Worship

Cleaning out the Cistern

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2:13 ESV

When we lived in a farm house in Southern Missouri, our main water supply was from our cistern. For those who don’t know what a cistern is; ours was a twenty foot deep, cement lined tank that was filled by water from our roof. During the driest part of the summer I decided to give that cistern a cleaning. First I climbed down a rope ladder to the bottom and bailed out the last of the water. Then with a bleach and water mixture I scrubbed out the dirt and slime. What had a celebration when a year later we finally replaced that cistern with a well. It was an amazing difference having an endless supply of pure clean water. If we had just ignored the well and kept on using the old cistern, people would have thought we were crazy. But that is exactly what Jeremiah said the Israelites had done. Instead of relying on the God who parted seas; gave them manna in the wilderness and victory over Goliath; they decided to worship stone statues. They chose gods who could not see, hear or help and gave up on the one who loved them. They were paying for dirty water from cracked cisterns when the purest water of all was available for free. Though most of us aren’t bowing to statues anymore we do rely on things that become cracked cisterns in our lives; like our bank account, career or popularity even though these often fail. Are you thirsty for today? Jesus Christ is offering us the most amazing bargain. He has given His life so that if we will simply come to Him and forget about our dirty cistern water, He will give us a well of living water that never will run dry!

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Thank You Notes

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Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.       Ephesians 5:19-20 KJV

“Have you written a thank you note yet?” Mom inevitably asked every year right after Christmas. Talk about writer’s block: After I had penned a heartfelt “Thank you for the cap gun.” to my grandparents, I was completely out of ideas. But as word painfully followed word in those brief literary tomes, I slowly learned to be grateful for people who had loved me enough to send me a gift.

In Ephesians the Apostle Paul sounds a little like my mom. He wants to make sure that the Ephesian believers learn how to be thankful, to God and to express their gratitude by praise.“Great!” You might respond; “But I already do that in church.” Well, yes corporate worship is important; however thank you notes need to be written individually. If personal worship seems intimidating, Paul gives us three clues on how to begin. Just as my childhood thank you notes began with the basics, so praise can start with simply speaking to God with the familiar words of Psalms and hymns. That speaking can be like setting a tea pot on to boil. Little by little the temperature rises and bubbles begin to form. Those bubbles become songs that form in our hearts and begin to flow out in melodies towards God. But if you leave that tea pot on long enough you will begin hear a loud whistle. That is when our melodies  turn to joyful thanksgiving to God for all He has done and given us in Christ. That it is the very best thank you note of all!

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Are We Losing Connection?

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Are We Losing Connection?

One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. Psalm 145:4 KJV

David talks about singing praise as something older believers must do in order to let the younger generation know what God has done for them. Of course young people in our churches usually know five or six of the hymns and maybe even a few Christmas carols but they think of that as the music belonging to the old folks. Hymns which connected parents to children for hundreds of years today are on the verge of vanishing away. The entire concept that older have anything of value is being forgotten. So before the baton of faith meant to be passed from one generation to the next is dropped; let’s spend a few days focusing on how to ensure that we pass it on.

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This past Sunday at our church the worship team deviated from its usual contemporary selection to close out the service with two entire verses and the chorus of “How Great Thou Art.” It was so wonderfully refreshing to hear older voices not just joining in but doing so with gusto! We were singing loudly not only because we liked that song but for once we felt as if someone remembered that we were there! It’s not that I think we ought to forget about the new worship songs; but in those few moments we began to make a closer connection. As young tenors blended with older slightly faded baritones; the hymn made us realize that together we are God’s family. As some of our voices weaken from having sung the songs of faith for decades; may others take up their melody. Together we tell the world the unchanging message of God’s love and faithfulness to every generation.