Jesus Messiah

2 Chronicles 31:2
Hezekiah assigned the priests and Levites to divisions—each of them according to their duties as priests or Levites—to offer burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, to minister, to give thanks and to sing praises at the gates of the LORD's dwelling.

One more song...


vs1 He became sin
Who knew no sin
That we might become His Righteousness
He humbled himself and carried the cross

Love so amazing
Love so amazing

Chorus:
Jesus Messiah
Name above all names
Blessed Redeemer
Emmanuel
The rescue for sinners
The ransom from Heaven
Jesus Messiah
Lord of all

vs2 His body the bread
His blood the wine
Broken and poured out all for love
The whole earth trembled
And the veil was torn

Love so amazing
Love so amazing,

Chorus:

Bridge
Emmanuel
The rescue for sinners
The ransom from Heaven
Jesus Messiah
Lord of all

All our hope is in You
All our hope is in You
All the glory to You, God
The light of the world

Chorus:

6 Questions For Bible Study

This Sunday I told you about J.I. Packer, well known author and theology teacher, six questions we should be asking of any Biblical text.

Here they are as promised...

(1) What do these words actually mean?

(2) What light do other scriptures throw on this text? Where and how does it fit in to the total biblical revelation?

(3) What truths does it teach about God, and about man in relation to God?

(4) How are these truths related to the saving work of Christ, and what light does the gospel of Christ throw upon them?

(5) What experiences do these truths delineate, or explain, or seek to create or cure? For what practical purpose do they stand in Scripture?

(6) How do I apply them to myself and others in our own actual situation? To what present human condition do they speak, and what are they telling us to believe and do?

J.I.Packer, Among God’s Giants: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life, p138.

"Enough"

Psalm 40:3
He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.

"Enough" by Chris Tomlin for us to sing together!

New Worship Songs

Psalm 33:1
SING joyfully to the LORD, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him.

I want to post several videos of some new songs I want us to sing to the Lord at LPC over the next few weeks... please watch them and be ready for us to sing them together as we gather together!

-PK

Come People of the Risen King...

Video from Sunday Aug 29th/10

Hey!!! Here is that great video from yesterday for you to enjoy again... Remember, that those voices that call you to less that Biblical followership of Christ are the voices of people Jesus call Thieves and Robbers... Careful who you listen to...

-PK

Public Praying

The scriptures make the distinction between private praying and public praying. Both are important and necessary. The way you pray in private though is often not (and should not) be the patten you pray with other people. At times I have spoken to people about praying together and how what they are saying is inappropriate or really just preaching to others but using prayer as the format to do so. I do not want, in this post, to get into a debate on all that, though the discussion is important and is necessary as praying together is one of the gathered purposes of His church! We get to talk to OUR Father... not just yours or just mine but he is Our father and we, as part of His family need to talk to God together..

I say all this because I just read a quote from a very godly, older man named Stanley Hauerwas. he is a very well known theologian who really loves the Lord. He is greatly respected by many well known Christians.

Anyway... read what he writes about public prayer in a new book of memoirs entitled Hannah’s Child.

___________________________
Page 255 “I do not trust prayer to spontaneity. Most “spontaneous prayers” turn out, upon analysis to be anything but spontaneous. Too often they conform to formulaic patterns that include ugly phrases such as, “Lord, we just ask you …” Such phrases are gestures of false humility, suggesting that God should give us what we want because what we want is not all that much. I pray that God will save us from that “just.”
_________________________

I say "just" all the time when I pray publicly so I was challenged by his thoughts. Though I do not feel I am trying to be false in my humility in my prayer, but I get what he is saying. We ask in prayer because Jesus invited us to ask! So no need for a "just" as in "sorry to bother you Lord... I have just a small little request of you..." No where is this type of public praying in the word suggested. Boldness is though... with humility in who we are in relationship with.

What do you think?
-PK

Welcome Home!!

Hello Everyone,
It is good to be back at LPC after a few weeks away. I have much to share with you all as we serve Christ together...

I do want to share a few things I have read this summer with you. Here is a great post about worship from blogger Treven Wax on his blog Kingdom People (Living on Earth as Citizens of Heaven).

Read it below and please tell me what you think...
-PK

_________________________________

When it comes to the atmosphere of worship services in the next generation, something’s got to give.

More and more churches are focusing on the centrality of the Word in worship. The resurgence of Reformed theology among younger evangelicals, the reestablishment of a rock-solid belief in the inerrancy and inspiration of the Scriptures in the Southern Baptist Convention, the revival of expository preaching… this wave that we’re riding is about to collide with an even bigger wave: the dominance of contemporary worship styles across the U.S. and the world.

For many churches, the biggest requirement for a “worship set” is novelty. We’re aiming for an experience. So we put together a worship service that is more influenced by the latest hits on Christian radio than by theology or history.

We also try to put people at ease. “Good morning… Let’s try that again, GOOD MORNING!” There’s a chatty, street-level style of worship that has become prevalent in evangelicalism. And I’m not sure how our pursuit of novelty and casualness in worship is going to mesh with hearing the Word of God expounded upon in all its glory.

Can a contemporary, casual service bring worshippers face to face with the glory of God in a way that buttresses and upholds the magnificent truths being expounded from the Word? I think the answer is yes, but not always.

It’s like eating steak on a paper plate.

My wife is an excellent cook. Her Romanian dishes dazzle my tastebuds, and her American cooking is terrific too. In the past couple of months, she has been using paper plates frequently. I understand why. We don’t have a dishwasher. She wants to save time setting the table, and she doesn’t want me washing dishes after dinner. Paper plates are easy and disposable.

But after a few weeks of paper plates, I told my wife, “Your cooking is too good for paper plates.” Slapping down a hot dog and baked beans on a paper plate in the middle of summer is just fine. But when my wife makes her famous pork chops and rice, or her Romanian cabbage rolls, or steak and mashed potatoes, paper plates just don’t cut it. I said, “Let me wash the dishes. But at least give us dishes!”

When it comes to worship, we are frequently told that form doesn’t matter. Style is not what’s important. I get that. I’m not downing contemporary music or advocating a return to liturgy, organs and hymns. I’ve been in contemporary worship services that have put me on my knees before the holiness and majesty of God. Cultural forms adjust and adapt.

But in worship today, there is a tendency toward casualness. The emphasis on feeling God’s closeness in worship may short-circuit the possibility of being transformed by a glimpse of the Transcendent One. There’s hardly any room for feeling awe in worship, and I can’t help but think that part of our problem is the form.

Form and content mirror one another. A church with serious Bible preaching is going to have a serious worship service (contemporary or traditional isn’t what matters, but serious it will be). A church with a feel-good preacher is going to have peppy, feel-good music.

Christians need to sense the weight of God’s glory, the truths of God’s Word, the reality of coming judgment, and the gloriousness of God’s grace. Trying to package the bigness of this God into most casual worship services is like trying to eat steak on a paper plate. You can do it for awhile, but at some point, people will start saying, “I want a dish.”

time away

Yoho National park

Joshua Muller's second update re Street Invaders

Hey guys,

Well, we’re on day six of our mission, and things have been intense. I haven’t updated you since Bootcamp though, so I’ll update you on that first.

It was an amazing time. God did cool stuff over the course of the week. The times of worship were amazing, and the teaching was awesome too. One highlight for me was getting to pray with a girl to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and hearing her receive the gift of speaking in tongues.

Another highlight for me was the night of our commissioning. It was an amazing night. The normal commissioning consists of everyone getting prayed over, and often receiving prophecies when God gives a message to the people praying for said person.

An average commissioning night is more than an amazing time, but I especially enjoy the memory of this year’s service for a couple different reasons. First off, I should mention I was put in charge of praying with my team after they had been commissioned. It was cool being able to do that, and bond with the team in that way.

After the students had been commissioned, I was called up, and was commissioned. The things they prayed and said were definitely an encouragement to me. Afterwards, I came back to my team, and they prayed for me. When they were praying, I just felt the love of God and His presence SO strongly. I almost cried. It was so amazing. There was another amazing thing that happened that evening. Between praying for my teammates as they came down from being commissioned, I was chatting with a friend of mine that was on my SI team in 2008. The conversation turned to the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. I remembered that he mentioned at our mission together that he had never received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and ever since I had always wanted the opportunity to pray with him to receive it, but I had never seen it or taken it. As we were talking, and this thought came to mind, I realized that this was the moment I had been praying for. I asked him if he wanted me to pray with him to receive the Holy Spirit and the gift of speaking in tongues, and he said, “ya”.

So I prayed with him and he started speaking in tongues. In was an amazing time.

Since then, my team and I have come to North Central Regina, and we’ve been working in the neighborhood in various ways to share God’s love. We helped clean up a couple’s garage that had been flooded during the crazy rain this summer. We did some work at the Regina Food bank, and helped out at a community festival that was being put on for the neighborhood kids and families.

So far, however, my favorite ministry that we’ve done has been the work we did on Thursday.

We got together with a guy that works with Soul’s Harbour Rescue mission.

We choose a block to minister to. Then we went door to door, offering free yard work, and telling the people that we would be having a barbecue with free hot dogs and juice. The ministry that our team was able to do was really awesome. While some of our team was doing the yard work and such, others took time to talk to people in the neighborhood, and a few people on our team had a chance to pray with a lady. It was a really cool time, and a really cool concept I thought.

Well, I best go. We’re on a really crazy schedule that sometimes prevents us from getting the sleep we need, so please pray that God will give us the energy we need to stay healthy and complete our mission. Also, please pray for continued team unity. This years compassion team is one of the most amazing teams I’ve been on. Pray that God would keep us as one, that we would continue to hunger after Him with everything that’s within us, and that any attacks from the devil would have no effect whatsoever

Thank you all for your continued prayer support!

God bless!

Joshua Müller

Next Update from Stephen Muller re Street Invaders

Hey yall!

How are you all doing? The past week has been amazing!
My team is working in Regina with kids ministry and street evangelism type stuff.
Mykala Dotchkat is also on my team :)
Tuesday night we went to victoria park for an outreach evening. and...

WOW! God is amazing!

Within the first 2 minutes I found myself sharing Christ with 2 guys who were smoking weed.
I’m stoked to see what else God has planned for us.

So... Ya...
Miss you guys!

God bless!

Stephen Müller