Devotion

5 November: Tuesday Refocus

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“Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly.” - St Ignatius of Loyola

We live with illusions. We believe that by sheer force of will, hard work, and resolve, we can bend our lives, mold our desires, determine our course, and impose our will on the world. But a soul that is abandoned to the Lord says: I am not my own, I was bought with a price, and, my times are in His hand… (1 Corinthians 6:19, Psalm 31:15).  

What a relief to know that when my world is not how I would make it, there is still purpose being worked in my life by the One who upholds the universe by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). That he is working all things for my good and His glory (Romans 8:28). What a comfort to know that in abandoning my life, I am freed, in losing my life it is found (Matthew 10:39).   

Father, grow trust in us as we abandon our souls to You fully, daily, again, and again. Amen.

Amen,

AB

15 October: Tuesday Refocus

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"When my little world is falling apart and the dream castles of my ambitions and hopes crumble into ruins, can I honestly declare, 'Surely-yes, surely-goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life'?" - Phillip Keller

Life with God is having our desires transformed (Psalm 37:4). Life with God is recognizing that, ultimately, he is our greatest desire (Psalm 73:25). And if God is my greatest desire, regardless of what happens around me, my life is securing in choosing that which can not be taken away (Luke 10:42). Because my life is hidden with Christ in God, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever (Colossians 3:3, Psalm 23:6).

Father, may we choose the good portion. May we respond to you in faith and joy. In Christ’s name, amen.

Amen,

AB

8 October: Tuesday Refocus

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“We love the old saints, missionaries, martyrs, and reformers. Our Luthers, Bunyans, Wesleys and Asburys, etc... We will write their biographies, reverence their memories, frame their epitaphs, and build their monuments. We will do anything except imitate them. We cherish the last drop of their blood, but watch carefully over the first drop of our own.” - A.W. Tozer

King David said he would not offer a sacrifice to the Lord that cost him nothing (2 Samuel 24:24). Jesus said in order to find our lives we must lose our lives (Matthew 10:39). The Apostle Paul said that he no longer lives, but it is Christ who lives in him (Galatians 2:20).

In resource-rich societies (such as ours) we will happily lend our expertise, our money, and maybe even our time to causes we deem worthwhile. But what about our very lives? What of taking up our crosses and following our Savior (Matthew 16:24)? What if following Jesus will take us to places we do not want to go - like, the mission field? Like a simple, quiet, and obscure existence whose faithfulness is seen only by the Father? Like a life of discomfort, free of the ways we distract, avoid, and numb the pain, suffering, and brokenness within and without?

For followers of Jesus, we know that we must die to ourselves. But perhaps the first death is realizing that we cannot choose the place and manner of our deaths. But it is in dying that we bear much fruit (John 12:24). It is in being united with Christ in a death like his, that we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his (Romans 6:5).

Father, we are grateful for the faithful witness of the saints throughout time and history who have given their lives - body and soul, in life and in death - to you. We pray that our lives would be conformed to the image of Christ in His life and in His death, for Your glory, and our good, amen.

Amen,

AB

1 October: Tuesday Refocus

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"It is going to be a very long road. Every time I pray I feel the struggle. It is the struggle of letting God be the God of my whole being. It is the struggle to trust that true freedom lies hidden in total surrender to God's love." - Henri J.M. Nouwen

For followers of Jesus, we know that our lives are not our own (1 Corinthians 6:19). We know that our very breath is a gift from God (Acts 17:25). But still we naturally cling to the natural - attempting to exert our will, our whims, and our desires on and over our lives. In prayer we come face-to-face with the God who says ‘“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding (Job 38:4).’ In prayer we recognize that His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). In prayer we realize that our words should be few - because what is there to say when we see the One who inhabits the heavens (Ecclesiastes 5:2)? Prayer is not a battle of wills (mine against God’s) but the enfolding of my will into the One who knows and loves me best.

Father, may we be quick to surrender deeply, fully, completely. In Christ’s name, and the Spirit’s power, amen.

Amen,

AB

17 September: Tuesday Refocus

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‘Every art unfolds its secrets and its beauty only to the man who practices it. To the humble soul who prays in the obedience of faith, who practices prayer and intercession diligently, because God asks it, the secret of the Lord will be revealed, and the thought of the deep mystery of prayer, instead of being a weary problem, will be a source of rejoicing, adoration, and faith, in which the unceasing refrain is ever heard: "My God will hear me!”’ - Andrew Murray

It is easy to lose patience in prayer. It seems slow, and we wonder if anything is happening. It seems important and yet we wonder if we are doing it right. Like the Psalmist - and every person in Scripture, and throughout history - we wonder aloud: ‘I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where Is Your God? (Psalm 42:9-10)”’ 

But if we labor on, lean in, show up, bring our sighing and ourselves we find “…the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name (Isaiah 45:3).” This is not easy work - not because God is withholding, but because we are often half-hearted in our pursuit of the One who gives us Himself (Psalm 38:9, John 1:16). Why else would we call those rare saints who seem to have been able to lay hold of something deeper and more meaningful in prayer, warriors?

Father, would you make us persistent in prayer? Amen and amen.

Amen,

AB

3 September: Tuesday Refocus

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“One of the great neglected duties of the Christian life is self-examination, and maybe self-examination is neglected because it is so humiliating an exercise.” - William Barclay

Nothing surprises God. There is no corner of creation or my heart that is not already seen and known all the way through. So when we pray with the psalmist, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:23-24),” we pray to the One who has already “…searched me and known me! (Psalm 139:1).”

We pray asking not that God would learn something new in searching us, but that we would learn something new because God already knows “When I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether (Psalm 139:2-4).”

Father, thank You that You know us and that in Your kindness the Spirit convicts us of sin, and comforts us in our distress. Thank You for raising up the humble. In Christ’s name, amen.

Amen,

AB

13 August: Tuesday Refocus

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“That means an encounter with God that involved not only the affection of the heart but also the convictions of the mind. We are not called to choose between a Christian life based on truth and doctrine or a life filled with spiritual power and experience. They go together. I was not being called to leave behind my theology and launch out to look for ‘something more,’ for experience. Rather, I was meant to ask the Holy Spirit to help me experience my theology.” - Tim Keller

Our souls are embodied. Therefore true, saving faith cannot be simply an ascent to knowledge - even the demons believe (James 2:19). Faith must shape us, form us, stir us, and change us from the inside out. But faith is not an unbroken string of ‘mountain top’ experiences. True saving faith is still true in the mundane and quiet moments of our lives where following God feels more like obedience and less like delight. 

One of the ways we can consistently embody our faith and experience our theology is through gathering with the people of God. Singing to one another, hearing God’s Word preached and proclaimed, serving one another, taking the bread and the cup, praying with and for one another, forgiving as we have been forgiven, giving away our money, talent, time - and our very lives.

Spirit, would you help us experience our theology. In Christ’s name, amen.

Amen,

AB

6 August: Tuesday Refocus

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“In this life, victory often looks like endurance.” - Mark Dever

It can be easy to see endurance as something we gut out—clenched teeth, powering through. And perhaps there is an element of endurance that looks like that. But I think that Christian endurance looks more like Jesus, who, “…for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2

Endurance looks more like acknowledging the honest reality of the broken world but setting our hope on future glory. More like dying to ourselves in subtle and small ways that go unseen by everyone but the Father than single moments of self-denial. More like carrying a cross than seeking comfort. More like setting our minds on things eternal. More like Jesus.

Father, may endurance increase in your people for your glory and our good, in Christ’s name, and the Spirit’s power. Amen.

Amen,

AB

4 August: Liturgy + Set List

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Our church is celebrating its tenth birthday this Sunday. We had normal morning services, along with a birthday celebration in the evening with some liturgical moments:

  • CREATOR/GLORIOUS DAY

    Call to Worship: Psalm 24:1-6

  • GREAT ARE YOU LORD

  • ABIDE

    Sermon: Psalm 145

    The Apostles’ Creed

    Baptism Affirmations

Trusting in the gracious mercy of God, do you turn from the ways of sin and renounce evil and its power in the world? I do.

Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept Him as your Lord and Savior, trusting in His grace and love? I do.

Will you be Christ’s faithful disciple, obeying His Word and showing His love? I will, with God’s help.

Baptisms

  • LIVING HOPE

Benediction

SUNDAY EVENING

  • Welcome & Prayer

Father, we are gathered here because we believe that we are called together into a work we cannot yet know the fullness of. Still, we trust the voice of the One who has called us.

And so we offer to you, O God, these things:

Our dreams, our plans, our vision.

Shape them as You will.

Our moments and our gifts.

May they be invested toward bright, eternal ends.

Richly bless the work before us, Father.

Shepherd us well lest we grow enamored of our own accomplishment or entrenched in old habit.

Instead let us listen for Your voice, our hearts ever open to the quieter beckonings of Your Spirit.

May our love and our labors now echo your love and your labors, O Lord.

O Spirit of God, now shape our hearts.

O Spirit of God, now guide our hands.

O Spirit of God, now build Your kingdom among us.

Amen.

Adapted from “A Liturgy for the Labors of Community”

Every Moment Holy, Douglas McKelvey

  • 10,000 Reasons

  • RAISE A HALLELUJAH/WAITING HERE FOR YOU/O PRAISE THE NAME/DOXOLOGY

    Sermon

    Celebration

The Influences Of History

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One of the clarifying realities I was able to articulate from reading Worship and the World to Come (Glenn Packiam) is that my own history both in church and beyond have shaped my theological convictions. I think this kind of recognition allows me to loosely hold my own preferences, to be less defensive, and more charitable toward brothers and sisters whose history has also shaped their theological convictions.

But history also shapes the modern Church.

Our church is in the process of affirming a new statement of faith, and to that end, our elders have preached through the various tenets of the proposed statement of faith. Much of the conversation we have as a staff team around secondary issues - is how the church has historically wrestled and resolved their own questions. This can be a comfort: Christians have believed, celebrated, and affirmed these specific truths for generations. Smarter Christians than me have given their lives to read, study, embody, and articulate these truths. But this can also become an excuse: Christians have believed, celebrated, and affirmed these specific truths for generations. Therefore we can rest in their understanding rather than grapple with our own.

Hear me, I am speaking of second-tier issues. I make no claim that we should diverge from the historic church in orders of first importance. Those truths which all followers of Jesus - regardless of denomination - must hold in true faith and that would be defined as historically orthodox. I am speaking of second-tier issues - those things which brothers and sisters can hold loosely with a variety of conviction and expression, and still be in fellowship with one another.

Similarly to acknowledging that no one is neutral, and that everyone carries their own preferences, when we can acknowledge the visible and invisible ways history has shaped us, our people, our denomination, and our churches, we can honor that which is worthy of honor, and we can lean into the sanctifying work of semper reformanda.

28 May: Tuesday Refocus

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“To say that God is holy once is enough. To say that God is holy twice is emphatic. To say God is holy three times is superlative. God is holy that our minds cannot comprehend it and our mouths cannot express it. To say that God is holy is to say that God is God. Holiness is the ‘Godness’ of God. Worship that does not revere the holiness of God is not worship. It is the idolatrous veneration of a god of our own making.” - H.B. Charles Jr.

A glimpse of God is to be reminded that He is holy (and that I am not). Beholding the One who dwells in unapproachable light inspires an endless, and repeated song that somehow perfectly articulates who He is without ever becoming repetitive or emptied of meaning (1 Timothy 6:16, Isaiah 6:3). This is the song of eternity past and eternity future. It is the cry of the saints and angels and all of creation - may it be our song as well:   

“…and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” Revelation 4:8

Father, would you help us to be holy as Jesus is holy, in Christ’s name, and in the power of the Spirit we pray, amen.

Amen,

AB