A Grace That Un-Burns Bridges and Welcomes You Home

Earlier today I mentioned a song by Mumford & Sons called “Roll Away Your Stone.”  The songs are haunting and gospel saturated.  One of the lyrics, reminding me of the return of the prodigal son, declares:

It seems that all my bridges have been burned,
But you say that’s exactly how this grace thing works
It’s not the long walk home that will change this heart,
But the welcome I receive with the restart

Take a moment to listen to the song and study the lyrics.  As you do ask yourself what you’ve been filling the hole in your heart with.  Is “darkness” too harsh a term to define your heart?  Do you know the grace that un-burns bridges and welcomes you?

Roll away your stone, I’ll roll away mine
Together we can see what we will find
Don’t leave me alone at this time,
For I’m afraid of what I will discover inside

Cause you told me that I would find a hole,
Within the fragile substance of my soul
And I have filled this void with things unreal,
And all the while my character it steals

Darkness is a harsh term don’t you think?
And yet it dominates the things I see

It seems that all my bridges have been burned,
But you say that’s exactly how this grace thing works
It’s not the long walk home that will change this heart,
But the welcome I receive with the restart

Darkness is a harsh term don’t you think?
And yet it dominates the things I see
Darkness is a harsh term don’t you think?
And yet it dominates the things I’ve seen

Stars hide your fires,
These here are my desires
And I will give them up to you this time around
And so, I’ll be found with my stake stuck in this ground
Marking the territory of this newly impassioned soul

But you, you’ve gone too far this time
You have neither reason nor rhyme
With which to take this soul that is so rightfully mine

Home Worship Set

This weekend Refuge Church is not having a corporate worship experience. Instead we are asking people to rest, give our volunteers a break, and to dig into their own spiritual lives.

If you are looking for some music to lead you through this experience, here are a few that Pastor Rob picked out especially for you …

God-Oriented Worship

Sunday morning can be a confusing time.  I’m not talking about Sunday mornings spent trying to figure out what happened Saturday night.  I’m talking about the Sundays we show up to corporate worship and seek to engage with God and His people.  What is the goal?

Are we there to hear some good music and an entertaining / inspiring sermon?

Are we there to go through liturgical motions so that we purposefully carve out space for the divine?

Many people disagree on their preferences for a worship experience, but most would agree that the ultimate goal is to be “God-Oriented.”  We want that hour of joint worship to be focused on God, inspired by God and able to shape us into who God would have us be.

To be more specific, as Bob Webber wrote:

Worship that is God-oriented proclaims, enacts, sings, and prays God’s mission to the world.

God’s mission is the story of how God created and rescues not only creatures, but the whole creation. It is the story of God’s involvement in history with Israel, and the story of the death and resurrection of Christ. It is about how God, through Christ, has conquered the powers, will vanquish them at his coming, and will establish the new heavens and new earth.

The earliest Eucharistic liturgy of the church, recorded in A.D. 215, expresses the story this way: “Fulfilling your will and gaining for you a holy peoples, he stretched out his hands when he should suffer, that he might release from suffering those who have believed in you. And when he was betrayed to voluntary suffering that he might destroy death and break the bonds of the devil, and tread down hell . . .” (Italics mine) Hippolytus, The Apostolic Tradition.

The emphasis of biblical and ancient God-directed worship is ultimately about the victory of God over all the powers of evil. In worship we remember God’s saving acts in history, and we anticipate the consummation of God’s rescue at the end of history.

(Read the full article here)

HT Reggie Kidd

Why Is Science Important?

Yesterday I kinda threw “science” under the bus.  Let me be clear … my goal isn’t to pit faith vs science.  They are not two mutually exclusive camps.  There are many faith-filled Christians who are scientists, and a million faithless, unscientific folk.

Faith and Science mix.

Belief in God and a commitment to a purely materialistic world don’t mix.

Science is not the same as materialism.  Technically, “science” is an approach to analysis and observation.  The word “science” comes from Latin scientia, meaning “knowledge” and describes an organized, systematic way of observing the world and organizing knowledge to produce testable explanations and predictions about the universe.

When a faithful follower of Jesus enters into the study of the sciences, they have a chance to see God.  As the Belgic Confession says in Article 2:

We know God by two means: first, by the creation, preservation and government of the universe; which is before our eyes as a most elegant book, wherein all creatures, great and small, are as so many characters leading us to contemplate the invisible things of God, namely, his power and divinity, as the apostle Paul saith, Romans 1:20. All which things are sufficient to convince men, and leave them without excuse. Secondly, he makes himself more clearly and fully known to us by his holy and divine Word, that is to say, as far as is necessary for us to know in this life, to his glory and our salvation.

A theologian studies God through the Scriptures.

A scientist can study God through nature.

Both are opportunities for worship.

A Prayer for God’s Transforming Presence in Our Worship

I ran across this prayer by Scotty Smith today, and realized how desperately I needed this reminder of grace as I prepared for worship.  I was finding myself afraid of secrets laid bare, remembering my sin far more vividly than I remembered God’s grace.

As you read this, whether before, during or after a time of corporate worship, remember that grace is greater than all your sins, that Jesus already knows about your many betrayals, and that if you were in the upper room He would stoop to wash your feet.  He did it for Peter the bold coward and for Judas the Satan inspired betrayer.  Your sin fits somewhere on that continuum and is both completely horrible and completely covered by Christ’s blood.

Rejoice!

     The secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!” 1 Cor. 14:25

Gracious Father, it’s the Lord’s Day, and as we prepare to gather as your sons and daughters, we’re not afraid for the secrets in our hearts to be laid bare—to be openly exposed and revealed. For we’re confident that you won’t deal with us according to our sin but according to the unsearchable riches of the gospel. For you’ve dealt with Jesus according to our sins and have rewarded him according to our iniquities, to which we respond with several loud “hallelujahs”!

Otherwise, we’d surely fear and despair of such exposure. For in the gospel we find the generosity and kindness of your heart “laid bare” and poured out—your welcome and provision for rebels, fools, and idolaters just like us. O, the greatness and grace of it all…

Indeed, the gospel is the sanctuary where ours heart cry the loudest, “God is really among you!” Only the gospel of your grace frees us to fall down and worship you in humility, not humiliation; in gratitude, not groveling; in repentant faith, not uncertain penance; in the assurance of Christ’s righteousness, not the condemnation of our unrighteousness.

Father, we pray our whole church family will enjoy this same freedom, whenever we gather to worship you. In a day when we seem to need more gadgets and gimmicks to create “worship experiences,” free us from needing anything more than the gospel to worship you the way you deserve and delight to be worshiped. Indeed, convict us quickly when we slip into worshiping worship more than we worship you.

Teach us how to be stewards of technology, not slaves to technology. Teach us how to be creative, not cute; faithful, not manipulative; simple, not spectacular. Reel us back in anytime we move away from “sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). Don’t let us ever forget that you’re not seeking “great worship” but true worshipers—those who worship you “in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). Don’t let us be consumers of worship, but those who are consumed with you, as we give you the adoration and adulation of which you alone are worthy…

May our worship be so saturated with the truth and grace of the gospel that nonbelievers (as well as believers!) will be overwhelmed with your presence and captured by your love. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ most wonderful and worthy name.

What is Jesus Worth?

Today at Refuge Church I preached on John 12 and two acts of worship.  Mary worships Jesus and expresses her love by pouring expensive perfume on his feet and wiping it with her hair.  Judas worships himself (via money) and expresses his love by trying to line his pocket with ill-gotten gain.

In a sermon on this, John Piper makes a powerful statement.

“It is a beautiful thing when the worth of Jesus and the love of his followers match – when the value of his perfections and the intensity of our affections correspond.  And it’s not beautiful, but suicidal, when they don’t.” – John Piper

My Security, Refuge and Strength

I needed this today …

My Security by Casey Corum

You are my refuge and my strength
A tower to run to when I'm afraid
And I will lean on Your everlasting arms today
When everything's falling down
You are my solid ground

What is “Worship”?

Worship is a big, churchy, mis-understood word.

Worship is not praise.  Worship is not singing.  Worship is more about going (Isaiah 6) and sacrifice (Abraham and Isaac) than about music.

In this video, Douglas Wilson gives a 5 minute definition of biblical worship.

(HT Desiring God)

Unity is Not Based on Tastes or Style

Recently I re-read an old quote from a sermon John Ortberg gave in a sermon as he was transitioning his church into more of a culturally engaging worship attitude, including (but not limited to) changing their worship style …

Our unity is not in style; our unity is in Jesus Christ. So I just want to ask us, as a congregation, to put this stake in the ground this weekend: We will never demean the motives or spirituality of fellow Christ-followers who have different tastes than ours. We may like different instruments or different tempos or different fashions, but we all follow the same Lord, and we all kneel before the same Cross. Therefore, we will never let our differences and taste threaten our unity in Jesus Christ. – John Ortberg

The Heart of Worship is Being Satisfied with God

The essential, vital, indispensable, defining heart of worship is the experience of being satisfied with God. This satisfaction in God magnifies God in the heart. This explains why the apostle Paul makes so little distinction between worship as a congregational service and worship as a pattern of daily life. They have the same root – a passion for treasuring God as infinitely valuable. The impulse for singing a hymn and the impulse for visiting a prisoner is the same: a thirst for God – a desire to experience as much satisfaction in God as we can.

Excerpted from Gravity and Gladness on Sunday Morning, Part 1.