Sing Praise- Hosanna (Praise is Rising)

It's been great having Graham in the service with us because he comes home singing the songs. Today he rode home with Anthony and asked what hosanna meant. The question led the two to have a discussion about salvation. We pray everyday for he and Reed to be saved and praise God for softening his heart already!

Hosanna (Praise is Rising)
by Paul Baloche and Brenton Brown

Praise is rising, eyes are turning to you
We turn to you

Hope is stirring, hearts are yearning for you
We long for you

When we see you we find strength to face the day
In your presence all our fears are washed away, washed away

Hosanna, hosanna
You are the God who saves us, worthy of all our praises
Hosanna, hosanna
Come have your way among us
We welcome you here Lord Jesus

Hear the sound of hearts returning to you
We turn to you
In your kingdom broken lives are made new
you make all things new

I recently started reading the blog A Holy Experience and really enjoy what Ann Voskamp writes. She had this quote posted along with a statement of belief that she wrote. I fully agree with all of it and wanted to share it with you.

“God is not a belief to which you give your assent. God becomes a reality whom you know intimately, meet everyday, one whose strength becomes your strength, whose love, your love. Live this life of the presence of God long enough and when someone asks you, “Do you believe there is a God?” you may find yourself answering, “No, I do not believe there is a God. I know there is a God.”
~Ernest Boyer, Jr.

What I believe

by Ann Voskamp

I believe in Jehovah God who created the whirling galaxies, the birds soaring in the sky overhead, the endless crashing waves and all that dances within them. I believe in Father of all who knits together life, made in His very own image, in the secret quiet of our beings.
I believe in Jesus Christ, the One with no earthly Father, with the dust of this earth between His toes, and with our names etched onto the palm of His hands, right beneath the nail scars…Who now sits at the Father’s right hand making endless intercession on our behalf. I believe in the stone rolled away, in the Body being raised, in the first fruits of the dead…and us all following soon, very soon.
I believe in the Cross as our only Hope, our only Claim, and our only Foundation. I believe that in the pounding surf of life we have only one thing to cling to: the feet of our Lord, hanging on that tree, His lifeblood flowing down, washing us whiter than snow.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, moving, whispering, indwelling our very skin. I believe in living by the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, and producing fruit in the Spirit…in the Spirit who helps us in our weakness with groanings that can’t be expressed in words.
I believe in the infallibility of the Bible, God’s Word – a sure Word, a pure Word, the only secure Word. I believe the words on those pages are breathed from the very throne room of heaven, are the love letter penned from the heart of the Lover of our souls; a beacon of light for stumbling feet to find sure footing on a dark path.
I believe there is more than believing. There is living what I believe.

Lord You're Holy

The Praise Team sang this song yesterday at church.
They did an amazing job with an amazing song.

"but these are written so that you may believe

that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,

and that by believing you may have life in his name."

John 20:31

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon

the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Acts 2:21

And there is salvation in no one else,

for there is no other name

under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Acts 4:12

Mutual Faith

On Sunday night Mark started a series on the book of Romans. He plans to preach through it over the next 9 weeks. I decided to read the section from this week (Rom 1:1-17) each day to really understand it. Hopefully I'll be able to do this each week. It always amazes me how you can get something new out of the same words. The word of God [truly] is living and active (Hebrews 4:12)!

Anyway, the words of verse 12 stood out to me today:

that is, that I may be encouraged together with you
by the mutual faith both of you and me.

I love the phrase mutual faith. Those of us who have accepted that we are sinners and need Jesus' to save us have a mutual faith. That means that our faith is the same and so is our purpose and because of this we should be encouraged by one another.

I think so often in church life we get off track. We let our opinions get in the way and that often leads to a divided church. I'm not speaking of the extreme where a church splits, but where groups within the church form. Many are unspoken but you know they are there. This group of people feels this way and that groups feels that way and in the end we lose sight of our mutual faith. We let these differences become our focus.

I guess it boils down to our pride. We want to be right. We want to be in control. The truth is that none of us is in control. God is.

I've been praying 1 Corinthians 1:10 lately:

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.

Unity in the same mind. Our purpose is the same and if we focus on that then we will be united. Let's strive to live with our mutual faith in mind rather than focusing only on getting our way!