Revelation puts us neck deep in some of the scariest and most challenging calls to faith in the entire Bible. That's what makes the final turn to the closing chapters so exhilarating. Let's take a few minutes together with the 'wedding day' of God with his people in 21:1-5
Devotional - Dec 29, 2020
Music Today: "I Will Move On Up a Little Higher", Mahalia Jackson. Any musical selections for this letter that don't include the greatest gospel singer of all time would be a mistake. Here Mahalia - the woman who exhorted Martin Luther King to drop his notes and 'tell them about the dream' to create his most famous speech - sings of 'trading her cross in for a crown' as she moves toward glory.
Les Miserable - Finale One of the most famous 'heaven meets earth' endings comes with Les Mis, where 'swords are turned into plowshares' (Isa. 2:3-4). Les Mis also reminds us that trusting in Christ for our salvation is necessary to rejoice 'when tomorrow comes.'
if you were to die tonight, and find yourself standing before God, and God were to ask you, 'Why should I let you enjoy eternal life with me?' what would you say? Revelation 20 directly faces this most important of questions with the most important of books. P.S. While we still have the original communion table of the church, the original communion plates are enjoying a new round of service in two new church plants: among the Susu and Kuranko tribes in Sierra Leone. God is good!
Devotional - Dec 23, 2020
Music Today: 'Dies Irae' (Day of Wrath), Verdi RequiemThe most riveting 2 1/2 minutes of live music I've ever experienced, with the Pittsburgh Symphony. All the air in the hall was sucked out and compressed into the bass drum.
Phoebe Bridgers, 'Chinese Satellite'. Perhaps Larry Norman's 'I Wish We'd all Been Ready' should go here, a 1969 classic song of the end of the world from a pre-millennial reading of this chapter, and a song that launched the Contemporary Christian Music movement, but this 2020 song from a outstanding debut songwriter describes a young atheist hoping she can discover belief in God. A verse about 'screaming at the evangelicals' provides some thought on our skill - or lack of it - in pointing accurately to the Lamb of God.
Andrew Peterson, 'Remember Me'. Faced with eternal separation from God in the lake of fire, and faced with our sins and shortcomings, perhaps even as Christ-followers, what remedy do we have? Let's join in with the words from the thief on the cross at Jesus' side. Christmas and Easter are never far from each other theologically.
Our "Parking Lot" service has been cancelled due to weather, but please join us in the sanctuary or Online for our Christmas Eve Caroling Service! @ 4PM
(see our latest COVID Update for more info regarding masks, seating, etc.)
Sunday Services (on 12/27 and 1/3/21) will be live streaming only @ 10:30 am!
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