Personal Worship (Page 28)

For the week of December 6

Prepare for Worship (weekend of December 3rd)

Hey Church! Today’s reflection is on pain. It has been heavy on my mind as of late, so I hope something of my own experience on the subject will engender a timely word of encouragement to some of you who suffer. If this is not written for you, perhaps it is written for your ministry to a friend or neighbor. We all experience pain in various forms and degrees. For…

For the week of November 29

Prepare for Worship (weekend of November 26)

Hey Church! This Sunday we will leave the season of Pentecost behind (be honest, who remembered that we were still in Pentecost?) and enter into the four-week season of Advent. The four Sundays preceding Christmas have traditionally been a time when Christians long for Christ’s coming (“advent” means “appearance; arrival; coming”)–both…

For the week of November 22

Prepare for Worship (weekend of November 19)

Hey Church! This weekend I want to encourage you to bring your authentic self to God in worship. It is all too easy for us to “play church” on Sundays in a way that doesn’t result in a genuine encounter with the Holy Spirit. We don’t do this on purpose, of course. At some point along the way, we believed the lie that church is a place that requires…

For the week of November 15

View Previous Weeks Welcome to Week 3 of Awaken and to Acts chapter 4. This week, we see the immediate aftermath of Peter and John’s arrest by the Sadducees and being dragged before the Sanhedrin where they were threatened for teaching about Jesus. How they responded gives us our topic for this week: Boldness. Over the next five days we will consider what it means to be…

Prepare for Worship (weekend of November 12)

Hey Church! This weekend, as you prepare your hearts and minds for Sunday morning, I want to encourage you to set aside a pocket of time to meditate on the lyrics copied below. Watch the videos, learn the melodies (extra credit if you learn the harmonies), and read through the words we will be singing together in church. What scriptures come to mind as you listen and…

For the week of November 8

View Previous Weeks Welcome to Week 2 of Awaken and to Acts chapter 8. This week we will be reading about Philip the Evangelist and the Ethiopian eunuch. Despite its many supernatural elements there is a lot about sharing the gospel that we can learn from it. (By the way, Philip the Evangelist is not Philip the Apostle. They are often confused, but are two different…

Prepare for Worship (weekend of November 5)

Hey Church! One of the key passages in our personal worship this week has been John 4, where Jesus explained to a Samaritan woman that “true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” These words are often quoted but have you ever really thought about what “in spirit and truth” means? John 4:19-24The woman said to him, “Sir, I…