Preparing For THIS Sunday, 01/24

For the past seven years, we’ve gathered each Sunday to worship God as His church. We observe the practices of Christians for 2,000 years by singing songs of response that speak of the character of God, reading scripture and praying, listening as the Word of God is preached, worshiping through giving tithes and offerings, and celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus through taking communion. Sadly, for many of us, this is the only time we worship God (which means the rest of the week we are in worship of ourselves or created things). I’m struck by the undue weight and pressure it puts on a Sunday service; if it doesn’t deliver in a huge way, people feel let down by God or overwhelmed by guilt. It’s also disheartening how much joy through God-worship we miss out on with such a small view. We were created in the image of God and saved through Christ so that we may commune with the Father and give Him all glory, and our reduction of this reality to a one-hour service leaves us as emaciated spiritually as we would be physically if we only ate once a week.

In addition, it takes many of us more than half of the service to “warm up”, during which time we’re exchanging our worship of self for soft hearts that respond to God’s Spirit and worship him. Read more about this exchange here, or listen to a sermon from last fall on this subject here.

My hope is that we would continue to grow as God-worshipers during the week, and that our gathering on Sunday would be a continuation of this instead of when it begins and ends. To aid in this, I’m preparing like crazy for Sunday – praying, memorizing the lyrics and rehearsing the songs, worshiping and not just playing them ahead of time, getting together with the band, and more. It makes a huge difference when I prepare vs. just jumping up with a guitar and leading cold. Which makes me wonder – what if you prepared for Sunday? What would the service be like if we all prepared to sing together, praying for one another and those who will be visiting? How receptive will our hearts be Sunday if we begin asking God to convict us now?

Every day this week on worship.vintage21.com we’ll post one of the songs we’re singing this Sunday. Later this week we’ll post prayer requests and the scripture passage we’ll study. Join us in preparing your hearts and minds.

Today’s song is a new one for the Raleigh campus entitled “In the Shadow Of The Glorious Cross”. Several weeks ago I was visiting the Durham campus and heard Brandon Squizzato and the band he leads sing this song. They were amazing, and I was brought to tears as we sang it because of the beautiful weight it carries so well. It’s written by two musicians from Sojourn Church in Louisville, KY, a fellow Acts 29 church that has one of the best worship music programs in the world, in my humble and correct opinion. The words are below, and you can purchase the song here on iTunes or simply listen here on Last.fm (click the play icon in the top right of the page).

To read more on preparing for Sunday, check out the following entries from worship.vintage21.com:
Where Is My Mind?
How We Plan For Sunday
The First Song

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In the Shadow of the Glorious Cross
Brooks Ritter and Rebecca Bales

In the shadow of the glorious cross
Compelled by grace to cast my lot
I’ll discard the loss and bare your name
Forsaking all for your own fame

Your hymn of grace sung over me
Abounding forth in glorious streams
My thirst is quenched by you my Lord
Sustained am I redeemed restored
Sustained am I redeemed restored

Hallelujah,  Hallelujah

When death’s dark shadow’s at my feet
When I am plagued by unbelief
You place my hands into your side
By precious blood identified
By precious blood identified

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

These crowns I’ve clenched with fisted hands
I cast them down before the throne
Of Christ my God the worthy lamb
Christ crucified, the Great I AM. (3x)

Hallelujah, Hallelujah