenal …
Lord’s Day Prayer 33
Father of all life, we thank You for our physical life, and for our life in the Holy Spirit. We thank You not only for life, but also for that which sustains life. We thank You for the food before us, and for the grace that the food represents in so many ways. We would …
Marriage As Manifest Glory XXII
Introduction: Husbands are commanded to love, and we are taught that the kind of love they are to render is the kind that bestows loveliness. But wives are not encouraged by this to simply be passive recipients—they are given a command as well. They are to be subject to their husbands (v. 24), and they …
A New Creation Spoken
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! God of all creation, we lift up our voices in praise and adoration because You are worthy of all praise and adoration. We know that You have spoken the universe into existence, and when our father Adam rebelled against You, in your …