Praise and worship

Connecting Generations

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The service last Friday at Life Care Center was really special. One of the highlights for me was a visit from a teenager named Lindsay. Lindsay is a special needs child whose mom is one of our volunteers. She was super excited to be there but nervous, so she sat at a table near the back with her counselor. About halfway through the song session, Lindsay was loving the music, but her emotions became a bit overwhelmed, so she began expressing her joy with loud vocalizations. I couldn’t see exactly what was happening, but I was told later that, before anyone got too worried about the situation, one of the residents wheeled herself over to Lindsay, and with a smile, gently took hold of her hand to calm her. I was so blessed to hear of how God used that circumstance as a perfect demonstration of how Jesus wants to connect, one generation to another through Him. The exuberance of youth, the joy of worship and the gentle patience of this precious older woman all blended together in those moments to show the love of Christ in action.

I believe that Jesus on the Main Line is the song that set those wheels in motion, so, I hope you will enjoy listening to an abbreviated version of it along with a few words on the subject of prayer. I pray God will bless you, hear your prayers and connect you to others this week in the wonderful love of Jesus!

Contemporary Worship -A Final Appeal

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Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, 
1 Timothy 5:1 ESV

I close this week with an appeal to my fellow senior saints, or as my friend Dave Duncan calls us, fellow “Keen-agers.” God has graciously allowed us to live long and placed us individually in His church as He has seen best. I wholeheartedly agree with many of you, that I wish they would turn the volume down and that our young worship team would sing all the verses to the occasional hymn that they offer us. But then I remember how our Pastor preaches the gospel as straight-up from the Bibe as anyone I have sat under in the fifty plus years I have been a Christian. He and his wife have lived with integrity, raised three boys who are serving in the church and then adopted two more boys who were in foster care. I also recall that our church currently has a team of 25 members visiting a children’s ministry in Kenya which we have supported for over twenty years. More importantly, hundreds of people of not just our youth, but of every generation are led to faith in Christ and baptized each year. Sure, there are plenty of things I wish were different, but walking away and finding a quieter and more comfortable church that is doing little to carry the Gospel into our world is not an option for me. So, as I finish this series on finding, “What is Good in Contemporary Worship,” let me close with this: my favorite contemporary worship song that we sing at Generations Christian Church.

What’s Right with Contemporary Worship – Remembering the Blood

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The Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.”
1 Corinthians 11:23b-25 NLT

Every hymn has an audience in mind. For example, “Holy Holy Holy” sings to God, while “Amazing Grace” addresses the church. Some hymns invite us to the altar, others offer comfort. Some rejoice in the promises of God while others teach us to weep over sins. God loves to use different expressions of worship to reveal Himself at different times, in different ways to different people. The most important aspect of our worship is that God should be glorified. In today’s song, “Thank You Jesus for The Blood” by Charity Gayle, her lyrics remind us of the primary focus of the Gospel: The Blood of Jesus Christ.

No one loves singing the old hymns more than I do. Some weeks I get to sing them for several small meetings at various nursing homes in our community. Some of their favorites are, Love Lifted Me”, “Mansion Over the Hilltop” and “In the Garden.’ While all of those are wonderful songs, none of them is more Biblically focused than today’s song. Even, “Amazing Grace” doesn’t mention God till verse four and “Holy Holy Holy” gives no mention of the cross. In His final meal on earth, Jesus commanded us to remember His coming sacrifice by breaking bread and drinking from the cup, which represent His Body and Blood given for us. What greater words can we sing than those of today’s song that tell of God’s greatest gift of love to us!

Thank you Jesus for the blood applied
Thank you Jesus it has washed me white
Thank You Jesus You have saved my life
Brought me from the darkness
Into glorious light!