Hallelujah to the Lamb

Sunday morning retuning: Do you find yourself singing praise to the Lamb of God and Heaven becoming a brighter reality in your life these days, or are other things distracted you causing Haven to dim? Read on.

Verse 1
Lord I stand in the midst of a multitude
Of those from every tribe and tongue
We are Your people
Redeemed by Your blood
Purchased from death by Your love
There are no words
Good enough to thank You
There are no words to express my praise
But I will lift up my voice
And sing from my heart
With all of my strength

Chorus 1
Hallelujah hallelujah
Hallelujah to the Lamb
Hallelujah hallelujah
By the blood of Christ we stand
Every tongue every tribe
Every people every land
Giving glory giving honor
Giving praise unto the Lamb of God

Verse 2
Lord we stand by grace in Your presence
Cleansed by the blood of the Lamb
We are Your children
Called by Your name
Humbly we bow and we pray
Release Your power
To work in us and through us
'Til we are changed to be more like You
Then all the nations will see
Your glory revealed
And worship You

Bridge
Every knee shall bow
Every tongue confess
That You are Lord of all

CCLI Song No. 2316323
© 1997 Integrity's Hosanna! Music
Debbye Graafsma | Don Moen
For use solely with the SongSelect Terms of Use. All rights Reserved. www.ccli.com
CCLI License No. 213449

We introduced this song on Sunday that has been on of my favorites for some time when it comes to singing about Heaven. The images that is conjures up are not ones, like Heaven itself that we think of very often, so I wanted to give us a little visual here to help us get our thinking headed in that direction. [Stained glass window portraying the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei) carrying a banner, Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Chestnut Hill, Mass., U.S. John Workman] When you think of Jesus as the Lamb of God, Angus Dei as we sing it in another song we know, what kind of images come to mind for you?

Think about that while you watch this video.

Jesus, thank You for being the Lamb of God. Release Your power to work in us and through us until we are changed to be more like You. Then all the nations will see Your glory revealed and worship You.

In Christ,

Pastor Timothy

Look to the Light

Sunday morning retuning: Heaven is the hope of all who are bound for glory. Did you wake up today and ask God to help you live in the reality of heaven today? Will you ask Him tomorrow?

On a recent camping trip with my boys, Aiden’s first, I took this picture. I think it is worth at least a thousand words. I will share less than that to give you time to consider some of your own.



As I was reflecting back on it last week, several thoughts jumped out at me.

The light is intense. The boys’ faces are aglow. Everything just kind of fades into the darkness.

The light is intense. It forms the focal point of the picture. It is almost hard to look away from it. It reminds me of the glory of God and a verse from 2 Corinthians 4:6 which says that God has given us “the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ”.

The boys’ faces are aglow. Their faces are simply reflecting the light that is coming from the source, the lantern. Each of their expressions are a little different. Isn’t that like us in our relationship to God? We simply reflect His glory to those around us. We each express that a little differently.

Everything just kind of fades into the darkness. The closer to the lantern the clearer things are seen. If it weren’t for the lantern this picture would be only darkness. Genesis 1:3 is quoted in the first part of that earlier verse from 2 Corinthians where God says, “Let light shine out of darkness.” We have a responsibility to do more than enjoy the light don’t we.

Jesus, shine Your light on us. We want Your glory to be seen as it shines in the darkness. Do it through us as our hope rests on You.

In Christ,

Pastor Timothy

Music and Missions

Sunday morning retuning: We had the chance to hear from three of our Elders on Sunday. What did God speak to you? What are you doing about that? Respond to what you heard!

On of the key parts of becoming a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ is cultivating a desire to serve our world. That is to declare the truth and love of Jesus Christ both locally and globally. We do that through our worship services when we sing His praise, and we do that elsewhere when we share His compassion.

I mentioned on Sunday a concert that we will host at the church this Friday night. I wanted to give you a little more detail about that and share how excited I am to see a couple of our young people using their talents to support this endeavor. Julia Ciferno and Travis Pembridge will both be sharing in this event. They are both involved in our worship ministries and are very talented musicians and songwriters. I encourage you to come simply to hear their offering, but there is an additional reason.

A group of 6 young adults (ages 18-24) are getting ready to travel to the island kingdom of Tonga (located in the South Pacific) in August with the hope of being used by God to both encourage the believers there and provide any service possible to them. In an effort to help raise the necessary funds for this trip, the team has made preparations for a live concert and silent art auction to be held here at North-Mar in the fellowship hall this Friday evening at 7:00. Admission will be free but there will be opportunities to give throughout the night, through the art auction and other ways.

If you are wondering what type of music that will be there you can check out this page facebook.com/ashestooak where you can get a taste before coming. A more detailed description of the trip is on the event page on facebook and was written by one of the team members. You will probably need a facebook account to view it. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=123905371025063

I will personally vouch for Julia’s content as I have been listening to a pre-release copy of her CD for a couple of months now. She is a living psalmist in my opinion by virtue of the poetic way she deals with the emotions each of us feels as we wrestle with the truth of our God. I have also heard a couple examples of Travis’ labor and believe that you will be blessed to hear those things as well.

Come out and support these young people who are using their music to support missions.

Jesus, help us to serve our world. We want to declare Your truth and love both locally and globally. Help us to find creative, effective ways to do that ourselves and to equip others to do it where we can not go.

In Christ,

Pastor Timothy