Category Archives: 2024

Songs for Sunday, March 3, 2024 @ Christ Community Church

Sunday is coming, and I’m excited!

This Sunday, we are celebrating the Lord’s Supper together at Christ Community Church. This is a beautiful part of Christian worship that was instituted by Jesus Himself (Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:18-20) and intended to help us to look toward His return (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

Rather than write out something to point our hearts toward Jesus, I would like to share with you a prayer from Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers, on the Lord’s Supper. Lord willing, this will help you to prepare your heart to eat of the bread, drink of the cup, and look forward to the Day we commune with our resurrected King, Jesus Christ, face to face!

“The Lord’s Supper”:

GOD OF ALL GOOD,

I bless You for the means of grace;
    teach me to see in them Your loving purposes
      and the joy and strength of my soul.
You have prepared for me a feast;
  and though I am unworthy to sit down as guest,
  I wholly rest on the merits of Jesus,
  and hide myself beneath His righteousness;
When I hear His tender invitation
  and see His wondrous grace,
I cannot hesitate, but must come to You in love.
By Your Spirit enliven my faith rightly to discern
  and spiritually to apprehend the Saviour.
While I gaze upon the emblems of
    my Saviour’s death,
  may I ponder why He died, and hear Him say,
    ‘I gave My life to purchase yours,
    presented Myself an offering to expiate
      your sin,
    shed My blood to blot out your guilt,
    opened My side to make you clean,
    endured your curses to set you free,
    bore your condemnation to satisfy
      divine justice.’
O may I rightly grasp the breadth and length
    of this design,
  draw near, obey, extend the hand,
  take the bread, receive the cup,
  eat and drink, testify before all men
    that I do for myself, gladly, in faith,
      reverence and love, receive my Lord,
    to be my life, strength, nourishment,
      joy, delight.
In the supper I remember His eternal love,
    boundless grace, infinite compassion,
    agony, cross, redemption,
  and receive assurance of pardon, adoption,
    life, glory.
As the outward elements nourish my body,
  so may Your indwelling Spirit invigorate
    my soul,
  until that day when I hunger and thirst
    no more,
  and sit with Jesus at His heavenly feast.

What a beautiful picture of what Jesus has done for us! What a beautiful picture of how our hearts should yearn for Him in worship — every day and not just on Sundays.

Won’t you gather with us to worship Him?

Here are our Scriptures & songs:

  • Scripture | 1 Peter 2:4-10 —

4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”

8 and

“A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

  • Scripture | Philippians 2:5-11 —

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Songs for Sunday, February 18, 2024 @ Christ Community Church

Tomorrow is Sunday, and I need to gather with my faith family.

Normally, I would describe my feelings toward the Lord’s Day as excitement or expectant anticipation, but I think need is a better descriptor.

I need to hear their voices lifted up and reading the Scripture passages that are pointing us to our “blessed hope, the appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13) and how He saves and redeems us from sin and rescues us from this sin-sick and fallen world.

I need to hear their voices singing the “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Colossians 3:16), reminding me of the good news of Jesus in the midst of the truly bad news of the world.

I need to hear my pastor open up the Word of God for teaching, reproving, training, and correcting (2 Timothy 3:16).

I need to be reminded that this world is not my home (Philippians 3:20) and that there is coming a day when Jesus will return and end the tyrannical reign of Satan and of sin in this world forevermore (Revelation 21:1-4).

Over the past few months, it seems like members of our church family have faced tragedy after tragedy. Our town has been plagued with shootings. Our community has been wracked with grief over tragic loss of life that leaves deep rooted questions and sadness. Our families have received diagnoses and prognoses that paint a bleak future of sickness and pain. But in the midst of all of that sadness, all that tragedy, all that pain, God is sill “good, a stronghold in the day of trouble”, and He still “knows those who take refuge in Him” (Nahum 1:7).

Read that again. God is good despite the evil of this world. There would be no good apart from Him. God is a stronghold in the day of trouble. He is a mighty fortress in which we can retreat from pain and sorrow and discord and fear and danger and can know that He is able and willing to protect and comfort. God knows those who take refuge in Him. He is not an idle or passive fortress. He is active in comforting those who seek Him.

So, let us do that tomorrow. Let us seek Him in our sin and sadness and strife. Let us turn to Him and long for the Day that is coming when all things will be made new and all the sad things will come untrue (Revelation 21:5).

Tomorrow at Christ Community, we will not be ostriches who stick our heads in the sand and ignore the happenings of the world around us. No, we will lift our eyes to the hills and seek refuge with the God of the universe, the God who saves (Psalm 121:1, Psalm 46:1, Psalm 7:10).

Won’t you join us?

Here are our Scriptures & songs:

  • Scripture | Isaiah 61:1-4 —

1 The Spirit of the LORD GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified. 4 They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.

  • Scripture | Romans 6:4-7 —

4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.

  • Scripture | 1 Corinthians 15:51-57 —

51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Songs for Sunday, February 11, 2024 @ Christ Community Church

This weekend was our youth’s CCNow – our very own D(isciple) Now weekend filled with service and worship and studying God’s Word. I love to get to watch these kiddos and their leaders worship and serve the Lord and to get to share in that with them.

The messages this weekend have been from the book of Daniel and looking at what God did in and through four young men who suffered much but worshiped God more! As John was preaching through Daniel 1 and in the young men’s small group after, emphasis was given to the fact that these young men were faithful in the small things before there was faithfulness in the big things — that their relationship with God did not begin in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3) or in the lion’s den (Daniel 6) but before Babylon and at the king’s buffet.

It is clear in the Bible that persecution and suffering have been historically and are still being “experienced by [the] brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Peter 5:9) and that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). What Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael went through was clear, too (Psalm 34:10, Isaiah 43:2). This can be a scary prospect — truthfully, it is a scary prospect. But here is the foundation of Daniel’s faithfulness, the foundation of the boldness to turn down the lavish buffet of forbidden food at the king’s table for vegetables and worship (Daniel 1:8-16), the boldness to respectfully refuse to bow to the king rather than God (Daniel 3:16-18), the boldness to walk freely into the burning fiery furnace with assurance in the worthiness of their God (Daniel 3:23-26), the boldness to kneel in prayer as he always had even though the powers-that-were decided to make it illegal (Daniel 6:10), the boldness to descend into the den of lions rather than kneel to forsake the God who had been faithful for decades and onward into eternity (Daniel 6:16-23): the foundation is God’s faithfulness. Those four young men could stand or kneel — whatever the need called for — because they could be sure that the LORD their GOD, “the Holy One of Israel”, their Savior had redeemed them (Isaiah 43:3). He alone is worthy of praise. He alone is worthy of service. He alone saves. He alone sustains. He alone strengthens.

These young women and men who follow Christ will indeed face persecution. The older women and men who are leading and discipling these younger ones will, too, and already are facing some. But the worship of Jesus in the little things – in the random Mondays and CCNow weekends and regular, everyday life – will lead to worship when the chips are down and the call to bow to false gods is raised and the furnace is stoked and the angry jaws of our adversary who is already prowling “around like a roaring lion, seeking” to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Jesus is worthy now. He is already worthy for then. Let us desire Him and seek Him and serve Him. Let’s lift our hearts and bow our knees to Him now and remember – just as Daniel and his friends did – that “He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).

Hallelujah, and amen!

Here are our Scriptures and songs:

  • Scripture | Psalm 34:1-10 —

1I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 2My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. 3Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together!

4I sought the LORD, and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears. 5Those who look to Him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. 6This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. 7The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them.

8Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! 9Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints, for those who fear Him have no lack! 10The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

  • Song | Jesus Messiah —
    Scripture Inspiration: 2 Corinthians 5:21, Philippians 2:8, Psalm 136:1, Acts 17:3, Luke 2:11, Philippians 2:9, Job 19:25, Isaiah 44:24, Matthew 1:23, Matthew 28:20, Isaiah 61:1, 1 Timothy 2:6, Philippians 2:10, Luke 22:19-20, Romans 5:5, Matthew 27:51, John 3:16, Romans 5:3-4, 1 Peter 1:3, Jude 25, John 8:12, Isaiah 59:1-2
  • Song | The King of My Heart —
    Scripture Inspiration: Isaiah 9:6, John 12:15, 1 Timothy 6:13-16, Revelation 17:14, Revelation 19:11-16, Deuteronomy 33:29, Psalm 3:3, 2 Thessalonians 3:3, John 4:10, John 7:37-39, Psalm 40:3, Psalm 91:1, Matthew 20:20-28, 1 Chronicles 16:34, Psalm 23:6, Lamentations 3:25, Nahum 1:7, Luke 18:19, Psalm 19:12-13, Psalm 139:1-4, 1 Corinthians 10:13, Acts 2:3-4, Romans 5:4-8, 2 Peter 3:9, Psalm 30:5
  • Scripture | Isaiah 43:1-3a —

1But now thus says the LORD, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. 3For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, you Savior.

  • Song | Forever Reign —
    Scripture Inspiration: Psalm 73:1, Nahum 1:7, Romans 3:10, Romans 3:23, 1 John 4:8, Romans 5:8, 1 John 3:16, John 1:4-5, John 8:12, 1 Peter 1:3, 1 Peter 2:24, Deuteronomy 33:27, Luke 15:20, Ephesians 2:4-5, Proverbs 3:15, Philippians 4:6-7, John 14:6, Philippians 4:4, Habakkuk 3:18, Psalm 13:6, Job 23:11-12, Psalm 16:2, Romans 1:19-20, Colossians 2:9-10, Matthew 28:20, Psalm 138:1, Acts 4:12, Philippians 2:9-11
  • Song | King of Kings —
    Scripture Inspiration: Proverbs 4:19, John 3:19-21, Ephesians 2:1, Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew 5:17, Isaiah 7:14, Luke 1:31, Isaiah 9:6-7, Luke 2:7, Psalm 3:3, Psalm 8:1, John 1:14, Psalm 136:3, Matthew 28:18, Revelation 19:16, Matthew 13:24-52, 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, Isaiah 53, John 3:16, Romans 5:6-10, Galatians 3:13, Colossians 2:14, Titus 2:14, Acts 4:33, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, Matthew 27:52-53, Luke 15:7, Acts 2:1-4, Matthew 24:35, Ephesians 1:7, Galatians 5:1, Galatians 2:19-20, 2 Timothy 2:11
  • Invitation | Battle Belongs —
    Scripture Inspiration: Romans 8:37, Matthew 17:20, Matthew 21:21, Psalm 23:4, 1 John 4:18, Joshua 1:9, Psalm 27:1, 2 Corinthians 10:4, Ephesians 6:18, Hebrews 12:2, 1 Corinthians 15:57, 2 Corinthians 2:14, 1 John 5:4-5, Revelation 12:10-11, Romans 8:31, Genesis 18:14, Jeremiah 32:17, Jeremiah 17:9, Isaiah 61:3, Galatians 2:19-20, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Corinthians 15:14-17, Ruth 2:12, 2 Samuel 22:3-4, Psalm 3:3, Nahum 1:7, Psalm 107:10-16, Luke 1:79, Romans 5:3-5, James 1:2-4

Songs for Sunday, January 28, 2024 @ Christ Community Church

Here are our Scriptures & songs:

  • Scripture | John 15:12-17 —

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

  • Scripture | Colossians 1:13-20 —

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.