He is risen indeed!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Easter! I've decided to go ahead and post on our Easter service today, since it was such a beautiful celebration of our Saviour's love for us. Today the sermon was on John 20:1-18; the passage focused in on the viewpoint of Mary Magdalene, the first witness of Easter.

Our pastor started with an interesting analogy. Pigeons walk the way the do because they cannot focus their vision while moving, so they must stop, readjust, then move again. We, like pigeons, get so caught up in our little worlds that we must stop to refocus ourselves. The cross and resurrection is the truth in which we must fix our gaze.

Next, he discussed John's account of the resurrection. Many have argued that the gospels have been fabricated; that the entirety of Christianity is just a myth conjured up by Jesus' followers. The pastor pointed out that John's account makes this seem very unlikely. Mary was a woman, therefore a second-class citizen in the ancient world. Women couldn't even testify in a court of law during that time. Someone fabricating a story would most certainly use a man as the first witness to the Resurrection. Second, Mary was formerly demon-possessed. And lastly, she was from Magdala, a town with a notorious reputation in the Jewish community. All of these things would make her a horrible choice to be the first witness in a fable. It would not give a false story any credibility. John writes from the viewpoint of Mary of Magdala, because it is the truth.

Our faith is based on actual truth, not on whatever viewpoint works for you. Jesus made the radical statement: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through me." Jesus' death and resurrection is the truth that sets us free. Without our Saviour's act of grace, we would be ensnared in our sin.

Call to Worship from 1 Corinthians 15

Minister: Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?
People: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
(with great voice) But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
Minister: Christ is risen!
People: (Louder still) He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

If you have a Sunday Pondering, leave a link here!

I'll be posting my thoughts after my afternoon nap, but feel free to post your own in the meantime!

This week's "theme" in worship was praising the Lord. I've decided to do what Ashley did when she hosted "Sunday Ponderings", and that is to post about the service from the week before. I think it will be easier for me to get this post up for linking if I do it that way.

So I'll write about the pastor's sermon next week, and post a hymn from the service this week. Our first hymn was "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty," which was written in 1680 by Joachim Neander. It was translated from the German in 1863.

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord, who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires ever have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who hath fearfully, wondrously, made thee;
Health hath vouchsafed and, when heedlessly falling, hath stayed thee.
What need or grief ever hath failed of relief?
Wings of His mercy did shade thee.

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

--Information from the Cyber Hymnal.

Do you have a Sunday Pondering? Feel free to share!

Just as soon as I start getting the "Sunday Ponderings" going, I have to miss church. Stu and I missed it today, since he was on call the night before and came home too late to get ready. I should have a new post next week! :-)

I haven't had a chance to get the button working, but I hope to have that up next week as well. (Ashley, I might need your help!) I'm looking forward to reading your posts this week!

Welcome to the first edition of "Sunday Ponderings" here at Onward and Upward! The purpose of this is to remember and reflect on various aspects of Sunday worship--anything from the hymns to the sermon. I tend to easily forget what I learn during the service, so this is a wonderful way for me to remember by writing it down to collect my thoughts. To participate, blog your own "Sunday Ponderings" post and add it to the Mr. Linky below. Sometime later this week I'll provide the information for the button to put on your own blog, if you want to. Thanks so much to Ashley for the work on this!

This week's sermon was preached by our associate pastor on 1 Corinthians 1:10-17, 2:1-5:

10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

2:1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

He reminded us to be singularly focused on the gospel. It is very easy in our study or witnessing to focus on our favorite preachers and writers instead. Like in the passage when people claimed to follow Apollos or Paul, we may find ourselves listening to the gospel according to others. (Not that it's a bad thing to study more mature Christian's works, but we must be careful to not elevate it too highly.) We must be careful not to attach other things to the gospel message as well. We preach Christ crucified, not Christ crucified and keep all your ducks in a row to get to heaven. We must also not let ourselves get in the way as we share the gospel, as Paul says not to preach with "words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power." We should not focus so much on what to say or how to say it to give us the best light. We should not be ashamed of our stuttering selves when we share the Good News.

Do you have a Sunday Pondering? Feel free to share!

Ashley has decided to pare down her blog a bit, and has graciously asked me to host "Sunday Ponderings." I am delighted to do it! The idea behind this carnival is to spend time reflecting on various aspects of Sunday worship, whether it be the music, the sermon, or any Scripture passages during the service. I've found that worship has much more meaningful for me as I ponder each service during the quiet afternoon around the house.

Each week, I'll be posting an article here, along with a Mr. Linky for those who write their own posts. I'll try to provide a new graphic for those interested as well. So join me next week as I begin hosting! :-)

Our pastor continued this week with the series on Joseph. My posting so far has been sporadic, but you can see other sermon summaries here and here. This week focused on Joseph's reconciliation with his brothers.

The passage today was from Genesis 42-45. Our pastor discussed several themes from this passage, including the importance of communication in reconciliation, Joseph's wisdom in his testing and mercy towards his brothers, and so forth. While all of that was wonderful, I want to highlight the imagery of Christ found in this passage. (Read or skim the passage so this will make sense!)

After the brothers leave Egypt for the second time, with Benjamin by their side, a messenger comes back to them saying that the royal silver cup had been stolen. All of the brothers said they had not taken it, and that whoever had should surely die. The cup was found in Benjamin's sack. Upon returning to Egypt, Judah, who had previously offered up Joseph to the Ishmaelite traders as a slave, offered himself in Benjamin's place. He said to Joseph:

Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.

Judah offers to die in his brother's place, just as Christ does for us.

Later, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, and acknowledges the Lord's sovereign work in his life. He mentions to them how he was sent ahead to preserve their lives, for he was over all the grain storehouses of Egypt while there was famine in the land. God used the tragedy from Joseph's youth to bring salvation to His people, both spiritually and physically.

While neither Judah or Joseph are like Christ exactly, since they were far from perfect, the imagery is striking, don't you think? I love how this story points forward to Christ's perfect redeeming work for us. How much more is His love for us than even the love among brothers.

Our pastor's sermon series continued this week on Joseph, and the topic was about suffering. We sang the hymn "It is Well with my Soul" during the beginning of the service, and I thought I would post on it today.

I first remember connecting with this hymn at my grandfather's memorial service back in high school. The two stanzas especially have stuck with me through the years. Whenever I am struggling with something these words come to mind and comfort me. The hymn was penned in 1873 by Horatio Spafford.

From Wikipedia:

This hymn was writ­ten af­ter several trau­matic events in Spaf­ford’s life. The first was the death of his only son in 1871, shortly followed by the great Chi­ca­go Fire which ru­ined him fi­nan­cial­ly (he had been a successful lawyer). Then in 1873, he had planned to travel to Europe with his family on the S.S. Ville Du Havre, but sent the family ahead while he was delayed on business. While cross­ing the At­lan­tic, the ship sank rapidly after a collision with an­o­ther ship, and all four of Spaf­ford's daugh­ters died. His wife Anna sur­vived and sent him the now fa­mous tel­e­gram, "Saved alone." Shortly afterwards, as Spaf­ford traveled to meet his grieving wife, he was inspired to write these words as his ship passed near where his daugh­ters had died.

It Is Well With My Soul

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Refrain

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Refrain

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Refrain

Don't you just love these sermon titles? Our pastor is quite the creative guy. We continued the series on Joseph this week, and the sermon was based on Genesis 39:1-21. This is the story of Joseph's rise in Potiphar's house, and his subsequent fall after being falsely accused of attempted rape by Potiphar's wife.

The pastor focused on the theme of temptation--the way of it, and the way out. He began by describing a flight into L.A, how the city is covered in smog. Once you're out in the city streets, you don't notice it so much, but when you have a bird's eye view it becomes obvious. Temptation is very much like that. It can be sneaky and near impossible to see once you are in the midst of it. He encouraged us to heed Jesus' words from Matthew 26, verse 41:

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.

We should be vigilant and discerning in our lives to see the temptation around us, and pray that the Lord will deliver us.

The pastor encouraged us to look at Joseph's situation. He had had a difficult experience being sold into slavery by his brothers, and things were now just looking up for him. He had risen to right-hand man of one of the most powerful men in Egypt. He could easily have felt everything was in his own power and not a gift from God. It would have been easy for him to justify sleeping with his master's wife. Instead of giving in, he said to Potiphar's wife:

Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?

Joseph decide not to give in, because he knew to Whom he answered. In our lives, the greatest temptation is becoming complacent in our prosperity and thinking we have made ourselves great, when it is God who gives us all things.

When we deal with temptation, God will give us a way out. Like Joseph, who received time in prison for his obedience, it may not always seem as if God has delivered us, but He does if ask, even if it is not in this life. He gives us the ultimate prize, our Deliverer, His Son who died for our sins.

All I can think about right now is that fact that the Colts just lost, so my apologies that this post is short and incoherent. :-(

Today our pastor started his sermon series on Joseph. The passage for the day was from Genesis 37: 2-13,18-37 which is the passage where Joseph has his dreams about his brothers serving him, and the one in which he is sold into slavery. Our pastor discussed three themes from this passage. The first regarded dreams, the second family, and the third God's providence.

What I recall the most from the sermon was his discussion of God's providence. In Genesis 37, God is not mentioned at all. It may seem as if God is not involved in the lives of His people, or that the characters in this story are outside of God's control. It may seem like that in our own lives as well. Looking to later chapters, we find that God is orchestrating behind the scenes, as He uses Joseph to redeem His people during the Near East famine of the time. It is always good to be reminded of this during times of trouble.

Our pastor was planning on beginning a series on Joseph (of "coat of many colors" fame) but ended up being out sick, so we had a guest pastor in his place. So I will just have to wait a week before I can blog on that series.

During the service we usually will have a series of call-and-responses or a catechism question in which the congregation will give the answer in liturgical fashion. Growing up, I never understood the reason for liturgy, and so I found it rather dull and meaningless. I've grown to appreciate it more, however. In today's service we responded to the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism. How wonderful it is to raise up one voice as the body of Christ in speaking this biblical truth:

Q. What is your only comfort, in life and in death?

A. That I belong--body and soul, in life and in death--not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

Our pastor has started a new series for the Advent season on the first few chapters of Genesis. Last week he compared the first chapter in Genesis to the first chapter in John. (Which, alas, I didn't take notes and I don't remember the finer points of his sermon. For those interested, you can listen to it here. Incidently, his sermon last week coincided with the Jesse Tree passage of the day--Creation.)

This Sunday we had a guest speaker who continued the series and expanded from last week. This week's passage was Genesis 2:4-9.

4 These are the generations
of the heavens and the earth when they were created,
in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The pastor discussed how when God created the heavens and the earth, He created by Himself. Man can only respond to the creation God has made, and was created to be completely dependent on God. He gave Adam the breath of life, a garden to live in, food to eat, and an earth to tend. When God created the tree of knowledge of good and evil he instructed Adam to not eat of it, since man should turn to God alone for his needs. The pastor likened God's instructions to driving eastbound in a westbound lane of Interstate 10--God gave the command for our own safety and protection, since the result of the offense would be death. Adam, of course, utterly rebelled against God's grace and care and now would experience death. God in His continuous grace gave Christ in the Incarnation in order to redeem us, His chosen people.

One of my favorite hymns is "For the Beauty of the Earth," and what a wonderful surprise that we sang it during service this past Sunday. Written by Folliot Pierpoint in 1864, it's a wonderful hymn of thanksgiving to our Creator. (It also reminds me of the wedding scene in one of my favorite movies, "Little Women," where the March sisters are singing this during Meg's ceremony.)

1. For the beauty of the earth,
for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth
over and around us lies;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

2. For the beauty of each hour
of the day and of the night,
hill and vale, and tree and flower,
sun and moon, and stars of light;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

3. For the joy of ear and eye,
for the heart and mind's delight,
for the mystic harmony,
linking sense to sound and sight;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

4. For the joy of human love,
brother, sister, parent, child,
friends on earth and friends above,
for all gentle thoughts and mild;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

5. For thy church, that evermore
lifteth holy hands above,
offering up on every shore
her pure sacrifice of love;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

6. For thyself, best Gift Divine,
to the world so freely given,
for that great, great love of thine,
peace on earth, and joy in heaven:
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. --Winston Churchill

Our church is currently going through a capital campaign in order to raise money to construct a church building, so it has been a very exciting few weeks in the life of our church. Our pastor has been going through a series concerning the kingdom of God and a Christian's response to money. Since today was the "Commitment Sunday" where we made our pledges for donations, the sermon itself was shorter, but it still was very powerful.

The Scripture reading was taken from 1 Chronicles 29:9-16.

The people of Israel were giving money in order for the temple of God to be built. The Israelites responded not with a sense of duty, or a sense of solemnity, but with utmost joy. They gave wholeheartedly, freely, and joyfully to the Lord. When we give, we should give with joy and with "clarity." Our pastor explained that when we realize clearly who God is, we will not want to hold back on our joy. After receiving the people's gifts for the temple, David said:

Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.

We should also have clarity about who we are. Who are we, in comparison to the great and mighty God? David says that "our days on earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding." Nothing is ours, everything we have comes from God.

During the service, we recited the first catechism question from the Shorter Catechism: Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We live our lives most meaningfully glorifying God, which results in our dying to self and serving others. Giving should be an outpouring of our love for others, and an opportunity to glorify our Father. It is our privilege to serve. When we give to our spouses, we don't do so out of duty. To do so would be absurd. Even more so it should be like that with our God. Christ gave us the ultimate gift by dying for our sins. We can never come close to matching this gift, but our response should be an outpouring of joy in giving back to our Maker.