Can you imagine what it would be like for God to sing over you? It was merely a spoken word that brought the universe into existence. What would happen if God lifted up his voice and not only spoke but sang?
This Sunday we are continuing our series on the Portraits from the Prophets by looking at the book of Zephaniah. Zephaniah as a prophet has one single message, “The Day of the LORD is coming.” At the end of the book he paints a magnificently beautiful picture of a great Day of blessing when God will remove the guilt of his people, restore his presence with them, and then rejoice and sing loudly over them. The reality of God singing over his people is almost something too grand to comprehend, something too wonderful to grasp. But Zephaniah makes it even more marvelous when he paints it’s diamond-like radiance in front of the dark and gloomy background of the Day of the LORD as a day of wrath as well as a day of blessing.
On Sunday, we are going to explore the Day of the LORD as a day of wrath and a day of blessing, and ask the questions: How can it be both? How can God come in both wrath and blessing? And how does Jesus Christ resolve this tension for us, so we can rejoice in God’s singing over us?
I look forward to worshipping and singing with you all this Sunday as our God sings over us as well.
Adam Feichtmann
Portraits from the Prophets: Zephaniah
October 13, 2013 • Rev. Adam Feichtmann
Life Together
June 9, 2013 • Rev. David Juelfs
Is church membership biblical? Is it necessary? Last week we saw that God created the church, that the church is the family of God, his household, his people. Embracing this identity means that we embrace a new leader (King Jesus), a new lifestyle (the kingdom lifestyle), and a new mission (the mission of the king to renew all his good creation). As the church, together as his people, we follow Christ in all of life for the glory of God and the renewal of our neighborhoods. Here is the rub. All that identity and mission of the church stuff can sound great when it is general. However, that identity and mission is not meant to stay in the abstract, in the realm of ideas. It is meant to touch down into real life, with real people; real people that you commit to, submit to and love in all their (and your) messiness. Membership in the local church, where we rub shoulders with real people, is where this happens. The local church is where the people of God take shape and form. In preparation for Sunday, please read and pray through 1Corinthians 12:12-27. I can’t wait to worship together this Sunday. Pastor David “The visible Church, which is also catholic or universal under the Gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion, and of their children, and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation” (Westminster Confession of Faith 25.5).
Portraits from the Prophets: Hosea
September 15, 2013 • Rev. David Juelfs
We all know the sound of these words whispered in the darkest parts of our minds, “I don’t belong, I am not good enough, I have failed so badly this time I will never be able to recover.” What do you do to cope?
Portraits from the Prophets: Micah
September 22, 2013 • Rev. David Juelfs
I knew what I should say. I knew what I should do. I knew what I should feel. But I had to fake it. I wanted to get what I wanted, so I had to do what needed to be done, but my heart was not in it. Do you know the feeling? If we are honest we can all tell stories about doing things on the outside that seem good and right, all the while our motives are a mess.