There Is Only One Way!

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Tonight I had the privilege of visiting with an old friend. Years ago when we had first met he was a Buddhist. Now, over 15 years later he lives his life for Jesus Christ. He spreads the Gospel in places most of us would be afraid to go. I brought up his days as a Buddhist and he looked me in the eye and said, “There is only one way”. That one and only way is Jesus.
That is what this Sunday’s foundation hymn says. “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! Hebrews 9:22 says “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Jesus is the only way to Heaven. The hymn writer says, “For my cleansing this I plea. Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
Along with Nothing But the Blood we will sing Are You Washed in the Blood and There is Power in the Blood.
As you sing these songs remember that the blood of Jesus is Salvation. Through His blood we are saved from penalty sin.
Romans 3:23 tells us that all of us have sinned and we have missed the mark that God has set for us. We have all come up short, way short. The Bible says there is a penalty that must be paid. The good news is that Jesus Christ has already paid that penalty for us. Romans 6:23 says,
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
1. All I have to do is Admit that I am a sinner.
(Prayer) “God I know that I am a sinner.”
2. Believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God Who died for you on the cross, rose from the dead, and is Lord.
(Prayer) God, I believe that Jesus died for me and that He is the only way to Heaven.
3. Call on Jesus!
(Prayer) Lord Jesus, come into my life and be my Lord and Savior. I commit my life to you. Thank you for forgiving my of my sin and cleansing me.
This will not make you a perfect person. You will still fall short, we all do. This makes you forgiven. It means you have decided to follow Jesus. Just like my old friend did. He decided to follow Jesus and now he shows others the way.

The rest of our songs are:
Come, Now Is The Time to Worship
Come Thou Fount, Come Thou King
As The Deer
I Exalt Thee

He Wrote One Great Hymn

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Ten Years Ago created by “The Skit Guys” purchased from http://www.worshiphousemedia.com

We all remember where we were on September 11, 2001. I remember waking up to a phone call from my mother-in-law. She said to turn on the TV, an airplane had just hit one of the World Trade Center Towers. Robin and I had just been in New York six months earlier. We had lunch at Sbarro’s Pizza in Tower #2 twice while we were there. The Towers were amazing. And then they were gone. September 11, 2001 is a day this generation will never forget.

There have been unforgettable days for every generation. Some will remember exactly where they were when President John F. Kennedy was shot. They will remember where they were when Pearl Harbor was attacked.
The writer of this Sunday’s foundation hymn fought in the civil war. Before his death in 1907 I am sure he could have told you where he was when he heard the news of President Lincoln’s assignation. He wrote a stirring hymn in 1876 that is now included in nearly every published hymnal in this country. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence Rev. Daniel C. Roberts wrote “God of Our Fathers”. Roberts was a country preacher with this one hymn as his claim to fame. This great hymn speaks of God’s providential guidance of our nation in the past and our need for reliance on Him for our future.
The second verse says, “Thy love divine hath led un in the past, In this free land by Thee our lot is cast; Be Thou our ruler, guardian, guide and stay, Thy word our law, Thy paths our chosen way”. The hymn goes on to encourage us to let the strong arm of God be our defense in times of tragedy.
As we gather together to worship this Sunday we will also remember the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Let us also ask Him to “Refresh His people on their toilsome way and lead us from night to never ending day”.
Along with God of Our Fathers we will sing Rise Up and Praise Him, America the Beautiful and Eternal Father, Strong to Save.
The Choir will sing a call to prayer, “If My People”.
2 Chronicles 7:14
New International Version (NIV) If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

I Don’t Want the Chapel; Only the Pulpit.

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Edward Mote devoted himself to building a church for a Baptist congregation in the village of Horsham Sussex, England.  The church members appreciated his efforts so much that they offered Mote the deed to the building. He refused their offer saying: “I do not want the chapel; I only want the pulpit, and when I cease to preach Christ, then turn me out of that.” He preached faithfully in that pulpit for 26 years until his health failed.

Edward Mote wrote over one hundred hymns. One of those hymns, The Solid Rock, is our foundation hymn for Sunday, September 4, 2011. While some hymns are criticized by theologians for being too experiential; this hymn has a solid theological foundation.  “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness”.

This one line makes me ask the question, “On what is my hope built”?  The next line in the hymn says, “I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.” I believe the “Frame” here means a moment of emotion. I would say it like this, I dare not trust the way I feel but I will lean on the name of Jesus no matter what!

 Sunday we will begin the service with a hymn of celebration,  Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee! Every line in this hymn promotes joy! We will continue to “Sing Praise” by singing Chris Tomlin’s Forever. “Forever He is faithful, forever He is strong”.

Rock of Ages tells us that:

     There is no rock, there is no god like our God.    

     No other name worthy of all our praise.

     The Rock of salvation that cannot be moved.

     He’s proven Himself to be faithful and true.

     There is no rock there is no god like ours.

You’re Worthy of all Our Praise and Spirit of the Living God will begin to prepare our hearts for communion.

Let the chorus, Spirit of the Living God, be your prayer as you ready yourself for worship.

Ready: adjective (in a suitable state for an activity, action, or situation; fully prepared: are you ready?)

Spirit of the Living God

Fall fresh on me

Spirit of the Living God

Fall fresh on me

Melt me mold me

Fill me use me

Spirit of the Living God

Fall fresh on me

A Tragic Ending For The Hymn Writer

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After preaching to a large outdoor crowd on April 3, 1826, Reginald Heber was exhausted. The hot sun had been beating down on him through his entire message. He then plunged into a pool of cool water. While in the pool he suffered a stroke and drowned.   After his death, His wife would discover that Reginald had written 57 hymns!   While going through his papers she read these words, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty”. This is our foundation hymn for August 28, 2011.

Hebers words continued with “Early in the morning my song shall rise to thee”. What is “my song”? Remember our foundation hymn from last week? Blessed Assurance. “This is my story this is my song. Praising my Savior, all the day long”. Psalm 34:1 “I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.”

Our songs this Sunday will focus on how great and mighty and holy is our God.
Andrea Crouch wrote a chorus in 1973, Bless His Holy Name. The lyrics say, “He has done great things, bless His Holy Name”. As you prepare for worship think of all the great things He has done in your life.
Some of my favorite songs follow  “Bless His Holy Name”. Bless The Lord,  Mighty is Our God and Great and Mighty is He. These three songs are a celebration of our God. During these songs I invite you to have an attitude of celebration with me.
Then we  come to our foundation hymn Holy Holy Holy followed by a You Are Holy, which proclaims who Jesus is, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Lord of everything.
The final two songs are, I Believe in Jesus and the chorus of Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.
Hebrews 12:2 “We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete. He endured the shame of being nailed to a cross, because he knew that later on he would be glad he did. Now he is seated at the right side of God’s throne!” (CEV)

Your worship begins when your eyes are on Him. Your worship ends when your eyes are on ________.

The Blind Poetess

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Fanny Crosby, a blind poetess, wrote more than 8,000 Gospel songs. For many years she wrote three hymns per week. Many times a composer would bring their music to her and ask her to write the words. Such was the case with Phoebe P. Knapp, 1839-1908. Knapp played her melody for the blind poetess and asked, “What does this tune say?” Fanny responded immediately, “Why, That says: ‘Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine.’”
Blessed Assurance is our foundation hymn for Sunday, August 21, 2011. My favorite line in this great hymn is “Heir of Salvation, Purchase of God”. This brings two thoughts to my mind.

1. If you could choose your inheritance would you choose riches or eternity with God?
2. God who could have anything and created all things chose to purchase you!

The last phrase in the chorus is the result of knowing the truth of our inheritance. “Praising My Savior All the Day Long.”  James 1:2 says, Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. There are so many things in this world that challenge us. This week when you have “An Opportunity” try praising your Savior all day long. We are heirs of Salvation, purchased by God!

Along with Blessed Assurance we will sing songs that proclaim the greatness of our God.

  • Ah Lord God taken from Jeremiah 32:17
  • We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise taken from Hebrews 13:15
  • Let there Be Glory and Honor and Praises taken from Revelation 5:11-12
  • He Has Made Me Glad, taken from Psalm 100:4
  • In Christ Alone is a song that captures the Biblical truth of the life, death, and resurrection  of Jesus.

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.                                                                        Romans 12:1-2 (Message)

What Will You Do With Your Last Breath?

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Reverend E. P. Scott stood still. A party of warriors, their spears pointed at his heart, surrounded him. His close friend, Edward Perronet, had advised him not to go to this dangerous territory but Scott was a missionary and God had given him a passion to spread the Gospel. As he stood there thinking that his life was about to end he chose to use his last breaths to praise God. He took out his violin (which he always carried on him), closed his eyes, and began to play and sing All Hail the Power of Jesus Name, in the native language of the warriors. As he reached the fourth verse he realized he was still alive. He opened his eyes and saw that every spear was lowered and the warriors that surrounded him to kill him were now standing with tears in their eyes listening. Scott spent much of the remainder of his life sharing the Gospel with this tribe in India.
All Hail The Power of Jesus Name was written by Scott’s friend Edward Perronet in 1799 and has been translated into every existing language. This will be our foundation hymn for Sunday August 14, 2011. The phrase that stands out to me is the phrase sung eight times in this hymn, “And Crown Him Lord of All!”
Our theme continues with “He Is The King of Glory”. Philippians 3: 10 says, “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead.” This verse will lead us into our next song, “Knowing You”.
     All I once held dear built my life upon
     All this world reveres and wars to own
     All I once thought gain I have counted loss
     Spent and worthless now compared to this
     Knowing You Jesus knowing You
     There is no greater thing
     You’re my all You’re the best
     You’re my joy my righteousness
     And I love You Lord
The chorus, I Love You Lord, will lead us into prayer led by Pastor Al Johnson, a missionary to Venezuela for most of his ministry.
“I love you Lord and I lift my voice to worship you of my soul rejoice. Take joy my King in what you hear. May it be a sweet, sweet sound in you ear.”
Jesus is our King! Do you know Him? Have you crowned Him?

Ninety-Nine Times

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Did you know that How Great Thou Art is a Swedish hymn? It started out as a poem written by 26-year-old Swedish minister, Carl Boberg. The original title was
“O Store Gud” or “O Mighty God”.
His poem was published and forgotten until several years later Carl heard his poem being sung to the tune of a Swedish melody. The hymn became widespread during the Billy Graham Crusade in the 1950s. In the 1957 New York Crusade, it was sung by George Beverly Shea Ninety-Nine times! We will only sing it once this Sunday☺.

How Great Thou Art speaks of His great creation. Then we focus on the fact that this Great God sent His Son to die for you and me. I love the phrase, “I scarce can take it in”. That phrase simply means that I cannot fathom what He was willing to do for me. The fourth verse of this great hymn takes us to our first face-to-face meeting with Christ. “Then I shall bow in humble adoration. And there proclaim, “My God, how great Thou art!”

Then we will continue worshipping in song with “He Is Lord and Because We Believe”. Then we will transition into a modern hymn, “There Is a Redeemer”, written by Melody Green, wife of singer songwriter Keith Green who died in a plane crash in the early 80s. Melody Writes:

There is a redeemer, Jesus God’s own son. Precious Lamb of God, Messiah Holy One. Thank you, oh, my Father, for giving us Your Son. And leaving your Spirit til the work on earth is done.

We will sing another great hymn, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, by Isaac Watts with a chorus called Wonderful Cross.

Finally we will sing a song written by a friend of mine, Eugene Gregory, 1965-2009. The song is called Higher. It was Eugene’s prayer that he would draw closer to God. Eugene wrote: “I want to go higher. Take me deeper. I want to go farther. In Your presence Lord. Here’s my life, mold me, change me, make me more like You.”

If you will pray that same prayer this week I believe it will have an impact on how you worship Him on Sunday.

Upside Down

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Hebrews 9:12 “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.”
Jesus Paid It All is our foundation hymn for this Sunday, July 31, 2011. It is a result of a board choir member doodling on a flyleaf. The sermon had gone too long for Elvina Hall’s mind to stay focused. She began to let her mind wander and she wrote:
“I hear my Savior say, thy strength indeed is small. Thou has naught My debt to pay, find in Me thy all in all.”
The words fell into the hands of John T. Grape, the organist at Mountain Street Methodist Church. The organ at Mountain Street Methodist had been taken to John’s home for safe keeping while the church was renovated. There he composed the music to “Jesus Paid It All”.

Each one of us had the crimson stain of sin in our hearts. The price to have this stain removed is much too great for any of us to pay. So Jesus came and paid it all. The entire debt has been paid.

In todays economy many people are upside down in their mortgage. The debt owed is far greater than the value of the property. Jesus not only paid our debt in full, He paid a far greater price than any of us could have ever imagined.
“And when before the throne, I stand in Him complete. Jesus died my soul to save, my lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”

This week think about how much Jesus paid for you! He gave all as he paid it all.

He Wants Everything!

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I did not think that I had that much but he said he wanted all of it anyway. I had been keeping most of it for myself. Some of it I thought no one else would even want! The stuff belonged to me, which made it mine. I could use it and do with it what I wanted.                                                       But wait, what if I just pretend to give it all to him. Then it would look like it all belonged to him.  When I am in public I can act like it’s all gone. Like I have nothing of my own left. To everyone else it will look just like he took it all but I will know that I still have what it mine!

That is how some of us live. We know we should be consecrated to God but we hold back so we can have control. We actually get in God’s way by using our “stuff” the way that most pleases us instead of giving way to God’s will.   Philippians 3:8 says, “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ…”

This Sunday our foundation hymn is known as “The Great Consecration Hymn”. You know it as Take My Life and Let It Be.  We will start out by singing Everything to God.

            I’m giving everything to God, He’s given everything to me!

Then we will sing, Glory to God Forever. The chorus says, “Take my life and let it be all for you and for your glory!”

Followed by the great consecration hymn, Take My Life and Let It Be and then a song taken from Romans 12, Lord I Come. These songs should stir us to give everything we have to God.

Finally we will sing a medley of choruses that speak of His presence and His Power.

We Are Standing on Holy Ground, Surely the Presence and His Name is Wonderful will lead us to a time of prayer where we can think about how much of ourselves we have given to the Lord.

How much of your life do you want to give the Lord?  How about giving it all!

“Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to Thee.”

Happy 4th of July!

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Julia Howe awoke on an early morning in 1861 to gray skies. To her astonishment lines to a new song had formed in her head. She quickly wrote them down and returned to sleep. She later gave the lines to a friend who worked at The Atlantic Monthly.  They published the song and she received $5.00.  She said about that morning, “I had a feeling that something of importance had happened to me.”

The lines she wrote were to be put to the same tune that civil war soldiers loved. It was a tune for a tribute to John Brown who had been hanged in 1859 for attempting to lead an insurrection of slaves at Harper’s Ferry.  You know the tune as the Battle Hymn of the Republic, which will be our opening song this July 3rd.

This hymn was sung at an event, which included President Abraham Lincoln. It is said that at the conclusion of the song President Lincoln, with tears in his eyes, cried out, “Sing it again!,” and it was sung again.

We will follow this hymn with, Count Your Blessings, written by Johnson Oatman in 1897. Johnson wanted to teach people that it is impossible to be mean, grumpy and cantankerous while being thankful.  Just try to sing this song and stay in your bad mood.

Staying with the theme, our next song is Trading My Sorrows.

            I’m trading my sorrows. I’m trading my shame.  I’m laying them down for the joy of the Lord.  

           I’m trading my sickness. I’m trading my pain. I’m laying them down for the joy of the Lord.

Our final song will be  Shout to the North!

          Shout to the North and the South. Sing to the East to West.

         Jesus is Savior to all, Lord of Heaven and Earth!

This 4th of July Holiday remember to Count Your Blessing and name them one by one! Trade in your sorrow for the Joy of the Lord and then Shout! Jesus is Lord of All!