The Wandering Heart

This Sunday our foundation hymn is Come Thou Fount written by Robert Robinson. Robert Robinson was uncontrollable as a youth. His father died when he was young and his mother sent him away to barbering school. One night while out on the town he and his buddies came across an evangelistic meeting by George Whitefield. Robert could not get the sermon out of his mind and it chased him for three years. Finally on December 10, 1755 he gave his life to Christ. When he was 23 years old he wrote a hymn for a sermon.

Here are the words he wrote:

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter; bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

Robert had experience what life was like without God and he never wanted to live that way again. He was so desperate that he asked for his own heart to be chained to God’s. He knew that without God’s grace and mercy he could wander away from God. He could feel the battle between his flesh and his spirit raging inside of him.

He offered God his heart. He wrote, “O take and seal it”. He wanted God to seal his heart so he could never again wander from the God he loves.

Do you feel the same way about God that Robert did? Are you willing to be chained to God, to have God Seal your heart? This week prepare yourself to have a conversation with God about your wandering heart. Is there anything that can make your heart wander?

We will also be singing, My Savior Lives, Shout to the Lord and Everyone Praise.

Ready yourselves for worship!

Morri

I Surrender!

When you hear the word, Surrender, what picture comes to your mind? Maybe a man afraid for his life with his hands held high. Or how about a boxer throwing a white towel into the ring because he can no longer fight the battle.
We have a battle raging inside of each one of us. It is the battle between the Spirit and our flesh. Galatians 5:16 says “Live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” That is the answer to the battle we fight everyday! Just live by the Spirit. The problem is that we cannot do this on our own. We have to Surrender to Jesus in order to live by the Spirit. In the battle between my flesh and the Spirit the winner will be the one I feed! We must feed the Spirit of God in us and starve our sinful nature. If we try to do it on our own we will experience what Paul experienced in Romans 7:14-21. After describing the frustration of this battle Paul comes to a conclusion. He says in verses 24 and 25, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

This Sunday we will sing I Surrender All along with Here I Am to Worship. And since it is Father’s Day we will sing the great hymn, Rise Up O Men of God!

Men, and everyone else, let me say one important thing to you, The rising up cannot be done until the Surrender is complete!

Watch this video clip titled “The Stool” on my church website to see another picture of surrender. Cut and paste this link. http://www.crossroadsturlock.com/media/mini_movies

O Worship the King!

Sir Robert Grant grew up in a British world of power, politics and privilege. He was a devout Christian known for his integrity and high intelligence. He entered Parliament in 1818. In the early 1830’s he was studying Psalm 104 and he began comparing the greatness of the King of Kings with the majesty of British royalty. O Worship the King, our foundation hymn for this Sunday, is the result of his studies in Psalm 104

     O worship the King, All glorious above
    And gratefully sing, His wonderful love
    Our Shield and Defender, The Ancient of Days
    Pavilioned in splendor, And girded with praise

Also on the music list for this Sunday is Hosanna, Praise is Rising followed by a song I just heard for the first time last week. It is called Glorify You Alone.

     Who is this King of glory
     Beautiful and matchless One
     Who is this King so holy
     Ev’ry knee will bow at His throne
     Jesus the Lamb of God Savior and King

Then we will sing two older choruses that lift the name of Jesus. There’s Something About That Name and His Name is Wonderful.

Have you taken time lately to focus on the greatness of our Lord? Psalm 104 starts out by saying, “Let all that I am praise the Lord”! If you are anything like me, your time and talents are divided into several different compartments. These words mean that every compartment of my life should praise the Lord. The Psalmist continues with a vivid description of His greatness and splendor. He is the Creator full of majesty! This is truly a Psalm for the King of Kings! Read it this week, over and over.

Let the words of this Psalm fill your compartments!

Sunday June 5, 2011 Traditions

When William Newell was a boy his father was exasperated with him. It was so bad that his father wanted to enroll him at Moody Bible Institute. The only problem was that the president of Moody, Dr. R.A. Torrey, would not allow it stating that, “Moody is a Bible School, not a reformatory”. The boy’s father was persistent and convinced Dr. Torrey to allow William to be admitted at Moody as long as he met daily with him and followed all the rules. William was a very troubled young man and Dr. Torrey believed he was a lost cause. In the midst of all the frustrating meetings something got thru to young William.

Now, lets jump several years into this troubled young man’s future. Make that Professor William R. Newell of Moody Bible Institute. In 1895 while the Professor was on his way to give a lecture he put his testimony into a poem. He passed Dr. Towner, the director of music for Moody, and handed him the poem and said it needs a tune. By the time William was done with the lecture the tune was finished. You know it today as “At Calvary”, our foundation hymn for Sunday, June 5th.

Mercy there was great and grace was free

Pardon there was multiplied to me

There my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary

Our other songs for this Sunday are, My Savior My God, which you might recognize as an old hymn called “I am not skilled to understand”. We will also sing I Will Not Be Shaken which includes Holy Holy Holy. The bridge of this song states,

Our God will not be moved! Our God will never change! Our God will reign forever-more!

This week think back on how you found God, or, should I say, how He found you!

Living with His Presence

Do you ever have a day when you are feeling down? If so, try playing or singing our foundation hymn for this Sunday, May 29, 2011. Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee can be a very therapeutic hymn. “Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, drive the dark of doubt away,” it says. “Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day.” This hymn is full of joy! Every phrase lifts you up. Psalm 28:7 says, “The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.”

Open the Eyes of My Heart is our second song. This song challenges us to get our eyes off of ourselves and put them on Him. “To see You high and lifted up, shining in the light of Your glory” gives us a glimps of our Lord in heaven.

In the last line of our third song, In Christ Alone, we sing these words. “Till He returns or calls me home here in the power of Christ I’ll stand”.

So far our songs have us full of joy with our eyes focused on our Lord so that when He returns or calls us home we will stand in the power of Christ!

Our next song is called Lord I Come. The chorus says,

“All I want to do is dwell in Your presence.

And drink from the well that never runs dry.

All I want to see is the light of Your glory.

Just one glimpse, Just one drink, and my soul is satisfied”.

Are you living with the presence of the Lord?

Stand Firm

Our foundation hymn for this Sunday will be Stand up, Stand up for Jesus. Dudley Tyng was the pastor of the Church of the Covenant in Philadelphia in 1858. About two weeks after seeing over 1000 men give their lives to Christ, Dudley sustained a terrible injury while visiting a farm. His arm was ripped from its socket in a corn-thrasher. Four days later it was clear he would not survive the accident. He spoke his last words were to his father. He said “Stand up for Jesus, father, and tell my brethren of the ministry to stand up for Jesus.”
After Dudley’s funeral another pastor in Philadelphia was inspired by his last words and wrote a poem. “Stand up; Stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross. Lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss”. Sometime later, the poem was put to music and was published in a hymnal extending Dudley’s last words.
Ephesians 6:10-17 gives great instruction about standing. That is what our new song for the day is about. It is called Counting on God. The chorus says;
“Joy unspeakable that won’t go away and just enough strength to live for today.
I never have to worry what tomorrow will bring because my faith is on solid rock.
I am counting on God!”
The next songs will be Mighty to Save and Blessed Be Your Name which encourages us to bless His name no matter what happens in our lives.
Phillips Brooks (1835–1893) wrote, “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be strong men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your power. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.”
As you prepare for worship this Sunday ask God to show you how to stand up for Jesus.

Revelation 22:12-17 “Behold, I Am Coming Soon!

This Sunday Cliff and the small ensemble will lead us in worship. Cliff will open the service with When We All Get to Heaven. It was originally written for children. The words to this hymn came to Eliza Edmunds Hewitt (1851-1920) while she studied John 14 where Jesus told His disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, Believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”
We will also sing, Lift Up Your Heads and Soon and Very Soon, songs that describes His return and life in heaven. “No more crying there, we are going to see the King”! The Choir will bring a beautiful song, Not Guilty, followed by an offertory by Cindy Vesperman.

This week read Revelation 22:12-17.

The following is a prayer from the NIV Worship Bible (Zondervan).

“Looking to the end, we remember our beginning. You have been there all along. You are Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the End, the starting point and the destination of life. We long for the day of Your return. Lord Jesus come to us. Abide with us. Feed us and heal us. Cleanse us and possess us. Refresh us and sustain us. Live in us and reign through us. We give You praise, our glorious Lord and Savior, as we wait restlessly for Your return.”

God Bless and have a great Sunday!

Pastor Morri

PSALM 46; READ IT OVER AND OVER THIS WEEK

“A Mighty Fortress is Our God”, Martin Luther’s greatest hymn, will be our worship theme for the day. He wrote it in 1529. He knew each one of us would struggle against Satan.
AND THO THIS WORLD, WITH DEVILS FILLED, SHOULD THREATEN TO UNDO US.
WE WILL NOT FEAR, FOR GOD HATH WILLED HIS TRUTH TO TRIUMPH THRU US.

We will continue our theme of Mighty God by singing Blessed the Lord, Mighty is Our God and Great and Mighty is He! The Choir will join in with More Than I Imagine.
We will also sing a great hymn that speaks to Christ’s beauty and wonder. The Hymn, Fairest Lord Jesus, proclaims his dual nature, that He is both human and divine.
O Thou of God and man the Son…Son of God and Son of Man.

John Chrysostom, a fourth century preacher, said: “I do not think of Christ as God alone, or man alone, but both together. For I know He was hungry, and I know that with five loaves He fed five thousand.
I know He was thirsty, and I know that He turned the water into wine. I know he was carried in a ship, and I know that He walked on the sea. I know that He died, and I know that He raised the dead.
And truly some of these I ascribe to the human and others to the divine nature. For by reason of this He is said to have been God and man.”
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by whom we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

If you go to my blog on April 20 you will find a song called My Savior My God. We ran out of time on that Sunday so we did not get to sing it. We will try again this Sunday. Go check out the words from the April 20 Blog.

IN THESE DAYS OF GREAT TRIAL WE HAVE GREAT HOPE!

Our Foundation hymn for this Sunday is “Crown Him with Many Crowns”. This hymn is based on Revelation 19:12, “…And on His head were many crowns”. It originally had 6 verses and was

considered a sermon in a song. Then 23 years later 6 more verses were added. ( I promise we will not sing all 12 verses.)

Verse 1 Crowns Him as Eternal King.

Verse 2 Demonstrates His love and suffering for us.

Verse 3 Proclaims His resurrection and ascension.

Verse 4 Worships Him as God the Son adored and magnified.

We will also sing “Everyone” This songs declares that Jesus is:

Great in splendor, Lord of everything, Worthy is Your Name

Never changing, Ever Reigning King, Worthy is Your Name

Praises to the One Who saves us

Through His Blood He gave us life and now we come, everyone

All creation rises up to declare Your Wonders

As people everywhere sing praises.

Our next song is “Days of Elijah”

“These are ‘Elijah’ days.” Elijah’s story is in the book of Kings and you can read how he felt isolated and alone in the culture in which he lived. But God told him to stand up and speak for Him. Check out the article by the author, go to the link below to read more about this song.

http://www.worshipleader.com/index.cfm?tdc=dsp&page=features_detail&aid=32

Finally we will sing “Fairest Lord Jesus” with a chorus added that says:

“You are fairer than the fairest of ten thousand, lovelier than all I’ve ever seen. You are brighter than the brightest star in heaven. Jesus you’re everything to me. ”

This week I pray that you will have new hope realizing that Jesus is our Eternal King!

Matthew 28:6 “He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen.

In Matthew 27:46 Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, Lama sabachthani – which means “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Notice Psalm 22 also starts with this same cry! Read Psalm 22:1-18 and Matthew 27:32-46 and you will see Matthew tells the story of Jesus on the cross from the ground looking up at the cross. Psalm 22 is the story of Jesus from the cross looking down. In Jesus day the Bible was not divided into chapter and verse. If you wanted to draw attention to a passage you would quote the beginning of that passage. Is it possible that Jesus was telling us from the cross to look at Psalm 22?
He did not have to go to the Cross. John 18:1-6 says Six hundred soldiers fell to the ground when Jesus said “I Am He”. Incredible! They just fell to the ground! He did not have to go to the Cross! But He Did! And then He Rose and that is what we will celebrate this Sunday morning. Resurrection Sunday! The Choir will bring three wonderful songs about our Beautiful Savior. Our foundation hymn is “He Lives” followed by “Christ Arose” and then we will proclaim “How Great is Our God”. Finally we will sing a song called “My Savior, My God”. The words to this song come from a poem written in 1873 by Dora Greenwell. Here is the poen.

I am not skilled to understand
What God hath willed, what God hath planned;
I only know that at His right hand
Is One Who is my Savior!

I take Him at His word and deed;
“Christ died for sinners”—this I read;
For in my heart I find a need
Of Him to be my Savior!

That He should leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die,
You count it strange? So once did I,
Before I knew my Savior!

Yea, living, dying, let me bring
My strength, my solace from this Spring;
That He Who lives to be my King
Once died to be my Savior!

See you Sunday!
The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed!

Morri Elliott

Pastor Morri Sermon and Worship Blog