Reading the Gospels Wisely

Reading the Gospels Wisely from Greg A. Cash on Vimeo.

In a Byre Near Bethlehem

Tradition meets Celtic meets Indie. Nice. Enjoy. You can download the lyrics and guitar chords here.

Like the Dew of the Morning Hour...

To listen click here: Psalm 110

THE LORD HAS SAID TO MY LORD (PSALM 110)

Metrical Adaptation: Doug Wilson

(To the tune of “I Love Thy Kingdom Lord”)

Intro: E   B7   E   G#m7  A   B7   E  A  E

      E                             B7

The Lord has said to my Lord

       E              A          B7

“My right hand is Your seat

    E    B7              E   G#m7

Until I make Your enemies

        A            B7   E

Your footstool in defeat”

The Lord shall send out the rod, all strongholds shall He seize

The rod comes forth from Zion’s hill, and rules your enemies

Your people have one will, in the day of Your mighty power

Arrayed in majesty and might, like the dew of the morning hour

The Lord will never relent, through an oath His Word protects --

“You are a priest forevermore, in the line of Melchizedek”

          (a cappella)

At Your right hand is the Lord, He shall shatter rebellious men

He comes to execute His wrath, on nations and kings, amen!   D7

          G                                  D7

When our Lord’s wrath is complete

                G    C           D7

When His enemies are dead,

           G                 D7                  G            Bm7

He will drink from a stream by the way, and then

   C           D7      G

In triumph lift His head     (repeat last two lines then C G)

Liturgy and Slow Growth

We follow an ancient liturgical pattern in our worship, drawing from the wisdom of Christians who have gone before us. Every Sunday we renew our commitment to God, offer him our prayers and gifts, confess our sins, receive forgiveness, hear from God’s word, and celebrate the Lord’s Supper together.

In other words, not much changes from week to week. Sure, we sing different songs, pray slightly different prayers and hear from different parts of God’s word, but the weekly pattern is the same.

In a culture obsessed with the novel and unique, we should ask a very important question: What is the wisdom in this?

God generally doesn’t work through seismic spiritual events in our lives. True, most of us can look back to significant turning points in our lives that were profound and maybe even “out of body”. But the vast majority of the growth God brings is the result of slow, plodding work.

Think about the Bible’s dominant metaphor for spiritual growth—it is the growth of fruit. When you grow fruit, you don’t just plant some seeds and expect immediate results. No, you plant seeds and then you do a lot of the same things—watering, fertilizing, pruning—over, and over, and over again. Then you will have fruit. French winemakers are said to not really take a grapevine seriously until it is at least 20 years old. I think we need that kind of perspective when we think about growing as disciples.

Grapes growing. Riveting, huh?

By worshiping liturgically, we are doing the same things over, and over, and over again. We do this with the belief that, over time, God will bless these practices with fruit in our lives. Sure, there will be some seismic moments of profound change. But, for most of us most of the time, change will happen in a much more deliberate fashion.

And how does this spiritual growth manifest itself? It manifests itself when we actually “become the liturgy”. It happens when our liturgical actions—like  responding to God’s word, confessing our sins, praising God for his goodness, pouring out our sorrows at his feet—become second nature to us.

Think about our liturgy and the actions we practice. Every week, we confess our sins. We confess our sins on Sunday morning because we want confessing our sins to become second nature on Thursday afternoon. We sing our praises to God on Sunday morning so we can learn how to instinctively praise him on Friday nights. We pour out our hearts in prayer to God on Sunday morning so that we can turn toward him in prayer when our lives fall apart on Wednesday.

Is it the sexiest way to worship? Not by a long shot. However, worshiping in this way helps us be shaped and formed by a God who grows his people slowly and steadily.

Written by John of Grace Church Seattle