When we come to worship, we are in a sense coming (as the author of Hebrews puts it) to the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22). What an immense privilege we have every week as children of God! This morning, Psalm 48 calls us to worship with a description of the “city of our God,” “Mount Zion,” “His holy mountain,” a fortress…
Reformed worship is often described as dialogical: God declares something to us from His Word, and we respond with prayer and song; we confess our sins, and God responds, assuring us of His pardon. This emphasizes the vertical aspect of worship, the relationship between God and humanity. But we shouldn’t neglect the horizontal aspect, the relationship of believers to one…
Last week we celebrated the glorious victory our King has over death. Our King endured the hostility of sinners so that those sinners might be saved and become sons. This morning we are called to walk in the path our Savior has set before us. Jesus traveled through deep rivers of sorrow and so will we, but His grace all…
Q. What doth the resurrection of Christ profit us? A. First, by His resurrection He has overcome death, that He might make us partakers of that righteousness which He had purchased for us by His death; secondly, we are also by His power raised up to a new life; and lastly, the resurrection of Christ is a sure pledge of…
Tonight’s service of readings, choral anthems, and congregational hymns was assembled to assist us in meditating on the story of Christ’s betrayal, trial, crucifixion, and burial. Each portion of the story (taken from all four Gospels) is followed by a musical response from either the choir or the entire congregation. Throughout the service, the choir will be presenting six works…
Waving palms together on Palm Sunday is always one of the sweetest moments of the church year. Though our sermon series on the book of Hebrews continues, the service this morning will feature many of the great hymns of the faith that walk us through Christ’s passion. We’ll sing hymns like All Glory, Laud And Honor, which narrate the events…
This morning’s service gives us several portraits of a “lived-out faith,” which we can find in the Scripture passages we read and the hymns and psalms we sing. We hear that we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand” (Ephesians 2:9). We pray for God’s grace that “the light of Christ might be seen today…
O how sweet to trust in Jesus, just to trust His cleansing blood, In this morning’s passage, the writer of Hebrews draws a parallel between the life of Abraham as he sought to follow God and our lives as we seek to follow Christ. Abraham followed to the promised land; we are following to the heavenly promised land. We begin…
O how sweet to trust in Jesus, just to trust His cleansing blood, Just in simple faith to plunge me ‘neath the healing, cleansing flood. —Louisa Stead Today, we begin a journey of several weeks through Hebrews 11, the great “hall of faith” which details a host of Old Testament characters who walked “by faith.” The hymns we sing in…
The preacher of Hebrews tells us plainly, “you have need of endurance” (Hebrews 10:36). Nearly every hymn we sing this morning is a prayer asking for God’s strength, wisdom, and guidance, that we might endure in our Christian lives. We open the service by asking the Lord to “lead me all my journey through” (Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah).…