IN SICKNESS AND HEALTH…
On Friday night my throat began to get scratchy and it became a bit difficult to talk. I thought, “Oh no, I’m getting sick!” When I got up the next morning, my throat was still sore, and I was congested and stuffy. “Not now!” I thought, “I have to lead worship tomorrow!”
Well, God is still good and faithful even in the midst of my own weakness and illness. I reached out immediately to Beverly Augur and others on the worship team. Beverly and I came up with a plan and I reached out to Sammy Bueno to help fill in for me. Sammy immediately agreed to fill in and began practicing the songs.
So, I want to thank Beverly Augur, Sammy Bueno, Tyler Kitchel, Frank Durham, Christian Andrade, Diane Brown, Kristin Reeves, Tracy Nicks, and Tim and Laura Durand for being able to adjust and be flexible and serve our church through worship this past Sunday. I am so blessed to have a wonderful team of people to work with and I’m looking forward to continuing to grow with them in this ministry.
My hope is that you also were encouraged by them, and that you would encourage and thank them for their service in this way. I also want to thank our tech team, Marty McGinnis, Dave Grinnell, Alan McDole, Greg Ellis and Chase Volker for serving our church. You may not have known, but our main soundboard crashed this week and Marty had to set up an entirely different board and get it configured for Sunday morning! We really do have an amazing group of people, don’t we?
And even when things don’t go according to our plan, God still provides.
P.S. I am so grateful and overwhelmed that you have all been praying for my dad, Randy Leinen. It means so much to me and my family, that our family (you all) have been lifting us up in prayer.
SONGS THIS SUNDAY
As usual, I am going to provide you with the list of songs we’ll be singing this week (below). You can access them on Spotify or Youtube. The song, “Same God” has been a new one this month, and some of you have shared with me how encouraging it has been to you. We’ll be singing that song one more time this week, and my hope is that it becomes a familiar song for all of us.
Click Here For SPOTIFY
Click Here For YOUTUBE
Songs this week:
- This Is Amazing Grace
- Great Are You Lord
- In Christ Alone
- Same God
- O Praise The Name
*If you are interested in taking a look at the lyrics, you can see those here.
IN CHRIST ALONE
This Sunday we’ll be singing, “In Christ Alone,” by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. These two songwriters collaborated on this song together at a worship event they attended, and they finished the song in 2002. Reflecting on the writing process, Townend explains, “The theme of the life, death, resurrection of Christ, and the implications of that for us just began to tumble out, and when we got together later on to fine tune it, we felt we had encapsulated what we wanted to say.”
Verse 1
In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My comforter, my all in all
Here in the love of Christ I stand
What do you turn to when storms, fears, and trials come upon your life? Who do you run to? This song reminds us that there is nothing else that we ought to seek except Christ, and him alone. Please look up and read 1 Peter 1:3-6 to be reminded of our hope in Christ.
Verse 2
In Christ alone who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live
This verse reminds us of the great condescension that took place when Christ became flesh (John 1:14). Paul speaks of this in Philippians 2:7-8 as he describes Christ who, “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Not only did Jesus empty himself to become a human, but he did so knowing that it would result in his rejection and death by the ones “He came to save.”
Verse 4
No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand
Stuart Townend reflected on this verse in particular. “The lyric [of this song] excites me because it places our hope, our assurance, our eternal destiny in the right place—on the solid foundation of Christ. I know in my own life I need reminding continually not to live by my feelings or my circumstances, but by the unchanging truth of the gospel.”
As we prepare our hearts to sing this together, I ask that you consider listening to this song during your time of devotion in the word this week. I pray that our hearts will be filled up as we consider what Christ has done for us, and the hope we have in him.
If you’re interested in reading the full article about the creation of this song, click here.
Can’t wait for Sunday!