Our gracious God and Father in heaven, we rejoice before You now. We thank You for all the children You have given us, and the grandchildren also. We gather before You as a redeemed family, and we look forward to this redemption continuing to subsequent generations. We know that You keep covenant to a thousand …
Psalms and Culture War
Our worship here is the center of all our endeavors in the surrounding community. We look to God here, now, for His own sake. But at the same time, the right worship of God should inform, drive, and inspire all our efforts at local culture building. Our problem has been that because our worship has …
God is No Miser
The Table of the Lord is a rich table, one that is filled with all good things. We who have been invited to that Table are not filled with all good things. The point, one that Scripture makes over and over again, is to bring about a transfer. What God has, He gives to us. …
Flesh is Grass
At Your Word, O God, the mountains smoke, And at Your Word, the oceans boil in their basins. You speak, and all the earth is silent. You speak, and regiments of tornadoes leap into battle. Quietly, You cause the grasses of the field to bend back and forth on the way to withering brown as …
Moses the Unreasonable
Our presence here at this table makes a claim on us. Because we are here, we must not become idolaters, as some of the Jews did in the wilderness. We must not eat and drink at another god’s table, and then rise up to play. The golden calf, however, was not called another god. Aaron …
God of Sabbaths
God of the Sabbath, God of our fathers, we pray to You in Jesus’ name. We have completed another week of labor, built on the foundation of Your everlasting gospel, embodied in our last Lord’s Day. We now look forward to another week, and we desire to build it upon the same foundation — the …
Covenantal Presence
The apostle tells us that all the Jews in the wilderness drank the same spiritual drink. They all drank from the same spiritual Rock that followed them, the Rock that was Christ. But with many, he says, God was not pleased. They were overthrown in the wilderness. In the same way, certain members of the …
Cycle of Days
Great God in heaven, heavenly Father, We know that every day that passes by is a gift from You, and that we owe You for every gift You give within each one of those days. We thank You for the week, that cycle of days which You established that has no connection to the movements …
Faith is Not Under Your Seat
The apostle Paul tells the Corinthians that he would not that they should be ignorant. As we deal with holy things, ignorance is dangerous. Paul wanted them to know that their fathers were all under the cloud, and they all passed through the sea. The Jews in the wilderness are called the fathers of the …
That At the Name of Jesus/Ascension 2004
INTRODUCTION The ascension to Jesus Christ is the coronation of Jesus Christ. This is the point where God formally bestows upon Him all authority in heaven and on earth. THE TEXT Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every …