Tuesday Refocus: May 16

“Thankfulness is the fuel for living worship.” - Matt Boswell

Whether attending a corporate worship gathering or living a life of worship - right worship is always a response to God’s revelation of Himself.

I am made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27)

I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14)

I am a child of God (1 John 3:1)

I have Christ as my brother (Hebrews 2:12)

I am adopted by God (Ephesians 1:5)

I am coheir’s with Christ (Romans 8:17)

Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me in (Psalm 27:10)

I belong to Christ (1 Corinthians 3:23)

I am a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)

I no longer live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20)

The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20)

I am given eternal life in the Son (Romans 6:23)

I am able to share in the inheritance of the saints (Colossians 1:12)

I am given all things in Christ (Romans 8:32)

I am the workmanship of God (Ephesians 2:10)

I have been created in Christ for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that I should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10)

I am a son of God through faith in Christ (Galatians 3:26)

I am buried with Christ in baptism into death, and raised to newness of life (Romans 6:4)

I am a partaker in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4)

I am being conformed to the image of the Son (Romans 8:29)

Nothing can snatch me out of the hand of Christ (John 10:28)

Lord, may the reality of your heart, and unchanging character be fuel for me to live in worshipful response in song and in the most mundane moments of my life. In Your name, amen.

In response,

AB

Tuesday Refocus: May 9

“Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun. You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter.” - Psalm 74:16-17

Sometimes like the disciples in a storm-tossed boat I wonder aloud, ’Teacher, don’t you care that we are perishing?’ (Mark 4:39). He is the One who spoke creation into existence, and upholds it by the word of His power (Gen 1:3, Heb 1:3). He is the One who will never leave me or forsake me, the One who never slumbers or sleeps, and yet sometimes my circumstances lead me to question His presence, and His power (Heb 13:5, Ps 121:1).

But the Spirit still hovers over the chaos - including the chaos of my own heart, soul, and spirit (Gen 1:2). He is still the one who has ‘measured the waters the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighted the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance…’ (Is 40:12).

It is not just the day that He controls, but the night also. When I ‘…walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.’ (Ps 23:4). In all seasons, at all times, there is nothing outside of His control. Nothing can thwart his purpose and His plan. With confidence we can lie down and sleep in peace, and awake to new mercies, because the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places (Ps 4:8, Lam 3:22-23, Ps 16:6).

Lord, where can we go from your presence? May we know your nearness as our good today and every day, amen.

Resting,

AB 

Tuesday Refocus: May 2

“All shall be Amen and Alleluia. We shall rest and we shall see, we shall see and we shall know, we shall know and we shall love, we shall love and we shall praise. Behold our end which is no end.” - Augustine

No more conflict, only agreement.

No more self-worship, only surrender.

No more striving, only rest.

No more peering through dim glass, only sight.

Lord, may your kingdom come in power now, as it will come in fullness on that day. Amen and amen.

Amen,

AB

Tuesday Refocus: April 25

“May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ.” - 2 Thessalonians 3:5

Our hearts do indeed need direction. Because every heart is deceitful, desperately sick, and misunderstood (Jer 17:9). We chase vanity and strive after the wind (Ecc 1:14). What could be more essential to our aimless, wandering hearts than the steadying, sobering, truest truth that God is love, and Christ is steadfast?

Like sheep that go astray, how easily we are distracted and prone to wander. We combat our wandering with being anchored in the person and work of Christ as revealed in God’s Word. We must continually, constantly, and repeated preach and press the truths of Scripture deeply into our hearts. As we read, meditate, apply, pray, rehearse, hear, and sing these truths - the Holy Spirit who inspired these words to be written - uses them to lead us in all truth, directing us to God Himself (John 16:13).

“We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” - Hebrews 6:19-20

Lord, in this moment, may our hearts be directed toward your unchanging character more than our ever changing circumstances. In the name of Christ, amen.

Steadied,

AB

Tuesday Refocus: April 18

“Like the manna of old that fell in the wilderness, He has come where you are. You do not need to go on a weary search to find Him.” - Lilias Trotter

God with us. God among us. God for us. God who indwells us. This is Emmanuel. The one who did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself and took on the form of a servant (Phil 2:6-7). He has moved close to those who were dwelling in the land of deep darkness (Is 9:2). He came to seek and to save the lost - because there is no one that searches for God, no, not one (Luke 19:10, Rom 3:11).

“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” - John 6:35-40

Lord, may we taste and see that you are good. Amen.

Amen,

AB

Tuesday Refocus: April 11

“The resurrection of Jesus is the 'Amen!' of the Father placed upon the 'It is finished!’ of the Son.” - Herman Bavnick

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1-2

“But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” Hebrews 10:12-14

Finally, fully, completely forgiven. 

There is no work left to be done.

Rejoice!

Lord, we echo the amen! Amen and amen.

Rejoicing,

AB

Tuesday Refocus: February 21

"The blood of Jesus is the death of despair." - Charles Spurgeon

There is much over which to despair in our world. Creation itself groans in pains of childbirth (Romans 8:22). Ours is a world passing away (1 John 2:17). And for those brave enough to examine their own heart, we can affirm what the prophet Jeremiah says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?’ (Jeremiah 17:9).

The season of Lent gives us the ability to enact in a small way the life of a believer: a tunnel of despair along the path to hope. This life is a hallway, but Christ is the door where we find pleasures forevermore (John 10:9, Psalm 16:11). Our days here are toil and trouble, but the Lord has been and will be our dwelling place for all generations (Psalm 90:10,1).

In Lent we despair over our sin, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:2). We don’t ignore, avoid, or wallow in our sin, we consider, confess, and repent of our sin. And we celebrate and receive the forgiveness of God through the finished work of Christ.

Father, may our days be marked with celebration and freedom, even as we consider our own sins. Thank you for Jesus, in His name, amen.

Rejoicing,

AB

Tuesday Refocus: February 14

“If reconciliation is God’s chief business, it is ours.” - E. Stanley Jones

It is easy to confuse love with a feeling. Certainly, love causes our hearts to feel in extremes - affection and affliction. But love is too large to be contained in our emotions - it moves out in our actions. Could there be a greater representation of love in action than reconciliation?

Webster defines reconciliation as ‘the action of reconciling: the state of being reconciled.’

This is what God has done for us in Christ: “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:18

The love of God moves toward us in the reconciling work of Christ. And we respond by becoming people who are given the ministry of reconciliation. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). We are to be reconcilers because we have first been reconciled to God.

Perhaps the most loving thing this Valentine’s Day is not romantic gestures, but acts of reconciliation. Terminating a debt. Choosing again in this moment to forgive a wrong. Repairing what has been broken.

God, we confess that all sin is first against You. Thank You for Your great forgiveness. Help us to be people of forgiveness and reconciliation in our world. Amen.

Reconciling,

AB

Tuesday Refocus: February 7

"Without the death of Jesus, nothing remains for us but death." — Charles Spurgeon

The enemy of our souls, the accuser of the brethren came to steal, kill and destroy. Christ came so that we may have life - abundant life (John 10:10). But it is only in the death of Christ that we can experience the life of Christ. It is only in dying to ourselves that we can truly live. We can be truly free only by carrying the cross (Matthew 16:24-26).

Today we sit somewhere between winter and spring. 

Somewhere between celebrating the birth of Christ and the cross of Christ. 

Somewhere between the first advent and the final advent. 

And so we fix our eyes on the death that brings life.

We fix our eyes upon the One who died the death that we deserve so that we can enjoy the life that He deserves.

Father, we have nothing in which to boast apart from the cross of Christ. We have nothing on which to cling apart from the cross of Christ. We have no life apart from the life of Christ given to us in the completed work of Christ. Make us grateful and humble, in Jesus name, amen.

Amen,

AB

Tuesday Refocus: January 31

“To fold one’s hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.” - Karl Barth

Scripture tells us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Can there be any other response when we recognize that we are engaged in a battle that is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, authorities, cosmic powers over this present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12)? We are people who live in humble dependence for our very breath (Acts 17:25).

If our very breath is a need we cannot supply in our own strength, how much more do we need to be people to are anxious for nothing but pray about everything (Philippians 4:6-7)?

When I pray, I acknowledge my dependence on God both to God and to myself. When I fail to pray I acknowledge my attempts at self-sufficiency both to God and to myself.

Lord, may prayer be the language of my dependence upon you. May it be the beginning of an uprising in the disorder of my own heart, and life, and in the world. Let it be so, amen.

Dependent,

AB

Tuesday Refocus: January 24

“The day is coming when there shall be a congregation that shall never break up, and a Sabbath that shall never end, a song of praise that shall never cease, and an assembly that shall never be dispersed.” - J.C. Ryle

On this side of eternity, we see everything in part. Everything is as though looking through a dim glass (1 Corinthians 13:9-12). This is the place where familiarity and ache collide as we recognize our citizenship is another kingdom (Philippians 3:20). 

This is the place where we say ‘Come quickly, Lord Jesus.’ 

This is the place where we cry ’Save us!’

Here all things are fractured and yet still reflect a sense of glory - a sense of what has been and what will be.

So we give ourselves to the Bride knowing that the Groom will soon return. We rest knowing that one day our labor will be joy and fulfillment. We sing today knowing that one day there will be a new song, an everlasting song of praise to our God. We stand shoulder to shoulder week after week with those against whom we sin, and who have sinned against us knowing that one day our lives will no longer bear the marks of pain we have experienced or inflicted.

God, for that day we live with expectation and hope. May we practice now what will give us a glimpse, and a taste of what will one day be. Hallelujah, amen.

With expectation,

AB

Tuesday Refocus: January 17

“In all acts of worship let us summon our whole nature to the work; let our intellects know God, our wills choose him, our hearts go out after him, our confidence lean on him, our love delight in him, our tongues praise him, and our hands clap for joy of him.” - William S. Plumer

In more than our songs.

In more than our words.

In more than our Sunday services.

In more than our Bible study.

In more than our times of prayer.

In more than our deeds.

In all of life, worship is the right response of our whole lives to God’s revelation of Himself.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” - Romans 12:1-2

Lord, may every corner of our lives be lived in response to You. Responding to Your heart, Your character, and Your completed work on our behalf. In Christ’s name, amen.

From worship,

AB