Reflecting On This Past Sunday, 10/9/11

Hey everyone,
Here are a couple notes on this last Sunday in the way of reflection. Again, it's valuable at times to reflect back on our corporate gatherings as a church, because we want our corporate times of worship to affect our day-to-day living. We meet to equip one another and encourage one another to go on believing in Christ, and resting in Him another week. So here goes:

1. Baby dedications. 
What a great thing to be a part of. We had 2 families, the Foys and Kosters, dedicate themselves to godly parenting of the hearts of their kids. Jordan said something very significant, about a baby dedication being a time of accountability, where we as a church commit to praying for, and encouraging, and building up these new parents to raise these kids in the knowledge of the Lord. Again, what a great thing for us all to be a part of corporately.

2. Singing.
Because baby dedications took a little bit longer than expected, we cut our last song from the set and I called Jordan up to preach. This is OK! Sometimes we may spend some extra time on something that is just as much a part of our corporate worship and encouragement as the music, so I'd like to always keep this as an option if we have a couple of baby dedications, baptisms, or anything else. We tailor a service as the Spirit may lead.

I was a little sad that we didn't sing the last song, which was "Jesus Paid it All." But then I thought about it in retrospect, and we got the real meat of the song list even so. Our last song ended up being "How Great is Our God," which speaks about aspects of the 3-person, triune God we worship ("The Godhead, three in one/Father, Spirit, Son/The Lion and the Lamb). This is the life that we are brought into, to participate in, when we are born-again in Christ.

I do think we need to sing more songs that speak of the Trinitarian nature of God for many reasons, and I'm glad we got this one in on Sunday. More to come on this "Trinity" stuff later.

3. Preaching.
Jordan preached from 1 Samuel, chapters 18 and 19, drawing out the main point of these chapters, which is a contrast between Saul's self-reliance, and David's dependence on God. David was truly ready to be king of Israel once God had stripped him of his comforts and securities, forcing David to depend on God alone. Really good preaching, and really good take-away for us.